Madam Secretary – Thin Ice

By starrymag | May 4, 2018

By: Taylor Gates

 

 

Elizabeth (Téa Leoni) is dreading her trip to Montreal, as a group of Canadian divers happened upon a boat wreck in the North Pole and are claiming the flag aboard the ship marked the territory as their own in the late 1800s. This territory could give them access to shipping lanes and other strategic moves, possibly determining the power shift of the next hundred years. Jason (Evan Roe) and Piper (Salena Qureshi) will be joining Elizabeth on her trip so Piper can interview Bella Rossi (Colby Minifie)—the woman protesting the summit—for the school paper.

 

Blake (Erich Bergen) is getting more involved with policy under Kat’s (Sara Ramirez) supervision, but he hates that he’s going to have to play suck up to oil lobbyist Chip Harding (Kevin O’Rourke) at the renewable energy panel since their budget has been cut. Kat understands but tells him he needs to suck it up. This is their only chance to compete with China at the expo.

 

Their pitch goes well except for one small issue: Chip doesn’t like that they’ve left little room for natural gas in favor of nuclear energy. When Elizabeth hears of this, she gives into Chip’s wishes for natural gas, much to Blake’s dismay. Blake rants to Kat about how he’s done his research and knows that nuclear energy is better and safe. Finally, Kat pulls Blake into her office and reassures Blake that he’s done really good work and she admires his passion. He thanks her and defeatedly goes to warn the expo about their redesign.

 

Henry (Tim Daly) lectures his class about a military bombing, guiding them to debate the ethics of the situation. After class, he compliments Lieutenant Andrew Hill (Sam Underwood) on his points and gives him permission to turn in his paper at the end of the day. When he meets up with Henry to give him the assignment, they bond over their love of flying.

 

Bella makes a speech to protestors, demanding drilling to stop in the North Pole. Elizabeth and Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) talk about needing to present a united front to keep Russia at bay. Shortly after, they get word that Minister Chen (Francis Jue) is arriving. He informs Elizabeth that China has proclaimed itself a near-Arctic power and has been building ships to study marine life. Elizabeth writes off his scheme as trying to gain real estate in the North Pole, saying surrounding nations like Mongolia and the Netherlands would be entitled to it as well under China’s argument.

 

At a meeting with the other world leaders, Elizabeth suggests an independent survey of the Arctic region conducted by the UN and funded by all of them. She pitches keeping the plan classified as to not heighten domestic tensions, and the idea seems to be well received. While Elizabeth and Jay speak in the hallway, a bomb goes off, and Elizabeth rushes to find Jason and Piper despite her security’s wishes. She barges into Jason’s room to find both he and Piper in robes, romantic music playing and chocolate covered strawberries on the bed.

 

Jay tells Elizabeth the summit has been postponed indefinitely, as Bella Rossi has been arrested on terrorism charges. Elizabeth orders Jay to stay and do everything they can to keep her out of Canadian prison assuming she wasn’t complicit. Jason makes a snide comment that she wishes he were in jail, continuing the snarky attitude when he and Elizabeth get home. She and Henry send Jason to his room, and Elizabeth informs Henry that Piper took full responsibility for the deception, saying she just wanted her first time to be special.

 

Elizabeth is angry at Jason and hurt that neither of them were actually interested in her work. Henry starts projecting his own crappy day onto the issue. As it turns out, sections of Andrew’s essay were plagiarized from an essay one of Henry’s old Georgetown students wrote. Henry is confused, as he’s always been a star student. To make matters worse, he’s Admiral Ellen Hill’s (Johanna Day) son—anything less than perfection is a bitter disappointment to her.

 

Jay calls Elizabeth, telling her that Bella turned all of the violent protestors names into authorities, but they were all aliases traced back to Russian agents. They’ve been plotting this for years, and Elizabeth is afraid the Arctic is only the beginning of their plot.

