Designated Survivor Recap 1. Season 1 Episode 8 . On tonight’s Designated Survivor season 1 episode 8, Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) deals with fallout from a leaked report of Majid Nassar’s death. Did you watch last week’s Designated Survivor where President Kirkman negotiated a hostage exchange involving the CIA, the Russian government, and an American track- and- field coach? Meanwhile, news has leaked about Majid Nassar’s death, and Kirkman has to handle the fallout.”So make sure to come back to this spot between 1. PM – 1. 1PM ET for our Designated Survivor recap. An army man tapes the procedure. His body is loaded into a helicopter that takes off. Seth tells the press corps about the elections for the House of the Representatives and says please get out and vote. Seth is asked about a flu breakout and then one guy asks if Nassar is dead. Chaos breaks out in the press room. Aaron was listening and Emily comes in too. The reporter says a source at an airbase told him he was dead. Seth has no choice but to confirm but denies any talk of torture. Aaron and Emily run in panicking and Kirkman says he and Seth talked about this. Aaron says they have to address this. He says Atwood will be there soon to talk. Hannah looks at photos of the suspect and a guy comes in asking about Atwood but then he shows up. Kimble is angry. Hannah heads to his office and asks if Luke is okay. He lies and says he was just at a friend’s house. He denies there being anything to it. Hannah says she’s there for him. Katy Perry Dishes on Taylor Swift Drama during Carpool Karaoke This feud is literally never going away; The Bachelorette Season Premiere.She sees two phones on his desk and one buzzes. He asks for privacy and she leaves. Atwood says look into the Wettle case. She asks why but he won’t say. The blackmailer calls and says to wait in your office and Luke will be okay. He’s terrified. Hannah asks Tom to get her stuff on the Wettle case so she can keep on task. Kimble asks why she wasn’t told about Nassar and he says it’s being investigated but they don’t know what happened. Starring 2016 Emmy® Nominated actress Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin. Subscribe to the Homeland YouTube channel: http. Designated Survivor Recap – Time Will Save You: Season 1 Episode 2 “The First Day” Designated Survivor Recap 11/9/16: Season 1 Episode. Check out the previous Homeland recap here. Dar Adal has been so blatantly evil this season on Homeland, he might as well cackle and pet. Chicago Med Premiere LIVE Recap: Season 2 Episode 1 “Soul Care” Chicago Med Recap 9/29/17: Season 2 Episode 2 “Win Loss” Chicago Med. Check out the previous Homeland recap here. Quinn had me worried after the first couple episodes of Homeland The official site of the SHOWTIME Original Series Homeland. Find out about new episodes, watch previews, go behind the scenes and more. He says it’s bad and he knows it but they need to focus on the elections and rebuilding the company. Crisis after crisis. Kimble agrees to help get the Congress seated then she leaves. Other Notes Eerily echoing real world US politics, series six of cult thriller Homeland continues to veer between chaos and paranoia. In the eye of the maelstrom is excitable spy. We’re barely over the halfway mark for this season, and things are already starting to pay off in explosive new ways. Aaron comes in and says it’s an emergency. He has someone from the CDC with him – there’s a synthetic toxin that’s been released. It’s an act of bioterrorism. A group updates Kirkman on the Kansas City victim and they don’t seem to be related. Homeland Secuirty is working on her and Emily wonders if it’s Al Sakar seeking retribution for Nassar’s death. Mike walks Leo into school and a reporter accosts Leo and says Kirkman isn’t his father. Mike has the guy hauled away. Mike says crazy stuff happens and advises him to ignore the rumors. Leo goes into school. Atwood gets another school and is told to go to his car. He demands proof of life. She hands Luke the phone. He says hi to his dad. Hannah stalks her boss. Atwood is sent to an old abandoned factory and Hannah follows at a distance. He goes inside and she creeps up to follow. Atwood gets onto an elevator and Hannah takes the stairs to the roof. She looks down on him talking and pulls out a camera. The woman hands Atwood a paper and says do this when you meet with Kirkman. She says he has an hour and his son will be safe at home – or not. Atwood says they won’t get away with it but she walks off. Someone spots Hannah on the roof through a scope. It’s a guy in a car. Kirkman talks to his wife about the ricin attack. Leo comes home – he skipped school. He asks if he’s his real father. He says a reporter asked him at school. Kirkman asks him to sit but Leo won’t and asks why a reporter said that. Alex tries to calm him down. Voter ricin. Leo asks if they know who’s kid he is. He storms out. Alex says give him a second. Kirkman gets a call about the ricin