The Stackhouse Filibuster - TWW S2E17

Original airdate: March 14, 2001

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (38)
Story by: Pete McCabe (1)

Directed by: Bryan Gordon (1)

Synopsis

• A cranky Senator mounts a surprise filibuster to delay a health care bill, and the flabbergasted staffers spell out their reactions in emails to family members. Sam gets schooled by an intern over eliminating government reports, and CJ realizes she might be cursed by an Egyptian cat goddess whose figurine she broke. In a bit of foreshadowing for the rest of the season, Toby wants to find out why the Vice President is uncharacteristically eager to speak out against the oil industry.

"Tonight I've seen a man with no legs stay standing, Dad, and a guy with no voice keep shouting, and if politics brings out the worst in people then maybe people bring out the best."


"Mr. Vice President, what do you know that I don't?"

Here we go.

The pot was placed on the stove way back in He Shall, From Time To Time ... when we first discovered President Bartlet suffered from multiple sclerosis, a disease he did not disclose to the public during his campaign. In In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, Part I we learned only 15 people knew that secret. In Bartlet's Third State Of The Union and The War At Home the pot began to simmer, as we discovered Jed had made a deal with Abbey - in exchange for not disclosing his condition, he would serve just one term as President. The simmer is coming to a boil now, and the lid is about to blow off as Season 2's final episodes develop into an incredible storytelling arc.

While The Stackhouse Filibuster winds its way to the final act appearing to be a somewhat lighthearted look at a Senate filibuster ruining everyone's weekend plans, that last act - President Bartlet revealing his one-term agreement to Leo and letting us know that the Vice President is one of those 15 people, and Toby's curious digging into Vice President Hoynes' out-of-character attacks on the petroleum industry - turns out to be the key that unlocks the rest of Season 2. And of course, it comes down to Toby. Brilliant, questioning Toby, who knows there's something else hidden behind Hoynes' agreeableness (eagerness, even) to back the administration in a fight against gasoline refiners.

A spokesman for a petroleum producers' group has complained about the administration's support of fuel emissions standards, saying requirements for additives like MTBE are resulting in price hikes for gasoline (the use of MTBE as a gasoline additive has declined greatly since this episode aired, due to the contamination problems involved with the chemical). The administration feels the cost of additives is low, and the oil companies are only using that as an excuse to raise prices at the pumps for more profit. Toby plans to have the Secretary of Energy speak against the oil industry's view, and goes to the Vice President to give him a courtesy heads-up.

Surprisingly, Hoynes volunteers to speak out himself. This strikes Toby as extremely odd - Hoynes is from Texas and has deep ties to the oil industry, which is why Toby was giving him a heads-up in the first place - why is he so eager to call them out? Toby digs a little deeper, and uncovers a poll put out by Hoynes' office that shows Americans are concerned about the Vice President's ties to Big Oil. But why would a Vice President be running a poll like that during a President's first term? It seems like something a presidential campaign might do ...

Toby: "Yeah, but what I was wondering is why did you put the poll in the field at all. (pause) Mr. Vice President, what do you know that I don't?"

Hoynes: "Toby, the total tonnage of what I know that you don't could stun a team of oxen in its tracks."

Meanwhile, as the President finally admits to Leo that he told Abbey he'd only serve one term "because of my thing," he also tells him that's why Hoynes stepped up on the fuel producers' issue. What's left unsaid, and what lets us in on what Toby doesn't know, is that Hoynes is positioning himself to prepare for a presidential campaign of his own, as he believes Bartlet won't be running for a second term.

Then we're left with the sight of Toby bouncing his Spaldeen against the office wall, pondering what Hoynes knows that he doesn't know, trying to figure things out:

Aaron Sorkin does an incredible job of setting up this end of the season arc ... a little thing that doesn't seem like much in the moment ties into the fight we saw between Jed and Abbey in Bartlet's Third State Of The Union and The War At Home, and builds into a torrent of story that takes our breath away by the time we get to Two Cathedrals.

The rest of the episode, in retrospect, almost seems like an afterthought. For one thing, there's an odd storytelling device, with plot elements relayed to us through flashbacks while various characters are writing emails to family members. First it's CJ, writing her father to apologize for being stuck in Washington and not being able to get to his birthday celebration. Later we hear voiceovers from Sam writing his father and Josh typing out an email to his mother. And what's really weird and disconcerting (not to mention impossible) is at the end of the episode, when we actually hear all three of them writing the exact same sentences:

CJ (voiceover): "And then came the big moment, Dad. Everyone -"

Josh (overlapping voiceover): "Everyone was enlisted. You called everyone you had a relationship with -"

Sam (overlapping voiceover): "-with and if you didn't get anywhere, they got a call from the President."

