Madam Secretary - Russian Roulette - Review: "Let the games begin"

Madam Secretary was closer than ever to going to war with Russia in the latest episode, but a last-minute piece of evidence changed everything.

Following the blackout in Moscow, Maria Ostrov is furious and calls President Dalton to tell him he made a big mistake and that she will retaliate. Dalton denies they had anything to do with the blackout, just as Ostrov had nothing to do with the Air Force One attack. Elizabeth is worried about her plans, but Dalton isn't. Later that night, Henry and Bess discuss the situation with Russia and how neither of them can talk about it. After all, they almost went to prison last season due to sharing information with one another. Henry heads out to see Jane and finds it suspicious that Russia did not mention the Air Foce one attack in the battle plans that Dmitri (who's still MIA) gave to them. Jane tells Henry to let it go as it goes above both their pay grades. Meanwhile, Maria Ostrov keeps her promise and retaliates by shutting down three pipelines that supply 40% of gas supply for Western Europe, which leads to Europe considering breaking their alliance with the US. Dalton wants to hit back at Russia, but Bess holds him off and says she wants to go before the United Nations to tell them everything. Dalton agrees and gives Bess 24 hours to prepare. Bess calls Ukrainian President Bozek so he can give them evidence on the attack on his plane and she gives Matt instructions to start writing the speech of her life. Meanwhile, Henry meets with Russell to show him Dmitri's intel, but Russell says it's too late. He also threatens to throw both Henry and Elizabeth in jail if he tells her about this. Nevertheless, Henry tells his wife that he believes Russia is not behind the Air Force One attack. Also, if Russia would be able to hack President Dalton's plane, why would they retaliate for a cyber attack on Moscow by shutting down three gas pipelines?

Bess thinks he might have a point, and she goes to Cybercom to ask Oliver Shaw point blank if it is possible Russia was not behind the Air Force One hack, which he confirms. Time is running out and Elizabeth speculates with her office who else it could be. The hacker worked with Russia, North Korea, Iran and China so it could be any of them. They rule out North Korea and Iran, but China is possible since a US-Russia conflict would give them the time to take control over Southeast Asia. Bess calls Foreign Minister Chen and asks him if his country had anything to do with the Air Force One attack. Chen laughs this off and says they have over 20% of their country's money invested in both Russia and the US, while also telling that China is playing a long game by aiming to repossess the US (which is probably something for another season). Russell later busts into her office and tells her to get on Marine One to deliver that speech, but Bess instead skips the speech. The next morning, Jay says how it's weird that Ukraine has gotten the best out of this situation and Bess theorizes that maybe Ukraine framed Russia for the Air Force One attack. Jay collects information and Bess asks Craig Sterling how the Ukrainians looked the day after their plane crash. Henry says that the first couple of parachute jumps always cause minor injuries. It turns out the passenger list was changed at the last minute to include people who had paratroop training. Also, a Ukrainian national died in Vietnam earlier from Polonium poisoning which was also used to kill George Lasco. All this evidence leads to one conclusion: Bozek was behind the Air Force One attack.

Dalton calls Bozek and confronts him with the evidence. Bozek admits to the attack, saying he would do anything to get help from the US to fight Russia. However, the US has already announced their alliance with the Ukraine and they already attacked Russia, so they can't back out now. Instead, Dalton decides to keep his men in Ukraine and enforce a no-fly zone. World War III averted. Unfortunately, Russia violates the no-fly zone that night. Dalton gives permission to shoot down the Russian plane.

Tensions surely reached a boiling point with this episode, didn't they? This might have been one of the most intense episodes that the show has ever done. I mean, the tensions rose every minute and it was a race against the clock to prevent a war with Russia. There were various twists in this episode that I did not see coming. It always seemed a bit too obvious that Russia was behind the Air Force One attack, and yet I did not have any reason to suspect anyone else. I definitely did not see Ukraine as a suspect. The show has created quite an intriguing position. In reality, Ukraine is the bad guy even though they did it because they needed support from the US. Now the US already has an escalating conflict with Russia so they cannot back out of their alliance with Ukraine. And Russia is not as bad as it looked, although their hostile takeover of Ukraine does not make them a good guy either. Either way, it has created an interesting layer to this entire conflict. I liked how Henry kept persisting that Russia was not behind it and now he risked everything by telling his wife. I know Henry has been criticized for the way he dealt with Dmitri (rightfully so, I would say), but in these last few episodes he is back to being a full good guy. All in all, an excellent episode and I can't wait for the next episode!

What did you think of "Russian Roulette"? Were you surprised that Ukraine rather than Russia was behind the Air Foce One attack? How should the US deal with this situation? Is a war with Russia still on the table? How will Maria Ostrov retaliate against the US for shooting down their plane over Ukraine? And lastly, will Henry face consequences for sharing classified info with his wife? I would love to hear your thoughts and theories in the comment section below.

The next episode airs December 14 at 8/7c on CBS. It will be the last episode for this year.

About the Author - Daniel van der Veer

Daniel van der Veer is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, The 100, Madam Secretary and Quantico. 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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