Original airdate: November 29, 2000
Written by: Kevin Falls (2) and Aaron Sorkin (30)
Directed by: Alex Graves (3)
Synopsis
- Crises abound as a fire breaks out in a Russian missile silo, trouble with a NASA probe headed to Mars could scuttle a live White House TV broadcast, the Icelandic ambassador is upset at being snubbed, a proposed stamp might energize the Puerto Rican statehood movement, and the President's dislike of green beans threatens to anger Oregon farmers. Plus, an embarrassed Sam has to face Mallory, and CJ talks about her sex life.
*You said it right that time."
Exploration versus safety; risk versus reward; taking the leap versus playing it safe. It's not a stretch to say that sums up a lot of this episode of The West Wing (well, and the series as a whole, to be honest - but the plots line right up here in another neat, tidy Season 2 package).
The Galileo V Mars probe, of course, is the obvious example of exploration and discovery, even in the face of huge obstacles. We also get to see that Jed is a pretty big nerd - we noticed earlier that Sam has a thing for NASA and space exploration, thanks to his computer screen savers, but here we find out the President is just as excited about the topic. He can quote facts and figures about Mars right off the top of his head while criticizing CJ for not saying "Galileo Five" with the proper energy and reverence, exasperating her to no end:
CJ: "Nobody likes a know-it-all."
President: "Yes, God forbid that while talking to 60,000 public school students, the President should appear smart."
CJ: "That's fine. Just don't show off."
President: "I don't show off."
(Later, after CJ corrects him on the temperature ranges on Mars)
President: "I converted it to Celsius in my head."
Plus, we get the Sam/Jed doubleteam on NASA Public Affairs flack Scott Tate, who writes some of the stiffest and most redundant copy in the entire universe:
Yes, that's "very unique" and "extremely historic" right there on the teleprompter (CJ: "While we're at it, do we have to use the word 'live' twice in the first two sentences like we just cracked the technology?"). Of course, we've known all along that Sam, at least, is a top-rate word nerd in addition to the sciencey-nerdishness we're coming to love from him and the President.
(Although wordsmith Sam, in correcting Tate's cludgy copy, comes up with "You, me, and 60,000 of your fellow students ... are going to be the first to see what it sees" when that obviously should be "You, I, and 60,000 of your fellow students ...")
Anyway, the nerdish excitement of the President over the Mars mission and the upcoming live television discussion with schoolchildren spreads throughout the White House - and that builds us up to a crash of emotions when NASA loses contact with the probe before it lands. President Bartlet, who had been looking for a broader theme for the TV discussion in the first place, considers scrapping it altogether until CJ convinces him there's a golden opportunity (and that broader theme!) in going ahead with the telecast even if the mission was unsuccessful:
CJ: "We have, at our disposal, a captive audience of schoolchildren. Some of them don't go to the blackboard and raise their hand cause they think they're going to be wrong. I think you should say to those kids, you think you get it wrong sometimes, you should come down here and see how the big boys do it ... Some of them will laugh, and most of them won't care, but for some, they might honestly see that it's about going to the blackboard and raising your hand."
Nerds to the rescue!
On the foreign affairs front, intelligence reports show a fire has broken out in a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile silo. The Russian government claims it's an oil refinery, but they can't escape American spy satellite photographs (by the way, are those something Leo would actually show the Russian ambassador? For national security capability purposes?). President Bartlet wonders why the Russians won't ask for help, but when intelligence reaches him that the fire was started by deserting soldiers draining the fuel in order to sell the warhead on the black market, he's angered at the loose safety procedures in place for Russian nuclear weapons ("You guys fall asleep at the switch in Minsk, and I've got a whole hemisphere hiding under the bed."). He uses the threat of exposing the laxity of Russian control of their nuclear warheads as leverage to get NATO inspectors into the country, but he continues to question why the Russian government is holding fast in refusing all offers of help:
President: "I really don't know from where you guys get the nerve."
Ambassador: "From a long, hard winter, Mr. President."
The President also has to deal with self-inflicted problems with Iceland. He earlier blew off a meeting with the Icelandic ambassador, which Leo points out could hurt efforts to keep the Atlantic nation from defying the international ban on whale hunting. What's the fix? Why, the Reykjavik Symphony Orchestra happens to be performing at the Kennedy Center this very evening, and if the President attends along with the Icelandic delegation, the offense will be forgiven and the whales can continue to swim in peace - even if it dashes Jed's evening plans of reading up on Mars. At least it means Jed can force CJ and Sam to come along as well, as he wants them to work on that broader theme for the Mars telecast.
