“I never thought I would be in the position to decide who lives and who dies,” says Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) to his wife as he realizes he may have to order a military strike that’s certain to kill a U.S. agent in ABC’s new political thriller series, Designated Survivor.
It’s a busy day at the White House with President Kirkman getting the news that Michigan’s governor is at it again, abusing Muslim citizens in his state, and once again ignoring the President. Emily Rhodes (Italia Ricci) volunteers to travel to Michigan to try to reason with the governor. Kirkman is hesitant but agrees and tells her to be careful. Aaron Shore (Adan Canto) does as well when he learns about her going, calling her three times just to wish her luck and to remind her it could be dangerous there. (Okay, so the real question is how long before these two get together?!) As soon as Emily’s plane lands, however, Governor John Royce (Michael Gaston) meets her with a handful of cops and tells her she has no business being there. He holds a press conference and calls President Kirkman a fraud. He also says the current government in place is illegitimate.
Meanwhile, Kimble Hookstraten (Virginia Madsen) wants to know from the President when he intends to act on the tape that was leaked last week. Kirkman assures her that his people are all over trying to locate the terrorist leader’s whereabouts. Later, Kimble – who is not pleased on how the new President is handling the leaking of the tape – pulls Aaron aside and lets him know that she’s wise to him being the one leaking the tape. Kimble also tells Aaron that he has “hitched his wagon to a footnote” and makes it rather obvious she’s interested in stealing him away, but Aaron just excuses himself and goes back to work.
The First Lady (Natascha McElhone) is having problems of her own with a former client set to be deported soon, and it seems that there are no real legal strings she can pull to keep her in the country. Alex approaches her husband, but instead of dragging him into it, she actually helps him with his problems in Michigan, reminding him he has the authority to activate the National Guard to get the Michigan situation under control. Deciding it’s a good idea and within his power, Kirkman does it. It doesn’t work because the military officer in charge tells Emily when they arrive they are backing the governor. Emily reaches out to Kirkman and tells him to let her try to convince the governor that POTUS will have a one-on-one with him in D.C. At first, Kirkman is hesitant but finally gives Emily the go-ahead.
President Kirkman’s new press secretary is awful at his job and doesn’t know how to handle the tough, hard-hitting questions. He literally runs away from the podium, with Seth Wright (Kal Penn) going after him and trying to calm him down as well as give him a pep talk. In his next appearance, the new press secretary, Carter, seems to be doing okay, but it’s not long before he’s stammering and admits to the press that President Kirkman wants to remove Governor Royce from office. Once again, he hightails it out of there and Seth quickly steps up and handles the hungry for details press smoothly. This intrigues Aaron who offers Seth the job of press secretary. When Seth pushes as to why he, Aaron admits that A) he did a great job and knows how to handle the press and B) Having his face as the press secretary – meaning his heritage – is good PR for the White House. Seth understandably turns it down.
In the situation room, General Cochrane (Kevin McNally) is ready to send the bombers in to get Al-Siqar and keeps insisting that they only have so much time to do so. Kirkman seems to be warming up to the idea of striking, but then he learns that an undercover American agent would most likely be killed during the attack. The General says that the agent knew the risks when he went in, but Kirkman wants to try to find another alternative to the strike, not wanting to lose another American life.
Agent Wells finally gets a chance to interview Congressman MacLeish (Lara Jean Chorostecki) about the inconsistent videos showing him disappear less than 30 seconds from when the bomb went off. His wife supplies him with an alibi, saying she lost one of their children and was frantically looking for her and called her husband in a panic to tell him. He took the call and left his seat, which was responsible for saving his life. Feeling guilty about suspecting the Congressman of being part of the attack and still mourning the loss of her lover, Wells asks to be reassigned to another case. Her boss tells her to sleep on it and to let him know in the morning.
On the plane ride to D.C., Governor Royce and Emily get into a deep conversation about oppressing people based on their religion and ethnic background. It becomes very clear there is no way the governor is going to back down on how to run his state.
When the plane lands, Kirkman is there to meet it. He tells the Governor he’s under arrest for treason, and the governor is taken away by the police. Emily is upset, not knowing what Kirkman had planned and believing he used her. Kirkman tells Emily that he’s very proud of her for all her hard work in this situation and that sometimes doing what’s right doesn’t always mean it’s going to feel good.
Back in the situation room, Kirkman discovers that the General is moving ahead with the plan to strike without the President’s okay. After arguing about the need to strike and some dumb metaphor about snakes in your kitchen, Kirkman – finally fed up with the General’s insubordination – once again acts like the Commander in Chief and says, “General, you are fired.” (About time, Mr. President!)
Alex approaches Kimble to see what she can do to stop her client from being deported. At first, Kimble isn’t going to help but decides to tell Alex that she’ll owe her one and she’ll expect her support when she needs it.
Kirkman somehow finds time to go talk to Seth and tells him he’s disappointed that he turned down the job of press secretary. “That job offer came from me,” says the President. Seth looks surprised, and Kirkman goes on to say that Aaron made it about playing politics but that Kirkman just wanted someone who could do the job and that he could trust. He asks Seth to reconsider, and Seth tells the President it would be an honor.
At her home, Agent Wells is still grieving the loss of her lover when she gets a call. She answers the phone, and a voice on the other end says, “Find Room 105 if you want to find out about MacLeish.”
Back in the situation room, President Kirkman promotes Admiral Chernow (Mykelti Williamson) to General in charge of the military and orders him to gear up for an attack on Algeria, saying, “General, prepare for war.”
Review of Designated Survivor Episode 4:
Fast-paced, intense, and cluttered with too many storylines, episode four titled “The Enemy” sees Kirkman growing stronger and being more direct as the new Commander in Chief while everyone around him still seems to be trying to position themselves better and stronger politically. Once again, the stand-out performance goes to Kiefer Sutherland for showing in this episode a strong, determined, and no-nonsense President Kirkman who’s not above having a governor arrested and firing a general to show them, and the country, who is in command. He also had those wonderful quieter moments with his wife and Seth, showing his very human and personal side. This just might be the best role of Sutherland’s career.
With the country about to go to war and a deepening mystery about MacLeish, the next few episodes should be jam-packed with surprises. Can’t wait.
GRADE: B
