Hiatus

Hello, yeah, it's been a while. Not much ... no, wait. Much.

If you've been following along with my rewatch of The West Wing, you might be wondering why there hasn't been anything posted here for two months. Well, do I have excuses? Yes, yes, I do.

Not only do I have a regular job with 40 hours per week (stretched across weird rotating shifts, to boot), I have another terrifically enjoyable radio gig covering high school football in the fall. That takes up probably about 10 more hours per week. Then I also made the questionable decision to audition for the musical "Annie" at Theatre Cedar Rapids, and then I got cast, and so I am in the midst of rehearsals, there's another 12-15 hours per week.

I'm not complaining! I like all the things I'm doing (or at least I like getting a paycheck for doing some of it, because I like to eat and not sleep under a bridge like the folks we saw in In Excelsis Deo), but it does help explain why my recap posts have come to a halt.

Good news, everyone! Football season is about over (championship games are next week) and "Annie" opens in a week (so it will only take up 3 or 4 days a week, instead of 6). I hope to get back in the groove with Lord John Marbury pretty soon. I actually already made one pass through watching it in September, but I'll need to revisit it and work up my post.

Hang in there, folks! We need The West Wing now more than ever!

In Excelsis Deo - TWW S1E10

Original airdate: December 15, 1999

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (9) & Rick Cleveland (2)

Directed by: Alex Graves (1)

Synopsis

• Toby's coincidental connection to a dead homeless man leads him to use the President's name to bring about a moment of honor at Arlington National Cemetery; Josh and Sam go too far in their efforts to protect Leo and counter Lillienfield's accusations; a murder of a gay high school student in Minnesota causes CJ to voice support for hate crimes legislation; and Danny's flirtation with CJ continues, while the President sneaks out to go Christmas shopping.

"Anyway ... I miss my boys."

What duty do we owe our fellow humans? What responsibility do we, as individuals, have to honor a veteran, even (or perhaps especially) if he's homeless and dies of exposure, alone and almost forgotten? What lines should we cross when we are going those extra miles in the service of those who we owe everything to? Is there anything we can do to sufficiently honor a mother's memory of her twin sons, lost in combat on the same day?

Is there a better time to consider questions of duty and honor like this than Christmas? Well, here we are, the first holiday season of The West Wing, and In Excelsis Deo proves to be a doozy of an hour of prime, emotional television - even if the song playing over the end scenes is Little Drummer Boy instead of the Gloria.

There's something about holiday episodes of TV shows that I really love. They ground our characters into real life, having them celebrate and recognize holidays that we, the viewers, are celebrating at the same time. Whether it's Halloween (I still have fond memories of a Halloween episode of Roseanne, for example, and The Simpsons made a reputation on their Treehouse of Horror episodes), Thanksgiving (WKRP's Turkey Drop, anyone?), or Christmas, these particular episodes can lodge in our memories for a long time.

The holiday episode is a treasured landmark of The West Wing. Aaron Sorkin and the production staff are going to make a habit of finely crafted holiday productions, with both Thanksgiving and Christmas shows among the most beloved by fans.The Christmas episodes, in particular, also will prove to be star turns for some of the supporting actors; for the next three years, a Supporting Actor Emmy will be claimed by one of The West Wing actors in large part due to the Christmas episode (this year it's Richard Schiff, who was nominated for both this and Five Votes Down. The teleplay by Sorkin and Rick Cleveland also won an Emmy).

And you have to give props (heh, see what I did there?) to the set decorators! They go all out for the Christmas shows, and the background decoration everywhere you look just immerses the viewer in the White House holiday spirit.

Even in the Oval Office, there's a tree:

On to the show: Toby is called by the DC police, because a homeless man found dead by the Korean War Monument on the National Mall had his business card in his coat pocket. It turns out the coat belonged to Toby before he donated it to Goodwill (or as Toby calls it, "the Goodwill"). That's that, right? No, Toby is disturbed by the perfunctory behavior of the police and the casual treatment of this man whom Toby discovers served with the Marines in the Korean War. He goes to great lengths, with the VA and whoever else he can contact, to try to find a family member or anyone who can also care about the fact that this person, Walter Hufnagle, has died.

He finally, coincidentally, locates Walter's brother, another homeless man camped out under a highway overpass. In his efforts to explain the situation to George, he realizes Walter's memory deserves more than he is about to get.

Toby: "Your brother is entitled to a proper funeral with mourners, and I think he deserves an honor guard and you don't -- you don't know me. But I'm an, in ... I'm an influential person, I'm a very ... powerful person, and I, I, I would like to arrange it."

Schiff nails this scene. His delivery of "powerful person," the almost shame he has in openly declaring the power available to him ... it's wonderful. Emmy-worthy, you might say.

Toby pulls some strings (using the President's name, without his knowledge, naturally) and the burial and honor guard at Arlington National Cemetery is a done deal. President Bartlet, when he discovers the plan, makes sure Toby knows he's gone too far ... but also lets him know he's done the right thing.

President: "Toby, if we start pulling strings like this, you don't think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork ..."

Toby: "I can only hope, sir." 

Leading to the final dialogue-free scene of the episode, the funeral at Arlington intercut with the childrens' choir singing Little Drummer Boy at the White House.

Mrs. Landingham joins Toby at the funeral, a kind of respect of her own, not only for Toby taking the extra steps to honor Hufnagle, but also in memory of her own two boys. In another emotionally wrenching scene, she tells Charlie the story of her twins, Andrew and Simon, and how they went to Vietnam after their second year of medical school only to die at Da Nang on Christmas Eve, 1970. Kathryn Joosten plays this scene so incredibly well, continuing to type and do her job while she explains to Charlie why she feels down during the holidays. Seeing Toby pull strings to honor another war vet (that he doesn't even know!) - well, there's just no question that she is going to come along to pay her respects, not just for vets like Hufnagle, but also for Toby doing what he did.

