The Crackpots And These Women - TWW S1E5

Original airdate: October 20, 1999

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (5)

Directed by: Anthony Drazan (1)

Synopsis (from Wikipedia, with some additions)

• The staff members participate in Leo's "Big Block of Cheese" Day, when they meet with fringe special-interest groups who normally cannot get attention from the White House. Toby and the President clash on several issues, from cheating at basketball to the recent gun bill to domestic policy. Josh receives a card from the National Security Council and later learns he is the only senior staff member (other than Leo) who will receive protection or security in the event of a nuclear attack. The President's daughter Zoey arrives at the White House, so the President holds a celebratory chili supper for the members of the inner circle. 

A tale of two episode-ettes:

"I couldn't live without you, Toby. I mean it. I'd be in the tall grass. I'd be in the weeds."

-----

President: "We were talking about these women."

Josh: "Yeah?"

Leo: "We can't get over these women."

-----

This is one of the more polarizing early episodes for fans of The West Wing. For the most part, it's a tightly wound episode with lots of meaty backstory for our characters. It provides some important background into the relationship between President Bartlet and Toby, who feud throughout the episode over greatness versus practicality. We also have insight into Josh's personal history and serious survivor's guilt, something that pays off with great depth in his story for next season. And of course, it's the first "Big Block of Cheese" Day, a fan favorite as Leo brings in special-interest groups to plead their cases to the staff. That's the "Crackpots" part of the title.

On the other hand, the "These Women" share of the episode lands with kind of a thud. I don't recall having much of a reaction to this during the original run back in 1999, but when I re-watched the episode on my first go-round a couple of years ago, much of that final scene was pretty awful, in retrospect. Aaron Sorkin took a lot of grief (deserved or not) over his writing for women, and his treatment of female characters, and this last bit of this episode almost seems like his over-the-top apology to those critics. It's just so ... hamfisted. It rings hollow and it sounds silly coming from these characters.

So let's delve into this to start with. Throughout the first episodes of the season, the senior staff has been shown to be almost entirely male (with the exception of CJ, of course - and Mandy, who I almost forgot, not without good reason). Meanwhile, almost all the support staff is female (Donna, Margaret, Mrs. Landingham, Carol, Kathy), carrying out the stereotypical secretarial duties while the men do the important stuff. This in and of itself isn't wrong, or inaccurate - but in a fictional universe that wants us to be better than we are in reality, it might be nice to steer things away from stereotype. Indeed, later we're going to see characters like the Surgeon General and President Bartlet's national security adviser being played by women, not to mention a strong Emmy-winning character in Stockard Channing's First Lady, while the roles CJ and Donna play get fleshed out and grow more important.

But Sorkin's reaction here in episode 5 is to basically have a scene where the President, Leo, and Josh gawk at the women and remark about how great they are. I mean, this is cringeworthy, in a lot of ways:

Leo: "We can't get over these women."

President: "Look at CJ. She's like a fifties movie star, so capable, so loving and energetic."

Leo: "Look at Mandy over there. Going punch for punch with Toby in a world that tells her to sit down and shut up. Mandy's already won her battle with the President, the game's over. But she's not done. She wants Toby."

President: "Mrs. Landingham. Did you guys know she lost two sons in Vietnam? What would make her want to serve her country is beyond me, but in 14 years she's not missed a day's work, not one. There's Kathy, Donna, Margaret ..."

It just seems to me Sorkin could have found a lot of better, more artful ways to answer his critics. In fact, just the very topic of a female in a position of some power not having everything she needs to do her job is addressed quite well in Lord John Marbury later this season.

So, yeah. That bit hasn't aged well, and it does cause some differing opinions among The West Wing fans. Because a lot of people really look at this episode as one of their favorites, usually because of the "Big Block of Cheese" thing.

This is Leo's pet project. He wants to open up some White House staff time to talk to groups who may have a narrow interest, or would like the government to hear about a certain topic that doesn't generally get a lot of attention. The cheese part comes in because of Andrew Jackson, who had a huge block of cheese in the White House at one point during his Presidency, and would open up the doors to let the public in to help themselves to the cheese.

(Leo has some inaccuracies about the story. There's no evidence Jackson took advice or comments from the public as they chowed down on the cheese; the actual block was about 1400 pounds, not "over two tons;" and Thomas Jefferson actually was gifted a huge block of cheese well before Jackson's presidency).

We learn that Leo intends to have this happen the first of every month, yet it's only actually occurred twice in "twelve months" according to Toby (interesting, since the Bartlet administration only took office about nine months ago). Since Mandy is the new addition to the staff, let's hear how it's explained to her:

Toby: "It's throw-open-our-office-doors-to-people-who-want-to-discuss-things-that-we-could-care-less-about day."

