The Portland Trip - TWW S2E7

Original airdate: November 15, 2000

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (28)
Story by: Paul Redford (4)

Directed by: Paris Barclay (1)

Synopsis

• As the President takes a late-night cross-country flight on Air Force 1, he finds himself having to make decisions on an oil tanker evading sanctions in the Persian Gulf and whether or not to sign a bill restricting same-sex marriage rights. Sam struggles with crafting an education policy speech. Donna has a date cut short by Josh's work demands, and CJ has to pay the price for disrepecting Notre Dame on the eve of their game against Michigan.

"A long flight across the night? You know why late flights are good? Because we cease to be earthbound and burdened with practicality. Ask the impertinent question. Talk about the idea nobody has thought about yet. Put it a different way."

"Be poets."

If you're asking me, this isn't the strongest episode of The West Wing. Particularly when you're comparing it to the overall excellent first season (as well as what's coming ahead in the tremendous Season 2), it's fine. It's okay. I did like some of the policy debates, the back and forth about the Marriage Recognition Act and the bold education move voiced by Charlie, as well as the dilemma over the oil tanker and sanctions - but in general, it just seems like this episode ... fills time. Donna's date, Sam's writing struggles, CJ's hassles with the press and the drafts, Ainsley doing ... what exactly is Ainsley doing in this episode, besides describing a part of the Constitution that Josh should know perfectly well himself (heck, even Donna brings up "full faith and credit" like it's no big thing)? It all just feels like busy work to give everybody a couple of scenes and make Allison Janney look goofy in a Fighting Irish cap.

Perhaps it suffers by being part of such a great overall series, I don't know. This isn't really one that's going to stick with you, I don't think.

For the second episode in a row, the administration is finding itself trying to play catch-up with events. An oil tanker suspected of evading sanctions has been intercepted in the Persian Gulf, giving the President an opportunity to gripe over the fact that the fine against the oil company hardly makes a dent in the profits they'll realize from sale of the oil. Congress has sent the Marriage Recognition Act, a bill Bartlet clearly despises, to the White House for his signature. He and his staff struggle over what to do - should he veto the bill, only to have Congress override? With the Senate out of session and 10 days elapsing since passage of the bill, should he take no action (a "pocket veto") and force Congress to re-pass the bill in January? Or should he sign it, since it's clear it's going to become law in any event? And Sam is struggling with writing a speech on education, failing to find a soaring voice for a policy that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Let's start with Sam, because to be honest, this plotline seems to be quite the rebuke to Season 1's Let Bartlet Be Bartlet, where the President and the entire senior staff pledged to forge ahead with bold initiatives and do what was right for the country, optics and polls be damned. Sam is so unhappy with the speech he's penned for the President to deliver in Portland that he asks CJ to recover the drafts issued to the press corps. He's looking for something inspiring, something bold, and thinks maybe even the right turn of phrase could bring about a change in policy:

Sam: "Can't great oratory inspire an idea that can be implemented?"

But when he looks to Toby for support, he finds cold comfort there:

Sam: "Toby, you're the one for the last six months who's been saying we need a radical approach -"

Toby: "Yes, yes I have, and I got shouted down in every meeting! I'd love to write a speech about a radical new approach to education, but we don't have one!"

Sam's inspiration eventually comes from a chance doodle that Charlie writes on a notepad, "Send them to college," and the idea of funding college tuition for 100,000 students in exchange for three years of teaching in the public schools comes into focus:

Charlie: "The government will send you to college or law school or medical school if you spend three years in the armed forces. Why not -"

Sam: "College tuition to anyone who wants to go to college, in exchange for they teach in a public school where we send them for three years."

Toby's still not on board ("Where are getting the money?") and the speech eventually is written without a bold change in policy - but Toby does finally talk to the President about perhaps putting together a pilot program with 100 teachers to start, rather than the full 100,000. So, a baby step in a "bold initiative" - not exactly what we thought we'd be getting after Let Bartlet Be Bartlet.

A similar struggle comes with the Marriage Recognition Act. This bill federally defines marriage as between a man and a woman, restricting the rights of same-sex couples and cutting their access to federal government programs, survivor benefits, Medicare, and the like. Even though states would be free to allow same-sex marriage, without federal recognition these unions would not be seen as valid outside that state (Ainsley covers some of that Constitutional issue in a discussion with Josh and Donna in this episode). The bill passed Congress with large, veto-proof majorities in both the House and the Senate, and is awaiting the President's signature to become law. He's not happy about the prospect:

President: "We shouldn't be defining love, and we certainly shouldn't be ill-defining it."

His instinct is to bring out the veto stamp and send it back to Congress. Josh and Leo talk him down from that, saying such a move would energize conservative opposition to the Bartlet administration and perhaps hurt them in other areas, such as an employment non-discrimination act they are working towards. They decide to go with the pocket veto option, knowing the bill will be coming back to the White House in January.

This is another example of Bartlet being pushed into a corner by a Republican Congress (not the first nor the last time we're going to see that), and at least this time his instinct is to fight back, rather than try to mollify his opponents for political gain. It takes Josh to remind him the outcome of this bill is going to be the same no matter what he does, so perhaps using the extra time (and lessened antagonism) of the pocket veto gives them time to work towards civil rights in other areas.

This plotline also includes a long conversation between Josh and Rep. Matt Skinner, a fellow we've seen before but now discover he's a Republican, he strongly supports this bill ... and he's gay. Josh is basically baffled at how a gay man can be so passionately on the side of restricting the rights of same-sex couples, and how he can vote along with those in his party who compare homosexuality to kleptomania or sex addiction, but Skinner describes his personal support of Republican/conservative issues in general:

Skinner: "My life doesn't have to be about being a homosexual. It doesn't have to be entirely about that."

He shoots down the notion of single-issue partisanship, even though one would think this to be a quite significant single-issue for him. We do get to see him sternly shrug off a back pat from a fellow Republican legislator congratulating him for "winning" the debate with Josh.

The oil tanker storyline is another area where Bartlet wants to go in a radical direction, but he's held back here by Leo (shades of A Proportional Response!). Even though the American military is finally successful in boarding the tanker and testing the oil for its origin, even if it's discovered to be illegally obtained any fine for the oil company would be a literal drop in the bucket of their profits. The President makes a push towards bold action:

President: "I think we should confiscate the ship, seize the cargo, sell the oil and use the money to beef up anti-smuggling operations."

Which is immediately drenched in cold water by Leo:

Leo:  "You don't mean tonight. You mean in the future ..."

