Tag Archives: Madam Secretary

Madam Secretary: Season 2 Episode 8 Recap

Last week’s Madam Secretary may not have had a lot of action, but it certainly made up for it with plenty of intrigue. In a rare instance of camaraderie, Russell and Bess work together to bring down their newly mutual enemy Craig Sterling.

The whole plan swings into motion when Russell receives an email from Admiral Ellen Hill announcing her retirement. Obviously the President will have to find a replacement, and Russell knows if Craig vouches for a shady candidate it would lead to his demise. But before Russell can really get this plot in action, he, Bess, and other relevant staff are summoned to the situation room. The tech guy (who I finally learned is named Oliver Shaw) informs the President and company that he’s located Dash, AKA the man they all suspect Russia hired to hack Air Force One, hiding in Cambodia. Craig urges the President to send in the Navy Seals, but Bess argues that the U.S. should take a more diplomatic approach by sending in a CIA team. Russell “agrees” with Craig’s idea, but Oliver backs Bess so the President ultimately chooses to send in select CIA operatives to get Dash.

After the meeting, Russell summons Craig to his office and offers his sympathies for Bess once again gaining the President’s favor. He assures Craig that he doesn’t like her either, and that they should team up to take her down. Even though Craig doesn’t completely trust Russell, he agrees to think about vouching for General Reeves as a replacement for Admiral Ellen Hill’s position at the Pentagon. Immediately after this meeting, Russell congregates with Bess and her associate Mike B. They realize that the only way to get rid of Craig is by forcing him into his resignation somehow. They can’t expose his attempt at foiling the Cuban Embassy reopening because it will reflect poorly on the President and his entire administration.

Retrograde ejaculation- When the person is dealing with the condition then problem occurs at the http://www.devensec.com/sustain/eidis-updates/ISIE_Newsletter_May_Sept_2016.pdf tadalafil 25mg orgasm and so ejaculation would force to back in bladder on the place of going to urethra. With the help of its active constituent, Sildenafil , it improves generic viagra wholesale the blood supply to your penile organ, irrespective of underlying health condition. The cialis price prices are considerably lesser and also it’s possible for customers to keep their identity in secrecy. However, generic viagra cheapest men suffering from diabetes, increased cholesterol levels and high blood pressure were excluded from the research. Not long after that little pow-wow, everyone’s called back to the situation room to hear that Dash has been located, but not alive. He’s been poisoned by some substance commonly found in Russia. Bess agrees this is rather suspicious, but she can’t vouch for taking any further action until they can get a second confirmation that Russia did hire Dash.

Later, Mike B. meets with a journalist who owes him a favor, and asks her to give Craig a little call. When she does, she claims that she has sources saying General Reeves bribed Craig to vouch for him. When he insists it isn’t true, the journalist asks for proof but Craig can’t provide it. At the time this bribe allegedly took place, Craig has it written in his calendar that he met with the senator who caused the whole Cuban debacle. Obviously he can’t show that as his proof, so he destroys the planner. Somehow Russell and Bess discover the shredded planner, and finally have grounds to ask for his resignation. By destroying his planner, Craig has broken a law which requires federal employees to keep all records of presidential meetings.

And finally the government is able to find proof on Dash’s laptop that Russia did indeed hire him to attack Air Force One, so Bess agrees to allow the United States to retaliate. The President chooses to go with the ultimate retaliation by cutting off all power to Moscow, so I’m sure we can expect even more drama from Russia this week.

Madam Secretary: Season 2 Episode 7 Recap

Well after missing last week’s recap, I’m back! And I’m excited to have a fun episode to write about. This week’s Madam Secretary had everything I love about this show. It was simple and was more about the characters as opposed to some insane international crisis.

Episode seven centered around the reopening of the Cuban Embassy in D.C. and the American Embassy in Cuba. Bess and her team (excluding Matt) are very excited about this occasion, but Bess really moves into action when a senator is caught in a scandal and resigns from his post. This particular senator was in charge of what gets brought to a vote in Congress, and Bess takes this chance to push for a vote to lift the United States’ Embargo on Cuba. When Matt hears about this new plan, he tells Bess he wants to help but she at first turns him down. She doesn’t want his help if he isn’t sincerely excited about the U.S. mending its relationship with Cuba. She refuses to let him help her write the speech to be given at the American Embassy’s opening, but Matt insists that Bess let him prove his sincere interest. So instead of writing a speech, Matt goes out and meets with two former Marines who were stationed in Cuba at the time the embargo was instated.

