Madam Secretary - So It Goes - Review: "Bes(s)t episode so far"

The Madam Secretary episode this week advanced the conspiracy plot when Elizabeth, Henry and Isabelle investigated what really happened to Vincent Marsh when his plane went down over the Atlantic. This made for some great twists along the way to deliver the series best episode to date.

First of all, there is no case of the week. The sole focus of the hour is finding out the truth about Marsh's plane crash. The episode starts with a flashback to six months ago, when Marsh was still alive and well. It shows how Marsh gives Matt instructions about his speech, how he tells Nadine he has to cancel their weekend, and finally, how his plane went down due to turbulence. That is the last thing we see of the plane, and Marsh's final words are: "So it goes". In present day, Bess, Henry and Isabelle suspect that the plane was sabotaged and recall a similar plane crash from 2003 where some high-value Iranians were killed, supposedly by Mossad. Henry comes up with five suspects, but none of them appears to have anything to do with the crash. Therefore, Elizabeth suddenly invites an Israeli delegation to the US and cancels her meeting with some Nauruan officials. Bess asks the Israeli Ambassador Lior Dori about the plane crash in 2003, and it is confirmed that the Marsh plane was sabotaged in a similar way so that it would look like the plane had turbulence. However, Dori refuses to tell if the CIA was involved in the 2003 plane crash.

Earlier, Russell told Elizabeth not to stick her nose where it doesn't belong and he assures her that the plane crash was an accident. Elizabeth subsequently ordered him to get out of her office. Later, Matt gets a text for a mysterious meeting... with Russell! He tells her to spy on Elizabeth but Matt won't do it. Russell says he will give Matt a job in the White House if he tells what Bess is up to.

The investigating trio come up with a new suspect: John Castalano, a fueling technician on Marsh's plane. They discover he received $500,000 on his account in the Cayman Islands a day before the crash. Isabelle pretends to offer him a job and takes him to a hotel. Meanwhile, Elizabeth is at Allison's soccer game but covertly leaves the game during the break and also comes to the hotel. After putting pressure on him, Castalano admits he sabotaged the plane under duress because they threatened his family. He assures the women he doesn't know who hired him so they agree to let him go in order not to tip off whoever was behind it. They will also make sure that his family is safe.

Lastly, Matt comes clean to his boss and tells Bess that he spied on Marsh for Russell. He admits he told the Chief of Staff that he thought Marsh was considering running for President because his speeches were out of line with the current policy. Russell then threatened Marsh with the consequences (although he claimed it was "a guarantee") and when he walks out, he says: "So it goes". Matt tells him that he thought that maybe Russell and Dalton were behind the plane crash, and that Marsh himself thought so by saying his dying words "So it goes". Matt also tells Bess that Russell wants him to spy on her, and Elizabeth convinces him to do so he can work as a double agent. It's game on!

Also of note, Stevie gets a date (these children really seem to have random love interests) and Nadine is asked out on a date by a NASA scientist. The scientist asked Elizabeth not to cancel her meeting with the Nauruans as he was in the middle of doing a time travel experiment there. Bess agrees and his project continues, and while Nadine doesn't want to go out with him because she is not ready, he leaves the door pretty much open.

This is the best episode of the series to date. It was a breath of fresh air to not have a case of the week. I was afraid that they would also include a case, but fortunately it was all about the plane crash. It was great to finally get some answers to the plane crash and the flashbacks were meaningful and used well. Also, the show has just made Matt 100 times more interesting with his spy story. Honestly, he doesn't look like a spy type to me and as Daisy notes he is not a very good liar. It will be interesting to see how working as a double agent turns out for him.

Of course, not all questions were answered. Here are the most important one that still linger:
-Obviously the most important one: who hired Castalano to sabotage the plane? Was it President Dalton? Russell Jackson? Or are we completely deceived and looking at the wrong suspects?
-If it really was the President and/or Russell, why would Dalton ask Elizabeth as Marsh's successor? Elizabeth herself came up with the theory that Dalton wanted to keep her close so she wouldn't suspect anything, but is that really true? Dalton himself said in the pilot episode that Bess is a CIA analyst, would he really think she wouldn't analyze Vincent Marsh's plane crash?
-Was Marsh really intending to run for President? Or did Matt just make assumptions based on the speeches he had to write? Does Nadine know anything about this?
-At Marsh's memorial service, Russell told Elizabeth that Marsh was running for office. Why would he tell her that? Wouldn't that make him and Dalton more of suspects? Or did he not know that Bess was looking into Marsh's death? Or else, was it perhaps intended as a warning to Elizabeth?
-After Blake investigated Nadine, Elizabeth told her that she was looking into Marsh next. Did she mean she was looking into his death or into his life? Personally, I interpreted it as the latter, that Elizabeth was investigating Marsh to see if he was dirty. If that is true, how is that investigation going?

Next week's episode looks to be a normal case of the week, but episode 11 will focus on the Marsh investigation again, according to the press release. Isabelle is set to return for that episode, as well as Israeli Ambassador Dori from this episode.

What did you think of this episode? Did you like the episode as much as I did? Or did you miss the case of the week? How do you feel about Matt being a spy? And do you have any theories that answer my burning questions? Blow we away with these theories and your opinions of the episode in general in the comments below.

Promo for episode 10:

About the Author - Daniel

Daniel is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, The 100, Stalker, Madam Secretary and the upcoming shows Battle Creek and Odyssey. He also enjoys LOST, Arrow, NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, Nikita, The Blacklist, Scorpion and How To Get Away With Murder.

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