I don't know about you, but that's really strange and took me out of the episode for a bit. Let me also add, in the opening pre-credits scene CJ tells her father, "I'm betting when you read this, you're going to be glad I stayed. I'm betting you're going to end up rooting for a Minnesota Senator named Howard Stackhouse." Why would she have that attitude at that point? We don't know exactly why he's holding up the bill, the administration's plans to tout a big victory before the weekend and before a congressional recess are going down the tubes, and CJ's stuck in her office instead of on her way to Napa - none of that sounds like something you're going to be "rooting for." It's kind of lazy writing - but then again, the entire email-writing-voiceover device isn't really that good, either.

Anyway, the filibuster in question (a move allowed by Senate rules, where a Senator can hold up debate as long as he holds the floor) is being conducted by the aforementioned Stackhouse, a 78-year-old Senator who is delaying a vote on a massive health care bill aimed primarily at children's health issues. He had asked Josh to add a provision for autism research and education. Josh turned him down, for now, as the administration had worked hard on getting agreements to put the bill together and wanted to get a vote and a big win before a congressional recess.

Josh: "Senator, there's going to be a vote. The bill's closed."

Stackhouse: "Open it back up again."

Josh: "To do that would mean to postpone the vote, and everyone's breaking for the recess, and -"

Stackhouse: "And you want the story before everyone goes home."

Josh: "Yeah."

Stackhouse: "Okay." (He gets up and moves to the door.)

Josh: "Sir, the next time around, and there will be a next time ..."

Stackhouse: "That's all. I'm done with you now." 

The staffers are all hanging around waiting for the vote as they're needed to provide spin and PR for the White House's side of the victory, but they also have plans that the filibuster is throwing a huge wrench into: CJ's father's birthday, Sam's weekend in Sag Harbor, Toby's skiing trip to Telluride, and Josh's baseball spring training trip to Florida to get a "Dude!" from Mike Piazza. The unexpected move from a Democratic Senator is frustrating, to say the least - and the question of why he's making such a dramatic move is unanswered, at first.

It falls to Donna to save the day. While watching TV coverage of the filibuster, campaign footage of the Stackhouse family shows him with six grandchildren. Donna's research shows he actually has seven grandchildren, and she puts two and two together and guesses that his demand for autism research funding might be based on the fact that one of his grandchildren is autistic. Well, she's right, of course, and President Bartlet's grandfatherly instincts kick in (we've known since Pilot that he has a granddaughter himself).

President: "CJ ... if I told you to screw the print deadline, what would you want to do right now?"

CJ: "I'd ... want to see if there was a way I could help him out."

President: "Give him some dignity, right? And give him a rest, the guy's going to collapse out there."

CJ: "Yes, sir."

President: "Screw the print deadline." 

Donna again comes to the rescue with knowledge of filibuster rules:

Donna: "He's allowed to yield for a question without yielding the floor."

President: "I was in the House. I know nothing about Senate rules."

Donna: "Yes, sir, but Josh does, and he likes to explain things, and, well, I let him."

They're able to round up some friendly Senators ("grandfathers all," CJ tells her dad) and we get the "gripping" suspense of everyone watching and hoping Stackhouse knows the rules well enough to realize they're trying to help:

And their excitement when he accepts the help:

Stackhouse gets a break from standing and speaking, the bill gets delayed so it can be re-opened with the autism funds attached, everybody gets to their weekend just a bit late, and it's a win all around.

In one flashback, Sam ends up getting schooled (kinda) by a 19-year-old intern from the Government Accounting Office. She's dropping off reports while Sam, Ed, and Larry go over them, deciding which ones can be eliminated to save money (Sam: "Wasn't that program terminated?" Ed: "Yeah." Sam: "But we write the reports anyway?" Larry; "Yeah." Sam: "Lose it."). Her deep sighs each time a report gets nixed bug Sam, and when he asks her about it, she is able to explain the real reason of governing that lies behind these innocuous reports:

Winifred: "You blow through these things like they don't mean anything."

Sam: "They don't mean anything."

Winifred: "You're an idiot!"

