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Designated Survivor Recap: Is Tom About to Unwittingly Abet the Enemy?

This week on ABC’s Designated Survivor, President Kirkman sweated out the repercussions of a critical decision, while FBI agent Hannah Wells uncovered another explosive secret.

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In the wake of canning Cochrane and installing Admiral Chernow as his new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — and after being assured of a surgical hit — Tom gave the order to strike the Algerian bunker where Al-Sakar chief Nassar was holed up. Alas, Tom waited just long enough that the strike was called off, because Nassar has been whisked away to the basement of a well-populated hospital. The new plan is for a Navy SEAL strike team to infiltrate the hospital and take Nassar — alive, ideally, as he likely possesses intel on other imminent attacks. After meeting with SEAL commander Clarkson, who is orchestrating the op, Tom gives his OK, and things go pretty well — save for a sandstorm that grounded one chopper and injured a SEAL, leaving Clarkson to step in. The commander ultimately lost his life while shielding innocent children during the shootout in which Nassar was captured.

Meanwhile, Hannah Wells looked into the “Room 105” that she was tipped off to by the anonymous caller. Tracking down the Capitol’s architect, she learns that 105 was a “hidden” room, used for private meetings and such, and that it had been involved in recent renovations. Securing the classified reno plans from Congresswoman Hookstraten, Hannah discovers that Room 105, in the vicinity of which Congressman McLeish had been found, had recently been shored up as a bomb shelter — and that every subcontractor who worked on it was now suspiciously dead!

Hannah shares this McLeish-implicating proof with Deputy Director Atwood, who agrees that it is damning — and obviously incendiary, given the many bodies left in its wake. As such, he implores her not to share the info with anyone. Hmmm….

Little do the FBI agents know, McLeish is on the verge of rising higher in the D.C. ranks. After receiving a medal from Kirkman, and then offering his unqualified support for the Nassar op, McLeish has the Speaker of the House gig dangled before him. He, however, doesn’t want it, or at least the politics that come with it. He prefers to serve his country. Learning of the noble decline, Kirkman instead wonders if McLeish would make a fine Vice President….

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Elsewhere in the episode:

* Working off the P.I..report he received, Chief of Staff confronted the First Lady, Alex, about Jeffrey Meyers, a former lover who has been in prison, and claims to be Leo’s biological father. ‘Tis true, and the lad doesn’t know. (Let’s tell him off-screen, though, OK?)

* When not securing Hannah’s loyalty in trade for the reno plans, Hookstraten made clear to Kirkman that if the Nassar op went sideways, she on behalf of “Congress” would let it blow up his already tenuous presidency.

What did you think of the episode “The Mission”? Glad to see some of the not-so-fine details — e.g. the vice presidency, electing some new senators — at least get a passing mention?

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