Designated Survivor - The Oath - Review

Designated Survivor returns this week after a long enough hiatus that I had to re-watch the last episode to remember exactly what was going on! “The Oath” was written by David Guggenheim and directed by Frederick E. O. Toye. Of course, we all remember that crazy cliffhanger – who was shot?!! Mainly because it’s being played up in the commercials for this week’s new episode. If you’ve been paying attention to those commercials, we can tell who wasn’t shot by their stunned reactions to the shooting and its aftermath. I thought it would be a good idea to post a re-cappy review now to help prepare for the return of the show. It will be interesting to see if the ratings will also return after such a long break.

The episode begins in the aftermath of Hannah’s (Maggie Q) car “accident.” When the good Samaritan (Jack Murray) helping her tries to strangle her, she hits the gas, crashes again, crawls out – leaving the evidence!!! – and manages to get away even though she’s bleeding from her head and abdomen. Hannah goes to Chuck (Jake Epstein) for help – and tells him that it’s not safe for him to call anyone and that she can’t go to a hospital.

Meanwhile, Hookstraten (Virginia Madsen) can’t delay the vote anymore to wait for Hannah’s evidence. She has to let the vote proceed, or it will look like she’s blocking it for self-interest – so that she’d be next in line for President.

McLeish (Ashley Zukerman) is ultimately cleared for the vote for VP and wins. Seth (Kal Penn), Aaron (Adan Canto), and Emily (Italia Ricci) share a drink in celebration. Emily and Aaron go closer, and Aaron confides in Emily that he’s learning from her – something he hadn’t thought possible. The two even make a date to go and see an Elvis impersonator.

Tom (Kiefer Sutherland) shows Alex (Natascha McElhone) the blueprint for blowing up the Capitol building. He tells her that they’d designed it themselves. Tom tells her he doesn’t know who to trust and that they can’t call anyone until they know more. He wants her to take the kids and get to safety.

Mike (LaMonica Garrett) brings Alan Enright (Jeffrey R. Smith) – the man who wrote the program – to the Oval office. Enright admits he wrote the program but swears he had nothing to do with the bombing. Naturally, he recognized his own work but it’s clearly a conspiracy of unparalleled proportions, so he was afraid to come forward. He points them in the direction of the head of Norcom. Of course, at the time it wasn’t General Grady – it would have been Harris Cochran (Kevin McNally) – the General that Tom fired!

Meanwhile, Hannah wakes up and she’s all patched up. Hilariously, Chuck learned how to glue her wound together via YouTube! She discovers that McLeish has been confirmed and is to be sworn in on the Capitol steps in 8 hours. Chuck points out that he’s on suspension, someone tried to kill her, and Atwood is still in prison. Chuck admits that he joined the FBI to help people, but Hannah says she joined to piss off her Dad – and to help, just in a different way. Maggie tells him if they quit, the bad guys win, and Chuck agrees that he’s in. Their first step is to try to find the woman who’s been calling Hannah with the evidence.

Mike brings Cochran into the empty war room, and Tom runs the blueprint simulation. Cochran thinks he’s looking at a re-enactment of the bombing. When Tom tells him that he’s looking at a threat assessment from two years ago, Cochran swears he never saw it. He tells them that the Secretary of Defense re-classified the file and took it away. The Secretary of Defense could never have done that on his own. Cochran points out that the orders would have had to have come from the Whitehouse – Tom has a serious problem. Cochran offers to help.

Right after Aaron asks Emily out on a date, Tom calls her – and only her into the Oval office. He tells her about the file and that it had to have come from Richmond’s team. He has a list of names who could have been in on it – and the list includes Aaron! Tom wants Emily’s help to find the traitor in the White House.

Seth holds a Press conference, and I’m struck by how much better Penn is at this than Melissa McCarthy… err Sean Spicer…. Seth dodges Lisa’s (Melanie Scrofano) questions. Afterwards, she comes to him and tells him it’s her job to ask questions and his to answer them. She points out that the President forgave her, so why can’t Seth? Naturally, Seth respects the freedom of the press, and does take her questions at the next press conference.

Once again, Lisa catches Seth with a bombshell. Her questions is about them having a suspect in Nassar’s death. Aaron tells Tom that Lisa is asking the question, and Tom tells Aaron that the FBI just gave him a file that concluded that Atwood did kill Nassar. Tom surprises Aaron by telling him that he’s going to give Lisa an exclusive. This entire White House respects freedom of the press. Tom tells Aaron that he kept Lisa on to keep them honest.

