Designated Suvivor – Run

By: Patience Kepfer

Even with tension mounting on every front for President Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland), he doesn’t even hesitate heading straight to the hospital to find out if Emily (Italia Ricci) is okay following being shot at Kendra’s (Zoe McLellan) house. Kirkman runs through the hallway of the hospital and Emily is obviously very surprised at the President’s decision to come check on her, but he assures her that even though the bullet grazed her and it was only thirteen stitches the only place he would be is the hospital. The shooter was, in fact, Fred Archer and Mike (LaMonica Garrett) tells Emily that they were able to take him out.

Back at the White House, Kirkman has a meeting with Ethan West (Michael J. Fox) and the Attorney General (Bruce Davison) to discuss all of the charges being brought against the him. Some of the charges include: burglary, witness tampering and obstruction of government proceedings. Kendra says that the President didn’t do any of those things, but West says Hannah Wells (Maggie Q) did on the President’s behalf, which makes him a co-conspirator. The Attorney General (AG) says that based on West’s findings he has probable cause to file charges against Kirkman. Kendra says there is no basis for charging a sitting president with a crime, to which the AG says that’s why they need to find a political solution to the problem. The Senate majority and minority leader suggest that Kirkman announce that he is not standing for re-election and then the AG will decline to file charges. The AG explains that if he files charges against Kirkman, that it will precipitate a constitutional crisis and he doesn’t think that’s good for the country, so he gives Kirkman twenty-four hours to decide what he’s going to do.

To add fuel to the never-ending fire surrounding President Kirkman, he also has to deal with one of the United States’ territories – Taurasi – holding a referendum on independence. Seth (Kal Penn) and Lyor (Paulo Costanzo) hold a meeting with the governor of Taurasi (Jonathan Adams) to discuss how the prospect of leaving the protection of the United States is a bad idea. The governor says that the citizens democratically voted to sever official ties with the United States, but Seth argues the vote was skewed by millions of dollars in TV ads that America’s enemies poured into the Taurasi market. They worry that if Taurasi leaves that it could be the first domino to fall and Guam, American Samoa and the Marianas could all follow.

While Seth and Lyor are in Taurasi, the NEIC detected a massive 8.2 earthquake fifteen miles off the coast of Taurasi, thus triggering a tsunami. It’s terrifying to watch the tsunami from both Lyor’s point of view as it crashes onto the beach and continues to move inland as well as the President’s where he watches it sweep over the island without enough time to warn people to get to higher ground. Following the tsunami, Kirkman makes a plea to the Senate leaders to get fresh water, food and medical supplies to Taurasi, but they refuse to give aid since the territory wants to cut ties with them. The Senators offer a three million dollar supplemental aid package and discuss appropriations in the coming days, which the president accepts yet makes it clear that isn’t enough aid for this situation. This means that once again the President has to look for other options than simply gaining the Senates approval. One possibility is to temporarily redirect funds to FEMA or the Department of Defense to offer aid in another form.

Eventually, Kirkman is able to get in contact with Lyor who explains that dozens of hotels were destroyed, their consulate is gone, people were swept out to sea, and Seth is still missing. On top of that, Congress has placed an injunction on Kirkman’s ability to use his presidential power to get more aid to Taurasi leaving them with going through the Supreme Court to try to obtain aid. But what Kirkman didn’t know is that Emily made an effort to find a way to obtain extra aid by attending a service for a member of the court and using that as an opportunity to influence the Supreme Court’s calendar. Following Emily’s actions the Supreme Court denies their petition, which completely eliminates their judicial option. After Emily’s rash move, she tells Kirkman she doesn’t think she’s been a very good Chief of Staff and gives him her resignation. Kirkman leaves the letter in Emily’s office and tells her that she will always have a seat next to him.