So education, same-sex marriage rights, sanctions with real pain attached - the President and the administration want to move in a radical direction with all three subjects, but end up doing very little with any of them. Small advances, perhaps - and maybe that's what Aaron Sorkin is trying to show us, that even progressive, liberal, intelligent politicians with great power sometimes have to move slowly and take what they can get at first.

I want to mention Donna, cause she's awesome, and she's got on a heck of a dress.

Even as awesome as that dress is, though, both Josh and Leo have the typical manly cluelessness to ask if she'd been wearing that all day:

Leo: "You weren't wearing that dress earlier today, were you?"

Donna: "You guys are sharp as tacks, you know that?"

She's got a date on this Friday night, but unfortunately (and as usual), Josh is there to destroy her plans:

Donna: "I have an excellent sense about these things."

Josh: "Actually, you have no sense about these things. You have no vibe, you have terrible taste in men, and your desire to be coupled up will always and forever drown out any small sense of self or self-worth that you may have." 

Josh "graciously" allows her to go on her date, but demands she be back at the office shortly to help handle things after his meeting with Rep. Skinner. This turns into an even more callous move, because that meeting lasts long past the time Donna returns to the White House. Does Josh really need Donna to help him take care of whatever work he might have on his plate later that night? Or is he trying to sabotage her personal life? Why not both? Some of Josh's machinations (coupled with Donna's disastrous date with an insurance industry lobbyist) get into Donna's head and even move her to chat with Ainsley, in an attempt to convince herself that they don't look alike:

Donna: "Have you ever thought about dyeing your hair red?"

Ainsley: "No."

Donna: "You should."

Ainsley: "Why?"

Donna: "It'd look good."

[...]

Donna: "I think it's because of the alabaster skin and the farm girl looks that ..."

Ainsley: "You're wigging out, Donna." 

The ongoing subtext of what's-going-on-with-these-two gets played up a little here. First, when Donna comes back from her date and finds Josh in the mess to tell him, Josh's attention is entirely on her, not on Skinner, as he watches her through the windows walking back to the office. Later, as they're preparing to leave for the night, they exchange looks:

"You look really great in that dress tonight, Donna."

 

I mean, it's clear these two have kind of an unspoken thing for each other (just see their faces when Donna reads the note Josh wrote in her gift in In Excelsis Deo), but 1) it's a supervisor-employee work relationship, which makes this kind of creepy, and 2) Josh is really not that nice to Donna most of the time. So it's kind of an emotionally abusive relationship in some ways. Don't get me wrong, the acting of Bradley Whitford and Janel Moloney is terrific in this area over the entire series, and it gets better eventually, but hoo boy, there are some issues here.

I suppose the fact that the themes of this episode are so similar to that of the previous one, and the underlying frustrations of the President and his staff making mind-numbingly slow headway on the issues they're dealing with, might have something to do with my lack of enthusiasm for this chapter. It's only a little speedbump in the generally exhilarating Season 2. So onward we go, flying through the night, looking for soaring oratory ...


Tales Of Interest!

- There's an interesting issue with how time works (again) in this episode. CJ tells the press on the bus that Air Force 1 will be "wheels up" at 9:05 pm, arriving in Portland just before midnight local time (that would be almost 3:00 am Eastern time). That works out to just under six hours in the air, which is what nonstop flights to Portland from Dulles or Washington National should take, so that's accurate. However, everybody (even the press) appears to stay awake all through the five-plus hour flight; also, when we're told that Air Force 1 is 82 miles from the Portland runway (so about 20 minutes or so from landing), we see a clock on the wall behind Josh and Donna indicating it's 10:10 in DC. That's barely an hour after Air Force 1 took off! So somehow, the events in Washington take place over an hour or so (which fits the narrative of Donna cutting short her date, and the other Congressmen waiting in the lobby for Rep. Skinner to finish talking with Josh), even while simultaneously Air Force 1 is in the air for almost six hours. It's weird. It's wacky. It violates the space-time continuum.

In fact, upon further review we discover the clocks in the West Wing must have stopped. This is what we see at the beginning of the episode, before Donna heads out on her date. The clock highlighted here is showing DC time, and indicates 10:10.

Then as I mentioned above, towards the end of the episode (Donna has returned, she's talked to Ainsley, Ainsley has come upstairs, Josh has finished his long discussion with Rep. Skinner, and Air Force 1 is about to land in Portland), we see that same clock still reads 10:10.

I brought up the continuity challenges of clocks in my post about The White House Pro-Am, and boy, oh boy, here's another example.

- We can figure out this episode takes place on a Friday night into Saturday morning, as we are told the Notre Dame/Michigan football game is the following day (and college football games are played on Saturdays). It turns out Notre Dame and Michigan didn't actually face each other in 2000; they had played in 1999 and would again in 2002. Another non-reality-based item is the fact that by November, Michigan would be into their Big Ten conference schedule, and therefore unable to play a non-conference opponent like Notre Dame. In real life, their games are typically early in the season, in September (perhaps in The West Wing universe Notre Dame is actually a member of the Big Ten?).

- We see many of the staffers wearing hexagonal red lapel pins. CJ has one on her coat boarding the aircraft, which she later wears on her jacket:

Toby has one:

Also Carol, Charlie, and a Secret Service agent:

The two guys talking with the President about subways and pavement, Steve and Mike, also are wearing pins, but they're not the same as the ones we see elsewhere:

It turns out these are most likely indicators to help the Secret Service know which individuals have been cleared to be close to the President on trips. Interestingly, it appears Sam doesn't wear one (at least I wasn't able to spot one on his jacket hanging on the chair while he's working on the speech).

- We know Toby has continued to wear his wedding ring, even after we discovered in Mandatory Minimums that he's been divorced for some time. This episode brings us the delivery of divorce papers to Leo (after his wife left him in Five Votes Down), but he's (perhaps not surprisingly) still wearing his wedding ring.

- Just an oddity to catch in the background and viewed in the context of being almost 20 years into the future, but it's nostalgic to see the full-screen graphic of CNN promoting itself as being "on the World Wide Web"!

- The air traffic navigation stuff, some of which I know a little about: The on-screen graphics describing a named "vector" and a "jet route" are at least partially based in fact.