And that brings us to a Mallory callback. Mallory, Leo's daughter, first met Sam back in Pilot when he hilariously spilled to her the story of how he discovered he'd spent the previous night with a call girl. They seemed to be developing kind of a thing; she invited herself along to a Georgetown bar as part of a group with Sam, Josh, Charlie, Zoey, and CJ (Mr. Willis of Ohio), they almost went on a date to the opera before Sam got deeply involved in writing a birthday message (Enemies), she kissed him after finding out he wrote a passionate defense of her father (He Shall, From Time To Time ...), and then she fiercely debated Sam's position paper on school vouchers before discovering he only wrote it as opposition research and they were actually on the same side all along (Six Meetings Before Lunch). After that she pretty much disappeared, until now. Sam is stricken when he finds out she'll also be at the symphony, since after the "scandal" broke of photographs of him with call girl Laurie (Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics) he never called or spoke to Mallory. Of course she's miffed (although she's now dating a hockey player and they're "having lots of sex"), but that magic Sam nerdiness comes to the rescue again. Much like the his writing in defense of her father or his true opinions on school vouchers, his lofty defense of space exploration as the very essence of what makes us humankind softened her attitude tremendously. She's not leaving the hockey player, though, but at least she's not quite as mad at Sam.
CJ has her own problems with the symphony trip. She recently interviewed several public affairs applicants to fill the post of deputy press secretary, which included a number of State Department staffers, and most of them are going to be at the Kennedy Center as well. She encounters Tad Whitney, one of the interviewees whom she turned down for the job, and we find out the two had a relationship about five years ago. Whitney threatens to spread a story that CJ turned him down for the job because he broke up with her (which wasn't because, he assures her, that she was bad in bed - "I'm great in bed," the self-assured CJ loudly responds). She's having none of it, and not even a stray tree branch can fluster her as she brushes off Whitney's threat like so much dust.
Meanwhile, the citizen commission tasked with determining the subjects of upcoming postage stamps has recommended Marcus Aquino, a Korean War hero and former Puerto Rico resident commissioner. Trouble is, he was also one of the strongest advocates of statehood for Puerto Rico, and Leo, Josh, and Toby are concerned that putting Aquino on a stamp might imply the administration is in favor of statehood - which is somewhere they really don't want to go at the moment. Donna and Josh hash out the subject over the course of the episode (a couple of points; Aquino is a fictional character, created for this story, and the White House actually has no control or say in what goes on postage stamps, that's all up to the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee).
And the green bean story - news has gotten out in the press that the President doesn't like green beans, and Toby and CJ are concerned because that could cause an electoral problem; Bartlet won Oregon by fewer than 10,000 votes in 1998, and with that state being a major producer of green beans, backlash by green bean farmers might cost them the state in the 2002 election. So CJ is working to spin that and curry favor with the farmers, perhaps a photo opportunity of the President enjoying a plate of green beans ...
But remember our theme? Risk over reward, going forward instead of playing defense? We've got that with all these storylines: The NASA telecast for the schoolchildren will go ahead even if the Galileo mission failed, because getting back up to try again after you fall is an important lesson, too; NATO inspectors are going into Russia over the government's objections, because having poorly paid and poorly led soldiers in charge of nuclear weapons endangers the entire world; the President will go ahead with sitting through an evening of "modern music" performed by the Reykjavik Symphony Orchestra, because protecting whales from hunting is an international good; Sam and CJ will face the fears of what they're going to encounter at the Kennedy Center, because their mission to advance the President's interests is more important. And in the final scene in the Oval Office, CJ covers both the postage stamp issue and GreenBeanGate with her usual aplomb and foresight:
CJ: "He doesn't enjoy them. He doesn't think they're bad for you, and he doesn't think the people who make them are evil. They're simply not his cup of tea. He doesn't care for them. Why don't we think the adults of Oregon will be okay with that if put to them just that way? And Josh, why do you think the people, adult Americans, why do you think they can't understand that we can honor a man's contribution without necessarily subscribing to his politics? They can understand a lot of things. People stopped trusting the government during Vietnam, and it was because government stopped trusting them."
So this episode actually owes a bit of a debt to Let Bartlet Be Bartlet, with the theme of making strong choices, going for the higher goals, and giving the people of the United States some credit for being rational adults who can hold more than one thought in their head at any one time. It's a solid, enjoyable entry in Season 2, with some really, really nice writing and fine direction by Alex Graves.
Tales Of Interest!
