Designated Survivor Season 3 Finale Plot Summary:
Emily (Italia Ricci) presents President Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) evidence that could cost him the election.
It’s ironic that Season 3 of Designated Survivor ends uncharacteristically strong after starting so weak. Time and again the election has forced President Kirkman to weigh what’s right with what’s best strategically. However, nothing compares to choosing whether or not to reveal evidence exonerating Moss (Geoff Pierson) and incriminating his own campaign. And when it comes down to it, Kirkman chooses to keep quiet, for the good of the country and what he believes Moss deserves.
As I mentioned in my previous review, this show has had a strange journey. The show had to deal with the real life 2016 election, which has drastically changed the political landscape. Yet, in its first two seasons Designated Survivor championed old-fashioned optimism in the face of adversity. Netflix’s Season 3 replaces that optimism with cynicism. For all the moments in this season supposed to be positive, the season ends with most characters feeling like they belong on House of Cards more than Designated Survivor. The final two episodes of this season are particularly depressing.
The premise of Designated Survivor suggested it would depict a world remarkably different from our own, as an unexperienced Independent took the reins of the Presidency and dealt with the domestic and international ramifications of his ascent to power. But even if the show depicted an alternate reality, there was still a need to draw from real life issues in order to come up episode plots and keep the reality recognizable and engaging. Designated Survivor focused on less polarizing issues so not to alienate a large viewer base. It was a surprisingly nonpolitical show for a show about the President, though detractors might have called it toothless. In contrast, Netflix decided to shift the series much farther to the left (despite Kirkman running as a “centrist”), likely concentrating on Millennials. While I’m sure many viewers find Season 3’s use of Moss as a Trump surrogate and his defeat cathartic, I can’t help feeling so closely aligning the show with our own reality betrays its premise. Perhaps Designated Survivor just came out at the wrong time and this was inevitable. How can such a show itself survive without trying to be relevant as possible?
Despite the catharsis Moss’ defeat likely brings some fans, the fact remains that Kirkman chooses to lie to the country, a lie which he believes noble at the time. I’m not sure what that means for the overall message of the season, but it is undoubtedly compelling. And Kirkman confessing to the lie in a therapy season is a clever callback to last season. Through all the turmoil and strife this series has gone through, Kiefer Sutherland’s performance has remained its anchor. While I miss the good guy Tom Kirkman we came to know and love, the culmination of his arc is the most interesting aspect of the season.
So concludes a messy but ambitious season of Designated Survivor. I’m glad to only be giving the finale a rating, because the whole season would be tough. For as much as I’m disappointed with the handling of last’s season’s Emily cliffhanger, for as much as I don’t care about the side characters’ plotlines, and for as jarring as its cynicism has been, this season has had guts from the very beginning. Even though the bio-terror storyline has had the CIA erroneously doing the FBI’s job and the threat itself has bordered on science fiction, Hannah Wells’ (Maggie Q) death remains an utter shock. I applaud the show for not revealing she somehow survived during the finale. It’s hard to tell what next season will bring, if there is one, but President Kirkman will never be the same, that’s for certain.
