If you would like to read my review of last week’s episode, click here.
Synopsis: A natural disaster endangers two White House staffers while President Kirkman makes an announcement no one saw coming, as well as dealing with turmoil from the hacker and congressional investigation. (IMDB)
Writer: Keith Eisner
Director: Chris Grismer
Rating: TV-14
Running Time: 45mins
Airs: Wednesdays at 10pm on CTV (Canada)/ABC (United States)
So Designated Survivor was cancelled. This was obviously after this season finale was already shot so this episode is definitely not a series finale by any means.
The episode started where the last left off with Tom going to the hospital to see Emily who was fine. West presented his case against Tom where he charged him as a co-conspirator for Wells’ actions. Tom was not interested in resigning but was given the option of not facing charges in exchange for not running for reelection. Tom did not want anything to do with this either.
The U.S. territory of Taurassi were holding a referendum on independence. Lyor and Seth made a visit to try and stop it. To make things even worse, a tsunami was triggered off the coast of Taurassi. Tom faced some opposition when asking for aid for Taurassi because of political reasons. Emily came back to work early. Because of the tsunami, Lyor and Seth were unreachable. They eventually reached Lyor but Seth was still missing. Hundreds of people were dead and even more displaced from the tsunami.
The aid that the U.S. had given so far was not enough but Tom was working hard at getting more. Congress was stopping his attempts at delivering more aid, forcing Kendra to go to the Supreme Court. The Chief Justice visited Tom to tell him about Emily trying to influence him into getting the aid case on their docket. He wanted Tom to fire her because of it. Their case was ultimately dropped, forcing them to go around congress and making them a bigger target.
In Taurassi, Lyor was searching for Seth and found him. Ultimately, the only way the U.S. could help was if Taurassi went ahead and became independent. This plan worked. Conflicted with her actions, Emily gave Tom a letter of resignation. Meanwhile, Moss courted West to be one of his advisers for his presidential campaign. West visited Tom to tell him how much he admired him for what he stood for and that he wasn’t accepting Moss’ job offer. He also gave him a blank sheet of paper.
Tom was proud of Leo for getting accepted into Georgetown but he also got accepted to Stanford. The problem with that was that Tom didn’t know he applied there too. Leo wasn’t sure how to deliver the news. However, Tom already knew and just waited for Leo to tell him. Leo was conflicted since he wanted to be there for Tom and Penny. Tom wanted him to go as it was what Alex would have wanted.
Kendra needed Wells to submit an affidavit that she wasn’t working at the command of the president but she was off the grid in London to find Rennett’s daughter Amy (Taylor Blackwell). She found Amy though gaining her trust would prove to be a challenge. Once she got her trust, Wells wanted to figure out what Pariskova would have wanted from Amy. They found Rennett’s safe, however, it was already empty. It had a list of names, however, Amy memorized the list. It was a list of British agents at home and abroad. Wells’ plan was to bait Pariskova and it worked. Wells killed her.
After receiving aid, Taurassi were set to vote to re-become a U.S. protectorate. Lyor and Seth awkwardly shared their feeling for one another. Lyor then learned of how Seth saved a family during the tsunami. Amy had no one so she went back with Wells. Moss spoke on TV about Tom’s overreach while providing aid for Taurassi. Tom thanked Mike before addressing the nation about his future where he reaffirmed his commitment to the American people and announced that he would seek reelection. Wells checked the flash drive she took from Pariskova and found a video of Emily. Finally, Tom took a call from the Attorney General.
Overall, this was still a good episode despite being all over the place with a few too many subplots. It pretty much was a greatest hits of this season by trying to be a lot of things but not necessarily doing all of them well. Despite the series being cancelled, this episode served as a decent season finale by wrapping up several storylines while creating a few new ones. However, the cliffhanger ending will leave some disappointed though again, the writers could not have predicted the series being cancelled. There are rumblings of the series being picked up elsewhere so if it does, hopefully they can find a way to make a potential season 3 more like season 1 than season 2.
Score: 8/10
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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.