'Designated Survivor' Season 2, Episode 3 'Outbreak' Recap: Viral Pandemics, Racism and Shady Dealings [SPOILERS]

This week’s latest episode of ABC’s “Designated Survivor,” packed all the heat when it comes to portraying real-life and current political and social situations. “Outbreak,” showcases President Tom Kirkman’s (Kiefer Sutherland) impressive leadership capabilities while working through a viral pandemic. In the face of the imminent threat, Kirkman never failed to rise above the occasion. White House newbie Kendra Daynes (Zoe McLellan) undergoes tremendous amounts of stress on her first day as White House Counsel. Meanwhile, Hannah Wells (Maggie Q), Damian Rennett (Ben Lawson), and Chuck Russink (Jake Epstein) discover evidence that proves to be pivotal to the first family’s integrity.
Apart from that, the episode also laser-focused its narrative on racism and whitewashing, something that is timely and a topic commonly addressed in political TV shows. Patrick Lloyd’s wrongdoing is still tackled, but the show focused more on its social themes.

Racism and the viral pandemic

We start “Designated Survivor: Outbreak” with a virus that manifests in Louisiana. President Kirkman is alerted by the FDA and says that it could spread to the entire country if not successfully contained. The entire state is then moved to quarantine. Kirkman tries his best to figure out a way to put a stop to it and seeks help from pharmaceutical CEO Carlton Mackey. He agrees to supply 10,000 units of the vaccine that could cure people with the virus. However, a new buyer steps in and gets all the units for themselves, and it turns out that the buyer is one of the rich folks of Louisiana. Kirkman is furious and states that this is an act of racism because most of the people without a cure are minorities. Kirkman has Kendra file a court complaint against Mackey’s company. Eventually, the judge sides with Kirkman and forces Mackey to surrender the vaccine to the Federal government.
Just when things seem to be working just fine, Kirman finds out from Dr. Tammy Bruner (Alicia Coppola) of the CDC that the vaccine wasn’t enough to cure everyone who’s infected. Bruner also says that Mackey has more units with him because it’s not logical for a big pharmaceutical company to only shell out 10,000 units for such a powerful drug. Kirkman confronts Mackey about it and says that he will do everything in his power to make sure that all the citizens of Louisiana will all have a fair distribution of the vaccine. Mackey refuses, saying that it would cause his company to go bankrupt. He tells Kirkman that the government should pay him for the drugs that he’d manufacture.

Meanwhile, Kendra is assigned to a moderation session about the removal of a statue was both a historical figure and a slave driver. There are three opposing parties, with one against moving the statue and one for its relocation. Reverend Tramer Dale (Ron Canada) stand in the middle ground. With him not taking a side but also against relocating the statue. They all erupt in vicious arguments and shouting matches, to which Kendra handles badly. She leaves the room multiple times because of how stressful and toxic the environment is. She figures out that working in the White House isn’t a fun and chill job. It’s always an uphill battle, and it would always seem like they’re all there to put out fires that somebody else started.
She tries to come up with deals that would benefit both parties, but Reverend Dale wouldn’t budge. Reverend Dale argues that the state’s history shouldn’t be removed and that he wants it to stay as a reminder of the injustice that was done to the minorities.
Kendra then asks for Lyor Boone (Paulo Constanzo), Kirkman’s political advisor who’s a bit straightforward and lacks prudence. Lyor comes in to talk to the arguing parties and says all they want is to profit from this dispute. He points out that the progressives, traditionalists and even the Reverend himself just wants some kind of a benefit of wherever the dispute leads. This makes all of them angry at Lyon, which is what Kendra actually wanted. Finally, she is able to convince the Reverend to agree in moving it somewhere with less traffic. It’s a compromise, but it worked.
As soon as the dispute on the statue is done, Kirkman thanks Reverend Dale and asks for a favor. Since the Reverend is a well-known civil rights activist, he goes to the media to speak out against Mackey, calling him a capitalist and racist who only cares about appeasing the rich and ignores the needs of the minorities, especially at a time like this. Mackey sees this and is shocked because it could ruin his reputation. In the end, he agrees to supply the remaining 30,000 units of the vaccine. Kirkman then holds a White House lawn press conference and publicly thanks Mackey for what he did, therefore restoring his reputation while getting what he also needed for Louisiana.

This victory for Kirkman further solidifies his noble desires for his country as the President. It’s clear that he doesn’t care about making an image or even taking credit for whatever he did. All he wants is to do what’s best and what’s right for his country.

The Patrick Lloyd investigations lead to more questions and a shocking revelation

Last week, Kirkman’s mother-in-law Eva (Bonnie Bedelia) was almost a victim of Patrick Lloyd. He ransacked her house and left a crucial piece of evidence for Hannah and Damian to find. What they both discover is a document that details Eva’s husband’s heart transplant. Hannah is puzzled and doesn’t know what it had to do with Lloyd’s bombing of the Capitol.
Chuck traces the document that Lloyd was uploading before he was killed in the airstrike. It turns out to be another document about the heart transplant. Hannah and Damian then proceed to a warehouse where Chuck believes that Lloyd may have been before he hid in the bunker. As they investigate, Hannah accidentally activates a bomb that went off. They are then accused of trespassing, with Damian being caught on camera. This leads to his termination as part of the investigation and was sent back to London.
Hannah and Chuck investigate on their own. Later, they find out that Eva was bribed back in her days as Secretary for the Defense Department. She gave out classified information to a certain bidder in exchange for her husband being bumped up to the transplant recipient list. When Hannah and Chuck set out to talk to the hospital chief who authorized the heart transplant, they find him dead in his office. So far, it’s unclear what Lloyd wanted from this, but it’s definitely something that could put a bad mark on Kirkman’s reputation as President of the United States.

‘Designated Survivor: Outbreak’ Overall Verdict

Most of the episodes for “Designated Survivor” focused on the conspiracy surrounding the bombing of the Capitol. With Patrick Lloyd dead, it’s kind of hard to find out the extent of his reach inside the White House. This episode strays a bit far from that narrative, and instead focused on current issues that are defining the state of American politics right now. The racism plot of the show is a welcome change of pace, and I can;t wait to see more narratives like this in the coming episodes of the show. I always wondered how it would look like if the series didn’t focus on the bombing for once, and what I got on tonight’s episode is actually a fresh take on an upwards-going TV show.
“Designated Survivor” continues next week with “Equilibrium,” Wednesday, October 18 at 10 PM on ABC.