Madam Secretary – Global Relief

By starrymag | April 29, 2017

By: Taylor Gates

Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) is reading up on colleges online—Alison (Kathrine Herzer) will know whether she gets accepted to Rafferty, her top choice, later that week. Elizabeth and Henry have both agreed to be with her when the email goes out. Stevie (Wallis Currie-Wood) will know whether she got into Harvard Law soon as well.

 

Elizabeth gets briefed on Somalia. A drought has left them with a food shortage and two groups competing for the last bits of arable land. Add in no water and a famine is inevitable. The good news is that someone who formerly worked on the Africa desk is overseeing an NGO’s food distribution, which will allow the State Department reliable communication. The bad news is Dito Pirosmani (Elya Baskin) is selling stolen Russian weapons to both rebel groups and if they start fighting, a Somalian village will be cut off with no supplies.

 

Captain Ronnie Baker (Justine Lupe) updates Elizabeth, Dalton (Keith Carradine) and Russell (Zeljko Ivanek) about the weapons dealer. She has managed to hack his accounts so she can see if he sells anything else. Ephraim (Clifton Davis) breaks the news that hundreds more weapons including missiles and drones have been stolen and they’re thinking a man named Anton Yankovich is the reason.

 

Anis (Jason Bowen), the prior Africa desk chairman, video chats with Elizabeth. Unfortunately, a rebel group made them surrender the food. Without this, thousands of people could die within the next few weeks. Elizabeth wants to try and get the Senate to bypass the shipping rules in order to get the food there more quickly from Dubai. She pleads her case to Senator Carpenter (John Cullum), who only agrees to help her if she will put in a word with the Department of Defense to let him borrow a plane for his trip that weekend.

 

Henry (Tim Daly) and Mo (Arian Moayed) explain Ian’s situation to the FBI. The information he got from the council stated that the Covenant of John would be going to Oregon. However, Ian might have been compromised since the group suspected a mole.

 

Alison is freaking out about possibly not getting accepted to her top school. Since Rafferty is expanding their science and technology program, all the brainiacs are jumping to the top of the acceptance list. Henry and Elizabeth name great things about other programs to try and make her feel better, but it only makes her more terrified that they don’t believe in her.

 

Elizabeth gets word that the two Somalian rebel groups have just started shooting at each other. Anis wants to try and negotiate a ceasefire between them, but Elizabeth wants him to wait until she tries some other methods first, as it’s a risky move that would cost him his life. Anis decides to act anyway.

 

Not being able to sleep, Alison joins Elizabeth downstairs. Elizabeth gets a pint of ice cream and the two each it together on the couch. Alison apologizes for snapping at Elizabeth and Elizabeth immediately forgives her. She requests not to talk about Stevie—she knew this process would be a nightmare, but she thought it would be her very own. Elizabeth tells her that, although it does come more naturally to understand Stevie’s interests, learning about hers doesn’t feel like work. She and Henry are proud to have an artist child like Alison, as she broadens their horizons.

 

FBI Director Sanchez (Roslyn Ruff) tells Henry some anonymous tips led them to a place in Oregon where they think the Covenant of John is planning on finishing their biological weapon. She harshly takes Henry off the case; his job as Ian’s handler is over and she doesn’t feel like his expertise as a religious scholar is valuable anymore.

 

Nadine (Bebe Neuwith) tells Elizabeth that Anis got revolutionary rebels to surrender, but shortly afterwards was captured by the independents demanding the next supply shipment. Elizabeth wants to try and appeal to Pirosmani. If they can get him to see the bigger picture and help him stop the rebel groups from fighting, it would help them a great deal.

 

Russell is furious at her plan to reach out to Pirosmani, but Elizabeth says they can play on his fears of the US, stop thousands of people from dying and rescue Anis. Dalton gives Elizabeth permission to have a meeting with him.

 

Elizabeth meetings with Pirosmani in Russia. She explains that even though she can’t give him cash for his temporary loss of business while he cooperate with the ceasefire, she’s sure they can work something out. She appeals to his ego, calling him an “omniprenuer” instead of “illegal businessman.”

 

While he’s whipping out his proposal, an alarm Alison set on Elizabeth’s phone goes off, reminding her the Rafferty admission email will go out in five minutes. Elizabeth pretends to have a conference call and sneaks off to video chat with the family. Luckily, Alison gets accepted to her dream school. Elizabeth returns to chat with Priosmani, learning that, in exchange for helping them, he wants a luxurious, billion dollar yacht the US built. Dalton agrees to give Pirosmani the yacht if Anis is released immediately, unharmed.

 

Mo tells Henry that, although the supplies were set to be delivered to the warehouse, none of the cult members were there to take possession. Plus, the medical supplies were ordered with a stolen credit card online. It looks like a dead end—a ruse to throw them off their tracks.

 

Russell angrily tells Elizabeth that he will take care of the Harvard business—Stevie didn’t get in. Elizabeth is furious at Henry for not letting her know as soon as he found out, but Stevie hasn’t told him either. Elizabeth is worried that Stevie is afraid to tell them because they accidentally put too much pressure on her. They agree to let Stevie come to them and then be as supportive as possible. Elizabeth even makes a list of positives about her second choice.

 

Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) tells Elizabeth that Pirosmani managed to work out a ceasefire between the rebel groups in exchange for the ship. They go to watch Anis’ release on a surveillance camera. Unfortunately, things get violent quickly, and shots are fired. They’ve been fooled. Though they agreed it would be a peaceful evacuation, Elizabeth urges the mission leader to use force in order to secure Anis’ safety. Though he is wounded in his shoulder, he makes it out alive and relatively okay. Elizabeth tells the team to confiscate the rebel weapons.

 

Henry and Mo have a revelation and go to the FBI. They think the cult’s plan might be to drop a biological weapon on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Israel as a false flag. The destroying of the mosque will set off a chain reaction—surrounding Muslim countries will attack and the US will step in to defend its ally. Russia will then side with Iran and World War III will ensue. The Covenant of John will be trying to move from the US to the Middle East within the next three weeks. Henry is officially reinstated as a member of the team.

 

Elizabeth is preparing a cake to celebrate Alison’s college acceptance. Stevie helps out, realizing that Elizabeth already knows her big news before she says it. She apologizes that they had to hear it from Russell instead of her, saying she just didn’t want to overshadow and put a damper on Alison’s good news. Stevie has already planned to write a letter to the admissions board and plead her own case in order to hopefully get her off the wait list. Elizabeth hugs her, proud of her mature attitude.

 

Alison makes an announcement while they’re having cake—she doesn’t want to go to Rafferty anymore. She spent some time on the message boards and realized a lot of kids sounded obnoxious and snobby. She was so determined to get in that she ignored all the things that bothered her about the program. Instead, she wants to go to Bayard in order to combine her love of design with concrete business skills. Elizabeth is especially thrilled, as the college is in D.C. and she will be close to home.

 

Elizabeth video chats with Anis, relieved that he will make a quick, full recovery. Unfortunately, Blake (Erich Bergen) shows her pictures of the confiscated weapons confirming her suspicions—some them are from from the Texas depot. Pirosmani played them, and they let him slip away. The only upside is that he didn’t end up getting the boat. Reports recently saw Pirosmani fly away on a private jet after the ceasefire. They’re trying to track him, but he’s gone.

 

The FBI tells Henry that Covenant of John members embarked on a ride to Greece five days ago. From there, they can easily catch a smaller ship to the Middle East. They could be anywhere by now. Unknown to Henry and the team, they are in Syria.