Tonight on CBS Madam Secretary airs with an all new Sunday November 9, season 1 episode 8 called, “Need to Know.” On tonight’s episode Henry is reactivated by the president into the NSA, but he chooses to keep his continued involvement in the spy game well under wraps from Elizabeth [Téa Leoni]. Meanwhile, the antagonism between Matt [Geoffrey Arend] and Daisy [Patina Miller] begins to take its toll on the entire office.
On the last episode when Elizabeth brought Alison with her to India on her first state department trip abroad, she was thrown into crisis mode when a massive earthquake hit that caused an explosion at an American-owned factory, and she separated from Alison during the chaos. 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 as per the CBS synopsis, “when the President approves Henry’s reactivation into the NSA, he lies to Elizabeth about his continued involvement in the spy game. Meanwhile, Matt and Daisy’s antagonism toward one another begins to affect the entire office.”
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.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
#MadamSecretary starts now. At Georgetown, Henry hops out of a black van, buttons his jacket and walks onto campus. Bess comes and demands to Russell in front of a room full of people to talk. The people run out of the room and she asks why he had the NSA reactivate Henry. He says she didn’t need to know and says POTUS signed off on this. Bess reminds him that Henry is a public figure and he says he did hear about him being arm candy.
He says the Prez decided it was worth the risk and says it will be a short stint. He asks her if she isn’t late to meet with the PM of Macedonia but she says it’s Moldova and goes. Henry greets Klaus at an art opening. The man greets him warmly and says it’s been years since he’s seen him. Klaus says he heard his wife is Secretary of State. Henry says he remembers the chess set he got in Jerusalem. He asks Henry if has the Adler book he owes him and invites him to play chess.
Klaus says he’s surprised to see him at this event and Henry says it’s research for another book. Klaus says he has to go talk to the dean and moves nervously on from Henry. Daisy is showing off her engagement ring and Bess says it’s a lot of carbon. Blake says the PM is in the conference room and Nadine fills her in on unrest in Moldova and a separatist General who is killing people then tweeting about restoring the Russian empire.
The Moldovan PM, Diacov, tells her they need American military tech to deal with the rebellion because they are being supplied by the Russians. Bess says they support legitimate regimes and he asks again about weapons. She says the foreign relations committee meets in a week and he says he hates bureaucracy and that’s why he broke from the Russians.
She brings in Jim and introduces him to Diacov. She says he’s former CIA and works on counter-insurgency. She asks to send him back to Moldova. Jim says no one will know who he is and speaks his language flawlessly. She tells him Jim is an ethnic Moldovan and Diacov tells him – welcome aboard. Henry leaves the event and goes back to the black and hops in.
The tech fishes in his collar and Henry says he should buy him dinner first. He pulls off the little bug and says it’s wet and Henry says he was sweating. A news comedian gives a shout out to Kolba who tweeted that Bess has hot legs. Bess comes in and tells the kids to turn the show off. Allison is cooking something awful and Jason says they ordered a pizza.
She smells cologne on Jason and asks who the girl is. He tries to deny it but Allison says her name is Madison and they are going to the mall to see a concert. Bess tells him to dial back on the cologne and Henry says he told him the same thing. Later, Bess says she doesn’t like Madison already who is probably leading him on for attention and will crush him like a bug. She wants to talk to Jason but Henry puts the kibosh on that.
Bess asks what really happened today and Henry says he can’t talk about it. She asks really and he says really. He asks about her day and she says the same. She says she’ll be glad when this is over and says she misses being a professor. She says her biggest worry if a student was cutting seminar and now she sits up nice worrying if Vincent was murdered and says she misses them being able to talk. Henry tackles her with a kiss to ease her mind.
Bess comes to talk to Matt about bad puns he put in a speech and Daisy says they should issue a release about Kolba. She reads her some of the tweets. They are all sexist tweets the general is tweeting about how hot Bess is and other worse sexual things. Bess says she can’t tweet him as an equal and says they have to keep him in the dog house.
Nadine comes to tell Bess that Diacov’s plane went off radar and he and Jim both are assumed to be dead. She tells Bess that they think the plane was shot down but have no proof yet. Kolba is denying all involvement and Bess asks to speak to the NTSB. She also tells her Jim’s wife is there but they haven’t told her anything yet.
Bess goes to talk to Claire who asks her to tell the truth. Bess says he’s missing in the line of duty. Claire says he told her he was at a training session in Dallas and she thought all the covert stuff was over when he came to the state department. Bess says the mission was top secret and of great important. Claire says it always is. Bess says they’re trying to find him and Claire asks if she can stay until they found out more. Bess says it could be a while. She doesn’t care so Bess says she can stay.
Henry gets dropped off by the black van again. He goes in through the basement of a building and then punches numbers into a keypad. An alarm sounds and his handler says he’s late. He says the cloak and dagger takes longer and she tells him he failed the primary objective by not getting an invite to Klaus’ home. He says he pushed as hard as he could.
