Madam Secretary – Phase Two

By starrymag | April 14, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

Elizabeth (Téa Leoni) and Henry (Tim Daly) embarrass and celebrate Jason (Evan Roe) for getting a National Merit Scholar scholarship. In order to take the attention off of himself, Jason turns the volume up on the TV where Senator Morejon (José Zúñiga) is blaming Elizabeth for a bombing in Saudi Arabia a few months ago, saying she gave away all their sanctions leverage in Iran. He vows to introduce legislation that will stop phase two of the deal.

 

Jason thinks Morejon has a point, but Elizabeth explains that phase one left lots of questions unanswered by design. Iran was one month away from a nuclear weapon, which would have had disastrous consequences. Elizabeth’s deal stopped that from happening.

 

Kat (Sara Ramirez) tries to negotiate a lasting ceasefire in Yemen with Iran, but they accuse the US of favoring and siding with Saudi Arabia. Kat tells them that, if they want a statement from Saudi Arabia promising a ceasefire, they must first respect the sovereignty of their neighbors.

 

Russell (Zeljko Ivanek) tells Elizabeth that the Saudis are panicking over their arms deal with Iran. Elizabeth tries to diffuse the situation by promising the Saudis they will have the missiles the US promised them in three months time, stretching the truth by saying the holdup is due to their lawyers—not Iran. They’ll have greater security is phase two is pulled off, anyway.

 

Russell is worried they and Morejon won’t see it that way, suggest they back off until the midterms. Elizabeth says there’s no time to wait, as it will all but guarantee Iran pulling out and continuing to fund terrorists. She thinks that if they let Iran back into the banking system, they will offer some real concessions since they’re desperate to bring their economy up. Dalton (Keith Carradine) reluctantly agrees, much to Russell’s dismay.

 

General Winfield (John Rue), Henry’s boss at the war college, tells Henry that one of his proposals has made a military ethics department a possibility. He offers Henry the position of interim chair, but Henry wants a few days to think about it. He thinks he wants to pass and focus on teaching, not necessarily wanting another leadership position after his bad CIA experience.

 

Kat tells Elizabeth Iran responded well to the possibility of being reintroduced into the banking system but are slightly hesitant to cut off support to proxy forces. Prince Asim (Nuah Ozryel), however, tells Elizabeth their country feels betrayed by the US for their three month delay. He’s questioning the United States’ loyalty and friendship. To make matters worse, that night Mike B. (Kevin Rahm) shows up and informs Elizabeth the parents of Jim Dawson (Andrew Samonsky), the American killed in the Saudi bombing, are suing her for the wrongful death of their son.

 

The next day, Mike B. assures Elizabeth, Russell, and Dalton that sovereignty shields Elizabeth from this ridiculous lawsuit and claim. Mike B. is suspicious that someone is behind the family’s suit, funding it and trying to get revenge on the administration. They break the news that Dawson was a spy and that his death was an assassination. However, the target was likely not him. Mike B. tells Elizabeth not to get served, even dodging the law if she must. If she gets taken to court, she would have to decline to answer questions on the grounds of national security and her silence could easily be twisted into complicity by Morejon.

 

Henry expresses interest in the ethics department position, but visiting professor Lyle Belkin (Robert Petkoff)—who makes a bad joke about Elizabeth—is now applying for the job, too. They are both instructed to prepare a short presentation about their vision for the department, and Henry is now more motivated than ever to get the job.

 

Elizabeth goes on the Trevor Vance (Mike McGowan) Show to talk about the positives that would come out of phase two with Iran. Vance rolls a clip of Dawson’s upset and angry family, asking if they would agree. Vance asks if she’s truly negotiating for peace or simply appeasement. Vance implies that there are many critics in addition to Morejon that think she’s lost clarity when it comes to Iran, but Elizabeth shoots back that she witnessed the horrors of torture and violence first hand, not wishing that kind of clarity on anyone.

 

Daisy (Patina Miller) tells Elizabeth she did a good job sharing her side of the argument and being strong when it came to talking about her own time in Iran. Unfortunately, on their way to the car, security guard Matt (Matt Meinsen) thinks someone in the crowd has a gun and orders Elizabeth to hide in the car while he tackles the man. It turns out he was reaching for court papers, not a weapon. Someone posts the scandal online and it goes viral.

 

Dalton tells Elizabeth they’re moving the phase two talks until after the midterms. Elizabeth says if they don’t have the peace talks now, they’ll never happen. Though painful, Dalton stays firm to his word. Elizabeth is deflated and worried about the world’s safety.

 

Elizabeth warns Henry not to let Lyle get into his head, telling him not to make any rash decisions and make sure he’s trying to be the department chair for the right reasons. Jason informs her about his National Merit ceremony at school, and she promises she’ll make it no matter what. When she gets to Jason’s ceremony, she sees the man with the broken arm there to serve her. She doesn’t want to run anymore and accepts the charges.

 

When Elizabeth and Henry get home, Mike B. is on their couch again playing video games. He tells them they tracked some of the Dawson’s money and found out they’re being funded by a powerful family with ties to the Saudi government. Elizabeth tells Morejon he’s being played—the Saudis are using him to stop phase two. She then realizes that this is not a surprise to Morejon and he’s been willingly part of this secret operation and campaign against her the whole time. She’s disgusted at his lying, fake behavior.

 

Henry tells Elizabeth that his presentation went fine but that he still has a weird feeling about Lyle. He did some digging and found out there’s no proof of him graduating from the academy like he claims. He’s wrestling with whether to expose him or not.

 

Mike B. grills Elizabeth with legal questions so she can practice continuously invoking executive privilege and not answering them. Elizabeth gets distracted, sad that Dawson’s family never knew the truth about his death.

 

Against Mike B.’s orders, she goes over to the Dawson’s house and lets them know the truth about Jim: he was a heroic CIA officer. Jim’s mom (Lizbeth MacKay) and sister (Gwendolyn Ellis) are shocked but Jim’s (Scott Jaeck) father thinks she just wants them to drop the lawsuit. Elizabeth tells them suing her is their right but thanks them for Jim’s service and offers her condolences. Later, Mike B. drops by and tells Elizabeth some good news: not only are the Dawsons dropping the charges, they’re releasing a statement thanking her.

 

Henry confronts Lyle about not finishing the German military academy. Lyle is defensive at first but then softens when Henry doesn’t rub anything in. He admits he failed his last final, and since nobody asked or mentioned it, he just went on pretending he graduated. He thanks Henry for not ratting him out and respectfully talking to him. He backs out of the running for chairman, giving Henry the position.

 

The Saudi Arabian Minister goes to Elizabeth’s office, yelling at her for Dawson being a US spy. Elizabeth turns the tables, saying she knows about someone in their government working with the Dawsons to get back at her. She threatens not to give them the missiles unless they call a ceasefire in Yemen.

 

With Saudi Arabia’s cooperation, Kat can now negotiate with Iran in phase two. In the spirit of helping each other, Iran gives Kat a file that contains information regarding one of their citizens: a reporter from The Washington Chronicle who was kidnapped over a year ago. The Dawson family goes to look at a CIA memorial monument to honor Jim.