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].) 

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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."

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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." 

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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.

The State Dinner - TWW S1E7

Original airdate: November 10, 1999

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (7) and Paul Redford (1)

Directed by: Thomas Schlamme (3)

Synopsis

• We'll let CJ take this, from the end of the cold open: "So, let me see if I have this. A hurricane's picked up speed and power and is heading for Georgia. Management and labor are coming here to work out a settlement to avoid a crippling strike that'll begin at midnight tonight. And the government's planning a siege on 18 to 40 of its citizens, all the while we host a state dinner for the President of Indonesia."

"You know, one of the things that happens when I stay away too long is that you forget that you don't have the power to fix everything. You have a big brain, and a good heart, and an ego the size of Montana. You do, Jed! You don't have the power to fix everything. But I do like watching you try."

Frustration. Futility. Powerlessness. Boy, oh boy, are these the themes we see hammered at us throughout The State Dinner. Some of the failures are self-inflicted, particularly Toby's. Others, like the hurricane changing course to threaten the carrier battle group, are completely out of human control.

While thinking about this episode, I had to wonder whether this was an attempt by Aaron Sorkin to illustrate thematically what he's said in words throughout the beginnings of this series - that the Bartlet administration is somehow directionless and adrift. In Pilot we hear that the President's unfavorables are up to 48 percent, and his bike accident adds to a list of misfires and missteps making the administration look weak. President Bartlet ends that episode telling the staff, "Break's over." In "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" we find out the Ryder Cup team called off their White House visit over Jed's joke, the campaign lost Texas in both the primary and the general (even with a Texan on the ticket!), and the Joint Chiefs are leery of President Bartlet's military leadership. We also hear more about how unfavorable the administration is seen in general. In A Proportional Response we learn a congressman in Bartlet's party blusteringly threatened the President with "not getting out (of his district) alive." In Five Votes Down even more congressional representatives from Bartlet's own party defect from an important gun bill, some hoping to get relatively unimportant yet somewhat humiliating concessions from the White House. In Mr. Willis Of Ohio we see Congress spending the budget surplus on a host of pork barrel projects with no compunctions about being called out by the administration. Sorkin seems to be trying to make it sound as if the Bartlet administration, some eleven months into its term, is a floundering mess.

But Sorkin couldn't help himself and gave the President several wins, as well. The gun bill passed in Five Votes Down, even with Josh and Leo getting into some hot water with their tactics and giving Hoynes most of the credit - yet it was stressed this would be seen as a major victory for the administration. The budget bill passed in Mr. Willis Of Ohio, with the White House managing to convince the Commerce Committee to delay their census-sampling amendment, another big Bartlet win. The retaliatory strike on Syria from A Proportional Response had to give the President a boost in the polls (although that aspect was never mentioned, not even by Mandy). There's plenty of progress so far during this administration, with some major legislative wins - this seems in stark contrast to the weak, directionless White House Sorkin seems to want us to believe in as he sets up his dramatic arc for a turn in Let Bartlet Be Bartlet. Of course, in comparison to our current reality, even a hampered, weakened Bartlet administration is going show more accomplishments than the Trump administration. But let's not kid ourselves -- the William Henry Harrison administration has more accomplishments to show for it than Trump. (Ba dum tiss!)

Anyway - I just think this episode is mostly a chance for Sorkin to show, and not tell, how much frustration President Bartlet is feeling at this point. And he does that with a single day full of sucker punches from fate and Mother Nature, including a hurricane bearing down on the Southeast, a trucking strike looming at midnight with no consensus in sight, anti-government militia holding hostages (including children) in a cabin in Idaho, and a state dinner with the leader of an country whose record on human rights is less than exemplary.

And we get Stockard Channing! Yes, the first appearance of the First Lady, Abbey Bartlet, as she joins Jed for the state dinner with President and Mrs. Siguto of Indonesia.

Now seriously, does this look like a woman who would ever get involved with a Ouija board (as mentioned in The Crackpots And These Women)? Yeah, I don't think so. The wonderful Ms. Channing became a recurring player on The West Wing, getting her picture in the credits starting next season, and winning a Supporting Actress Emmy in Season 3 (she was nominated in this season, in part for this episode). She gets a juicy role here, as a supportive wife (that's her quote up above, enjoying watching Jed try to fix everything), a knowledgeable First Lady (keeping tabs on the trucking strike talks), and comic foil (trying to fix up CJ and a cardiologist, dropping in on Sam and Laurie at the exact right moment).