The Lillienfield drug-abuse story from the previous episode is still alive. Josh is desperate to find something to counteract the Leo-drug-rehab news that he's sure Lillienfield has. Spurred by Donna (of all people) and expressly forbidden to do so by Leo, he decides to go through with an ill-conceived plan to use Sam's friend, the call girl Laurie, to get sex-related dirt on Republican lawmakers in order to fight back. Interestingly enough, Sam reluctantly agrees to help Josh with this plan - seems to me that a request like this would be an instant friendship-killer for Laurie. But as Sam stresses to her, their loyalty and duty towards Leo means they have to try everything they can think of to protect him. Laurie refuses to go along - Josh gets really rude, then realizes he's gone too far and apologizes - which causes Laurie to say:

Laurie: "You're the good guys. You should act like it."

Leo actually had Sam and Josh tailed, in case Josh was going to go through with this cockamamie plan, and he is furious. He calls them in and chews them out, but in typical West Wing fashion, the deep respect and loyalty between the staffers still comes through.

Josh: "We meant well."

Leo: "Is that supposed to mean something to me?"

Josh (sheepishly): "No."

Leo (pause): "It does."

Josh: "I'm glad."

In other news, Sorkin and Cleveland make a direct reference to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming man who was tied up, beaten, and left to die outdoors. In this case it's a gay Minnesota high school senior, Lowell Lydell, who is tied up, beaten, and left to die outdoors by a group of teens. Lydell dies during the episode, and the administration starts to consider whether or not they should pursue hate crimes legislation. This is a contentious topic - should some crimes be punished more harshly than others, depending on the motive or thoughts of the perpetrators? It's a valid ethical question, one which CJ comes down firmly on the side of "Absolutely, yes, we should." When she quizzes Danny about the topic, he's on the other side: "A crime's a crime. And you agree with me."

This is a part of the continuing flirtation between CJ and Danny, one that I've mentioned in the past seems ill-advised, but whatever, here it comes. CJ (who has already tried to make holiday plans with Sam and Josh, as well as Leo) finally accepts Danny's offers of dinner, on Christmas Eve, no less. And if you don't think Allison Janney can make a line like "I have to feed my fish" look and sound sexy, my goodness, are you wrong:

An extremely cute part of the episode is the President's meeting with a group of elementary schoolkids. In the White House foyer, gaily decorated with holiday cheer, Jed takes great delight in teasing the kids about their height, pretending to be the President of Belgium or the King of England (causing the kids to yell, "No! America!"), and answering one little girl's question about his favorite part of the job, "I'm doing it right now."

The fact that the President learns of Lydell's death during this meeting with the kids is another example of how things happen in the real world, and serves as yet another display of the top-notch acting of Sheen and Janney, in particular.

Another light-hearted moment is the President's sneaking out to go Christmas shopping. In a nod to President George H.W. Bush, who apparently also liked to get out of the White House and do some personal shopping on his own, President Bartlet is heading to a rare-book store to get some Christmas gifts. He invites Josh along:

President: "You wanna come?"

Josh: "An hour with you in a rare book store?  Couldn't you just drop me off the top of the Washington Monument instead?"

President: "It's Christmas, Josh. No reason we can't do both."

Josh: "I suppose."

President: "Let's go shopping!" 

Christmas cheer, the glow of decorations, the joy of giving - countered with the somberness of duty, the responsibilities of honor, and the weight of grief. There is indeed a lot to take away from In Excelsis Deo, and it's well-done, award-winning TV entertainment at its best.


Random thoughts:

- According to the DVD commentary for this episode, the opening scene (from the gift basket coming into the entrance, through the Toby/Sam/Mandy/CJ scene in the foyer, up until the group walks into the hallway and Toby is accosted by Ginger) took 28 takes. There's a lot of sweeping camera work, through the foyer and around the actors, and some really nice subtle acting responses in there. Twenty-eight takes, that's quite a lot.

- Something I really appreciate is the give-and-take between Toby and Sam about the millennium. Remember, this episode aired just weeks before New Years Day 2000, the date generally recognized as the start of the new century. I, however, am firmly in Toby's camp: Since there was no Year 0, the year 2000 is the final year of the old millennium, and the 21st century doesn't technically begin until New Years Day 2001. But it is hard to fight against the general zeitgeist (as Sam later says, "seeing your odometer roll over from 99,999 to 100,000").

Sam: "I am fully briefed."

Toby: "On what?"

Sam: "Pageant of peace, season of hope, coming of the new millennium."

Toby: "Coming of the new millennium?"

Sam: "Yes."

Toby: "Fine."

Sam: "Don't start."

Toby: "I said fine."

(cross talk with Mandy and CJ)

Toby: "It's not the new millennium but I'll just let it drop."

Sam: "It is the new millennium."

Toby: "It is not the new millennium, the year 2000 is the last year of the millennium, it's not the first year of the next one."

Sam: "But the common sensibility, to quote Stephen Jay Gould -"

Toby: "Stephen Jay Gould needs to look at a calendar."

Sam: "Gould says this is a largely unresolvable issue."

Toby: "Yes, it's tough to resolve, yes, you'd have to look at a calendar."

-Hey, look, they gave Ginger some lines! She's been in the background of nearly every episode so far (and was credited as "Kim," her real first name, back in A Proportional Response) but now she's a real Communications Office staffer!

- Bobbi the reporter is back. After appearing in the first couple of episodes, she disappeared, but here she is asking about Lowell Lydell and hate crimes.

- In case anyone was wondering, the dates listed in this episode (Wednesday December 23, Thursday December 24) actually do line up with the actual dates in 1999.

- What inside Marine knowledge does Toby have, to recognize that tattoo so quickly and know it belonged to a Korean War outfit? Not to mention his later mention of how he was treated at Panmunjon ...

