Take This Sabbath Day - TWW S1E14

Original airdate: February 9, 2000

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (13)
Story by: Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. (4) & Paul Redford (2) and Aaron Sorkin

Directed by: Thomas Schlamme (4)

Synopsis

• Over the course of a weekend, President Bartlet struggles with the decision of whether or not to commute the execution of a federal prisoner. Josh has to give bad news to the fiery campaign manager for a California congressional candidate.

"We make it very hard to kill anyone in this country, Toby."

"It should be impossible."

"But it's not."

"But it should be."

This is a rather unusual episode of The West Wing. Right off the bat, there's no "previously on" section of clips from prior episodes, which signals this one pretty much stands alone and doesn't tie in with the ongoing threads of the series. Additionally, there are only two plotlines in this episode, as opposed to the multiple storylines we usually see.

But "unusual" doesn't mean "bad." Quite the contrary - this is a top-notch example of the series, one if its best ever (in my opinion), with some incredibly fine writing and great performances, centered around the controversial topic of capital punishment. When the Supreme Court unexpectedly denies the appeal of Simon Cruz, convicted of two murders in federal court, the administration has only a weekend to decide if the President will use his Constitutional power to commute the death sentence. President Bartlet, a staunch Roman Catholic (as is Martin Sheen himself), personally opposes the death penalty, but realizes the political problems with having the executive branch step in to override the decision of the judicial branch on purely personal motives. The President struggles with the weight of the decision, as do the other characters in the West Wing. Sam, Toby, even Jed's old parish priest from New Hampshire urge him to grant clemency, to not use the state's power to take a life. He even brings Joey Lucas, a congressional campaign manager meeting with Josh, into the Oval Office to ask her opinion. The other side of the issue is revealed in a powerful moment between the President and Charlie:

President: "What happened to the guy who shot your mother?"

Charlie: "They haven't caught him yet, sir."

President: "If they did, would you want to see him executed? (long pause) Killing a police officer's a capital crime, I figured you must have thought about it."

Charlie: "Yes, sir."

President: "And?"

Charlie: "I wouldn't want to see him executed, Mr. President. I'd want to do it myself."

Toby's rabbi (spurred by one of Cruz' attorneys) gives an anti-death penalty sermon hoping to spur Toby to influence the President toward commutation; Sam gives up a sailing weekend to dig through law books and court records, trying to find a solid reason to grant clemency; Lucas (as a pacifist Quaker) gives her view that the state shouldn't take a life; CJ battles with the personal connections of the execution: "I wish I didn't know his mother's name was Sophia." By the time the President calls on Father Cavanaugh, his mind is already made up - it seems he wants his childhood priest to help soothe his soul from the results of that decision, rather than take the priest's advice on what to do.

That is a great scene from Season 1. Karl Malden (in his last performance, as he died a few months after filming) delivers a terrific portrayal of Father Cavanaugh. When Jed tells him how frustrated he is with not getting wisdom after praying for it, Cavanaugh tells the story of the man who ignored a radio report about a flood, then turned away a rowboat and a rescue helicopter because he knew God would save him. After he drowned, the man asked St. Peter why God never stepped in, which leads to the punch line, "I sent a radio report, a rowboat, and a helicopter. What the hell are you doing here?" After which Father Cavanaugh tells the President:

"He sent you a priest, a rabbi, and a Quaker, Mr. President, not to mention His son, Jesus Christ. What do you want from him?"

(This, of course, brings us to the question of how did Father Cavanaugh know about the other two characters? It seems unlikely he would have been told about Joey Lucas' visit in the Oval Office, let alone the rabbi's sermon to Toby. But it's still a great line.)

Schlamme works some great directing magic again in this episode. At the start of the final scene, while President Bartlet is gazing out a window in the Oval Office while holding a rosary, a ghostly image of a man preparing for execution is shown, like a reflection in the window:

It's as if Jed is watching the execution right in front of him, with the prisoner's mother and other officials on hand. Then, after receiving word of the execution being carried out, Jed kneels for confession with Father Cavanaugh - kneeling right on the Presidential seal on the floor of the Oval Office. It's a tremendous illustration of President Bartlet's conflict, his personal religious beliefs and the weight of leading a nation of diverse thought and creed. The camera also pulls up during the shot, in a manner reminiscent of the closing shot of Pilot (also directed by Schlamme).

The other storyline of the episode is considerably more lighthearted, and introduces the fabulous Marlee Matlin as Joey Lucas. Her character will reappear numerous times over the course of the series. Here she's campaign manager for Bill O'Dwyer, a candidate for Congress in California's 46th district. He's running a strong race against the Republican incumbent, a cartoonishly conservative and xenophobic figure. However, the White House and the DNC have decided they'd rather keep the cartoon in his seat over an "empty shirt" like O'Dwyer, knowing that the racist and offensive things the Republican will say are good for fundraising.

(On a side note, this kind of caused me to shudder in today's political environment. Josh mentions the Republican saying something about "brown people coming across the border" being good for the DNC to raise a couple of million dollars - yet Congressman like Steve King and others have gained significant power in recent years with viewpoints far worse than that ("calves the size of cantaloupes" anybody?)

The meeting between Josh and Lucas (and Kenny, her sign-language translator) is played for laughs, since Josh, to put it lightly, is not recovering well from a bachelor party the night before.

That's Josh sleeping on the floor of his office - he didn't go home because he couldn't find his keys, or remember where he lived. Donna tries to sober him up with some coffee:

Which he immediately drools over himself. So in order to get his clothes cleaned before the meeting, he has to wear Sam's foul-weather sailing gear ... which is what he has on when Joey and Kenny barge in, yelling at him about the DNC cutting their funding.

Josh: "Tell you what, let's just take a deep breath for a second while I try and remember, you know, where I am right now."

Joey (signing): "Are you drunk?"

Josh: "I have a very delicate system."

Which is a pretty funny throwback to the afternoon before, when Josh is talking with Donna while he gets ready to leave for the party:

Donna: "Are you going to behave yourself tonight?"

Josh: "It's a bachelor party."

Donna: "I'm saying - "

Josh: "I can hold my liquor."

Donna: "No, you can't."

Josh: "I can drink with the best of 'em, Donna."

Donna: "You can't drink with any of 'em, Josh."

Josh: "I'm in politics, okay? I can drink."

Donna: "You have a very delicate system."

Josh: "I wish you'd stop telling people that, it makes me sound like an idiot."

Anyway, while Lucas doesn't get what she came for (even the President declines to offer help to her candidate), Josh comes to her hotel before she leaves to offer a word of encouragement. The President had told her if she came up with a better candidate, the party would be willing to work with her. It turns out, Josh tells her, the better candidate the President would like to work with is Lucas herself.

(The hotel bar scene has a continuity mistake. When Lucas and Kenny first arrive to talk to Josh, there's nothing on the bar:)

(A couple of lines later, money has magically appeared:)

(And a few lines after that, Josh reaches into his pocket and pulls out some bills to toss on the bar - which, as we saw above, already has money on it:)

Just two storylines, pretty much self-contained - but in-depth, involving, well-written and very well-acted (Sheen and Allison Janney are particularly great, with terrific guest appearances from Matlin and Malden). It's a fantastic episode in a stretch of great television here in Season 1.


Tales Of Interest!

- Martin Sheen's performance in this episode earned him an Emmy nomination for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He lost to James Galdofini of The Sopranos. Sheen would end up being nominated for his role as Jed Bartlet six times over seven seasons, but he never actually won the Emmy.

- I mentioned in Pilot how the plot device of the switched pagers between Sam and Laurie already seemed a bit anachronistic in late 1999. It's a few months later now, and Toby gets paged while he's in temple, and Sam makes a point of leaving his pager behind before he sets out for his sailing weekend.

- Speaking of Sam's sailing weekend (and Josh's bachelor party and Donna's shopping plans) - did it seem odd to anyone else that the entire West Wing staff appeared to be taking the weekend off? In today's 24-hour news cycle world, it just felt wrong to have this notion of the bullpen area being dark and empty over a Saturday and Sunday, which is kind of what it looked like was going to happen. Obviously, even White House staffers have to have regular days off, but you'd still have somebody there, right?

- The Supreme Court scene: We know from The Short List that there's still a vacancy, leaving eight justices on the court until Mendoza is confirmed (and Sam mentions the denial of the appeal turned out 5-3). The initial shot indeed shows eight, but it's interesting to see the actors cast to sit as the justices are intended to remind us of at least some of the real-life Supreme Court justices of 2000. Here's someone definitely intended to resemble Ruth Bader Ginsburg:

(The man next to her doesn't really look like one of the justices at the time, although he might be supposed to represent David Souter.) Further down the panning shot is an obvious reference to Antonin Scalia (and perhaps John Paul Stevens next to him):

And the supposed Chief Justice reading the ruling on the denial of the appeal looks quite a bit like Chief Justice William Rehnquist:

I just thought it was interesting to have such visual representations of the real-life justices, when in the series universe we know we've had one justice recently step down. The other actual justices at the time were Clarence Thomas, Sandra Day O'Connor, Stephen Breyer, and Anthony Kennedy; the initial shot of the entire Supreme Court didn't appear to show an African-American (Thomas) or another woman besides Ginsburg (O'Connor).

