'Madam Secretary' Season 4 Episode 13 'Reading the Signs' Recap: Elizabeth and the Psychic's Advice [SPOILERS]

“Madam Secretary” is back and Elizabeth McCord (Téa Leoni) is trying to keep International relationships intact while the President of the United States is recuperating. On the last episode of “Madam Secretary,” titled “Sound and Fury,” President Dalton had to step down due to his mental state. Now, Elizabeth has to work side by side with Vice President Hurst (Jayne Atkinson) who is the acting president. However, it looks like the two are on civil terms for the visitation of Sri Lanka’s President. But trouble brews when a psychic convinces the president of Sri Lanka to not move forward with a trade agreement with the United States. Meanwhile, Ally (Kathrine Herzer) deals with her roommate’s suicide, and Henry (Tim Daly) makes a drastic career change.

A President’s Third Eye

Some people believe in spirits, and some in luck. Even people in power believe in such things, but it’s a problem when they let it interfere with their political business. Elizabeth and her staff have been preparing for the President of Sri Lanka, but nothing could prepare them for his psychic, Ranuga. Other political figures would have an adviser on their side, but none of them can read tea leaves. Elizabeth and Vice President Hurst sweeten the deal, but the psychic swoops in with his readings. Ranuga tells his president they cannot push through with the trade because the spirits will not think highly of it.

The idea of tea leaves stopping a political decision gets a laugh out of Elizabeth’s staff. So they try to get to know Ranuga a little more. Is he the real deal or is the President of Sri Lanka getting played? They give him a tour of the White House. Ranuga gives each of Elizabeth’s team a reading. He tells Matt (Geoffrey Arend) he knows he is childless, Daisy (Patina Miller) is lonely, and Kat (Sara Ramirez) needs to answer her brother’s calls. Jay (Sebastian Arcelus) and Kat are still calling bullshit on Ranuga’s psychic powers -even though he was right about all of them. They dig a little deeper and found out why Ranuga would call off the trade agreement. Apparently, it would jeopardize his family’s company.

Home is not much of a distraction

Jay informs Elizabeth about Ranuga’s motives, and she changes their approach. Instead of appealing to the President of Sri Lanka, she and Vice President Hurst should try to convince Ranuga. In the end, they were able to persuade Sri Lanka to push through with the trade agreements. But Elizabeth isn’t out of the International dilemma just yet. It looks like China heard about Sri Lanka’s shaky trade agreements and now it seems their telecom deal is in trouble when China has other offers for Sri Lanka. Elizabeth tells her team to get more information before China turns Sri Lanka’s Hambantota to a mini-Hongkong. With more International troubles on her lap, home isn’t much of a distraction either.

Ally comes home about her roommate troubles. It looks like any petty college trouble, but when Ally goes back to her dorm, she finds her roommate passed out on the floor. She notices the vodka and bottle of pills which lead her to believe her roommate tried to kill herself. Ally pulls her parents out of work for emotional support. When her roommate was pulled out of school, Ally was left alone in her cold dorm room. Worried about Ally, Henry tells his wife to give their child some space to deal with the situation. She then tries to ask Henry about his day and his work trouble, because she needs anything to keep her mind from the Chinese taking the rug from under her.

‘Madam Secretary’ Career Changes

Elizabeth was surprised when she got a call to have tea with the president of Sri Lanka. She confronts him about the deal with China and his country’s fishing rights. Elizabeth tells the president that Sri Lanka’s sovereignty shouldn’t be collateral when the U.S.A made an agreement that benefited both their countries. As usual, Elizabeth knows how to persuade people and the president of Sri Lanka tells her they will walk away from China. But of course, nothing should be this easy. When it seemed like the Vice President and Madam Secretary are finally seeing eye to eye, it’s all a bit too good to be true.
Vice President Hurst tells Elizabeth the country’s trust for Sri Lanka is shakey, and they need to walk away from the agreement. She doesn’t want to sign her name on the agreement without feeling like it’s not good for their country. She even made a callback to their Russian visit where Hurst almost made a terrible deal with the Russian President. Since Hurst was acting president, Elizabeth had to respect her decision. So it’s looking more likely that Elizabeth might run against her especially when Ranuga gives her a letter saying “run.”

But she isn’t the only one rethinking her career path. Her husband resigned as the head of the Special Activities Division after being scrutinized for his approach against Taliban and the Russians. However, Elizabeth didn’t suddenly announce her presidential run. Instead, she interpreted Ranuga’s message as running to her daughter. Only time will tell if Madam Secretary would take the advice of her colleagues and run against Hurst.
“Madam Secretary” continues next Sunday with “Refuge” at 10/9c on CBS.