‘Madam Secretary’ season 3, episode 4 review: Elizabeth’s Angola problem; Stevie’s discovery

Going into Sunday’s “Madam Secretary” episode, we’d say that Stevie’s relationship status was something on the back of our mind. It hadn’t really been addressed much so far this season, but we assumed that her engagement with Jareth was on solid footing.

As it turns out, not so much. She revealed in the episode that she didn’t have the best time in the world while overseas in the United Kingdom, and Jareth was facing some conflicts over leaving Oxford. We do get a sense that he does love her, but it’s a challenge for him given that abandoning so much of his past could cause him to lose a part of his title (apparently, he’s got a far more significant status than Stevie realized) and also his inheritance.

Do we think that they’ll work everything out? Probably, so let’s move out to some of the other major stories of the episode.

The Dissent Memo – This was the title of the episode, and it was also front and center for a rather-significant Elizabeth McCord crisis as she had to figure out how to show Angola that America was interested in preserving Democracy in their nation. This is made all the more challenging thanks mostly to the Secretary of State having so many other priorities, including handling the election.

Speaking of the election… – Dalton is on the ballot in Ohio! It seems somewhat crazy that we’re talking about an incumbent President having to get on the ballot, but it makes sense in terms of the way our Democracy works, given that Dalton is running here as an independent candidate. We like that the writers aren’t necessarily giving him the easy way out when they very easily could just for the sake of who he is.

While the cliffhanger tonight (the capture of an agent) sounds especially dangerous for Henry and company, we have next week to worry about that. For now, let’s praise this episode for finding the right balance of interesting character moments and political conflict. Grade: B.