Tonight on NBC State of Affairs airs with an all new Monday January 12, season 1 episode 8 called, “Ghosts,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode Jack Dawkins is kidnapped from a Panamanian prison and held for ransom. Meanwhile, Charlie [Katherine Heigl] returns to Langley to coordinate an operation; the D.C. bomb squad removes a suspicious backpack in front of the Washington Monument; and Nick is put through a number of tests.
On the last episode, sixty-five photos of national landmarks suddenly surfaced, all featuring the r risslah symbol. Meanwhile, a college student claiming to be an operative broke into the White House. The 7th floor team worked to figure out the identities of the picture takers as the hunt for Al Moosari continued. Charlie (Katherine Heigl), now in Yemen, desperately tried to make contact with her asset while evading the Yemeni secret police. Nick’s (guest star Chris L. McKenna) masked captor let him go only to lead him to his next mission. Back at Langley, Lucas (Adam Kaufman) took the lead on the interrogation of a potential, and very controversial. At the same time, President Payton (Alfre Woodard) had to make a hard choice between getting a much-needed win or holding out for her long-term goal of killing Sheikh Hakam. Sheila Vand, Tommy Savas, Cliff Chamberlain and David Harbour also star. Guest starring Nestor Carbonell, Melinda McGraw and Anil Kumar. 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 NBC synopsis, “after FARC (The Revolutionary Forces of Colombia) kidnap Jack Dawkins (guest star Derek Ray) from a Panamanian prison and hold him for ransom, the team has to pinpoint his location and extract him before time runs out. Charlie (Katherine Heigl) comes back to Langley to coordinate the Bellerophon op, while Maureen (Sheila Vand) struggles to fill her shoes as President Payton’s (Alfre Woodard) briefer. Constance and Marshall (guest star Courtney B. Vance) fiercely debate whether or not to use Dawkins’ potential rescue as a political win against her mudslinging opponent, Kyle Green (guest star Melinda McGraw). There are hundreds of thousands of ar rissalah photos now and the team is overwhelmed with the shear number of possible leads. To complicate matters further, the DC bomb squad removes a suspicious backpack marked with the ar rissalah symbol in front of the Washington Monument. Back in the Middle East, Nick (guest star Chris L. McKenna) and Al Moosari (guest star Nick Shakoour) are on the move to meet with Fatah, but not before Nick is put through a number of tests. Also starring Adam Kaufman, Tommy Savas, Cliff Chamberlain and David Harbour. Adam Arkin and Angelique Cabral guest star.”
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 State of Affairs first season. While you wait for the recap, check out a sneak peek of tonight’s episode below!
Live Recap Here!
Jack Dawkins is in a cell in Panama. He asks to speak to someone from the Embassy but his visitor tells him he has no right because he’s with the CIA. Jack says he was delivering smallpox vaccine and is an aid worker. The man says he’s telling blatant and offensive lies. He says the Red Cross hasn’t heard from him and that’s why no one has come for him. He tells Jack to admit he works for the CIA on a covert basis and sign a declaration and he can walk out the door.
Jack says he’s an aid worker who came to help out after the earthquake. He’s hauled out of his cell later and beaten. He hears gunfire later and then there’s an explosion and part of the jail is blown up. He takes shelter in the corner of his cell. His jailers are gunned down and then there are cries to find the American because he’s worth a lot of money. A man is shot down right outside his cell. Jack is taken from his cell by the armed and masked men.
Charlie lies in bed watching the clock. It goes off at 1:15 and she shuts it off. Maureen tells herself to take a breath and get it together. Charlie lies in bed. Charlie is asked about discharging her weapon in Doha. She says the man she shot at was armed and she believed her life and her asset’s life was in danger. Her interviewer asks about her being fired as the President’s briefer. She says she was transferred. He asks about her memory loss in Kabul and she says she’s recovered it.
The man releases her back to active duty. Mo tells the others Charlie will be back after her debrief. She says she’ll be back on the Fatah thing. They get a report that some Colombians took Jack from prison and want $10 million and the release of someone jailed by the US. Mo says they have to redo the book and put this on top. She says it headlines since POTUS has a relationship with Jack. She tells Kurt to find out where Seal Team four is.
Charlie shows up as Mo and Dash are rushing out. They tell her to get with Kurt to get filled in and she tells Mo to knock em dead. Police cars race by while Mo sits in traffic and they see a red backpack left at a public site. Mo tells POTUS about Jack and Payton says she wants him back. The book is missing page seven and she says the intel about Jack came in late and was left out of the book. Mo says they won’t kill Jack as long as they think he has value. POTUS says to look like they’re playing ball and extract him.
