Madam Secretary - Blame Canada - Review: "Anoter day, another war"

This week, Madam Secretary once again had to avert war with a foreign nation. Besides that, there were also some issues with Canada.

The Canadian Ambassador asks Elizabeth to sign off on some report that was commissioned by her predecessor. Canada needs a signed report to go forward with an under-construction oil pipeline, which was recently blown up. However, Elizabeth is too busy with Iran, who has refused to shut down their nuclear reactor. They also don't want any foreign inspectors in their country to see if the reactor has really been shut down. Therefore, the negotiator in charge of the peace talks, Allen Bollings, recommends the President to take military action against Iran. Elizabeth offers another solution: lifting the US ban on the trade of commercial plane parts if Iran allows the inspectors. Bollings says he will try it. Later, the Canadian Ambassador calls Elizabeth to accuse a few US fishing boats of violating some laws. Madam Secretary assures him she will look at the oil report, but also wants Nadine to find the people who wrote it. When she finds the authors, Elizabeth deduces that they are oil lobbyists and that the report is a fake one. She subsequently refuses to sign the document.

In the meantime, the peace talks with Iran break down. Elizabeth offers Zahed Javani, a former UN employee, to join the peace talks but even that doesn't help. Bollings suggests the Iranians were never serious about the talks to begin with, and the President considers military action. In an honest conversation, Dalton admits to his Secretary of State that he hoped to be the President who would bring peace to the Middle East. He also addresses the Canada issue and says he wants energy independence for the US. Elizabeth asks six months to get a new report and wants 24 hours before he takes military action on Iran. The President eventually agrees to both.

At a party the Canadians threw her, Elizabeth secretly meets Javani with the help of the Canadian Ambassador. Elizabeth asks why he walked away and why he didn't want the deal with the plane parts. Javani reveals he never heard about the deal, but that Bollings only threatened with taking military action if Iran didn't allow the inspectors. The peace talks resume and Iran gets the deal while also shutting down their reactor and allowing inspectors. Elizabeth confronts Bollings, and he says this was the way he did things with Marsh. He claims he would have been Secretary of State if Marsh were still alive. Elizabeth says he isn't and fires him.

In the final scene, Elizabeth asks Blake to run a confidential investigation into Nadine.

Elsewhere in the hour, Matt and Daisy are revealed to have had an affair and Matt breaks off with his girlfriend. Also, Henry is interviewed by his son and he is also number 3 on the list of Arm Candy.

I found this episode not as good as the previous ones. I still enjoyed it, but there were some things that could have been better. First of all, I didn't really feel the high stakes of the Iran peace talks. Last week, we also had a war threat so to have it again this week might have been too soon. Maybe it would have added to the threat had we actually seen the Iranian nuclear reactor. I know it's still early into the series, but I'm hoping that one day we will really get to see a war. It would be a huge deal for Elizabeth and the President to deal with it, and I would be very curious to see how they handle it.

Also, I don't really care about the Matt and Daisy affair. We haven't really gotten to know them so I'm not sure how we are supposed to care about their fling at all. Besides that, it was nice to see Henry in action a bit more when he was with his son at the café. He continues to be a supportive husband to Elizabeth but I'm sure he has his doubts about her job.

I must say I did not see the end coming. Even when Elizabeth said she wanted a confidential investigation, I thought she would want to investigate Jackson or even Dalton because of what happened to Marsh. Of course, it makes sense that it's Nadine because she was as loyal to Marsh as Bollings is. It will be interesting to see where the investigation leads.

What did you think of this episode? Did you guess Bollings was lying to Elizabeth and the President? And how do you think the investigation into Nadine will turn out? Let us know what you thought in the comments below!

Watch the promo for the next episode below.

About the Author - Daniel

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

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