and they found the link. They are all poll workers and the ricin was put on voting machines. Kirkman says it’s an attack on the election. Kirkman meets with his team and they worry if all the machines can be vetted. Kirkman wants to find a way to save the election. Aaron says they need to try. PTOSU agrees. He says to put together a joint task force and mobilize them immediately. He says to keep it out of the press. Kirkman tells Seth about the reporter confronting Leo. Seth says he’ll find out what happened. Hannah runs out of the warehouse and sees Atwood’s car is gone. Her phone rings and it’s Tom. He says the Wettle case was closed eight years ago. Atwood at the White House. He says a drug cartel kidnapped someone’s kid to get off at trial. Atwood was leaving her a bread crumb. Tom helps Hannah track Atwood and they realize he’s headed to the White House. Hannah takes off to try and intercept him. Ricin has made the news and Seth talks to the lady reporter about the Leo story. She says she killed it but that doesn’t mean someone else looked into it. Seth says Jared works for her paper and he walks away annoyed. Hannah pulls up at the White House after Atwood but they won’t let her in. Hannah calls Atwood and leaves a voice mail telling him she looked into the Wettle case and can help him. He doesn’t listen to it and heads in to talk to Kirkman. Atwood arrested. Kirkman asks for answers about Nassar. He says the guy was poisoned and he did it. Kirkman asks what is he saying. Atwood confesses again. Kirkman asks why would he do it. He says he knew they wouldn’t get anything from him so he did it for his country and family. He said his son shouldn’t have to live in a world with that kind of evil. He says he acted alone. He tells Kirkman to press the button and he kneels. Secret Service comes in and surrounds him with guns drawn. They hustle Kirkman out and then arrest Atwood. POTUS meets with Aaron and Emily and the toxicology screen supports his confession. Kirkman says it doesn’t make sense. He says to reach out to Atwood’s colleagues and then he’s told Walter Lynch is the ricin poison suspect and has been arrested. More bad news. They found ricin and a list of polls in his house and he posted anti- government messages on social media. Aaron wants to go public but then he’s told he’s part of the Liberty Defenders and other members of the group might have poisoned other machines. POTUS gets another update that one of the poll workers just died from the toxin. Seth brings Jared to the White House who’s excited to be there. Seth says he will be banned for life if he ever sandbags the President’s son again. Jared says Lisa gave him the tip and told him to run with it. Seth kicks him out. Hannah can’t find a match for the woman’s photo. Hannah gets a call from Aaron and he asks her to come to the White House on urgent business about Nassar’s death. Big results. Aaron, Emily and Seth come see POTUS to decide about the election. Seth says they have to have the election. Kirkman says only one person can poison a station and infect thousands. POTUS wants to have a press conference and Aaron says an election has never been canceled. Alex comes in and says she has the paternity test results but Leo wants to talk to him alone. She says she didn’t look at it and hands him the envelope. Kirkman says he’s afraid he’s going to lose his son. She hugs him. He goes to see his son. Kirkman says he doesn’t need to open it because he’s his son from the day he was born and that doesn’t change anything for him. He tells Leo he’ll always be his father and never mentioned it because it didn’t matter to him but it might matter to him so he’s sorry. Test results. Kirkman slides the envelope over to him and says open it or don’t and I respect your choice but I love you. Leo says he has homework to do. Kirkman listens to the news about the woman that died. Her daughter is speaking and says her mother wanted to help the elections. He sees a photo of her and then Seth tries to calm the press that has been waiting. Kirkman shows up 4. He greets the press and says law enforcement is working on it but many Americans are still scared. He says one poll worker lost her life. He says many poll workers were scared and didn’t show up, but she did. Kirkman says he just spoke to her daughter and says her mother would not have let fear stop her from carrying out her civic duty. He says he’s been advised to cancel but she inspired him. POTUS comes clean. He says the elections will go forward as planned and he will vote tomorrow as well. He says we owe it to Mindy and others that gave their life to protect their democracy. He says we can’t and won’t live in fear. Kirkman tells Kimble about Atwood’s confession. Mac. Leish is there too. POTUS says they’re checking into Atwood’s confession. Kimble says the new Congress can investigate but Mac. Leish says that’s not a good idea. Kirkman disagrees. Lisa greets Seth and he confronts her about lying. Lisa says she didn’t run with the