David tells her about a backpack with the AR symbol left at the Washington monument. She asks Mo what her gut says about this and Mo says the analytics aren’t in yet. POTUS is disappointed at her lack of insight and tells her she can go. She asks David what he thinks and wonders how many backpacks can there be out there. He says she wants Charlie’s input on this. Charlie comes into the ops room and Lucas says he’s actually glad to see her. She dittos that.
They tell her about the bomb scare and they tell her Agent Scott is coming to coordinate. She asks to talk to the guys and they step into a quiet room. She says she wants to tell them about Fatah and says she ran him for three years with Nick and couldn’t tell them before because it was off book. Kurt says she doesn’t have to justify it to them but she says she does. She says she’s coordinating the operation and says when Nick says he has the Sheik in his sight, they’ll take him out.
They tell her that Jack is at the top of the book and that FARC took him from the prison and has him in the Darien camp and want $10 million for him. Jack speaks to his captors as they walk through the jungle. He asks if they’re lost and says that narcos aren’t good at navigating the jungle. One punches him. They are looking for a bridge and can’t find it. Jack mocks them for being scared of the river and tells them how to avoid piranhas.
One of the guys offers to feed him to the piranhas instead and he says to do it. They look for a jungle pig to distract the deadly fish so they can get across. Jack makes a move and takes out one of his captors. He steals a radio and then a gun. He says there are no piranhas in Darien gap. Jack is loose. Agent Scott shows up to the CIA and Charlie says she’s showing him eyes only stuff – it’s photos of the AR logo all over the place.
She says she has some favorites. One has the photographer’s face reflected in the car window and she says to run facial recognition. Earl says they have 17,000 photos of the Washington Monument alone. Mo chews out Lucas for leaving two pages out of the book. He asks if she double checked them and Kurt says you have to double check. She accuses Lucas of sandbagging him and she’s mad. Charlie goes to talk to him. She’s very upset and says she let Payton down.
Charlie tells her she can do it but Mo says she doesn’t want to and wants things the way they were. Charlie says she’s running Nick’s operation full time and says Mo has to get a line on Jack for POTUS. She says Jack is good and wonders if their old amp station can pick up a signal. She says they need something that can pick up something smaller and she says a surveillance station can pick up something smaller. Charlie says they need to be listening.
Nick is taken by Moosari to a location and he says it seems public for Fatah. Moosari asks about money movement and Nick says Switzerland is not as neutral as it was. They tell Nick to strip and he does. He’s down to his underwear and says if he knew it was going to get weird, he would have worn something special. They crush his cell phone. Charlie says Agent Scott has news. They found another empty backpack at the Hoover Dam but it had traces of sophisticated bomb chemicals in it.
Scott says the FBI thinks the next backpack won’t be empty. Mo says he has to go and he asks them not to start a war. They laugh. Earl starts monitoring signals from Columbia. Mo says Charlie pointed out they had been looking and not listening. They notice a walkie on a low Hertz output. They have it near a certain area and then they clean up the photo. Charlie shows them a V that Jack made in the woods. It means SOS. They also have a heat signature about five miles away.
Payton is with her hubby when she gets word that the Seals are on the way to extract Jack. She says she wants to know the moment he’s back on American soil. David says this could be a PR victory for her. He says they could remind Americans what a true patriot is. Mr Payton asks to speak to his wife alone and David asks if it’s necessary. He insists it is, POTUS says okay and David leaves. Her hubby says David is everything he hates about politics. He says he’s grandstanding for gain.
His wife says that’s what the game is. He reminds her that Jack saved her life and doesn’t need to be paraded around like a show pony just because Kyle Green is slinging mud. Payton tells him he’s an academic and doesn’t get it. He asks if she thinks he’s being a thorn in her side for the sake of it and she asks him to tell her. He reminds her he’s still her husband and says he doesn’t take kindly to being dismissed.
Nick is in a truck driven out into the desert. They tell him to get out and Moosari says the problem is money launderers who appear out of thin air. He says he met Fatah three years ago and he moves money and that’s why Fatah brought him here. Moosari sprinkles out a sack of gems and tells Nick to evaluate each one. The Seals are cruising the river looking for Jack. Earl says they’re a few clicks away. They touch down and Charlie hopes Jack gets with the program.
