Tonight on NBC State of Affairs airs with an all new Monday January 5, season 1 episode 7 called, “Bellerophon,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode and the winter premiere, numerous photos of national landmarks featuring an Arabic symbol surface. Meanwhile, Charlie [Katherine Heigl] is in Yemen to make contact with her asset; Nick [Chris McKenna]‘s masked captor leads him to his next mission; Lucas [Adam Kaufman] oversees an interrogation at Langley; and President Payton must make a difficult decision.
On the last episode, Charlie (Katherine Heigl) and Maureen (Sheila Vand) accompanied President Payton (Alfre Woodard) to Qatar on a diplomatic trip. What began as a standard mission of diplomacy became a disaster when a Qatar national infiltrated the American embassy claiming to be CIA. Constance tasked Charlie to find out if he was telling the truth. Meanwhile Lucas (Adam Kaufman), Dash (Tommy Savas) and Kurt (Cliff Chamberlain) worked to track down Al Moosari, believed to be a direct link to Omar Fatah (guest star Farshad Farahat). Kurt had a run-in with a walk-in who claimed to have found a valuable backdoor into highly valuable communications. Nick (guest star Chris L. McKenna), still MIA, was violently interrogated by a masked man. Charlie finally took desperate and dangerous measured to remember the events of the convoy attack. Also starring David Harbour. Omid Abtahi and Jenny Pellicer guest star. Did you watch the last episode? If you missed it, we have a full and detailed recap, right here for you.
On tonight’s episode as per the NBC synopsis, “sixty-five photos of national landmarks suddenly surface, all featuring the r risslah symbol. Meanwhile, a college student claiming to be an operative breaks into the White House. The 7th floor team works to figure out the identities of the picture takers as the hunt for Al Moosari continues. Charlie (Katherine Heigl), now in Yemen, desperately tries to make contact with her asset while evading the Yemeni secret police. Nick’s (guest star Chris L. McKenna) masked captor lets him go only to lead him to his next mission. Back at Langley, Lucas (Adam Kaufman) takes the lead on the interrogation of a potential, and very controversial. At the same time, President Payton (Alfre Woodard) must make a hard choice between getting a much-needed win or holding out for her long-term goal of killing Sheikh Hakam. Sheila Vand, Tommy Savas, Cliff Chamberlain and David Harbour also star. Guest starring Nestor Carbonell, Melinda McGraw and Anil Kumar.”
This is definitely one series that you don’t want to miss. Don’t forget to stay tuned to Celeb Dirty Laundry where we will be live blogging every episode of State of Affairs first season. While you wait for the recap, check out a sneak peek of tonight’s episode below!
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
There’s a video of a tour group looking at DC monuments, then the St Louis arch and the Liberty Bell, Hoover Dam and other landmarks. Someone scales the wall at the White House and runs across the lawn. They make it to a side door and open it, setting off an alarm. They tag a painting of Lincoln with the terror group symbol. Secret service busts in and takes the masked guy down. He says they are all going to die. It’s a white guy who was speaking Arabic of some sort.
Charlie is on Air Force One in Qatar. She tells Payton what she remembered about that night. She says Fatah pulled her out of the wreckage and shot Aaron. She tells her that Fatah is a CIA asset that was turned three years ago in Kabul. She tells Payton she’s not supposed to read her in on these things unless she specifically asked. Charlie says she would trade her life for Aaron’s but POTUS says she created the man that killed Aaron. She’s outraged and tells Charlie she betrayed her.
Charlie says she doesn’t know why he was there or saved her but says he’s still their asset and is high up in the terror organization. Charlie says she has to meet with him. POTUS tells her she broke her heart and to not break her promise about finding and killing the people responsible for her son’s death. She tells Charlie to get off her plane. Navarro tells the group about James Wilcox breaking into the Oval Office and tagging a photo there. Navarro says locations all across American were tagged and they think it’s an active AR cell.
Navarro asks about Moosari – they’re still tracking him. They tell him they need Charlie but Navarro won’t say where she is. Nick is still being held captive and chained up. He manages to get loose of his shackles and finds his clothes. He looks around the area where he was held and finds the mystery mask. He also finds a key and curses. He comes out of the storage container where he was held and sees that he’s in Yemen in a ship yard. Lucas goes to see about Wilcox.
