Madam Secretary

I don't know. I feel like...

I feel like these shoes are at a different party.

You know? One where fun goes to die.

So less corporate, more red carpet?

I think so. Great.

Thanks, Roxanne.

I really appreciate you jumping in.

Ali usually helps me with big events,

but she's doing an internship abroad and...

No problem. Okay.

These should put the fun in fundraiser.

Oh, yeah. See?

Now, look.

This is why women have a thing about shoes.

They do?

Well, that's news to me.

Oh, hey, handsome.

I love you in that old thing.

It never gets old. That's why it's a classic.

It certainly is. Okay, I got to go over and work on my remarks.

No, d-don't touch.

All right. Good seeing you, Roxanne.

Well, I think we got a winner. What do you think?

Yeah.

There's just one other wardrobe issue

we should discuss moving forward.

It's about your husband.

So you'll at least want to get a drive-by with Senator Wagner.

He has a sweet tooth, so target the dessert table.

And, uh, Senator Langston might be a little harder to pin down.

Oh, Sydney and Louise Winters's winery

had a great harvest coming off an award-winning year,

so you can lean on them to up their grant.

Just for one night,

can we not think about fundraising or votes?

Come on. This event actually has the potential to be fun.

You might be in the wrong profession, ma'am.

I said "one night," Blake. I'm not having a vocational crisis.

Good to know. But this is Henry's night to shine,

so I am perfectly justified staying out of the spotlight.

Yes, ma'am.

Oh, it's the McCords, in glamorous formal wear.

I feel itchy. Oh, you feel itchy?

Well, y-you look really 9... that looks great.

You have on writer's face.

What... No, I had writer's face before.

This is public remarks face.

Oh. Well, okay.

Let's do this.Okay.

Thank you.

: Okay.

Ladies and gentlemen, President Elizabeth McCord

and First Gentleman Dr. Henry McCord.

Madam Secretary, it's a pleasure to see you.

And you, too, Madam President.

Is Minister Chen playing nice on the Taiwanese negotiations?

Oh, I've got his number. I think he misses you.

Excuse me.

Hi, you. MIKE: Senators Windbag

and Expediency are here as expected.

: Good to see you.

Good evening, Mike. Not if we can't get your wildly unrealistic,

giving-me-palpitations legislative meatball

over the finish line. Thank you.

You have votes to whip, lady. I mean, Madam.

President. I was sort of hoping

to take the night off.

So, Wagner likes to feel important.

So just act like you're there seeking his brilliant counsel

and actually give a crap

about his spectacular blowhardery.

That and he likes to brag about bringing home the bacon

to his constituents.

Langston is an idealist but responds to power,

so just pummel her.

Isn't it a bit unseemly for the president to pummel?

Failure is unseemlier, and your hundredth day in office looms.

Now, see, that's something that we can all reach consensus on.

We ought to chocolate-cover every bill

that comes to the floor, Madam President.

Thanks for coming out tonight, Senator Wagner.

Any chance to hear that scholarly husband of yours talk.

Well, that's nice to hear.

Be even nicer to hear if I had your support for the ESI bill.

I support the infrastructure piece,

but some of my colleagues and I have concerns

about the education handouts.

Well, we can't have next-gen infrastructure

without innovations in science, and we can't lead in science

without investing in education...

The hip bone's connected to the thigh bone.

I've heard your pitch, ma'am, but the people of Alabama

don't care about the body politic.

They care about runaway spending.

Do you think

that those concerns might be allayed if we make sure

contracts for rebuilding Alabama's schools

only go to local construction companies?

That might be just the chocolate fix they need, Madam President.

Before you all knew him

as the First Gentleman of the United States,

he was known in many circles for other things.

Fighter pilot, religious scholar, acclaimed author,

White House advisor.

Clearly, he did the best he could

with the limited talents he had.

Please welcome Dr. Henry McCord.

Thank you, Patricia. Thank you very much.

Well, it's true, I've had a blessed and weird life

and I've pursued some challenging paths.

But what you probably don't know is that I could never have been

any of those things without poetry.

I mean, here I was, this goofy, working-class kid

from Pittsburgh without a single interesting thought in my mind.

And then, in high school, I had this great teacher, Mr. Eastman,

who made me read Gerard Manley Hopkins and Emily Dickinson

and Langston Hughes and Blaise Pascal.

These were theologians, philosophers, innovators

and artists.

And suddenly, my mind caught fire.

I... the way they used words just lit up my imagination

and expanded my concept of the divine.

They ignited all my passions and put them in one place.

In his poem "High Flight,"

John Gillespie Magee Jr. wrote,

"Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings."

When I read that passage, I instantly knew two things:

I wanted to study theology and I wanted to fly.

Artists have inspired me to do everything

that's meaningful in my life.

I may have even leaned on a little Keats and Shakespeare

when I was wooing my beautiful wife.

There is nothing that drives

our world-leading economy like creativity,

and there is nothing that drives creativity like the arts.

It is vital that we foster them and invest in them.

Thank you very much.

Don't tell people this, but...

Thomas Aquinas walks into a bar...

I'm so sorry to pull rank, but the first gentleman is needed

for an emergency dancing situation,

and it can't be helped.Sorry.

Can't say no to the chief.

Well, hello.Hello.

We haven't danced like this since the inaugural ball.

We haven't danced at all since then.

Well, there was that midnight Macarena moment.

: Okay, that was fun.

You know, sometimes I just can't believe this is all real.

Right?

The only way I know this isn't a dream

is because I can still work my phone.

What?

You can't work technology in your dream.

I can. Yes, I can. No, you can't.

It's scientifically proven.

Oh, yeah? What... who are the scientists... Yeah.

That did this experiment?

Well, I'm going to get somebody on it.

I love you, Henry McCord.

I love you, Madam President.

You can't beat this commute.

: No.From now on,

let's only have jobs that are in our house.

I agree.

Well, I go left here.

Okay, have a good day. Keep an open mind.

About what?

Anything that comes up.

Elizabeth...

It's just all-around solid advice. I love you.

Uh... Morning, Dr. McCord.

Good morning, Evan. Last night's speech already paying dividends.

Well, let's hear it. Two more senators and five House members

signed on to your increased NEA-funding push.

My kind of dividends.

And you're confirmed for Colbertthis afternoon.

Cool. And terrifying. Flying out of Andrews at 1300.

Um, and Jason's definitely coming with, right?

I'll make sure he's got a seat. And you have a visitor.

Roxanne.

This is a surprise. Really, Dr. McCord?

I convinced the commander in chief.

Meet your new wardrobe.

Oh, hey.

Good timing.

I know I haven't brought this up lately, or today,

but this is day 98, which means only two more days

until I can quit. I know. I know, Mike.

Do you, though?

Yes. I-I have your shortlist on my desk.

Actually, here it is again,

because I fished it out from the pile

and gingerly blew the dust off of it.

You haven't brought any of those people in.

I will. Yes, you will, because the leader of the free world

would not go back on her word.

No, she wouldn't.

Look, I don't want the job Jay Whitman rejected.