- When Josh tells Sam Leo went into rehab six years ago, Sam responds that Leo was Secretary of Labor six years ago. In the previous episode, we learned Supreme Court Justice Crouch waited five years to retire, until there was a Democrat in the White House. This would seem to mean Leo served as Secretary of Labor under a Republican administration.

- On the morning of the 24th, when President Bartlet steps away from the childrens' choir to find out what strings Toby pulled, Toby tells the President "a homeless man died last night." Hufnagle actually died two nights ago, the night of the 22nd.

- Can anyone, even calling in a favor in the name of the President, actually get a burial scheduled and an honor guard service performed in less than a day? Toby is talking to Walter's brother saying he'll arrange the funeral on the night of the 23rd - they're at Arlington the very next morning.


Quotes    

Josh (seeing Margaret helping Leo sign Christmas cards): "This is quite an operation."

Margaret (flatly): "We like to spread holiday cheer."

Leo: "Who the hell is this guy and why do I care if he has a Merry Christmas?"

Margaret: "Leo, just sign the damn thing."

-----

CJ: "What's your Secret Service code name?"

Sam: "They just changed them."

CJ: "I know. What's yours?"

Sam: " 'Princeton.' "

CJ: "Mine's 'Flamingo.' "

Sam: "That's nice."

CJ: "No, it's not nice."

Sam: "Flamingo's a nice-looking bird."

CJ: "The flamingo is a ridiculous-looking bird."

Sam: "You're not ridiculous-looking."

CJ: "I know I'm not ridiculous-looking."

Sam: "Any way for me to get out of this conversation?"

CJ: "I'm going to talk to someone."

Sam: "Excellent."

-----

Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

• The DC policeman is Lance Reddick, known for Oz, The Wire, Lost, and Fringe, but best known by me as the guy in the Cree lightbulb commercials.

• In The Crackpots and These Women, President Bartlet mentions that Mrs. Landingham lost two sons in Vietnam. Here we find out the whole heartbreaking story.

• In Five Votes Down Toby complains how he doesn't have any money, saying he's got just 23 bucks in his pocket. Here, he's got quite a wad of cash, and he gives it all to the homeless guy who helps him find Walter's brother. (The homeless guy is played by veteran character actor Raynor Scheine.)

• Gail's fishbowl features a festive Christmas tree.

• Laurie must have moved - her apartment is quite a bit different from the one we saw (and she loved) back in Pilot.

• We could kind of figure out from the beginning that Sorkin's goal in adding Moira Kelly to the cast was to create a bit of romantic tension - with Josh and Mandy being former lovers, it would seem to be a goldmine of possible plotlines with these two sassy characters back at each other's throats. Unfortunately, Kelly and Bradley Whitford never seemed to develop that spark of chemistry, and without that, the writers really never knew quite what to do with Mandy - in this episode all she does is realize the Santa hats do clash with the Dickensian costumes, and whine at the President for not letting her take press along to the rare book store. Donna and Josh, though - that chemistry jumped off the screen right from the beginning, when Donna brings Josh coffee and tells him he and Leo and Sam and Toby got the President elected. Janel Moloney wasn't intended to be a regular, but by this point of the series she's already a key part of the group, and it's obvious (even though Josh really treats her like crap most of the time) there's some kind of deep connection between the two of them. Moloney and Whitford really do work well together, and that's just going to keep on happening for the next seven seasons. Take a look here at how Donna reacts to the note Josh wrote for her in her skiing book, and the look Josh has seeing her smile:

• We are going to see the parents of Lowell Lydell - and a very interesting look on taking things for granted and not getting the full story - a few episodes in the future.

DC location shots    

• On the National Mall, near the Korean War monument (a couple of scenes filmed here)

• Under a highway overpass, at Capitol and P, perhaps? When the veteran at the souvenir stand tells Toby that Hufnagle usually could be found at Capitol and P, he didn't specify north or south; Capitol Street crosses both P Streets, NE/NW and SE/SW. My guess is this shot was the south side; that is near the Navy Yards in a rougher part of DC, at least in 1999. Nationals Park was built here on the east side of Capitol Street in 2006-08, so if this shot was indeed Capitol and P SE/SW, this overpass and many of the surrounding buildings no longer exist.

• Walter Hufnagle's burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

References to real people    

• As part of the White House Christmas festivities: TV weatherman Al Roker (as Santa - also he's conveniently on NBC, the same network as The West Wing); musician Jose Feliciano; baseball player Sammy Sosa and his wife.

• Stephen Jay Gould is mentioned in the Sam/Toby millennium debate.

• The Lowell Lydell story is an obvious rewrite of the real-life murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in October 1998, which received its own literary treatment in the play The Laramie Project (which debuted two months after this episode aired).

• The books encountered at the rare bookstore are all real; The Fables of Phaedrus; The Adventures of John Capen Adams, Mountaineer and Grizzly Bear Hunter of California; On The Nature of Things by Titus Lucretius Carus; Life of Epicurus. The skiing book Josh gives to Donna, however, is fictional.

End credits freeze frame: Cast lineup listening to childrens' choir (notice that Donna, still listed as a guest star in the credits, is important enough to be included in this group. Toby's not here - he's at Arlington).

The Short List - TWW S1E9

Original airdate: November 24, 1999

Story by: Aaron Sorkin (8) & Dee Dee Myers (1)
Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin & Patrick Caddell (3)

Directed by: Bill D'Elia (1)

Synopsis

• President Bartlet has a golden opportunity to boost his polls and give his administration a lift with his nominee to the Supreme Court replacing a retiring justice - but when an early morning phone call reveals that nominee holds views that may not align with the administration, the President has second thoughts. A headline-seeking Congressman makes waves by accusing the White House staff of drug abuse, a claim that hits home to the Chief of Staff. Danny mixes up goldfish (the fish) with Goldfish (the crackers), but gets a peck on the cheek from CJ anyway.

