Previously: Tom learned there was a traitor in the White House
—
The Oath
Dani: We open to the car crash, where Agent Hannah Wells is either dead or unconscious. Some dude comes to check on her, and he seems really kind, talking to her all calmly and telling her not to move her neck. Then he strangles her. Um… what? Why spend all that time comforting her if he’s an assassin who’s supposed to kill her? Maybe the show thought using misdirection here would add tension, but it just ends up making this guy look like the most incompetent assassin ever. I bet I know where he buys his assassin-gear.
Samantha: Maybe he thought that she would be less likely to fight him off if she thought he was nice first? IDK, the car crash was probably enough to throw her off her game, so those classes at ACME were a waste, bro.
Marines: Yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and say that the whole throwing a car at her thing was the disarming portion of the plan. The sweet talk was unnecessary.
Dani: Hanna manages to stomp on the gas and stop the guy from strangling her. She crashes into another car a few feet away and tumbles out. She’s bloody and broken and looks like a mild breeze could knock her over, but she manages to limp away from the crash site. Unfortunately, Wyle E. Assassin grabs the file of Classified Information from Hannah’s car – the one Hannah was going to give Kimble Hookstraten, with proof that linked the Capitol bombing mastermind Catalan to almost-VP Peter McLeish. Okay, seriously: how do you NOT make some copies of this super-important info? Or I dunno … snap a pic with your phone and upload it to the cloud?
Samantha: Oh, shoot, Hannah must have grown up in Rosewood.
Marines: I’m really excited to be able to use all of our losing evidence tags somewhere else!
Dani: At least this mediocre writing has a silver lining.
Over on Capitol Hill, some douchebag congressman is pressuring Kimble to stop delaying McLeish’s confirmation. Kimble sticks to her guns, but she doesn’t look happy. She tries to call Hannah, who is limp-running from Wyle E. Assassin. Hannah ducks down an alley and hides as Wyle E. calls someone to report that he lost her. After he leaves, Hannah lifts her shirt and reveals a huge, bloody gash along her abdomen. She’s losing a lot of blood (her shirt is soaked in a very eeiiew way), plus she’s still bleeding from where her head hit the car window. She hears sirens and limp-runs away.
Cut to the White House, where for various expositiony reasons Tom shows his wife the secret file the DoD put together after 9/11 detailing the best way to blow up the Capitol. Alex wants Tom to call in Homeland Security and the FBI, but Tom says that until they know who they can trust he feels better with just the three of them (Alex, Tom, and Mike, Secret Service Agent Extraordinaire) knowing. Yeah, that doesn’t at all sound like a plan that will backfire. Tom wants Alex to take the kids and go somewhere safe, but she argues that they can’t know where “safe” is without knowing who’s really behind the bombing.
Back on Capitol Hill, Douchbag Congressman tells Kimble time is up. He threatens to tell the American public that she blocked McLeish’s confirmation because she wanted to be next in line for the presidency. The threat works, and Kimble tells him to reconvene the committee.
Cut to the surprisingly swanky apartment of Chuck, the FBI IT guy with the massive crush on Hannah. He comes home and is rummaging through the fridge when he spots a bloody Hannah creepily watching him from the corner. (S: What the actual fuck are you doing, Hannah?)
To his credit, Chuck neither jumps nor screams. He wants to call for help, but Hannah tells him no, they can’t let anyone find her. Then she passes out. Or dies. I dunno, I’m not a doctor.
STRIPES! JACKET FLIP! OVERLY DRAMATIC MUSIC!
Aaron, Seth, and Emily are celebrating with late-night drinks in Aaron’s office as Exposition News Network tells us the full House is convening to vote in Peter McLeish as VP. The trio talk about McLeish’s staff, and Emily mentions sharing a summer house with some of his aides when she was 19. Aaron pictures a teenaged Emily and stares at her with a creepy, sexual-predator gaze.
Seth gets creeped out (S: Us too, Seth.) and decides to leave. (M: Extremely legit.) He invites Emily and Aaron, but they stay behind (naturally) and reminisce about how much they hated each other in the first episode and how much has changed since then. Emily says he’s the reason she’s still there, and I throw up a little in my mouth. Aaron delivers a cheesy line about how he’s learning so much from her, and they make out. I know from tumblr that there are plenty of “Emron” fans out there, so I hope they all enjoyed whatever the fuck he was trying to do her upper lip.
