Madam Secretary this week had to avert World War III between two powerful nations, considered giving political asylum to a foreign teenager and attended two memorial services. Yep, it was just another normal day for Elizabeth McCord.
The Chinese girl, Fu Xinpei, is seeking asylum because she's an activist and she doesn't feel safe. As Elizabeth is looking into the girl's life, a woman comes into her office claiming that her adopted Chinese daughter is Xinpei's sister. Meanwhile, in China, Xinpei's mother is brought in for questioning by the Chinese police. That is, until she dies of a heart attack. When Elizabeth learns about this, she is furious and says it makes denying Xinpei's asylum request much more difficult. A DNA test also confirms that the woman was right: her adopted daughter is Xinpei's sister. When Elizabeth tells the foreigner that her mother died, Xinpei confesses that her mother rather than herself was the activist. Her mother was also the one who put her up to the asylum plan. Elizabeth deduces that she doesn't really want to stay in the USA and uses that to leverage China to sign the treaty. When all is said and done, China and Japan divided the islands and Fu Xinpei returns to her home country.
During the hour, Elizabeth also attends two memorial services. One of them is George's, Elizabeth's former co-worker from the CIA who died at the end of the pilot. Henry and Elizabeth discussed that George's death wasn't an accident, and at the memorial another woman suggests it might have been suicide.
This was another solid episode. It was a fast-paced story and there were some nice emotional moments. It was great to see some more of Nadine and Bebe Neuwirth gave a great performance. The episode also had some funny moments, most notably Elizabeth's reaction when Jackson said 'fine' and her behaviour at George's memorial. We also saw some advancement of the White House conspiracy plot. It will be interesting to see where it goes. Would the President or his Chief of Staff really kill the Secretary of State because he wanted to run for President? It wouldn't make much sense from Jackson to tell Elizabeth about this when he's behind it.
Elizabeth's family life took a backseat this week, but it was appropriate and believable for the storyline. However, I'm still not entirely sure about the family's storylines as they don't seem to add much to the general storyline. It's good to see how Elizabeth's busy work influences her family life but some scenes feel forced. Take for example this week's scene where Blake goes to the McCord mansion to get some clothes for Elizabeth.
What did you think about this episode? Were you surprised that Fu Xinpei eventually wanted to return to China herself? What do you think about the President running reveal of Elizabeth's predecessor? And did you enjoy seeing more of Nadine? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Here is the promo for the next episode, airing Sunday at 8 pm:
