Madam Secretary recap: Right of the Boom

Tonight’s Madam Secretary deals with the aftermath of last week’s terrorist attack, and there’s about to be a lot of change for some of the characters. But before we get to that, everyone can rest easy — Henry McCord is alive and well post-bombing, even though the show kept us guessing throughout most of the episode.

A quick recap of last week’s episode for those of you who might have missed it: A terrorist group called Hizb al-Shahid was part of a uranium heist outside of Moldova and using it to create bombs. The group was targeting a Saudi Arabian woman named Noura al-Kitabi. While she was speaking at a conference, where everyone in the McCord family besides Elizabeth was in attendance, an American girl ran in and set off the explosion. We knew that the kids were safe, but Henry went back in to help when we learned the bomb contained uranium. The episode ended with dudes in hazmat suits coming to take people away.

I know they will probably never kill Henry off considering how crucial he is to the show, but surely everyone agrees with me that we don’t like it when Henry McCord is hurt. So it’s rough when an episode of the show opens with him being rushed to the hospital, the viewers left unsure of his fate. Like, why couldn’t it have been Stevie who was injured?

Bess is obviously panicked because she can’t get ahold of anyone and she’s being taken to the White House to be secured. She finally gets in touch with Jason who tells her the three of them are safe, but they have no idea where Henry is. She sends Blake in her place to figure out what’s going on there while she deals with the actual attack.

Henry’s diagnosis? Yes, he has radiation poisoning. No, it’s not deadly, and he’s home before the episode ends.

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Meanwhile, they learn that the device was built with C-4 and packed with fuel-grade uranium, which is the same type that was stolen from the factory in Moldova, but Dennis Ellerman says his men took care of that and there’s no way it could be the same uranium. Alas, it turns out it was from the factory, and the corrupt inspector, who was part of the heist, botched the manifest. Yeah — remember last week when I pointed out that Ellerman sucks. Well, Dalton fires him at the end of the episode because he literally can’t do anything right. This means we can expect a new CIA director in the near future.

They also figure out that they are looking for the group’s leader, Jibral Disah, and he is now the most-wanted terrorist in the entire world. They believe that he’s in Libya, but beyond that they really have no idea about his whereabouts.

After finding footage from a nearby coffee shop, they determine that an employee of the Saudi Arabian government was the one who smuggled the uranium into the country and left it for the American girl to pick up. The FBI immediately heads out to arrest him. When they get to the embassy and demand he be handed over, the guy is standing on the roof. He jumps to his death. Now things are interesting!

NEXT: Henry’s decision

8 kilograms of uranium was stolen from Moldova, but they believe that only a quarter of it was smuggled in and all of it was used to make that one bomb. I’m not sure if that information will creep up in later episodes, but it may be important to make note that Hizb al-Shahid has the resources somewhere to make three more bombs.

Bess asks all NATO allies for any and all information they have on the terrorist group and learn that for whatever reason Italy was holding back information. Bess uses her classic persuasion tactic to convince Italy to hand over the information she wants. You know, the strategy where she lays out all the ways America has helped them in the past and how the U.S. can pretty much wreck them whenever she wants. She does that a lot, and it pretty much works every time.

Italy hands over a location in Libya where they believe Disah is hiding in a compound. Dalton gives the order to blow it up, but of course, Disah isn’t there. Bess suggests putting a special team together to track him and take charge of all plans when it comes to Hizb al-Shahid. Dalton says he’ll think about it.

Back to Henry, because we can never get enough Henry. In the wake of the accident, Henry decides he’s ready to go back to the DIA. I’m glad Bess disapproves because I think it’s a bad idea, too. After what happened with Dmitri, I don’t like DIA Henry all that much. Despite Bess’ fear that their marriage may crumble if he joins again, he calls Jane Fellows. She tells him that his request has been denied, and he immediately blames Bess for it. Kind of rude, but okay Henry.

Dalton and Russell stop by the McCord home and ask Henry to head up the special team that will track down Hizb al-Shahid. Dalton says they chose him because of his experience, impartial point of view and because he trusts him. The best news of all? State will be read into the group. Meaning Bess and Henry are going to be able to talk to each other about their jobs. Finally!

The episode ends with Henry agreeing to take the position.

Bess and Henry are in a good place after everything that happened with Russia. This job should bring them closer together, if anything. The fact that they can finally talk openly now means that they will be working side-by-side. I don’t know how these two could possibly have a better relationship than they already have, but I’m excited to find out.

Unfortunately, we have to wait till March 6 for the next new episode. I assume the week hiatus is due to the Academy Awards next weekend, but when it returns, we have some exciting things to look forward to. We are finally going to meet Stevie’s boyfriend, Jareth (Chris O’Shea), and Gordon is returning, presumably with his dog. Maybe he’s joining Henry’s team?

Minor debriefings:

• Marguerite Sanchez was back this episode, and she was pretty much the most useful person throughout the episode. I said it last week; I’ll say it again: They should make her a regular.
• Matt assumes Nadine is a cat lady, which is hilarious and so false.
• We learn that Matt grew up with such severe asthma that he spent most of high school in the hospital. I like learning more about the side characters because they never have major plot lines.