Mandy: "Well, that sounds goofy, doesn't it."

Sam: "It's not so bad. You talk to them for a minute, you give them a souvenir pen with the Presidential seal on it ..."

Mandy: "Isn't this a waste of time?"

Margaret: "Oh, it's definitely a waste of time, but it's one of Leo's pet office policies."

So, the two Big Block stories we get here are CJ learning about Pluie the wolf, and Sam finding out about a possible UFO from a fellow from the United States Space Command. The story about Pluie has a basis in fact, as a wolf whose travels around the Rocky Mountains were tracked and studied by scientists. Here, though, a group is trying to convince CJ to have the government commit $900 million to build a "wolf highway" between Yellowstone National Park and the Yukon Territory, to help wolves travel in safety instead of encountering dangerous roadways, towns, and people.

Oh, and one of the people talking about Pluie is played by Nick Offerman, who you probably recognize as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation.

Sam gets Bob Engler from Space Command, who says the White House needs to pay more attention to UFOs, and mentions a mysterious object being tracked in space over the Pacific Ocean at this very moment. Here we get a first look at Sam's office, by the way: He has quite a collection of baseball caps (including one from the Department of Justice), a Muhammad Ali poster, a Los Angeles Lakers jersey (since Sam is from California), and a Naval Jack.

Also, if you remember Sam's comment to Mandy about handing out pens, just look at what's on his desk when he's coming in to talk to Engler.

All ready to hand out. Little details like this just make me love this show even more.

Let's not forget the debut of Bartlet's daughter Zoey, played by Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, The Handmaid's Tale). She's coming down from Hanover, New Hampshire, to look for housing before she starts at Georgetown for the spring semester in January. In honor of her visit, the President excitedly spouts, "I'm gonna make chili!"

President: "Hey, listen up, everybody. Zoey's down from Hanover, I'm making chili for everyone tonight."

Staffers: (murmuring) "Great. Chili. Okay."

President: "All right. You know what, let's do this. Everybody look down at the big seal in the middle of my carpet. Now, everybody look back up at me. Zoey's coming down from Hanover and I'm making chili for everyone tonight."

Staffers: (energetically) "That's great! I love chili! Terrific!"

President: "There, you see how benevolent I can be when everybody just does what I tell them to do? Now, sit down."

This is the first mention of Zoey; in Pilot President Bartlet talks about a 12-year-old granddaughter he has by one daughter, but Zoey is obviously not that daughter (we will find out later that the Bartlets have three daughters in all). Zoey is a key part of The West Wing throughout the Sorkin years and into Season 5, but she kind of drifts away after that. A big part of her story is a developing romantic relationship with Charlie - here they've just met in the kitchen, and are tampering with Jed's chili recipe together.

Let's move on to Josh. He gets a visit from a fellow from the National Security Council, who gives him a card with directions to follow in the event of a nuclear attack. Obviously, in order to keep the government running, top officials would be swept away in Air Force 1 or taken to a bunker in the event of war. We get to see Josh's incredibly overstuffed wallet as he sticks the card in there. He's got to have serious back issues with that thing in his back pocket.

Josh unfortunately first takes this news to mean everybody in the West Wing has such a card, including Donna and other staffers. He quickly figures out that's not the case, but it takes him longer to realize he's the only senior staffer (except for Leo) who's on this list - not Toby, not CJ, not Sam.

That has a serious affect on him, so much so that he returns to his psychiatrist "Stanley" (who he has seen before, but he hasn't been there for 10 months, which would have been prior to the inauguration). And now we discover that as a young boy, he escaped a fire that killed his older sister, who was babysitting him at the time. It's quickly obvious Josh is suffering from survivor's guilt, and much of his life and drive is based on making amends for what he feels like was having a hand in the death of his sister. As I mentioned above, this background for Josh is going to play out with great impact in Season 2, and Bradley Whitford will earn an Emmy for it.

Too bad his wallet couldn't win an Emmy, too.

At the end of the episode, Josh decides to turn in his card (I don't know if that would even be allowed, but whatever). He gives a stirring speech to the President and Leo, with high-minded selflessness (not to mention that healthy dose of guilt, which showed through in his earlier conversations about the card with Sam and CJ):

"I want to be a comfort to my friends in tragedy, and I want to be able to celebrate with them in triumph, and for all the times in between I just want to be able to look them in the eye."

Then, of course, to fit into the theme of the episode, he nearly ruins it all:

"I want to be with my friends, my family, and these women." 

