Designated Survivor Review: Grief (Season 2 Episode 11)
On Designated Survivor Season 2 Episode 11, “Grief,” Kirkman isn’t handling Alex’s death well, or at all, actually. His therapy session with Dr. Adam Louden aka Danny from The West Wing does an excellent job at filling in the gaps from Alex’s death 10 weeks ago and today.
The session also makes Alex’s death a lot more emotional, which is an improvement from Designated Survivor Season 2 Episode 10. Nothing is absolutely sob-worthy, but watching Kirkman tell Penny does hit you right in the heart.
This helps make what should be a heart-wrenching death a lot more impactful and meaningful. It would have been great if the session took up more of the hour — we could have cut out the Emily and Seth scenes because that ship still feels like it came out of nowhere.
However, the session does great damage control, and Designated Survivor needs to keep it up. After a disappointing first half of the season, we need to be reminded as to why we fell in love with this show in the first place.
The hostage situation also works well to highlight how Kirkman has struggled as President since Alex’s death. The situation calls for immediate action, and Kirkman drags his feet a little bit. We see the severity of Kirkman’s indecision, and it’s risking the lives of people we care about.
However, the focus isn’t on the fact that Aaron and Hannah are among the captives. It’s not made into a huge deal, which is a relief because we all know that they weren’t going to die.
There’s nothing worse than a show harping on the risk of death of main characters that you know are a 100% going to make it through the situation just fine. It’s unnecessary drama, and thankfully, Designated Survivor avoids that.
The highlight of the hostage situation is definitely Aaron and Hannah. Their dynamic is amazing, and it’s nice to see the two of them out in the field together. Maybe next time they could not get kidnapped though…just a thought.
Aaron shows off how well he acts in a life or death situation, Hannah reminds us that she’s still a badass, and Emily manages to pick up on Hannah’s signal when no one else in the room does. Dream team.
The hour has to end with Damian popping back up. It’s hard to get excited about this.
The only thing we can do is hope that he sets the record straight, and there’s no more debate as to whether or not he’s innocent. We need to know for sure with zero doubts because the roller coaster ride got old ages ago.
He’s pretty brazen to show up in Hannah’s apartment. Hopefully, she gives him a solid punch to the face.
The surprising levity of the hour comes from Lyor’s new assistant, Tricia.
Instantly, she’s likable. You want her to win Lyor over and get the job.
Things get even better when Lyor decides to have a bit of fun with her. The best part is that he gets Emily to play along. Not seeing Lyor’s conversation with Emily about the prank makes the whole thing even funnier.
Emily and Lyor have grown close since he started working for Kirkman, and it’s good to know that even though they are handling grief and a thousand and one crises a day, they still make time to discuss pranking the newbie.
Tricia seems to be a good addition to the team. Hopefully, she’s paid well because you’d have to be to put up with working for Lyor. I’m thinking there’s going to be a lot of hilarity in our future (not Tricia’s though…Lyor is probably going to put her through hell).
What did you think of this episode of Designated Survivor? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
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Designated Survivor airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on ABC.
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).