Tonight on CBS Madam Secretary airs with an all new Sunday October 19, season 1 episode 5 called, “Blame Canada.” On tonight’s episode Elizabeth [Téa Leoni] faces the daunting task of negotiating with Iran over their escalating nuclear program. Determined to deal with the situation in a peaceful manner, she has to get creative when the president seems determined to take military action. Meanwhile, Jason’s respect for Henry grows as he interviews him for a school report.
On the last episode while Elizabeth worked to successfully broker a peace treaty between China and Japan, a Chinese student seeking political asylum threatened the deal. Meanwhile, tensions rised at home between Alison and Stevie during Alison’s sleepover party. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap right here for you.
On tonight’s episode, when Elizabeth faces the daunting task of negotiating with Iran over their escalating nuclear program, she is determined to deal with the situation in a peaceful manner, despite the President’s position of using military action. Meanwhile, Jason has new admiration for his father when he interviews him for a school report.
This is definitely one series that you don’t want to miss. Don’t forget to stay tuned to Celeb Dirty Laundry where we will be live blogging every episode of Madam Secretary’s first season.
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It’s time for #MadamSecretary. We see a man looking through binoculars at an unfinished pipe line in Canada. He jogs down to a fence with no trespassing signs and ducks back through to the other side. He uses a device to trigger some explosives then runs off. Nadine apologizes for Bess running late and the man says he heard there was a hitch in the Iran negotiations. He’s the Canadian representative. We see the President looking at a building and being told that the Iranians are building something that will certainly lead to arms production.
Alan, a peace talks negotiator, recommends taking out the facility and Russell asks if he’s recommending aggression against Iran. The Prez asks Bess what she thinks and she says Alan has been there for a long time. She asks if the Iranians promised to shut down the reactor didn’t they get something. It was a deal for airplane parts. Alan says she can’t reward bad behavior but she says they need to agree to allow inspectors in. The Prez says he likes it because it’s carrot and stick. Alan says he can try it.
The speech makers work and Nadine tells them to keep the remarks on Iran short and simple. They tell him that Alan is a good peace maker and is on the short list for a Nobel prize. They tell her Clark from Canada is still in her office. She curses and rushes in. Daisy tells Matt she thinks people know about them and then tries to make light of it saying they each have people they’re seeing. She says last night was the last time and he agrees but checks her out when she walks away.
Clark shows Bess photos of the explosion and says it was eco-terrorism and she says it happened on Canadian soil. She says they can’t say what it is or isn’t until they know who did it. He says her department has a report they’re holding about the environmental impact of the pipeline. He says her withholding endorsement feeds fuel to the protestors. He wants her word that she’ll make it a priority to release the report. Bess agrees to read and release it.
She thanks Clark for the Canadian party they’re throwing for her. They laugh about the war of 1812 – the last Canadian-American aggression as he leaves. Bess comes home and smells good food cooking. The kids are concerned about the peace talks and she says the government will keep them safe. Stevie tells her mom that Henry was in the news – he’s #3 on the list of Arm Candy – the two above him are women and former supermodels.
Jason says he got an annoying assignment to interview and write an essay about a parent’s job and says his teacher was angling for him to interview her but says instead, he’s interviewing his dad – Mr Arm Candy. Bess lies down for the night with Henry when her phone rings. She gets a call about a blockade and says she’s on her way in. Henry asks if they are at war with Iran but she says Canada. She talks to Clark on Skype and apparently they captured some fishing boats that violated some laws.
She says he’s strong arming her about the report and threatens to yank the visas of Canadian hockey players. He insists the boats violated the fishery treaty. Bess says they should bring in the president and Nadine goes to the phone to make the call. He agrees to release the boats and she says she’ll read and release the report when she’s ready. Nadine says she was just calling her sister, not the boss.
Jason interviews his dad about teaching. He says he ended up in the Marines to pay for college. Bess is on TV making a statement and they watch. She discusses the relations between the US and Iran and says President Shiraz’s visit is a good thing. Blake tells Bess her voice gets breathy when she lies and she says she wasn’t. Russell is there and tells her she’s getting the hang of it but asks how she managed to offend Canada. She sees pipeline protestors out the window.