The "vector" stuff with a name is nonsense, as far as I know (I've never heard of it), but jet routes are indeed like highways in the sky used for guidance between ground-based navigational aids. In the world of 2019, aircraft mostly fly by GPS and can travel more directly between their departure point and their destination, but in 2000 it would have been more common for pilots to tune in radio beacons on the ground and use them as waypoints on their filed route across the country. The specific jet routes named aren't completely accurate; while J151 does indeed pass right over Rapid City, South Dakota -

- the routes listed over Wheeling, West Virginia (J23) and Casper, Wyoming (J60) do not appear to exist in those places (I scanned the IFR High Altitude charts for the US and couldn't find J23 anywhere - it must exist somewhere, but I couldn't find it; J60 begins at the Sparta VOR in northern New Jersey, then crosses the nation, passing over Cleveland, ironically just south of South Bend and the University of Notre Dame, Omaha, and Denver before ending at Los Angeles). Also, while many airports have named STARs (Standard Terminal Arrival Procedures), at least currently there's no such thing as a Bonneville 3 arrival at Portland International Airport. Was there in 2000? Maybe. Things have changed over the past 20 years.

(Also, while Rapid City is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, they aren't really mountainous, which is certainly the impression we get from the visual. In fact, I doubt even the Rocky Mountains would look quite like this from 38,000 feet.)

- Another thing only a pilot or air traffic controller would notice - Col. Beecham announces from the flight deck that they've been cleared to climb to 42,000 feet. That's not actually an available assigned altitude, at least not in 2000. Aircraft above 41,000 feet (or Flight Level 410) at that time required 2000 feet of vertical separation, rather than the 1000 feet required at lower altitudes, so the next assignable altitude above FL410 would have been FL430, or 43,000 feet. Now, given that there's usually plenty of space around Air Force 1, and that there isn't a lot of traffic above FL400 anyway, and that it's the middle of the night, and there's "choppy winds" reported, might the pilot have requested and been given FL420? Maaaaaybe - but I doubt it.

- This is Paris Barclay's first time directing for The West Wing (he'll direct a couple more episodes in upcoming seasons), and I found some of his choices quite interesting. One scene aboard Air Force 1 with the President, Sam, Toby, and CJ kept energy and attention as the camera kept moving slightly as it cut from character to character, keeping that feeling of motion and flight. Josh's late phone call to the President had his end of the call filmed through the glass in his outer office, which I thought was pretty neat.

Quotes    

Leo: "What's with the fan?"

Ainsley: "I just went and got it from my apartment."

Leo: "It's 17 degrees outside."

Ainsley: "Then I should move my desk outside, because it's 103 in my office."

Leo: "The heat's not working?"

Ainsley: "No, the heat's working great, I can vouch for that personally." 

-----

Sam: "Oratory should raise your heart rate. Oratory should blow the doors off the place. We should be talking about not being satisfied with past solutions, we should be talking about a permanent revolution."

-----

Toby: "Still, I think we'll stay away from quoting Communists."

Sam: "You think a Communist never wrote an elegant phrase?"

Toby: "Sam - "

Sam: "How do you think they got everyone to be Communists?" 

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

• Congressman Skinner (Charley Lang) was first seen fighting against changes to the census in Mr. Willis Of Ohio, and later congratulating Leo on passage of the banking bill in Enemies. We do find out for certain he's a Republican here - it really wasn't clear to me in his previous two appearances.

• Remember Congressman Bruno, who grilled Sam and Josh about Leo's drug use (and called them "teenagers") in Take Out The Trash Day? Leo mentions talking to "Bruno and Hess," although it's in the context of the oil tanker possibly evading sanctions in the Persian Gulf. I'm not sure why the chairman of the House subcommittee on appropriations for the White House budget would be involved in that call, but who knows.

• The Air Force officer in the Situation Room helping Leo deal with the oil tanker situation is played by David Graf, who you've probably seen in a lot of things but is best-known for his role as Tackleberry in the Police Academy movies.

• The President asks to have secretaries Hutchinson and Berryhill informed regarding the oil tanker situation. They were both mentioned in A Proportional Response (although Berryhill wasn't explicitly referred to as a "Secretary" in that episode), with it being implied that Hutchinson might be Secretary of Defense and Berryhill has some connection with the State Department.

• Sam's difficulty in finding his writing groove was seen earlier in Enemies.

DC location shots    

• The outdoor airport scenes featuring Air Force 1 in Season 1 were filmed at Dulles Airport, outside Washington, DC, using a Virgin Airlines Boeing 747 that was digitally turned into the Air Force 1 design scheme. I do not know if the opening scene of this episode was similarly filmed at Dulles. It certainly could have been, but I'm not positive.

They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    

• We've heard the University of Notre Dame mentioned several times, as Martin Sheen insisted the character of Jed Bartlet had to be a Notre Dame graduate (and here we find out Danny went to school there as well). Other universities referred to here are Michigan, Harvard, Yale, and Williams. 

• At the airport, when the President insists CJ put on the Notre Dame cap, she says she's wearing Max Mara (the coat, I would imagine, although she keeps the cap on through most of the episode and her outfit is quite stylish) and the cap would "break up the line" of the fashion.

• Ernesto Perez Balladeres (a former president of Panama) is named by the President as a fellow Notre Dame alumnus. CJ responds with Joe Garagiola - while the famous Joe Garagiola Sr. (baseball player and broadcaster) never went to college, his son Joe Garagiola Jr. (baseball executive) did indeed graduate from Notre Dame. One wouldn't think CJ would know about the general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, but perhaps she conflated the two Joes in her mind.

• There's lots of news channel talking heads on background TV screens in this episode. Easily identifiable are CNN reporters Wolf Blitzer, Bernard Shaw, Judy Woodruff, and Bill Hemmer. There's also a prominent CNN logo seen several times. In addition we can see the PBS News Hour and anchor Jim Lehrer. 

• Speaking of people on background TV screens, this sure looks very much like footage of former Mississippi Senator Trent Lott on the TV in Leo's office (well, current Senator at the time).

• Sam, that old Communist, says Red Chinese leader Mao Zedong used the phrase "permanent revolution" in his "Little Red Book." In reality, that phrase appears to be most associated with Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, and its unclear if Mao ever used the term at all.

• Josh brings up Constitutional scholar Laurence Tribe in his debate with Rep. Skinner over the Marriage Recognition Act. That fictional bill is based on the real-life Defense of Marriage Act, signed into law by President Clinton in 1996 (after passing Congress by veto-proof majorities) and struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013.

• Product placement (and there's a lot of it in this episode) Josh and Ainsley are both clearly using Dell laptops, while Sam and Toby continue to use their Mac Powerbooks; Toby orders Jack Daniel's whiskey with his club sandwich on board Air Force 1; Ainsley is upset that the White House mess doesn't have Fresca; speaking of the mess, there's A.1 Steak Sauce, Tabasco, and Grey Poupon mustard on the tables; Josh gets Samuel Adams beer for himself and Heineken for Rep. Skinner. 

