Tonight on NBC State of Affairs airs with an all new Monday December 15, season 1 episode 5 called, “Ar Rissalah,” and we have your weekly recap below. On tonight’s episode, President Payton [Alfre Woodard] has many questions for Nick Vera [Chris McKenna] in the wake of a leak of a convoy-attack report. Meanwhile, Charlie flashes back to the convoy attack, revealing she’s been hiding a secret from Payton, and a reporter is granted an exclusive interview.
On the last episode, a threatening text was sent to Charlie and Nick. Meanwhile, Charlie had flashbacks of her first interactions with Fatah; Payton’s rival revealed information about a report on a senatorial convoy attack; the team tried to contain a smallpox contamination in Panama. 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, “Now that a portion of the convoy attack report has been leaked, President Payton (Alfre Woodard) has a lot of questions for Nick Vera (guest star Chris L. McKenna). Unfortunately, he seems to be MIA. As Charlie (Katherine Heigl) searches for him, she flashes back to the hours before and during the convoy attack, and we learn another secret that she’s been withholding from President Payton. After an American reporter (guest star Ray Laska) is granted a rare, exclusive interview, Charlie and team must work to contain the footage as an urgent matter of national security. Kurt (Cliff Chamberlain) finally works up the courage to show Maureen (Sheila Vand) his cards, while D.P. (David Harbour) reaches out to an old friend to squash the convoy attack report before it’s released in its entirety. Also starring Adam Kaufman and Tommy Savas. Nestor Carbonell, Courtney B. Vance, James Remar, Farshad Farahat, Nick Shakoour and Melinda McGraw guest star.”
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 for Updates
In Egypt, a guy soaks his head in a tub of cold water and his American buddy says he told him alchemy shots on an empty stomach was a bad idea. They go back to the club. The guy grabs two more beers and they drink up. The guy sees someone that catches his eye. He speaks to his buddy and they walk out. The American says the Egyptian secret police won’t mess with an American but his buddy reminds him they’re not in America. They call for a cab but are grabbed by armed men and shoved in a van instead.
They are zip tied and their mouths are taped over. They ride out in the desert with them and drag them back out of the van the next morning. They take them into a building and force them to kneel. A man gestures and the bag is pulled off the American’s head. There’s a video camera trained on him and a man approaches him with a knife. He asks if he knows who he is. The man nods. He cuts his throat.
David tells POTUS that the report about her son’s death are still sealed but are being leaked. The biggest item is that her son was killed by a CIA weapon registered to Nick Vera. She says she wants to know who leaked it. She has Charlie and Navarro there among others and asks who Nick is and why his gun shot her son. Charlie thinks about Nick being dragged away as POTUS asks where he is.
Navarro has to take a call and the Prez asks if she knows Nick. She says she does but they weren’t friends. POTUS asks if he was aiding Fatah and she says she doesn’t think he killed Aaron. She tells Charlie to find Nick. Navarro comes back in and says Fatah kidnapped an American journalist. In the ops center, Charlies comes in. She looks around at her people and then Maureen follows her into her office.
Charlie says Nick is gone but he didn’t run. She tells her she can’t ask if she wants to pass her next agency polygraph. She tells her to pull everything she can on Nick both classified and unofficial. Maureen hands her a report she’d already done. She says nothing is shocking for Nick. Maureen asks if she’s going to be damaged by the report. Charlie says she can’t tell her – it will compromise her.
She tells her POTUS has her hunting for Nick and Maureen says they have to hunt for him. Charlie tells her that he was taken from her car and tells her where. They call Charlie in and show her footage of Thomas Logan. They see Fatah take the bag off his head then cut on him. The journalist is alive and was released but he’s bringing footage from Fatah – a message for them.
Dash follows Charlie out and says he thinks he knows what’s up with Fatah. He says he’s been tracking chatter about “the message in Arabic” and says that chatter has quadrupled. He says it’s like fanboy pages devoted to Fatah. Navarro and Charlie watch Logan talk to the FBI. They say he seems calm for someone who was kidnapped. He says they were cordial and that Fatah was unarmed.
