Designated Survivor: ‘Three-Letter Day’ Recap & Review

In last night’s episode of Designated Survivor, the presidential office takes place in “Three-Letter Day” while Agent Wells helps the first lady with her case against Forstell’s subpoena. Three-Letter Day is apparently a day where the president chooses three out of 10,000 letters to answer, all from people asking for help. Kirkman’s staff investigates three specific letters that he seemingly picked out himself.

Full Recap

To start, Kirkman’s staff split up with different tasks, all related to the three letters Kirkman chose to help. Aaron and Emily team up to look into why a woman’s husband was denied a Medal of Honor. When looking into it, they discover that the Special Ops sergeant (the woman’s husband) had an affair with the Colonel’s wife. Because of that, they denied to give him his Medal of Honor. But Kirkman and his staff decide to help her out anyway because they don’t want her to find out about the affair. Then, Lyor and Seth look into why a man’s bees are dying. They initially look into the FAA but later find that his wife’s the culprit.

Kendra, however, investigates an anonymous letter seeking a pardon for a federal death penalty case. She discovers he’s actually covering up for his son. Later, his son tries to hit Agent Wells with his car so he’s then arrested for it. In response, Kirkman decides to reduce his sentence. So, he doesn’t pardon him because he still believes he should be punished. Just not with his life.

The First Lady’s Case Escalates

Meanwhile, Forstell offers the first lady “secrecy in exchange of secrecy” as she puts it. Kirkman, as well as I, think she should just cooperate with him because she’s clearly innocent. So far, however, she’s just been playing defense, as Kirkman calls it. Plus, Alex’s mother, Eva, did commit a crime, even if it did happen a long time ago, and Forstell’s just doing his job. All of which is true. Meanwhile, Alex continues to refer to the investigation as a witch hunt, which only makes her look guiltier (in my opinion). But it also could just be because she feels insulted by Forstell’s refusal to believe her.

In trying to help the first lady’s case, Agent Wells looks to find out which bank officer in St. Lucia offers a third-party service. Specifically one that allows someone to open a bank account for someone else. Eventually, she finds Mr. Alfonso Lang, who runs from them when they meet him at the bank. It’s also suspicious because Lang is always somehow one step ahead of them. Later, they find out that Damian (the MI6 agent) has been tipping him off about the information.

Final Thoughts

I don’t know if this is true about other viewers, but I’ve actually never heard of Three-Letter Day. But it’s definitely an interesting concept. As for Agent Wells’ investigation, I’d already suspected that Damian was somehow involved. Especially when that car hit Agent Wells. Even though it was part of the Three-Letter Day investigation (and not the first lady’s subpoena), it still looked very suspicious to me. However, it’s still unclear why he’s a part of the other side or what he seeks to gain from it all. But it’s something I look forward to finding out in the next episode.