Madam Secretary – The Beautiful Game

By starrymag | February 2, 2017

By: Taylor Gates

 

Henry (Tim Daly) wakes Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) up with a cinnamon roll and a magazine announcing a rumor that she’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize because of her Israel-Iran deals. Elizabeth; however, is more concerned with how severely the publication photoshopped her face on the cover. The article also includes a blurb about Rabbi Lowenthal (Erik Lochtefeld) who organized an Israeli-Iranian children’s soccer game that both leaders agreed to attend.

 

Henry goes back to FBI headquarters to work with Mo (Arian Moayed) on the Covenant of John case. They deduce that the cult is trying to team up with the militia in order to accomplish a dangerous goal: burn down the basic foundation of society. Mo and his team want to move in on the group, but they’re having a hard time locating them. They’ve decided to send in ex-marine Ian Conroy (Darren Pettie) to try and infiltrate the group, but first they need Henry to get him up to speed on their religious ideology.

 

Elizabeth confirms entrance and seating details for the Iran-Israel meeting at Camp David with Blake (Erich Bergen) and Nadine (Bebe Neuwirth). Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) is especially on edge, panicking about minuscule details such as the table shape and flower colors for the historic deal. Daisy (Patina Miller) and Matt (Geoffrey Arend) warn Elizabeth that her nomination is trending online…for all the wrong reasons. People are more focused on how sexy she looks in the article photos than her actual accomplishments.

 

Jay’s wife, Abby (Stephanie J. Block), brings him a file to work, but she’s obviously upset that he is distracted and hasn’t been spending much time at home. Jay is annoyed with Kevin (Justin Baldoni) from Finance and Planning barging into their office to steal coffee and flirt with Daisy, but Daisy is flattered.

 

Elizabeth gives Iranian President Shiraz (Houshang Touzie) a tour of Camp David, communicating her hopes that he and Israeli Prime Minister Aaronson (Stephen Singer) will sign a peace deal later that day. Iranian Deputy Minister Hamadani (Omid Abtahi) corners Jay saying he wants some last minute wording changes in the deal in Israel’s “right to exist” section. Jay resists, worried about the backlash from this, but Hamadani gives him an ultimatum. He reminds Jay how much his country is sacrificing for this deal. Jay and Elizabeth try to remain optimistic yet realistic together, scouring for any possible last resort loopholes or inducements in order to make this work. Jay offers to comb through everything again, but Elizabeth takes over—he has to call and cancel plans with his wife again.

 

Jay breaks the news to Elizabeth that Rabbi Lowenthal has just been killed by a bomb at an Israeli peace rally. He warns her that Aaronson might be heading back to Israel, but Elizabeth is insistent that he stall him long enough for her to do damage control and salvage these talks. Elizabeth takes a walk with Shiraz saying he can’t ask her to make Israel give up their most important point—the right to exist clause—without expecting something in return: cutting all ties with Hezbollah. They’ve already agreed to do it. Now, they just need to come out and say it to show empathy for the grieving Israeli country. Shiraz refuses, telling Elizabeth it’s time to admit nobody is ready for these agreements.

 

Henry attempts to teach Ian all about the Convenant of John, but Ian doesn’t take his lessons very seriously. Henry lectures him about the importance of appearing credible to the cult members and Ian goes off. He rants about how hard it is to come home from deployment and arrogantly assures Henry that he will be a convincing actor. Henry wants someone else undercover, but Mo tells him nobody has the contacts Ian does. They’re stuck with him.

 

Elizabeth joins Dalton (Keith Carradine) and Ephraim (Clifton Davis) in the Oval Office. Ephraim informs her that Lowenthal’s proximity to the Lebanon border made Hezbollah the prime suspect, but Israeli intelligence recently found out the attacker was more likely an alt-right Israeli opposed to the peace process. They have video evidence of a party member planting explosives, but he is not in custody yet. This is great news for Elizabeth, who offers her condolences to Aaronson and her support for bringing Lowenthal’s assassin to justice. Aaronson, however, refuses to continue the peace talks even with this new information. Without the right to exist clause, he would not be serving his people.