"The next two decades are going to be privacy. I'm talking about the Internet. I'm talking about cell phones, I'm talking about health records and who's gay and who's not. And moreover, in a country born on the will to be free, what could be more fundamental than this?"

Most of the West Wing episodes that pertain to the Supreme Court are really good. There aren't all that many, to be honest - but perhaps it's something about that rarity that opens up some really good storytelling, or at least more than the typical White House-Congress conflicts that we see nearly every week. As we near the halfway point of Season 1, this show is hitting on all cylinders.

Oddly enough, though, the basic plot structure of The Short List is eerily similar to the last episode, Enemies. Both episodes start with the President and the staffers excited about a big breakthrough that could lift Bartlet's standing in the polls; last week it was the banking bill, here it's the nomination of a sure-thing, easily confirmed justice to the Supreme Court. Both episodes quickly find the initial celebrations soured by bad news; the land-use rider to the bill in Enemies, the discovery of the "unsigned note" revealing the judge's views on privacy rights in The Short List. And in both episodes, the administration finds outside-the-box solutions that seem to set everything right; use of the Antiquities Act to override the land-use rider, or the selection of a much more liberal, outspoken, "man of the people" judge as nominee to the Supreme Court.

In both cases, the solutions look like elegant ones. The President can get what he wants, and the successes for the administration (banking bill or SCOTUS nominee) should help in the polling. However, there apparently was no political bounce after the banking bill (Toby is still complaining about their 48 percent approval rating, and calls the staff "the gang that couldn't shoot straight"). Mandy doesn't think Mendoza's story is one she can sell (come on - a NYPD cop from Brooklyn who got shot in the leg, took a desk job, went to law school at night, rose through the ranks of District Attorney and Federal District Judge,and now has been selected for the highest court in the land; if you can't sell that story, Mandy, you gotta get out of the game).

Let's move on the episode. Josh and CJ (and Sam and Toby and even the President) are exuberant once Judge Peyton Cabot Harrison III tells Josh on the phone he would accept the President's nomination to the Court to replace a retiring justice. I mean, ridiculously excited, like:

And

(That's a leaping high-ten from Sam and Josh, if it's too dark to see), and

Yeah, these guys are thrilled, so much so that Donna has to say, "This is just gross." They do believe Harrison will be a slam-dunk nominee, expected to pass out of committee unanimously and sail through the Senate with 90 votes ("Just what the doctor ordered!" according to the President). His resume is exceptional, he's a lifelong Democrat who clerked for a Republican, and even better - he hasn't written any opinions or made any statements about abortion.

But the President starts to have second thoughts after the retiring Justice accuses him of playing things safe and not pursuing his ideals. He's able to brush off his doubts - until an early-morning phone call to Sam reveals an unsigned note, purportedly written by Harrison while at the Harvard Law Review, that expressly denies a constitutional right to privacy.

This issue of privacy is a big one in this episode, and particularly to Sam. We've seen before he takes privacy very seriously (the entire subject of his relationship with Laurie being a "thing" to others and the media irritates him) and the specific issue of privacy rights of gays is also a flashpoint for him (when Josh is vetting Charlie for the White House job, Sam says the personal questions are only to find out if Charlie's gay or not, and if Charlie wants to sue the White House he would take the case). So when it's Sam who gets the unsigned note, and realizes the implications of naming this judge to the Supreme Court, it's Sam who gets most perturbed.

This news about Harrison opens the door for President Bartlet to reconsider another judge on his short list, Roberto Mendoza. Mendoza doesn't check all the resume boxes that Harrison does, but he is a Hispanic who is a solid liberal voice and protector of personal rights. Bartlet decides to talk to each of these candidates, and the discussion with Harrison in particular is a nice, revealing piece of writing that I think is one of the solid scenes in West Wing Season 1. The legal ramifications of banning cream in coffee, the Georgia delegation to the Constitutional Congress calling future legal minds "fools" (a quote Sorkin made up out of thin air, by the way), Harrison's ire at being cross-examined by a young Sam Seaborn ("I do this for a living." "Due respect, so do I, your honor") - it's good stuff. It becomes clear after that interview that Harrison does not fit the bill for the Supreme Court (Sam declares, with bite, "Put him on a bus").

And then in comes Mendoza. Told he's been called to the White House to discuss a post on the (fictionally created by Mandy) President's Commission for Hispanic Opportunity, and treated like a rock star as he walks the halls of the West Wing, he's instead unknowingly interviewed for the Supreme Court post. Once he convinces Toby (admittedly, with a relatively easy question just about any viewer of The West Wing would also be able to pass), he's the selection.

The particular issue Mendoza is asked about pertains directly to the episode's other main plot. A Republican Congressman, Peter Lillienfield, goes on TV and calls out the White House staff, claiming a third of those that work there abuse drugs. This puts the administration on the defensive, right when they expected to hit a public home run with the Harrison nomination. Mandy pushes for drug tests to make the issue go away fast, but the other staffers come down solidly on the other side of the argument. Josh is tasked with actually interviewing the West Wing staff to find out who does or doesn't use drugs.

Eventually, Josh comes to the realization that Congressman Lillienfield must have some kind of information along those lines that could prove damaging to the administration. Putting two and two together, he has a talk with Leo (a recovering alcoholic, a rather poorly kept secret in Washington) and discovers Leo also abused pills prior to a stint in rehab six years ago. Josh realizes this is the information Lillienfield has, and that he intends to use it to damage the White House.

Which brings Josh to say, "You're Leo McGarry. You're not going to be taken down by this small fraction of a man. I won't permit it."