They head into the jungle on foot looking for Jack and find fresh blood. They uncover a body and tell her it looks like a ground skirmish between two factions. They ask for a confirmation on Jack. They tell him those guys are FARC and he’s unaccounted for. He says whoever killed them was a pro and says there is no brass on the ground. Mo asks what that means and Charlie says whoever has him now is a professional. Mo says there are no other special ops teams in the area.
Earl says a chopper headed out of there a while ago. They tell her that the chopper landed and then a plane took off headed for Leesburg. Charlie says if you want to humiliate the President, you rescue Jack and dump him off in POTUS’ backyard. Mo goes to brief POTUS on the update and she says she needs to talk to her about something. Nick rattles off info about the gems, some are fake, some are not. He knows them all cold.
Nick says he needs to do better if he wants to hide money in gems. Moosari is impressed but has another test. He tells him to provide the carat count on a ruby. Nick looks at it and says it’s not a ruby. It’s a 1.2 carat red diamond. He says it would buy a plane and Moosari says maybe it will. Jack lands in Virginia and finds Charlie waiting for him. She tells him she’s sorry he had to go through that and he says it’s the gig. She says they’re headed to Walter Reed and then a debrief.
Charlie asks who the hell the guy is who brought him and he says he’s Victor Gantry. She asks who he works for and he says no one. He says he’s a patriot who came upon a fellow American in need. He says they were doing private security at a copper mine. She says that sounds like a cover story she would have given when she was less experienced. He won’t answer anything else and says he’s heard good things about her. He gets back on the plane.
POTUS looks at a medal and then calls her husband. She apologizes to him and he says it’s okay. She asks why he’s out without his security detail. She says she loves him and he says it back. He’s at Senator Green’s house. Uh-oh. David paces then goes to meet an aide, Jennifer, of Senator Green’s. She says the AR bomb threats are putting targets on their back. She says the Senator is going to call for an investigation into mishandling of this.
She asks about the second backpack and David doesn’t know. He wonders how Senator Green knows. She gives him a copy of the press release they’re sending out tomorrow calling POTUS and CIA on the carpet. She asks what she gets for this and he orders them drinks. Kurt comes to talk to Mo and he says Lucas didn’t mess her up on purpose. He tells her that Lucas is drinking again but he doesn’t know what to do. She knew too.
She tells Kurt it’s none of his business what’s up with she and Lucas and says she knows he likes her. Charlie is looking into Gantry and says records are redacted and the plane is registered to a company called Controlled Outcomes. So far it looks like they’re owned by the Kreig Group. Charlie says to look into the Krieg Group so they can put it all into the book. Dash says it’s good to have her back.
Moosari takes Nick to an airfield. Payton comes to see Jack at Walter Reed. She asks how he is and he says he’s tired and it’s good to be home. She tells him she owes him and the nation does too. He tells her he doesn’t want a medal and she says she’s not giving him that but is offering an apology. She says he took care of her in Kabul and says she didn’t keep the first rule of combat when she left him beind in Panama. She says she’s deeply sorry for that. She takes his hand and he tells her apology accepted.
He asks when he can get back to work and she smiles. The first hubby leaves the Senator’s house and looks at photos from an envelope. They’re off Nick and Charlie with Fatah on the midnight ship. Charlie tells Mo she’s pulling info on the Krieg Group for her for the book. Mo says she’s playing Cyrano with her and POTUS and says she should be briefing her. She says she resigned today as briefer and says it felt like wearing her sister’s bra. They are called into the ops center. They found their first terrorist of AR. They ID’d the hand from a photo. It’s a girl names Stacy Dover. They pull up her yearbook photo. She’s in her dorm room and the guy asks her why she’s studying Middle Eastern culture. He asks about her goals and she says her goals are really big.
She says she wants to make a big difference in the world. Charlie answers POTUS request for her to come see her. She says Jack wants to get back into the field. Payton says Jack got snatched up and they left him there. Charlie tells her about Gantry and the Krieg Group that got him out. She says they’re researching them now. POTUS says she’s intrigued and wants to know more about them. She says she likes they were able to color outside the lines and not get caught.
She tells Charlie to put it into her briefing tomorrow. Payton says battle lines are being drawn and she needs her friends. Charlie tells her about Stacy Dover, the college student they think is involved with AR. We see Stacy with a red backpack with the AR symbol on it. Charlie says she thinks the girl could be a legitimate threat.
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