Madam Secretary – Snap Back

By starrymag | December 16, 2016

By: Taylor Gates

 

Nadine (Bebe Neuwirth) informs the team that the UK is supportive of reinstating sanctions on Iran. Matt (Geoffrey Arend) is angry the allies aren’t immediately voting to snap the sanctions back—that was the deal they agreed to after all. Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) calls in to check the progress and is informed the Russia and the UK are both in and they are just awaiting official confirmation from France. China; however, needs more time to consider their vote as they are still pouting over the South China Sea debacle. The US is hoping to negotiate by amending poultry taxes. The Israeli ambassador demands a meeting.

 

Alison (Kathrine Herzer) has raided Elizabeth’s closet in order to give Stevie (Wallis Currie-Wood) a modern professional makeover. She has a meeting with Harvard alum Russell (Željko Ivanek) in order to get a recommendation for law school. He has pushed the meeting back a few times and the application deadline is three days away. Elizabeth and Henry (Tim Daly) are clearly biased towards wanting Stevie to attend UVA considering its scholarship opportunities and more reasonable price tag, but Stevie wants to try for Harvard. Elizabeth tells her to plant herself outside of Russell’s office until he has a spare second.

 

The Israeli ambassador (David Wohl) meets with Elizabeth, upset the sanctions haven’t been reinstated on Iran. She says she’s optimistic China will vote “yes,” but the ambassador remains skeptical. Elizabeth asks him to trust her, but he ominously replies they will do whatever it takes to protect their people.

 

Sam Evans (J.C. MacKenzie) does another interview insulting Dalton (Keith Carradine) and his lack of foresight regarding the Middle Eastern breakdown. Daisy (Patina Miller) grumbles that the election can’t come soon enough, but Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) says that if the House voted today Evans would win. Nadine informs the staff China is on board—the chicken tariff worked.

 

Stevie catches Russell going into his office. Unfortunately, he is incredibly busy and needs to speak to Henry instead. He suits up to play golf with some congressmen, trying to convince them to vote for Dalton. He brushes Stevie off, saying he doesn’t have time to help her out.

 

On his way to golf, Russell swings by Henry’s college asking if he’s still on good terms with his old marine buddy, Congressman Pearson (Michael Cerveris). Russell pressures him into talking with Pearson, hopefully convincing him to be on team Dalton. Henry is happy to oblige.

 

The French foreign minister (Carole Davis) pays Elizabeth a visit saying France will veto any sanctions against Iran despite proof of their treaty breach. She wants to conduct a more thorough investigation before getting tough. Elizabeth realizes that Iran has just agreed to buy airbuses from France—if they agree to the sanctions, they could lose billions of dollars. Elizabeth tells her if they want to prevent another war they have to act now.

 

Ellen (Johanna Day) informs Elizabeth and Dalton that Iran is preparing for war with Israel. Russell says if the Middle East starts feuding again their election chances are done. Dalton thinks that’s the least of their worries. Elizabeth reminds them the only thing that will satisfy Israel is the reinstatement of the sanctions. The only way to do that might be to warn France that the airbus deal won’t mean anything if Israel and Iran start fighting again.

 

Elizabeth invites Walter (Rene Auberjonois) in to help them strategize solutions. Walter says they’re asking all the wrong questions. The real thing they could be considering is why Iran would cheat on the nuclear deal now. He urges them to speak to the Iranian scientists still in Moscow to get some answers.

 

Henry plays racquetball with Pearson who tells him that Michigan is a blue collar state that is almost certain to go Evans. Pearson also informs Henry that he is going through a divorce and Henry agrees to have a drink with him.

 

Elizabeth, Jay and Walter watch and the interrogation of the Iranian scientists via a video chat. The scientists give the excuse that they simply got lost in Russia and were not attempting to do anything illegal. Elizabeth orders the interviewers to take two of the more talkative men out of the room and speak to the quieter man. They tell him they want to get him home to his family, but first they need answers. Elizabeth tells them to pour him a glass of water and say that he and his friends are all in separate rooms. Only the first one to confess will be able to go home. The man quickly spills, confessing that the centrifuges were purchased and sent back to Paqlaar in Iran who works for Abedini—a man in charge of choosing the supreme leader and monitoring his activities. Jay and Walter are thrilled by this news as Abedini has been critical of the supreme leader’s peace deals. This means that the supreme leader might not even know that Abedini has been ramping up nuclear weaponry. Nadine tells Elizabeth that France will not exercise their veto, but this isn’t great news anymore. If what Jay and Walter have implied is true, sanctions might not be necessary and they could possibly still save their deal. They plan to back channel through the Swiss and meet with Iranian minister Tousi (Dariush Kashani).