Her reasoning (which is better than the quote above, believe me), gets to Sam somewhat, and he's a bit impressed by her:

Sam: "Listen, you're talented. When you get out of school you should come see me for a job."

Winifred: "I .. I suppose you're not a complete loser. And you write very well. So, when I get out of school, you should come see me for a job."

Then there's CJ and the Bast statue. During a presidential trip to Egypt a year ago, the hosts offered President Bartlet several gifts, including a small figurine of the cat goddess Bast. It was handed off to CJ, who tossed it into her luggage, where it promptly broke. She thought nothing of it, but now the same high Egyptian official who offered the gift is coming to visit the White House, and the State Department expects the statue will be on display.

And that's about it. CJ is looking for help anywhere she can (particularly Donna, but she's busy saving the day filibuster-wise), and she jokingly says perhaps it's Bast's curse that's causing the delay on the vote that's screwing up everyone's weekend. Her Krazy Glue repair job probably isn't going to be enough for the visitors, though:

Charlie: "Look, CJ, one of us is going to have to tell the President the statue's broken."

CJ: "It's not broken."

Charlie: "It is broken."

Donna: "She Krazy Glued it back together."

Charlie: "You Krazy Glued it?"

CJ: "I didn't know what it was. I needed a potpourri holder. I have the ancient curse of Bast on me so get off my back, Sparky."

Charlie: "Okay, but when you tell him I'd leave out the Krazy Glue."

CJ: "And the potpourri, right?"

And CJ does indeed tell the President. Sort of. After the excitement of Donna's news about Stackhouse's grandson and the plan to give him a break from the filibuster, everyone leaves the Oval Office except CJ and Donna:

CJ (under her breath): "Oh, and I broke your statue."

Donna: "I don't think he heard you."

One neat thing we get out of it, though, is the decoration in Gail's fishbowl - it's a cat figurine, in honor of Bast, of course.

The big takeaway, though, is that simmering pot coming to a boil on the stove, with the pressure building underneath the lid. Toby's mind is at work, figuring the angles, wondering what Hoynes has up his sleeve, while President Bartlet and Leo mull over what their future plans should be. As Toby's ball bounces, bounces, bounces against the wall ...



Tales Of Interest!

- This was Bryan Gordon's only directing credit for The West Wing (he won a couple of Emmys for Curb Your Enthusiasm), but the look of the episode is pretty cool. I particularly liked this scene in Leo's office, with the strong light source bouncing off the floor and uplighting the characters:

- This ties into mentions of real people, but there's a plaque on the briefing room wall in honor of former Reagan press secretary James Brady. The plaque reads, in part: "This room is named in honor of James S. Brady, White House Press Secretary." Brady, of course, was shot and seriously injured in the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan in 1981, and the real White House press briefing room was named in his honor in 2000. It's impossible to read the rest of the plaque onscreen, so we're left up in the air about any Reagan presidency in The West Wing universe (perhaps Brady worked for a different, fictional president here).

- Meanwhile, Josh's office wall features a copy of the Bill of Rights.

- The autism storyline was actually pitched to Sorkin by Brad Whitford, who was involved in the Cure Autism Now group and helped lobby Congress to pass the Children's Health Act of 2000 (the basis for the Family Wellness Act in this episode).

- It only makes sense, with Senator Stackhouse being from Minnesota, but he has plenty of Scandinavian items on display in his office, including the flag of Norway, a depiction of a Viking longship, and a banner reading "Uff-Da." "Stackhouse" doesn't appear to be a Norwegian name, though, with evidence showing that's an English name from Yorkshire.

- Bradley Whitford gets his chance for pratfall, sliding to the floor (in his new shoes) when he goes to visit Senator Stackhouse. He does a nice little move, picking up his right foot as his left foot slides, then tumbles to the floor:

- It turns serious pretty quickly, but Jed and Leo bickering over dinner like an old married couple is so true to their relationship (it's been said The West Wing is really a love story about Jed and Leo):

President: "I'm just saying, we work all day, and then the day's over and we go out to dinner, and you're still working. I'm, you know, sittin' here. No time to talk."

Leo: "You know, conversations like this are the reason I got divorced." 

Quotes    

Sam: "What the hell is he doing?"

CJ: "It's a recipe for deep fried fantail shrimp."

Sam: "Yeah, but what's he still doing up there?"

CJ: "He's got a recipe book."

Sam: "How long will it go?"

CJ: "I don't know."

Sam: "I'm saying how many recipes are there?"

