Coming off from last week’s episode of Designated Survivor, environmental and religious problems arise in the political world. Plus, Hannah finally confronts Damian after she suspects he’s hiding something. But the episode ends in the biggest shock of the show.
Full Recap
Politically, President Kirkman orders an evacuation as a 26-day wildfire rages on. However, a cult-like 20-person Christian association refuses to evacuate. They request that the federal government release a six-month-old baby named Grace with congenital heart disease from the hospital. Apparently, she’s about to undergo open-heart surgery, which goes against what they stand for because of the blood transfusion. It all comes to an end when a doctor tries to save Grace with artificial blood. However, he’s forced to finish the surgery using her mother’s blood to save the baby.
Meanwhile, Hannah investigates Damian while he still doesn’t know she’s onto him. Chuck also finds him suspicious and goes to Detective Blakey for help. He then finds damning evidence that Damian set the fire at the warehouse (which happened earlier in the season). Aaron tries to bench Hannah from getting involved because he knows they’re sleeping together. But Hannah convinces him that she’s the right person for the job so she continues to investigate.
The Conspiracy Continues
Later, we discover Damian’s possibly compromised by the Russian embassy. But we never find out for sure because Hannah shoots him as he’s trying to explain himself. Damian then falls into the river underneath them and swims to shore, unbeknownst to Agent Wells. If he is connected to the Russian embassy, why are the Russians involved? And what are they looking to gain from all of this? I also wish Hannah didn’t shoot him because then we’d at least have some answers about why Damian’s (possibly) playing for the other side. But given the fact that Damian’s still alive thanks to a bulletproof vest, I’m sure this won’t be the last we see of him. Hopefully, we’ll find out more about what he wants. But I’m also sure we’ll only be asking more questions moving forward.
The conspiracy case against the First Lady continues and comes to an end. Alex, unfortunately, dies at the end of the episode but even before that, Alex and Kendra decide to unseal the proceedings from this point forward. However, they don’t think they have much of a choice given the onslaught of paparazzi waiting for them at the courthouse. But before that, Kendra meets with Forstell where he offers her a deal: to plead the fifth.
Alex’s Innocence
Alex wants to plead the fifth but Kirkman wants for her to fight because, again, she’s innocent. I understand that there’s a lot that can go wrong if she fought for her innocence but what I don’t understand is why Alex doesn’t want to. Her constant insistence on trying to get Forstell to stop the investigation makes her look guiltier than she actually is, which doesn’t seem to make any sense. In the proceeding, Alex makes a statement about everything Forstell’s put her through for the last three months. However, it paints him out to be someone fishing for something nefarious when there isn’t anything to be found.
Weirdly enough, she almost describes him as someone wrongfully accusing her of a crime done by the mass murderer, Patrick Lloyd, and exhausting all of his time, effort, and money into the cause. Her efforts succeed considering that Forstell doesn’t even let Alex finish making her statement. But Alex dies in a car accident, which, from the looks of next week’s episode, is a hit and run. Even though Alex’s death comes as quite a shock, it’s also not that surprising. Recently, it was announced that Natascha McElhone, the actress that plays Alex, will be joining The First, a new Hulu series premiering sometime next year. How the show will address Alex’s death will be interesting to see in the future.
Designated Survivor returns on February 28.
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