Russell tells her to release the report so the Prez can endorse it. She says it’s a thousand page report and he’s surprised she really wants to read it. He tells her she has a day and leaves. At the peace talks, the Iranians are angry and Alan pushes back. The Iranian guy refuses the inspectors. Bess tries to read the report. Nadine doesn’t know who wrote the report and says she’ll find out and tells her Russell wants her at the White House.
Bess tells the Prez she has questions about how Alan is handling this. He wants to blow the place off the place of the earth but she says that will make things much worse. She says the militants want this and he says she needs to fix it. Russell reminds him she inherited Marsh’s agenda. He tells her Marsh is dead and she needs to do her job.
Bess talks to Alan and she she sends him a photo of Zahed Javani who has joined the talks. She says the guy was at the UN for a while and is more approachable. She tells him to take the offer to Javani on the side. Alan says it’s worth a try. Nadine has the pipeline people. Matt got oil slimed by a pipeline protestor he argued with. The sliming happened after he told the protestor his shirt was spelled wrong. He tells Daisy he broke up with his GF. She asks if it was over her and he says it’s not but she isn’t buying it.
Bess tells the people that they provided out of date statistics and other sections seem lifted from other reports. The report was outsourced and they didn’t properly review it. She says it reads like it was prepared by an oil lobbyist. Turns out it was – the Cathcart Group. Nadine sends them out and Bess says this looks like fake reports. She says Marsh was not in the oil lobby’s pocket and says he was for energy independence. Nadine tells her the report says what the White House wants it to say but Bess says she can’t put her name on a falsified document. Blake comes in and tells her the Iranians walked out of the peace talks and Alan is on the way home to debrief them.
Henry is approached by a soldier at a restaurant who tells him he saw him on the arm candy list then criticizes him for the job Bess is doing. Henry throws the guy out and tells him not to disgrace himself and the uniform in public. Another officer takes him away. His son watches, appalled.
Alan tells them he talked to Javani and offered him the deal. He says he didn’t respond but said he would consider it, then the talks were suddenly off and the Iranian contingent left. Alan says Iran was never serious about the talks. The Prez wants a plan to take out their nuclear weapons program for good. He wants to move to action. Bess and the Prez take a walk after. He tells her he wanted peace in the Middle East and now he’s looking at air strikes.
He asks about the pipeline report and says he wants energy independence for the US. He says that could make a huge difference and could be his legacy. She says the report is false. He asks what she wants and she six months to get a real report. She says she knows how to get Canada to hold off. She asks for a day before he bombs anything and says to let her do her job.
Blake calls the Canadian ambassador late that night for Bess. Matt tells Daisy he broke up with his GF because they had been dating a year and he didn’t want her to think she was the one. He says she almost was, but not quite. Daisy says that’s good. He asks if Win is the one for her and she says yes. She walks away. He sighs.
At the Canadian party, Bess and her eye candy are there. Blake asks Daisy where her BF is and she says he’s working. She asks about his date – she and Matt are curious if he’s gay and can’t figure it out. He says he’s dating someone named Chris that doesn’t help. Matt flirts with a Canadian under Daisy’s nose. Henry talks to Clark when Nadine and Bess come up. Bess recognized some claims for them in Northern Waters which date back to that war in 1812. Henry calls it a draw like Clark is.
Bess asks Clark to dance and Nadine asks Henry. Bess sneaks out a side door with Clark. He points her down a hall. Daisy sidles over to Matt and he says they should dance. They do. She looks happy. Bess finds Javani in the kitchen and he says he’s glad to meet her finally. Javani asks why she sent Alan and says he’s bully and saber rattler. He says she sent a message that the next step is bombings. He didn’t offer the deal she told him to.
Javani says he was hoping she had another offer. He says he took a risk to come here and says he could be destroyed politically. He says he has two sons – 9 and 11 – and doesn’t want them to inherit a war. Bess says she has a letter authorizing lifting the ban on civilian airplane parts to Iran. He says she hasn’t signed it. She says she will when the reactor goes offline and an inspector tells her it’s offline. She says they can ever say they forced the concession from her.
Her approach works. Bess confronts Alan about not delivering the message he was told to. He says offering concessions means weakness and that’s what she and the Prez are giving off. He tells her Marsh gave her his job because he knew how to do his. He says Marsh would have been the next president and he’d have her job. Bess reminds him it’s her job now and she fires Alan. He leaves angry. Blake comes in and she asks how much she can trust him. She says she needs to run a confidential investigation. He asks who and she says Nadine. He’s floored.
THE END!