Elaine, fresh off of her international tour, is faced with a new crisis: a Chinese nuclear submarine has bottomed out dangerously close to the coast of San Diego, with 100 crew members aboard. Though Vice President Collier would just as soon let the seamen die, Elaine and President Garcetti decide to alert the Chinese to the accident so they can rescue their men. The only problem? The Chinese would rather let their men die than admit to spying-or to a naval failure that huge.
As Elaine deals with the Chinese sub debacle, Douglas fields a crisis of his own when Anne accidentally reveals Elaine's plans to run again to blogger Georgia Gibbons. With Georgia about to break the story, Doug turns to the only person who can help him: Susan, who knows her inside line on the Hammonds will be worthless unless she can find a way to persuade her rival to hold off.
Meanwhile, Bud has hired himself a Hollywood publicist to help him rehabilitate his image, and T.J. has a helper too: a sober partner tasked with making sure he stays clean. But with the opening of T.J.'s nightclub stirring up family drama-and painful memories of the married, closeted star Republican congressman who broke his heart-there may be no one who can keep T.J's self-destructive impulses under control...