Let's start with the militia storyline. A group of anti-government types in Idaho were caught in a sting, buying illegal weapons from undercover government agents. When the FBI and local law enforcement moved in, the militia holed up in their cabin with anywhere from 18 to 40 occupants, including women and children. Mandy, anxious to broaden her position as a political consultant and get a foot in the door with making policy, manages to wrangle the job as the communication focal point between the White House and the FBI. When the FBI recommends going in with tear gas to end the siege, Mandy suggests sending in a negotiator first, to show the government's goodwill (and prevent the PR nightmare of pictures of women and children being tear-gassed by the FBI). Josh isn't sure going that against the FBI's recommendation is the smart play, but Mandy takes it personally and thinks that's just sour grapes from her old boyfriend:

Josh: "This isn't abstract, Mandy, this isn't a theoretical problem. The FBI says, 'Come out with your hands up,' you come out with your hands up - at which point you are free to avail yourself of the entire justice system."

Mandy: "Do you really believe that or are you just pissed off because I got in the game?"

Leo (entering): "Mandy, the President's going to go with your plan. Chaffee's going to send in a negotiator."

Mandy: "Good."

Josh: "Well, you're in the game now."  

The militia members end up shooting the negotiator and being taken custody by the FBI anyway - an outcome that brings Mandy up short and makes her physically ill as she realizes the high stakes involved in the big leagues of White House policy making.

On to the trucking strike - not a very important part of the busy day's plot, but it serves as the one area where President Bartlet feels he can do something, anything, to have some sort of effect on the events of the day. The Teamsters' union and the trucking industry are at odds over a two-tier hiring system, which permits newer hires to be considered "temporary" workers and not subject to certain benefit and pay requirements. With the Taft-Hartley cooldown period expiring at midnight, the union can go on strike at 12:01 am unless some kind of agreement is reached.

The President, stymied at every turn by events outside his control (the FBI negotiator's shooting, the hurricane threatening Navy ships, the Indonesian president's rudeness or dullness, he can't tell which), storms into the room where the union and management are having talks and essentially orders some kind of agreement. If that doesn't happen within the hour, he's ready for the government to take over the trucking industry (something President Truman did in 1952 with steel mills, although Jed erroneously refers to "coal miners" in that case) and to call Congress for a special session to give him authority to draft striking truck drivers into the military (also a move Truman attempted with railroad workers in 1946). His determination to do something in the face of other events far out of his control is obvious to his wife:

Abbey: "I'm sorry to interrupt you, actually I was looking for the President."

Sam: "He had to step out to the West Wing."

Abbey: "Oh."

Sam: "I'm not sure why, but I could go --"

Abbey: "To pistol-whip the trucking industry."

Sam: "Uh, why would he --?"

Abbey: "Because he can't save a gunshot victim and he can't stop a hurricane."

Let's move on to Toby's maneuvers with the Indonesian government. He's ready to write the formal dinner toast to President Siguto by himself until Leo directs Sam to join him, because these things are sensitive diplomatic procedures. Toby takes on Sam only to direct him to "toughen up" the language of the toast - Toby, as we have seen, is sort of the moral compass of the Bartlet White House, and he has no time to coddle what he sees as the dictatorial, repressive, human-rights violating Siguto government.

Sam: "Toby -- do you really think it's a good idea to invite people to dinner and then tell them exactly what they're doing wrong with their lives?"

Toby: "Absolutely, otherwise it's just a waste of food."

Meanwhile, Toby and Josh are making plans for an out-of-the-dining-room meeting with one of President Siguto's staffers. This plot is played for laughs - "we gotta see a guy about a thing," the way Josh and Donna lovingly pronounce the name "Rahmadi Sumahidjo Bambang," and of course the entire translation debacle. Donna is tasked with finding a translator from the State Department so Toby and Josh can talk to Mr. Bambang. She locates Mr. Minaldi, a translator who speaks Batak - but then it is later discovered Bambang does not speak Batak, but Javanese, a language Minaldi does not. Admittedly, Donna comes up with a creative, yet workable solution:

Donna: "Well, Mr. Minaldi speaks Portuguese."

Toby: "Where does that get us?"

Donna: "Well, there's a guy who works in the kitchen who can translate Mr. Bombang's ..."

Minaldi: "Bambang."

Donna: "Bambang's Batak into Portuguese. Then Mr. Minaldi will translate it into English."

Toby: "Wait a minute. Uh, why can't the kitchen guy translate Batak into English?"

Donna: "The kitchen guy doesn't speak English."

Toby: "You're kidding me."

Donna: "Well, no, he speaks Batak and Portuguese so I wouldn't look down your nose."