 

Elizabeth promises Tousi that she will use the votes if she has to, but she reminds him that his predecessor—a man he greatly trusted and respected—gave his life for this peace deal. She doesn’t believe the supreme leader would have done this, but rather Abedini is responsible. The leader simply went along to save face and did not know about it at the time, thus the deal should not have to be dissolved. Tousi replies that they have followed the election closely and if Evans becomes president, having more nuclear weapons will be important. Elizabeth encourages him to allow inspections so they can honor the deal they struck. Iran wants assurances that if Evans becomes president he too will honor the deal. Evans won’t answer any of Elizabeth’s calls so she tells Daisy to contact a talk show Evans will appear on that night so she can meet with him.

 

Henry shares a drink with Pearson. It turns out he has a few grievances with Henry from their days in Corpus Christi. He feels Henry forced him to get wasted before his final flight test. Henry doesn’t remember it that way. He had no idea his test was the next day until Pearson was completely trashed,and it’s not like he could’ve forced him out of the bars. Pearson is bitter that he was stranded stateside while everyone else was flying in Desert Storm, but Henry replies that Pearson was the lucky one to not have gone through that. Henry gets up to leave, but Pearson softens. He just wishes Henry would have helped him not screw up. Henry apologizes for playing an unintentional role in him not proving he was a good pilot.

 

Elizabeth visits Evans’ dressing room. He is as cocky as ever, accusing Elizabeth of stalking him. She asks him to tone down his rhetoric on Iran, telling him sincerely that a harsher stance on the Middle East will have world-altering consequences. Evans promises he’s not bluffing about breaking the deal the day he becomes president. Of course he won’t do it for no reason, but he refuses to admit that to the people. He leaves, but Daisy comes in and tells Elizabeth that Evans’ microphone was on the whole time and there is a major scoop coming. Elizabeth, of course, already knows this.

 

The next day at breakfast Henry is suffering from a major hangover, which Alison, Jason (Evan Roe) and Stevie all make fun of him for. Russell calls Henry, thanking him for getting Pearson to pledge his support. Russell offers to send him scotch as a sign of gratitude, but Henry tells him he can write Stevie a recommendation letter instead.

 

An interviewer nails Evans for going back on his word about Iran and Elizabeth is glad the world now knows his true intentions.

 

Russell meets with Stevie about her recommendation. Russell tells Stevie not to go to law school, as every lawyer he knows is miserable. The only people who enjoy it are the bleeding hearts who work in the nonprofit sector, but this is precisely what Stevie wants to do. She tells Russell she wants to go to Harvard in order to do good and to do good, you have to be good. Russell gives Stevie a piece of controversial advice. To do good, you have to prepare to be bad, canny, mean and watchful so you know where to hit the bad guys where it hurts the most. Stevie doesn’t believe that, but Russell informs her she will. Stevie thanks him for his time and Russell tells him to come back the next day for the recommendation. She’s surprised he is still agreeing to write it and he says he’s never met a McCord who can’t handle a challenge.

 

Israel denies their airstrike on Iran, but Dalton’s team is convinced they are behind it. Israel has been looking for Iran slip-ups since day one for an excuse to attack and the moment they turned away inspectors it sealed the deal: a war is inevitable. Evans uses the conflict to renew credibility with his supporters, leaving the whole Dalton administration and campaign team in a horrible position.

 

Elizabeth and Dalton talk outside. Elizabeth reminds Dalton that even though their actions were rash, the US will have to back Israel in a war against Iran. Dalton knew the deal would be hard, but didn’t anticipate it would fall apart so spectacularly. He questions if he should’ve seen this coming. Elizabeth tries to be optimistic saying the deal almost worked. Almost, Dalton notes, is the operative word. He realizes the deal will define his presidency, just not the way he hoped.

 

Russell is scrambling around his office when Stevie comes in. She hesitates saying she can come back later, but Russell invites her in. He flounders around, looking for the recommendation he wrote. He finds the paper, but then collapses on the floor.