'Designated Survivor' Season 2, Episode 6 'Two Ships' Recap: A Clever Attempt at Strongarming the US [SPOILERS]

ABC’s “Designated Survivor” is taking to high seas for tonight’s political dilemma. President Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) is faced with another world-changing predicament between the fictional coast of Kunami in the Persian Gulf and the U.S. Navy. The USS Verona encounters some kind of natural “accident” as it crashes on the coast of Kunami due to a “storm.” As Kirkman negotiates with the Ambassador of Kunami to get the warship out and save its crew, the Ambassador refuses and calls the USS Verona’s presence as an act of war. Meanwhile, the investigation into Charlotte Thorne’s death intensifies as another casualty from the British Embassy is on the brink of death.

The USS Verona

The episode begins with the Verona cruising along the Persian Gulf, a few miles off the coast of Kunami. All seems to be fine when the ship shakes suddenly. The entire crew is taken out, with a few of them dying in the process. The next day, the word is sent out to Kirkman by his National Security Advisor Aaron Shore (Adan Canto). According to the logs, the Verona was en route to Bahrain for a joint military exercise when it collided with a garbage ship. Kirkman is puzzled as to why the six-billion-dollar warship managed to crash into a garbage ship.
Kirkman heads over to the command center to assess the damage. Kunami’s cooperation is needed in order for Kirkman to be able to salvage the ship and save its remaining crew members. The only catch? The US isn’t exactly in good terms with the government of Kunami. It would need a forceful hand. To make matters worse, the Verona is loaded with advanced tech and weaponry that the surrounding hostile nations would love to get their hands on—especially Kunami. Emily Rhodes (Italia Ricci), Kirkman’s Chief of Staff briefs Seth Wright (Kal Penn) as to what the press release should be. However, it’s obvious that she has something bothering her, and Seth has yet to put it together.

Kirkman speaks to Lt. Will Griffin (Gues Star Gregory Smith), the highest officer in charge left in the Verona, and asks about the scope of damage. Kirkman calls him Captain and assures him that they will get them out. Later, Kirkman meets with former PotUS turned Secretary of State Cornelius Moss (Geoff Pierson) to handle another situation—the investigation into Charlotte Thorne’s murder.
Aaron then meets with the Ambassador Salimi of Kunami, asking him to allow the US to send more ships to rescue the crew and retrieve the Verona. The Ambassador refuses and tells Aaron that the Emirate of Kunami won’t let another US ship enter their sovereign territory, to which Aaron counters that this refusal will be deemed as a hostile act. Kirkman goes back to ask for an update, and they see a blockade by the Kunami government now approaching the Verona. This complicates matters even more. Kirkman calls Capt. Griffin and informs him that it will take some time before the crew is taken to safety as they take a diplomatic route to get them out. Political Advisor Lyor Boone (Paulo Constanzo) analyzes this move by Kunami with Kirkman. With all the multiple meanings behind the hostility, Aaron asks Secretary Moss’ help in opening a backchannel with the Emir to figure out what his endgame is.

Later, Lyor calls Seth to his office to alert him of a recent development by the Kunami government. Ambassador Salimi held a press conference and tells the media that the Verona was sent by the US to spy on Kunami. Because of this, Salimi is claiming that the Verona is now a property of the Kunami government. It’s become clear that they wanted the ship all along. Kirkman then meets with Admiral Chernow to find out what other capabilities the Verona has. Apparently, the Verona has a state of the art surveillance system and was actually monitoring Kunami’s adherence to the sanctions by the US against their Uranium program. Once the Kunami government gets their hands on the warship, these details will be discovered and will prompt a war between the two countries. Plausible deniability is now off the table. Aaron informs them both that the Saudi Arabian Ambassador has allowed the US to send another ship for the Verona provided that they lift the sanctions—which is unacceptable to Kirkman. Back in the ship, Capt. Griffin tells Kirkman that the ship is sinking fast due to the heavy damage on its hull. With the pressure of doing things diplomatically instead of ordering an airstrike on the Kunami blockade, Kirkman has Aaron and Emily reach out to the Foreign Relations Committee for help.
Aaron and Emily meet with representatives of the Committee and asks if the sanctions could be loosened. They also refuse to do it right away, saying that it has to follow protocol. The only thing they could do was to hurry things up in discussing it with the entire committee. After the meeting, Lyor tells Kirkman that the Committee won’t be able to help them even as they “hurry things up.” Back at the command center, Capt. Griffin informs them that they only 5-6 hours before the Verona sinks. Aaron also informs Kirkman that the Congress wouldn’t allow for loosening the sanctions against Kunami. As they deliberate on what to do, Kirkman notices something and asks for a recreation of the Verona’s collision with the garbage barge. Upon careful study, they find out that the ship rammed the Verona on purpose. They show the findings to Ambassador Salimi, which he denies. This leaves Kirkman with no choice but to deploy a rescue vessel for the remaining crew of the Verona and leave the ship for Kunami to scavenge. He’s playing a game of chance now, and they have yet to find out how the Emir will react once its executed. However, if the Kunami ships engage, Kirkman orders to sink every ship they’ve got.
Back in the command center, the rescue mission is done with all bodies and survivors accounted for. Kirkman waits to see any action escalate and when nothing happens they all erupt in applause. However, Capt. Griffin didn’t go with the rescuers, Kirkman sends the rescue ship back, but Griffin won’t budge. He needs to destroy all logs in the ship before Kunami finds anything of use to them. Kirkman tries to talk him out of it, but Capt. Griffin refuses and signs off permanently—acting as a sacrifice.