 The humor continues once the meeting begins in the kitchen and the four-way translation gets started ("He's answering a question from like a half an hour ago"), and then - Bambang, out of the blue, says, "Why don't we just speak in English?" which results in this reaction from Toby and Josh:

And then Donna's response of "You should keep in mind all the things I do right."

This is where the plotline isn't so funny anymore. It turns out Toby has a friend, a French professor who helps teach students how to protest, who is being held in an Indonesian jail for leading anti-government demonstrations. Toby wanted to use the occasion of this state visit to ask Bambang for the favor of releasing his friend. Unfortunately, the tough wording in the toast he wrote has backfired on Toby, and Bambang literally tells him he can take his favor and go to hell:

Bambang: "You humiliated my President tonight, and for no other reason but to show off. And now you want me to do you a favor? Go to hell."

Failure and frustration, but totally self-inflicted in this case. Toby's moral high ground, requiring him to chastise the very government he needed to ask a favor of, blows up right in his face.

Just a quick mention of Sam and Laurie before the storm hits - there's some interesting developments in this relationship. The two are having lunch in a diner, where Sam sweetly declares he has no qualms about being seen with Laurie in public, and Laurie tells Sam she has a somewhat regular client that evening who never tells her ahead of time where they are going. So, naturally, it turns out the client is a big Democratic fundraiser, and he's taking Laurie (or "Brittany") to the White House dinner. Sam, of course, is thunderstruck by having Laurie's night call-girl job right there in front of his face, and he thereby not-so-sweetly offers her $10,000 if she doesn't go home with the client at the end of the night. Couple this with Sam taking Laurie's chicken salad sandwich at lunch, and he's really not doing a very good job of "reforming" or "saving" her from her tawdry night job. He's kind of an ass.

Also, reporter Danny Concannon is back. Played by Timothy Busfield (Revenge Of The Nerds, thirtysomething, Field Of Dreams), Danny is going to be another recurring character, and here we discover he's got a thing for CJ. He flirts, asks about her outfit for the dinner, kind of plays a prank on her with the whole vermeil protest thing, and actually asks her out for dinner. CJ, of course, as White House press secretary can do no such thing with a reporter, but you can tell she is intrigued by the idea. The CJ-Danny interplay is going to be a key part of The West Wing for quite a while to come. They do make a cute pair.

And the storm. Yet another of the complications affecting the White House plans for the day, Hurricane Sarah has grown to a Class 4 storm and is taking aim at Georgia and the Carolinas. The Navy winds up sending the Kennedy carrier battle group out to sea from the Norfolk, Virginia, naval base, as big ships are generally better able to ride out a storm at sea some distance from it rather than moored at their docks. The major complication we see by mid-episode is the whereabouts of Charlie's grandparents, who were evacuated from their coastal Georgia home but now can't be located, much to Charlie's dismay. Josh is ready to help ("Donna, call FEMA, use my name. When that doesn't work, use Leo's name.").

Turns out the grandparents in danger is just a Sorkin head-fake. They are located safe and sound, but the hurricane has changed direction and is now heading straight at the carrier fleet in the Atlantic. The ships and crew are in dire danger with 120 mph winds and heavy seas bearing down on them with no escape, and it's one more thing President Bartlet has absolutely no control over. This naturally leads us to one of the most memorable scenes in early West Wing history.

The Navy has set up a phone/radio link to the carrier group, with the intention of having the President speak with the commander. Since the storm has knocked out communications with most of the ships, the only connection they can make is with the repair/maintenance ship USS Hickory - and that ship's captain can't be reached either. So President Bartlet ends up speaking with a young, scared, injured Signalman Third Class Harold Lewis. It's a gripping moment - as Lewis describes the terrible situation the Hickory finds itself in, swamped by heavy seas, its running lights out and in danger of being run over by the aircraft carrier - Jed's face expresses the anguish and concern of a leader who can't do anything to help those under his command.

He tries to crack a joke and keep it light ("I don't know, man. Think I'd ask for my money back"), but his face shows no lightness. His final words come after the screen fades to black:

"Harold? I'm going to stay right here as long as the radio works, okay? (fade to black) Hang on."

Just a couple of other things about that memorable last scene - it begins with the wide shot shown above, then slowly zooms in on the President, the rest of the cast standing and listening, with his face eventually taking up the entire screen. Given the stakes of the moment and the emotionally taut conversation with Signalman Lewis, it's an incredibly well-done shot. You'll just have to forgive the idea of having the President, the First Lady, the Chief of Staff, the Deputy Chief of Staff, the Communications Director and the Deputy Communications Director all leaving the state dinner at once for this. At least CJ must still be doing some work somewhere ...