End credits freeze frame: Leo greeting the Presidential limo at the airport.

The Lame Duck Congress - TWW S2E6

Original airdate: November 8, 2000

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (27)
Story by: Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. (7)

Directed by: Jeremy Kagan (1)

Synopsis

• Facing stiff opposition in the new Congress that will take office in a few weeks, the administration considers calling back the Senate for a lame-duck session to ratify a nuclear test-ban treaty. A Ukrainian legislator roams the West Wing attempting to meet with the President. Ainsley's gambit of rewriting Sam's briefing paper to reverse his stance sparks a conversation and a change of heart, causing her to realize everybody's voice can truly be heard in this White House. Donna tries to raise awareness about carpal tunnel syndrome.

"It seems to me that more and more we've come to expect less and less from each other. And I think that should change."

Every so often The West Wing brings us an episode illustrating how, no matter how smart or prepared or quick-witted people are, sometimes the rush of events just proves too overwhelming. That sometimes, it's not enough to have a plan or a bunch of intelligent folks on your side - you just aren't able to stay ahead of the tide, and the best you can do is cope with the outcome. Last season's The State Dinner was a great example. This episode is another, although with a little twist.

The staffers get excited about the possibility of having President Bartlet call the Senate back into session in order to ratify a nuclear weapons test-ban treaty. One of the newly elected incoming Senators has made it clear he'll sink the treaty once he's sworn in, so the administration thinks they might have a better shot at getting the treaty ratified by using the President's constitutional authority and calling back the old Congress. It turns out, though, that not even all the votes the White House thought they had on their side are still there: A principled lame-duck Senator from Pennsylvania points out he'll abstain (to honor his constituents' wishes on his way out the door) rather than vote in favor of a treaty he personally had been working to advance for four years.

Meanwhile a member of the Ukrainian parliament, Vasily Konanov, has arrived at the White House, ostensibly to meet with some low-level staffers about something or other. However, his real goal is to get some face time with President Bartlet. Even though the West Wing staff is prepared (they think) to handle his visit and keep him away from any kind of contact with high-level staff, he ends up running into practically everybody from Josh and Toby on down, while being shuttled from office to office as he drunkenly refuses to leave until he meets the President. Leo has to come up with a brazen plan to have Bartlet "accidentally" walk in on Konanov and give him the "meeting" he demands ("When I was Labor Secretary we did it with the Dalai Lama," Leo tells Josh).

And then there's Donna's quest to get workplace protections enforced for the White House staff. She has statistics galore about carpal tunnel syndrome and other repetitive stress injuries, and even gets the other assistants to follow Leo's satirical advice ("Type slower") - which just gets Leo mad at Margaret as she hunts-and-pecks her way through a memo.

(By the way, check out the new, bigger pictures! Yes, it took me just 47 blog posts before I realized I actually have some control over how big the pictures are displayed. Internet wizard, I am.)

That effort falls flat when Donna is told that workplace rules passed and enforced throughout the country don't apply to White House or Congressional employees anyway.

Let's not forget CJ and Danny (Danny's back!). CJ wants to deny Danny access to the President for a series of articles, on the surface because she's peeved at the Washington Post for ongoing editorials critical of the administration. But is there something deeper, more personal behind CJ's attitude toward Danny? She kind of blows him off right away at the opening press briefing (Danny: "Has the President considered ordering a lame-duck session so the current Senate can vote on the treaty?" CJ: "Okay, anyone but Danny?"), and later starts to chew him out as he tries to follow up and she's trying to leak the story:

Danny: "I don't work for the editorial staff."

CJ: "Well, that's convenient."

Danny: "Yeah."

CJ: "You expect me to do nothing about it?"

Danny: "What are you going to do, cancel your subscription?"

CJ: "Look -"

Danny: "Slap me around?"

CJ: "Any reason I can't do both?"

You can play that attitude as being purely about the Post's attacks on the White House, but later in the episode we learn the President (who is totally fine with talking to Danny, by the way) has heard things about possible personal connections between the two:

President: "He's a great reporter, and you're a great press secretary. And that's why it was never going to work while the two of you had those jobs."

(In case you're just joining the party, Danny and CJ have been sweet on each other for a while. He gave CJ her goldfish and got a peck on the cheek in return in The Short List, they actually had dinner together on Christmas Eve in In Excelsis Deo, then CJ gave him a big ol' smooch in He Shall, From Time To Time ... in order to "get past it," which she really didn't. But it's clear to any outside observer that a romantic attachment between the White House Press Secretary and the correspondent from the Washington Post would make things rather untenable for the other reporters in the briefing room. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled episode -)

And then we discover CJ knew an editorial position had opened up at the Post, a spot that could remove Danny from the press briefing room and create some space to allow a romantic relationship to develop. And Danny decided not to go after that position, choosing instead to remain on the White House beat. He doesn't think that should stop any relationship, but CJ knows better:

Danny: "CJ. I have no problem with a reporter dating the press secretary."

CJ: "Well, I have a problem, so ..."

And that's how that turn of events sweeps CJ's personal life up and out of her control.

So where's the twist? Well, it comes with our newest member of the team, Ainsley Hayes. Leo, reacting to outside criticism about misuse of the President's time, demands the staff give him a two-page summary of things they want to bring to the President's attention, a restriction that doesn't go over well:

Josh: "A two-page summary's gonna kind of cramp our style."

Leo: "Your style could use a little cramping."

Sam has a position paper about fraud awareness for small business owners, but he doesn't have time to boil it down to two pages. At Josh and Toby's urging, he brings on Ainsley to write the summary for him. She does so, but in the process she totally reverses the position Sam held, arguing that business owners should be given tools to root out fraud and theft by their employees.

And then something kind of magical happens. First Sam rants about the change, going immediately to partisan motives for Ainsley:

Sam: "I can't believe I'm listening to a Republican tell me the government should run background checks and impede business. In fact, I can't believe I'm listening to a Republican. Could it possibly be that most of the people you want to fingerprint have darker skin than you?"

But after just one line of explanation by Ainsley, Sam realizes she may have a point - much to Ainsley's surprise:

Sam: "You -  Listen, I ... you know, I can't. (pause) All right. Start from the beginning."

Ainsley: "Really?"

Sam: "Yeah."

And just like that, Sam changes his opinion because of Ainsley's argument, and that's the plan he ends taking to the President. Ainsley is still gobsmacked:

Ainsley: "I don't understand."

