Madam Secretary – Reading the Signs

By starrymag | March 18, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) and Stevie (Wallis Currie-Wood) practice their Sinhala for their trip to Shri Lanka. Stevie is surprised that they didn’t postpone the trip until Dalton (Keith Carradine) is reinstated, but Elizabeth says it’s important to send a message to the international community that they don’t miss a step no matter what.

 

Alison (Kathrine Herzer) makes a surprise visit home, and Henry (Tim Daly) overhears her having a fight on the phone with her roommate Lucinda (Emma Factor). Alison tells him that she started joining clubs and making other friends but Lucinda just wants to hang out with her all the time. She wants some room to breathe.

 

Henry can relate, as his freshman year roommate used to cry himself to sleep every night because he was homesick. Henry asked to be transferred and then saw his roommate a few months later with friends from the debate club. He adjusted eventually; it just took him a bit longer. Henry tells Alison it’s okay she wants time away from Lucinda but she should remember to be kind, encouraging her to stick it out. Alison plans on driving back to school the next morning to talk to Lucinda.

 

Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) goes over the schedule for Sri Lanka. He announces that President Nandasiri (Faran Tahir) will be arriving at an event with Ranuga (Debargo Sanyal), his tasseographer—a psychic who reads tea leaves. Kat (Sara Ramirez) is suspicious of Ranuga and his intentions.

 

Elizabeth and acting president Hurst (Jayne Atkinson) have tea with Nandasiri and Ranuga. Elizabeth announces the good news about Scott Goodman (Charles Socarides), a wireless landline company owner, getting on board for their potential trade agreement. He has agreed to work with the top three Sri Lankan telecoms to give a large percentage of their population access to the technology. Unfortunately, Ranuga tells Nandasiri that the tea leaves have shown that the spirits do not approve of this trade agreement and they can’t move forward.

 

Elizabeth and Hurst try to convince Nandasiri that perhaps Ranuga is mistaken, but Nandasiri firmly believes he’s interpreting what Nandasiri’s late grandmother—the matriarch of the family—wants. He thinks he’s being called to reconsider the proposed deal with China.

 

Ranuga gets a tour of the White House from Jay, Matt, Kat, and Daisy (Patina Miller). They’re all skeptical until Ranuga gets more personal, telling Kat to answer her brother’s calls and sensing that Daisy feels lonely despite her family and friends. He tells her the man who is meant to act as a father to her daughter will return to her soon.

 

Nafisa (Ursula Taherian) tells Henry, Molly (Christine Garver), and Dylan (Sam Breslin Wright) that an asset she trusts in the Taliban says a rogue splinter group has acquired lethal weapons and is planning to use them against NATO helicopters, upset at the deal the US and Afghanistan made. They need to speak with the gang of eight to sign off on funds in order to eliminate the threat—a problem considering they’ve already gone over budget.

 

Henry tells Elizabeth about Morejon’s (José Zúñiga) petty actions during their meeting. Not only are they not going to release the funds to fight the rogue group, but they’re also going to be decreasing the budget over the next decade.

 

Hurst and Elizabeth fill Goodman in on the Sri Lankans, hoping he can sweeten the deal. Goodman is not on board for that, saying if they don’t agree within days, he’ll take his offer elsewhere. Alison calls Elizabeth, tearfully telling her that when she got back to her dorm, she found Lucinda unconscious on the floor surrounded by an empty bottle of pills and vodka.

 

Henry and Elizabeth go to the hospital to comfort Alison. Alison thinks she’s to blame, but her parents tell her it’s nobody’s fault. Lucinda’s parents update them with good news, saying Lucinda is stable. They thank Alison for potentially saving Lucinda’s life. They will be taking her home to Michigan after she is released. Elizabeth is worried about Ali, telling Henry she thinks she should stay home for awhile and possibly take an incomplete for the semester.

 

Kat tells Jay that out of curiosity she answered her brother’s call, but he did not surprise her, so now she’s confident Ranuga is a scammer. Jay finds information saying Ranuga is a businessman who owns the fourth largest telecom company in Sri Lanka. With this deal, his company would be at risk. Kat has an idea that could possibly salvage the agreement

 

Elizabeth and Hurst tell Nandasiri and Ranuga new enticements that Goodman is offering. He’s agreed to use only local labor to update the phone infrastructure, which would benefit Ranuga’s company as well. Ranuga says he’s going to return to the hotel to meditate on the new info.

