Tonight on NBC State of Affairs airs with an all new Sunday November 17, season 1 episode 1 premiere called, “Pilot.” On tonight’s episode Charlie (Katherine Heigl) reflects on the one-year anniversary of her fiancé’s death at the hands of a terrorist in the series premiere of this political drama centering on a top CIA analyst who assembles the President’s daily briefing. Alfre Woodard also stars.
State of Affairs is an American espionage thriller series that stars Katherine Heigl as CIA analyst Charleston Tucker, who is tasked with assembling and presenting the President’s Daily Briefing on the most vital security issues facing the country, and Alfre Woodardas first black female President Constance Payton, who, in a different world, would have been Tucker’s mother-in-law
On tonight’s episode as per the NBC synopsis, “CIA Analyst Charleston Tucker (Katherine Heigl) still can’t remember what really happens a year ago when the diplomatic convoy she was on was attacked in Kabul. While she and then-Senator Payton (Alfre Woodard) barely made it out alive, Charlie’s fiancé, Payton’s son Aaron (guest star Mark Tallman), wasn’t so lucky. Today is the one-year anniversary of Aaron’s death; Payton is president, Charlie is her CIA briefer and together they’re faced with a choice – try and avenge Aaron’s death by going after Fatah (guest star Farshad Farahat), the terrorist responsible for the convoy attack, or hold off in favor of taking down his entire network in the future. Adam Kaufman, Sheila Vand, Cliff Chamberlain, Tommy Savas and David Harbour also star. Guest starring Chris L. McKenna, Ramsey Faragallah and Derek Ray.”
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.
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
A firefight is going on. A woman screams out for Aaron and then Maureen and Charlie. Two women and some men are in a terrible battle and shots are firing everywhere. Charlie is having a flashback. She sees the tracer rounds and then sees Aaron go down. She crawls to him, her fiancee, while shots still rage. She hides behind a wall cowering. She tells her shrink she doesn’t want to talk about it anymore. The shrink says she’s altering the facts of the incident based on the trauma of Aaron dying. She says she’s repressing something but Charlie says she remembers it all.
She says he died and it was brutal and ugly and the memory is getting more and not less vivid. Her shrink says she’s ready to face it. Aaron says face what – that he was killed in a terrorist attack. Her shrink says she’s engaging in reckless personal behavior. We see Charlie drinking in a bar with a strange guy and then hooking up with him. She asks Charlie if she considers herself sexually irresponsible. Her shrink says that worries her.
Charlie wakes to see photos of her and Aaron on the wall and a stranger on her skin. She goes to shower. Her shrink says no good can come of her incessant partying. Charlie says good doesn’t have to come as long as she does. Flashback to her kicking the guy out of her bed at 1:30 am. She says she has to be at work at 2 and tells him she called him a lab. She shows up to the CIA HQ in Langley six hours before the President’s daily security briefing.
She looks at a news feed about Afghanistan and terrorists and thinks more about Aaron’s death. Lucas dashes into the elevator as the doors close. They introduce themselves to each other. She says he’s very handsome and he thanks her. She says he’s old for a briefer. They both went to school in NC – schools with a rivalry. She introduces Lucas to the others as acting director Skinner’s new briefer. She points out Maureen, Kurt and Dashiel. They are briefers for the Secretary of Defense, State Department and DOJ.
She says they put together the book that is delivered to POTUS. She tells Lucas to grab a chair and keep up. They bring up Tamir Hofi, former Mossad agent in Istanbul selling a cyber warfare virus. They move him back. Sunni militants training for suicide bombing were killed in training and they all laugh. Nairobi got chatter about terrorists after the great Satan. They turn on a video from the group running on Al Jazeera. It’s at a refugee camp. Charlie says the doctor looks just like Aaron.
She says he’s obviously American. They see shots fired on the doctors and the sick people gunned down. The doctor is dragged out and Charlie says he has less than 12 hours to live and goes to the front of the book. They dig into the doctor – Benjamin Butler – who is a cardiologist with no wife or kids. Charlie is called to the director’s office and tasks the team to keep digging.