Over in the Oval Office, Tom meets with Dr. Enright, the guy who created the bombing blueprint for the DoD. He looks super uncomfortable as he confirms his authorship. When Tom asks him why he didn’t come forward, he admits he’s been terrified. He figures the bombing was the result of a far-reaching conspiracy, and, like Tom, he doesn’t know who to trust. Tom wants the names of everyone who had access to the file. Dr. Enright says he put an NORCOM restriction on it and sent it to the security team at DoD (who all died in the explosion). He also sent it to the head of NORCOM at the time — our beloved General Angry Eyebrows Cochrane, the same back-stabbing general Tom fired several episodes ago.
Samantha: Legit forgot about him. Wasn’t he trying to orchestrate a coup? Wasn’t Aaron going to be a traitor for a bit?
Mari: HEEEEY, WHATEVER HAPPENED TO– you know what, never mind.
Dani: It’s almost like the writers have no idea what they’re doing.
Back at Chez Chuck, Hannah wakes up to find her stomach wound neatly bandaged. Her blood-crusted shirt is still on (gross) and I gotta say Chuck must be a prince among men to let her bleed all over his bed like that. Hannah steals one of Chuck’s shirts and finds him downstairs. Adorably, he glued her wound shut after watching how on YouTube. True love, y’all. (Also, though … pro tip: don’t do any YouTube searches that include the word “wound.”)
Samantha: This goes right with our Questionable Google Searches lifestyle. Welcome, Chuck.
Dani: Chuck is watching ENN, from which we learn that the House approved McLeish’s appointment. He’ll be sworn in as VP later that day. Hannah says they have 8 hours to stop that from happening, but Chuck says not so fast, Huckleberry. Hannah almost died, Atwell is in prison, and Chuck’s been suspended from the FBI. He thinks maybe it’s time to stop. Hannah tells him a cool story about why she joined the FBI (to piss off her father) and says the bottom line is they’re both there to help people.
White House Situation Room. Mike tells Tom he spirited in Cochrane without anyone noticing (uh-huh), and he’s waiting inside. Tom shows Cochrane the bombing blueprint files, and Cochrane thinks it’s a re-enactment. Tom tells him what it really is, but Cochrane swears he’s never seen the files before. Tom finds that hard to believe and shows him a list of people who had access to it. Cochrane confirms the file was sent to him, but he claims it was recalled electronically by the Secretary of Defense before he could open it. He remembers because it was such an unusual, unprecedented thing to do (plus it pissed him off that he didn’t have clearance to see whatever it contained).
Samantha: NBD, super glad you never followed up on this weird and sketchy thing that happened.
Dani: LOL. This guy’s so good at his job I’m surprised he’s not in Trump’s cabinet.
Tom asks what would prompt the Secretary of Defense to recall the file, but Cochrane doesn’t know. He says he probably wouldn’t have done it in isolation, though — there would have been a chain of command. Which means someone at the White House gave the order. Cochrane tells Tom that he has a serious problem, and while Tom might not ask for his help, it’s there if he needs it.
If Cochrane is telling the truth, then I actually like this twist. I didn’t care for Cochrane as the hawkish, one-note general, but Tom could use a seasoned veteran as an ally. (S: Cosign.) (M: And same.)
Elsewhere in the White House, Emily and Aaron are doing a classic West Wing walk-and-talk and after they discuss inane matters the audience isn’t supposed to care about, they resume flirting. Aaron asks Emily out to see an Elvis impersonator (seriously?) because Seth told him she likes Elvis. Aww. Emily says she’s in, and then she gets a summons from the president. Aaron thinks it’s weird he didn’t get one, and whoa, dude — step back. She’s allowed to have business that you’re not a part of.
When Emily gets to Tom’s office, he briefs her on the secret file and gives her a list of everyone from the White House who would have had access/clearance to the file (and is still alive). He thinks one of them might be the traitor and wants Emily to help him quietly investigate. Emily is uncomfortable, though, because she sees Aaron’s name on the list.
White House Press Room. Seth is answering questions and pretty pointedly ignoring Lisa Jordan, the reporter who lied to him about the Leo/paternity scoop. Lisa confronts Seth after the briefing, whining because he never called on her once. He answers professionally, but Lisa thinks he’s holding a grudge. She says the president forgave her, so Seth should, too, and I honestly couldn’t care less about this storyline.
