Madam Secretary: Season 1

Elizabeth McCord, a former CIA analyst, gets recruited and trained by the current POTUS. Due to the death of the current Secretary of State in a plane crash, the President asks her to become the new Secretary of State, because she can think outside the box. Two months later, McCord is faced by an issue of two American children held hostage in Syria. The POTUS's Chief of Staff plays a game to damage her reputation and then advises the President to not do anything about the kidnapping. But McCord

When crowds surround the U.S. Embassy in Yemen, the Secretary, using her CIA analyst skills, believes it will be another Benghazi incident. She asks her ambassador to leave, but he refuses citing the political need of his presence. Her requests for additional security troops are rejected, and ultimately she uses her discretionary funds to avail of a private military security detail, of whom she was critical earlier. Ultimately, her fears are realized when the embassy is bombed. However, the PMC

Internal State Department cables are released to the press by a hacker known as Viper. Elizabeth learns that Viper also has information on their undercover agents, and convinces the president that they should all be brought in. One agent is taken in Pakistan before reaching the embassy. Elizabeth suggests using Russia to offer Pakistan a ballistics system in exchange for the agent, and convinces Henry to give the Russian minister's daughter an "incomplete" rather than a "C" so that Russia will g

Elizabeth arranges an agreement between Japan and China regarding uninhabited islands with natural gas deposits, but China refuses to sign the treaty when a Chinese student visiting the US asks for political asylum. Elizabeth talks with the student and learns that it was really the student's mother who wanted this. Because the student says she wants to return to China, Elizabeth tells the Chinese ambassador that she will return the student after the treaty is signed. Elizabeth attends a memorial

The Canadian ambassador asks the Secretary to read, approve and release an environmental report that will allow a joint Canada-U.S. pipeline to be built. She reads the report and finds out that it has been prepared by a lobby group that supports the pipeline and contains falsified data. The Canadian ambassador tries to pressure her to approve the report but she counters with her own pressure tactics. The ongoing talks with Iran over dismantling their nuclear processing plants are deadlocked. Des

When a former teacher of Henry McCord reaches out and warns of a possible genocide in his home country, Elizabeth asks the President to intervene. Though he initially refuses, hearing her speech that the world should have guts to intervene in this, he relents and authorizes logistical and air support. But when it is revealed that the former teacher's charity was allowing refugees to carry drugs for the warlords, complications arise in the coalition. Meanwhile, Nadine is cleared in the investigat

The President 'suggests' that Elizabeth's first foreign trip should be to India, to help one of his biggest supporters. She brings her younger children with her. A massive earthquake hits that causes an explosion at an American-owned factory, and she is separated from Alison during the chaos. Meanwhile, Stevie sees her father with a young woman and suspects that he is having an affair, causing her to get drunk. But it turns out that he has been reactivated by the NSA and the young woman is actua

A friend of Elizabeth's from the CIA accompanies the Prime Minister of Moldova at her request to help prepare a strategy to fight a warlord who is trying to foment a coup. Their plane is taken hostage by the rebels. She supports a military action to get the American back, which succeeds. Henry is working for the NSA again, trying to plant a bug in the house of an old friend who is suspected of smuggling chemical weapons. Elizabeth tells her old CIA colleagues Isabelle and Juliet of her suspicion

The last day and death of Marsh are revealed in flashbacks. Elizabeth identifies the airplane fueler who sabotaged Marsh's plane. Matt confesses to Elizabeth that Russell is pressuring him to spy on her. Glenn woos Nadine.

