On the latest episode of Madam Secretary, Elizabeth (Téa Leoni) dealt with a situation in Somalia.
At the start of the episode, a crisis was developing in Somalia. Two rebel groups were fighting for control of the land which had put 50,000 people at risk of starvation. A renowned Russian black market arms dealer, Dito Pirosmani (Elya Baskin), had supplied weapons to both groups.
Elizabeth had to leave the meeting to head to the White House but demanded regular updates. At the White House she met with President Dalton (Keith Carradine) and Russell Jackson (Zeljko Ivanek) to discuss the theft of American weapons which included guns, ammunition, missiles and a couple of drones. Elizabeth had to head back to the office when the situation in Somalia got worse.
Elizabeth spoke to aid worker Anis Musse (Jason Bowen) who used to work for the State Department. His latest aid convoy was intercepted by the rebels who stole the supplies. He had decided to try and broker a ceasefire between the groups himself which was a risky move. It didn’t go to plan and Anis found himself captured.
Elizabeth knew they couldn’t use military force or pay a ransom demand so had to come up with a different strategy. She came up with the idea to speak with Pirosmani to ask for his help. She wanted to pretend she could stop the CIA investigating him in exchange for him arranging a ceasefire and the release of Anis. Before she could put her plan into action, which everyone thought was crazy, she had to get it past the President. Russell kicked up the usual fuss but the Dalton gave her the go ahead.
Elizabeth and her team flew out to a meeting with Pirosmani and he agreed he could do what she wanted. He was also able to help with a phone number of the guy who stole the weapons in Texas. In return he wanted some form of compensation but she stressed she couldn’t pay him in cash. He had an idea and suggested he wanted a crazy expensive super yacht that had three swimming pools, two helipads, a missile defense system and even a getaway submarine!
The ceasefire went ahead as expected and Elizabeth dispatched a team to recover Anis. During the rescue a sniper opened fire and Anis was shot. Fortunately he survived and the team managed to extract him. Later she discovered that the rebels had been sold American weapons which they tracked to those that had gone missing in Texas. Pirosmani was obviously more involved than they thought but he had gone missing.
Meanwhile, Henry (Tim Daly) continued to work with the FBI to track down the missing Virginia Field Force members. They weren’t happy about recent events and decided to throw him off the team. Later he managed to use his knowledge to get involved again and they brought him back in.
Henry had worked out that the attack they were trying to prevent probably wasn’t aimed at US soil. Instead he proposed that they would try and carry out an attack abroad. If he’s right the target could be a mosque in Israel which if successful could pull Russia and Iran into the conflict and trigger World War III. He reckoned they had just three weeks to stop the attack.
Elsewhere in the episode, Alison (Kathrine Herzer) and Stevie (Wallis Currie-Wood) were waiting to hear if their college applications were successful. Stevie wanted to go to Harvard and had the support of Russell Jackson so her family thought she would walk it. Alison had her sights set on Rafferty but they were less optimistic.
Alison was successful and everyone was really proud of her. Stevie was denied but decided to keep it from her family. Russell Jackson knew though and let slip to Elizabeth about it. Stevie eventually told them the news and Alison decided she wanted to go to her second choice.
At the end of the episode, Henry was updated on the VFF members. They had managed to leave the country and their location was unknown. It was revealed that the group had managed to find their way to Syria.
The next episode is Extraordinary Hazard. Elizabeth and her team must work to save Jay when he’s kidnapped in Nice during a fact-finding mission into a suspected CIA arms smuggler.
Tune in to Sky Living at 10pm Wednesday to see the episode.
