Designated Survivor – Original Sin

By: Patience Kapfer

In the true spirit of being the President of the United States of America, it seems as though Leo Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) can never be out of the spotlight for very long. After visiting the man who is responsible for Alex’s death two weeks ago, the footage from Kirkman’s prison visit has come back to haunt him. The media is calling President Kirkman “American Caesar” and calling out the White House’s failure to address the video. Kirkman’s staff, specifically Lyor (Paulo Costanzo), is concerned that they haven’t even tried to spin it, leading the media to do it for them. The media is calling Kirkman imperial, angry and distraught which clearly doesn’t bode well for the White House. Kirkman; however, agrees that he is angry and distraught, but is open to hearing what his staff suggests he should say. Seth (Kal Penn) suggests that Kirkman should apologize and say he was in the “throes of grief” and that his visit was ill-advised and executive overreach. The President insists that he isn’t saying any of that and that he won’t apologize for taking Beeman to task for his negligence.

More importantly, Hannah (Maggie Q) is overseeing an investigation into who leaked the video in the first place. Chuck (Jake Epstein) scanned the prison mainframe’s operating system and managed to confirm that their system had been hacked, and that hacker had the same signature as the NASA and Roscosmos hacks. Unfortunately, that puts them no closer to figuring out who, or what committed the hacks. Damian (Ben Lawson) offers up Valeria Poriskova (Nora Zehetner) from the Russian Embassy who was handling the hacking investigation and might be willing to pool resources. During Hannah’s meeting with Poriskova in the park, Poriskova pretends to know nothing about the hacking investigation until Hannah mentions Damian. Then Poriskova tells Hannah that they are more than happy to continue discussing the hacking investigation right after they return Damian to the Russians.

Hannah finds out there is chatter that someone is after Damian’s life, but it’s impossible to know who, as he has made quite the list of enemies. The Russians want him dead, the British see him as the greatest traitor since the Cambridge Five and the mysterious hacker wants Damian off his tail. Hannah puts Damian in a safe house until they know they can keep him safe from all of the people who want him dead.  In the middle of the night as Damian goes downstairs, he notices that none of the lights are working. While he is searching in a drawer for a flashlight someone comes up behind him. Fortunately, Hannah was there to shoot the potential killer before they could get to Damian. Chuck gets to work on the killer’s laptop but is unable to get past his firewall. However, he does find out it uses the same signature as their previous hacks. This means that the space station hack, the prison hack, and the attempt on Damian’s life are all connected and whoever wants him dead isn’t the Russians. As they are set to take the laptop back to the IT department at the FBI, the motherboard suddenly overheats and the computer catches fire, making it impossible for them to gain any further intel on the hackers.

During a White House tour a group of tourists poses a sit-in at the juncture of the East and West Wing’s of the White House. As the group of protesters is being forcibly removed from the White House, Lyor sprints to their aid to avoid problems with the White House Press Corps. Lyor insists that these protesters are their guests and it’s “just civic engagement, which the White House heartily endorses”. The protesters are the Ocheole tribe from just outside of Pensacola Florida and their leader – Lacy Cousins (Tanis Parenteau) – would like an audience with the President. Unfortunately, since CNN has already picked up the story and the media is dwelling on the prison video, Kirkman is obligated to meet with Cousins. A meeting with a historically oppressed minority will make Kirkman look calm, humane, and thoughtful to hopefully counter the prison video’s depiction of the President.

In the meeting Lacy tells the President that 18 years ago the Ocheole people were the victims of eminent domain to make way for a commercial development. They were removed from their homes and forced onto a small plot of land, and now they’re being evicted yet again. She says that they are a small tribe and each eviction severs their connection to their land and each other. Emily (Italia Ricci) and President Kirkman tell Lacy that unfortunately eminent domain is a local issue and there’s nothing that they can do to help her, even though the President is moved by her complaint. However, that’s when Lacy tells Kirkman that this issue involves him directly. Eighteen years ago, Kirkman was the architect of the Wannachobee project who fiercely argued for the conversion of their land for commercial use. And now, if Kirkman can’t find a way to help, the Ocheole people are going to lose their land forever.