She shows him a photo of Klaus with Abu Khinjar – a terrible terrorist that he’s apparently laundering money for. They think he’s helping plan a domestic attack in the US. She says they made a duplicate of the chess set he mentioned and she says he could save thousands of lives. Nadine tells Daisy they can’t talk about Jim’s presence on the plane when they discuss the plane going down.
They wonder if the plane went down from a fault or from being shot down. Nadine tells them they will know something soon and to quit speculating and do their jobs. The NTSB guy says the plane wasn’t shot down as far as they can tell. Bess orders more surveillance drones in the air. She asks about Secretary Marsh’ plane crash report. He says the pilot had no chance to recover.
She asks if the ground crew was polygraphed and he says why and she says to answer. He say no, it’s not protocol. She thanks him and he goes. Klaus comes to see Henry and says he can’t find his book so he brought him another interesting first edition. Klaus says he can’t come to lunch but then invites Henry to a gathering at his home that night. Henry says he’d be honored.
Bess talks to Andrew about the downed flight. She asks how a plane that size disappears. He says they are clutching at straws. She says they need to reach out to the Moldovans and look at those on board in case it was an inside job. She goes in to lunch to meet her friends. Isabelle thinks it’s crazy that she thinks Marsh was murdered and Bess says George’s car accident does not add up. She says if he was going to kill himself, it would be much better planned.
Juliet says she agrees, it makes no sense and Bess says George thought it was someone in the CIA so she couldn’t go to them. Isabelle says she’s putting their lives at risk. Bess leaves when Nadine texts her to get back there ASAP. Henry is at Klaus’ home and a Saudi guy says Klaus speaks like a native. Henry asks for the restroom and Klaus gives him directions. He heads off and sees the chess set. He steps into the restroom and then back out. He compares the real piece to the plant from the NSA.
He talks to his handler and she says it’s his call. He thinks about it then makes the swap. Klaus finds him there and he says he couldn’t resist. He asks if he could take the chess set off his hands and Klaus says he can play him for it. Andrew tells Bess he thinks it’s a hijacking. The Turks have a close relationship with Kolba. He says the co-pilot took out the pilot and flew it to a Russian base. She’s stunned.
Later, Henry and Klaus play chess. They have a chess clock and everything. Klaus sighs as if in resignation then tells Henry not to hold back. Henry says his wife expected him back an hour ago. Klaus says he has an advantage and he says he has a wicked end game. Klaus says he can have the chess set but Henry says he can’t accept the noble gesture. Klaus says Americans are proud and Henry says it’s a fatal flaw.
Kolba is at the air base with the missing plane. They wonder if Kolba knows about Jim. She tells Nadine to brief Claire very lightly but tell no one else. They agree they have to move fast. Nadine finds Claire waking and tells her they can’t identify his status yet. Claire says she thought she’d be more prepared for this. Nadine says sacrifice is harder in reality than theory and tells her not to lose hope.
Andrew says Jim and the others are being held in the control tower. Russell asks what Kolba was thinking and Bess says he thought he’d get away with it. Russell asks if she wants to negotiate but Bess says they have no time and need to pursue a military solution. The military guy says it would take eight hours to get there and they would likely lose more guys than they save. Bess asks if Kolba drives a Rolls. She tells them she ran a deception play for the CIA back in the 90s.
She asks if they can fit a Rolls into a Hercules. She says they could drive right up to the tower and be inside before he knows it. The military guy says Kolba’s routine is unpredictable and he might show up there. Bess says she thinks she can make sure he doesn’t. Daisy wants to talk to Kolba but Matt says it’s not a good option. They haven’t been briefed on the plane’s whereabouts.
Henry’s handler tells him the bug is active and she says that’s it. He says they still need him but she says it’s over, that the White House said it was short term only. She says if Klaus finds the bug, he’ll know it was him. She says they have to talk to the Prez and she says he can’t tell anyone about his involvement, including his wife.
Blake works on something when Nadine comes in. Matt and Daisy bug Blake to tell them more. Bess asks to talk to General Kolba. Nadine reminds her she can’t negotiate with unrecognized states. Daisy and Matt are thrilled and Blake says to leave so he can call the misogynistic warlord. Bess gets on the video call with him and she says they need to talk. He asks where her beautiful legs are and she says under the table where they will stay. She asks for help to find the plane.
At the Russian air base, the Rolls Royce phantom drives up. The guards are alerted, but recognize it as Kolba’s (or so they think). While Bess distracts the warlord, the American force is able to rescue the hijacking victims. Woo hoo. Later in bed, she asks Henry if the NSA thing is over. Her phone buzzes and she goes downstairs to see Isabelle.
Bess says Juliet believes her and Isabelle tells her George is dead and they don’t want to be next. She shows her an envelope that George sent her the day he died. It’s money that he owed her and the word Tamerline written on it in sharpie. She’s not sure if George even wrote it and says Juliet’s out, but she’s in. She says she thinks George wanted her to help Bess.
THE END!