On this Madam Secretary episode Elizabeth and her team were racing to rescue kidnapped Jay, Henry was trying to figure out where a terror attack will take place and Jason was dealing with girl troubles. Sounds interesting? Then keep on reading my recap of Madam Secretary season 3 episode 20.
Warning, spoilers ahead!
Case of the week
This week’s case was more personal to our State Department team than ever because they had to figure out a way to save Jay. And although it might have partly been Elizabeth’s fault that Jay was kidnapped in the first place, it only drove Elizabeth and the rest of her team to work that much harder to figure out how to get out of this bind.
So Madam Secretary season 3 episode 20 started with shots from a raiding operation in Spain, which hoped to apprehend Dito Pirosmani, the arms dealer who was thought to be responsible for stealing US weapons and killing Joseph Garcia and Barry Milken. But since the house that was raided was empty, Elizabeth sent Jay to meet with a forensic accountant in France in hopes that he will lead them to Pirosmani. But Pirosmani, of course, knew about this meeting and grabbed Jay before the accountant could reveal anything.
It turned out that not only the accountant was in on it and was cooking books for Pirosmani, but that Pirosmani wasn’t the man that Elizabeth and the rest of the agencies were hunting. So Elizabeth managed to negotiate Jay’s release with Pirosmani giving him his freedom for Jay. And in the end, she and Jay also figured out who actually was responsible for the illegal arms dealings. It was someone much closer to home, Daryl Brennan, the man who in episode 19 helped Elizabeth deliver food to Somalia.
He got arrested and everyone could breathe again for a moment. But not for long, because Henry’s case took a turn for the terrifying.
Henry’s investigation
Henry has been on the VFF case for quite some time now. But Madam Secretary season 3 episode 20 finally confirmed that he, in fact, was right about the cult planning a huge attack that could end in WW3.
At the beginning of this episode, we saw Henry and Mo meeting with FBI higher-ups to discuss the possible VFF targets, now that it was confirmed that they, in fact, have left the US. Henry and Mo were convinced that it will be somewhere in the Middle East. However, they weren’t 100% sure. So the FBI decided to concentrate on Israel and the countries around it, while not ruling out a Europian attack.
But by the end of the episode, FBI was convinced that the VFF target is in fact in Israel, Jerusalem more specifically. And from the looks of the next episode sneak peeks, this VFF investigation might be the focal point of it. And very appropriately so, since if they don’t stop the attack, it might cause a global conflict.
Jason’s girl troubles
To balance out all the political stuff, on the family front this episode was all about Jason.
At the very beginning of Madam Secretary season 3 episode 20 we saw Jason asking his parents for 127 dollars, which he supposedly needs to buy a calculator for one of his classes. But after Henry confronts one of Jason’s teachers about the expensive requirements, he learns that the calculator costs only 27 dollars. Which lead to a realization that Jason lied to his parents.
It turned out that Jason needed the extra 100 bucks to impress a girl he liked, Piper. He though he couldn’t compete with a Kuwaiti Prince who took Piper on a helicopter ride. But thanks to Henry Jason talked to Piper and learned that she didn’t even like the helicopter ride. So Jason ended up hanging out with Piper and Henry was able to teach his son a valuable lesson about communication. I think it was a win-win for all involved parties. And it also showed how not everything is as it looks like from the first glance.
Last thoughts on Madam Secretary season 3 episode 20
I really liked how in this episode we saw glimpses of Jay’s relationship with his estranged wife and Daisy still grieving over Kevin’s death. It brought a nice realness to the episode. Especially, because we saw Jay visiting his wife, but they not getting back together just because he almost died. Although it did look like their relationship might be on the mend. And also Daisy grieving over Kevin and finally getting some closure during his honoring in the annual CIA ceremony at their memorial wall.
Episode highlights:
• McCord family morning scene
• Matt and Jay’s morning conversation
• Elizabeth letting Jay go meet the accountant alone and spend a few extra days in Nice
• Henry and Mo continuing to try to track down VFF
• everyone working around the clock to save Jay
• Henry working in the book fair
• Elizabeth and Henry deciding what to do about Jason lying to them
• Henry confronting Jason and helping him out in the process
• Elizabeth showing off her interrogation skills
• Nadine and Matt trying to calm down Jay’s wife
• Elizabeth figuring out how to save Jay without putting his life at risk
• Jay figuring out who actually is responsible for the illegal arms dealings
• Daisy, Jay, Matt, Blake and Nadine’s conversation in Daisy’s office
• the CIA memorial ceremony
Episode low points:
• Jay getting kidnapped
• CIA director yelling at Elizabeth
• Elizabeth yelling at the CIA director by mistake
Quote of the episode:
Elizabeth: “Hey, I’m about to read this!” (takes out a book from the bag meant to be brought to Jason’s school’s book fair)
Henry: “Oh yeah?”
Elizabeth: “Yeah!”
Henry: “When?” (Elizabeth puts the book back in the bag)