BWW Recap: Can MADAM SECRETARY Stop A War With Canada? WHAT??

Hey Stranger Friends, it's your tried and true MADAM SECRETARY recapper and reviewer here, and this week had both McCord's, our Secretary and husband Henry, refusing to suffer fools gladly. Our Secretary had two healthy servings of issues on her plate this week, and once again the writers do not shy away from taking stories out of our recent, real-life headlines. One of my favorite and versatile character actors, Robert Kline, guest stars as Canadian Ambassador Clark, who is pressuring the Secretary to release a report that supports a controversial oil pipeline from Canada to the U.S., and negotiations to get inspectors back into Iran's nuclear program, are souring badly. Henry is the subject his son's most recent school assignment, and a casual lunch to discuss dad's past takes an interesting turn.

Behind the scenes are Press Secretary, Daisy, and Speech Writer, Matt, who seem to have been trying to end their office fling, and failing miserably. (Remember back in the pilot episode when the Secretary's assistant Blake, called them out on it)? Speaking of Blake, you know how much I love the humor he brings a little of to each episode, he has the office guessing which team he plays for in the dating pool. His lack of personal pronouns is keeping the staff guessing, and the gender neutral employment of partner being a lawyer for the FCC, and having the name Chris, (Kris?), is not helping them.

The Iran matter is serious stuff, and this entire episode has made our President pretty grouchy, as he really lays into our MADAM SECRETARY for the first time, even questioning if she is any good at her job. He is worrying about his legacy, and it turns out not just about the peace in the Middle East and going to war with Iran over nuclear energy, but brings it full circle to the Secretary, letting her know how important the Canadian pipeline is to him and how he wants to be viewed, as well.

As she goes back to working on the pipeline issue with Canada, the Secretary finds huge inaccuracies in the report that everyone wants released, and is appalled to find that it was commissioned by her predecessor, Secretary Marsh, and assigned to be written by the biggest oil company lobbyists in Washington. Chief of Staff, Nadine, once again comes to the former Secretary's defense, (whom we found she had an affair with last week), saying he would never be in anyone's pocket, and that the findings are what the President is wanting as well. What is that saying about fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice....yada yada, yada??

The writers have blended in the family life pretty seamlessly again this week, as middle daughter Allison, frets about the possibilities of war with Iran, and their anarchist son, Jason is asked to do a paper at school about one of his parents and their occupation and what they like about it, so he naturally picks his dad, since he feels his teacher wants it to be about his famous mom. Tim Daly as Henry, really gets to stand out again this week as we find out about his fighter pilot past, and taking part in Operation Desert Storm. Henry has unfortunately just been named number three in a poll of best looking government spouses, (behind only two supermodels), and as a drunken airman tries to get in Henry's face at lunch with his son, Henry proves he's more than capable of taking care of himself as he takes the airman down in a strong but compassionate handling of the situation, showing his son a side he has never seen of his dad.

With the Iran negotiations now having fallen apart, and the Chief Negotiator and the President ready to launch missiles and go to war, the Secretary asks for one more day to resolve both the Iran and Canadian issues. She skillfully gets the Canadian Ambassador an offer that will put off the pipeline talks long enough to get her own personal study conducted. She even gets him to secretly bring over the Iranian Ambassador for a face to face meeting at the Canadian Consulate, where she finds the truth about what was happening at the negotiations, and we find that our Secretary was keeping tabs on the Iranian, in her old CIA days.

This is the second time we have found a little about the Secretary's days back when she was in the CIA, through conversations. I know that "flashback storytelling," has been the new black in television of late, but Tea Leoni has the young looking face to pull off a flashback from the past, and I for one, would really like to see the writers attempt that sometime soon. It would be great seeing her working with the President, (who was then the head of the CIA), on some case in the past, that can now relate to a situation they are in, here in the present.

The episode ends strong with MADAM SECRETARY asking for the Chief Negotiators resignation in a fiery confrontation, and assigning Blake an investigation that no one can know about. Investigating Chief of Staff, Nadine! WHAT???

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Things I Am Thankful For:

Another week without the conspiracy theory!
They may have a truly diverse group in the State Department if there is a gay character.
Cast as a "recurring" character, Keith Carradine has been in every episode.

Questions of the Week:

They have covered Pakistan, Iran, and Canada..... What's next? Egypt? Ukraine?
Now that Bebe and Tim have danced, Can Erich or Patina Sing?
Does Nadine know what Secretary Marsh was up to in South America?

Thank you Stranger Friends for watching another great week of MADAM SECRETARY with me. I hope you will give your thoughts on the episode in the comments below or tweet me at @LeftofStr8 on Twitter or any of us here at @BWWTVWorld. You can also read my regular recaps and reviews of THE RED BAND SOCIETY every Thursday here on BroadwayWorld, and this Tuesday, October 21st, I will be guest recapping and live tweeting, for MARVEL'S AGENTS OF SHIELD.

Photo Credit: CBS Television

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