story and says it’s news. She says she likes him but she won’t choose him over the truth. Hannah gets a text from an unknown number that says tell Mr Shore nothing. She sits down with Aaron and he tells her about Atwood’s confession. Leo thinks about the results. Hannah says that’s not possible. Hannah is visibly upset and Aaron asks to help them understand why he murdered Nassar. She asks to see Atwood but is told no. Tom traces the text that she got. He has someone hacking it for him. He gives her a phone number. Leo talks to Mike and worries about his dad voting at the polls tomorrow. Mike tells him his dad called him every day to check on him after he joined the Secret Service. Leo says he knows what he’s doing but Mike says his dad made him who he is today. Mike says he didn’t know him until he was three and his mom married him. He says he never met his bio- dad. He says those tests don’t tell you who your dad is, just biology. Leo looks at the envelope and considers it. Election day. It’s election day and Kirkman is ready. He and Alex head to the polls talking about Leo. Neither knows if he opened the test results. Kirkman says when he took the oath of office the only thing he was scared of was what it might do to the family. Alex says their new house can’t hold any secrets. They pull up at the poll. It has everything that “Homeland” does best — capers, cat- and- mouse chases, the formation of unholy alliances, snappy banter about ideological dilemmas, whiplash- inducing plot twists, and a surfeit of grim- face Saul and quiver- face Carrie. By the end, the bell tolls for a well- loved character. And there’s a touch of “Flash Gordon” in the closing seconds that is forgivable because everything else that comes before is riveting.“Alt. Truth” is sharply written by Patrick Harbinson, razor- sharply directed by Lesli Linka Glatter, and grounded by incredible work (as usual) from stars Claire Danes (Carrie Mathison), Mandy Patinkin (Saul Berenson) and Rupert Friend (Peter Quinn). The look and feel of each sequence changes markedly depending on the primary character. Nothing is more unsettling than the world view of Peter Quinn, who is so far gone in his mentally challenged paranoia that he gut- punches his former lover Astrid, the German agent who crosses the Atlantic to help him out when summoned by CIA honcho Dar Adal. Adal’s motivations are anything but benevolent, but Astrid doesn’t know that. Quinn doesn’t know much, but he knows enough to suspect Adal is up to no good, and thus he suspects Astrid is, too. The fact that Astrid winds up dying trying to protect Quinn from a sniper attack — most likely ordered by Adal — is another great big hunk of professional guilt that Quinn is going to have to work out some day. Nina Hoss is so good in the role as Astrid that she makes you realize she was hurt more by Quinn’s angry declaration that “we f——d each other because we were lonely — that doesn’t make us friends” than by the connection of his fist with her stomach. Quinn warned Astrid — and viewers — that he was unpredictable early in the episode in a sequence with dizzying hand- held camera work that telegraphed his unstable sense of being.“My dreams have a realness, and my realness,” he tells Astrid, who prompts him with the right word, “my reality has a dreamnesss. Truth is annihilated more than once in parallel storylines converging around President- elect Elizabeth Keane. The episode opens with a return visit from ultra right- wing firebrand Brett O’Keefe, played to unctuous perfection by Jake Weber. O’Keefe is masterminding a plan to smear the character of Keane’s dead son Andrew — and his mother by association — by branding him a coward during his military service in Iraq. It’s a page from the shameful 2. Swift Boating campaign waged against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. O’Keefe brings former soldiers under Andrew Keane’s command to his TV studio to tell a selective tale of Keane’s actions on the battlefield, complete with carefully edited video footage. After all, this was “the You. Tube war,” as O’Keefe tells Adal when he shows him his handiwork. O’Keefe’s zeal to tear down the President- elect at all costs — even when the footage clearly shows Andrew running to help save some of his wounded men — is chilling. And it’s all too timely for our real- life moment when partisan vitriol among liberals and conservatives has reached incendiary heights, whether in the extreme sentiments expressed on some signs at anti- Trump rallies or by the Internet- driven ravings of Alex Jones types. Sounds all too familiar. The assembling of the segment that diet Coke junkie O’Keefe so proudly plays for Adal runs the length of “Alt. Truth,” making it a time bomb that seems likely to go off in next week’s episode. Even Adal seems to flinch when O’Keefe proudly tells him his planned tagline for the segment: “Cowardice — it runs in the family.” Without saying as much, this plot thread underscores how much political perceptions