- Graves does a great job of directing this episode, with some shots we aren't that used to seeing in The West Wing. There's a wonderful shot with light and darkness at the end of Act I with Mrs. Landingham closing the Oval Office door as Jed talks with Charlie:
I love the long tracking shot (helping to show off the size of the new sets Warner Brothers has built) following Leo and CJ as they walk and talk through the set:
He does another similar long tracking shot with CJ on her phone outside the Kennedy Center. He also mixes things up with a tight closeup of President Bartlet in the Situation Room when he receives the note about losing contact with the Galileo:
The final shot as well, with Jed looking up at the sky saying "Talk to us," with the White House colonnades and the pool of light directly behind him looking like a moon or a planet or some other celestial object:
Just really great directing and photography.
- Leo says the name of the Icelandic ambassador, Vigdis Olafsdottir, telling the President, "He's very excited to meet you." The patronymic name style of Iceland means the last name comes from the father, with -son as the suffix for boys and -dottir for girls. So Vigdis Olafsdottir means Vigdis, daughter of Olaf - and therefore would not be a "he."
- Gail's fishbowl appears to feature a space landing craft and rover on red gravel, signifying Mars (the Red Planet).
- This episode (along with In The Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I) was submitted as part of Allison Janney's nomination for a Supporting Actress Emmy, which she won for the second year in a row. While she does some fine work in this episode ("I'm great in bed"), perhaps the Emmy voters were also swayed by this scene where she turns around with her face smacking into a tree branch:
Quotes
Tate: "Look, I don't want to step on your toes, you don't want to step on mine. We're both writers."
Sam: "Yes, I suppose, if you broaden the definition to those who can spell."
-----
Josh: "Oh, Leo, ask me how long a Martian day is."
Leo: "No, I don't think I will."
-----
Leo (to Josh, who is smirking): "What are you smiling at?"
Josh: "Nothing, I just ... (chuckling) Toby got the stamp assignment."
Toby: "Leo, I might need some help."
Leo: "Take Josh." (exits)
Toby: "Thanks. (to Josh) Congratulations, you're choosing the next stamp." (exits)
Josh (to himself): "Wow, that happened fast."
-----
Donna: "Do you want to do this or not?"
Josh: "I don't."
Donna: "I did index cards."
Josh: "How many?"
Donna: "Eighty-seven."
Josh: "Reduce it to three."
-----
CJ: "I just added a new deputy. Most of the people I interviewed were from State. The Kennedy Center is going to be packed to the Potomac with people I just rejected."
Leo: "So is the bar at the Four Seasons."
-----
Donna: "We have colonized Puerto Rico and they will rise up against us."
Josh: "I think we can take 'em."
Donna: "That's what we said about the British."
Josh (pause): "We took the British."
Donna: "You know what I'm saying."
Josh: "Hardly ever."
-----
Josh: "We think if we hit the ground hard enough, we can make it to the center of the planet and find water?"
Toby: "Yeah."
Josh: "That's not a theory of physics pretty much disproved by Wile E. Coyote?"
-----
Whitney: "Believe me, it wasn't because you were bad in bed or anything like that."
CJ: "No, I didn't think it was, Tad."
Whitney: "I mentioned it because I know a lot of women who worry about that."
CJ: "I don't."
Whitney: "You're good in bed."
CJ: "I'm great in bed."
-----
Sam: "Yeah, she's here. She snuck up on me from behind. You'd think women would make more noise with their big high heels, but they don't. They got this stealth thing going, which I really ought to be clever enough - "
(Mallory appears in the window on the other side of the car. Sam turns and sees her.)
Sam: "Oh my god."
-----
President (to the Russian ambassador): "Your paranoia was a lot sexier back when you guys were Communists."
-----
CJ: "Sir, that leaves us with the televised classroom, the green beans - "
Josh: "The stamp."
CJ: " - the stamp, and depending on who those people were that were standing near me, the possibility of a story about me being good in bed."
(Everyone looks oddly at CJ)
Toby: "Good in bed?"
CJ: "Yes."
Toby: "Why?"
CJ: "Because I am."
Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)
- One of the briefers giving the President intelligence about the Russian missile silo fire is played by John Carroll Lynch, a familiar character actor perhaps best known as Marge Gunderson's husband in Fargo.
- Tad Whitney, CJ's former lover and current State Department spokesman snubbed by CJ for a post in the White House, is played by Colm Feore (Chicago, The Chronicles of Riddick, 24, House of Cards).
