‘Madam Secretary’ episode 12 spoilers: More on ‘Standoff,’ ‘Chains of Command’

Once again, we repeat the all-familiar refrain for fans of “Madam Secretary” these days, at least in that there is no new episode of the show airing Sunday night on CBS.

With that being said, we do have some further scoop today in the way of photos! The first image here is from the January 4 “Standoff,” which is the oh-so-complicated hour where Elizabeth (Tea Leoni) had to deal with a very complicated political struggle, while at the same time trying to balance her own anniversary. This one will have its serious moments, but the nice thing about it is that it feels like there is also going to be plenty of fun that plays out from start to finish.

Meanwhile, we also have here one of the first looks at the episode 11 episode “Chains of Command,” which features Aasif Mandvi (“The Daily Show”) in the role of Prince Yousif. This is also going to be an episode that features Henry’s father, and it therefore gives us an even fuller picture of Elizabeth’s family life.

We are starting to get to the point now where new episodes of this show matter more and more, especially in terms of the ratings. Once the NFL season is completely over, we’ll really get a chance to see just how well the show does without some of those lead-ins. Sundays are a difficult night to gauge sometimes, especially since you have football overruns that complicate ratings, and also can leave some fans disgruntled who have no interest in sports at all.