‘Designated Survivor’ Season 1 Episode 5 Recap and Review: The Mission

Designated Survivor Episode 5 stars Kiefer Sutherland and Adan Canto
Kiefer Sutherland and Adan Canto in ‘Designated Survivor’ (Photo by Ben Mark Holzberg / ABC)

“It’s a go. Strike the enemy,” says President Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) to Admiral Chernow (Mykelti Williamson) when it appears they’ve found the location of the terrorist Nassar who they believe to be responsible for the attack on the Capital in ABC’s new political thriller, Designated Survivor.

But not so fast… Just as the attack is about to begin, Kirkman gets intel that Nassar is no longer in the compound and was warned to leave by someone in the Algerian government. This is obviously due to President Kirkman earlier trying to catch Nassar using the diplomatic approach. The attack is called off until they can find out where Nassar has fled to.

The President clears most of his schedule to be with his military leaders following the hunt for Nassar. One event he cannot avoid or reschedule is the Medal of Honor ceremony for Congressman Peter MacLeish (Ashley Zukerman). Kirkman is also approached by Congresswoman Kimble Hookstraten (Virginia Madsen) who wants to know when they’re going to war and when they will strike back at the terrorists responsible for the attack. Kirkman thanks her for her “continued vigilance” and tells her when his military knows where Nassar is, they’ll plan the attack.

At the Medal of Honor ceremony, Kirkman barely has any time after the event to talk to MacLeish because he’s pulled away and told that they now know the new location of Nassar. It seems he’s hiding in the basement of a hospital in Algeria. With an airstrike now out of the question because of all the innocent lives that would be lost, the only options are to wait for another opportunity or to send in Navy SEALs to take Nassar dead or alive. Before Kirkman is willing to send the SEAL team into battle, he decides he wants to meet the men in person who he’ll be sending into harm’s way, so off the President goes to Virginia. He meets some of the men, including Commander Clarkson (Dylan Walsh) who he asks about the chances of the mission being a success. “We’ll get it done, sir,” says Commander Clarkson, but Kirkman is adamant and wants actual numbers. The commander is honest with the president and says 50/50. He also adds, “God have mercy on them because the United States won’t.” Feeling confident that Clarkson is the right leader for such a mission, Kirkman gives the go-ahead for the mission.

Back in D.C., President Kirkman informs Kimble and MacLeish about the mission he has put into motion. Kimble warns Kirkman that his presidency is riding on this. “Pull it off and you’re Reagan, fail and you’re Carter,” says the congresswoman who it’s clear is hoping something will go wrong so she can snatch the presidency away from Kirkman. MacLeish shakes the president’s hand and wishes the mission godspeed. After both have left, Aaron (Adan Canto) suggests to Kirkman that they should ask Peter to volunteer for Speaker of the House once Congress has been re-formed. Kirkman sees no downside to feeling him out and seeing if he’s interested, so he tells Aaron to handle it.

Aaron asks Emily (Italia Ricci) if she’s ever heard of a man named Jeffrey Meyers and she says no, but it’s obvious she is lying. Emily later tells Alex (Natascha McElhone) about Aaron asking about Meyers, and Alex says she’ll talk with him about it.

Over at the FBI, Agent Wells (Maggie Q) is still trying to follow the mysterious lead she got over the phone that suggested if she wanted to know more about MacLeish she needed to look into room 105. After some digging and calling in a favor, Wells finds out that room 105 was a secret room in the Capital which was recently renovated by a subcontractor who the government had never used before. Room 105 was where MacLeish was found alive under the rubble.

Aaron and Emily talk to MacLeish about being the new Speaker of the House, and he’s flattered but turns it down, telling them he came to D.C. to serve his country and he doesn’t see how he can serve his country as Speaker. “Speaker of the House is pure politics,” says MacLeish. (Okay, this just makes him that much more a suspect of being in on the bombing than he was before.)

The president gets word that one of the SEAL helicopters has crashed due to a sand storm. He, along with his military leaders, is able to connect with Commander Clarkson who tells them that one of his men is injured but they can continue with the mission. Kirkman invites MacLeish to sit with him in the situation room during the strike to watch it via satellite video feed. The SEALs make their way through the hospital, eventually getting to the basement where Nassar and a few of his men are hiding and have taken some children hostage. SEALs don’t negotiate and a firefight occurs. Kirkman and the military leaders lose the video and audio feed during the skirmish. When they reconnect, they’re told the mission is a success and they have caught Nassar alive. (MacLeish has a brief look of concern on his face when he hears that news.) Kirkman then is told that the SEAL team lost one of their own during the raid. The president gets upset when he hears one of his men has fallen and wonders if he should have waited for another opportunity.

Later that night, Kirkman walks in on Aaron, Emily, and Seth (Kal Penn) as they discuss MacLeish not wanting the job of Speaker. Kirkman, hearing that MacLeish isn’t looking for power, suggests they offer him a different job, vice president.

Alex meets Aaron to handle his questions, but it turns out he’s trying to do damage control because he already knows that she had a relationship with Meyers. Meyers has been telling his inmate buddies…yes, that’s right, he’s in prison…that he is the father of her son, not Kirkman.

Back at the FBI, Agent Wells tells her boss, Deputy Director of the FBI Jason Atwood (Malik Yoba), that with a little help from Kimble she was able to get the names of the men who worked on the renovation of room 105. The renovation made room 105 basically a bomb shelter. Agent Wells looks at Atwood and says that MacLeish was in on the bombing. Later, outside and away from everyone, Atwood, who believes Wells but is visibly shaken by this news, tells her that whoever planned this has been doing it for over a year and not once ever showed up on their radar. He tells Wells not to trust anyone with this information because besides her he doesn’t know who they can trust.

The final scene has Kirkman showing up in Virginia after the SEAL team has returned to pay his respects to commander Clarkson. He talks with Chief Marino (Alex Mallari Jr), one of the SEALs on the mission, and tells him he thinks he should have waited to get Nassar under different circumstances. Marino tells Kirkman not to question his decisions because they never did or will. Marino then leaves the Commander in Chief alone with the casket of Commander Clarkson. Kirkman lays his hand on the flag draped over the casket and slowly turns and walks away.

Review of Designated Survivor Episode 5:

Dramatic, suspenseful, and with an effective action sequence, episode five titled “The Mission” raises the bar on the political thriller series by revealing to the audience that the attack on the Capital did have an inside man and that Nassar might be nothing more than a false target. Sutherland truly shines in his portrayal of Kirkmanm showing real leadership in scenes where he orders the attack and the go-ahead of the SEAL mission. He also captures subtly the doubts and overbearing weight he feels sending the SEAL team into an extremely dangerous mission. The scene where his wife finds him sitting up late at night, unable to sleep and following on his watch where the SEALs should be on their way to their mission is pitch-perfect.

With Agents Atwood and Wells not knowing who to trust and MacLeish close to becoming the VP, it should be very interesting to see how deep this conspiracy goes and who else is involved.

GRADE: B