Designated Survivor Season 1 Episode 11: Warriors Review

Keith NoakesMarch 8, 2017n/a9 min

If you would like to read my recap of the last episode, click here.

It’s been a while to say the least. The show about a seemingly normal man becoming President of the United States has worked for the most part thanks to the likability of its star, Kiefer Sutherland but that can only go so far. It has also thrown in a conspiracy and some political drama to make things interesting but even those have been losing steam. The last episode ended on a cliffhanger with a gunshot but who got shot?

Synopsis: The nation reels from the aftermath of the shooting on the steps of the Capitol while Emily struggles with the knowledge there may be a traitor in the White House. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Hannah Wells grapples with her decision to reveal what she knows about the conspiracy behind the Capitol bombing. (IMDB)

Writers: Paul Redford and Carol Flint

Director: Stephen Surjik

Rating: TV-14

Running Time: 45mins

So someone did get shot and it was Tom but it wouldn’t make sense to kill him off since the show is based around him but it’s not like nothing happened with him. The bullet that hit him may have gone through him but there will still bullet fragments near important organs so they had to put him under to take them out. While that wasn’t exactly what the MacLeishes wanted (but mostly his wife) but Peter got to be President for a little while when Tom was unconscious. This gave him time to clean up some loose ends, most importantly Catalan. He made sure to involve himself in his apprehension and he definitely made his motives clear in wanting him killed instead of captured and that they did.

Tom still didn’t completely trust Peter so before he went under, he asked Mike to look into Wells and to try and get the information she had on him and asked Hookstraten to keep Peter in check. She tried when Peter wanted to keep the stock market open but she could only do so much with Peter waving the presidency at her. This did nothing to take away her suspicion of him. She threatened to go to the press if she saw something she didn’t like.

After firing the shot, Wells was in custody but she seem to want to talk to anybody, probably because she didn’t trust anybody. She didn’t want to speak to anyone but the President. When Mike showed up, she was a little apprehensive because she was still being watched by Forstell but she still managed to get a message to Mike to talk to Chuck before assaulting him to escape her cell. Chuck was just as paranoid when Mike showed up. A little intimidation and dropping the name, Catalan, was enough to get him through the door (without having to kick it down).

Alex was understandably worried while Tom was in surgery and during this, we got a flashback to when Tom told Alex that he was offered the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (or HUD). Tom wasn’t sure that he even wanted the position since it meant entering the world of politics but Alex kind of pressured him into it, thinking that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Because she pressured him, she felt responsible for everything that had happened so far.

In the last episode, Tom asked Emily to look into the classified report about the Capitol bombing. We learned that Aaron may have been involved in the conspiracy, unknowingly or not. She wanted to tell Tom but she couldn’t get there before he got shot. Seemingly alone, she didn’t know what to do so she confided within Alex, who already knew about the report, told her to try and keep Aaron away. This did not help their dynamic since Aaron was already suspicious of Emily since she lied to him before. He wanted to know what was going on but she could only tell him that she wasn’t in the liberty to tell him.

Tom obviously made it out of surgery but when Alex told him about the markets dropping after his shooting, he couldn’t lay down and waved to the reporters outside to show that he was okay which led to the markets rising once again. The MacLeishes thought they were out of the woods but the episode ended with Mike showing up in Tom’s hospital room with Wells who was ready to talk about the information she had on Peter MacLeish.

Overall, this was a good episode which answered the basic question of who got shot (something it had to answer) but there wasn’t enough payoff besides that. Maybe we know more about how sneaky the MacLeishes are but their days are numbered. Lara Jean Chorostecki was especially annoying as Beth MacLeish but again, their days are numbered. Let’s hope they get to the bottom of the conspiracy soon enough.

Score: 8/10

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