- Back in my discussion of In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, Part II you may remember I mentioned how Warner Brothers had built a new West Wing set between seasons 1 and 2, with some things being different (like Sam's office suddenly having windows). Well, Toby's office changed, too. Here's what it looked like next to his door in Season 1:
And here's what it looks like now (he has suddenly gained a window between his office and Sam's):
The producers are rightfully proud of their new set layout, and they really show off more of it in this episode. For instance, while we saw the White House mess (cafeteria) in The Portland Trip (along with a fabulous new Air Force One set), here we get to see Leo, Toby, and Josh walk from the mess, up several flights of stairs, and into a West Wing hallway:
It also appears to me that the relationship of where offices are located (particularly CJ's and Josh's) and the general flow of hallways around the area has changed since Season 1, but I'm not going to try to figure out the floorplans.
- It's worth mentioning the entire "Previously on" segment calls back to the Season 1 storylines of Sam's relationship with Laurie, the photos of them embracing after her law school graduation (Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics), and Mallory's flirtations with Sam. Because that all comes back with Mallory also attending the symphony at the Kennedy Center and running into Sam (maybe with her dad's tickets? Remember how in Enemies she wanted to use Leo's tickets to take Sam to see the Chinese opera at, yep, the Kennedy Center?).
- In What Kind Of Day Has It Been we saw what appeared to be Presidential portraits in the Situation Room, of what seems to be real-life Presidents like Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush (check that blog post to see what I had to say about how that doesn't fit the in-universe line of Presidents leading up to Bartlet). Well, guess what? Here we get a clear view of one of those portraits, and damned if that isn't Bill Clinton right there:
Clinton was actually the real-life President at the time this episode aired (with George W. Bush about to take office less than two months later), and it's difficult to fit him into being President in The West Wing universe. We know (from The Short List) there was a Republican administration between the 1994 election and Bartlet's election in 1998; could Clinton have been elected President in 1990 (or 1986), and be the administration Leo served as Secretary of Labor? Maybe ...
- WHAT'S NEXT MOMENT - The morning whirl of information and scheduling in the Oval Office, when the President calls in Charlie and he says, "Did you need something, sir?" The President replies, "Yes. What's next?"
- And, of course, Sam's soaring oratory to Mallory about how going to Mars is "what's next" on mankind's exploratory timeline: "Cause it's next. For we came out of the cave, and we looked over the hill, and we saw fire. And we crossed the ocean, and we pioneered the West, and we took to the sky. The history of man is hung on the timeline of exploration, and this is what's next."
DC location shots
- The entire sequence of the President attending the Reykjavik Symphony was indeed filmed at the actual Kennedy Center. From the loading dock:
To shots inside the lobby:
To scenes outside the Kennedy Center:
(By the way, that shot of CJ on the phone as she walks out on the terrace is another great example of Graves using a long tracking shot.)
There was a New York Times article in the fall of 2001 about The West Wing that contained this passage: "They try to never mention any president after Eisenhower, and according to a co-executive producer, Kevin Falls, who runs the writers' room [and co-wrote the script for this episode!], 'When we talk about the Kennedy Center on 'West Wing,' we're referring to George Kennedy.'" That's funny, but demonstrably false, as we've had references to "LBJ" (Lyndon Johnson), the USS Kennedy aircraft carrier, and a bust of John F. Kennedy in Leo's office. I think LBJ is the most recent real-life President that's ever mentioned in The West Wing, though.
They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing
- The Mars probe, the Galileo V, is named for the Italian astronomer and engineer Galileo Galilei, whom President Bartlet refers to in his Oval Office discussion with Leo and Charlie. The President also mentions Aristotle.
- EDIT: Noticed upon review, the President asks if Buddy Holly has come back, when Charlie informs him that it's apparently important for him to attend the Reykjavik Symphony concert.
- The Milwaukee Journal gets a shout-out for publishing Charlie's leak about the President's dislike of green beans (although the paper has actually been called the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel since 1995).
- Leo brings up the Four Seasons bar as a place to find a lot of CJ's rejected suitors; kind of a creepy thing for Leo to say, but Janney got her Emmy for this episode, so ...
- Speaking of CJ, she says she's wearing an Armani gown to the symphony performance at the Kennedy Center.
- There's a shot of a binder labeled "Dynachem" in the background of a Josh/Donna conversation. There's a Dynachem chemical manufacturer in Illinois; there's also Dynachem Specialty Chemicals in South Africa. Why there'd be a binder for either of those companies on The West Wing set is unclear. (Also, if that's Bartlet's official Presidential portrait, it seems they could have chosen a more flattering photo than that one).
- CJ brings up Jackson Browne as an example of modern music.
- Donna tries to use the Jewish War Veterans as precedent for her argument that a group with a point of view should get a stamp; Josh is following the real-life story when he bursts her bubble by telling her their request for a stamp was denied.
End credits freeze frame: The staffers update the President on the day's events after his return from the symphony ("This is still my office, right?").
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