Designated Survivor – Target

By: Patience Kapfer

Hannah (Maggie Q) may not work for the FBI anymore, but would you expect that to keep her out of trouble? Absolutely not. Hannah starts the episode sneaking into a house looking for Valeria Poreskova, but is instead met with an unknown man who attacks her and says he’s never heard of her even though the house they’re in is Valeria’s. As Hannah gains the upper hand and begins beating the man, asking where Valeria is. The police enter the house and arrest Hannah.

The latest policy proposal President Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) is working to pass through the House and Senate is a defense budget that has obtained a Congressional consensus of 726 billion dollars. However, Emily (Italia Ricci) says that Senators Crowl (Jessica Tuck) and Feller (Zachary Bennett) are shifting again and she is unsure why. In the meantime, Lyor (Paulo Costanzo) barges in and tells them to turn on “Beltway Beat” in which Cornelius Moss (Geoff Pierson) is yet again saying how this presidency has finally run aground and Kirkman is an amateur in a job that demands a professional. Kirkman says that Moss has the right to say whatever he wants, but Emily is quick to bring up that leaking classified information is a crime and he’s a repeat offender. Even though Kirkman would like to prosecute Moss for leaking information, that would look like he was using his office for personal gain, so Lyor suggests appointing a special counsel who has no allegiance to the administration. They find the perfect person to appoint as a special prosecutor in Ethan West (Michael J. Fox) since he clearly doesn’t show any favor toward the administration.

When Kirkman meets with the Senate Democrats they tell him the budget doesn’t have enough funding for veterans but has too much for a newly advanced military plane that the GOP wants. The democrats get down to business in a hurry asking where exactly Kirkman stands since he’s twenty months into his administration and “still trying to govern as an independent.” The democratic leader says that on every social issue that matters Kirkman is a Democrat and the party needs a leader. She says that the party needs to get its ducks in a row and they’re hoping the President will run for another term on the democratic ticket. But Kirkman doesn’t think that should be the current focus and instead he wants to simply focus on the defense budget. Unfortunately, the Democrats are using the defense budget as leverage in an attempt to make Kirkman choose being a democrat rather than continuing as an Independent.

President Kirkman hits another snag in getting the defense budget passed when he holds a meeting with the GOP leaders. They are insistent that the new F-44 plane is the answer to ending wars and keeping them from starting in the first place, therefore, more money should be devoted to that project. The GOP then utilizes the same tactic as the Democrats and tries to convince Kirkman that he should abandon the Independent label and become the GOP candidate for President. Kirkman is still adamant that he is not concerned with choosing between the two parties and only cares about the defense budget. It is increasingly becoming a contentious issue on whether or not Kirkman even plans to run for reelection and by not cementing his plans he leaves open the possibility that Congress will lose faith in him and his abilities. Lyor and Kirkman’s staff are insistent that he needs to at least allude to the fact that he might run, even if is not signing on with a party.

Kirkman invites the Senate leadership back to meet and discuss the defense budget and his party stance. The President tells them he has no intention of joining either of their parties and his staff has drawn up a final bill that reflects the bipartisan work they’ve done together. He tells them that both of their parties will endorse this bill or he will take whatever political capital he has left and make his case to the people. Kirkman says he will tell the American people that he believes partisanship is ruining this country and that their representatives are more interested in keeping their power than serving the people and soldiers that defend them. This threat manages to give Kirkman a win on the defense budget

There seems to be some increased chemistry between Kendra (Zoe McLellan) and Trey (Breckin Meyer) as we see her wake up to him searching for his other shoe in her bedroom. Although, it does feel a little awkward as Trey shows himself out. Trey accidentally leaves his wallet behind and when he returns to Kendra’s residence to pick it up he finds the front door ajar and the back door has been broken into. He discovers Kendra hiding in an upstairs bathroom with a baseball bat. When Kendra gets to the White House, Mike (LaMonica Garrett) brings in Detective Pineda (Presilah Nunez) to assess the situation and help figure out who broke into Kendra’s home and why. While Kendra is at work she receives a call from an unknown number that tells her to look into the unsolved murder of Lewis Garren who was shot in 2008. The caller tells Kendra to look into who killed Garren or next time he will do more than mess up her place. Following the frightening phone call, Kendra tells Mike and Detective Pineda that she didn’t work on the Garren case, but she did try a potential suspect for the murder of Pete Archer and ended up cutting him a deal which is why the FBI couldn’t put the Garren murder on him. Since she ended up giving him a deal, the murderer never went to prison and it’s possible the Archer family could be responsible for ransacking Kendra’s house.

