"Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" - TWW S1E2

Original airdate: September 29, 1999

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (2)

Directed by: Thomas Schlamme (2)

Synopsis

• Sam jeopardizes his political future when he decides to pursue a relationship with Laurie. C.J. attempts to arbitrate tension between the President and the Vice President. After a string of gaffes that found traction with news outlets, the White House hires Mandy as a media consultant, much to Josh's chagrin. President Bartlet connects with his new physician, Captain Morris Tolliver, whose first child was born 10 days ago. The episode ends when Leo informs the President that Tolliver and others were killed when their military aircraft enroute to Jordan was shot down on the orders of the Syrian Defense Ministry. 

Two episodes out of the box, and already Sorkin is throwing Latin phrases at us. Typical eggheaded liberal elitism! No wonder some critics of the show referred to it as The Left Wing.

Kidding, kidding! "Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" is a fairly well-known example of a logical fallacy, which - if you've ever spent much time arguing with random strangers on the Internet - you've probably come across before, along with those like "No True Scotsman," "ad hominem," or "tu quoque." Lots of Latin in logical fallacies, apparently. Most of our friends in the Bartlet West Wing, though, aren't too hip on the phrase either (see Josh's quote below). As President Bartlet explains it, "It means, one thing follows the other, therefore it was caused by the other. But it's not always true, in fact it's hardly ever true."

The staff is specifically talking about President Bartlet's sense of humor, as a (never explained) joke about golfers has apparently caused the Ryder Cup team to turn down an invitation to the White House, and a joke about hats (funny hats or big hats, it depends on who tells it) is blamed by some for Bartlet losing Texas in both the Democratic primary and the general election. But it's an important tenet for leaders and those involved in politics to remember - you must be very careful about which prior events you consider as causation for following events, because simply the order in which things happen isn't always the explanation. Does this Latin phrase tie in to every plot point of the episode? Well, not really, I think.

We are once again in the full-on rush of events at the highest levels of government, which is part of what makes The West Wing so engrossing. Pilot was a great introduction to these characters, and "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" just jumps right in and adds more to what we know about these people, while at the same time we're carried along in the ever-moving stream of happenings. Thomas Schlamme's camera work is again a key part of the energy and movement - just watch the scene between Captain Tolliver and President Bartlet in the Oval Office. It's just a quiet scene between the two, but the camera is always moving just a little bit, even on single shots of each as they speak, changing perspective and adding life and energy. And the best part is, it does it without the "shaky cam" hand-held kind of verite thing we see a lot of these days. Also, keep an eye on what's going on in the background. While there's always a ton of activity going on around what we're watching, Schlamme also uses the primary actors in the background hubbub. Check out the scene where Leo is saying goodbye to Tolliver as he heads to the Oval with Margaret; that's Toby and CJ we see in the background coming out of a door and disappearing stage right. Or when Sam and Josh are watching CJ's press briefing; Donna appears in the background, looking for a file on top of a cabinet. Little things you won't notice unless you're paying close attention, but it makes the world so much more real.

Let's take a look at the plotlines. First off, Mandy. She's infuriated by Senator Russell, because he's made a deal with the White House to hold off a vote on a controversial topic ("443" is all we know about it, but the actual subject of the bill doesn't matter) in exchange for a prime speaking spot at the Democratic convention. This riles up Mandy in two ways - she wanted to use the controversial bill as a way to build up Russell and stake his positions out on a national level; and it also ensures Russell won't be running for President at all. Which is the entire reason Mandy had quit her consulting job and gone to work for the Senator in the first place. With that motivation gone, she's pretty much out of business before it even starts.

We then find out it was Josh who was behind the offer to Senator Russell, as he celebrates throughout the West Wing (kegs of glory, muffins, bagels, etc.). He's happy for a couple of reasons as well - he's removed a possible challenger for re-election, and (if you remember his background line to Sam in the previous episode about "putting a stop" to Mandy and Russell) he's essentially ended the relationship between his former girlfriend and the Senator.

As it turns out, the White House has recently found itself wrapped up in relatively minor gaffes about a variety of things (those mentioned by Josh and Toby include the aforementioned Ryder Cup team, New Jersey, the G-8, and the President's bike accident from Pilot), and the staffers are agreed that hiring a media consultant would be worthwhile to help tamp down such occurrences before they take over the news cycle. Josh is adamant that it be anyone but Mandy - so of course the decision is to hire Mandy (to a position paid by the DNC). Mandy and her assistant/lone employee Daisy spend the episode racking their brains trying to think of prospects for new clients, until Josh arrives with the offer to work at the White House (which, as we'll find out in the next episode, apparently doesn't include Daisy, as she is never seen again. Oops. Better pay attention to that, Mandy). Post hoc connection: Was it Josh's jealousy over Mandy and Russell that directly resulted in her hiring by the White House? Eh, you could make an argument that it was ... but if we buy Russell saying "It was never going to happen," Mandy was eventually going to lose him as a client anyway, and the White House needed a media consultant in any event, so ...