Meanwhile, Bess goes to the President and pitches her idea to lift the Cuban embargo. And of course her nemesis Craig doesn’t think it’s worthwhile, but for once Russel actually agrees with Bess. Not much convincing later, and the President has agreed to support the vote. As soon as she gets the President’s okay, Bess and her team begin scrambling to get enough “yes” votes. Russel even steps in a couple of times to help Bess out, but all does not fair well. Just as they get the last vote they need to win, Bess and Russel see one of their senators giving a press conference on the news. He brings a woman on the screen and announces that he’ll only vote to lift the embargo if Cuba returns a fugitive living there accused of murdering this woman’s husband, a Chicago police officer, decades before.

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Upon her arrival, Bess meets with Cuba’s foreign minister and convinces him to take her to Cuba’s First Vice President. At this meeting Bess presents the VP with three Cuban prisoners the U.S. government is willing to trade for Afeni, but the Cuban VP shoots her down. The Cuban foreign minister is disappointed in this outcome, so he takes Bess to meet with Afeni in person. He suggests that since she can’t get the Cuban government to turn her over, perhaps Bess can convince Afeni to turn herself in. Of course this does not happen. Afeni refuses Bess’s offer because she never shot the police officer, and she fears she won’t get a fair trial since she’s an African-American woman. Never one to take no for an answer, Bess does her research and discovers that the FBI purposely hide evidence that proves Afeni never shot the cop. She comes back to Afeni with this news, and also promises to give her as much press coverage as she wants so that the American people will know her story.

And so, with Afeni returned to America, Congress votes to lift the embargo on Cuba. Bess gives a lovely speech at ceremony, and she’s accompanied by the former Marines Matt sought out. Even in the White House, everyone seems thrilled with this historic moment. That is of course except for Craig who Russel sees cozying up to the senator who derailed the vote in the first place. This moment convinces Russel that Craig was behind the whole debacle, and tells Bess the only way they can solve this problem is to “bury” Craig. I really hope they can pull this off. I will not be sad to see Craig go….

Madam Secretary: Season 2 Episode 5 Recap

World War III seems to be just around the corner after this week’s Madam Secretary. The drama with Russia continues to intensify when Maria Ostrov calls for a special election for Russia’s new president to be held in just 30 days, and of course she is vying for the position. Maria’s victory would be a disaster for the United States (and arguably the world), which is why Bess spends most of her time in this episode trying to help her Russian pal Gorev get out of London. Gorev’s had to live in exile after Mr. Ostrov’s funeral, and because of sanctions that England refuses to lift his bank accounts have been frozen. Without any access to his funds, he can’t run for president against Maria Ostrov.

After talking with the president, Bess meets with the British Ambassador, and they come up with a plan to get Gorev his money. Gorev owns three large properties in England, and if they can sell them to wealthy Englanders Gorev would have the money he needs to challenge Maria. However, when Bess delivers this news to the President and her arch nemesis, Craig, the two of them decide that they don’t want to give Gorev the money with no strings attached. Instead they tell Bess that the only way the U.S. will help Gorev is if he’ll give up Russia’s government secrets, specifically their plans for invading Ukraine. Gorev refuses this plan (which Bess knew from the start), but something he says gives Bess the information she needs to solve this problem once and for all.

While all this drama is happening with Russia, the tech guy who’s been investigating the Air Force One hack has revealed who done it! They don’t know the man’s real name, but he goes by an alias, Dash. And while they don’t know who hired him, they know he has plans to attack again. After Bess speaks with Gorev, she realizes there’s a connection between this Dash fellow and Gorev (which I honestly didn’t understand, and don’t really know how to explain). Bess somehow realizes that Maria Ostrov must have hired Dash to sabotage Gorev during one of his earlier travels, and she brings this news to the President. He agrees to give Gorev the money he needs, but hours later Gorev is murdered by his “assistant.” At the same time, during his flight back to Ukraine the President of Ukraine’s plane is also hacked by Dash and is forced into an emergency landing. Once again, Bess meets with the President and his staff in the situation room where they realize that Russia is absolutely behind the Dash attacks, and that this will likely lead to war.

