On the latest episode of Madam Secretary, Elizabeth (Téa Leoni) went up against the new president of the Philippines.
At the start of the episode, in the McCord household, Elizabeth was getting ready to head out to Singapore. She was happy that they were on terms with almost all countries in the Asian Pacific. Jason (Evan Roe) and Alison (Kathrine Herzer) spoke about Datu Andrada (Joel de la Fuente) the crazy new president of the Philippines.
At the White House, President Dalton (Keith Carradine), Russell Jackson (Zeljko Ivanek) and Elizabeth watched a live broadcast by Andrada. He spoke of withdrawing from the Singapore Interchange agreement and said his country would no longer live in the shadow of America.
Russell didn’t want to deal with Andrada but Elizabeth wanted to visit him to try and start a dialogue. President Dalton said they needed him involved or the Singapore Interchange was pointless. Russell suggested they offer him some military drones and Dalton said Elizabeth should put a package together.
At the FBI, Henry (Tim Daly) went for an update on Ian Conroy (Darren Pettie) who had been missing for four days. They felt they had pinpointed the location of the compound. The director wanted to raid the compound but Henry disagreed. He thought it was too early and too risky for a raid and felt it could force them to detonate the missing bomb.
Before heading out, Elizabeth spoke to Hugh Haymond (Michael Gaston) from the CIA. She tried to get information about the death of Kevin (Justin Baldoni). He refused to give her any information so Elizabeth asked Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) to look into it in her absence.
In the Philippines, Elizabeth met Andrada who asked if he could call her by name. She agreed but he insisted that she call him by his title. He wasn’t a fan of the US who he knew weren’t a fan of his. She offered him US support in the form of defence with things like drones.
Andrada said it was sexy to hear a woman talking about drones. Elizabeth moved away and turned her back and he walked up and grabbed her bottom. She instinctively spun around and punched him square in the face, breaking his nose.
Dalton called her actions ‘a new form of diplomacy’ while Russell chuckled about the situation. A furious Andrada ordered the US military out of the Philippines. Elizabeth offered to apologise to try and resolve the situation. Blake (Erich Bergen) came in to say that Andrada was also kicking Elizabeth and her team out.
Back home, Henry updated Elizabeth on Andrada. He had been in the media telling them how his nose was broken in the gym fighting a guy called Cobra. Elizabeth realised that Cobra would probably be Henry’s new pet name for her.
Back in the office, Elizabeth’s team wondered if she would tell the truth to the press. She wanted to keep it quiet to keep the talks alive. Meanwhile, Jay updated her on what he found out about Kevin. He had discovered that he’d been snooping into arms sales and the flights that transported them.
Andrada seemed to be very friendly with China and was letting them take over parts of his country. After talking with the military leader of the Philippines they discovered a potential plan to assassinate Andrada. Russell seemed happy with the idea but Elizabeth wanted to try other options first. Hacking his emails revealed that he had sexually assaulted many women but paid them off to be quiet. Elizabeth kicked off a plan to talk to the women to try and have Andrada impeached.
Eventually one of the woman agreed to come to the US to talk. There she revealed it wasn’t sexual assault she was paid off for but something even worse. In exchange for asylum she agreed to tell her story. She had proof that Andrada had been taking huge payments from China.
Elizabeth used the information to push Andrada into a joint press conference with Dalton. In exchange for agreeing to work with the US they agreed to keep it quiet. After Elizabeth promised that she would sit on what he had done to her until the day she needed to use it.
Elsewhere in the episode, Ian made contact with Henry. They arranged a meeting where Ian explained the inductions he had been put through. He had identified a shed where the bomb may be but needed a distraction. Henry agreed to create one so he could take a look.
At the end of the episode, the distraction was put into play which took the attention of most of the men in the compound. Ian managed to get into the shed and discovered that there was no bomb but a stolen military drone.
He was discovered and attacked but managed to fight and kill his attacker. He later met with Henry to give him the bad news and the body of the man he killed to dispose of.
The next episode is Swept Away. Elizabeth’s landmark global climate treaty is jeopardised when China threatens to back out due to her meeting with the Dalai Lama.
Tune in to Sky Living at 10pm Wednesday to see the episode. Preview the episode with our gallery below:
