In the next episode of "Designated Survivor," President Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) deals with the death of his wife Alex (Natascha McElhone).
The trailer for the upcoming installment, which has yet to be titled, was released just recently, and it shows Kirkman telling his daughter Penny (McKenna Grace) about the fateful news of her mom. "There has been a terrible accident," he says to her woefully. Apparently, Alex was involved in a car collision when a truck rammed into her car as she was crossing a road junction. She died instantly on the spot.
Prior to the incident, Alex had just won a court case against her and came out innocent. She was accused of getting bribes from a nefarious group, which later turned out to be unsubstantiated. Now, Kirkman has to handle the death of his wife while leading the free world, which is a monumental task even for someone who had survived an assassination conspiracy. It appears now that the president is gun-shy when it comes to making important decisions for the US and the world.
In a recent interview with TVLine, showrunner Keith Eisner shared regarding the death of Alex, "Natascha had this great opportunity on a cable show that she really wanted to do and which was going to limit her availability. It posed a question for us: Do we figure out a way to temporarily absent her from the show? Or not even absent her but have her involved on a lesser basis?"
He further added, "And what occurred to us is we had an opportunity here to do something that TV hasn't done before, which is show a president who is a widower in office."
"Designated Survivor" season 2 episode 11 will hit the airwaves on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, at 10 p.m. EST on ABC.