- As mentioned, this was acclaimed actor Karl Malden's final role. He had retired from acting a few years prior, but answered the call for this character on The West Wing. Interestingly, the pocket Bible he takes out while preparing to hear President Bartlet's confession is the exact same Bible Malden used for his Oscar-nominated role as Father Barry in On The Waterfront.

- Just because I got a good shot of this: Here's the computer screen at the security checkpoint when Sam is signing out for the weekend (or, is he???!!?!?). It reads "WHITE HOUSE INTERNAL INFORMATION SERVICE" across the top bar, then inside the large window it reads "AUTHORIZATION CODE REQUIRED - INTRANET MULTI-VIEW DISTRIBUTION."

- It appears there might be something representing a dead fish floating in Gail's bowl. This would certainly fit in with the capital punishment storyline ... it's kind of hard to see, but it does look a lot like a dead fish.

(This would also be a good place to mention how sick Allison Janney was while shooting this episode. You can definitely tell she's not feeling well in the quick scene where she's talking with Carol walking through the bullpen. In the DVD commentary Sorkin and Schlamme say the above scene, with CJ and Mandy, had to be reshot because Janney felt so sick the first time they shot it that her emotions overtook her playing of the lines talking about the execution and Cruz' mother.)

- When the President checks his watch in the final scene and sees the second hand tick towards midnight, the date on the watch reads "21." The only Sunday that was the 21st in the entire year of 2000 fell in May - considering the snowfall outside the White House at the time, that seems implausible. Perhaps it could be fanwanked that the date turned over early, before the watch actually ticked past midnight, as February 20th was indeed a Sunday in 2000.

Quotes    

There are so many excellent stretches of dialogue in this episode. I could just print the entire script here, and pretty much all of it would be, to quote Ferris Bueller, "choice." It's just damn good writing. I'll try to limit myself.

Zane: "You are going to go to the President, you're going to tell him he can't run from this one. He's gotta consider my client, you're going to tell him that."

Sam: "I don't talk to the President that way, Bobby, nobody talks to the President that way, and I've got to tell you not that many people talk to me that way anymore."

Zane: "I got a guy 48 hours away from death, you want to make this personal?" (a reference to Sam & Bobby's high school days, when Bobby used to beat Sam up) 

 -----

Leo: "Why Monday morning?"

Sam: "What do you mean?"

Leo: "The court denied the appeal, why isn't he being executed at midnight tonight?"

Sam: "We don't execute people between sundown Friday and sundown Sunday."

Leo: "Why?"

Sam: "Hard as it is to believe -"

Leo: "You're kidding me."

Sam: "No."

Leo: "We don't execute people on the Sabbath."

Sam: "No."

Leo: "Well, that's about the most bizarre thing I've ever heard."

Sam: "Leo, I think you're going to find as you go through this weekend that there's virtually no part of this discussion that isn't bizarre."

------

President: "CJ, look -"

CJ: "Don't start with me, Mr. President."

President: "I was helping pass the time, I was being entertaining as well as instructive."

CJ: "I am back in America now, I have rights, I'm no longer belted down next to the passenger from hell."

Leo: "Welcome back, Mr. President."

President: "Leo! What are you doing here?"

Leo: "I needed a minute, sir. How was the flight?"

President: "Great."

CJ (simultaneously): "It was gruesome. If you look out the left side of the cabin you'll see the fjords. Then we got a history of the fjords, then we got a quiz on the fjords. Do you have any idea how much I'd like to dress you up in lederhosen and dropkick you into a fjord?"

President: "Ah, you don't know how to have fun while we're traveling."

------

Mandy: "What are the stats on federal executions and the President stepping in?"

Sam: " '63 was the last execution."*

Mandy: "Who was the last President to commute the sentence?"

Josh: "Lincoln."**

Mandy: "Abraham?"

Josh: "No, Bert Lincoln. Mandy, what are you -?"

* While at the time of this episode the last federal execution was in 1963 (in Iowa, no less), three people have been executed for federal crimes since; Timothy McVeigh and Juan Raul Garza in 2001, and Louis Jones, Jr. in 2003. Elements of the Garza case were actually incorporated into Simon Cruz' story in this episode.

