Commander in Chief: Season 1, Episode 5

Episode Summary (from Wikipedia)

Just after announcing Anthony Prado as the new National Security Advisor, President Allen is called out of the press conference. She is told that a terrorist has been caught attempting to cross the Canadian border into the United States with a car full of explosives. His intended target was an elementary school in Springfield, Missouri. Because the terrorist’s organization always plans simultaneous, thematically-linked attacks, they must figure out what other locations were targeted and stop the attacks. A problem arises, however, when Allen and Attorney General Melanie Blackston have different views on how to deal with the situation; Allen wants to invade a known training camp for more information while Blackston believes that the information can be coerced from the captured terrorist. Allen finally decides to go ahead with the raid of the camp, but also permits Blackston to interrogate the prisoner, so long as Allen doesn’t “hear” that he was tortured. Furthermore, when news of the situation is leaked to the press, Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton goes on TV and publicly second-guesses Allen’s decisions on how to handle the threat.

At the same time it’s Halloween, and Allen’s daughter Amy desperately wants to go trick-or-treating like a normal kid. She is disappointed when, due to security concerns, Allen tells her daughter that she might have to settle for a party this year. More family matters arise when Rod, the First Gentleman, learns that he is being humiliated by late-night comics. This seriously affects his son, Horace, who tries desperately at school to stand up for his father, nearly getting into a physical fight.

In the end, the terrorist plot is unraveled using information found in the raid, and Allen averts the first real security crisis of her administration. Amy is allowed to go trick-or-treating. But when Allen discovers, via comments from Templeton, that Blackston had indeed allowed the imprisoned terrorist to be tortured, she is horrified and fires Blackston.

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