Agent Dale Scott (guest star Cress Williams from Hart of Dixie!!) tells Lucas that he’s got issues including a history of mental problems and civil disobedience with Anonymous and joined the jihad about six weeks ago. He says a professor – Ahmad Ahmadi – “opened” the guy’s mind and may be recruiting for AR. They head out to see the doctor. He’s lecturing on Asian crime cartels. They interrupt his lecture and take him out.
He tells the class that he’s being detained against his will and that his rights are being violated. Charlie is also in Yemen. A guy from the local hands her a gun and ID. He tells her to enjoy her stay. She has her cover ID and goes to check into a hotel. She stands on her balcony and hears her door open. It’s Nick. He laughs and smiles at her. She can’t believe he’s there and alive. He tells her he doesn’t know who was holding him in the shipping container but says he’ll make them pay.
She asks why he’s there. He says the box opened up and he had a hotel key. He says he’s wanted in Yemen and whoever left him there knew it. He says the whole interrogation was about her, Fatah and Pegasus. She tells him she read POTUS in on all of it today. He asks if they wait for bullets to start flying. She says Fatah is at Sana’a but that’s old data. She says she’s going to try and meet him there. He asks her if she feels it – being there with no protection or cover.
He says it’s deep and dark and she says they have to find Fatah and shut the Pegasus Op down. He says they could end up on YouTube with a knife in their throat. Senator Green talks about the White House being on a witch hunt for locking up Wilcox’s professor. POTUS tells David to turn it off and says Green is a loose cannon. Maureen is with them says they’re working on the AR cell and Moosari. Payton says that guy’s head on a platter can be their rebuttal.
Dash is working on the tagging of the monuments. Mo shows up and Kurt says they think an attack is imminent. He also says hey have another angle. They have people talking to every Rx delivery service looking for Moosari’s medication he needed after his surgery. They’re robo-dialing most of Egypt and Mo says to crank up the efforts. Charlie tells Nick that the CIA is tracking Moosari because he’s running assets in the US.
He says they need Sheik Akham otherwise it’s terrorist whack a mole. She says the Sheikh is like Santa Claus – no one has seen him. They pull up and see a road block. She has papers and they hope they’ll fly. Nick asks for her gun since he has no papers. He says they have to play it like old times. She hands it over. The guard asks for papers and Nick hands over hers. The guard looks hers over then asks for Nick’s. He says they’re in the trunk.
The guy tells him to get out. He gets out and goes to the back. He opens it while another guard stares at Charlie. Nick unzips a bag and Charlie gets out of the car. The guard finds liquor and Nick says he forgot about the booze. He begs them to leave Charlie alone. Nick asks if they can overlook it and offers the guy a big bribe. The guy snatches the cash and tells the other guards to chill out. They let them go and they drive off.
The guards are happy to have the booze and Nick says he hid the good stuff in the wheel well. She asks what his problem is with Yemens and he asks if she knows a certain warlord. She says he went insane when his brother died in a car crash. Nick says he shot the guy’s brother – that caused the crash. Wilcox paces his cell and tries to get a shelf loose off the wall. He fails and then tears apart his bed and tries to pull metal off of it.
They have the professor in interrogation and ask him if the tagged sites are targets for terror attacks. Agent Scott says he seems to have a lot of interest in AR then asks about James. In his cell, James takes off his clothes, folds them neatly. Lucas gets tapped then he brings Scott out. They rush to holding and find that James has cut his throat with part of his bed and has bled out.
Lucas thinks about the terror symbol tattooed onto Wilcox’s arm. Dale says it took a lot of fortitude to take out his carotid and jugular to make sure it was done. Lucas says it’s the first time he’s seen someone do that to himself. Nick and Charlie roll up to a local market and head inside a little cafe. They are seated in the back and brought water. Charlie says if Fatah has eyes on the place, he’ll know they’re there.
Nick asks if she’s willing to kill Fatah and the Sheikh. She says secret police are there and he says those are not his favorite people. They stand and walk out as the secret police come to find them. They make a run for it. Charlie begs for help from some women and they hook her up in a burqa. She thanks them. Nick makes it to the car and wonders where Charlie is. She hops in and he says the outfit is cute. Lucas asks the professor about the $2.1 million he’s moved.
He says he feeds and clothes refugees and Lucas says refugee camps are recruiting grounds for terror groups. He slaps the professor and demands to know when the attack is coming. He tells him to think hard about his answers. Scott says he can’t go at him like it’s Gitmo and Lucas says he has permission to do what he wants to the guy. Scott says they traced the money and it’s clean. He says they have to let him go. Lucas is furious.
