When you want to learn the truth about the present, sometimes you have to go back to the past. With the shocking revelation that his wife is alive, Xavier is apprehensive about believing a word Sinatra says. but, Sinatra reveals that Xavier did not fully see all that happened on the day the world went to hell. Xavier believes that an airstrike hit the area that his wife was in, but Sinatra pulls out a radio communication device revealing that his wife is alive searching for him and their children. Xavier is still hesitant but Sinatra is the only one that knows the real truth about the President’s actions the day the world ended.
The episode jumps back to the day the world ended with news stations reporting about a super volcano erupting under the Antarctic ice sheet, causing a mega-tsunami to spread across the globe. With all the mayhem, Xavier’s main focus is making sure his kids are secure and that his wife, Teri, can get on a plane to his location immediately. Teri is stuck in Atlanta and the only way she can get to safety is to find a way to get to the Air Force base in Georgia to be safely transported to Xavier and her kids. The president and his team gathered in his cabinet to discuss immediate next steps and plans to address the natural disaster. With countries being flooded all across the globe from the tsunami, the President’s cabinet advises President Bradford to keep the nation calm with a scripted press briefing. He initially does the press briefing, but as Cal sees the disaster going on from around the world and close associates who worked for the white house operating as if everything is under control, Cal decides to reverse course and do another press briefing telling the American people the truth about the worldwide catastrophe.
The decision to tell the people the truth about the disaster caused chaos and panic all around the White House. People began to question their safety as they saw the president and his team being transported to the destination of the hidden bunker. Realizing that not everyone can go to the bunker, a riot ensues and people are shot to death to maintain the safety of the president. Xavier and his team get on the helicopter to head to the plane that will transport them to the bunker. They board the plane, but Xavier cannot contact his wife due to the cellular towers being down across the globe. This leads Xavier to the revelation that Cal knew that Teri would not be able to make it out of Atlanta. Cal tells the truth and informs Xavier that he knew 10 days in advance. He tells Xavier to immediately be with his children as they are about to lose their mother.
In a last-ditch effort to provide Xavier closure with his wife, Cal gives him a satellite phone that allows him to call Teri for the little bit of time they thought they had left together. Xavier calls his wife and consoles her while a nuclear airstrike is launched at her location. The remaining members of Congress gather together for another meeting to discuss other countries’ plans of action to protect themselves from further incursions, leading to a potential nuclear war. The congress team advises Cal to launch the nuclear football which would let off all of the U.S. nuclear missiles. Cal is hesitant about this decision and in a one-on-one conversation with Sinatra, reveals a fail-safe mode linked to the nuclear football that nobody knows about but him. The fail-safe mode contained an array of electromagnetic pulses that would fry every electrical circuit on earth, pushing the globe back 500 years, but Cal believed it would give people a chance at life. Sinatra advises against it and believes the people headed to the bunker are Earth’s only hope at life. but Cal goes against her wishes and launches the fail-safe mode.
Sinatra confirmed the truth about Cal’s choice to go with the fail-safe mode, revealing Xavier’s wife is indeed alive. Sinatra also reveals that the DNA at Cal’s crime scene did not match anybody in the bunker, so someone from the outside was able to infiltrate the bunker to take him out. With these revelations coming out, Sinatra reveals her contingency plan. She’s captured Presley, and the only way that Xavier can see his wife and daughter again is by removing the messages from the sky and returning all the weapons to her.
This was by far and away the best episode of this entire series up to this point. This was also one of the best episodes of any tv series of all time. Such an emotionally engaging episode that perfectly illustrates the true horror and disaster of the day the mega-tsunami hit the earth. James Marsden and Sterling K. Brown both give the best performances of their careers in this episode. This was a truly heartbreaking episode to witness as it does not hold back the true horror of the disaster that led people to the underground bunker. You are emotionally invested in Xavier and Cal as they are in two different positions in this catastrophe. You see how it affects them and the characters around them. A truly breathtaking episode that leaves you speechless by the time it ends.
Rating: 10/10