Designated Survivor – Summit

By: Patience Kapfer

This week on “Designated Survivor” we once again delve a bit deeper into international relations and the role the United States plays on the international stage. The episode begins in the demilitarized zone between East and West Hun Chiu in, which East Hun Chiu is conducting an unannounced missile test over West Hun Chiu. It is obvious that this missile test is leading to greater tension at the demilitarized zone and around the world. Even though in President Kirkman’s (Kiefer Sutherland) briefing Aaron (Adan Canto) tells him that the missile landed harmlessly in the South China Sea, Kirkman is furious and says there is “nothing harmless about a missile test,” especially on the day of a summit. One of Kirkman’s advisors suggests that Chairman Kim (Tom Choi) decided to conduct the test to increase his negotiational leverage at the summit. Aaron also tells Kirkman that even though East Hun Chiu’s President Han is reasonable, there are now half a million troops lined up on the East Hun Chiu border and 300,000 in West Hun Chiu. To make matters worse, there are 50,000 American troops now embedded in the West Hun Chiu troops, which are stuck in the middle of the largest concentration of enemy combatants in the world. All of this tension causes President Kirkman to move the summit between East and West Hun Chiu at Camp David to start in three hours.

When things already seem like they can’t get any worse, Seth (Kal Penn) brings the President an article just posted at the “Chronicle” about a confidential internal ethics review. This is another leak on top of the already long list of leaked information within the last few months. Since Kirkman has bigger fish to fry at the summit, he puts Emily (Italia Ricci) in charge of figuring out who at the White House is leaking confidential information to the press, telling her to do “whatever it takes.” Emily’s first attempt at asking Simon Day (Morgan Kelly) where he receives his information is a complete failure so she instead brings in Chuck (Jake Epstein) to help with the operation. Emily asks Chuck to go through Simon’s phone records without using the “usual channels” and leaving a paper trail. Chuck has some initial hesitation, but after being convinced that the situation is an emergency to determine who is leaking confidential information he reluctantly agrees.

As usual, Hannah (Maggie Q) is on a top secret, but also terrifying mission. She has been sent into East Hun Chiu to extract Chairman Kim’s son (Daniel Jun). She is blindfolded and forced to destroy her Bluetooth before being escorted to Kim’s son. Joon Kim is clearly nervous that his father’s people followed Hannah to the meeting place, and it is unsafe for both of them. Hannah promises that the information Kim’s son possess can change everything. Once Joon is secured Hannah asks him for details about his father’s nuclear program, but he won’t tell them anything until they also rescue his girlfriend from the compound. Joon says that once his girlfriend is safe he will tell them whatever they want to know, but not before.

While at Camp David Kirkman takes charge of the proceedings, telling those in attendance that this is a very dangerous moment in which it is imperative that they work toward peace for both countries. Understandably, President Han (Freda Foh Shen) is fed up with having been threatened with annihilation for so many years by East Hun Chiu and says that today’s provocation brings them to the brink of war. However, Chairman Kim says that they don’t seek war, only security. He says that they suffer under the collusion of the West against his tiny country at the “behest of President Han.” Kirkman insists that Kim doesn’t need to fear the West or any other country, but Chairman Kim says that depends on these negotiations. Chairman Kim states that he promised his people that he would leave the summit with a safer East Hun Chiu. After hours of negotiations they are no closer to a deal between the two countries. Chairman Kim focused on creating a safer East Hun Chiu, while President Han simply continued to accuse East Hun Chiu of possessing nukes. Therefore, Kirkman determines that they need to restore the status quo before they can start talking peace.

