Designated Survivor Season 2 Episode 15: Summit Review

If you would like to read my review of last week’s episode, click here.

Synopsis: President Kirkman travels to Camp David to broker a peace treaty between East and West Hanchu, while Seth and Emily take a look at their relationship and decide how and if to move forward as a couple. (IMDB)

Writer: Jessica Grasl

Director: Chris Grismer

Rating: TV-14

Running Time: 45mins

Airs: Wednesdays at 10pm on CTV (Canada)/ABC (United States)

In the best episode of the season so far, Tom brokered a peace deal between two rival countries while potentially finding a new love interest, seeds are planted for a potential showdown, Emily and Seth take their relationship further, and one more crisis is shoehorned in.

The bulk of the episode focused on Tom and his administration attempts at brokering a peace deal between the fictional Asian countries of East and West Hanchu (so North and South Korea). As both countries began to mobilize against each other, the focus then shifted to the 50,000 U.S. soldiers trapped in between. While everyone else was away, Emily was tasked to find a mole within the White House that was leaking classified information to the press and Wells was set to meet with a defector from East Hanchu.

The negotiations took place at Camp David where Lyor ran into his former rival who was working for the East Hanchu side. What was funny about this was that there was another Lyor. He and Seth had to bunk together at Camp David which was also funny in its own right. The person who Wells was meeting was the son of the Chairman of East Hanchu and he was willing to share information about East Hanchu’s nuclear program in exchange for the protection of himself and his girlfriend. At an impasse, Tom called upon Dr. Frost, the CEO of a defense contractor, for assistance.

Talks were stalled once news of the West paying for a missile defense system was leaked to the press. Meanwhile, Wells freed the son’s girlfriend from the East Hanchu consulate. Then Tom and Frost used a ploy to get the East to accept the missile defense system with more favorable repayment terms which appeared to work until the East Hanchu chairman learned of his missing son.

The East Hanchu chairman believed the West had his son but Tom told him the truth and now he no longer trusted Tom, causing him to lose both East and West Hanchu. Now the only person that could save the day was Moss, a man who Tom had fired. He agreed to help for the good of the country. Now that his girlfriend was saved, the son revealed to Wells that his country has nuclear weapons and could tell her where they were. After learning about the East’s nuclear weapons, the previous agreement was void. When threatened with war for not dismantling their nuclear program, the East signed an agreement to do so. Before everyone left Camp David, Seth went to defend Lyor to his former rival.

In an attempt to find the mole, Emily pressed the reporter who published the classified information but he refused to reveal his source so she asked Chuck to do some digging into the reporter which led to the discovery that Moss was the mole and that he had been leaking information to several reporters for a long time. When being confronted by Tom, Moss seemed unfazed as he felt what he was doing was right as he was being a patriot. When threatened with legal action, Moss warned that he would fight back.

In other news, Emily and Seth had to fill out documents that acknowledged their relationship for insurance purposes but Emily was uncomfortable with what that meant publicly which seemingly lead to them breaking up.

After what was a successful day, why not one more crisis? The episode ended with the White House getting intel hinting of a dirty bomb somewhere in the United States.

Overall, this was the best episode of the season so far with a focused storyline that mirrored the world today. While a resolution was found in this episode, just like in the real world, it isn’t a sure thing. The truth about Moss did not come as much of a surprise but a potential future showdown will be epic. Lyor has become an endearing character after starting off as annoying. It was interesting to see some backstory here and his growing chemistry with the other characters has been fun to watch. Although it’s unclear where the season will go next, the improvement down the stretch is a good sign.

Score: 9/10

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.