VinceW

I posted it here in this episode recap because there was discussion above about Russell's ongoing health on the show. I think you are confusing a spoiler with a teaser.

The 3x10 episode synopsis was released by CBS Access to the media sites after 5 PM last Sunday which hardly makes it a spoiler.

Maybe to wrap up his role on the show OR change his status to recurring because of health issues OR a start at winding down the series.

From Broadwayworld.com, CBS Scoop - 5:31 PM, December 5, 2016: "The Race" (3x10) - When a possible Israel-Iran war threatens the House's imminent vote on the U.S. presidential election, Elizabeth attempts to bring the two reluctant countries to the negotiation table in an effort to broker a peace between them. Also, Russell's life hangs in the balance after a heart attack, on MADAM SECRETARY, Sunday, Dec. 18 (9:30-10:30 PM, ET/ 9:00-10:00 PM, PT) on the CBS Television Network. Emelyn Daly returns to guest star as Henry's niece, Sarah. WRITTEN BY: David Grae (He gets the dramatic episodes) DIRECTED BY: Eric Stoltz

Totally Agree....I hope there is a better reset of both the Matt,Daisy characters after the hiatus.

2x15 "Right of the Boom": Nadine/Matt discussion at her apartment when Matt spent overnight at her place after conference bombing.

It appears that the writers want to keep Matt/Daisy together for the comedy because otherwise, the relationship issue conversations between them are really awkward. Matt was doing just fine moving forward without her. Elizabeth has been doing just fine on State Department business without the Mike B consultant character, but now we get that dog in Nadine’s bedroom. Russell’s degrading posture signals some kind of health issue. IMO.

A C+ episode at best. The wannabe president rebel soldier son was a real loser. He was no match for Elizabeth. The whole Venezuela diplomatic outcome was a reach. I missed the purpose behind the Nadine conversations with the Vincent Marsh widow. Sometimes, things are best left unsaid. Will needs therapy over his obsession. I was glad to see Elizabeth rip into Will over the way he has treated his family. I hope this is the end of the vanity stories for this season with show producers pushing their liberal causes. Sidebar: Stevie is not wearing an engagement ring. She wants to attend law school.

Tara Summers (Boston Legal)

#whatsgoingon with Dmitri still bitter towards Henry after he risked his marriage pushing Elizabeth and the State Department to get him released from Russian captivity. Dalton made the decision to abandon him with Elizabeth’s concurrence even though he was a valuable CIA asset. #whatsgoingon with Elizabeth not working a final connection between Dmitri and his sister Talia after the spy exchange. Dmitri knows his sister is alive, but he can’t communicate with her while in witness protection and Talia thinks her brother was tortured and killed by the Russians. Elizabeth had no problem getting Talia a temporary visa from immigration in order to finish the connection, yet gave Henry grief from the beginning for going to Phoenix to meet Dmitri. #whatsgoingon with Nadine standing there with Matt and letting Russell verbally abuse her subordinate by implying that Matt was a jihadist for keeping silent about the mosque donation which was none of his business.

He kept secrets under orders from the NSA, DIA and in some cases Dalton. I don't recall any episode during which Henry (he-man) was happy keeping things from her. He was recruited to teach at the War College. He did not seek that job or the covert ops intelligence work. President Dalton recruited him to work on Murphy station and Elizabeth supports his intelligence work.

Henry working in the DIA allows that the couple can readily share work information especially classified data at home and that sharing avoids keeping secrets from each other which Elizabeth acknowledged in S1 was not healthy for the marriage. The couple therapy exercise was part of solving that problem. I don't see his work in intelligence by itself a bad thing or somehow makes him a superhero. The recent highlighted terror threats have a religious overtone which gives Henry access to a lot of intelligence which in turn has helped Elizabeth solve related entanglements with foreign countries.

