Henry was once again put in the middle of his wife’s affairs. Just as Henry was off to Russia, a Russian sub was crossing over to U.S. costal waters and then disappeared.
The episode barely started and Elizabeth was ushered off to the Situation Room. And just as Henry was starting his lecture, the President of Russia came in to interrupt his presentation, to invite him to go hunting, with cameras following him.
Things didn’t look good. Henry went hunting with the President, not that he had any choice. They were nicely talking until President Ostrov gave Henry a message for his wife and President: his people are not frightened of their enemies and they don’t back down.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth was trying to get information. She had a video call with the Foreign Prime Minister. He claimed that if they called off their troops from the Latvian border, then their submarine would find a map again. He then informed her of her husband hunting with the Russian President.
This explained what happened to Ostrov. Russell couldn’t get a hold of him. He was told the President was in a remote location. He apparently disappeared just like the sub.
Officially Russia was denying the sub was there. The State Department was trying to figure out why the submarine was there. They weren’t sure if it was all about the troops near Russian anymore.
Russell suggested spying, they could be looking to tap into the optics cable there. Garrett really honed in on the fact that the sub was nuclear armed.
The result came down to President Dalton wanting to destroy the sub. He gave the Russians two hours and then they would destroy the vessel at whatever means necessary.
Elizabeth had cleared her schedule, but there was one thing she couldn’t knock off her schedule without being noticed. She had to go to Ezra’s retirement party to speak.
Turns out it was very good she didn’t cancel this engagement. The man had been in service for 60 years and that experience proved invaluable for Elizabeth.
He read all the signs and knew exactly what was going on, so Elizabeth invited him to her office to brainstorm on the matter. Why wasn’t the Russian President bragging? Ezra said is was about reading their intentions as well as the pieces on the board. This led to them thinking, did something go wrong?
In Russia, Henry was wondering the same thing. He went on the tour of the church, but after he noticed the President praying to St. Nicholas, the one they turn to in rough times. Henry said he seemed different, afraid.
Elizabeth took this information to the Dalton. Instead of just destroying the sub, they dropped death charges, to entice the submarine to surface. The sub shot a torpedo at them, hitting them and injuring people on board.
Russia sent a communiqué saying if they attacked again, they would react.
Garret didn’t seem so inclined to go on the observation of Elizabeth’s husband, but Russell defended Henry’s opinion. He said Henry’s proved valuable on the ground in the past.
Elizabeth wanted to try to talk to the submarine before launching an attack. She didn’t want to go to war over a mistake. They used morse code to communicate and the sub sent out a distress call. They suffered a malfunction and loss of oxygen. There was a fire when the new technology failed, which resulted in 42 officers dying.
They were told not to signal for help and to destroy the sub if they couldn’t repair it.
The Captain panicked when they set off depth charges, he thought they were under attack. The sub had also experienced a mutiny.
They only had two hours left of oxygen and asked for help.
The State Department and Defense couldn’t just rescue them. The Russians were on their way and could destroy the sub before they got the people out.
They had to make a deal with Russia, one that they could accept and go through back channels.
Henry went to Ostrov with the deal. Officially the story was the Russian and Americans collided and when the Americans attempted a rescue, they were all dead. The bodies were buried at sea. The truth was that the 20 survivors got new identities and lives in America. They could never see their families again and their families could never know they were okay. This was so the Russian President could save face.
On the upside for the U.S., they got a peek at the new technology.
Henry sealed the deal by talking about how both of their grandfathers fought in WWII.
Stevie was going through her own problems this week. Alison had posted a picture on social media of them with Harrison, the President’s son. This led to media speculation of the President’s son and Secretary’s daughter dating. Stevie called Daisy to handle it. Daisy was on it, but when she discovered Stevie was dating her boss, she was not pleased. This could lead to the end of microloans. It would look really bad from a press stand point.
Stevie had to deal with some paparazzi following her. Then she made the mature decision of breaking it off with Arthur. She didn’t want to ruin his career. She wants to leave the job too, but Arthur urges her to think about it. It’s something she cares about too.