CJ: "All together?"

Sam: "Yeah."

CJ: "I can't cook, but I think there are probably like 20 or 30."

-----

Leo: "You just spent six billion dollars on health care, how do you feel?"

Josh: "I'd feel better if it meant, just once, I could go to a doctor without filling out something on a clipboard."

----- 

Charlie: "CJ!"

CJ: "Charlie."

Charlie: "Listen -"

CJ: "May I call you Chip?"

Charlie: "No."

CJ: "Chipper?"

Charlie: "No."

CJ: "Gilligan?" 

-----

Charlie: "CJ?"

CJ: "Yes."

Charlie: "You know anything about it?"

CJ: "Well, I'll have to think about it, Charlie, it was a year ago, and it's not like I have instant recall of every ceramic cat statue I've ever been handed in Cairo!"

-----

Toby: "Would you mind if I prepared some notes for you?"

Hoynes (chuckling): "Oh, not at all ... would you mind if I shoved them up your ass?" 

-----

Donna: "You're booked tomorrow morning, 8:55, United, direct to West Palm Beach."

Josh: "Which gets in at?"

Donna: "12:58."

Josh: "It's still a seventy mile drive to Port St. Lucie. I'll miss the game."

Donna: "I thought they weren't playing yet."

Josh: "It's an exhibition game."

Donna: "You're flying to Florida to see the Mets play another team in a game that doesn't count?"

Josh: "Actually, it's an intrasquad game."

Donna: "So you're flying to Florida to see the Mets play each other in a game that doesn't count."

-----

President: "He's a curmudgeon, a grouchy old crank."

Leo: "So are we."

President: "You are. I am full of mirth."

-----

President (bitingly): "CJ, let me tell you something. Don't ever, ever underestimate the will of a grandfather. We're mad men. We don't give a damn. We got here before you and they'll be here after. We'll make enemies, we'll break laws and we'll break bones, but you will not mess with the grandchildren."

(CJ looks quizzically at Leo)

Leo: "There was quite of bit of sugar in the creme de caramel."

-----

President: "I want to call senators. We'll start with our friends. When we're done with those two, we'll go on to the other 98."

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

• Senator Stackhouse is played by George Coe, who's been seen in many TV shows over the years (interestingly enough, he was part of the cast of the original Saturday Night Live, as well as appearances in The Doctors, Max Headroom, and many, many more).

• Speaking of Stackhouse, we've heard the name mentioned a couple of times before. Someone named Stackhouse was among the legislators who had family members receiving lenient treatment after drug arrests in Mandatory Minimums. A Stackhouse was also mentioned as a possible guest on Capital Beat in In This White House.

• In a callback to Somebody's Going To Emergency, Somebody's Going To Jail CJ tells Sam she's sorry about what's happened with his dad. He then starts his email to his father with "Dear Jackass" before changing it to "Dear Dad."

• As mentioned previously, a lot of events dealing with President Bartlet's MS and the deal he had with Abbey are tied into this episode.

• Toby's bouncing ball returns, which we saw thudding against Sam's window in Ellie. We'll see a lot of that ball again in the next episode.

• While there aren't any good views of Gail's fishbowl, as I mentioned previously there is a cat figurine placed inside, in a nod to CJ's struggles with the Bast statue.

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• We clearly see C-SPAN 2 coverage of Stackhouse's filibuster. While C-SPAN was instituted in 1979 to cover proceedings in the House of Representatives, C-SPAN 2 began covering the Senate in 1986.

• The house in the Hamptons Sam plans to visit for the weekend was designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The fact they wear sweaters there in chilly early spring makes it look like a Tommy Hilfiger ad, he says.

• Josh is hoping to see Mike Piazza in that Florida spring training game. In addition to the New York Mets, other sports teams mentioned are the New York Jets, the New York Knicks, the New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets, and the Atlanta Hawks. Toby mentions he's watching the Nets and the Hawks in his office ... those two actually played on Monday, January 15 and Tuesday, February 6, 2001, neither of which was a Friday night.

• CJ is hoping for some Cuervo 1800 tequila along with her pizza to pass the time during the filibuster.

• Senator Stackhouse reads from David Copperfield, by Sam's favorite fiction writer, Charles Dickens.

• United and Continental are two airlines mentioned in this episode, as well as Amtrak train service.

• We can see several CNN personalities on TV screens in the background, including Wolf Blitzer, Peter Arnett, and Christiane Amanpour.

