Designated Survivor – Misalliance

By: Patience Kapfer

Where are they taking Hannah Wells (Maggie Q) and what do they plan to do with her appear to be the theme throughout this week’s episode of “Designated Survivor.” Nestor Lozano (George Tchortov) and his comrades take Hannah to an undisclosed location and transfer her from the van (which they later burn to erase any forms of evidence) to shipping container. She struggles against her restraints as she is left alone and at the mercy of her captors.

Meanwhile, Emily (Italia Ricci) holds a seemingly ordinary political meeting with Jay Whitaker (Richard Waugh), but as he exits the office we see that he receives a message that says “package out for delivery.”  The scene transitions to yet another individual, Patrick Lloyd (Terry Serpico), who receives the same text message mid-workout and looks exceptionally pleased.

The focus of President Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) this week is once again on a domestic spending issue, allowing us to see into the world of policy making in Washington. Alex (Natascha McElhone) is back at the White House in this episode to give a group of children a tour and meet with President Richmond’s son, Tyler (Colin Woodell). During their tour we are given a fun historical fact about George Washington – that he ran the first spy ring during the Revolutionary War – which the students seem to find very captivating. Their interest in the story is abruptly interrupted with something much more fascinating, a visit from President Kirkman himself! He warmly welcomes Tyler, who introduces the student orchestra from Robert Richmond High School. Kirkman then allows the students to snap a few selfies with him, which does not seem very presidential yet does seem very much like Kirkman. While Kirkman talks with Tyler, Tyler informs him that this group is actually part of a larger national program that funds the arts in public schools. However, this is where we learn Tyler has clear ulterior motives besides simply enjoying music education. The grant that funds the arts in public schools is about to run out within the next month and he is there to make a pitch to save it. If the grant is not renewed it could be the end of music for some of these students, which plays right into President Kirkman’s desire to help and do good things for other people. It helps that Leo (Tanner Buchanan) is all about music, creating a stronger connection for Kirkman to helping students have access to the arts.

Agent Forstell (Reed Diamond) brings Mike Ritter (LaMonica Garrett) into the office he last saw Hannah in the night before, as he hasn’t heard from her and is concerned about her whereabouts. Mike suggests that she might be in the field and had to go radio silent, or that it’s possible Jason Atwood (Malik Yoba) knows where she is. Forstell says that it is unlikely Atwood knows, since Hannah sidelined him because he’s injured, so Ritter proposes checking where Hannah is staying. As they pull up to t0068e motel, Hannah’s car is still parked in the parking lot, but as they enter her room there is no indication she was there the night prior. The agents go to the security footage from the motel (which conveniently only has one working camera). All they can see is someone come up behind her and a van come into the shot and disappear, giving them no definitive leads as to her whereabouts. They take this new information to the president who instructs them to use every agency and resource available to them to track down Agent Wells.

Speaker Hookstraten (Virginia Madsen) undergoes a House ethics hearing to determine if there was a connection between her trip to Turkey and her co-sponsorship of the bill to give them military aid. Despite her best efforts to make them remember her lifetime of public service and reputation, Aaron finds out that they plan to vote 9-3 against the speaker. Kirkman tells Hookstraten that no matter what he will stand behind her, but in the same meeting he asks her about the federal art bill and attempts to gain her help in renewing the funding for the arts quickly. Speaker Hookstraten informs Kirkman that she might not be able to be much help in this area, as the bill first has to go through the Ways and Means Committee which is chaired by Congressman Saldua (Vincent Rodriguez III), who also happens to be leading the charge on the ethics committee that is conducting her hearing.

President Kirkman invites Congressman Saldua to the White House to discuss the arts funding bill. Kirkman expresses how the kids can’t wait for the budget to go through Congress, this funding needs to be renewed as quickly as possible. He suggests tacking the funding onto another bill that is likely to pass Congress. To his dismay, Saldua tells him that he ran for Congress to avoid backroom dealing, and that a lot of people think that they should throw everything they have into funding science, technology, engineering, and math instead of wasting time on the arts. President Kirkman firmly states that he “doesn’t think our children should be forced to choose between art and scienc,”, but Saldua refuses to budge and says he is happy to debate this while putting together the budget.

Hookstraten informs Saldua with how if this hearing goes to the full house, it could eat up valuable time and drag on for months. She offers instead to step down from not only the speakership, but also give up her Congressional seat in exchange for fast-tracking funding for the arts so the children won’t lose music. When President Kirkman learns of her deal with Saldua, he determines his own plan to keep Hookstraten a close ally. Prior to the performance by the children from Robert Richmond high school, President Kirkman announces that he has chosen a nominee for Secretary of Education – Kimble Hookstraten.

Atwood takes matters into his own hands, after Hannah tells him about Patrick Lloyd and obtains a microphone and receiver, as well as a pin with a nanotracker. While Lloyd goes through security at a high profile alt-right event, Atwood paid one of the security personnel to switch pins. At this event, Lloyd speaks to a large group of people, telling them that “no illegitimate government, no illegitimate president is going to stand in their way” of taking back their country. He follows Lloyd from the event a house in the middle of the forest, where he sets up under some foliage to listen in on the conversation between Whitaker and Lloyd. While listening to their conversation, he learns that Hannah is contained and that the FBI is focused on the locations that were on the flash drive and not on their actual targets. He then hears a noise behind him and goes to investigate, so as to not be caught unaware and unprepared. However, the noise he heard is merely a deer, or so he thinks. But when he turns around, he is met with the worst surprise – two bullets to the chest. I sincerely hope this is not the last time we see Atwood.

Throughout this episode, the president’s staff has also been prepping for a NATO summit, particularly Seth (Kal Penn) who is over the moon about getting to ride in Air Force One for the first time. When on the phone with his mother, he tells her he doesn’t get to wave while getting on the plane because only the president gets to wave. This is extra endearing when Seth attempts to take a selfie before boarding Air Force One, but Secretary Moss (Geoff Pierson) offers to take a photo of him standing on the stairs of the plane. Not only does he offer to take the photo, he asks President Kirkman to take the photo with Seth, who immediately agrees and tells him he can wave and also waves along with him! Designated Survivor is not one to end without a cliffhanger, and in this particular instance Hannah is able to pick the lock on her handcuffs while in the shipping container and surprises her captor. She manages to grab the syringe that he brought with the intention of using it on Agent Wells and instead she injects it into her captor. Once out of the shipping container she encounters the worst surprise of them all…she is not simply trapped in a shipping container, but on a cargo ship in the middle of the ocean.