 ** Again, true at the time, but Bill Clinton commuted one death penalty and Barack Obama commuted two others. 

------

Joey Lucas (signing): "Well, maybe if your head wasn't so far up your -"

Josh: "Hey!"

Lucas (speaking): "I want to speak to the President!"

Josh: "Hey, lunatic lady! Trust me when I tell you there's absolutely no way that you are going to see the President!"

President (appearing in the open door): "Hey, Josh."

------

CJ: "Carol, good. I need biographical information on Simon Cruz."

Carol: "Is it C-R-U-Z?"

CJ: "I don't know."

Carol: "What kind of biographical information?"

CJ: "We're going to need to know how to spell his name, for sure." 

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

• One of  Simon Cruz' attorneys (and a former high school nemesis of Sam's), Bobby Zane, is played by Noah Emmerich. While he currently has an important role in the FX series The Americans, I remember him best as Jim Carrey's best friend in The Truman Show. Interestingly, he was also a roommate of Joshua Malina's while attending Yale - Malina will join the cast of The West Wing in Season 4.

• Marlee Matlin, who plays Joey Lucas, first claimed fame in the film Children of a Lesser God. She has numerous film and TV appearances, and continues as a recurring character on The West Wing. However, while in this episode she was campaign manager for a Congressional candidate, in the future she will be a pollster.

• In this shot, we see two binders labeled "Tobacco" on top of this filing cabinet. The Bartlet administration's dealings with the tobacco industry will become an ongoing storyline in the future, particularly for Josh.

DC location shots    

• The early scene between Sam and Bobby Zane certainly appears as if it were shot in a governmental building. However, as Sorkin and Schlamme reveal in their commentary, this was actually filmed in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.

• The commentary mentions how Schlamme had to frame the shot to not reveal the dinosaur skeleton displayed, just off the right side of the shot in the rotunda. Here's a photo of the room from a different angle (the passageway the scene was filmed in appears to be at the back of this photo):

• Standing in for Andrews Air Force Base for the Air Force One scene was Dulles Airport, outside Washington, DC. And standing in for Air Force One was a Virgin Airways Boeing 747, which was digitally turned into the presidential aircraft in postproduction.

References to real people    

• In various discussions about the death penalty, we hear references to former Supreme Court justice Harry Blackmun, and philosophers St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant.

• Stanford University is mentioned as one of Joey Luca's places of study: the school was founded by Leland Stanford in 1885.

• Product placement - Josh says he looks like the "Gorton's fisherman" in Sam's foul weather gear; President Bartlet wears a Notre Dame sweatshirt on Saturday; it appears there's a Bose Wave Radio on the nightstand next to the President's bed.

End credits freeze frame: President Bartlet listening to Toby in the Oval Office:

More Thoughts On "Take Out The Trash Day"

You know how sometimes, when you're in the shower, or mowing the yard, or shoveling snow off your driveway, you get these thoughts about something you've already finished and done and you realize, Hey, I missed some good ideas I could have put in that thing? Well, that happened to me the other day, right after I posted my comments on Take Out The Trash Day.

Luckily, I have an avenue to address revisions/additions/further considerations - another blog post! I blame myself, of course; I'm trying to keep to a twice-monthly posting schedule, and sometimes that means I'm rushed in writing, and things get dropped. I'm also back in rehearsals for a show again, which adds to the lack of time and care I can put to my West Wing watching. But I want to do this the best I possibly can, so here's some more morsels about the last episode.

• I missed a great, obvious, completely intentional nod to the title of the episode right at the end. Leo has just given Karen Larson a second chance, and let her keep her job in the personnel office. He then sits back at his desk as we hear CJ giving the press briefing. She is mentioning the fact that the Lydells will not be attending the signing ceremony for the hate crimes bill, with the excuse that they had family business to attend to back in St. Paul. This is the Friday evening press briefing, remember, the one where they throw out the "trash" - the Lydell story, one of the main plot points of the episode, literally ends up being thrown out with the "trash" of the sex ed study, Zoey's sociology professor, and who knows what else. In addition, this news gets brought to us, the audience via CJ, in the background, on a TV screen in Leo's office - the White House "trash" stories being given to the press in a twice-removed way for us, the viewing audience, relayed in the background as if these stories are unimportant filler. It's actually a brilliant illustration of the title of the episode.

• Then there's Leo's actual talk with Larson. It's a tremendous piece of writing and acting, with the whole "this is what it means to be an alcoholic" explanation. John Spencer, I mean ... he just nails it.

Leo: "I drank and took drugs cause I'm a drug addict and an alcoholic."