That about sums about the major action of this week’s episode. In a less dire yet equally important moment, Alison (Bess’s middle daughter) confronts Bess when she fails to show any enthusiasm for Alison’s new position as a fashion columnist for her school’s paper. She accuses Bess of having no interest in her at all. This moment couldn’t have come at a better time for me. So far, Alison’s never had an important story line. She’s basically just been hanging around in the background or making little quips, and I was starting to wonder why the creators of this show even included her. So it was very satisfying for this episode to address this issue in a way that makes sense to the story. Bess eventually apologizes to Alison in a lovely little scene. I’m always on Bess’s side, but as a middle child myself I really felt for Alison (not that I don’t think my parents find me interesting. We middle children just have to stick together.).
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Henry and Dimitri continue spying on everyone, but at least it was less melodramatic and actually compelling this time. Dimitri gets a drunken Russian official to admit that Maria Ostrov is planning an invasion of Ukraine once she is elected president, and that two of her henchmen were sent to kidnap Gorev’s daughter (this of course being planned before they simply have him murdered). While I’m still not a fan of this subplot, I can at least stand to watch it now that I know Henry isn’t a sociopath.

Back at Bess’s office, Jay plans to assemble a few TV studio executives to license their shows to be broadcast on Russian television together with a pro-American news show. Jay and the other members of Bess’s press staff are attempting to fight anit-Ukraine propaganda currently airing on Russian TV. Unfortunately, the government can’t pay the executives so they back out of the deal.

All-in-all I quite liked this episode of Madam Secretary. It’ll be interesting to see where this conflict with Russia goes, and I hope there are more compelling stories happening within Bess’s family and staff.

Madam Secretary: Season 2 Episode 4

This week’s installment of Madame Secretary was brought to you by the word “feminism.” And boy was that a relief after last week’s disappointing episode. Madam Secretary resorted to what it does best: telling compassionate human stories. The main drama in this episode was a photo scandal involving a leaked image of Stevie and Harrison (the President’s son) in bed together. But before we get into that, let’s catch up with Bess.

She’s still in hot water with the President after her failed trip to Russia. When Bess tries to convince the President that the arctic research center that China’s recently built is not a spy center, Craig shuts Bess down and tells her her opinion basically doesn’t matter after the Russian debacle. Instead, Craig proposes that the U.S. should spy on China and do so by immensely increasing the defense budget and also just ignoring what the State Department has to say. But this obviously isn’t the only conflict Bess and her staff have to face…bringing us back to the photo scandal. Bess and her staff are trying to pass a disaster relief fund for Nepal when news of the scandal breaks, costing them the votes they needed for the fund. No one knows who has the photos or how many they have. The photo-person has only released one picture, but promises to sell the rest of them to the highest bidder. Bess and Henry talk to Stevie in what is perhaps the most painful conversation the three of them have ever had in the series so far. Bess questions Stevie about the nature of the photographs and if there’s any video. Stevie assures her that none of them are “gross” and that the actual, shall we say, intimacy was filmed.

Later that night, Bess and Henry continue talking about the Harrison/Stevie situation. Bess immediately jumps to blaming Stevie. When she asks Henry how many more times they’re going to have to bail Stevie out of bad situations, Henry surprisingly comes to Stevie’s defense. He’s usually on Stevie’s case, but Henry realizes the real situation they’re in. He argues to Bess that it isn’t fair to blame Stevie for this instance, acting like Harrison doesn’t have responsibility or that they even did anything wrong. Stevie and her boyfriend took private photos of themselves, which were never meant to be shared with anyone else. So the real person to blame is the jerk who’s trying to sell the stolen photographs. I’ve never liked Henry more before this moment. Henry comes to the rescue again the next day when he makes an appearance on CSPAN. A caller questions what authority Henry has to go on a show talking about morality when his daughter is involved in a sex scandal. This does not bode well with Henry, and results in him going on an epic rant putting that jerk in his place and once again sticking up for his daughter.

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In the end, the President calls Bess and Henry to the White House to tell them they’ve caught the man who stole the photos. He was a former secret service agent who had been fired the previous month. Henry requests a meeting with this man before the President takes any further steps. In what was arguably the most wonderfully feminist plot point in this episode, Stevie ends up being the one to talk to the man herself. She starts out a little hesitant, just asking his name if he has a family. When Stevie learns that he was only charged with a misdemeanor and charged a $500 fine, she confronts him strongly about why he felt okay doing something so terrible. He obviously didn’t see her as a real person who wouldn’t want to be embarrassed in such a public manner. When the man finally asks what she wants from this conversation, Stevie reveals that she wanted to get to know him as a whole person and not judge him based on something “stupid” he did once. It was a great scene for many reasons. The first one being that Stevie was ultimately the one to stand up for herself. It was touching to see Henry and Bess stand up for her, but Stevie was the real victim of the incident and it was empowering to see her confront this man with compassion.