Threat from a deranged gunman causes a lock-down at the State Department. Elizabeth talks to Stevie about her CIA past, when an Iraqi translator threatens to do so to her and others. Revealing stories of being present when tortures were carried out during questioning, Elizabeth is unable to make Stevie understand the compulsions of that time causing a rift between mother and daughter. Elizabeth manages to keep Arab leaders gathered in the building from launching verbal attacks on one another. Ma

Elizabeth decides to visit Venezuela so that Nadine can access Marsh's hidden bank account. Her team is accompanied by Manny Azucco, a famous Venezuelan-American baseball player, who causes a disruption in the fragile diplomatic relations with Venezuela by announcing that he is gay at the joint press conference. Elizabeth uses a threat of DOJ investigation into Venezuelan banking practices and an enticement of Azucco playing for the Venezuelan national team in the World Baseball Classic to smoot

Elizabeth and Henry travel to New York City on their anniversary for what is supposed to be a romantic reliving of their courtship. During her absence, the Texas governor causes a stand-off with Mexico over the extradition of a drug lord. The Secretary's team tries to sort out this issue without involving her, but ultimately has to call her. The Secretary does some unique arm-twisting to make the governor stand down and resolve the issue. The scholar on whom Henry was spying reaches out to Henry

Elizabeth pushes for the prosecution of a diplomat after he is caught holding a maid hostage in his home. Also, Henry's father comes to visit, leading to a possibly unpleasant revelation when Stevie seeks an organizing job at the union for which her grandfather supposedly sat on the board for several years.

While defending the status of a microcredit system within the State Department budget, Elizabeth is blindsided by the revelation that the manager of the program has been embezzling money for gambling, throwing the status of the jobs of everyone on her staff in question. Meanwhile, Stevie decides to volunteer with the same Microloan United only to find out that she can keep the internship only if she's enrolled in a college. The operation tracking the Iranian national who was connected to Secreta

Elizabeth shares Juliet's note with Isabelle, and they surmise that she was acting as handler to the Iranian operative. The fallout from the failed operation threatens U.S. relations with Turkey. Elizabeth and the dead operative's mother fly to Turkey to retrieve the body as well as the laptop of the Iranian national. Daisy, uncomfortable with being required to give the press talking points that she feels are false, is replaced in a press briefing. Based on information gained from the laptop, th

Director Munsey being placed under house arrest and complete lockdown buys Elizabeth, Russell and President Dalton a few days to attempt to unravel or back the impending coup in Iran. However, with the chosen successor dying of cancer and the coup too well set up to destabilize, Elizabeth can only go to Iran personally to attempt to defuse the situation.

A traumatized Elizabeth attempts to jump back into work, starting with the three-sided bidding war between an American oil company, the Chinese government, and an underdog environmental group over the Amazonian oil supplies. However, her PTSD ripples throughout her personal and professional life, slowing attempts to reassure the American public with an interview with Bob Schieffer, growing overprotective over Jason in his new school, and losing her temper while attempting to arbitrate the biddin

An American religious cult has set itself up in Bolivia and taken a US congressman hostage. Henry agrees to visit the encampment to try to talk to the cult leader. The congressman and some of the adherents are saved, but the rest kill themselves. Henry and Elizabeth find out that Stevie is dating her boss.

Having gone public with the US involvement in the failed Iranian coup, President Dalton and Elizabeth face resistance from world leaders during their trip to Brussels when they are trying to resolve Greece's debt problem. Stevie reconnects with Harrison, Dalton's son. Henry is offered a job at the National War College.

While Henry is visiting Russia, a Russian submarine with stealth capability entered Alaskan waters and vanished. With input from Henry, Elizabeth convinces the military to try to communicate with the submarine, which had suffered a fire, and the US is ultimately able to save the crew. Stevie breaks up with her boss.

The president of Iran is visiting to sign the peace treaty that Juliet has been trying to stop, so she arranges for a sniper to assassinate him. Dalton, Jackson, and Elizabeth believe that Juliet is in Algeria, and Dalton orders a drone strike on the location to kill her, but Algeria refuses and demands ground action. The ground troops discover that Juliet left evidence so they would believe the drone had killed her while she instead has travelled to D.C. The sniper and Juliet are taken into cus

A grandstanding Senator opens a Congressional hearing for Elizabeth and Henry, intending to boost his own political clout and damage the current administration. Juliet confesses her role in the coup, which leads Elizabeth to reflect on her last week at the CIA in 2005 when she was offered the position of station chief in Baghdad.