 

At dinner, Elizabeth tells the family that Ranuga approved of the deal. Ali is barely paying attention, her mind still on Lucinda. Elizabeth contacted her mother earlier that day to check in, and apparently Lucinda had been dealing with anxiety and depression since high school.

 

Alison and Jason (Evan Roe) leave the table, and Stevie tells her parents about her first boyfriend at Lovell, who was sent into an anxiety spiral once midterms came around. He started drinking too much and driving too fast, making Stevie fear for her safety around him. Henry and Elizabeth are shocked, Stevie never having told them before. Stevie steers them back on track, saying he dropped out, now works for an NGO in Africa building wells, and is very happy. College isn’t the best fit for everyone.

 

Ali storms down the stairs, yelling at Jason for breaking her nightlight when he was rearranging the furniture in her room to use it as a gym. Jason tells her the nightlight hasn’t worked in close to ten years, which makes Ali even more upset. She grabs Jason’s video game controller and slams it on the ground, breaking it. Jason says she’s acting crazy, and Stevie calls him a moron.

 

Henry tells Elizabeth he’s managed to calm Ali down, but Elizabeth is panicking that Alison has anxiety and might be suicidal, too. She read a story about a cluster of college students in California who all ended their own lives. Henry doesn’t think Ali is showing signs of being suicidal, but Elizabeth points out Ali didn’t see Lucinda’s signs and nobody saw Henry’s father’s.

 

Early the next morning, Henry sees Alison sitting on the couch. Ali talks about what a good friend Lucinda is, kicking herself for not knowing how unhappy she was. Henry understands, saying he went over conversations with his father months after his death, wondering how he didn’t know. Although they offer to make breakfast for Ali, she decides she wants to head back to school. She sees Lucinda about to leave for Michigan, and the two hug, telling each other to take care of themselves. Ali goes to her now half-empty room and gets upset all over again.

 

Unfortunately, the Chinese heard that their Sri Lanka agreement was shaky and decided to arrange their own telecom offer. If the Chinese get their way, the US will be shut out of the Indian Ocean and left in the cold. Elizabeth meets with Nandasiri, accusing him of accepting a bribe from the Chinese. She tells him he can’t trade his country’s sovereignty for a personal bailout. Nandasiri caves, asking Elizabeth if they can put their talk with the Chinese behind them. Elizabeth agrees to ask Hurst. Unfortunately, Hurst will not sign off on it, afraid Sri Lanka won’t hold up their end of the deal.

 

Luckily, Elizabeth has a backup plan on how to keep power in the Indian Ocean. She wants them to try and arrange a telecom trade deal with Indonesia instead. Kat encourages Elizabeth to run for president, and she gets a note from Ranuga saying “run” as well.

 

Matt hints to Kat that he hopes he’s the man who’s going to come back into Daisy’s life. Kat tells him to go for it, and he is more encouraged when Kat admits her brother called and told her he’s separating after ten years of marriage. It turns out Ranuga was already right about one thing. Matt is about to tell Daisy how he feels when she gets a call from Oliver Shaw, ruining his plan.

 

Dylan and Molly tell Henry that there has been an air missile strike from the rogue splinter group. During Henry’s meeting with the gang of eaither, he’s frustrated when he’s not taken seriously just because no service members were hurt during this attack. They think this is a problem for the Afghan army now, not the Americans. Henry vehemently disagrees but is ignored. Morejon turns it back on Henry, blaming things on his poor leadership. Henry resigns in hopes that the group will be more willing to work with a new, different department leader.

 

Elizabeth calls Henry, thinking about Ranuga’s “run” note. She now thinks it has something to do with Ali, not the presidency. Henry has been thinking about Ali all day, too, and they drive to her college together. When they get there, she’s nowhere in sight. Ali finally picks up one of Henry’s calls and says she’s at the house. She started to feel overwhelmed, and the person from the admin office told her she could finish her semester online and by commuting so she can live at home for a bit. Elizabeth is happy their soon-to-be empty nest is full again.