Skinner comes in and says General Khan, Syrian intelligence chief, is in town and he wants the guy I front of POTUS. Charlie says he has ties to terrorist camps and regimes. She says the guy is a gangster. He tells her to make it happen and tells Lucas to stay after she leaves. Three hours until the briefing, they tell her Jack Dawkins team is closest and she says they need to figure out where they’re holding him.
Lucas comes to tell her that the director wanted her to do what he asked on Khan. Dashiel calls the in and says MI6 is tracking them and they see the terrorists tell them the American will be punished unless 25 of their brothers are released from Gitmo. They say they will spill the blood of their evil and slit the throat of a British doctor there with Butler.
She goes to the cafeteria and asks why the Africa watchers are having burritos. She asks why they’re not upstairs briefing her. Steve calls her PITA (pain in the ass) and she asks about Butler. He says he travels a lot over there helping people. He says he was in Syria recently and she asks why he was there. He says he has no clue and she tells him to get one.
They see another video of the terrorists. A guy says he thinks they found Fattah. She asks Earl for a sitrep and they wonder if they should put it in the book. They get online with Jack and his JSOC team. He tells her they can get the guy – Fattah – but she has an abduction that he needs to prioritize. She asks what the percent is they can kill Fattah today and tells him to call back when it hits 80%.
She has to pick between the terrorist that killed her BF and rescuing the doctor. She says the CIA has a lot of assets on the ground and they don’t want to burn them all going after Fattah. Lucas says they should go after Fattah. She says they have to prioritize Butler. She says they never mentioned Bin Laden in the book every time they got close over the decade.
Maureen asks if she’s going after Butler because he looks like Aaron. Charlie says she won’t tell POTUS about Fattah unless they have more certainty. Butler reads a statement on a video asking for the release of the prisoners from Gitmo or else Americans will be executed. He’s held at knife point when he reads the statement. Charlie says to print the book now.
Maureen is searching for a paper trail – the whole team is scrambling. They tear up leads as they go and toss them into burn bags. They cram the stuff on Fattah in the burn bags and send it to the incinerator. They hand Charlie the book and she head to the White House. On the way, she gets a text from someone she doesn’t know who says they know about the day her fiancee died, that she’s CIA and some of the materials about that day are classified. Charlie threatens to track the number but the texter says she can’t.
News place about an attack on a Congressional delegation attacked including Aaron Payton, the President’s son. President Payton waits in the oval and greets Charlie. She tells her about Dr Butler. She says one doctor – a Brit – was already killed. She says it’s a splinter group of Al Shabaah led by Kataab, a new guy whose trying to impress the other jihadists.
The President notices the doctor looks like Aaron. Charlie says she thinks he’ll be dead by noon. She tells POTUS Jack Dawkins and JSOC are nearby. She says they are the only team close enough to run a rescue. She says General Khan is in town and wants a meeting with her and says Director Skinner thinks he’ll be a good asset for them.
POTUS tells her to tell the truth and Charlie says she doesn’t trust the guy and says he’s there to ferret out info. Payton asks if there’s anything else and Charlie doesn’t mention Fattah. POTUS says they’ll let her know ASAP on trying to extract Butler. Charlie gets a text on the way out from her mystery texter asking if she told the Prez about Fattah and then complimenting her coat. Someone has eyes on her.
She calls the CIA but they can’t run down the line for her. She says to run it again and get her a location. JSOC calls – it’s Jack. He says he’s 80% on Fattah and can have him dead by day’s end and his number two. He tells her he wants Fattah but she says POTUS wants the doctor. He asks if she knows about Fattah but she hung up.
General Khan is there screaming and Maureen wants to know why he’s on the 7th floor. She says he snuck a cell phone into the French Embassy sewn into his coat. Skinner calls them in and he says he got off the phone with JSOC and wants to know why they didn’t put this in the book for POTUS. He asks if that’s Charlie’s decision and Maureen says they shouldn’t talk about this in front of Khan.
Khan says he can provide information on Fattah’s location and Lucas says that team is on Dr Butler but Skinner says that he and Khan are taking this to POTUS personally and tells them to make it happen. Maureen calls Charlie and tells her what Skinner is doing and that Khan was on the 7th floor and she asks if Skinner knows what he did to the French.