Mike, Pineda and Kendra all pay a visit to Pete Archer’s father (Andrew Gillies) to inquire about his son Mickey’s (Chad Camilleri) location. The father says he has no idea where Mickey is yet very unhappy to see Kendra after how the previous court cases went. Upon seeing a photo in the living room depicting a bait and tackle store in a small fishing town in West Virginia, Mike has a pretty good idea where they can find Mickey. Sure enough they find him out back, but he doesn’t give them a particularly warm greeting. Instead, he opts to fire a gun at them and elicit a chase into the forest. Sadly, the chase ends with Mike shooting Mickey in order to save Detective Pineda’s life.

West begins his investigation into Moss with a conversation with Hannah about her prior investigations of the ex-president. Following West’s discussion with Hannah, he asks similar questions of Aaron (Adan Canto) who mentions Hannah and the cases she’s worked revolving around Moss. West picks up on the mention of Hannah though and seems to begin to wonder why Hannah had so much involvement. Moss, himself, agrees to meet with West because he says he has nothing to hide. All of his answers are innocent enough, but towards the end of the interview Moss brings up Hannah’s involvement in every case.

Once Hannah is released from prison, she goes back to her mission of finding Valeria. Once she gets home she finds her apartment has been broken into and someone has gone through all of her belongings. She calls Chuck (Jake Epstein) to tell him about the break in and discuss Valeria a bit more and he tells her that it’s a funny coincidence that Damian’s apartment was also broken into a few days ago. So, whatever Valeria was looking for at Damian’s place she was also looking for in Hannah’s apartment. Hannah decides to find a way to look at Damian’s personal affects to try to determine what Valeria might be trying to use as a way to bargain with Russia for her life. She finds a postcard that says, “See you at our spot!” Hannah then takes a trip to the bench that she and Damian used to frequent in the park. She notices that the armrest is not securely attached and so she pries it open and discovers a USB. On the USB is a video of Damian telling her exactly what he was trying to give her that night on the bridge when she shot him. It was the address of his daughter in London, because if he is dead, then Valeria will come for his daughter thinking that she knows something that she shouldn’t. Immediately following the video Hannah makes a call to book a flight to London to do as Damian asked and protect his daughter.

Seth (Kal Penn) gains some interesting intel by the end of the episode. He discovers who the mystery candidate that the GOP plans on running is: Cornelius Moss, Kirkman’s archrival. Moss would not only be a formidable rival, but by running, it also put a cloud over the special counsel’s investigation. Perhaps worse news than Moss running for President is the news that Ethan West brings to the President’s attention. West tells Kirkman that he found evidence of bad judgment on the part of Moss, but he can’t prove that Moss leaked just because Kirkman says he did. What is now coming up as important to West is Hannah’s involvement in everything that has occurred over the last few months. Hannah conducted warrantless searches and unlawful surveillance. West says he has probable cause to believe Kirkman was part of a criminal conspiracy and he will have to notify the Attorney General of his findings. Even though it seems the immediate threat to Kendra is gone, she would rather not have to go home. So, Emily offers Kendra her couch to crash on for the night. Emily even offers to go pick up whatever Kendra needs from her house, which seems like a great idea. That is until Mike tells Kendra that the man behind Pete Archer’s death was shot by a sniper while being brought in for questioning. Mike tells Kendra she needs to be under twenty-four hour protection and absolutely cannot go home, which causes Kendra to rush to call Emily and tell her to get out of her house immediately. As Emily answers the phone and begins to walk past the glass door to leave we hear a gunshot as Emily falls to the floor.