Bess is also able to confront her nemesis, and take him down a little less nicely. She talks to her new friend Ellen (an Admiral at the Pentagon), and they come up with a solution to the insane defense budget Craig has created. Bess comes up with a plan that is cheaper, more efficient, and provides many peaceful solutions that requires little military intervention. The President is thrilled with Bess’s new budget, and finally welcomes her back to his good side. Craig tries to make nice with Bess after this meeting. He congratulates her on this new budget, and brings up the idea of them getting lunch some time. Bess at first graciously accepts his praise, but turns on a dime and tells him to never question her authority again. The look on Craig’s face is perhaps my favorite thing I’ve ever seen on this show. Here’s to hoping for another excellent installment of Madam Secretary next week.

Madam Secretary: Season 2 Episode 3

Well, it’s official. Madam Secretary had its first “meh” episode of the season. It starts with a simple phone call, and ends with some wild gesticulation. In this episode, we see Bess and the White House staff deal with the aftermath of Ostrov’s (former Russian President) death. The president makes a call to Ostrov’s widow, sending his condolences and informing her that he’ll be sending Beth in his place to the funeral. Shortly after he ends the phone call, the President Conrad, Russell Jackson, Bess, and Craig start debating what to do with the Russia/Ukraine conflict. Much like in real life, Russia has occupied the eastern half of Ukraine, and Craig (the new head of the NSA) wants the U.S. to interfere. Bess however, cautions the president against taking such an action. Instead Bess proposes the best way to work with Russia is to help insure the Foreign Minister Gorev becomes Russia’s new president. Of course Craig is a huge jerk about it. After Bess makes her plea for this new plan, Craig makes some snooty remark about Bess and her cool glasses and “glorious hair.” Sigh. President Conrad agrees to go along with Bess’s plan, so she goes to her staff to come up with a strategy to put Gorev in charge.

Meanwhile, a tech expert has been brought in to investigate how/why Air Force One’s communication system went down in the first episode, and to also insure Bess’s plane is safe for her journey to Russia. He assures Bess’s staff that her plane is totally safe, but he is still unable to say how Air Force One was hacked.

Later that night Bess and Henry are relaxing at home when Jason comes in and presents them with his latest report card. Hoping to score some brownie points from his improved grades, Jason asks his parents to sign a permission slip so that he can try out for the football team. Bess and Henry are completely caught off guard, and tell Jason they’ll have to think about it before they can agree to that.

Next day at her office, Bess and her team come up with a solid plan to put Gorev in power. They decide the best option is to convince Ukraine to let Russia have its victory of eastern Ukraine in order to restore peace. Since a victory in Ukraine would make the Russians happy, Bess feels she can convince the U.S. to lift its sanctions on Russia and get Gorev to go along with her plan. After this successful meeting, Bess returns to her personal office and is shortly greeted by her advisor Mike B. He urges Bess to get Bess back on the President’s good side. He warns Bess that Jackson and Conrad are trying to push her out, so she can’t afford to fail her mission in Russia. Mike B. offers to give Bess a binder full of information on Craig, but Bess refuses to use such a tactic to get ahead.

At the same time, Henry enters his classroom at the War College to find Dimitri overcompensating with a speech about Ostrov’s death in order to appear extremely patriotic. At the end of his class, Henry tells Dimitri his first mission as a spy is to go to the Russian Embassy for Ostrov’s memorial and cozy up to the Russian Ambassador. Dimitri challenges Henry and asks what would happen if he refused, to which Henry responds with a vague threat to Dimitri’s sick sister. While waiting for news from Dimitri’s mission, Henry decides to play catch with Jason. As they toss the football back and forth, Henry asks Jason why he really wants to try out for the team. For the first time I felt a little sad for Jason when he says it’s because he wants to make friends. After Henry video calls Bess to tell her this news, she agrees to allow Jason to try out for the football team.