He heads back to Langley and into the war room. Mo asks what happened. He says they came up snake eyes and Mo asks if he’s okay. He says he’s fine and asks them if they have anything. Dash says they now have an internet meme of the AR logo so they are up to 221,412 photos with the logo that may or may not be legit. A kid is handed a package and he puts it in his bike basket and rides off. Kurt says he has something on Moosari and Mo calls it in.
The kid rides to a door and knocks. A slat opens and he hands off the package. An asset snaps photos and Mo tells POTUS she’s talking to that they have confirmation on Moosari’s location. Navarro tells POTUS the SEALs are after Moosari now. She tells Mo it’s a good job. They bring up the images from the ops room so Payton, Mo and Navarro can watch. They have been told to capture Moosari and not kill him. The SEALs touch down nearby.
Nick tells Charlie they’re moving on Moosari now and says it’s good. She placed a blind ad for Fatah and Nick tells her that her long shot worked. We see the SEALs running up close to where Moosari is located. The SEALs are nearly on top of the place. Charlie calls in and Mo takes the call. She puts her on speaker and Charlie says she has to call it off. She says she has a meet with Fatah in two days and Moosari is their middle man.
David tells Payton to grab him now and use him to get Fatah. Charlie says they’ll lose Fatah if they do this. She says Moosari gets them to Fatah and then to the Sheikh. The SEALs call in for approval to go hot. Payton thinks and says to pull back. They abort. Charlie thanks her and the SEALs disappear back into the night. Charlie gets the coordinates for the meet. It’s in Egypt. Charlie looks at the rest of the message. The code says “send vera” that means to send Nick.
Charlie asks if he’s going and says it could be an ambush. She reminds him he tortured Fatah for months and he says it was an interrogation. She says he can’t go but he says they have no choice. She asks who put them together and why. He says it doesn’t know and it doesn’t matter because there they are. He looks at her and she stares back. He puts down the whiskey and pulls her to him. They hug each other warmly. He looks resigned and scared. She looks stressed.
He kisses her and tells her he’ll be okay. She tells him he’s a liar. He tells her she’ll be okay and that’s all that matters. She kisses him and wraps her arms around him. She pulls off his shirt and he pulls her robe off of her. He picks her up and lays her down on the bed. Navarro is back at Langley. He reads the others in on Charlie running Fatah as an asset. He says four weeks ago he made contact and offered to lead them to the Sheikh.
He tells them their main responsibility is to support Charlie in her search for Fatah and the Sheikh. He says no one else can be read in outside of that room. He says the mission is Bellerophon. Charlie calls Navarro and puts him on the line with Nick. After the call, Nick tells her that Navarro went for it and Charlie says Navarro is likely the one who sent Nick there. Nick says she needs to catch the flight. She kisses him again then leaves.
Senator Green is on her dais again and talks about POTUS waging war on terror by taking the professor into custody. Navarro comes to see Payton and says Nick is on the way to meet Moosari and they’re monitoring him via satellite. She thanks him. He asks if she wants Charlie back as her briefer and she says no – she wants her on Fatah. She says she likes Ms James (aka Mo). Navarro says Green is just a mouthpiece while Payton is a soldier. He says the country won’t forget that.
Mo heads home escorted by Nick. She tells him she’s still in as POTUS’ briefer. She thanks him for the ride home. He tries to get her to go for a drink but she says she’s tired. It’s awkward and then he leaves. Mo comes into her house and there’s a knock at the door. She goes to the door and opens it. It’s Lucas. He says he doesn’t know why he’s there and says he could use some company. She lets him in. Senator Green comes to see POTUS at her request.
Payton says the FBI made a mistake with the professor but says they are at war with AR. Green says she’s not her protege, friend or aid and won’t toe the line. She says she’s weaponizing her office and asks if she’s serving the national interests or her own need fro revenge over her son’s death. Green says she realizes what Payton is becoming and won’t stop until she makes sure everyone knows it and anyone is in that chair but her. She walks out.
Payton makes a statement while Charlie listens. POTUS says they are united against terror and for justice here and abroad. She ends the statement as Charlie checks her laptop. Nick is escorted into Moosari’s place at gun point. Moosari greets him in English and says soon they’ll have no home to go back to. Moosari punches Nick in the face and then they put a bag on his head.
THE END!
