Tonight on ABC their new conspiracy thriller Designated Survivor airs with an all-new Wednesday, March 22, 2017, episode and we have your Designated Survivor recap below. On tonight’s Designated Survivor season 1 episode 13 called “Backfire,” as per the ABC synopsis, “An investigative journalist shocks the White House when he reveals classified information during a press briefing and leaves Seth struggling to contain the damage. Meanwhile, Hannah unearths a key connection between MacLeish and the conspiracy.”
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Tonight’s episode of Designated Survivor kicks off with chaos at the White House, President Kirkman is livid when he hears that Beth McLeish killed her husband, the Vice President, and then turned the gun on herself. How did Hannah and the FBI not intercept her?
President Kirkman summons Aaron, Seth, and Emily to the White House in the middle of the night to fill them in on McLeish’s death – and give them a chance to prepare for the media firestorm.
Alex is shocked when she hears about the Vice President’s death and his wife. She’s worried about their kids. Alex wants to know what happened, but of course Tom can’t share the details. She’s noticeably flustered that her husband keeps boxing her out.
President Kirkman holds a press conference, he explains to the room full of reporters that Peter McLeish was shot and killed by Beth, and then she committed suicide. Tom leaves out all of the details of the FBI being there, and says that MacLeish was just visiting a soldier’s gravesite that served with him in Afghanistan. Obviously, the press has a ton of questions, but Tom refuses to give out any more info and excuses himself.
While the staff is dealing with the madness at the White House, Hannah slips away to attend Jason’s son’s funeral. She offers her condolences to a devastated Jason.
Emily and President Kirkman are busy trying to get his meetings together for the day. With the McLeish’s deaths and Tom’s almost assassination, they need to get some stability in Washington before the people begin to lose faith.
Abe Leonard, a well-known reporter who is a big fan of exposing the government, confronts Seth during the press conference. He knows that McLeish gave a “shoot to kill order” on the assassin that tried to kill Tom, rather than let the FBI come in and interrogate him. Seth avoids his questions, after the press conference, he tells Tom that there is a leak in the White House.
Tom orders his staff to find out who is leaking confidential information. But, Aaron already knows who the leak is. He storms in to Hookstraten’s office and confronts her, she admits that she told Abe Leonard. Aaron is livid, he shouts that he told her that in confidence.
Aaron reluctantly heads back to Kirkman’s office and explains that he is the leak, he had no idea that Hookstraten was going to feed the information to the press. Tom tells Aaron that he should take a week off, he’s clearly exhausted and not making smart decisions. Aaron awkwardly leaves, Tom insists he’s not in trouble, but that doesn’t seem to be the truth.
Tom calls Emily in to his office and explains that he sent Aaron home for the week, he wants her to step in as his Chief of Staff until Aaron comes back. Emily agrees, and then has an uncomfortable chat with Aaron as he tells her everything she will need to know to do his job.
Meanwhile, Seth is working on a project of his own. Abe Leonard is moving forward with the story about Peter McLeish’s “Shoot to Kill” order, and the conspiracy to kill the assassin rather than question him and find out who he was working for. Seth is determined to discredit Abe Leonard, and remind the public of how many times the reporter has been wrong in the past. Hopefully, his readers will think that he is wrong again about this story.
Hannah is determined to get to the bottom of who McLeish was working for, and why he wanted the President dead. Obviously, that’s a little difficult with Peter and Beth dead, but she still has one piece to the puzzle. She sits down with Joyner, the man that served in Afghanistan with Peter, in the interrogation room to try and get some answers.
Tom finally gets a break from work to chat with Alex, and she blindsides him and reveals that she has decided to take the kids away from the White House. She thinks it is too dangerous to have their family there with everything that has been going on. Tom begs her to reconsider, but before they can talk any more Mike interrupts, they need the President for another urgent matter.
Hannah sits down with the President and explains to him what she learned from Joyner.Apparently, in Afghanistan, McLeish and his troop were ordered to escort an Army Major to meet with an Afghan war lord. The Major was none other than Lozano, the man that tried to assassinate Tom. The meeting went South, the warlord took Lozano’s’money, and a shoot-out ensued – the soldiers wound up killing innocent women and children trying to get out of the compound.
Joyner ran into Lozano later, and he pulled a gun on him and demanded to know what had happened and why he took the troop to meet with the warlord. Apparently, Lozano told Joyner that he’s an undercover CIA agent, and the bags were filled with $5 Million in cash. Joyner and the rest of the troop wanted to kill Lozano for what happened, but McLeish jumped in and saved his life.
Hannah thinks that the failed mission might be what radicalized McLeish. He and his risked their lives, and lost some soldiers doing what they were ordered, and in the end they looked like the bad guys and their sacrifices weren’t even acknowledged.
The next day, Tom takes his daughter Penny to school. He watches the motorcade of black SUV’s pull up to her school, and all of the secret service men escort her inside. He realizes that Alex was right, this is no way to raise a child. He heads back to the White House and tells Alex that he understands why she wants to take the children out of Washington.
Hannah stops by Jason’s house to check on him – he’s sleeping on the couch and doesn’t look like he’s gotten up in days. Jason explains that he was fired, he lost his son, and now his wife left him. Hannah tries to convince Jason to help her find Luke’s killer – he’s not interested in what she has to say and tells her to get out.
Abe Leonard stops by the White House to confront Seth – he knows that he planted stories in the news to discredit him. Abe taunts Seth and tells him that he just confirmed the story was right, or else he wouldn’t have been trying so hard to make him look wrong.
After Abe leaves the white house, he stops by the bar to harass Kimble. He laughs that the smear campaign isn’t going to stop him. Kimble warns him that he might not want to underestimate Seth. Abe isn’t interested, he vows to prove that there is a connection between McLeish and the shooter that almost killed the President.
That night, Alex and the kids fly out of Washington. Tom puts them on the plane and they share an emotional goodbye.
Tonight’s episode of Designated Survivor ends with President Tom Kirkman holding a press conference – he says that he wants to be honest and open with the people. He confirms Abe Leonard’s story and that Peter McLeish did send out a shoot to kill order when the FBI was bringing in the assassin. He goes on to apologize to the American people, and reminds them that they must stay united.
Aaron is heading up to his apartment in the dark, and a man in a hat approaches him – it’s Charles Langdon. Hannah and the FBI are watching their meeting on surveillance footage.
THE END!