Notice also in the wide shot above - Josh takes Mandy in his arms. This seems, I don't know, kind of weird. While they were previously lovers, there's really not that kind of connection between them now. Josh did see how upset and sick Mandy was about the FBI negotiator, and I think that's what's behind this gesture, but boy - it sticks out like a sore thumb, kinda.

What's really interesting about this episode is that most of these plotlines aren't really wrapped up by the end of the show. This all takes place in one day, the day of the state dinner - we don't find out if the Teamsters and the trucking industry come to terms (we figure they must, considering Bartlet's threats), we don't find out the fate of the FBI negotiator (he's still in surgery), and we don't find out what happens to the Kennedy battle group in its encounter with Hurricane Sarah. That's a lot more like real life than a typical television episode that wraps everything up at the end of 30 or 60 minutes, and that makes The State Dinner some pretty good TV.


Things to think about:

- We noticed CJ had a Gateway laptop in A Proportional Response. Now we see she's been upgraded to a desktop computer! (It actually can be seen in the background during Mr. Willis Of Ohio, but she gets to use it here). However, it's almost daintily squeezed into the corner of her office, in a rather ladylike design concept. Why wouldn't it be on her, you know, desk?

- Speaking of laptops, the White House must have upgraded laptops, as Sam has a Mac. If you'll notice, the late 1990s Macbooks had the Apple logo appear right-side-up when the case was closed, hence upside-down when the laptop was being used. Apple would eventually flip the logo.

Quotes    

CJ: "Mirabella needed to know what wine was being served with the fish course, so, it's a good thing I went to school for 22 years."

Josh: "What wine are we --"

CJ: "It's wine, you'll drink it." 

-----

Bartlet: "We're having salmon tonight."

Siguto: "Yes."

(long pause) 

Bartlet: "They told you that?"

Siguto: "Yes."

(long pause)

 Bartlet: "Yo Yo Ma is going to play. Some Bach concertos, I believe. (long pause) Do you like salmon?"

Siguto: "No."

Bartlet: "Well. Our mistake."

Siguto: "Yes."

----- 

Sam: "Hey, I'm finishing up this speech. Can you think of some sort of personal connection between President Siguto and the US? You know, something from his past?"

Josh: "He was once almost pushed out of an airplane by a CIA-trained operative."

Sam: "I should probably leave that out."

Josh: "Yeah, I would."

----- 

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

• Even though we don't learn the fate of the USS Hickory in this episode, that is a key part of a dramatic Bartlet speech in Season Two's Two Cathedrals.
• It's certainly not a direct line from one to the other, but Mandy's handling of the militia standoff and the shooting of the negotiator can't be a good sign for keeping her job. Not to be too harsh, but her basic uselessness to the West Wing staff will continue to grow throughout the rest of the season. Pandas will play a part in her career future. Yes, I said pandas.
• Laurie's client, Carl Everett, is played by David Rasche, who is a well-known TV actor (Sledge Hammer!).

• The Teamsters head is played by William Lucking (Sons of Anarchy, Erin Brockovich, The A Team).

• Meanwhile, the trucking industry honcho is played by John Kapelos (the janitor in The Breakfast Club, also Roxanne, Weird Science).

DC location shots    

• There are no DC location shots in this episode. In fact, except for the short scene with Sam and Laurie at the diner, the entire episode takes place inside the White House.

References to real people    

• A bunch of fashion designers are mentioned as CJ talks about the First Lady's outfit: Carmen Marc Valvo, Manolo Blahnik, Gabrielle Sanchez, and Cristina Bomba.
• President Bartlet mentions the famed cellist Yo Yo Ma will play at the dinner. Yo Yo Ma himself will appear on the show next season. It's also said he will play Bach concertos, so Johann Sebastian Bach must exist in this universe.
• After Danny leads CJ on the vermeil goose chase, she mentions Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot, who worked in vermeil in the 1700-1800s.
• The aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy is part of the battle group caught in Hurricane Sarah. While that doesn't necessarily mean Kennedy was ever President in The West Wing timeline, we already know Lyndon Johnson was, so JFK most likely was as well.
• We get a solid mention of President Truman and his 1952 move to nationalize the steel industry (not coal mines, as President Bartlet misstates). Bartlet also threatens to draft striking truck drivers into the army, a move Truman called for during a 1946 railroad strike.

End credits freeze frame: Leo and the President discussing the FBI agent's condition.