Sam: "You don't understand what?"

Ainsley: "What just happened."

Sam: "Leo said yes, we're in."

Ainsley: "I don't understand."

Sam: "Leo said yes, that's the end of the meeting."

Ainsley: "I was just talking, Sam, I was just talking to you."

Sam: "Well, we play with live ammo around here. You convinced me, I convinced Leo, Leo'll convince the President."

[...]

Ainsley: "You've got to tell me when that's going to happen. Is this how you guys decide to go to war?"

Sam: "I don't know. I'm not usually in the room when they decide that."

This leads to a sweet moment outside Sam's office, where Ainsley gazes at the flurry of activity with government employees on the move, carrying papers, talking through issues - and when we remember her comment from the previous episode about how she's "worshipped" the White House, you realize she sees this place does make a difference, it can have an effect on the nation, and these folks are wise enough to be convinced to change their stance when given a decent argument. It's the one thing in the episode that counters the theme of being overwhelmed by events.

The episode ends on a nice, quiet note, after President Bartlet heads to the residence for the evening. An attendant turns off the lights in the Oval Office, one by one, as the day draws to a close and everyone takes a breath, preparing to face what challenges and unexpected twists they might face tomorrow.


Tales Of Interest!

- The entire plotline of the President calling Congress back into session seems a bit quaint and outdated given our current political situation. In the past, Congress would typically adjourn following the elections, then re-convene the new Congress on January 3. During the time the Senate is in recess (generally for more than three days), the President has the right to name interim appointees to positions normally requiring Senate confirmation. With the increasing acrimony between the branches of government over the past decade or so, though, Congress has essentially kept itself in session almost nonstop, preventing such Presidential appointments from happening. The events of this episode could only have happened with Congress in recess following the midterm elections, which really doesn't happen all that much any more (the outgoing 115th Congress basically stayed in session up until at least Christmas 2018).

- We discover 12 Senators (out of approximately 33 up for election) lost their seats in the midterm elections.

- We get a look at the President's daily schedule: We can see "JOG" at 7 am, followed by a meeting with Leo between 8 and 8:15, the Council of Economic Advisors from 8:30 to 9, and the Secretaries of Education and Housing Development from 9 to 9:45. Then there's a briefing in the Roosevelt Room at 10:00.

- Josh has a new trick: Jumping to touch the top of the door frame when he leaves Leo's office. Here he is doing it after the group leaves the morning meeting (he's in the background behind Sam and Toby):

And here he is doing it as he leaves Leo's office after discussing Konanov meeting the President:

- Gail's fishbowl has the Capitol building in it; fitting for a plotline about calling the Senate back into session.

- It's quick and easy to miss, but there's a little callback Aaron Sorkin wrote in to the latter part of the episode. At the beginning, Leo takes the staff to task for wasting the President's time and not keeping to the posted schedule. Later, we see Konanov being delivered to Josh's office with an on-screen timestamp of 4:35 pm. After that happens, Josh goes to talk to Leo. After that, he meets up with Donna, who tells him, "You've got your four o'clock (meeting)." It's got to be 5:00 pm or later by this time - proving the point of the staff failing to keep to schedules.

- The timeline, again! Senator Marino tells Toby he's still Senator for 10 more weeks. The new Congress (at least in our real-life timeline) takes office on January 3 every two years. If you go back 10 weeks from January 3, you're in the last week of October - which is before the election even happens. Sorkin might have been thinking of presidential inaugurations, which are January 20 - but even then, 10 weeks before that date take you just about to Election Day. Since we know (from The Midterms) that Election Day in this universe was November 7, and the events in this episode happen quite some time after that date (Josh is up and around and jumping at door frames, while he was still recuperating from surgery at home during the election), the 10-week reference makes absolutely no sense.


Quotes    

Josh: " ... And Republicans find the word 'ergonomics' to be silly." 

Donna: "If we backed off everything because of words Republicans find silly we'd have a lot of pregnant teenagers and no health care."

Josh: "We do have a lot of pregnant teenagers and no health care." 

-----

Sam: "I don't need your help. I'm asking for your help so let's not make a federal -"

Ainsley (into phone): "Dad, it's me. Sam's asking for my help."

Sam: "Put the phone down."

Ainsley (into phone): "Gotta go, Dad, I need to help Sam."

Sam: "That must have rolled them in the aisles back in Georgia."

Ainsley: "I'm from North Carolina."

Sam: "Wherever it was you studied baton twirling."

Ainsley: "That'd be Harvard Law School." 

-----

Leo (to Josh, after seeing Margaret slow down her typing at Donna's suggestion): "Can you keep your people in line?"

Josh: "Well, there's been no evidence of that so far." 

-----

Donna (after Josh tells her to meet with Konanov only so the President can 'accidentally' drop by): "I'm being used?"

Josh: "Yes."

Donna: "As a dupe?"

Josh: "Yes."

Donna: "And how am I supposed to feel about that?"

Josh: "How do you usually feel about that?"

Donna: "Josh!"

Josh: "Donna."

Donna: "My value here is that I have no value."

Josh: "You have enormous value to me. You have no value to eastern Europe." 

-----

Danny: "Hey, CJ."

CJ: "Hey, nimrod."

Danny: "Look, I leaked your damn story for you."

CJ: "You leaked it for me, I leaked it to you, pal. I used you like so much ... whatever."

Danny: "Well put." 

-----

President: "I'll tell you what I will do, though, I'm canceling our subscription."

CJ: "Excellent, sir. The White House buys 1100 copies of the Post everyday. Canceling that subscription would send a message loud and clear."

President: "No, I meant just mine and Abbey's. I'll borrow a copy from somebody."

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

• The actor playing Bob Fowler in the meeting with Toby looked kind of familiar to me; it's David Kaufman, who had a major role in the 1980s TV series Down To Earth and also had some recurring roles on ER, Presidio Med, and The Mentalist. Most of his credits, though, are for voice work.

• Two of the Senate staffers talking to Sam and Ainsley are familiar faces. Brian Stepanek (on the left) is seen everywhere on TV, including Young Sheldon, The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and dozens (if not hundreds) of commercials. Wayne Wilderson (right) I recognize from The Office, but he's also known for Seinfeld, The Steve Harvey Show, CSI, and Veep.
• 
  

• Senator Tony Marino is played by Mike Starr (EZ Streets, Ed TV series, Dumb and Dumber). He's had a long acting career, often playing tough guys or Mob types.
• 
  

• Josh has moved his desk. In past episodes we saw it was flush up against the wall to the left of the doorway. Now it has been moved more to the center of the room, allowing people to walk around both sides of it.