Larson: "How long did it take you to get cured?"

Leo: "I'm not cured. You don't get cured. I haven't had a drink or a pill in six and a half years. Which isn't to say I won't have one tomorrow."

Larson: "What would happen if you did?"

Leo: "I don't know. But probably a nightmare the likes of which both our fathers experienced, and me too."

Larson: "And - so after six and a half years you're still not allowed to have a drink?"

Leo: "The problem is, I don't want want the drink. I want ten drinks."

Larson: "Are things that bad?"

Leo (chuckling): "No."

Larson: "Then why?"

Leo: "Cause I'm an alcoholic." 

• I mentioned previously how Leo-like it is for him to give Larson a second chance, but what I didn't get deeply into is exactly why. Leo's alcoholism and substance abuse could have ended his political career back in 1993 (he was Secretary of Labor then, you remember), but Jed Bartlet was loyal enough and understanding enough to give him a second chance, to allow him to talk him into running for President, to put him in charge of running the campaign, and then to make him Chief of Staff. Leo knows how much he owes to Jed's loyalty and friendship, and it's only natural for him to "pay it forward," so to speak, especially with someone else who had to deal with an alcoholic, possibly abusive father. Leo and Karen Larson are kindred spirits, in some ways - they reacted differently to the influences of alcoholism in their early lives, but both were shaped by it. Leo sees this in her, and that's why he decides to give her another chance, just like Jed did for him.

• That said ... not only will Larson have a tough time around her co-workers back in the office, as I said previously, but how will Josh and Sam and Toby react? They are so fiercely loyal to Leo, as we've seen. Now that they found the leaker who caused so much trouble and heartache for Leo and then ran her out of the White House - now Leo lets her stay? Is this the face of a man who is going to take that decision very happily?

• A continuity issue, which can happen with fast-moving long-lasting TV series: Leo tells Larson he hasn't had a drink in six and a half years, since he went to rehab in 1993. SPOILER ALERT: We are going to find out in Bartlet For America in Season 3 that Leo had a relapse in October 1998, the night of Bartlet's third Presidential debate in St. Louis. Naturally, Sorkin hadn't conceived the story for Bartlet For America at the time he wrote Leo's dialogue with Larson for this episode, but in retrospect it does make Leo, well, a liar, since he didn't admit to Larson that he fell off the wagon during the campaign. It's a tough thing to hang Sorkin for, but them's the facts.

As always, dear reader, thanks for coming along on this journey of my West Wing rewatch! I'd be happy to hear from you - comments, corrections, concerns, or shoutouts, let 'em fly. The next episode title is a retread of this one; from Take Out The Trash Day to Take This Sabbath Day. What, were they conserving the word budget or something?

Take Out The Trash Day - TWW S1E13

Original airdate: January 26, 2000

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (12)

Directed by: Ken Olin (1)

Synopsis

• The President is about to sign a hate crimes bill, but there are concerns about one of the guests invited to the bill signing. Josh and Sam are trying to hold off a Congressional investigation into Leo's past substance abuse. A leak about a Vice President's advance man using a Navy helicopter turns out to be much more significant. Meanwhile, a report about the effectiveness of sex education methods is raising eyebrows, Toby goes to bat for appointees to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Zoey's Georgetown sociology professor is making waves, an Alabama town wants to abolish all laws except for the Ten Commandments, and the President is dealing with a banana issue.

"Karen, what you did caused a lot of problems. For me, for the President, for a lot of people we don't even know. But I'm not sure it wasn't a little bit brave."

There is a lot going on this week at the White House. A lot. And most of it is going to be dumped on the media on Friday afternoon, as a way to dilute the coverage and have attention dissipate over the weekend - it's Take Out The Trash day.

Donna: "So why do you do it on Friday?"

Josh: "Cause no one reads the paper on Saturday."

Donna: "You guys are real populists, aren't you?" 

Let's dig in. First off, President Bartlet is going to sign a hate-crimes bill (outside, in February, much to the consternation of the press corps) inspired by the murder of Minnesota teen Lowell Lydell, who was beaten to death with rocks by other teenagers because he was gay (a story that unfolded during In Excelsis Deo back in December). Lydell's parents, Jonathan and Jennifer, have been invited to the signing ceremony, but Mandy is concerned about Mr. Lydell's reticence. She's afraid he might be embarrassed by his son's homosexuality, and as the DNC media flack, the last thing she wants is controversy over that in the Rose Garden to take attention away from the bill signing. CJ is assigned to "audition" the Lydells when they arrive in Washington.

