Madam Secretary – Article 5

By starrymag | May 27, 2017

By: Taylor Gates

Although it’s pretty clear that Dalton (Keith Carradine) wants him for the position, Henry (Tim Daly) is nervous about a job interview for the Special Activities Division. Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) saw on Airbnb that the cabin the family used to rent when the kids were little is available that weekend. She is thrilled to play board games by candlelight and go fly fishing, but she is alone in her enthusiasm. She sadly says she won’t force anyone to come with her.

 

Mike B. (Kevin Rahm) has spent the night at Nadine’s (Bebe Neuwirth) house. She’s enjoying his company, but she is still hesitant to commit and tell everyone at work. Mike is growing impatient, not wanting to keep it a secret much longer.

 

Nadine tells Daisy (Patina Miller) she’ll be meeting with Audrey Stewart (Deirdre O’Connell), the mother of serviceman who died in Ukraine and whose body was mistakenly interred in Russia. They’re doing everything they can to return it home, but Russia is stalling. Russia is also testing military weapons. Their excuse is that it’s routine, but Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) and the rest of Elizabeth’s team think they’re preparing to invade a NATO country.

 

Russell (Zeljko Ivanek) requests that Elizabeth go on a walk with him, telling her Dalton wants her to go to Brussels and try and diffuse the Bulgarian crisis. A Russian group disguising themselves as an organization called the Citizens Rightful Army has been interfering and preparing to attack a NATO ally. Brussels wants to invoke Article 5—an attack against one is considered as an attack against all.

 

Audrey is worried that the rising tensions with Russia will now make it even harder to get her son home. Nadine attempts to give her hope, promising they’re working as hard as they can and reminding her the embassy in Moscow is still open. But Audrey is beyond optimism or a hope for answers, just wanting to bury her son on the soil he died to protect.

 

Henry shares both good news and bad news with Elizabeth that night. The good news is he got the job. The bad news is he couldn’t manage to convince the kids to go to the cabin with them. He offers a romantic weekend with her there, but Elizabeth says the trip is all about family and it won’t be the same.

 

During the Article 5 meeting with NATO the French Foreign Minister (Carole Davis) is still not happy with the eighth draft of the declaration. France isn’t convinced that Russia’s actions meet the criteria and criticize how the United States wants to authorize the use of force against them. France ends up withdrawing from the Atlantic Council.

 

Elizabeth asks Mike B. to help her figure out inducements to help get France back on board. Their plan is to threaten to expose president Perrin’s (Francis Dumaurier) son and his bribery if he doesn’t back NATO. She video chats him and says that the US will use their influence with Interpol to help get his son out of the situation if he goes with them on Article 5. Unlucky for her, Perrin refuses. The alliance is on thin ice.

 

Daisy teasingly confronts Nadine about her relationship with Mike B. Nadine admits they’ve been having a fling since election night and Nadine encourages her to stalk him online to get more background information. Nadine does an image search and finds a picture of Mike and another woman from three months ago. Nadine is hurt, but since they never discussed going exclusive realizes she’s going to have to be okay with it.

 

Henry chats with Dmitri (Chris Petrovski) saying he thinks his old boss is behind Bulgaria. He asks Dmitri to take a look at some intelligence and share some of his thoughts and theories. Dmitri agrees and goes to Henry’s house to look at photographs of Russian officials. He notices that one person is missing from their lineup: Grizinski—the guy in charge of the money, more specifically carrying brief cases to anyone the government wants to influence. He’s likely in danger now.

 

While Henry is texting his intel, Stevie (Wallis Currie-Wood) comes inside to grab tickets she forgot in her desk for her and Jareth. Dmitri introduces himself by his witness protection identity and there is palpable chemistry between them. Henry gets a text back that says Grizinski has been hiding out in New Zealand for the past two months.

 

Elizabeth is called to the White House by Russell. She is informed that Russia is ceasing Bulgarian vessels and there’s no way Bulgaria’s military will be able to withstand the attack. Dalton orders their sixth fleet to interfere—if NATO refuses to help, the US will have to do it themselves. Elizabeth confides in Henry that she is terrified the alliance is going to fall apart and nobody will be safe.

 

Nadine tells Elizabeth that she and Daisy have done some digging on Mike B. and discovered he is working for a radically nationalist organization who wants to dismantle the EU and NATO. Nadine wants to hold out hope that Mike isn’t really a snake and Elizabeth agrees to take it slow and find out the whole story before making any judgements.

 

Audrey gives a press conference along with her senator about how angry she is that the US is going into unnecessary wars with irrelevant countries—like the conflict that killed her son. Elizabeth catches wind of this on the news and takes Audrey to a World War II monument to talk. She explains the importance of NATO and having the backs of their allies to prevent nuclear war and the collapse of democracy. Audrey has a change of heart, realizing her son wouldn’t have wanted this alliance to fail. Elizabeth begs for some time to make things right before she goes around telling her story.

 

Elizabeth takes Mike jogging to confront him about playing a double game. Mike promises that he originally thought the organization he was working for was a center right think tank. As soon as he discovered it was a creep squad he quit. He even offers to show her the pay stubs.

 

Henry and Elizabeth present their findings to Dalton. They have video evidence of Perrin making a background deal with the Russians, which explains their hesitation to cooperate with Article 5. However, they can’t leak it to the press because then it’ll be spun as American propaganda and buy Russia more time to invade even more places as the rest of the world will be too busy trying to determine if the video is legitimate. They want Mike to leak it himself—he has the right connections and reputation. He agrees, but not before making a shady comment aimed at Nadine and her keeping their relationship a secret. Mike is angry that Nadine sleuthed and tattled to Elizabeth, saying all she ever had to do was ask him and he would’ve been honest with her.

 

Jay tells Elizabeth that France is still free to kill Article 5 until Perrin is impeached. By the time that happens, Bulgaria will already be subjugated to Russian rule. Elizabeth makes an impassioned speech, pleading with NATO to cooperate by pulling out a postcard her uncle wrote when arriving to fight in Italy. In his writing, there was such a certainty that he was on the right side of history and he lost his life for the cause the very next day. France makes the decision to abstain from the vote, thus letting them invoke Article 5.

 

Elizabeth talks to a Russian official, negotiating the release of Bulgarian soldiers in exchange for Russian ones in addition to returning the remains of Audrey’s son.

 

Henry drives Elizabeth up to the cabin, where the kids are waiting inside to surprise her. They play board games by candlelight, just like Elizabeth wanted.