Natascha McElhone leaving Designated Survivor, Alex Kirkman role; why?

Is Natascha McElhone leaving Designated Survivor? If you’ve been following much of the reports that are out there in the press as of late, you know the answer to that question already. McElhone is departing the ABC series in order to star in a new Hulu project from House of Cards alum Beau Willimon. If you want to read some more news on that subject, you can do that just by heading over to the CarterMatt link here. We have all the scoop for you!

However, there was still a big question on everyone’s minds: How was the series going to write out this character? With Wednesday night’s episode being the winter finale, there were many teases out there suggesting that this was going to be the episode that changed the Kirkman family forever. It was therefore pretty easy to figure out that this was going to be the episode that featured something happening to Alex Kirkman. Maybe the First Lady was going to be killed off, or maybe something else would happen that would send her far away from the show’s orbit. It was hard to imagine her surviving just because the President would still want to see her.

It appeared as though the show was going to tie Alex’s department to the Department of Justice investigation and also her testimony. She appeared as a result of subpoena and she made it clear that she was going to fight back. It was a pretty awesome moment for the character, but we couldn’t still help but have a pit in our stomach the entire time that something crazy was still going to happen.

Then, it did. In the closing minutes of the episode Alex, in the middle of a motorcade, was struck by a truck going full speed. It’s not clear exactly who did this or why, but it was clear that she was dead by the reaction of President Kirkman. With the music that accompanied the news, there is only one way to describe this big reveal: Devastating. This will change Kirkman’s life forever, and the show now has an engine to move forward in the second half.

What did you think about the Designated Survivor season 2 fall finale as a whole? Were you shocked by how Alex died? Share below!

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