Logan says he even gave the driver his cell phone because he liked the AC/DC music on it. Charlie asks to speak to him and Navarro agrees. The FBI guy introduces her. Charlie asks who was kidnapped with him and he says it’s Al, a local camera guy. She asks why Fatah chose him. He says he’s a trusted freelancer and local expert. He says he’s going to air in 48 hours.
Charlie asks him to hold off on airing he interview with Fatah. He says he has a journalistic responsibility to air it. Charlie heads back and they show her a failed suicide bombing in Qatar that referred to the message that’s coming. There were a number of incidents in other places. One attacker had a specific design on his shirt and she points it out in Logan’s video.
It’s coded art. They translate the symbol and it says “the message.” She asks Dash about the chatter. He pulls up locations where there’s chatter. He pulls it up and it’s accurate and live. Charlie says to let everyone know because it’s all over the place. Charlie says it’s a call to arms. She says Fatah and Hakham have built the biggest terrorist network they’ve ever seen.
Charlie watches Fatah’s interview with Logan. He asks Fatah if he has anything to say about POTUS’ son being murdered. The man says they killed his family too and the president said nothing to him. Charlie says airing this video is a call to arms. David says it’s a first amendment issue but POTUS wants it shut down. POTUS demands she find Nick ASAP.
She leaves and calls Mo who says she’s got nothing on Nick yet and Charlie tells her to check into the Krieg Group, a shadow group that may have him. She meets Syd in the park and hands him the phone she stole from the burn room. She tells him that one of her people had it. She says everyone on her floor is a likely suspect. He says he’ll run prints and DNA then asks about Nick getting grabbed.
She says the photos were sold to the Krieg Group. She asks if they took him and Syd says to let him stay gone. He says Nick has so many mortal enemies. He says he’s connected to what’s happening. He reminds her Nick has also been on the seventh floor. She says POTUS tasked her to run him down and he says to hope that Nick is somewhere with a bullet in his head.
Kurt flirts with Maureen and shows her a magic trick. He asks her out on the card that he did the card trick with. He asks her to think about it and she says she will. He’s happy with that. Charlie goes to Nick’s place and picks the lock. She sees it’s been thoroughly tossed and picks up a glove. She unscrews the top and opens it. She pulls out a photo of the two of them together.
She thinks back to the two of them in Afghanistan and him telling her it’s different here. They’re talking about then-Senator Payton’s visit. He says Kabul is FUBAR and she should come. She says Jack Dawson told her the convoy route is clean but Nick says every jihadist with a copy of the Koran will have a hard on for them. We see him offer her a gun and she takes it.
Hmm… So Charlie had Nick’s gun when this all went down. Now, Charlie looks through his papers and finds several passports with her photo on them. She takes them and leaves. A man sees her leave. Back at the ops center, Charlie watches the Fatah interview. He says – you thought you could control us and could not. He says they are the righteous, the chosen ones and the called. Charlie zooms in.
She notices something and says to Dash – look at his knees. She says something has been edited out. She says there is missing footage. She tells him to call the FBI and get a warrant for Logan’s arrest.
The FBI storms the station with Charlie and arrest Logan. He asks what for and she reads off the charges of providing support to a terrorist organization. She says he gave a cell phone to a known terrorist. He says it won’t hold up in court and she says it doesn’t have to. He asks what she wants and she tells him to hand over the raw footage – all of it. She threatens to freeze his accounts and put him on the no fly list too.
Charlie asks to speak to him alone and says Fatah is using him. She says Fatah spared his life so he would feel grateful. She says he’s protecting a mass murderer. She says he kills men, women and children and asks him to help her. He says there’s nothing there and says it was just b roll. He says they were serving tea. She asks him to fast forward through it. She sees Fatah serving tea.
He asks what sort of intrigue Fatah has with her. He says Fatah told him that she would come back for her. He says he promised to deliver a personal message to her from Fatah. He says he knows Fatah attacked the convoy and now the report on the attack is coming out and looks bad. He asks how dirty does all this get at the end of the day. He says once this report is released, she’ll be the one being questions.
She asks for the message Fatah sent and he says – Pegasus takes wing. We see David at lunch with Jules, Logan’s boss, asking him to pull the Fatah interview. He says he can’t and doesn’t want to. David says it’s a request from the President and Jules says he can’t step on freedom of the press as a favor. He offers a horse trade of a glimpse at the subcommittee report on the Kabul attack.