Samantha: I wish I didn’t care. I get physically angry at how dumb it all is.
Mari: Yeah, I don’t like her face and I want it off my screen.
Dani: The Snark Ladies have spoken, Lisa. Take your face elsewhere.
Later, Emily’s in a conference room, staring at the list of names Kirkman gave her. Aaron comes in because she was supposed to sit in on a meeting with him and didn’t. Wow. Step back there, Christian Grey. Emily makes up an excuse, and when Aaron asks why the president wanted to see her she makes up another: he wanted her to take another look at his pick for HUD Secretary. Aaron confirms their date that night, but Emily blows him off and says she can’t. He asks if she regrets the previous night, and she says no, she’s just swamped. Aaron sad-pandas away.
Chuck’s apartment. Hannah changes her wound dressing while Chuck works on their only lead: tracking down the mystery woman who’s been tipping off Hannah. Chuck hacks into a cell network to trace the woman’s number, but the network detects the intrusion (or something) and it’s a #TensionFAIL race (S: Lol.) to see who can trace whom first. Chuck wins. The call came from a burner phone that was purchased at a convenience store on Dupont Circle. Hannah is impressed, probably because she knows there’s no way the network trace also contained the point-of-sale info.
Oval Office. Tom meets with Kimble to inquire about the info she had on McLeish. Kimble tells him about Hannah requesting the blueprints and later saying she had dirt on McLeish. Tom recognizes Hannah’s name and tells Kimble how McLeish warned him that Hannah was obsessed with him. Kimble says she didn’t appear that way at all, and they both seem puzzled.
Tom tells Mike he wants to speak to Hannah. Mike looks pensive after he leaves, and I can’t tell if the show is just filling air time, or if they’re trying to make us question whether Mike knows more than he’s letting on.
Mike meets with Forstell, the FBI guy, who tells him that Hannah totaled her car yesterday and then fled the scene. (Um … wouldn’t it be pretty obvious from looking at the wreckage that someone plowed into her, not the other way around?) (M: Yes. And would the best course of action here really be going to the FBI and asking, “seen Hannah lately?”) Forstell says they checked the hospitals and tried pinging her phone, but they have no idea where she is. He really doesn’t seem that concerned, tbh. I hope the real FBI cares a little more when it’s 100% obvious that someone is trying to kill one of their agents. Forstell tells Mike that Atwood probably got Hannah messed up in something crazy, and he gives him her file.
Hannah goes to the convenience store where the burner phone was purchased and has the manager pull surveillance footage from the purchase date. She finds the mystery caller in a trenchcoat and ballcap (classic incognito garb!), so we can’t see their face. But she manages to catch their license plate.
Seth is giving another press briefing and makes the mistake of finally calling on Lisa, who says she has a source reporting someone is in custody for the murder of Mujid Nassar. Seth says he can’t comment on an ongoing investigation, which for some reason turns the fictional press corps into a pack of shouty children, demanding answers and asking what the White House is hiding. They yell over Seth as he calmly tells them who they should be addressing their questions to. Y’all, I really hate the way they portray the press in this show. They get a bad enough rap in the real world, do we have to demonize them in fiction, too?
Samantha: Yeah it’s horrible. Everyone on this show is horrible at their supposed professional job. It’s weird.
Dani: You had me at “everyone on this show is horrible.”
Emily meets with a switchboard lady who helps log and archive all White House correspondence. Emily has her look to see who called the Secretary of Defense on a certain date and time (to revoke the file from NORCOM) and learns it was former WH Chief of Staff Charles Langdon, who died in the explosion.
Mike gives Kirkman the scoop on Hannah. Tom finds it suspicious that she’d wreck and disappear on her way to deliver evidence against McLeish (THANK YOU!). But Mike is skeptical, because Hannah’s file has some notes about Atwood doubting her judgement. Tom still wants her found, since she was asking about blueprints weeks before they discovered the connection. He thinks she’s either crazy, or their best hope for discovering the truth.
Hannah tracks the burner-buying license plates to a seemingly unlived-in house in the woods. She sees someone running outside and gives chase. In heels. Girl… your wounds have been glued shut and you can barely walk, much less run. Maybe it’s time for sensible shoes?
