Madam Secretary season 4 episode 17 review: Elizabeth McCord’s lawsuit threat

Madam Secretary season 4 episode 17 ran the risk of being catastrophic to Elizabeth McCord. Some of the decisions that she made led to harsh consequences, and following the death of a young man she had to face off against a family who was contemplating suing her over a recent bombing and the blowback from that.

Elizabeth took damage from all sides this week, whether it be cable-news pundits eager to take her down to also discussions regarding the right time in which to initiate phase two of an Iran deal that has caused a lot of trouble within the Administration. There was talk about delaying phase two, but thanks in part to some personal actions from the Secretary of State, that was not anywhere near as needed as she once thought.

Elizabeth eventually sat down with the family of the young man who died, and while it wasn’t necessarily her intention to get them to drop the lawsuit, that is still what ended up happening in the end anyway. That benefited her on many fronts since it gave her some more flexibility to move forward with phase two.

Yet, there were still some other issues that Bess had to deal with, and that included resolving matters with both Iran and Saudi Arabia. As the episode progressed there were some peace offerings and, above all, hope. This is what Madam Secretary really does best — giving you a reason to actually feel like countries can get along if presented with the right information. It’s not actually something that we actually get a chance to see all that much in real life these days.

As for Henry, tonight we got a chance to see him leading a new commission regarding ethics, which in turn was a chance to influence some big issues impacting many people in Washington … even if it also did end up leading to a debate all about parking space.

Related – Be sure to check out some more information on the next new episode of the show

CarterMatt Verdict

There is a one-week hiatus after this episode and with that in mind, we did strongly wonder if Madam Secretary was going to be ending off on some sort of cliffhanger. Yet, that didn’t necessarily happen. We had an episode tonight that was a little more personal and political. This was a satisfying episode if you love interesting back-and-forth conversations and international relationships.

The episode did end in the absolutely perfect manner, with a small scene in front of the star commemorating the man who lost his life. This does admittedly make us think of Homeland these days, but that’s just our own personal TV history more so than anything the show did to push us in that direction.

What did you think about Madam Secretary season 4 episode 17 as a whole? Be sure to share some of your thoughts in the attached comments!

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