Kirkman again comes up with a plan that includes Dr. Andrea Frost (Kim Raver) from Apache Aerospace because her company specializes in state-of-the-art missile-defense systems. This technology could be used to convince both parties to focus on mutual protection rather than mutual destruction. As Kirkman introduces Andrea to Chairman Kim and President Han, he tells them that he is willing to sign an executive order that exempts Apache from the law preventing East Hun Chiu from doing business with defense contractors. It would be a limited-purpose exception for a new air-defense system called Ricochet that can take down 98% of all incoming missiles. Kirkman tells both leaders that he wants them both to have it to ensure their safety from each other. Chairman Kim expresses worry that his impoverished country would not be able to afford it to which President Kirkman says he’s hoping that West Hun Chiu would cover up-front cost – and by hope Kirkman means that they will if they wish to continue to receive US military support. The US will structure a payment plan so that East Hun Chiu pays back West Hun Chiu with interest and in exchange will halt construction of nuclear weapons and allow inspections.

While Kirkman and Dr. Frost are discussing the potential deal, news breaks about the proposed “Kirkman Initiative” in which West Hun Chiu would pay for the missile defense system up front. The only option for how this story got out was yet ANOTHER leak. Each side has already released a statement blaming the other for trying to torpedo the deal further escalating tensions on the DMZ. Both sides are obviously angry and back to playing the blame game so Kirkman says they need to sweeten the pot for both sides. Upon another meeting, President Han says that her government will not lend Chairman Kim’s “brutal dictatorship” one penny. Chairman Kim says that they don’t need the West’s money or even Ricochet; he has half a million troops that he insists can defend against the West’s aggressions. Kirkman then proposes another option: that Apache Aerospace will lease Ricochet defense system to East Hun Chiu for thirty years – much to the shocked look of Dr. Frost – with the first payment not due until year ten. Dr. Frost protests and says she wasn’t consulted on any of this plan and he is not dictating and has no authority to negotiate on behalf of her company. Kirkman tells her that he DOES have the authority to deny her government contracts for the foreseeable future, which appeals to Chairman Kim’s leadership and thus finally convinces both nations to agree to the deal.

When it seems as though things are finally turning up for all of the countries involved, Chairman Kim realizes his son is missing and says he that as soon as his plane lands back in East Hun Chiu they will be at war with West Hun Chiu. The Chairman believes that West Hun Chiu kidnapped his son and in order to avoid inevitable war President Kirkman must tell Kim that the United States has his son. This may have avoided war, but now Chairman Kim no longer trusts President Kirkman to continue to preside over the negotiations.  The only other person that Lyor (Paulo Costanzo) and Aaron determine would be sufficient for negotiations is none other than Cornelius Moss (Geoff Pierson). Moss comes to help under the pretense of doing it for his country, but makes an excellent statement that Kirkman is a man of his word and it is essential for them to place their trust in him.

Even after rescuing Joon’s girlfriend, Joon he fails to give Hannah any useful information to help them find his father’s nuclear program. Until finally, after enough prodding, Joon says that his father isn’t developing nuclear weapons…he already has them. Once he gives them the coordinates of Kim’s nuclear weapons, Hannah is able to consult with Chuck to determine if the weapons are still there. Chuck determines that the installation was moved to a new location about two miles from the DMZ. Once Kirkman is briefed on the location of the nukes, he storms into the negotiations with a revised treaty because the previous one was null and void since it was based on material nondisclosure. In the new agreement, East Hun Chiu will be responsible for dismantling the weapons and also allow a multi-national peacekeeping force to destroy the silos. Kirkman threatens that if East Hun Chiu refuses to comply and sign the treaty that the United States will see that as a declaration of war, causing Kim to finally sign the treaty.

While Chuck was helping to find the silos he also discovered that Simon met with someone two hours before he went to press with his story about the payment for the missile-defense system and that someone was President Moss. Not only did Moss meet prior to the release of the missile-defense system, but he also met with various other reporters all before they went to press with their confidential stories. When Kirkman confronts Moss about leaking the stories, Moss says the reason he did it was due to patriotism and he’s been attempting to help Kirkman in these dangerous times. And when we thought it couldn’t get any more dangerous, Aaron delivers to President Kirkman the news that there is a dirty bomb somewhere in the United States and they have no idea where it is.