To her credit, CJ is aghast at the notion the father might not be supportive of justice for his son (she repeats, "But his son just died" many, many times as she's trying to figure it out). Not only Danny but Leo and President Bartlet steer her towards Mandy's point of view, that the relationship between fathers and sons might indeed be fractured if the son happens to be gay.

Then the interview happens. CJ gets to the point, asking Mr. Lydell if he might have issues with his son's sexuality, and Mr. Lydell unloads:

Lydell: "I don't understand how this President, who I voted for, I don't understand how he can take such a completely weak-ass position on gay rights. Gays in the military, same-sex marriage, gay adoption, boards of education - where the hell is he? I want to know what quality necessary to being a parent the President feels my son lacked. I want to know from this President, who has served not one day in uniform - I had two tours in Vietnam - I want to know what quality necessary to being a soldier this President feels my son lacked.

Lady, I'm not embarrassed that my son was gay. My government is."

Two things here: It's great to realize how far we've come in the area of equal rights for gay people since 2000. Heck, even Barack Obama wasn't able to come out in favor of same-sex marriage until after his election ten years ago, as fears were the electorate wasn't going to support those views at the time. Now same-sex marriage is legal across the land, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is gone. It's not all sunshine and roses, of course, but tremendous progress has been made.

The other thing is, Mandy is really, really terrible at her job. We keep being told how valuable she was during the campaign, and how in demand she is as a media consultant, but damn - she can't read people at all. Mr. Lydell is kind of quiet and won't speak up (because he doesn't think the administration is progressive enough), and she immediately jumps to "He must be embarrassed that his son's gay - I gotta tell the President this!". Not to mention the poor FBI negotiator she talked the President into sending (who then got shot) in The State Dinner. Wowzer.

This whole sequence of events leads CJ to question the administration's stance. She has a testy exchange with President Bartlet (not about the Lydells or gay rights, but you know it's on her mind) and then tries to leak the story to Danny:

CJ: "If you call Mr. and Mrs. Lydell in St. Paul and ask them why -"

Danny: "Don't."

CJ: "Look -"

Danny: "Don't leak me a story."

CJ: "I wasn't."

Danny: "I've seen this look on the face of four other press secretaries before you. You've got a story in the trash this week that's a story - you want it out there and someone's said no."

CJ: "They're all stories this week."

Danny: "That happens sometimes."

CJ: "Four other press secretaries and you never took a free lead?"

Danny: "I always took a free lead."

CJ: "Then -?"

Danny: "Not from you."

CJ: "Why?"

Danny: "Cause 20 minutes from now you're going to remember you're a professional and you're not going to like me anymore."

CJ: (pause) "What makes you think I like you now?"

Danny: "I don't know. But as long as you keep grabbing me and kissing me, what the hell do I care."

Meanwhile, Josh and Sam are called to Capitol Hill to talk with Representative Bruno, who is considering holding hearings into Josh's "investigation" of White House staffers following Rep. Lillienfield's accusations of widespread drug use (The Short List). Of course, everyone knows the real target is Leo, and his prior drug and alcohol rehab in 1993 (only publicly disclosed in the last episode, He Shall, From Time To Time ...). Bruno has some serious leverage, as he leads the subcommittee responsible for the White House budget.

Luckily, the administration has a bit of leverage as well, in a report on sex education that concludes abstinence-only education is ineffective, and in fact leads to worse outcomes in teen sexual behavior than something called abstinence-plus (or as Sam calls it, "everything but"). The Republicans in Congress don't want this report out before the midterm elections in November, plus they are trying to make a deal where funding for 100,000 new teachers is dependent on an "abstinence-only" requirement. Josh, Sam, and the President agree to the deal - they'll put the sex ed report in a drawer until after the midterms, and Bruno won't call hearings over drug use in the White House.

The sex ed report, or at least the material included in it, is mostly played for laughs, even while its existence proves to be a key element in the Leo/Congressional hearings storyline. Aaron Sorkin goes for the funny with this conversation (even though the idea of Mrs. Landingham asking to see a report the President is reading doesn't ring true at all):

Mrs. Landingham: "Would you like to share what's in that report, sir?"

President: "With you?"

Mrs. Landingham: "Yes, sir."

President: "No."

Mrs Landingham: "May I ask why not, sir?"

President: "Because I'd rather not be in therapy for the rest of my life."