Lyor finally finds Seth who was on the roof during the entirety of the tsunami and out of harm’s way. Seth was able to take a tour around the island and saw massive looting and rioting on the southern part. However, since Congress refuses to help, and the courts have struck down Kirkman’s executive order, his hands are tied. Luckily, there is another way. If Taurasi is no longer a protectorate and there is a state of potential conflict, then the United States can provide them with aid. Kirkman is finally able to obtain the aid Taurasi needs and also five thousand troops to help keep the peace. The governor says that he is sure the citizens will be willing to vote to restore their status as a protectorate on a new referendum.

Kendra says the best option they have to clear the President is to get Hannah to convince the AG she didn’t do anything on the President’s behalf and give them an affidavit immediately. However, that is impossible because she went off the grid and Aaron (Adan Canto) can’t get ahold of her. Hannah is busy at the Weymouth Abbey School for Girls in London searching for Damian’s daughter Amy Bleeker (Taylor Blackwell). Upon entering Amy’s room, a girl tells her that Amy’s not there and that they aren’t close. Using her FBI skills, Hannah determines that it’s highly unlikely that this roommate is telling the truth and deduces that the girl IS Amy. The girl then hits Hannah and runs away, but using Chuck’s (Jake Epstein) assistance, Hannah is able to track Amy to one of Damian’s pseudonym addresses. After another pursuit, Hannah tells Amy things that she assumes only they would know about Damian and explains that someone is trying to hurt her so Amy needs to come with her. While Hannah is trying to convince Amy to take her to Damian’s personal storage we see a dark hooded figure across the street, Valeria Poreskova (Nora Zehetner), looking creepier than ever and discreetly following them.

When Amy and Hannah get to Damian’s personal safe, the door is already unlocked and the safe is open and empty. After some prodding, Amy tells Hannah what was in the safe – a five page list of names and there is no other copy. However, Amy has all of the names and addresses memorized thanks to her photographic memory. Chuck determines the names and addresses belong to every British agent posted at home and abroad, which makes this list highly valuable to Valeria who could give it to Russia in exchange for forgiveness for moonlighting for Dax Minter. Hannah tricks Valeria into thinking Amy is in her room so that she can ambush her and attack her before she is able to kill Amy. While fighting in the hallway, Valeria manages to throw a knife into Hannah’s thigh and run away, but Hannah is in close pursuit with gun in hand. Hannah chases Valeria down by the river where they fight to gain the upper hand again with Hannah coming out on top telling Valeria that she’s taking her in. But Valeria reminds Hannah that she’s a former FBI agent in England with no authority to do anything. So, instead of making the effort to arrest Valeria, we see Hannah shoot her in the chest and throw the gun in the river after removing the list of names from Valeria’s pocket. When Hannah is getting ready to leave London, Amy follows her out and tells her she has no one and nowhere to go now. A little defeated, Hannah acquiesces and allows Amy to come with her.

During all of the turmoil following the tsunami, Moss (Geoff Pierson) uses this opportunity to invite Ethan West to lunch to discuss hiring him as a senior advisor on his presidential campaign. Following West’s lunch with Moss, he pays President Kirkman a visit. West tells Kirkman that Moss offered him a job, which made him realize that everyone is working an angle – Moss, Congress and the AG, but not Kirkman. He’s finally realized that Kirkman doesn’t scheme, instead he actually serves. Before he leaves, West gives Kirkman back his “list of demands” from his 25^th amendment hearing.

After handling the Taurasi crisis, President Kirkman makes a statement to the American people in which the Senate leaders assume he will announce he is not launching a reelection bid in order to save himself from indictment. To everyone’s surprise, including his senior staff, Kirkman announces his candidacy for re-election as an independent! Meanwhile, on the plane back to the United States, Hannah reviews video footage on a flash drive from Valeria’s pocket. The video footage shows Emily Rhodes giving Valeria an envelope. The episode and series ends with President Kirkman taking a call from the Attorney General and thus facing the possibility of losing his position as President of the United States yet again.