Back at the White House, Bess pitches her official plan to the President, Jackson, and Craig. The President gives Bess the go-ahead on her plan much to Craig’s dismay. After the meeting, Bess approaches Craig and tries to convince him to get lunch. Instead of being a normal human and turning her down politely, Craig insists on uttering some more misogynistic garbage. He completely dismisses Bess’s work from the previous year and says she may have “improvised” her way to some major successes, but what the country really needs is some “strategy.” Barf. After that lovely scene, we finally see Bess acting out the first stage of her plan. After some intense convincing, the Ukrainian President agrees to let Russia have its victory. However, this little bit couldn’t quite go off without a hitch. While waiting outside for Bess, Blake is beckoned over by a little girl who wants to take a picture with him. She also insists that Blake pose with her “father.”

Beta blockers – They reduce the effects of excitement and physical exertion on the heart and opens the outflow channels, which then releases the blood. davidfraymusic.com viagra cipla 20mg through its ability to help trap the blood flow to the sexual organs; thereby, creating sensuality. Some people are well informed about ill effects of particular drugs especially antidepressant drugs lowest price viagra adversely affect sexual functionality. Take note that http://davidfraymusic.com/2019/08/ cheap viagra 100mg Safed musli do not have instant effect. Instead of fatty meat you can opt for their desired flavor of oral jelly which is available http://davidfraymusic.com/project/gramophone-names-fantaisie-a-may-editors-choice/ viagra 25 mg in 100mg strength. Bess and her staff then travel to Russia for Ostorov’s wake. And all goes seemingly well. Bess and Osrtrov’s widow have a nice talk and Bess’s staff pays their respect to Ostrov. Afterwards, Bess even convinces Gorev to go along with her plan to put him into power. Everything’s going perfectly until the photo of Blake and the little girl’s “father” hits the internet. What Blake didn’t realize at the time was the whole little girl thing was a setup. The man he’s photographed with is wearing a T-shirt bearing the swastika, which signifies that he is an anti Russian protester/Nazi. Obviously, this does not bode well with the Russian people and makes Bess look awful to pretty much the entire world. Daisy ultimately confronts Blake about this huge error and demands that he stops being such a people-pleaser. Blake in turn tells Daisy she needs to convince the tech guy investigating Air Force One to help them track down who staged this disaster photo session.

When Daisy does get into contact with the tech guy, he reveals that the man in the Swastika shirt was indeed a Russian operative sent there by a Russian photographer. Furthermore, the man who set up the photo debacle works at a charity funded by none other than Ostrov’s widow.

Back in the U.S., Henry speaks to his DIA bosses about his concerns for Dimitri. Henry is afraid that although Dimirti is intelligent, he doesn’t have the strength to be a spy. And since Henry is Dimitri’s handler, Henry’s boss agrees to look into this matter. Which as it turns out is not so great for Dimitri. He is unable to get any useful information out of the Russian Ambassador, and as he leaves the Russian Embassy Dimitri is ambushed by two massive fellows and thrown into a van. He wakes up in an interrogation room, where the two thugs from the van proceed to hit him for information on his activities at the Embassy. As it turns out, this whole interrogation was planned by Henry’s bosses, and they all watch as Dimitri is repeatedly assaulted. Once she’s satisfied that Dimitri wouldn’t betray his mission even under torture, Henry’s boss ends the interrogation. Henry speaks with Dimitri and pretends to have no remorse over this cruelty, but is obviously very troubled by it when Dimitri leaves the room.

Despite Bess’s efforts, she and her team are unable to tell the Russian people the truth about the photograph. As soon as Ostrov’s widow starts her eulogy, she rallies the people in the crows against Bess and her staff. She compares Bess to some scary Russian folk monster, and tells Bess to warn her President that Russia is not afraid of the United States. Most unfortunately for Bess, this turn of events means her plan to put Gorev in charge is dead. When she returns to the White House, Craig reveals his new and terrible plan to get Russia out of Ukraine. He urges the President to arm the Ukrainians, and to have the U.S. directly involved with this conflict. Bess returns to her office where she summons Mike B. again. This time she agrees to take the binder about Craig from him.

After a long and harrowing day, Bess and Henry attempt to comfort each other at home when once again Jason appears with more news about football. He made the team! Bess feigns enthusiasm, and as soon as Jason leaves the room makes Henry swear Jason will leave the team after his first concussion.

And in what is certainly the strangest scene of the season so far, we cut back to Russia where Ostrov’s widow walks out onto a balcony and without saying a world just pumps her fists to the sky sending the massive crowd below her into a frenzy. Even watching this scene a second time did not make me feel any better about this moment. I can only hope that next week’s episode does not end on such a melodramatic note.