Designated Survivor Season 2 Episode 16: Fallout Review

Keith NoakesApril 4, 201810799 min

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

Synopsis: President Kirkman and his team receive credible intelligence that a dirty bomb is on U.S. soil, Emily asks Chuck to help her with something that has dangerous and illegal consequences. (IMDB)

Writer: Tom Garrigus

Director: Joe Lazarov

Rating: TV-14

Running Time: 45mins

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

Wow is all that could be said now. When you thought the revelation at the end of last week’s episode was big, wait until you see what happens at the end of this one as the season, and to a lesser extent the series, comes full circle.

We all heard the news about the dirty bomb and this episode did not waste any time as missing nuclear waste that had made its way onto U.S. shores that could be used to make the dirty bomb came from East Hanchu. Because of this, Chairman Kim (Tom Choi) and his delegation would not be going anywhere anytime soon.

Now it was time to get to the bunker and avoid mass panic. East Hanchu was getting ready, however, nothing was going to happen with their chairman on American soil. They found who the bomber was but they had to locate him.  In order to find the bomb and the bomber, Dr. Frost is back to provide her company’s technology to assist them. She had some concerns on the invasiveness of her tracking technology. She also questioned why Tom summoned her. He thought she could help but we know there’s more to it.

Meanwhile, Emily and Kendra were in the early stages of building a case against Moss. Kendra needed to comb through the evidence but Emily wanted to avoid revealing how she got it by hacking into reporter Simon Day’s (Morgan Kelly) phone. She didn’t like Emily’s methods in pursuing a case.

Kim’s son Joon (Daniel Jun) wasn’t that much more of a help, even more so after collapsing which was just a ploy so he could get away. Of course the bomb was in the Washington D.C. area. Joon’s girlfriend was missing which may have had something to do with his absence. Once they tracked a possible location for the bomber, all they found was Joon in an empty warehouse. His presence there led them to suspect that he was partly responsible for the bombing to get back to his father. He told them that he couldn’t explain why he was there.

Tom and Darby had a nice moment while playing a game of chess. He explained why he picked her as Vice President because she wouldn’t let the position of president get to her head. The bomber’s van was then located at a subway station where a primitive bomb was found which was easily diffused. Fostell was in the episode and we all remember what he did the last time we saw him so along with doing his job, he also wanted to apologize to Tom for his actions. Tom thought he was just doing his job.

To further downplay public perception, Tom made a public appearance with Frost. Meanwhile, the bomber was tracked to another warehouse, appearing to have succumb to radiation poisoning. The earlier bomb was a decoy and the real one was in the subway station. Forstell still had men in there so as he ran towards the station, an explosion went off that killed him and the men inside.

Tom addressed America about the incident and vowed to hunt down whoever was responsible. When pressed one last time, Joon revealed that his girlfriend had been taken by men connected to Kumani, the country from earlier this season. Tom then scolded the Kunami ambassador. Kunami had a vested interest in keeping East and West Hanchu at war with each other.

Tom wanted to strike back regardless of the policies in place, seemingly letting his position go to his head. A pair of missiles were launched at Kunami.

Overall, this was an amazing episode that was full of intensity which saw them try to stop a dirty bomb. They ultimately failed but it was prevented from going nuclear. Now the U.S. appears to be at war with Kunami, bringing this season together and perhaps marking an evolution in Tom. Maybe Kunami isn’t responsible and it’s just the hackers that have been looming all season? It doesn’t matter as the U.S. has made a decision that it can’t take back. The episode slowly continued with Moss as Emily pressed Kendra in a way that didn’t interfere with the main story. This season has been on a roll lately so it will be exciting to see where it goes next.

Score: 9.5/10

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