• President Bartlet again has his Dayton Flyers mug. As pointed out before, Martin Sheen is a Dayton native.

• We have a Laurie reference! Remember Sam's call girl/friend/law student/rescue project from Season 1? Sam and Josh remember:

Josh: "He's sitting in the car with a woman who I imagine is either a security attache or a hooker."

Sam: "Please tell me it's not -"

Josh: "It's no one you know, Sam." 

• Why does Josh seem so surprised at Leo's plan to have the President "accidentally" bump into Konanov? He's literally seen that exact scenario play out before - in his own office! - with Joey Lucas back in Take This Sabbath Day: 

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

President (appears around the corner of the doorway): "Hey, Josh." 

• It's becoming clear Dewar's Scotch (on the rocks) must be a favorite drink of Sorkin's. The very first line we heard in Pilot was a bartender calling out an order including "another Dewar's, rocks." In "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" when President Bartlet is being examined by Dr. Tolliver, and the doctor says he needs to cut down on his Scotch intake, he calls out, "Two Dewar's on the rocks, Mrs. Landingham." Lo and behold, in this episode when Senator Marino sits down with Toby, what does he order? Dewar's, rocks.

• President Bartlet tells Danny "I have an election to win in two years, and I'm not about to alienate the Washington Post." Later this season we're going to find out that re-election might not exactly have been the plan for Jed.

• President Bartlet invites Toby up to the residence to play chess. We learned in Five Votes Down that the President doesn't play golf, but he does like chess.

DC location shots    

• There are no location shots (that I'm aware of) in this episode. There is one scene in a restaurant and one in a bar, but I doubt they were filmed in DC.

They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    

• CJ says, "The 106th Congress is adjourned." The real-life 106th Congress was in session at the time of this episode, from January 1999 to January 2001. 

• The ratification of a nuclear test ban treaty was actually a pretty fresh subject in the fall of 2000. Just over a year prior, in October, 1999, the real-life Senate voted no on ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty (signed in 1996).

• The MSNBC show Hardball (with Chris Matthews) is mentioned. We also see CJ's press conference being telecast on C-SPAN, and a couple of background shots show CNN's Wolf Blitzer onscreen.

• President Bartlet makes a comment about "Barnum Bailey and his sister Sue." There is no "Barnum Bailey" - however the Barnum & Bailey Circus came into being in 1881, later merging with Ringling Brothers Circus in 1919 to become Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows.

• Leo mentions the Dalai Lama and having the President meet him during his time as Secretary of Labor in the mid-1990s; Toby also brings up Indira Gandhi, former prime minister of India.

• Josh scoffingly refers to Donna as "Norma Rae," a 1979 movie starring Sally Field as a union organizer at a textile factory. For another literary reference, Toby mentions Dr. Zhivago, the title character in a 1957 novel by Boris Pasternak, later played by Omar Sharif in a 1965 film.  

• Toby says the Irish statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke believed a representative owes not just his industry but his judgement, and betrays the voter if he sacrifices his judgement to theirs; making the argument that Senator Marino, for example, should have voted the way he felt was right rather than follow the wishes of his constituents. (He's pretty close - the exact quote is "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.") Of course, President Bartlet responds with,"Yeah, and then he was voted out of office five years later by the people of Bristol."   

End credits freeze frame: The morning staff meeting, with everyone talking over one another.

And It's Surely To Their Credit - TWW S2E5

Original airdate: November 1, 2000

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (26)
Story by: Kevin Falls (1) & Laura Glasser (1)

Directed by: Christopher Misiano (3)

Synopsis

• Ainsley gets some pushback from White House staffers about her new appointment, including from the White House Counsel himself. CJ pushes back against a retiring Army general planning to go out criticizing the administration on TV. Sam tries to convince Josh to push back against white supremacists and the KKK by bringing a civil suit over the Rosslyn shooting. And Jed and Abbey push the schedule to try to carve out a little "personal time."

"He says it's the one about duty."
"They're all about duty."

What a rough first day for Ainsley Hayes. Not only does she have an uncomfortable first meeting with her (angry, bellowing, cricket-bat-wielding) boss, it happens at the same time he learns the President has foisted her onto his staff; plus, it turns out he doesn't know his Gilbert and Sullivan nearly as well as he thinks he does. Her office is deep in the bowels of the White House, a place even Leo has never been before (the Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue, to be accurate). Then, after going to the Capitol to mollify Congressional Republicans over some, shall we say, inaccurate testimony by a couple of low-level White House staffers, those same staffers take her polite, well-meaning advice and treat her like garbage. And then, Sam (who already suspects Ainsley might be a mole, leaking White House information to the Republicans) chews her out and nearly makes her cry all because she took initiative and tried to help out those jerkish staffers - the same staffers who leave a dead plant with the note "BITCH" in her office.

Welcome to the Bartlet administration, Ainsley! All those things you thought about Democrats being smug and superior and personally rude - looks like they proved you right!

That first paragraph pretty much sums up the Ainsley plotline of this episode, as she starts her first day as Associate White House Counsel and discovers the folks in the White House are not quite ready to adapt to a smart, blonde, female Republican in their midst. It's a tidy way to illustrate the growing Democratic/Republican divide of the late 1990s, and it's clever of Aaron Sorkin to make Ainsley the "enemy" of our heroes, as it really doesn't take long for Emily Procter's performance to make us (the audience) root for her. Leo's fatherly presence and support don't hurt, either (the connections between Ainsley's struggle with joining the administration and Leo's struggles with alcoholism are nicely drawn, even if in reality they're wildly not equivalent).

But all is not lost. Once Sam (who has traveled all the way down to the steam pipe venue to apologize for being a jerk himself) sees the dead flowers and the note, and Ainsley's reaction, he quickly figures out it's the two staffers she talked to earlier who are behind it. And then we find out the Deputy Director of Communications apparently has the power to fire low-level staffers, as Steve Joyce and Mark Brookline discover (well, Sam has that power as long as he signs the note, and as long as the White House Counsel happens to be standing behind him).

Ainsley's second day starts out much better, as Toby, Josh, Sam, and CJ all surprise her by decorating her office with Gilbert and Sullivan posters and singing "He Is An Englishman" as she makes her way down the stairs to work on a Saturday morning. With live flowers this time! It's a touching way to wrap up the episode, particularly given the initial reaction the staff had to Ainsley's hiring:

CJ: "Have you noticed that I'm one of the few people around here whose nose isn't bent out of shape over Ainsley Hayes?"