These women. Again.

Finally, the biggest plotline, Toby and the President. It starts right with the cold open, as Jed and his staffers are playing a little pick-up basketball game (right on Pennsylvania Avenue! Oh, those pre 9/11 days). Toby can't resist poking at the President with some trash talk - of course, trash talk in The West Wing has a certain panache ...

"After you're gone, and the poets write 'The Legend of Josiah Bartlet,' let them write you as a tragic figure, sir. Let the poets write that he had the tools for greatness, but the voices of his better angels were shouted down by his obsessive need to win."

The President responds here by bringing out a former Duke basketball star, Rodney Grant (played by NBA player Juwan Howard, who was with the Washington Wizards at the time, so he was nearby), who joins the President's team for game point against the squad of Toby, Josh and Charlie. (We also learn the President cheated at mixed doubles tennis against Toby and CJ by playing with Steffi Graf). Rodney immediately rejects Toby's shot ...

...prompting Bartlet's great comeback to Toby:

"Let the poets write about that there, Byron."

You also have to love the moment where Toby is chewing out Bartlet about bringing in a ringer, and the President is actually hiding behind the tall basketball star.

That's so cute! And the game serves as a lighthearted introduction to some conflict between Toby and the President, but boy, does it grow throughout the episode. Toby's remark about the President's "better angels" being "shouted down" by practical expediency comes up again and again, from the President wishing to avoid talking about the weaknesses of the gun control bill passed in Five Votes Down, to the decision to attend a Hollywood fundraiser hosted by a maker of gratuitously violent and sexual films. Toby serves as a gadfly to the President here, almost as if he's the little conscience sitting on Bartlet's shoulder trying to talk him into doing the right thing for the right reasons.

Of course this doesn't sit well with the President, and he spends a lot of the episode being irritated at Toby. At a practice for an upcoming press conference, we get this:

President: "Ah, Mr. Ziegler, from the Coney Island Killjoy, you have a followup?"

Toby: "You're gonna take that question. You're lucky enough to get the question, you're gonna blow it off?"

President: "Yes."

Toby: "Due respect, sir, may I ask why?"

President: (sarcastically) "Cause I'm weak-willed and stupid."

And just a bit later, in the back area of the press room:

CJ: "Good morning, Mrs. Landingham. Where are we in the saga of Toby and the President?"

Mrs. Landingham: "They seem to be having a, disagreement."

CJ: "A disagreement or an argument?"

Mrs. Landingham: "Well, it certainly has the potential -"

President: (shouting from the press room floor) "Oh, for God's sakes, Toby!" 

Mrs. Landingham: "There we go."

To add insult to injury, Mandy later lets Toby know that he wasn't the first choice for White House Communications Director, that David Rosen had turned the job down first. She means it as a compliment (she's saying Toby is far better than Rosen ever would have been), but Toby never knew he wasn't Bartlet's first pick. Considering the recent conflicts between him and the President, this adds another layer of grievance for Toby.

But we do get a great scene between the two at the end of the episode, calling back to Toby's trash talk at the start and proving that regardless of who was the first choice, Toby was the right choice.

President: "I couldn't live without you, Toby. I mean it. I'd be in the tall grass. I'd be in the weeds. I know I disappoint you sometimes. I mean I can sense your disappointment. And I only get mad because I know you're right a lot of the times. But you are not the kid in the class with his hand up, and whatever it was you said to CJ. You are a wise and brilliant man, Toby. The other night, when we were playing basketball, did you mean what you said? My demons were shouting down the better angels in my brain?"

Toby: "Yes, sir, I did."

President: "You think that's what's keeping me from greatness?"

Toby: "Yes."

President: "I suppose you're right."

Toby: "Tell you what, though, sir, in a battle between a President's demons and his better angels, for the first time in a long while I think we just might have ourselves a fair fight."

Toby as the moral center of The West Wing universe is one of the overriding themes of the entire series, and it really takes hold here. It's going to help win him an Emmy for In Excelsis Deo later this season, it's going to come through (intermittently, to be honest) with <SPOILER ALERT> fatherhood, and it justifies and enlightens his overall prickly personality. There's quite a turn with what goes on with Toby in the post-Sorkin years (a character move that I understand didn't go over well with Richard Schiff), but you can almost paint his actions in the last two seasons as being aligned with this sense of morality and doing what's right, regardless of the consequences. We'll talk about that down the road.

So much to like in this episode. That ending, though ... doesn't age well.