And then there's Danny, still pining for CJ and pressing for a date with her. I gotta say, even though he should know better, the chemistry and witty badinage between these two is a delight. In any event, after Danny helps Josh figure out what Lillienfield's game is, Josh helps Danny by telling him CJ loves goldfish. Unfortunately, he doesn't specify that he means the crackers - so Danny takes him at his word and brings CJ an actual goldfish. Meet Gail:

CJ's reaction is absolutely perfect, as she bursts into laughter in a way only Allison Janney can. But not in a dismissive, cruel way - a perfectly human, friendly response to Danny's mistake. It kind of works out for Danny, as he does get a peck on the cheek:

Once again in this episode, the White House pulls a victory out of something that looked very much like trouble. Will it turn the Bartlet administration around? Will that 48 percent approval rating never change? Has the ship been righted? Well, stay tuned. Also stick around for the continuing story of attacking the administration through Leo, and Gail's goldfish bowl decorations.

Things to think about

- It's mentioned how they've vetted Harrison for the past two months. Toby says they're going to go over all his writings in the final four days, after which five cartons of papers are delivered to Sam. I do have to ask - where were those five cartons in the past two months?

- Seeing Leo's stricken look when Josh tells him Lillienfield has the rehab records ... my gosh, John Spencer is good. And Josh's response, reaching out to touch him, is just spot-on.

- The question to Mendoza that turns Toby around (what if a White House employee were fired for refusing to take a drug test?) - I get how that was written to fit into the episode's themes of privacy rights and Lillienfield's accusations, but ... am I just a crazy old liberal, or is that a simple answer?


Quotes    

Crouch: "You ran great guns in the campaign. It was an insurgency, boy, a sight to see. And then you drove to the middle of the road, the moment after you took the oath."

President: (clears throat) "Joseph --"

Crouch: "The middle of the road. Nothing but a long line, painted yellow."

President: "Excuse me, sir --"

Crouch: "I wanted to retire five years ago. But I waited for a Democrat. I wanted a Democrat. And instead I got you." 

-----

Toby: "Sam, you're going to write the President's introduction, you're also going to write Harrison's remarks."

Sam: "Harrison's not going to like that."

Toby: "You show him the robe he gets, he'll like it fine. CJ, no leaks. If the name of this nominee is leaked before I want it to be leaked, I'm going to blame you and you're going to find that unpleasant."

CJ: "I've gotta tell you something, Toby, you're hot when you're like this."

-----

Josh: "Phillips Exeter, Princeton, Rhodes Scholar, Harvard Law Review, for which he was - oh, yeah - the editor. Did I mention that he was Dean of Harvard Law School? Did I mention that his father was Attorney General to Eisenhower?"

Donna: "Peyton Cabot Harrison the third."

Josh: "That's right."

Donna: "Jewish fella?"

-----

Toby: "Does Mendoza know why he's coming here?"

Mandy: "He thinks he's interviewing for a place on the President's Commission for Hispanic Opportunity."

Toby: "Is there such a thing as the President's --"

Mandy: "It was the best I could do on short notice."

Toby: "All right."

Mandy: "I had to make a letterhead."

Toby: "It must have taxed your considerable creativity."

----- 

President: "Did you have a drink yesterday?"

Leo: "No, sir."

President: "You going to have one today?"

Leo: "No, sir."

President: "That's all you ever have to say to me."

Leo: "You know it's going to make things very hard for a while."

President: "You fought in a war. Got me elected. You run the country. I think we all owe you one, don't you?"

-----

President: "Judge Mendoza, would it surprise you to learn that for the past few months your name has been on the short list of candidates for the bench?"

Mendoza: "Yes, Mr. President."

President: "Well, then this is going to knock your socks off."

-----

President: "What do you say, Leo? You up for a good fight?"

Leo: "I believe I have one in me, yes, sir."

President: "Good. Let the good fight begin."

--------

Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

• Justice Crouch is played by Mason Adams, who older folks like me will remember most for being the voice of the Smuckers commercials ("With a name like Smuckers, it has to be good").

• In the conversation with Justice Crouch, President Bartlet mentions that in three years he hopes to be running for re-election. Either Sorkin hasn't yet figured out his long game with Bartlet and his soon-to-be-revealed medical condition (He Shall, From Time To Time ...), or Bartlet is hiding his true plans from Crouch.

• Donna lets slip that when things go badly for Josh at work, he ends up at her apartment drunk, yelling at her roommate's cats. This seems, I don't know, a little too intimate for their supervisor/subordinate work situation, but fans of the show will remember how the whole Josh/Donna storyline develops over the entire 7 seasons.

• Judge Harrison is played by familiar face Ken Howard (1776, The White Shadow, many other movie and TV appearances).

• Remember the CND news network, seen in A Proportional Response and Five Votes Down? The channel is back, although I still don't know what those letters stand for. Cable News Desk, perhaps? (Notice also, Toby has a microwave below those TVs ... TVs both on the same channel, which begs the question, why two TVs?)

• We found out in Five Votes Down that Leo was a recovering alcoholic. Here we discover that's the worst-kept secret in Washington - but what most people don't know is that he also abused pills, and went through rehab at Sierra Tucson six years ago. The Leo/abuse storyline is a good one over the early seasons.

• Keep an eye on Gail's fishbowl in episodes to come. Set decorators often put items pertaining to the episode's plot in her bowl. I will try to point them out when I can.

• Check it out - it's Ed (Peter James Smith)! Not yet constantly attached to Larry, but hanging out with Margaret instead. (This is his first credit as "Ed," by the way, so nice upgrade from Congressional Aide.) Notice Margaret's quite interested look regarding Judge Mendoza, who just passed by. 

• Speaking of Roberto Mendoza, it's Edward James Olmos (Miami Vice, Blade Runner, Stand and Deliver, Battlestar Galactica). He would appear on The West Wing as Mendoza just one more time, which is a shame, because he's great.

DC location shots    

• Outside the Supreme Court, awaiting remarks by the President after meeting the retiring Justice Crouch

• Outside the Old Executive Office Building, as Josh and Danny talk about Lillienfield (and goldfish)

(Interestingly, the Old Executive Office Building was renamed the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on November 9, 1999 - two weeks before this episode aired. Considering how Eisenhower and his advisors are mentioned more than once in this episode, it's kinda kooky.)