The stalker resolution was disappointing because the motive behind it was really weak given what other methods the billionaire Burton could use to achieve the same results without putting himself in such legal jeopardy. I was expecting that perhaps Craig Sterling had some part in it since he was sabotaged by Elizabeth and Russell in such a way that his career was ruined. The Stevie/Jareth story seems to be in limbo because it presents that the proposal in the S2 finale was just a cliffhanger put in for drama. It appears that the writers don't really know where to go with the story. It was strange to see Henry in the room with Dalton and the military command while watching the assault on the terrorist hideout without Elizabeth present. That was a first for the series even though Jose was there as well. The religious artifact story is a good fit for Henry, but it appears that its importance as a funding source for HS is being exaggerated for whatever reason.. The team effort concept using Henry with Murphy station worked well, but not so much as yet with just Jose unless Cecile becomes a bigger part of the story.

No worries....

I posted the rating numbers for information only; I was not making any statement about what the ratings mean.

NCIS:LA (CBS) 8.PM. time slot held up just fine against World Series and NFL football. They had no NFL- assist this week. 8 p.m. World Series Game 5 (FOX) (8-11 p.m.) 6.7/19 23.64 NCIS: Los Angeles (New) (CBS) 1.2/4 9.74 8:30 p.m. Sunday Night Football (NBC) (8:30-11 p.m.) 6.5/19 18.02

Final broadcast primetime live + same-day ratings for Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016: 9 p.m. Madam Secretary (CBS) 0.8/2 7.91 (Series low for Madam Secretary)

Giving Stevie a pass on the milk and tea for now............... From the HealthStatus.com blog: 'Milk In Your Tea? Not A Good Idea' "If you like tea, you probably drink it for pleasure, not for its health benefits. More than two billion people in the world drink tea. Many acquired a habit to add a bit of milk to their regular cup of tea. It is a matter of taste, but scientists now say that drop of milk can completely negate all the benefits tea can have on our health. How is that possible? While many people drink tea because it is pleasant, soothing drink, tea has many health benefits, which were known to ancient cultures like Chinese and Indians. Tea has many active ingredients that affect our health. It is particularly rich in antioxidants and vitamins. It is found to improve our immune system, to control blood sugar levels, reduce damage to cells and prevent cardiovascular diseases. But, if you add milk to your tea, its beneficial effects on your vascular system go away. In a small study conducted on 16 healthy women, scientists compared the effects of tea on their vascular system, tea with water and tea with milk. They found that tea relaxes blood vessels (improves flow-mediated dilation), but tea with milk does not. Researchers believe that the most likely explanation is that the caseins, proteins found in milk, form complexes with catechins in tea, its most important flavonoids. If you do not want to spoil the benefits of your tea, try drinking it with honey and lemon or drink green tea neat, with nothing added"

There was so much ongoing with the Angola story that it was hard to keep up with both the setup of the religious artifact mission and the Stevie/Jared conversations. In addiction, the writers were forced by the network to insert a NFL connection into the election arc using the James Brown interview for whatever reason. I had to do a playback with close caption ON to understand the back story behind the Henry/Jose decision to use the female CIA agent, but the playback was no help trying to follow the Jared ramblings about his family. The McCord parent advice to Stevie made little sense. It seemed pretty obvious from their scenes together that they need more time before thinking about marriage. I got annoyed and somewhat distracted during the episode trying to find any continuity from the last two episodes with the kids getting assigned bodyguards versus Stevie telling her parents about what went on during her visit to England. There was an unexplained time jump that got viewers past the Stevie trip to England. After the season premiere, the audience learns that Stevie was not going to England for another month, but during this episode the writers tell us she has already gone to England and came back a month ago.

