BWW Recap: Slow Boat To China/Japan Peace Treaty On MADAM SECRETARY
By: Scott Fullerton Oct. 13, 2014
He's Baaack! Hello Stranger Friends. Time to gather around our virtual water cooler and discuss last night's episode of MADAM SECRETARY. Just when I thought the show's writers were listening to me about burying George's (the CIA friend of MADAM SECRETARY) conspiracy theory, we get a double helping of reminders. I was happy however, to get some backstory filled in about Secretary Marsh, current Secretary McCord's predecessor, and even more excited that it came to us from Broadway's own Bebe Neuwirth.
The episode started with this week's global crisis, a treaty over mineral rights and land ownership of a bunch of small islands that both Japan and China having been trying to lay claim to for decades disintegrates with the unfortunate timing of a Chinese student refusing to board her airplane home and seeking political asylum in the U.S.. Lucky for me this story just serves as background for the rest of what is happening this week, because I would have never gotten all the spellings of the names and places they were talking about.
Conspiracy reminder number one is the memorial for George. The Secretary, working for the past four days on no sleep and caffeine, and her CIA friends are being snarky and silly as Henry scolds them back into line. After the memorial, the three friends talkm and one admits that she thinks George's death may not be an accident. The Secretary's ears perk up, but finds that her friend thinks that George may have killed himself after being pulled out of field work. I love the talks between Elizabeth and Henry, and as they head back to her car, she tries to talk about why both she and her husband didn't think it was an accident. Henry tells her he was waiting until she was ready, and thinks she is still not.
That Chinese asylum storyline did bring us an overzealous Senator Fletcher from Texas, who went to the Secretary's daughter Stephanie's new hostess job, to communicate to her mother her feelings on the case. This answers last week's question as to whether or not we would see her job keep her as a pawn in her mother's new position. Poor Stephanie was not having a good week as the once quiet sister Allison, decides to let Stephanie have it about not being the over-achieving, homecoming queen, valedictorian, collegiate, star daughter anymore, right in front of Allison's new friends at her sleepover party.
As Tim Daly's portrayal of Henry shined last week, Bebe Neurwith's character Nadine, had her chance in the sun this week. After first tearing apart speechwriter Matt for not getting around to preparing words for Secretary Marsh's remembrance and portrait hanging ceremony, she was soon berating the entire staff's lack of compassion for their old boss, and even refusing the Secretary herself, in moving back the ceremony due to the treaty issues. When MADAM SECRETARY goes to comfort her Chief of Staff alone, while still remaining firm, she tells Nadine that she must call Secretary Marsh's widow to reschedule the ceremony. It is only then that we find out that Nadine was not only in love with him, but was actually sleeping with him behind everyone's back. Although she thought it was being whispered about, it seems everybody was too busy to notice it was happening.
I loved Neuwirth's manic emotion and range of feelings, and it's easy to remember why she has been so lauded in all of her Broadway and television credits. Her confession and feelings for Marsh seemed to have swayed our current Secretary into picturing him a little kinder than George's rants originally led her to. At Marsh's ceremony however, she was snapped back to reality as she learned Presidential Chief of Staff had learned that Marsh was going to announce to run against the President and stab them all in the backa.
Unfortunately for me, this brings us back full circle to reminder number two and George's warning that she could be in danger and that Marsh was up to something no good. Soon the day's stress is crashing around our Secretary as she falls into Henry's lap, and lets her guard down with the person she loves most.
All in all Stranger Friends, this was not one of my favorite episodes of the series so far, but there was a few glimmers of new information that seemed to foreshadow things to come.
Questions of the Week:
1) Are we ever going to hear the rest of Henry's warm-up joke for his speech he had to give?
2) Is Blake going to find time to get to the zoo, or will he just have to watch the Panda Cam?
3) Anyone recognize who the actor was in Secretary Marsh's portrait? Flashbacks coming?
Got answers to these questions or a few questions or observations of your own? Please let me know in the comments down below, or tweet me at @LeftofStr8 or any of us here at @BWWTVWorld. We have an entire section devoted to recaps now, so you can click above anytime to find out about your favorite shows. You can also look for my recaps on Thursdays for the RED BAND SOCIETY.
Photo Credit: CBS
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