 

Elizabeth calls Jay on her way to a UVA fundraising event, saying she doesn’t think either side actually ever had any intention of signing a deal. Jay is attempting to extend the ceasefire for seven more days so they can hopefully get both sides to agree to a slightly redrafted deal before it ends. Mo tells Henry that his organization now wants Henry to be Ian’s handler for the mission, but Henry refuses—he doesn’t believe in Ian, and Ian would sense that which could further jeopardize the mission.

 

At the charity party, Elizabeth and Henry schmooze with important investors. One of them, Nelly (Dana Ivey), is especially gunning for Elizabeth’s Nobel Prize nomination and is even planning to lobby votes. Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics Victor Boseman (Brad Oscar) essentially mansplains the Iran-Israel peace deal to Elizabeth while she throws back glasses of champagne. At home, Elizabeth allows herself a few moments to sulk about the unfairness of the whole situation. Alison (Kathrine Herzer) comes downstairs and compliments Elizabeth on her magazine cover, causing Elizabeth to snap before storming upstairs.

 

Elizabeth feels bad about losing it on Alison, admitting to Henry she feels like a failure in every aspect of her life. Henry tells her that even getting Israel and Iran to talk is a big enough accomplishment to get her a Peace Prize. Elizabeth might not care about the prize, but it’s honoring something real. Elizabeth can’t get Aaronson’s comment about Lowenthal’s death being a symbol they could all use for their own political agendas out of her head, as it makes everything seem so empty.

 

Jay tells Elizabeth that Lowenthal assassination essentially shut down all peace and ceasefire talks. Elizabeth orders him to get some sleep while she takes over. Nadine tells Elizabeth that Jordan has cancelled the youth soccer game because of new security concerns. Elizabeth gets the idea to bring the soccer teams to DC—maybe this is the symbol they need to extend the ceasefire. Blake manages to get all the players visas, Daisy calls the press for a feature and Matt locates a usable but expensive soccer field. Nadine warns Elizabeth that flights on top of everything is expensive; they don’t have the money for this. Daisy goes to talk to Kevin about helping them out, but he refuses to pull any strings. Elizabeth’s chat with Nelly; however, is more fruitful. She manages to find them a free soccer stadium and slush fund for travel expenses.

 

Ian corners Henry in a dimly lit parking garage, acting like he is a Covenant of John believer. He is convincing in his role and humbly asks Henry to help him more.

 

At the soccer game, Jay tries to convince Iran to agree to the new terms—there’s no right to exist clause or anything about cutting ties with Hezbollah. The only thing that changed is the addition of five more years of weapon inspections. Jay says everyone misses their families and they can all get back to them if Iran just signs the deal. Plus, it will do wonders for Iran’s trade, economy and reputation. He then talks to Israel, who isn’t too crazy about dropping everything they negotiated. Despite this, they too green light the deal. The two countries are also going to trade oranges and pistachios with each other as a mutual interdependence symbol. Everyone tears up as they see children from both teams hugging after the game.

 

Jay meets his wife for dinner, who tells him she misses being a family. Jay says things will calm down soon, but Abby says she needs some time apart to think about what she wants. Jay asks Matt if he can crash at his place for awhile and Kevin asks Daisy out for drinks.

 

Elizabeth walks into her bathroom to see Alison using some of her face cream. Elizabeth insists she doesn’t need any of it as her skin is flawless. They have a heart-to-heart about true beauty. Alison apologizes for saying the wrong thing the other day, but Elizabeth assures her she did nothing wrong. Elizabeth explains that she just wants everyone to talk about the things she is doing, not how she looks while doing them. There’s nothing wrong with feeling pretty, but actually using your intelligence to accomplish something is so much more important and should be the focus.