Toby: "Yeah. Listen -"

CJ: "I'm serious!"

Toby: "Well, you heard the news and you slammed the door so hard it broke. Okay. You heard the news and you broke the White House." 

Let's be sure to mention the wonderful John Larroquette, seen here as White House Counsel Lionel Tribbey. His first door-slamming entrance, brandishing his cricket bat and threatening to kill Joyce and Brookline for their incorrect testimony in front of a Congressional committee, is a great moment in West Wing history.

It's just too bad scheduling difficulties prevented Larroquette from returning to the role later (a terrific actor, with four Emmy awards from his time on Night Court and two more as a guest star on The Practice). The position of White House Counsel becomes extremely important later this season, and we'll discover by then there's a new person in the post (perhaps Tribbey ended up in prison after all?):

President (after being interrupted while recording his radio address): "Obviously, Lionel Tribbey is a brilliant lawyer whom we cannot live without ... or there would be very little reason not to put him in prison."

(Also, I'm sure you remember in He Shall, From Time To Time ... President Bartlet had his Secretary of Agriculture, Roger Tribby, be the Cabinet member left in the White House during the State of the Union address. What it is with this President and guys named Tribby/Tribbey?)

Other plotlines: CJ discovers that the retiring Army Chief of Staff, General Ed Barrie, has plans to go on multiple TV political talk shows to attack President Bartlet for his position on military spending and readiness. She goes on the counterattack, first dressing down an aide whom Barrie sends in his place, then face-to-face threatening to expose the general for wearing a medal he didn't actually earn should he follow through on his plans to go on TV. CJ makes a great stand here defending the President, although I really doubt the White House press secretary would be the one to personally take on a three-star general - there's a discussion with Toby early in the episode (overtly referring to Ainsley) about the difficulty of women earning respect in the political arena, and CJ's straight backbone and fearlessness when she's facing down Barrie (even as he calls her "kitten" and scoffs at her administration's point of view) is a fantastic callback to that.

Josh is faced with a $50,000 hospital bill for his treatment after the Rosslyn shooting, as the insurance company is denying the out-of-network hospital claims as well as making the point his (emergency, life-saving) treatment wasn't preauthorized. Sam comes up with the notion of a civil suit against the groups behind the shooting, essentially going after the Ku Klux Klan for monetary damages. Josh eventually decides not to go that route, but some of the real-life cases Sam refer to spur some really interesting background to the tactic of going after hate groups' money.

And Abbey's back, and she's ready for some Presidential action! When she brings the message to the Oval Office that Jed is medically cleared to have sex (after his recovery from the shooting), he's ready and raring to go:

(Jed brings Abbey into the Oval Office and closes the door before Mrs. Landingham can follow)

Abbey: "Blood pressure 120 over 80."

Jed: "Who cares? It's been 14 weeks! Do these curtains close?"

Abbey: "Not here, Jed!"

Jed: "Yes, you're right. Where?"

Abbey: "How about our bedroom?"

Jed: "New Hampshire is an hour and a half away by plane. I don't think I have that kind of time."

Abbey: "How about our bedroom in the residence?"

Jed: "Yes! We have a bedroom right here in the building. That was so smart!"

Of course, matters of government get in the way, including Jed's attempt(s) to record the weekly Presidential radio address and Abbey's trip to Pennsylvania to dedicate a statue of Nellie Bly, but by evening it looks like it will all work out (with Abbey ready to put on her "special garment") - until Jed, like a typical man, derails the whole thing by offhandedly dismissing the importance of Bly and women's impact on history in general.

Jed: "You don't have to accept every invitation from every yahoo historical society that knows someone in the Social Office. If you want, I can have Charlie -" 

(turns and sees Abbey staring him down)

Jed: "You haven't changed into the 'special garment.'"

Martial relations will have to wait.

As will the radio address, which sees the President going through about two dozen takes on Friday in an attempt to record the message for broadcast on Saturday morning. He ends up doing it live from his desk, after rewriting the speech to focus on the accomplishments of American women, heralded or not. That topic has the desired effect on Abbey, as well as softening the President to tell CJ to let General Barrie "out of the box," and let him state his case on TV.

President: "Say what you want about Barrie, and I could say plenty, but the man was the first one in and the last one out of a war that I didn't want anything to do with. Man's earned the right to say whatever he wants."

We can think back to The Crackpots And These Women to see Sorkin's early try at lifting up the women of The West Wing and giving them a voice. I don't think that particular attempt was very good in that aspect, but this episode is a much better effort. Ainsley doggedly keeps after her job to serve the nation, trying to create her place in a cold and rudely disappointing White House that she has worshiped from afar, and finally is able to gain some respect and friendship from fellow co-workers who don't agree with her political opinions; CJ makes a principled stand to defend her boss and the administration against what she views as unfair criticism, and holds firm in the face of condescension and vitriol from a general; and the President himself comes around to publicly honor the women who made their mark in American history and deserve to have more attention paid. It's actually a pretty good female-empowerment theme in this episode (even if Jed might be thinking more with his pants than with his brain), and I really think it's put together well.


Tales Of Interest!

- So the President has apparently never heard of "leaf peeping," the activity of people taking trips to view the fall foliage. President Bartlet. Native of New Hampshire, and formerly congressman and governor of that state. New Hampshire, a New England state where fall leaf-related tourism is the state's second-largest economic driver. Huh.

- Sam looks to be a bit of a space exploration fan (if you remember The Crackpots and These Women, he was the one who talked to the UFO guy). His computer screensaver appears to be NASA photographs.

- Gail's fishbowl features a bed (which is where Jed and Abbey are trying to get throughout the course of the day) and perhaps an additional goldfish (hubba, hubba).

- While it truly is a touching moment when the staffers hide out in Ainsley's office to surprise her with the posters and the Gilbert & Sullivan music on Saturday morning ... Toby, Josh, Sam and CJ had to have been waiting in total darkness for her. Ainsley turned on the lights at the top of the stairs, then turned on the lights when she entered her office - which has no windows or any other access to light. True, they may have turned off the office lights just when Ainsley reached the top of the stairs, so it wouldn't have been that long, but they would have had to turn on the music and sing "He Is An Englishman" in pitch darkness.


Quotes    

Josh: "There's fifty thousand dollars worth of hospital bills they're saying they don't cover. You know what that means?"

Sam: "You may have to get yourself a job mowing lawns after school." 