Charlie says assume the worst and that he had a phone and is helping Fattah. Charlie sees them getting into the car. Charlie says they have to get the SIM card off of Khan’s phone. David calls and chews out Charlie about not bringing the Fattah stuff to POTUS. She tells him if they lose Fattah while Butler is decapitated, then what. He tells her POTUS makes policy, not her.
Maureen says Skinner suspended her and blocked her from the building. She says she’s making a run and tells them to clear out. She says to get the info on Butler and meet her. The detain order pops up and she calls Sid and says she’s on the buzzer. She tells him about Khan and that he may have a cell phone on him he had at the CIA and is on the way to the White House. He says he won’t make it.
She calls Steve and tells him to give Maureen the file. He says no but Maureen takes it and goes. Lucas comes to him and asks about Charlie. He says he doesn’t know what the hell is going on. Charlie takes the folder from Maureen and tells her to meet at the White House. Security has an eye on Charlie but she evade them by hopping on a delivery truck.
Secret Service stops Skinner and Khan and says they have a credible threat of a danger to Khan’s life. They take his vehicle and head off to “check it” for explosives. Charlie hops off the back off a truck and into a cab and tells the driver -1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Sid has Khan in the SUV and tells him to hand over the hidden phone. He pulls a knife and says he’s going to start digging.
He pulls off Khan’s hat and finds the phone. He asks Khan when was the last time he was water boarded then laughs and says – we don’t do that, we just drown them. Charlie comes into the Oval where Skinner is telling POTUS he suspended her. She says she didn’t withhold info, she was vetting it. The Prez asks if they could have killed Fattah today and she says there was a chance.
She says if they missed, they would lose the whole network. Charlie gets a text and says that she has credible evidence that Khan secreted a phone when he came into the CIA. Maureen pipes up and says he pulled the same thing on the French. POTUS asks where Khan is and then David comes in and says that Khan has been detained by the Secret Service but they don’t know where he is.
POTUS asks about Butler and tells them to get JSOC to bring him home. Jack and his team touch down and a drone flies support. They have eyes on it and follow the team. Charlie and the others watch in the ops center. The team takes out some targets and set a charge to breach a door. They blow it and head in taking down targets right and left. They find Butler in one piece and tell him he’s safe. They extract him.
Charlie offers a tight smile as they watch his rescue. She thinks about lying in bed with Aaron. He says she’s somewhere else thinking and asks where. She says she’s stressing about the trip to Kabul. She says it’s more dangerous than he and his mother realize. She says it’s not important to her candidacy. Aaron says they have to go.
POTUS gives a memorial speech about her son a year to the day after his death. She speaks about his efforts as an aid worker. She says she doesn’t like Taps and says her son loved Coltrane. She has a saxophonist there and he plays a smooth jazz number. Charlie is lost in her recollection of that day. Charlie tells POTUS later they will get Fattah and his whole network.
Payton asks if they will get them and Charlie says they will. Payton says she wants to hear from the woman that loved her son, will she get them. Charlie says she will find every last person that had anything to do with Aaron’s death and end all their lives. Payton tells her – that’s my girl. She tells Charlie that his death will make killers of both of them.
Charlie comes home to find her door ajar. She goes in carefully and finds her gun is gone. She asks Nick why he’s there. He says they need to talk and she says he broke in, stole her gun and drank her Scotch. She reminds him the Scotch was an engagement gift from him. He asks if they should pour some out for Aaron. She threatens to shoot him and he says he got her gun and her back up piece.
He pours her some Scotch. She kicks off her shoes and sits on the counter. She sips her Scotch and says he’s been dark for over a year. She says he was there and gone. She says she doesn’t appreciate the texts and he says he doesn’t send texts. She says if he didn’t send them, someone knows about Fattah and what they did. She hands over her phone for him to read it.
She says she can’t trace it. She yanks her phone away and says for all she knows, he could have hit the convoy. He says she’s great in bed, but not bright. She says the man who may have killed the president’s son was a CIA asset. Nick says he was her asset. He tells her he’s sorry what he said about Aaron and says he didn’t deserve to die that way.
Charlie thinks about what her shrink said about not remembering everything accurately. She remembers Aaron with a gun in his hand firing point blank. Later, Charlie sits at a bar and takes a drink from the first guy that offers. She shows him her favorite bar trick and it’s on – another poor sexual decision.
THE END!
