“Designated Survivor” ended on a shocking twist this week. Vice President Peter MacLeish (Ashley Zukerman) was shot dead by his wife, Beth (Lara Jean Chorostecki), a moment before she pulled the trigger on herself. Although two major players in the conspiracy are now dead, Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) and FBI Agent Hannah Wells (Maggie Q) lost their only lead on the conspiracy in episode 12 of the ABC series.

What will happen next week on “Designated Survivor”?

Even though the conspiracy is still operational, the president and his staff have an immediate problem to deal with: How can they explain to the American people that their vice president and his wife are dead?

READ: Kiefer Sutherland didn’t want to return to TV after “24.”

The promo of the upcoming episode, titled “Backfire,” shows Kirkman trying to salvage the situation. The country is mere hours away from waking up and finding their vice present dead. Once dawn breaks, speculations about the shooting will surely send the White House in a tizzy. However, it isn’t long before the situation gets out of hand.

The official synopsis states that an investigative journalist shocks the world by leaking classified information during a press briefing. Of course, this unforeseen leak leaves Press Secretary Seth Wright (Kal Penn) unable to contain the damage that the leaked story has caused. Quite frankly, Seth struggles to deal with the plethora of reporters.

The president is forced to step in and contain the leak before paranoia takes over the White House and the country. The preview shows Sutherland’s character calling an emergency press conference and giving a speech to his countrymen on TV.

Shockingly, Kirkman is considering telling his Chief of Staff Aaron Shore (Adan Canto) to step down. The former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development doesn’t trust him since he might be involved in the conspiracy that bombed the Capitol and executed an assassination attempt on him.

Sutherland explained the reason to kill off MacLeish to TVGuide. “It was a choice made by the writers that [MacLeish] was just the tip of the iceberg. If he were the end all be all and there was only two other people involved, then they would have had to string that out. But he was really just a [puzzle piece].”

Even though Kirkman doesn’t like lying to the public since he is all about being honest, in this particular situation, he will have to mislead his countrymen. “They actually try to spin the story that there were serious emotional problems with [MacLeish’s] wife and that it was more of a family tragedy than that they were part of this major conspiracy,” Sutherland explained, “because you don’t want everybody else that was involved running for the dark. So, basically he’s put in a position where he really makes a choice to lie to the American people because he believes it’s protecting something greater and bigger and stronger.”

“Designated Survivor” airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on ABC.

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