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Madam Secretary - Just Another Normal Day - Review: "This means war"

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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 Secretary of State and her office have been working the entire week to get Japan and China to sign a peace treaty as they are both laying claim on some islands. However, this treaty is compromised when a Chinese girl refuses to leave the United States and asks for asylum. The Chinese Foreign Minister threatens to walk away from the deal unless Elizabeth returns the girl. Elizabeth can't promise to deny the asylum, and the Chinese Minister leaves. The Japanse Foreign Minister is very unhappy, but Elizabeth manages to convince him to wait another 48 hours. If that time has passed, Japan will plant a Japanese flag on the islands which would effectively put them at war with China.

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.

The second memorial is of Elizabeth's predecessor and Madam Secretary has to give a speech. Due to the China-Japan issue, she keeps postponing the memorial, much to the dismay of Nadine. After Nadine snaps at Matt and refuses to postpone the memorial once again, Elizabeth asks what's wrong with her. Nadine breaks down and reveals that she had an affair with the previous Secretary of State. However, another and more shocking reveal comes at the memorial when Chief of Staff Jackson tells Elizabeth that her predecessor was about to announce his running for Presidential candidate. This means that both President Dalton and Jackson have motive to want the previous SoS dead. A confused Elizabeth tells her husband and breaks down in his arms.

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:



About the Author - Daniel
Daniel is a Dutch university student studying Psychology. On SpoilerTV he is a reviewer of NCIS, The 100 and the upcoming shows Madam Secretary, Battle Creek and Odyssey. He also enjoys Arrow, NCIS: LA, Nikita and The Blacklist. Recently gotten into LOST which he really loves. He is excited for the new shows Stalker, Scorpion, NCIS: New Orleans and a bunch of others.
Recent Reviews by Daniel (All Reviews)

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