Kirkman invites his first hire at his architecture firm – Billy (Ari Cohen) – to meet to discuss the Wannachobee project. Billy says that the Ocheole weren’t a federally recognized tribe and of the 1,400 families that they relocated, barely a few hundred identified as Ocheole and at the time none of them seemed to put up much of a fight. If Kirkman had been told he was displacing the Ocheole people, he never would have advocated for the development. Billy tells him that the development is thriving, but the neighborhood the Ocheole were relocated to hasn’t fared quite as well and has high unemployment. Kirkman’s next plan involves bringing Lacy Cousins and Alton Prast (Nigel Bennett) together to attempt to make a deal involving Phase II of the development. Kirkman proposes that Alton take a land swap and allow the Ocheole people to stay on their small piece of land, but he absolutely refuses. Instead of agreeing to the land swap herself, Lacy instead talks publically with the media thanking so many other nations for joining the protest and setting up outside of the White House.

Luckily, while going through boxes and boxes of old documents Tricia (Chelsea Harris) finds a copy of a letter Lacy’s father sent to Kirkman’s architectural firm before Alton Prast broke ground on the project. The letter begged Kirkman to turn down Prast’s commission because of what the development would do to his people. Kirkman never saw the letter because Billy deliberated withheld it so that Kirkman would take the job. Kirkman, being the intelligent man that he is, finally finds a solution to the problem when Lacy mentions the numerous treaties that the federal government has chosen to break throughout the years. With Kendra’s help, they find a 200 years old treaty between Spain and the United States where the Kingdom of Spain made deals with the indigenous peoples of the Florida peninsula in which Spain agreed to safeguard the tribal lands. When Spain ceded Florida to the United States, the US assumed responsibility for those treaties. This means that Prast will no longer be able to take any more land from the Ocheole, and they will be able to remain where they’re currently located.

During the sit-in, Lyor becomes very intrigued by one of the young protesters ability to participate in a protest while also continuing to do work on his laptop. Eventually Lyor’s curiosity gets the best of him and he asks what the protester is doing. The protester tells him he is working on a college essay to apply for Wesleyan which just so happens to be where Lyor graduated. Lyor offers up some helpful advice for the protester to write about his experience protesting at the White House for something he deeply believes in. However, the young man instead chooses to write about how he overcomes oppression from an authority figure (Lyor), which Lyor very much approves of.

While the President handles the daily business, Kendra (Zoe McLellan) hosts a meeting of the trustees for Alex’s foundation to appropriate the funds where Alex wanted them. Surprisingly for some of the White House staff and the audience, Kirkman’s brother, Trey (Breckin Meyer), is part of the board of trustees. This is surprising due to the fact that Kirkman has never mentioned that he even had a brother, making it even more strange for him to be on the board of trustees. Alex apportioned the foundation’s assets equally to refugee assistance groups, homeless shelters for young girls, and heart disease research. When asked if there are any objections on Alex’s wishes, Trey says that he’s not convinced this is an ideal allocation and would like to continue discussion even though they’ve been debating for two hours.

When Trey is confronted by Kirkman about holding up the proceedings on Alex’s foundation, he says his goal was merely to get Kirkman’s attention. Trey says that all he wants is to fix things between them since Kirkman has been holding onto extreme animosity since Trey left while their mother was sick. Kirkman accuses Trey of being a runner and leaving because he didn’t want to help and just wanted to leave, but Trey insists it was because he was a screw up and thought he would just be more of a problem than a help.

By the end of the episode, Kirkman finally agrees to make a statement about the prison video. Kirkman gives a live speech apologizing for his action at the prison and makes a vow that he “will work every day trying to be a better man tomorrow than he was the day before, and a better President, because that’s what the American people deserve”. After talking to Leo (Tanner Buchanan), Kirkman decides to make an effort to talk to Trey and apologize. It gives Kirkman a chance to finally talk to someone and admit how much he misses Alex and how hard it’s been. Trey promises he’ll never run away again and now they’ll be able to figure things out together. The episode closes with Trey accompanying Kirkman to Alex’s grave, and a beautiful scene where they both lay white roses on her grave.