-----

President: "Five is my lucky number. 'Fifth-take Bartlet,' that's what Jack Warner used to call me."

Donna: "Did you really know Jack Warner, Mr. President?"

President: "Yeah, because I used to be a contract player in Hollywood and I'm 97 years old."

-----

Ainsley: "It's not gonna be fine. He's gonna yell, and scream - I've seen him on TV."

Leo: "Well, that's TV, he's making a full-throated defense of the President, that's what we do. Believe me, in real life, when the cameras are off -"

Tribbey (banging through the door carrying a cricket bat): Leo! I. Will. Kill people, Leo!"  

-----

Ainsley: "I'd like to do well on this, my first assignment, any advice you could give me that might point me the way of success would be, by me, appreciated."

Tribbey: "Well, not speaking in iambic pentameter might be a step in the right direction."

-----

President: "I was on a conference call with Cardinal Law and the Archbishop of Chicago."

Abbey: "You couldn't get off the phone?"

President: "Yeah. 'Excuse me, Your Eminence, but the First Lady is a little randy and she says I'm good to go.'"

Abbey: "I am a little randy, Jed."

President: "Good. Take your clothes off."

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

• When Toby tells CJ about General Barrie's plans to appear on TV over the weekend, he says Sam got the news from Mark Gottfried. That's the host of Capital Beat whom we met in the previous episode. (Speaking of that TV show, in Pilot we saw the clip of Josh and Mary Marsh that clearly showed the title as Capitol Beat, with an O. In the previous episode, with Sam appearing on-air with Ainsley, the show is now clearly titled Capital Beat, with an A. Hmm.)

• On Josh's blackboard in his office, usually covered with notes about members of Congress and upcoming legislation, we see a note about "Donna's Birthday." Whether that's Donna's way of reminding Josh about it or Josh's reminder to himself, we've seen there's real heart in the relationship between these two (perhaps most pointedly in In Excelsis Deo), and that's something that's going to continue to build.

• When Abbey is talking to Jed about working out a common free hour in their schedules, she says "You talk to Charlie, I'll talk to Lilli." We saw Lilli Mays as Abbey's chief of staff in The White House Pro-Am. 

• The last couple of episodes we've seen photos of Abbey, Zoey, and perhaps another family or wedding picture on the President's desk. We know the Bartlets have at least one other daughter (a granddaughter is mentioned in Pilot) and we'll eventually learn they have three daughters in all. Apparently only Zoey makes the desk lineup.

• Shall we talk timeline again? A little? Okay, it's obviously fall (the President's radio address specifically mentions autumn, time for "leaf-peeping" and football). It also was fall in the previous episode, where Sam mentioned winning a Redskins bet and "SNOW" appearing on Leo's computer monitor. We saw in The Midterms that as of November 7, Josh still wasn't back at work. He's obviously back now, and has been for only two episodes, so these events would have had to occur after November 7 ... isn't that a little late for "leaf-peeping"? Jed also says "It's been fourteen weeks" since he's been able to have sex, once again placing the shooting somewhere around early August ... you probably don't want me to go over the timeline inconsistencies between What Kind Of Day Has It Been and The Midterms again, do you?

• Another timeline item, but this one checks out. When Toby is telling CJ she's a beautiful woman that no one assumes is ambitious or stupid, she tells him, "It took two years." If you consider President Bartlet took office in January of 1999, and this is late 2000, that works out about right. 

• Remember Donnie, the Secret Service agent who can't remember if Jed's code name is "Eagle" or "Liberty"? We haven't seen him for a while, but there he is, outside the President's bedroom.

DC location shots    

• There are no location shots in this episode.

They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    

• President Bartlet mentions old-time Hollywood studio head Jack Warner, one of the founders of Warner Brothers, which happened to be the studio that produced The West Wing.

• In Toby's discussion with CJ over General Barrie he refers to Meet The Press, Sam and Cokie, and Late Edition. The general himself later says he'll tell his story to Tim Russert, who was the moderator of Meet The Press at the time. 

• Toby mentions "Captain Queeg," referring to General Barrie. Queeg is a character in The Caine Mutiny, a book by Herman Wouk later turned into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart as Queeg.

• We see former CNN personality Jack Cafferty on the TV when Abbey comes into Mrs. Landingham's/Charlie's office.

• A lot of notable women are mentioned in this episode:

- Elizabeth Windsor (Queen Elizabeth II), who gave Tribbey his cricket bat

- Nellie Bly, pioneering investigative journalist and traveler. While she really is from Cochran's Mill, Pennsylvania, there doesn't appear to be a statue of her there, but there is an historical marker.

- Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States

- Belva Lockwood, first woman to argue before the Supreme Court

- Ellen Swallow Richards, pioneering chemist

- Maria Mitchell, astronomer and comet discoverer  

- And Jed could go on, and on, and on, and on. 

• Just before Jed blows things with Abbey on Friday night when he disrepects Nellie Bly, he says he was on the phone with Cardinal Law (Bernard Law, Archbishop of Boston and elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1985. This episode aired mere months before the Cardinal was first named as a defendant in the coverup of child abuse by priests, which developed into the investigation seen in the movie Spotlight). He later brings up Jules Verne after Abbey says Bly beat the "fictional" record of crossing the globe in 80 days.

• We see a Pepsi can, logo very evident, on Josh's desk. Later we'll see some Office Depot boxes in Ainsley's office.

• Gilbert and Sullivan operettas are featured, with Ainsley, Tribbey and Sam all shown to be fans (Sam was recording secretary of the Princeton Gilbert & Sullivan Society - for 2 years! - which I don't believe is an actual Princeton University group, although the school does have some rare items related to Gilbert & Sullivan works in its library). Specifically mentioned are the operettas The Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore, and Iolanthe. Aaron Sorkin's soft spot for Gilbert & Sullivan has been mentioned in the past.

• As Sam is discussing the background materials he could use in Josh's lawsuit against the KKK, he mentions the book Hunter by William Pierce. That's an actual book, which advocates for the murder of interracial couples. He also brings up the very real legal cases Brown v. Invisible Empire, Vietnamese Fishermen's Association v Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and Donald v United Klans of America.  These were all brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center, also mentioned by Sam as a group wanting to take Josh's case. He also touches on the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

• General Barrie lists some of the conflicts he's been involved in, including Vietnam, Grenada, Haiti, and Iraqi-occupied Kuwait, all of which are real-life US military operations.

• The President has a Notre Dame mug on his desk when he's delivering his radio address live.

End credits freeze frame: The senior staffers welcoming Ainsley to her office on Saturday morning.