Then there's the tale of the Vice President's advance man, Chad Margrudien. Danny (and other members of the press) are on to the story that he took a Navy helicopter to Pebble Beach to set up a visit by Vice President Hoynes, then made the helicopter wait while he played a round of golf. It turns out the women in the West Wing may have located the source of the leak, as they are seen here discussing it:

Margaret, Cathy (who we hadn't seen in a while), Carol, Ginger, and Donna, getting chastised by Mrs. Landingham for gossiping and causing Josh to comment, "Well - here's a group of federal employees." Anyway, Donna has the scoop, and goes to Josh and Sam with the word that Karen Larson is the likely source of the Margrudian leak.

Josh and Sam quickly figure out there's more to it than that. Larson previously worked in Hoyne's Public Affairs office, but was transferred to White House Personnel when she developed a crush on the VP. Being in Personnel, she had access to the files of everyone who works in the West Wing - including Leo. Sam calls her in and asks her point-blank if she's the one who gave Leo's file to Claypool, and she admits it. Naturally, she's immediately fired.

But Leo ... well, Leo is a man of deep introspection and thoughtful compassion. He calls Larson into his office on her way out the door, as she's carrying the box of her personal items. Their conversation is a brilliant insight into Leo's addictions, his acceptance of them, and his understanding of Larson's initial abhorrence of a drug addict and alcoholic in a position of such importance. And then - he gives her her job back! While this seems totally in character for Leo, in this particular instance, can you imagine what's awaiting Larson back in the Personnel office? Everyone knows what she's done, everyone we've seen holds a tremendous amount of respect and loyalty to Leo and the President - how is she going to keep working in that environment?

Toby is dealing with Congress holding up appointments to the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which he happily wades into (as he's a loyal viewer of Julia Child and Brideshead Revisited). His best moment of this story is his correction of the congressional aide talking about merchandising of Big Bird and "Fuzzy Bear" toys - "It's Fozzie Bear, not 'Fuzzy Bear'!" he says bitingly.

Sam keeps talking about an Alabama town that wants to abolish all laws except for the Ten Commandments, which brings up all sorts of logical problems:

Sam: "Cathy, there is a small town in Alabama that wants to pass a law saying if I don't honor my father I go to jail. What do you think about that?"

Cathy; "How do they know if you're honoring your father or not?"

Sam: "Yeah, I think they've overlooked that problem."

And there's a minor problem with Zoey's sociology professor at Georgetown, who is apparently espousing some radical ideas, and the Georgetown student newspaper is about to print a story about the First Daughter being in this class.

The overarching tone of this episode is anger. Everybody is angry, it seems: Leo gets angry at his old friend Simon Blye, when he realizes Blye is using his situation to reestablish Blye's reputation as a media op-ed voice and party bigshot. Leo then throws Blye right out of his office; Congressman Bruno gets angry at Josh and Sam, telling them they messed up the entire Leo rehab situation (saying this is what we get with "teenagers" in the White House); Sam gets seethingly furious at Karen Larson when she admits giving the files to Claypool; Mr. Lydell is angry at the President for his weak inaction on gay rights; even CJ and President Bartlet have an uncomfortably tense talk in the Oval Office over the sex ed report (although for CJ, she's not really angry about the report, she's still on unsteady ground over the administration's gay rights position).

But anger doesn't necessarily lead to a bad outcome. It's clear these are people who feel comfortable being open with each other (although CJ can't quite come to say what she means to the President, I mean ... it's the President. Although she does get to tell him, "We could all be better teachers," and he agrees). Leo's anger at his old friend actually leads him to give Larson a second chance; Lydell's questioning fury motivates CJ in a couple of ways - too bad it doesn't seem to do anything for Mandy, but she's just soulless, I guess.

What begins as a crass, cynical way to treat stories you don't want to be given attention develops into a deep self-examination by CJ and Leo and Larson, at least. Take out the trash? This trash ends up being thought-provoking and having real meaning, at least for those in this West Wing. For the public? Maybe not so much. As we hear in the back steps of the briefing room:

Danny: "If there's a story, I'll find it."

CJ: "No, you won't."

Danny: "How do you know?"

CJ: "Cause we've gotten very good at this." 

Tales Of Interest!

- The 15 pens to hand out/13 letters in Josiah Bartlet was a hoot. Just the sort of thing the Washington Post readers of Danny Concannon expect. It also led to a nice little acting moment by Melissa Fitzgerald:

CJ: "Carol? Dotting the 'I's, crossing the 'T's, thank you for that."

Carol: "We do our homework."

CJ: "You misspelled 'Senator.'"

Fitzgerald's little disappointed shoulder-sag there was priceless.

