Madam Secretary – The Dissent Memo

By starrymag | November 3, 2016

By: Taylor Gates

 

Kalanga (Linara Washington) is running for President of Angola. In her speech, she criticizes the current leader for cutting health budgets despite malnutrition and malaria ravaging the country. During her speech, a bomb goes off.

 

Governor Evans (J.C. MacKenzie), Conrad’s (Keith Carradine) opponent, is speaking about a bombing in Rome on TV. Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) and Russell (Zeljko Ivanek) throw shade while watching it by talking about how Evans wants to legislate heavy surveillance of Muslim Americans. Elizabeth is also disappointed neither he nor the press are mentioning the attacks in Angola where twice as many people were killed.

 

In other bad news, Minnesota and Ohio refuse to put Conrad on the ballot because of the “sore loser law,” which will make it nearly impossible for Conrad to stop either of the opponents in the major parties from reaching the required amount of votes to be elected. Russell wants Elizabeth to bend the rules and unofficially campaign for Conrad in these states by giving a pre-NFL game interview and sharing a meal with some state senators.

 

Susan Thompson (Tonya Pinkins) bypasses Blake (Erich Bergen) to give Elizabeth a file, marching into her office to deliver it personally.

 

Hizb-al Shahid has taken credit for the bombing in Rome. Henry (Tim Daly) and Jose (Carlos Gomez) discuss the terrorist group’s destruction and looting of more precious art relics.

 

Susan tells Elizabeth a suffrage group is taking credit for the Angola bombing and Kalanga is injured but alive. Elizabeth promises to make a statement condemning the suffrage group, but that’s not enough for Susan. She presents Elizabeth with a memo of dissent signed by the whole African Affairs Bureau as they believe the government’s deafening silence on the matter is just the latest example of indifference. There needs to be action far greater than a concerned phone call.

 

Elizabeth’s staff is worried about her giving the pre-football interview, as it could definitely be perceived as campaigning, which is illegal in her position. Daisy (Patina Miller) and Matt (Geoffrey Arend) suggest Elizabeth compare the government’s “sore loser law” to the NFL recently changing the rules so kickers now have to kick for the extra point on the 15-yard line. If the NFL can change the law to make things more fair and competitive, why shouldn’t the government?

 

Elizabeth’s team also drafts some sanctions she can use in order to get the current Angolan president to step down. Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) suggests cutting off agricultural exports, therefore cutting off Angolan food sources. Russell won’t allow her to do this, as the states they need are heavy in agriculture and cutting off trade would be bad for American farmers who Conrad needs on his side to win the election. Elizabeth is afraid they’ll lose another African nation to an autocratic dictator, but Russell doesn’t want the US getting involved.

 

Elizabeth videochats with the Angolan president (Harold Surratt), saying his ban on public meeting interferes with democracy. He defends himself noting he simply doesn’t want to make his people a target for another attack. She reminds him that in order to continue having US support, he must listen to the people. He brushes her off.

 

Henry and Elizabeth talk in bed. Henry is passionate about the NFL talking points her staff has come up with and they try to remain optimistic about their stalker and hacker: the FBI still can’t find them, but there have not been any new incidents. Henry starts comforting Elizabeth about her situation with Africa before Stevie (Wallis Currie-Wood) awkwardly interrupts saying Jareth (Christopher O’Shea) is coming for a visit. Elizabeth and Henry are excited and supportive, but secretly they are weirded out about letting him stay at their house. Elizabeth promises to talk to Stevie about boundaries for his visit.

 

Daisy calls Elizabeth to say the dissent memo is already out there. She promises to do everything in her power to find out who leaked it and is optimistic that the news cycle is still too preoccupied with the Rome attack to notice the drama with the African Bureau.

 

Elizabeth’s football interview goes well. Afterwards, she meets Scott Goodman (Charles Socarides), a messaging app inventor who Jason (Evan Roe) loves. He talks to Elizabeth about wanting to get his app, Chronic DM, in Africa but is being slammed by high taxes from telecommunication companies. He believes this is because the government wants to be able to monitor and control all the telecom services for their citizens—it’s bad for democracy and business. Elizabeth tells him it is an emerging process and he has to give things time to work. Scott says he could easily go behind her back and get free internet up in Africa, but he wants to trust her. Having rubbed her the wrong way by mansplaining, Elizabeth takes the first chance she gets to get away from him.