References to real people    

• President Dwight Eisenhower (Judge Harrison's father is said to have served as Attorney General in his administration - the real-life AGs under Eisenhower were Herbert Brownell Jr. and William Rogers)
• President Harry Truman
• When Lillienfield is attacking the Bartlet White House staff for staining the reputation of those who came before, he mentions the names Schlesinger, Sorensen, Rumsfeld, and Persons - Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Ted Sorensen (both advisors to Kennedy), Donald Rumsfeld (advisor to Nixon and chief of staff under Ford), and Wilton Persons (chief of staff under Eisenhower). Now this means in The West Wing universe, we've had definite mention of the Presidents between FDR and LBJ (Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson have all been specifically referred to) as well as a member of Nixon's staff (Rumsfeld). I don't believe there's ever any reference to Ford, Carter, Reagan or Bush I during the series, nor does Watergate ever come up, which means The West Wing timeline diverged from real life after the Nixon administration. We know there must have been two Republican Presidents prior to Bartlet (since Crouch says he held off his retirement five years until a Democrat took office). There's about seven possible Presidential terms between Nixon and Bartlet (again, with The West Wing elections on a different cycle than reality, it doesn't quite match up), and we will discover a couple of the fictional Presidents that preceded Bartlet in later seasons.
• Former Supreme Court justices Warren Burger and Black (meaning Hugo Black) are mentioned.
• Toby says that Harrison hasn't revealed a position on "Roe," which clearly refers to the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. "Jane Roe" was the alias for Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff in the case.

End credits freeze frame: The Oval Office just after Mendoza accepts his nomination.

Enemies - TWW S1E8

Original airdate: November 17, 1999

Story by: Rick Cleveland (1) and Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. (2) & Patrick Caddell (2)
Teleplay by: Ron Osborn (1) & Jeff Reno (1)

Directed by: Alan Taylor (1)

Synopsis

• President Bartlet and his staff celebrate the imminent passage of an important banking bill, only to have Republicans insert a last-minute rider allowing mining in a Montana nature reserve. The President treats the Vice President harshly at a Cabinet meeting, word of which leaks out to the press. Leo and Mallory face up to their conflicts over the end of Leo's marriage, but not before Leo and Jed spoil Mallory's evening plans by giving Sam a little extra work.

"I don't like these people, Toby. I don't want to lose."

"We talk about enemies more than we used to. I wanted to mention that."

We find adversaries galore in this episode. Josh is lined up against Sam and Mandy (and eventually Toby) over recommending a veto on an important banking bill. The administration in general is opposed by a Republican Congress that inserted a problematic rider into that bill. Leo and Mallory are at odds over the breakup of Leo's marriage, which leads Leo and Sam to kinda-sorta face off over Mallory's interest in taking Sam to the Chinese opera with Leo's tickets. Sam and Toby metaphorically fight with writer's block, or whatever happened to make them feel they've lost their touch. And then, of course, we see the rancor that exists between President Bartlet and Vice President Hoynes. A lot of battles are underway here, and while Josh (thanks to Donna's word choices - I mean, really, who drops "antiquated" into a conversation about computer files?) finds a way to win the day's political issue, we get the distinct feeling a lot of this antagonism isn't going away.

Let's follow up a bit on something I mentioned from the last episode. Again, we are meant to think that the Bartlet administration is floundering and weak ... but we keep getting political victories from them nonetheless. Here is another one, a bill that mandates more oversight of the banking industry and gives benefits to bank customers. It's such a big victory that President Bartlet exults to CJ, "We beat the banking lobby! We beat 'em!" Add this to the gun bill passed in Five Votes Down, the successful staving off of the census sampling amendment in Mr. Willis Of Ohio, not to mention that the economy must be humming right along, with the largest budget surplus in 30-some years, and it's hard for us to accept that Bartlet's unfavorables are creeping up near 50 percent and the administration seems adrift.

Anyway, passage of this bill has the President in such a good mood the episode both opens and closes with Jed trapping a staffer in the Oval Office, providing scholarly treatises on the National Park system. At the open we find Josh is being held hostage as 2 a.m. nears, and the entire pre-credits conversation is a real hoot:

President: "There are 54 national parks in this country, Josh."

Josh: "Please tell me you haven't been to all of them."

President: "I have been to all of them. I should show you my slide collection."

Josh: "Oh -- would you?"

(NOTE: While the 54 number was current in at the time of filming, in 2017 there are 59 national parks. Added since this episode: Black Canyon of the Gunnison [1999]; Cuyahoga Valley [2000]; Congaree [2003]; Great Sand Dunes [2004]; and Pinnacles [2013].) 

-----

President: "Shenandoah National Park right here in Virginia. We should organize a staff field trip to Shenandoah. I can even act as the guide. What do you think?"

Josh: "Good a place as any to dump your body."

President: "What was that?"

Josh: "Did I say that out loud?"

President: "See? And I was going to let you go home." 

Which leads to Josh reacting in exasperation as the President moves on to Yosemite:

As the day develops, though, the West Wing's excitement is dimmed upon the discovery that two Republican congressmen (Broderick and Eaton) managed to insert a land-use rider into the bill, a rider that would open the Big Sky federal reserve in Montana to mining. Sam and Mandy insist the bill is too good to let this rider ruin it (Mandy is basically on a fervent crusade to get the bill signed), and Toby eventually joins them. Josh, though, is adamant. He feels the Republicans are trying to take out their loss in the Presidential election on the White House through small cuts like this one, and (being incapable of being taken for advantage for anything, at any time) he insists on looking for another way, even if it means vetoing the banking bill.