During the morning press briefing, CJ is asked about a quote from Vice President Hoynes which rather tepidly indicates his support for the President's position on "A3C3." CJ diverts the media's attention away from that topic by swerving to the Ryder Cup team and the golf joke, but she, Toby and Josh realize this is becoming a pattern with the VP (Josh says something about "the third one in five weeks").

And speaking of the morning press briefing, the White House has unveiled a terrific new press briefing room just since last week [and yes, we know (by Sam's recounting of his meeting Laurie) the events of this episode occur about a week after the events of Pilot). The first shot of the room rather lovingly lingers on the set, so you can tell the producers and crew are pretty proud of this addition.

Quite a change from the last episode, huh?

Josh insists CJ needs to speak to the Vice President, and that he doesn't want this disagreement to get to Leo. This could be motivated by Josh's previous position working on Hoyne's presidential campaign, which he did prior to moving to the Bartlet campaign, as we will find out about in a couple of episodes. We'll have to figure out the timeline eventually; there's more information about how the Bartlet campaign came together at the start of Season 2.

CJ does catch the Vice President between events, brings up the A3C3 comment (or as the too-cool-for-school Hoynes/Tim Matheson calls it, "AC cubed") in an apologetic manner, but finds herself pretty much blown off by an unrepentant Hoynes ("I have my own press secretary"). The look she gives him as he leaves is full of daggers. 

(And again, just like Josh's motivation as a former member of his campaign, might CJ's reaction here be relevant considering the past events told in Season 5's Full Disclosure? I'm gonna say no, because the entire CJ/Hoynes storyline mentioned in Season 5 was cooked up by an entirely new creative staff. I'm pretty sure Sorkin had no such thought in his mind when writing the second episode of the entire series ... but hey, we have the benefit of retrospect to look back at Season 1 and fit the stories of Season 5 over that, and ... uh, post hoc, ergo propter hoc? I forced a theme together!)

Leo eventually figures things out, because he's smart, and when he asks CJ if she took care of the Vice President's comment, her reaction makes it clear to him that she didn't and she just wanted it to go away. He ends up calling in Hoynes and basically chewing him out, saying nothing less than full support of the President was going to be tolerated. We do find out that Hoynes is chafing in his role as VP, and we get the feeling he thinks he deserved to have the top spot all along, and that he perhaps doesn't really respect Bartlet as the President. Post hoc connection: It's not just Hoynes' weak statement of support for the President on A3C3 that's causing the tension here. There's something much deeper between Bartlet and Hoynes, and we're going to explore that in upcoming episodes.

Sam decides he needs to talk to somebody about the whole Laurie/hooking up with a call girl thing. At the end of Pilot, Laurie was resigned to dropping any idea of a relationship, and Sam kind of appeared to feel the same way. But now, he's reconsidering. He tells Josh, who is incredulous (when Sam says something about how Josh would feel different about Laurie if he met her, Josh says "You gotta promise me that's never gonna happen."). Josh says Sam has to talk to Toby about it, and he does, with much the same reaction from Toby (the "accidentally slept with a prostitute" conversation is priceless). Both Josh and Toby key in on the fact that Sam wants to "reform" Laurie, that he thinks he can save her from her life walking the streets and make her a respectable woman. Hmm.

So Sam goes to the same bar where he met her originally (we're told it's the Farnsworth; I couldn't find a bar by that name in DC, although the architect of the US Capitol building was Philo Farnsworth), tracks her down while she's with a "client," and casually threatens to bring in the Assistant US Attorney General to visit with these fine folks. Laurie, naturally, freaks out and leaves the bar, whereupon Sam follows her and straight-out admits Josh and Toby are right; he does want to "save" Laurie. Their scene ends with them coming to some sort of agreement that yes, perhaps they can be friends, even if Sam is risking a lot of career trouble by hanging out with a call girl. Post hoc connection: I don't think this plot line ties into the title theme. I'm open to interpretations, though.

Poor Captain Morris Tolliver. Here we have to go to the theatrical concept of "Chekov's Gun," created by  Pavel Chekov of Star Trek's USS Enterprise -- Nope! It's by Russian playwright Anton Chekov, who famously said if you have a loaded gun on stage in the first act, you darn well better use it in the third act. In other words, don't make a point about something that isn't going to matter later on.

