‘Madam Secretary’ season 3, episode 5 preview: ‘The French Revolution’; progress on the cyber-stalking case

While “Madam Secretary” continues to keep some of the procedural elements strong on the show, there are still for the most part two major narratives defining the season so far: President Dalton’s attempts to run for re-election as an independent, and also Elizabeth and Henry McCord’s attempts to figure out who is stalking them and trying to ruin their family’s lives using various forms of technology. Basically, we’re combining a political thriller and “Mr. Robot” so far this season.

On next week’s new episode entitled “The French Revolution,” we are going to see some continuation with both of these stories, but at the same time, also a crisis courtesy of some tension between the United States and France.

Synopsis – “When an imminent U.S.-France state dinner is jeopardized after a CIA operative is captured by French intelligence, Elizabeth must negotiate the operative’s release while keeping the event on track. Also, Russell tries to woo back big donors to Dalton’s campaign, and the McCords get an important lead in their family’s stalking case.”

Superficially, the good news going into the story-of-the-week is that the United States and France are allies, so in theory working through negotiations should be easier than with a country like a North Korea. However, at the same time we’ve got a feeling that this is going to be much more complicated than it seems on the surface.

As for the fundraising storyline, we at least know that this is fairly authentic to the real world given that this often remains one of the most challenging facets of almost any independent running for election — you don’t have that party money to support your cause, so you have to figure out other ways to keep yourself in the spotlight.