The President is on Josh's side to find a way to get the bill without the rider, for mainly the same reasons - they both hate the fact the Republicans are finding a way to poke them in the eye, even when (or perhaps because) the White House is getting a win.

President: "I'm surprised Broderick and Eaton have taken an interest in anything."

Toby: "It's retaliatory, sir."

President: "For what?"

Toby: "The campaign."

President: "What did I do to them during the campaign?"

Toby: "You won, sir."

Mandy and Sam eventually bring Toby around to their point of view, and Mandy is hard after Josh to join them. But Donna unwittingly comes to the rescue by using the word "antiquated," which spurs Josh to recall the Antiquities Act,  a 1906 law that gives the President power to designate national monuments and protect them from excavation or destruction. Josh goes to the President - who is now regaling Charlie with his tales of national parks, just as he did Josh at the top of the episode - and the banking bill dilemma is solved with a full victory for the administration.

While the banking bill and the land-use rider make up the main plot of Enemies, probably more important is the tension between President Bartlet and his Vice President, John Hoynes. We've seen in earlier episodes that Hoynes chafes under what he considers poor treatment by the President, telling Leo he's tired of being Bartlet's "whipping boy." We see what he means here, as the Cabinet gathers for a meeting. Before the President arrives, Hoynes takes the liberty of speaking for him, saying their first goal should be finding a way to work with Congress. When Jed comes in and asks for the notes to be read back, he stops on that statement and asks (rather snarkily) whether their first goal should be "finding a way to best serve the American people." And right in front of the rest of the Cabinet, Jed stares down Hoynes and threatens to have his words read back again.

Which does not please Hoynes one bit.

So we definitely see Hoynes has a point in his feelings of being mistreated by Bartlet. The President is indeed pretty harsh.

Word of this leaks out, of course, and Danny Concannon has the story. CJ tries to track down the leak (shades of our current West Wing, huh?) and eventually finds a way to quash publication (thanks to Mandy, who finally has a helpful idea; offer Danny an exclusive interview with the President). But while the Cabinet meeting story doesn't turn out to be a big deal after all, a face-to-face between Bartlet and Hoynes in the Oval Office enlightens us on why the President keeps slapping the Vice President down:

Hoynes: "What did I ever do to you? Where in our past, what did I do to make you treat me this way?"

President: "John --"

Hoynes: "What did I ever do to you except deliver the South?"

President: "Really?"

Hoynes: "Yes."

President: "You shouldn't have made me beg, John. I was asking you to be the Vice President."

Hoynes: "Due respect, Mr. President, you had just kicked my ass in a primary. I'm 15 years younger than you. I have my career to think of."

President: "Then don't stand there and ask the question, John. It weakened me right out of the gate. You shouldn't have made me beg."

(By the way, "deliver the South"? Yet Hoynes wasn't able to deliver his home state of Texas, as we learned in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc".)

Speaking of Danny, I think I jumped the gun in my discussion of the previous episode. While he was certainly flirting with CJ in The State Dinner, I don't think he'd actually asked her out on a date. But he does in this episode ... boy, does he:

"I like seafood. I like all food. I should also mention I'm a lively conversationalist. I'm very good at kayaking, I can kayak."

And

"I enjoy movies. I enjoy music. I'm not wild about ice skating but, what the hell, I'll do it."

CJ, of course, turns him down flat. She has to - can you imagine the uproar in the press room if the White House Press Secretary started going out with a White House reporter from the Washington Post? There's already got to be some eyebrows raised there. After all, Danny got a head start on the Syrian airstrike news (because he held off on the Sam/Laurie story) and here he's getting an exclusive sit-down interview with the President (because he's going to spike the Cabinet meeting story). The rest of the press contingent doesn't know why he's getting extra attention from CJ ... but they can see the flirting going on and they've got to start wondering.

While CJ is doing the right thing (except for letting Danny roam around the communications office), my question is, what is Danny thinking? He has to know this is ethically no good, he can't really start dating the press secretary. Yet he keeps trying (and will continue to try). He's a smart guy, he's been covering the White House for 7 years, he's got to know this has no chance. Anyway.

And speaking of relationships ... Mallory, who appears to have a little thing for Sam after their disastrous first meeting in Pilot, asks Sam to help her use her father's tickets to the Beijing Opera.

Sam: "You're asking me out on a date."

Mallory: "No."

Sam: "No?"

Mallory: "No, I'm asking you if you'd like to go together with me to see an internationally renowned opera company perform a work indigenous to its culture."

Sam: "Right. And in what way will it distinguish itself from a date?"

Mallory: "There will be, under no circumstances, sex for you at the end of the evening."

Sam: "Okay."

Mallory: "So, what do you say?"

Sam is indeed taken with the idea of an evening with Mallory (they do make a cute couple), but he makes the mistake of mentioning this to Leo. Leo, who is at first "fine" with the idea, later assigns a last-minute writing of a birthday message directly to Sam, knowing this will keep him tied up and unable to join Mallory at the opera. Jed even joins in on the plot, asking Sam to do an additional draft and really "do a job" on it.

This is mainly Leo's way at getting back at Mallory for what he feels is unfair blame for the breakup of his marriage. We don't really see Mallory acting all that terribly toward her father, but the combination of his guilt and Mallory kinda-sorta on her mother's side make Leo retaliate by ruining her plans for the evening. When you think about it, it's really quite mean of Leo and Jed - they're trying to make a point about Leo's job being important and overriding marriage and family, but they didn't need to screw with Mallory's night to do it.

Sam actually takes to the birthday message assignment, as he and Toby were lamenting the flatness of their writing and the disappearance of their talent earlier, but it doesn't make up for the meanness of the plot in the first place.

"Enemies" is kind of apt for a title (perhaps summed up a little too neatly in Josh's final line), although it's more like "Antagonists" or "Adversaries" when you really get down to it. In a world of politics, it's not surprising that sides face off and try to earn victories when and where they can. At least it shouldn't be surprising - and the arc of the Bartlet administration is still just beginning.