 

Russell tells Elizabeth that despite the interview the states won’t allow Conrad on the ballot because of the dissent memo. Stevie admits to Elizabeth that everything about her summer in England was awful. Jareth’s friends, his family and the weather made her miserable. Elizabeth wonders why Stevie didn’t tell her sooner and Stevie admits she was in denial. Not only was the culture shock difficult, but Jareth acted like a completely different, snobby person. Elizabeth tells Stevie she has to honestly tell him how she feels.

 

Henry and Jose want to talk to a French woman who has been selling relics on behalf of the terrorist organization. Jose agrees to bring her in for an interview if she doesn’t know what they’re investigating.

 

Susan barges into Elizabeth’s staff meeting to say she’s having trouble getting her work done since her whole staff is being interrogated about the dissent memo leak. Susan admits to leaking the memo and announces Kalanga is under house arrest by the Angolan president. She accuses Elizabeth of caring more about NFL games than a supposed democratic ally openly stealing an election and resigns. Elizabeth talks to Susan as she’s cleaning out her office. She knows Susan didn’t actually leak the memo. She doesn’t even care who did—she just doesn’t want to lose Susan. If Elizabeth had the power to call off agricultural exports she would have, but at the end of the day, they all serve at the pleasure of the President.

 

Elizabeth threatens the Angolan president, telling him to release Kalanga or the United States will put a travel ban on all of their citizens into the country. She also threatens to leak secrets about his family, like the fact he has an illegitimate daughter. The Angolan president agrees, although his wording is ominous. Susan assures Elizabeth the Angolan resident will agree to the terms.

 

Stevie confronts Jareth about making her feel like a dumb American girl all summer. Jareth apologizes, realizing England brings out the worst in him. They agree to live in the states together instead.

 

An interviewer asks the French art seller (Katarina Morchacova) what she knows about the terrorists by explaining she will not be imprisoned and her father will know nothing of her behavior if she talks. She says she’s only ever worked with messengers and doesn’t know who is behind them. Henry tells the interviewer to asks about the statues she brought up. They are the limestone apostles that Hizb-al Shahid overtook. Henry and Jose agree to hold the French woman in custody. They will get an agent that looks like the French woman undercover and set up a meeting to buy a statue so they can get a direct link to the terrorist organization.

 

Although Daisy says that Kalanga was released, Susan adds that the Angolan president shut down all internet services and is putting armed military forces around all the voting polls. Susan suggests that Elizabeth threaten to enforce a travel ban and shut down food services even if in reality they can’t do it, but Elizabeth refuses to threaten something she can’t follow through on. Susan mutters that this is the problem with making citizens dependent on US crops, which gives Elizabeth an idea.

 

Jose and Henry prepare an agent that can look and talk like the French woman they interviewed in order to meet Hizb-al Shahid face-to-face. Although there are a few things she struggles with, Henry is confident she can get the job done for them.

 

Jareth is flustered after a phone call with his parents. He reveals to Stevie that not only do his parents have titles, but they have cut off his inheritance for quitting school in England. Stevie is worried maybe he is making a huge mistake by moving, but he says there’s no turning back now.

 

Elizabeth attempts to make a deal with Goodman. He wants him to set up his internet in Africa for the next 24 hours tax-free so the people can have a fair election. However, if the people’s candidate wins the government-run telecom will likely be done away with and he can send in a team of people to teach Angolans how to set up their own private internet networks for free. Although it’s not a huge financial win for him, he would be helping promote democracy and get him some excellent press, including a Super Bowl commercial.

 

There is some tension regarding ballots in Rwanda, but Elizabeth’s staff thinks everything will turn out okay. Nadine (Bebe Neuwirth) informs them that the press is now paying attention to the election instead of the dissent memo. With all eyes on him, the Angolan president will have a harder time doing something destructive.

 

Stevie tells Henry about Jareth’s parents disinheriting him and his being conflicted about leaving Oxford. She’s disappointed Henry doesn’t have any wise advice for her besides, “welcome to marriage.” It’s a foolproof way to get to know your own inadequacies, but also the greatest journey you’ll ever go on.

 

There is some good news on multiple fronts though – Kalanga won the election, Conrad is on the ballot in Ohio and the African Bureau sent Elizabeth and her team donuts as an apology for the memo.

 

Henry and Jose’s agent calls them saying Hizb-al Shahid bought her story and is going to allow her to appraise some jewelry next week. However, things aren’t as good as they seem—someone kidnaps her on her way back to base.