Well, here we have "Chekov's Baby Picture." Tolliver is a US Navy medical officer who is a temporary replacement as President Bartlet's personal physician, giving the President a quick medical exam every week. He and Bartlet get along so well that Leo asks if he could take over the role permanently, which he agrees to do after his week-long trip to a teaching hospital in Jordan. During the course of this episode, Tolliver's picture of his 10-day-old baby is mentioned six times during this episode:

1. Leo asks if he has a picture of the baby
2. Leo shows the picture to Margaret to distract her
3. Leo tells Margaret to give the picture back to Tolliver
4. Jed asks if he has a picture of the baby
5. Jed reminds Tolliver to take the picture as he leaves
6. Jed tells Tolliver to take another look at the picture before he goes out the door

You think maybe something bad is going to happen to Tolliver? What do you think Chekov might say about that?

RIP, Captain Tolliver.

Anyway, the Tolliver-Bartlet relationship is key here. They do show an easy camaraderie, and the President is obviously very comfortable with Tolliver. He tells the doctor about his unease with the military officers under his command, how he feels as if he's not respected and the Joint Chiefs doubt his resolve. He admits he's not comfortable with violence, and that doesn't necessarily jibe with the mindset of the military. Tolliver reassures the President, saying he needs to give the generals time to get to know him, and they'll eventually grow to respect his leadership, even as they are sure to follow his commands at the present. It's a nice little scene -

Which grows in importance at the end of the episode, when we discover Tolliver's plane was shot down over Syria with the loss of all 60 people aboard. Leo tells President Bartlet that intelligence shows the Syrian Defense Ministry ordered the missile launch (why Syria would want to shoot down an American military transport full of medical personnel is never answered). Bartlet's previously voiced concern about military options and use of violence quickly disappears in the face of the death of his medical officer, and he resolves to "blow them off the face of the earth." To be continued! (As many things on The West Wing are, which again makes this series feel so realistic. Issues and events aren't always wrapped up neatly in an hour, sometimes they carry over to the next episode, oftentimes they carry over for years.) Post hoc connection: Was it really Tolliver's death that brings the President up against the realities of military command? Was it getting to know the father of a 10-day-old baby, then having him shot down, that stiffened the Presidential spine? It's certainly played that way, and I believe it's meant to be true in the context of the episode - but President Bartlet was going to have to come to terms with using military force at some time during his term. Was Tolliver the "hoc" that brought on the "other thing"? At this point in time, I think, yeah.

I also really like the expression on Leo's face when President Bartlet asserts his revenge against the Syrians. Leo knows the real foreign policy impacts at play here. He knows a full-blown assault on Syria might feel right, but can't be the right thing to do in reality (as we will see in the next episode). It all plays out in his face right here.

Some random items:

- Mandy has pretty terrible taste in music. In Pilot, her first appearance (driving recklessly along the National Mall and getting pulled over by a cop) "Moment Of Weakness" by Bif Naked is playing on her car radio. Yeah, I don't know anything about that song, either. In the opening of this episode, as she drives her BMW up on a curb in pursuit of Sen. Russell, there's some pretty bad generic pop/rock playing on her radio. My suspicion is that the producers weren't able to get the rights for whatever was used in the original broadcast for DVD/Netflix, as a bit of research online seems to indicate "She's Out Of Control" by Joy Division was the song there. That's definitely not the song on the DVD or Netflix versions of this episode. The music playing in the office while she and Daisy are trying to think up prospects is pretty bad, as well.

- We finally get the Snuffy Walden West Wing theme music! But wait ... it's kind of a temporary version, all electronic and synth-y. We'll get the real orchestral version in a few weeks. Meanwhile, while the opening drum riff debuts under the opening graphics, the music under the "Previously" scenes is something, a little different. And the end credits music hasn't settled on anything yet, either.

- We get to see Ed (Peter James Smith) as he's coming out of Toby's office, and he even gets his character named in the end credits! And he's not with Larry, which is weird. Larry (Bill Duffy) is still only credited as "Staffer," though. Hang in there, Larry!

- Likewise, Carol (Melissa Fitzgerald) gets a name, as she brings a folder to President Bartlet. She's obviously not working for CJ yet - we see two other staffers (Janet and Suzanne) helping CJ prepare for the press briefing.

- Background TVs are still mostly CNN and C-SPAN. There's at least one Wolf Blitzer sighting, and one CNN screen graphic again mentions the Bosnia peace treaty. An interesting aside: no text crawls on the bottom of the screens of the news channels. That got started after 9/11, which is still over a year in the future.

- Opening credits order remains the same (although somehow I forgot John Spencer in my previous post about stuff I missed on Pilot - and I love John Spencer, so that was a terrible oversight). It appears Lowe and Kelly get top billing. Sheen gets to finish with the "and Martin Sheen," and the rest are in alphabetical order.

