Elizabeth (Téa Leoni) will make sure that no scandal will touch President Dalton's (Keith Carradine) administration in the upcoming episode of the CBS series "Madam Secretary."
In "Lights Out," CarterMatt reports that the secretary will tap on key members of the team to put a lid on Craig Sterling (Julian Acosta) and his shady business. Last episode, Russell (Zeljko Ivanek) discovered that it was actually the National Security Advisor who prompted Senator Parisi (Jason Kravits) to veto the lifting of trade embargo between the United States and Cuba. Craig bribed the senator that he would give him a cabinet position in Dalton's next term if he would hold a press conference asking Cuba to hand over a criminal to the Americans.
Elizabeth wanted the embargo to be dissolved just in time for the opening of the American Embassy in Cuba. All things were set — she got the President's support and the 60 votes she needed from the senators. But then Parisi demanded in front of national television that the Cubans must hand over Afeni Rahim (Elizabeth Spars), a convict who fled to Cuba, before any talk of the embargo could transpire. The African-American was suspected of killing a police officer back in 1977.
The Cuban Vice President rejected the demands, which left Elizabeth no option but to convince Rahim to return to the United States voluntarily. She made sure that the trial would prove that Rahim was innocent of the crime. Rahim agreed and Elizabeth was able to make history. Fresh from her victory, the secretary learned that behind all the Machiavellian effort to cause trouble for her was Craig. It turned out he was jealous of President Dalton's trust in her and he wanted to sully her reputation.
This upcoming episode, Elizabeth and her team will attempt to "bury" Craig by ousting him from his position. Craig is a ticking time bomb and in his quest to take down Elizabeth, he can, albeit unintentionally, cause a scandal for President Dalton too. Will they succeed? Meanwhile, also in episode 8, Ephraim Ware (Clifton Davis) has made huge progress in his hunt for the hacker of Air Force One. The synopsis reveals that the Director of National Intelligence could now pinpoint the identity of the culprit.
"Madam Secretary" season 2 airs Sundays at 8 p.m. EST on CBS.