After the Dalton speech, the next scene shows the activists being released in China as Jay is running down the hall to the SoS office to announce the news. Minister Chen kept his word to Bess and he got them released. However, the group will face charges at the international tribunal for the law of the sea which is a face saving measure for the Chinese officials. The eco group will likely just get a fine. The missile buildup was halted after US agreed to keep silent about it. The ongoing damage to the coral reefs is stopped for now. The last scene has Bess and Henry talking in the bathroom that night about Henry’s unwarranted surveillance of her former student which has caused real angst between them. Henry insists he was right to suspect the student based on the background check, but he admits that he should have trusted Elizabeth's judgment about the kid. As the scene closes, there seems to be some ease of tension between them as they both agree that the stalking situation makes them angry because they feel helpless at this point to stop it. Final broadcast primetime live + same-day ratings for Sunday, Oct. 23, 2016: 8:30 p.m. NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS) (8:35-9:35p.m.) 1.7/5 11.40 9:30 p.m. Madam Secretary (CBS) (9:35-10:35p.m.) 1.1/3 9.04 It appears that NCIS:LA is much more compatible with the football audience than MS.

Total replication of a CSI:Cyber episode for sure. At least, the toaster didn't catch on fire. The South China sea issue was very relevant, but the show seems to be headed off the rails with this hacking subplot. Henry sitting alone in a car doing his own surveillance was too much. No Stevie, no Alison, just a lot of angst now between Bess and Henry. I miss Jane.

Agree. Bess was clearly concerned about the kids safely after the discussion with the FBI director, but Henry not so much. His attitude during the entire episode was somewhat strange. The show script was not one of the better efforts put forth by their top writer, David Grae, including the scene with the linchpin rant against Elizabeth. IMO.

The writers taking Bess out of the VP run so quickly was not enough of a setback last episode that they needed to add the linchpin rant this week which was just a bunch of crazy talk. For the most part, the show has a history of portraying ambassadors as unfavorable characters and political hacks working in government. IMO.

It made no sense that the McCord parents would not tell the kids the whole truth about the hacking especially after their pointed discussion with the FBI director. While the hacking seems very professional, I doubt it is national security related, but rather involves someone from Elizabeth’s past. IMO. The episode was a little disappointing given all of the early preseason hype over the upcoming family security issues. The much publicized school hostage incident was a real misnomer. It seems that the writers have access to an unlimited supply of older foreign actors (cheap) that Elizabeth can work around to get things done and save mankind.

Watching the show for two seasons, I never got the impression that Dalton was at all unpopular. The climate change generic is a very polarizing issue. It looks like the writers chose that particular cause only because it gave them a quick path to put Dalton at odds with his party and supporters in order to invoke the Independent candidate scenario which resolves the VP cliffhanger. However, Dalton winning a second term as a third party candidate using the electoral vote process seems unrealistic even in the show world. Dalton is the incumbent which means he would waste all of his political capital running as a third party candidate. During his remaining time in office, nobody from either party would be willing to work with him on anything, removing his ability to govern for the rest of his term. Both parties would have a vested interest in making him look as bad as possible. At this point, it doesn’t appear the election arc has been well thought out at all. There was little need for the VP cliffhanger if the writers had planned all along to dismiss her chances at running so quickly. In the end, Elizabeth declares that she prefers to keep the SoS position. The Jose Campos character was well received by the writers which explains his recurring role. His return might give Henry more possibilities than Elizabeth for growth. Why was Bess acting President in the season 2 premiere? The story could have been told without it and it was never relevant throughout the season. The same is true this time around. Was President Dalton asking Elizabeth to be his VP just a CBS network decision? After watching the episode a second time, I felt that Elizabeth was responding only to the fact that warnings over sea level risings were ignored at the military sites because of crony capitalism ( an economic system characterized by close, mutually advantageous relationships between business leaders and government officials). However, Bess later mentioned the “credible” scientist ideology that is solely based on human cause which means, in political speak, the redistribution of wealth. Nobody denies that the climate changes. The debate persists over what causes the climate to change. Pointing out that the oceans are rising or more cyclones are occurring only indicates that the climate might be changing, but it says nothing about what is causing the change. Sea levels are at most, rising regardless and completely independent of any human cause and at least, not happening at all. IMO.