can be manipulated by what we now call “fake news.” The surname choice of O’Keefe for the character hardly seems accidental. In the real world of partisan propaganda wars, self- styled conservative activist James O’Keefe has been unleashing sting videos for years, most recently last month with his Wikileaks- esque release of hours of audio recordings from inside CNN years ago. Like Lennon and Mc. Cartney, Jagger and Richards, Garcia and Weir or Gallagher and Gallagher, these two were simply meant to work together. When they finally compare notes on the strange coincidences surrounding Carrie’s life and the roadblocks to Saul’s investigation of Iran’s nuclear ambitions (or lack thereof), the runway is set for them to kick some institutional ass in the remaining four episodes of the season.“You should’ve come to me,” Saul says, with a pained look, after learning Carrie’s side of the story so far. Saul is sympathetic but still single- minded in his goal of getting his one- time double agent, Iranian Major General Majid Javadi, in front of the President- elect Keane. On some level it’s clear Saul also knows that the one thing that can lift Carrie out of her puddle of depression is a clearly defined mission. He sees his opening when Carrie expresses her desire to see for herself that Franny is safe. Saul still has the connections to help. As Saul and Carrie sit in the car outside the foster home where Franny is running around, neither of them have to state the obvious: at this point in Carrie’s ever- tortured life, the kid is probably better off.“I swore to myself it would be different here,” Carrie tearfully tells Saul. Ouch again. Saul and Carrie are determined to have Javadi assure Keane that Iran is not pushing a deal- defying covert nuclear program. But Javadi destroys Saul and Carrie’s credibility by changing his story once he’s in front of Keane, telling her to “watch your back” where his country is concerned. Javadi turns traitor on Saul because he realizes how far out of the CIA power loop his old friend is. Why else would Saul have to enlist Carrie, who doesn’t even work for the agency anymore, to arrange the meeting with Keane? Saul can’t even find a safe house for Javadi to cool his heels while he waits for the U. S. He has to suffer the indignity of bedding down in a homeless shelter in Manhattan’s Chinatown. When the time comes for Javadi’s covert rendezvous, he’s whisked away not in a standard- issue black SUV but Carrie’s dark- blue Volvo. The car sequence between Carrie and Javadi, played by Shaun Toub, is fantastic.“You?,” he says, leaning his head in the window. Get in.”Javadi pushes every button in Carrie’s worn- out body by going so far as to tell her that he found a nice final resting place for Brody in an Iranian cemetery for martyrs — this after Carrie obliquely references his sacrifice for the cause of getting the Iranian nuclear deal done. Javadi promises to draw her a map — as if she’ll be making a pleasure trip to Tehran soon. He also signals his coming betrayal with one of the many great lines in this script.“I’m worried about him,” Javadi tells Carrie, referring to Saul’s waning clout with the home office. It’s a very painful moment when we realize we no longer make the weather.” Ouch. Back in the zone of Quinn, the final sniper attack sequence in the upstate New York hideout home that leaves Astrid dead is made more intense by the scream that Quinn lets out when he sees her fall. The burly guy who had been watching Carrie’s Brooklyn townhouse has hunted down Quinn — proving that while he is definitely paranoid, it’s not without reason. On the run, Quinn falls into the lake after taking a second shot, or at least grazing, from Burly Guy’s high- powered guns. He manages to stay underwater and dodge a half- dozen more bullets shot into the lake until Burly Guy takes off. Yes, that’s a stretch, but by this time, Quinn has earned his reprieve, and so has the audience. My jaw was clenched for most of the hour. Stray thoughts: Got a chuckle out of seeing “Showtime” as a selling point on the marquee of the roadside motel where Quinn whacks the wrong guy over the head with a tire iron. The conk on the head that Saul suffers when Javadi pushes him away after the debacle with Keane seems likely to come back to haunt Saul’s prodigious brain. Actor Chris Coy, who played soldier Rudy, was good in the brief role that may well grow as the season winds down. Loved him in HBO’s “Treme,” too. Brief but wonderful Saul moment: “Who are you, again?” he says to Max after barging in to Carrie’s apartment. Once a demanding boss, always a demanding (but not uncaring) boss. In truth, that all seems like standard operating procedure for ex- CIA staffers. Maybe he’s doubly freaked out because Ekley’s home address is listed as Buffalo, N. Y. But in all reality, Quinn should give the Queen City a shot. Buffalo’s been on the upswing of late and really has its charms. POPULAR ON VARIETY.
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