- How good a doctor is Tolliver, anyway? After he takes the President's blood pressure, he just leaves the cuff on his arm while he takes his temperature and writes a few notes. Jed just sits there playing with the pump bulb thingy. That's not how it's done, is it?

- Finally, one last thing I forgot about Pilot. In The West Wing universe, it's rare for an actual contemporary real-life person to be named. You just don't hear names of real people that might pull you out of the episode. It does happen a few times, the first one in the opening episode when Leo is upset with the New York Times crossword for misspelling the name of Libya's Prime Minister, Muammar Gaddafi. It's kind of funny anyway for Leo to get upset, because there's no standard, proper English spelling of "Gaddafi" anyway.

Quotes    

• Josh (celebrating his maneuver that ended the possibility of Sen. Russell running for President); "I drink from the keg of glory, Donna! Bring me the finest muffins and bagels in all the land."

• Toby: "Sarcasm's a disturbing thing coming from a woman of your age, Mrs. Landingham."
Mrs. Landingham: "What age would that be, Toby?"
Toby: "Late twenties."
Mrs. Landingham: "Attaboy."
Toby: "Can I have a cookie?"
Mrs. Landingham: "No."

• President Bartlet: "Twenty-seven lawyers in the room, anybody know 'post hoc, ergo propter hoc'? Josh?"
Josh: "Uh, post, after, after hoc, ergo, therefore ... after hoc, therefore something else hoc."

• Tolliver: "You cut back on red meat?"
  President Bartlet: "Yeah."
Tolliver: "Dairy?"
President Bartlet: "Yeah."
Tolliver: "How about booze?"
President Bartlet: "Yeah, why not. Two Dewars on the rocks, Mrs. Landingham."

• President Bartlet (as Tolliver gives him a flu shot): "How do I know this isn't the start of a military coup?"
Tolliver: "Sir ..."
President Bartlet: "I want the Secret Service in here right away."
Tolliver: "In the event of a military coup, sir, what makes you think the Secret Service is going to be on your side?"
President Bartlet: (beat) "Now that's a thought that's going to fester."

• Toby: "You accidentally slept with a prostitute."
Sam: "Call girl."
Toby: "Accidentally."
Sam: "Yes."
Toby: "I don't understand. Did you trip over something?"

• Leo: "Don't do what you're doing, John."
Hoynes: "You're a world-class political operative, Leo. Why the hell shouldn't I keep on doing what I've been doing?"
Leo: "Cause I'll win and you'll end up playing celebrity golf for the rest of your life."

• President Bartlet (after learning of Tolliver's death): "I am not frightened. I am going to blow them off the face of the earth with the fury of God's own thunder."

Bread crumbs and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)

• "Previously on The West Wing" voiced by Moira Kelly (1 of 1)

• John Bedford Lloyd (Sen. Russell) is one of those character actors that you see all the time, and you recognize the face, but never know the name (Remember WENN, LA Law, The Equalizer, The Abyss, of course several episodes of Law and Order).

• Merrin Dungey (Daisy) was supposed to be a recurring character after Mandy went to work in the White House, but she never appeared again (Malcolm's teacher on Malcolm In The Middle, Alias, Ursula in Once Upon A Time, Brooklyn Nine-Nine).

• President Bartlet remarks that sitting with the Joint Chiefs makes him feel like he's back at his father's dinner table. We'll learn more about the relationship with his father in Season 2 (Two Cathedrals).

• This is the first time we see Renee Estevez appear, as Nancy (she first greets Tolliver in Mrs. Landingham's office, then steps into the Oval to tell the President about someone arriving in DC). She is the daughter of Martin Sheen, and appeared in 44 episodes of The West Wing, with perhaps a couple of dozen lines of dialogue, total. It's not total nepotism, as Estevez has TV and movie acting credits going back to 1986, but she's only had two credits listed since The West Wing went off the air.

• The first appearance of Martin Sheen's jacket flip! Sheen suffered an injury during birth, which limits the use of his left hand. He developed a unique way to put on a suit coat, flipping it over his head as he puts his arms into the sleeves. It became a hallmark of President Bartlet as well.
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• The Situation Room is mentioned, but not shown. Instead, for the final scene when military officers are gathering to discuss the shootdown over Syria and the initial military readiness response, they're all gathered in the Roosevelt Room. Oddly, this includes Sam, Toby and Josh - political operatives who (with the possible exception of Josh, as Deputy Chief of Staff) would almost certainly never be directly involved in these types of discussions with the generals about military response options. Of course, these types of meetings would never be held in the Roosevelt Room, either. I'm guessing the producers hadn't built the Situation Room set yet.