 

The Russian minister (Yasen Peyankov) denies Elizabeth’s allegations, but she refuses to listen to it, planning to impose sanctions in retaliation. However, she does invite them back to the summit for the sake of the environment, ordering him to get serious about negotiating. He won’t budge, saying the Arctic is their blood. Kat doesn’t understand what Russia has to gain by obstructing, and Elizabeth decides to get Ephraim Ware (Clifton Davis) and his team to monitor the situation until they can figure it out.

 

Henry finds Andrew in a church pew, telling him he’ll give him a chance to explain his paper before he reports him to the commandant. Andrew doesn’t fight back, telling Henry has too much respect for him. Henry anticipated this, as he realized Andrew isn’t lazy and careless—he wanted Henry to catch him cheating. Andrew admits that, even after all of his schooling and training, he can’t bring himself to feel okay with taking a life, even if it is an enemy’s in war. He thought his mother thinking his career ended over a lapse in judgment instead of a choice would be easier. Henry tells Andrew he’s not a coward and there are other ways to serve his country that don’t involve killing anyone.

 

Ellen hears that her son has filed for a permanent change of position and storms into Henry’s classroom, demanding he make her son change his mind back. Ethics are fine for philosophers, but they’re not the job of a fighter pilot.

 

Blake and Kat are pitching Elizabeth the revised energy plan when Daisy (Patina Miller) comes in, showing them the footage of Bella being released from custody and thanking the US. Shortly after this gratitude, she launches into another rant denouncing the government for their addiction to gas and fossil fuels. Chip Harding calls, furious that Bella has given him and the expo bad press. He demands they make a statement supporting drilling in the arctic, but Elizabeth refuses, and he drops his sponsorship.

 

Jason assures his parents that nothing would have happened even if Elizabeth wouldn’t have walked in, as Piper freaked out and is now ghosting him. They lecture him about deceiving both Elizabeth and Piper’s parents, and he brings up the fact that they could have died from the bomb if they actually had gone to the rally. He admits that every minute Piper won’t text him back it feels like being stabbed in the heart. He finally apologizes to Elizabeth, taking responsibility and acknowledging he messed up. Henry comforts Jason, saying that Piper is just upset and embarrassed but will come around.

 

Elizabeth tells Ellen she’s sorry to hear about Andrew but tries to cheer her up by saying Andrew’s training wasn’t all for nothing. Ephraim tells Elizabeth some bad news—Russian ships are going into an area of dispute in the Northern region. They looking at occupation, which is why they bombed the summit. Ellen is worried about the safety of Alaska and the world.

 

Elizabeth begs Minister Chen for China’s help, desperately offering them a place in the council will full voting power. Chen agrees, and the navy warns that Russian ships to change course and back down, but they refuse. They fire at the ships, but Russia still manages to stay strong.

 

Dalton (Keith Carradine) orders a retreat since there are thousands of lives at stake, but Russia starts retreating at the last minute. He doesn’t know if his call was right, but Elizabeth reassures him there are never easy answers. Elizabeth points out how strong China’s ship is because it runs on nuclear power, reflecting that they let such an important energy source get buried due to ignorance and fear. Climate change is the existential threat of their time, and they have to figure out a way to improve it beyond just moral leadership.

 

They call Bella into the office, and she confides that she realizes nuclear energy isn’t bad, but her supporters don’t. They think that any funding for nuclear takes away from renewables, which frankly aren’t going to be ready in time before the ice caps are completely gone. Elizabeth begs her to use her platform to educate instead of intimidate and sponsor their expo.

 

Henry tells the board that he supports Andrew’s application for conscientious objector status, explaining that Andrew has thought hard about his decision and will continue to serve in ways other than being a fighter pilot. Ellen comes around, holding Andrew’s hand as they nervously await the board’s decision whether to approve Andrew’s application.

 

Jason confides in Stevie (Wallis Currie-Wood) that Piper broke up with him. He doesn’t understand how she could want to take their relationship to the next level just last week and then want to end things all of the sudden. Stevie sympathizes, saying relationships often don’t make sense. Stevie encourages him to wallow in the pain until he heals.