Designated Survivor Review: Brace for Impact (Season 1 Episode 21)

“I have seen the one thing that will bind us all together: love” says Tom Kirkman in his speech at the end of a remarkable, if not perfect season of Designated Survivor, and we want to believe him, we do. It’s just a little too perfect.

But then again, considering reality, perhaps this is exactly what the show should be doing?

Designated Survivor Season 1 Episode 21 “Brace for Impact” is a feel-good story all around: The good guys win (mostly, because we have to set up next season, of course) and stay alive, families are reunited and no one tries to kill the President.

And yet, though the episode is leagues better than the last few episodes have been, it all feels a tad anticlimactic, not because of the win, no, but because of the messy, complicated and frankly unbelievable villains behind the whole thing.

What did Patrick Lloyd really want? We presumably know, but the whole Pax America business is too generic, too superficial to really concern us. Same goes for all of our “bad guys,” from our White House spy to Lozano, to the mastermind behind it all, Mr. Lloyd.

Does this affect the enjoyment of the season as whole? Well, it certainly doesn’t enhance it, and there’s a feeling, as we see the black screen that signals the end of Season 1, of lost opportunity.

Was this a bad Season 1? Certainly not. Could it have been much better? Yes.

In a way, it’s easy to understand why it all happens the way it happens, and that’s precisely the problem. Despite the fact that this show started with a massive act of terrorism, the last few episodes of the season practically eliminated the stakes.

We didn’t believe anything bad was going to happen to the people we cared about the most.

And it didn’t – not really. We lost Jason, yes, but the storyline took him to a relative dead-end before we lost him, and that made his death feel both expected and warranted.

Who else did we lose that we really and truly cared about? No one.

What problem was Tom Kirkman faced with that he couldn’t solve or at least prevent from turning into a catastrophe? Yeah, I can’t think of one either.

Despite these issues, however, Designated Survivor continued to be interesting because the characters were interesting, because we connected with them, and because we wanted to learn more about them.

In Season 2, however, if the show doesn’t raise the stakes, we’re bound to reach a point of saturation. We don’t need to suffer every minute of every episode, no, but we do need to maintain a healthy level of fear.

Be it for the political aspect or the conspiracy one.

Will I be turning in to see if the show can go from a good show with hints of brilliance to what it can be – what it showed flashes of in the beginning – the best political show on TV? You bet I will.

Let’s just hope I get to see the show that led up to the midseason finale, and not the show that ended the season with a whimper instead of a bang.

Other things to note:

• Hannah Wells is a badass, and she won’t be saved by any man, okay?
• Aaron, I love you. Not your hair gel, though.
• Let’s be for real here – shouldn’t you have asked Aaron for his help trying to identify the mole A LONG TIME AGO?
• Not that his help was of any use, but whatever.
• Why is Abe Leonard waiting for the President alone in the Oval Office?
• Tom Kirkman’s relentless optimism and goodness strikes again, this time, with Leonard.
• I hope Leonard sticks around for Season 2. There are a lot of good stories there.
• Chuck and Hannah sitting on a tree….what? Chuck is the best.
• “Can I get you a …hospital? Or something?”
• Oh, Jason. I’m glad you could do something good before your untimely demise. I’ll miss your relationship with Hannah, but not much else.
• OF COURSE AARON IS BACK. I need my OT3 together!

What did you think of this episode of Designated Survivor? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Designated Survivor airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on ABC.

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