Back in the Oval Office, Kirkman prepares to leave and is obviously saddened by what Capt. Griffin had to do. He leaves the office just as Kendra Danes (Zoe McLellan) comes in to give more bad news. However, Mike Ritter (LaMonica Garrett), Kirkman’s head security tells her to put it off for tomorrow since Kirkman had a lot to take in for the day.

Another shocking conspiracy

FBI Agent Hannah Wells (Maggie Q) and MI6’s Damian Rennett (Ben Lawson) meets with Peyton Lane (Cariba Heine), Charlotte Thorne’s aide. and inform her of the recent developments in the murder case. Apparently, Catherine, british arms dealer Darius Cray’s wife, has lawyered up to fend off the allegations that she was the one who had Thorne killed. They tell Peyton that her accounts have been frozen so they could come in and question her.
Catherine gets Hannah and Damian’s attention and arranges for a meeting with her lawyer present. During the meeting, they’re presented by Catherine’s lawyer with a motion to unfreeze Catherine’s assets and a lawsuit for malicious prosecution. But as they try to discuss the details of the case, they are interrupted by Chuck Russink (Jake Epstein) who shows them a ransom video. Peyton was kidnapped and now they are asking for Darius Cray to be extradited to Malaysia. If the demand is not made, Peyton will be killed. This adds more to what they are suspecting Catherine of, to which she also denies.
Hannah and Damian inform Secretary Moss about the kidnapping and tells him that Catherine is responsible for everything. Moss tells them to find Peyton first before the press knows about it and she’s killed. They get back with Chuck and asks him to help in tracking her down. A phone with a number is sent to Hannah and she dials it. The kidnapper reminds them of the time left. She says that they are working on the extradition but have to see proof of life. Another video is sent to them, and Peyton yells out a coded message that contains her location. Chuck decodes the word “Bells,” and leads the two agents to an abandoned apartment complex in Bell Street. There they find Peyton, who’s with two captors. They gun the captors down and save Peyton.
Back in the FBI, Catherine is again interrogated. The last number that the captors called were traced back to Catherine’s location. This solidifies everything that’s being made against her, but still, she denies it. According to Catherine, she needed Thorne so she could take advantage of the fuss that she is making and operate in secret. It also turns out that she owns the weapons business, and Darius was subsequently involved to act as Thorne’s target. This revelation brings Hannah and Damian back to square one.
But another revelation comes to light when Chuck dug deeper into a hotel security footage dated days before Thorne was killed. Apparently, Darius didn’t kill Thorne, but someone went to her hotel room five hours before she was killed. Chuck ran the facial recognition, and it turns out to be Secretary Moss.

Emily’s Daddy issues and more lies from the First Lady’s mother

Elsewhere in the episode, we also see Emily struggle to get through the day after finding out that her estranged father wanted to see her. He slowly warms up to her and is brought to the White House for a tour. But of course, given the situation with Kunami, Emily had to leave her dad repeatedly. But it turns out that her dad only wanted to be in the White House for a promotional gimmick for one of his products, and not to actually see how his daughter does her job. This breaks Emily’s heart. Towards the end of the episode, it is also revealed that she is romantically involved with Seth.

Meanwhile, Kendra Danes does everything in her power to help Eva Booker (Bonnie Bedelia), the First Lady’s mom, fend off the investigation against her. However, it’s revealed that although Eva said that she hasn’t contacted Eric Little in decades, there was a time that he went to her place to give her a bottle of wine. More lies for Eva this time, which in turn stresses out Kendra because this could be used against Eva and the First Lady herself once the FBI finds out.

‘Designated Survivor: Two Ships’ Overall Verdict

Tonight’s sixth episode of “Designated Survivor” goes back to its roots—the conspiracy theory that brought the entire US political structure down in the first place. There are two conspiracies involved here, one being Secretary Moss having something to do with Charlotte Thorne’s murder and what the ramifications could be for Eva Booker. It’s good to finally see this kind of action again, as we’re all still clueless as to how the bombing of the capitol was done and how wide the scope of corruption that took hold of the system. Although I am absolutely sure that somewhere along the way, we will be in for the shock of our lives. We’ll slowly find out the details of this deep-rooted conspiracy against Kirkman’s administration and the United States itself.
“Designated Survivor” continues Wednesday, November 15th with “Family Ties,” 10/9c on ABC.