- The "trash" terminology gets mentioned five times, at least. Josh explains it to Donna; Toby tells CJ to put the story about Zoey's sociology professor's radical views out with the trash; Danny mentions the Friday trash dump a couple of times; and President Bartlet tells CJ they can deal with the non-release of the sex ed report by throwing it in with the trash.

- Speaking of Zoey, we know she's enrolled for the spring term at Georgetown now, since she's taking sociology and all.

- This episode was directed by Ken Olin, who may be best known as an actor (thirtysomething) but has transitioned into a successful directing career. He did some nice stuff - I particularly liked the camera movement and cuts around the characters during the talk between Josh, Sam, and Bruno. However, when Josh and Sam are first sitting down at Bruno's desk, Sam is holding his hand in what looks to be an odd position on the desk:

See that? He has the fingertips of his left hand on the edge of the desk. It doesn't look natural at all. I wonder if it's a continuity thing, because perhaps they first filmed the scenes from the side, facing Bruno, and Lowe (or his stand-in) had a hand on the desk from that angle:

So when they filmed facing Lowe and Whitford, they had to have the hand on the desk to match that? I dunno. Just a thought.

Quotes    

(President Bartlet is discussing a banana import issue with Leo.)

President: "I don't want to spend a whole day talking about bananas. Good morning, Nancy, good morning, Mrs. Landingham."

Mrs. Landingham: "Good morning, Mr. President. Did you say you wanted a banana?"

President: "No."

Mrs. Landingham: "Nancy, run and get the President a banana."

President: "I really don't want a banana."

Nancy: "Are you sure, sir?"

President: "Yes, thank you."

Mrs. Landingham: "They've got lots of potassium."

President: "I'm done talking to you now."

(Much later in the episode)

President: "Mrs. Landingham - "

Mrs. Landingham: "Yes, sir?"

President: "You're not going to believe this, but I think I'd actually like a banana."

Mrs. Landingham: "I'm afraid not, sir, no."

President: "Why not?"

Mrs. Landingham: "You were offered one earlier, sir, and you were snippy."

President: "I wasn't snippy!"

Mrs. Landingham: "I'm afraid you were, Mr. President."

-----

Donna (talking about the Karen Larson rumor): "She said she would, in her heart. You know how many things I've been wrong about in my heart?"

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

• Bobbi the reporter is back. She was in the first three episodes, then her appearances started to taper off. We hadn't seen her since In Excelsis Deo.

• As mentioned earlier, Sam's assistant Cathy has also returned. She's been missing for a few episodes.

• The Lowell Lydell murder story occurred during the episode In Excelsis Deo, which was the spur for the hate-crimes legislation being signed by President Bartlet here. That's an amazing turnaround for a bill, less than two months. Also, the Lydell plotline was inspired by the real-life murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998.

• We get a distant view of Gail's fishbowl, so we can't really see what's in it. It just looks like some tall trees, maybe.

• Congressman Bruno is played by well-known character actor James Handy, who I remember best from The Verdict (but he's appeared in many, many movies and TV series, including Alias and NYPD Blue).

• I've been meaning to mention this for a while, but I think it's kind of cool that President Bartlet has a collection of blown glass balls on the presidential desk. They don't seem to have any special significance, and attention is never called to them. It's just a personal little detail that makes the world seem real and lived in - unlike the Trumpian desk that's apparently always empty.

• Karen Larson is played by Liza Weil. Even though Leo gives her her job back, we don't see her again in The West Wing. Maybe that's because she moves to Stars Hollow to go to school with Rory Gilmore (Gilmore Girls) before coming back to DC to try to set up President Fitz Grant in a sex scandal (and then getting killed) (Scandal), then is resurrected and goes to Philadelphia to work for attorney and law professor Annalise Keaton (How To Get Away With Murder).

DC location shots    

• Once again, there are no on-location scenes in this episode.

References to real people    

• Toby mentions Julia Child in his defense of public broadcasting, along with programs such as Sesame Street, Brideshead Revisited, Wall Street Week, and Live From Lincoln Center, not to mention the Muppets and Fozzie Bear (a congressional aide mentions Big Bird).

• Jesse Jackson can be seen on the TV in Leo's office. It appears to be an episode of Crossfire on CNN, as you can also see Crossfire co-hosts Tucker Carlson and Bill Press.

• Some product placement: While reading the sex ed report in her office, CJ has a can of "Diet Cola" (which is an obviously re-branded Diet Coke can), and when Toby comes in to talk to her, he fidgets with a tin of Altoids that was on her table.

End credits freeze frame: CJ and Danny with their flirtatious face-off in the press room.