Samantha: I am always for real impressed with these actresses who are actually running around in these heels while filming.
Mari: Me running at all is laughable but me running in heels?
Dani: She catches up to the runner, who is the very-much-alive Charles Langdon. Dude is super paranoid, and he tells Hannah that she has no idea how big this whole thing is. He says there’s no one they can trust, and then Hannah sees a shooter in the woods. She ducks behind a tree and eventually kills the guy, but Langdon gets away. The dead shooter is (was) Wyle E. Assassin, who happens to have a security key card on him. Hannah calls Chuck with the serial number and asks him to figure out what it opens. Then she’s spotted by a woman who’s out walking her dog (in the abandoned woods behind Langdon’s home, because that makes perfect sense). Hannah flees.
In the Oval Office, Seth tells Tom that Lisa Jordan knows they have someone in custody for Nassar’s murder. Aaron says without a name she has nothing, but Tom decides to reward bad behavior by giving her an exclusive. (S: Fucking stop it, Thomas.) The FBI has finished investigating and are confident Atwood killed Nassar. Before Aaron leaves, he offers to further vet Tom’s choice for HUD Secretary, but Tom’s happy with his choice. So Aaron knows Emily lied to him earlier. But let’s not forget: he only knows this because he went behind Emily’s back to take the lead on an assignment the president gave her directly. What. A. Dick.
Samantha:
Dani: Meanwhile, Mike gets a call from Forstell telling him Hannah shot someone in Virginia. Mike tells Tom that they need to consider her a threat, since no one can explain her actions. Tom is skeptical, but Mike thinks it’s better to be safe than sorry. (Or he’s totally in on the whole thing.)
Hannah calls Chuck, who tells her the police and feds are all looking for her. He doesn’t know how much longer he can help her, but he does tell her what the keycard opens: a room on the 8th floor of the PLC building on Louisiana Ave. Hannah asks what direction the room faces.
Hannah drives like a maniac on her way to the capitol, because that’s what you do when you have multiple police agencies looking for you. We see lots of people filing in to watch McLeish’s swearing-in, while the motorcade approaches and security people patrol the crowded streets. Then Catalan (disguised as Secret Service) enters the PLC building and makes his way to the 8th floor. He enters a room and assembles a long-range rifle.
On the steps of the Capitol, Tom congratulates McLeish, who promises not to let them down. Emily gets a call from the lady at the switchboard, who was digging into the Langdon call because Emily apparently drafted her into her super-secret investigation? HOKAY. Turns out Langdon was in Geneva when the call was made, and it was actually his Deputy Chief of Staff (Aaron) who called the Secretary of Defense. Emily, who has no poker face whatsoever, stares at Aaron with all the emotions. Aaron gives her a weird look and leads Tom to the podium.
Tom starts speechifying, which means something bad is about to happen. (M: Always.) Hannah speeds through the streets of D.C., which are apparently devoid of all traffic cops. She ditches her car and runs through the crowds, knocking aside people without ever drawing attention to herself. I really don’t like this I’m-the-only-one-who-can-save-him angle. I get that Hannah and Chuck don’t know who to trust, but come on. They know the exact room where the shooter is… shouldn’t they at least TRY to call the police, or the Secret Service, or the FBI? Heck, call the media. Post it on Facebook and Twitter. Instagram that mother. This show is so frustrating sometimes. (S: Most-times.) (M: An overwhelming majority of the times.)
Tom finishes his speech, McLeish is sworn in, and Catalan aims at the president. Hannah is still running through the crowd, toward the PLC building. Finally, an agent spots her and gives chase. She sees the open window where Catalan is preparing to fire, and she shoots at it. She gets one shot off before she’s tackled to the ground. Her bullet hits the window frame, startling Catalan. He squeezes the trigger, and we fade to black.
Next time on Designated Survivor: We learn who was shot on S01E12: Warriors
I’m a serial procrastinator and a genuinely terrible singer, and if anyone knows how to monetize either of these skills please hit me up. In my spare time, I like to study Dutch painters, Italian architecture, and Canadian bacon.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
I'm a 28 year old graduated English major and almost librarian. I can often be found singing too loudly (poorly) in the car or spending some time (hours) on Tumblr. I am a lover of Harry Potter, the Spice Girls, and too many other things.