He asks David wasn’t he the one who pushed for the Kabul trip. He says he did to remind the voting public that she was a veteran. Jules says it almost cost her her life and David says it won her the primary. David says it was unintended political capital and she would rather have her son back than be running the country. Jules says he won’t kill it. David says fine.
He says they can trade. He writes something down and David says it’s an IOU for a bigger story. He says the gun that killed Aaron was a CIA gun. Jules says the CIA guy’s name would be redacted but David says he knows it and will tell him if he pulls the story. Jules says that’s illegal but a big get and they toast to it.
Senator Green comes to see POTUS and she tosses down a folder to the woman. She says if she reroutes this pipeline it will cost thousands of jobs in her state. She asks what this is and POTUS says she knows she leaked portions of the report. Green says the report will be made public with or without the leak. Green says she gave her a heads up and says her son was killed by a CIA weapon.
She says Charlie sits next to her every day and says that’s the treachery she should be concerned with. She tells her that Charlie and Nick’s relationship was more than just professional. She leaves. Charlie goes back to the office as she thinks about Midnight City. She and Nick were eating with Omar and talking to him about being their asset and being an agent of change.
They promise to help him and his family if he turns over Sheikh Hakham. Nick says they’re going to wash him up on shore. He asks how he’ll contact them. They let him go and Nick says they don’t have him but Charlie says she thinks he’s there and is solidly recruited. She says he proved himself by giving them the Syrian cell. She tells Nick for sure that he’s theirs.
She says only the two of them and Director Blake will know. She says Fatah’s code name will be Pegasus. She asks her people what they have on the raw footage. They show her the camera guy that was with Logan. They ran facial recognition and found him in a training camp video of Sheik Hakham’s. They wonder if Logan gamed them. She says Fatah did.
She says Fatah worked Logan as a mark. POTUS asks David if they should really go to Qatar now and he says it’s best not to look weak when the report is coming out. POTUS tells David that Green told her that Charlie and Nick are romantically involved. He asks if she believes it. Payton says she believes in Charlie. David tells her to fire Charlie immediately. He says his job is to shield her.
He says Charlie is the most direct line to her. Logan gets a call about his impending book deal. He says he’s a player gain. He drives and smokes gleeful about his newfound fortune. He starts coughing hard and then runs off the road and into oncoming traffic. He drives head on into a semi truck. Interesting. That’s a loose end but who took care of him? David? Charlie?
Jules meets David at a bar and tells him that Logan is dead. He says he had a heart attack and drove into a semi. Jules says 36 is young for heart trouble. David asks what he’s saying and Jules say the deal is off and he’s running the interview. David says it could be seen as an act of treason. Jules tells him to keep the other story he offered and he’ll keep the one he already has.
Mo tells Charlie the Fatah interview is going to air. Dash comes in and says Aleek Al Moosari is their camera man. He was actually born in the US and radicalized. He died in 2012. He fakes his down death. She says he’s a shadow in Fatah’s service and says they have to get him. It’s time for the interview. They dedicate the interview to the memory of Tom Logan.
Fatah says death comes for us all and he wants to prevent this. He says he wants to know he wishes them no harm but their leaders have come after them. He says they want their people released and Americans off their soil. He says to cease killing their people with drones. He says meet these demands or die. He says we are your brothers, sisters and fathers, your children. He says we are the friend you invite over, your coworker, your doctor. He says we are everywhere. Our disciples are everywhere.
We see people all over the US watching this video. Charlie fills POTUS in on Al Moosari on Air Force One. She says he may be part of a US cell. She asks about Nick and Charlie says Nick didn’t kill Aaron. She says she had a gun that Nick gave her and something happened and it was used on Aaron. She says when they got out of the firefight, she realized she didn’t have it on her.
POTUS asks why Nick gave her a gun and Charlie says he wanted her safe. POTUS asks if she loved Aaron and she says she still does very much. Payton says they have a job to finish starting with Al Moosari. Payton asks if there is anything else she’s keeping from her and Charlie says they’re not. She walks out and David comes in. He asks her if everything is all right. She says she wants eyes on Charlie – every move and every word. She says she wants to know everything.
THE END!