Things to think about:

- We've got the iconic, stirring, orchestral version of the theme song! Finally! Composer W.G. "Snuffy" Walden actually talks about this in an episode of The West Wing Weekly podcast. As I've mentioned, the theme didn't appear in Pilot, because they hadn't settled on one yet. Once Walden came up with the theme, he didn't have time to get it fully orchestrated and recorded, so for episodes 2-4 it was a version he basically played himself electronically. But by now, it's all done and fully fleshed out. I've got it for my ringtone, by the way.

- There's a couple of mentions of press coverage of the First Lady and her Ouija board. Once we meet Stockard Channing as Abbey Bartlet in The State Dinner, you'd have a hard time believing she ever used a Ouija board - of course this is a callback to Nancy Reagan and her astrologer.

- While practicing for the press conference, when the President answers a question from Sam he refers to "Helen," as one of the White House reporters. This would be a shoutout to longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas, who reported from the press room for nearly 40 years and often traditionally got to deliver the first question during briefings.

- I mentioned Josh's big wallet. How about his big coat? We first saw it when he went to hire Mandy in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" ... nothing really says late 1990s like an oversized men's coat.

- While West Wing fans usually think of Leo's Big Block of Cheese day being an annual thing, it's clearly stated that the goal is to do it on the first of every month (and they've only done it twice so far, about nine months into Bartlet's term). So this episode should be around the first of the month, right? On Sam's desk, his calendar/planner is open to the 16th.

- Product placement this week: Sam is reading USA Today (the President is later reading the Washington Post, but that's almost a given); Toby has a cup from Roasters On The Hill coffeeshop (which doesn't apparently exist anymore, although the Library of Congress has a photo of customers at that shop in 1990); President Bartlet is drinking a can of Barq's Root Beer when he hears Zoey is coming to visit.

Quotes    

Mandy: "Yes, and Mr. President, if you could further see clear to not answer that question like an economics professor with a big ol' stick up his butt, that would be good, too."

President: "I am an economics professor with a big old stick up my butt, but I'll do my best for you there, Mandy." 

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

• There's Ginger! She's seen in the background a couple of times, including (of course) the "These Women" scene. She still hasn't had any lines, and her only credit is as "Kim," but it's good to see she's working.

• And there's Carol, this time actually working for CJ! She's been just doing odd jobs around the West Wing, I guess, but from now on she'll be CJ's assistant.

• Part of Josh's emotional issues are played out by his having "Ave Maria" stuck in his head, which he also plays while talking to CJ about the NSC card and then plays over the final scene at the chili party. He says it was his sister's favorite music. This connection to his childhood guilt and overall psychology will be referred to again.

• One of the conflicts between Toby and Mandy is about an upcoming trip to California "in a few weeks" and a pending fundraiser held by moviemaker Larry Posner. We do see a Presidential trip to California with a fundraiser that causes some conflicts, but it's not with Posner - that's in 11 episodes (20 Hours In L.A.) and therefore must not be the same trip we're talking about here.

• Toby learns that Bartlet first offered the Communications Director job to David Rosen, who turned it down to work for Salomon Brothers. "David Rosen" is also the character name of the Attorney General in Scandal, played by Joshua Malina (who will join the cast of The West Wing in Season 4).

• The President says Zoey is scouting off-campus housing before she starts at Georgetown in January. Later on this season we're going to see Zoey living in something that looks a lot like a dorm (with her Secret Service protection staying right across the hall). Also, Jed mentions Zoey's next four years in college ... she actually graduates at the end of Season 4 (Commencement - no spoiler alert with that episode title), so in truth, she spends 3 1/2 years at Georgetown.

• Rodney Grant, the basketball player, is revealed as having played at Duke ("He was in two Final Fours!" Toby exclaims, and a "two-time ACC Player of the Week" according to Sam). Interestingly enough, we will later discover Sam is a graduate of Duke Law School. As is my son, but that's neither here nor there. :)

• In his chili party speech about Zoey, President Bartlet says a couple of telling things.

"I hope that by the time we're done with our four years here, we'll have seen to it that every young person who chooses can go to college and beyond regardless of their economic status."

First of all, making college more affordable becomes a key policy point for the Bartlet administration. It's really developed during 20 Hours In America in Season 4, and is an underlying Bartlet policy during his term (although I believe in one of the later seasons, they actually give back part of their progress on college costs in negotiations with Republicans).

Secondly, "our four years here"? Isn't President Bartlet planning on running for re-election? His staff certainly is, as seen in the comments about Lloyd Russell's plans in Pilot. Perhaps Jed knows more about his future than his staff or we, the audience, do at this point. Is Sorkin starting to plant some health-related seeds here? Stay tuned.

End credits freeze frame - CJ listening to the tale of Pluie.