Things to think about

- This is the first episode not written by Aaron Sorkin, and the only episode of the first two seasons without his name on the teleplay (there are only three more total in the first four seasons: Documentary Special, Swiss Diplomacy, and The Long Goodbye). It's stuffed with good, clever lines that sound Sorkinesque, so you hardly notice he didn't write it. Just as with the procedural political goodness of Five Votes Down, we get the goodies of the banking bill/land-use rider fight thanks to former political operatives Lawrence O'Donnell and Pat Caddell.

- We saw in the last episode Sam had a Mac laptop. And now Toby has one, too! The upgrades from CJ's old Gateway continue ...

- This is a neat little moment: when Mallory dismissively pushes her coffee cup away (upon being told by her father that his hotel charges $6.50 per cup), she does it so strongly a little coffee splashes out into the saucer.

So maybe it's lame. I thought it was at least a little interesting:

And a closeup:

-Tim Matheson is starting to try to lay on a little Texas accent now for Hoynes. We never heard it in his first two appearances, but it sneaks in during a couple of scenes here.

-Toby and Sam are adorable as they struggle to find their writing talent, however it might have left them. It all leads up to Sam insisting "I want to nail this thing," about the birthday card (sorry, birthday message) for the Deputy Secretary of Transportation, even after Mallory gets him off the hook of Leo's and Jed's trickery. And while Sam goes to work, Toby tries to "help":

- I hope I'm not giving too much away, but it's a shame they were never able to really develop the Sam-Mallory relationship. I thought they had a nice chemistry, and Allison Smith was always a nice addition to every episode she appeared in (Allison played Annie on Broadway, and actually still holds the distinction of the actress who played Annie the longest).

-There's an interesting "outtake" in the Netflix closed captions of this episode. When Mandy is railing at Toby about taking their lumps and signing the banking bill, Toby says, "I have hatred in my heart." Mandy replies, "Toward whom?" and Toby answers, "You go ahead and pick 'em, today it's Broderick and Eaton." However, the closed captioning reads "Ben Crane," Toby's friend in Congress who assured him the bill was in the bag, and who we later find out was probably the one behind the land-use rider in the first place. It also sounds to me almost certain that the words "Broderick and Eaton" were looped by Richard Schiff, recorded later and added to the scene post-filming. Was the scene filmed with Toby calling out Crane? But then perhaps changed later, because that didn't make sense until the later scene when Toby and Josh talk about Crane being behind the rider all along? Interestingly, the DVD captions go along with the audio and read "Broderick and Eaton," but it definitely sounds to me like those three words were re-recorded after filming.

-Josh's desk has been getting messier and messier over the past few episodes. There are VHS tapes and briefing books and God knows what else all over, not to mention covering the chair to prevent anybody else from actually sitting down in his office.

Quotes    

Danny: "Land-use rider was a bit of a shock, huh?"

CJ: "Danny, do you see this is a restricted area? There are signs posted."

Danny: "Where?"

CJ: "There are usually signs posted."

Danny: "Hey, you guys don't mind me back here, do ya?"

Staffers: "No, no problem."

Danny: "See?"

CJ: "Danny --"

Danny: "I'm saying it looked like someone took your legs out from under you. Say, speaking of legs --"

CJ: "First of all, you're wrong, second of all, shut up, third, I went to Hoynes with your thing and he said he wasn't the one who talked to you and I believe him and he's really pissed at me and he's right and fourth ... shut up again."

-----

Mallory: "Excuse me, Margaret." (to Leo) "Hello."

Leo: "Hey, baby."

Mallory: "Don't 'hey, baby' me, you addle-minded, Machiavellian jerk."

Margaret: "Should I step out?"

Leo: "Sounds like it."

-----

Mallory: "Also my father has something he'd like to say to you. Dad?"

Leo: "Wh- is this really necessary?"

Mallory: "I believe it is."

Leo: "Sam, I gave you the thing to do because I was pissed you were taking, you know, blah blah blah."

Mallory: "Well said, Dad."

Leo: "Anyway, I"m sorry about that." 

-----

Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

• Congressman Skinner reappears, last seen in Mr. Willis Of Ohio. While that episode seemed to indicate Skinner might be a Republican, his congratulations to Leo about the banking bill certainly implies he's a fellow Democrat.

• You may recall President Bartlet calling out to Mrs. Landingham, "What's next?" at the end of Pilot. "What's next" will become a staple of The West Wing ... it's really incorporated here, one time by the President and in another scene Leo says it to Margaret.
• Another thread, which has been developing over several episodes, is the endearing way Jed finishes up a conversation. He will tell the other person to "Now go away" or "Get out of here" as a way to wrap up a discussion. He does it to CJ in this episode. Believe me, it's much softer and friendlier than it sounds in print.
• The developing tension between President Bartlet and Vice President Hoynes is going to continue, with some major plot elements being brought to the fore (perhaps first in He Shall, From Time To Time ..., but there's plenty more to come after that).
• Speaking of which, remember CJ giving Hoynes a pretty sharp-eyed look after he's caused trouble for the President in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc"? Well, she's starting to make a thing out of that. Check this out after Hoynes sharply responds to her questioning about leaking the Cabinet meeting. (There's a whole post-Sorkin back story concerning these two in later seasons, but ... yeah.)

DC location shots    

• For the second episode in a row, there are no DC location shots. The entire episode takes place in just under 24 hours, entirely in the White House except for Leo and Mallory having breakfast at his hotel.

References to real people    

• President Ulysses S. Grant is mentioned, as the creator of Yellowstone National Park.
• The Chinese opera is taking place at the Kennedy Center, which in real life is named after President John F. Kennedy (who we also heard had an aircraft carrier named after him in the previous episode).

End credits freeze frame: Toby listening to Mandy rant about the banking bill.