‘Madam Secretary’ season 3, episode 13 review: Is there peace with Iran, Israel?

There was a reason why “Madam Secretary” season 3 on Sunday night was considering making Elizabeth McCord into a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. Just consider the stakes that she had given her attempts to organize a peace deal between Iran and Israel, one that went up in smoke when a peaceful gathering ended up turning into chaos.

Eventually, Bess was able to have the soccer match without incident, and while this may not have accomplished that much when it comes to specifically changing the game, at the same time it was a huge simple — just as this trading of goods was. We’re starting to see the relations between these two countries be on the up and up, and that is incredibly significant to preserving the future for each of them.

Is Elizabeth to thank for that? Maybe in part, but then you also have Jay, her team, and so many others. That is the thing that is so complicated about something like a Nobel Peace Prize: It’s more of a team effort. Also, it’s something that you are judged for the rest of your life. If she ever does travel out to Oslo, she does have to be made aware of that.

While we enjoyed some milestones in the whole peace storyline, at the same time we wouldn’t blame anyone if they wanted something a tad more dramatic with the timing, given that this was the final episode of the show before late February. There wasn’t much of a cliffhanger, and that’s something we saw a lot more of during the second season. Don’t get us wrong — sometimes, this can be overkill. We just think that in this case in the middle of the season, the show could’ve given us a little bit more to grasp onto.

Daisy and Kevin – Is this a new love interest for the character? We’re not going that far, especially since she’s clearly realizing that there is more to this guy than meets the eye. Nonetheless, it’s nice to see the State Department team get to interact with some new people, and struggle in some ways to figure out the relationship dynamics that comes along with someone coming into her professional space.

At least this relationship didn’t take as sharp a turn as Jay’s own marriage, as it is becoming clear that the stresses of the job are getting to him and his wife. All signs point to them being on a break now — there is clearly some love there between the two parties, but at the same time, his job makes him unavailable to the person who needs him the most.

The overall view – The downside to tonight’s episode was that the Elizabeth family stuff, other than a nice scene between her and Henry at the start of the episode, was a little bit more on the back-burner once we dove into everything with trying to secure peace between the countries. The stuff that was there about her outfit just wasn’t that engaging.

If you love shrewd political maneuvering, though, odds are that you enjoyed “The Beautiful Game” as an episode very much. It showed the Secretary’s strength as a negotiator, but also some of her vulnerabilities at the same time. Episode Grade: B.