'Madam Secretary' Season 4, Episode 1 'News Cycle' Recap: Addressing Fake News, Eradicating Drug Cartels And The Fight For Sovereignty [SPOILERS]

Elizabeth McCord is back as “Madam Secretary” on its fourth season, and things started out on a high note. After getting through a stressful election campaign last season, the threats about Conrad Dalton’s presidency are put into question, as well as Elizabeth’s credibility as the Secretary of State. To make things worse, she’s even branded as a murderer after Timor-Leste’s vice minister collapses and dies during their meeting.
Today’s premiere episode is titled “News Cycle,” and it sets up a couple of new challenges for the Dalton administration and Elizabeth’s capabilities as well.

The Death of a Diplomat

As Elizabeth makes to a UN General Assembly, she is greeted by a stressed-out assistant vice minister of Timor-Leste who’s adamant that they should meet and talk. Nadine Tolliver (Bebe Neuwirth) dismisses this as something that can be pushed back for later, to which most of Elizabeth’s staff agrees. Meanwhile, her daughter Allison (Kathrine Herzer) prepares to move out for college, which means Elizabeth isn’t there to see her off.
During the pre-meeting lunch,  Stevie (Wallis Currie-Wood), Elizabeth’s eldest daughter who also works as Russell Jackson’s (Željko Ivanek) intern, tells her that Conrad and Russell have something to tell her. Elizabeth finds out that China has backed out of the talks for free speech resolution. Apparently, China also happens to have a dispute with Timor-Leste over sovereignty. So Elizabeth decides to meet with the vice minister instead, hoping to piss China off.

The closed-door meeting with the vice minister finally happens. But just as the vice minister was about to talk, he suddenly collapses in front of Elizabeth. She suffers some kind of a shock after the incident and is determined to extend her condolences to the president of Timor-Leste and the vice minister’s family. As soon as Elizabeth meets with the president, things begin to take an odd turn. Apparently, President Miguel Da Silva didn’t know about the meeting that the vice minister was indignant on having. This puzzles them both, and more so the next day when Da Silva orders the vice minister’s body be shipped back to Timor-Leste prior to the autopsy. This sparks an investigation on Elizabeth’s side.

A drug conspiracy uncovered

She enlists the help of her brother, Will Adams (Eric Stoltz) who’s also in the area for a doctor’s conference. She asks him if he could test the blood that was splattered on her dress the day the vice minister died. Will initially refuses to do so, saying that Elizabeth is only making this a murder conspiracy due to her frustrations of not being able to be there for Allison’s moving out day. But after further guilt-tripping, Will eventually agrees to do it.
The next day, Will brings back the test results to Elizabeth, and she finds out that the vice minister was poisoned. This led them to believe that the man was under serious pressure into being a whistleblower on whatever Timor-Leste’s government is hiding. While things are starting to get clear, a fake news item surfaces. Elizabeth finds out during a lunch in Allison’s new college, where everyone is snapping pictures, with the Secretary unaware of the current trending story on Twitter.

The fake news item details how Elizabeth actually killed the assistant vice minister, even going as far as tapping into her CIA background as the reason for her ability to kill someone with her bare hands. This sparks media attention, and she takes a huge blow when she makes her comments about the matter during a live TV interview. Senator Carlos Morejon (José Zúñiga), a known anti-Dalton supporter, capitalizes on the scandal and calls for the FBI to investigate. Elizabeth fires back at the interviewer’s comments and appears to have a diplomatic breakdown on live TV. Russell is furious, and rants about how her comments could affect Conrad’s presidency and his capability of enacting his executive power. Nadine also breaks in the midst of Russell’s angry outburst and the two engage in a shouting match. Russell then orders Elizabeth to “put a sock in it.”
The investigation on the vice minister’s death also escalates, and soon enough, Elizabeth finds out that Timor-Leste has engaged in a shady deal with a drug dealer. At first, Elizabeth thinks that it’s China who made the deal. But after another successful investigation, it turns out that President Da Silva made a deal with a Mexican drug cartel to use their country as a shipping base for cocaine. Timor-Leste is now on the brink of becoming a narcos state. Elizabeth also found out that the cartel was responsible for spreading the fake news item about her “killing” the assistant vice minister. Elizabeth meets with Chinese Foreign Minister Chen (Francis Jue) and subtly persuades him to help Timor-Leste weed out the cartel.

The fallout

The cartel’s leader is finally arrested by the DEA and things appear to take its normal course again—for now. The next day, Elizabeth bumps into Chief Justice Wilbourne (Morgan Freeman) as she makes her way into a restaurant to finally confront Senator Morejon. Elizabeth tries to tell him to stand down, but Morejon is only getting started. He was successful in making the public think that the secretary is a murderer, and he’s willing to go farther than that.
Meanwhile, Henry McCord’s (Tim Daly) former Russian informant, Dimitri Petrov (Chris Petrovski) has just been made a CIA Operative. Henry encourages him to stay low for a while and maintain their cover. However, there’s just one thing that might set Henry back big time—Dimitri is heavily addicted to painkillers. Now, this could very well jeopardize Dimitri’s reputation as a viable American spy, and Henry’s job at the same time.

‘Madam Secretary: News Cycle’: The Verdict

After a few months of hiatus, “Madam Secretary” comes back strong with current themes of fake news and drug cartels. This has never been dealt with in the show, making this the series’ first foray into current political commentaries. Ever since it’s premiere back in 2014, “Madam Secretary” has separated itself apart from the other political TV dramas like “House of Cards” and “Veep” by being a light-hearted take on a Secretary of State’s life. And with its return for the fourth season, it looks like things are promising for “Madam Secretary,” given how much of the current real-life political situation is beginning to shape up the narrative of most political shows of this year.
“Madam Secretary” returns next week with “Off the Record,” Sunday, October 15 on CBS.