Seth goes to Lisa later in the episode. She’s sure she’s about to receive a no comment from him. This time Seth surprises her by telling her that she’s getting the exclusive – but tomorrow, after the news cycle has moved away from the Vice President’s swearing in.

Aaron finds Emily alone in a conference room going through some files. She lies to him about what she’s doing, and cancels their date for later. He asks if she regrets the kiss they shared. She says she doesn’t – but does she? Later in the episode, Aaron discovers her lie about what she’s working on. Is Aaron actually in on it? It’s a nice way for the show to ramp up the tension – after all, we finished off the fall run no further along in discovering who exactly the traitor in the White House is!

Tom calls Hookstraten in to the Oval office. He wants to know what she was going to say about McLeish. She tells him about Hannah – finally! Tom says that McLeish told him that Hannah was obsessed with him. Hookstraten says Hannah didn’t come across like that to her, but she hasn’t heard from her. Hookstraten senses that all is not well and asks Tom if everything is ok. Tom tells her that he’s not sure but that he’ll let her know.

Tom sends Mike after Hannah, and he goes to Forstell (Reed Diamond) who tells him about her totaling her car and disappearing afterwards. He also gives Mike her file. Mike fills Tom in, and Tom thinks it’s an awfully big coincidence that she’d be in a car accident when she’s bringing in valuable information. Mike thinks she’s compromised due to her link to Atwood. Tom concludes that she’s either crazy or she knows something – and he’s leaning toward her knowing something.

Meanwhile, Chuck has traced the mysterious woman’s burner phone to a convenience store, and Hannah gets a license plate from the surveillance footage there. We finally start to see the two threads of this story start to converge a little more. Emily has been tracing calls to the Secretary of Defense and finds one on the right day from Chief of Staff Charles Langdon (Peter Outerbridge) – but he’s supposed to be dead.

However, Hannah traces the car to Virginia, and it leads her straight to a rather alive Charles Langdon! He tells her that it’s even bigger than she thinks, and he tells her not to trust anyone. Shots are fired and Langdon gets away. Hannah kills the shooter and it’s the same guy from the accident. She finds a logo on a security key, but a woman walking her dog sees Hannah standing over the dead body.

Forstell calls Mike to tell him about the incident in Virginia. Mike tells Tom that Hannah shot someone, so he’s considering her a threat because he can’t explain her actions. Tom still thinks she may have valuable information.

Chuck meanwhile calls Hannah to tell her that the police and the FBI are looking for her. The keycard is to a room with a line of sight to the steps of the Capitol. It seems clear that someone is about to try to assassinate Tom – but not until McLeish is sworn in!

While Alex urges Tom not to go through with swearing in McLeish, McLeish is not sure that he can go through with it. Tom tells Alex that he doesn’t have enough evidence to stop the swearing in. Meanwhile, McLeish also gets advice from his wife (Lara Jean Chorostecki). She tells him that it’s exactly what they’ve been working for. Suddenly, she seems a lot like the Lady Macbeth to his Macbeth! She’s on board to restore the nation to the empire it once was – and that was a chilling echo of reality. She tells him it’s not the time for weakness, and he agrees to go through with it.

The final scene(s) build us to the cliffhanger. Tom congratulates McLeish on the steps while the gunman infiltrates the FBI-cleared building, posing as an agent, and sets up for his shot. Amanda (Adrienne Wilson) from the switchboard calls Emily to tell her that Langdon hadn’t made that call – he was in Geneva – it was Aaron who made the call! It’s also Aaron who brings Tom forward for the ceremony.

Hannah desperately tries to get through the crowd as Peter is sworn in. Hannah sees the sniper and shoots! Tom is in the crosshairs, but does Hannah’s shot throw him off? Who has been shot??? The commercials confirm that the shooting victim isn’t Emily, Aaron, or Mike. It seems unlikely to be Tom, but the press releases for the next two episodes have been very circumspect in the characters mentioned! My guess, given that she’s right beside him, is that Alex is the one who’s been shot.

Who do you think was shot? Are you excited to have the show back on the air? Is Aaron involved in the conspiracy? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!