• Bloomberg TV is on in Josh's office, as usual. (And Sam has his incorrectly monogrammed shirts on again, just as we discussed in Somebody's Going To Emergency, Somebody's Going To Jail.)

• The copy/printing chain Kinkos gets a mention.

• President Bartlet says he's shaken hands with Hubert Humphrey, one of Senator Stackhouse's heroes (also from Minnesota). In a neat, easily missed detail, there's also a copy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press newspaper on the senator's desk.

• Product placement: Mentioned before was CJ's use of Krazy Glue to patch the Bast statue. On CJ's desk we see a bottle of Keeper Springs water and a box of Raisinets. (Also note the funky onscreen interface that the White House staff has to write their emails. It appears to be an extremely inefficient use of screen space, and very user unfriendly -was this typical of email services in 2001?)

Sam has always been seen using a Mac laptop previously. Here he uses a Dell to play solitaire and write an email to his father.

End credits freeze frame: Toby and Hoynes in the White House driveway.

Somebody's Going To Emergency, Somebody's Going To Jail - TWW S2E16

Original airdate: February 28, 2001

Written by: Paul Redford (6) and Aaron Sorkin (37)

Directed by: Jessica Yu (1)

Synopsis

• Sam sees his world turned upside down on several fronts, discovering unnerving secrets about his father as well as a man he thought falsely accused of treason in the 1940s. CJ sees her world turned upside down literally, as the Cartographers for Social Equality give her a new way to look at maps. Toby flirts with a cop while avoiding talking to protesters, while the President mulls over his library site and his future.

"It's just there are certain things you're sure of ... like longitude and latitude."

Early morning.

The thick shadows of night are shot through with rich yellows, oranges, and purples as the sun rises.

Slow tracking shots reveal the morning routines in the West Wing; mail being delivered to offices, custodians cleaning, guards changing shifts.

And over it all a slow, mournful melody, and then a voice:

Lying here in the darkness

I hear the sirens wail

Somebody's going to emergency

Somebody's going to jail 

It's Don Henley's 1990 release New York Minute, a reflection on the fleetingness of love and relationships and how all we can do is hold on to what we have, and it's an apt description of this excellent episode (as well as inspiration for the title). Disappointment in family, in long-held beliefs, dealing with what you've always known to be solid and true crumbling around you - that's what this is all about.

It's really Rob Lowe's episode. As the opening scene continues, Leo finds Sam sleeping in Toby's office. Sam's life has just been rocked by the discovery that his father has been supporting a mistress, setting up her in a Santa Monica apartment for the past 28 years. All he's got to hold on to now is his work, on going through requests for presidential pardons, and on changing his shirt:

Leo: "Sam, go home, would you?"

Sam: "No, I'm just going to change my shirt."

Leo: "You look bad. You're tired, you slept in the office. It's Friday. Go home."

Sam: "Why?"

Leo: "Cause I think you're putting too much faith in the magical powers of a new shirt." 

Sam gets a new diversion shortly - a college friend of Donna's, Stephanie Gault, has come to ask a favor. Her grandfather, Daniel Gault, was a White House staffer in the 1940s tried for espionage and convicted of perjury, dying in jail six months later. Daniel's son, Stephanie's father, is now critically ill, and Stephanie hopes her dying dad can get some comfort if the President officially pardons Daniel. Sam turns out to be the exact person to come to - his Princeton senior thesis was about Daniel Gault's case, the flaws in the government's prosecution and Gault's almost certain innocence.

Sam: "Demonstrating his innocence is extremely complicated."

Stephanie: "Yes, but you've already done it."

Sam: "Excuse me?"

Stephanie: "You've already demonstrated his innocence and in an extraordinarily compelling way. You've also spoken eloquently on the need for his pardon."

Sam: "When did I do that?"

Stephanie: "At Princeton, for 23 pages in the middle of your thesis."

So there's a dual objective here for Sam: He can dive full-bore into this effort, taking his mind away from the familial deception of his father, while at the same time proving that fathers are indeed the rocks and the moral centers their children and grandchildren expect and need them to be.

He gets right to it, dropping by the FBI just as a courtesy to explain why the White House is requesting Gault's file and preparing a pardon. The FBI, represented by Special Agent Mike Casper (hooray for Clark Gregg!) is not happy, but perhaps Sam's breezy dismissal of their work doesn't help:

Sam: "Mike, you guys got it wrong and you know it."

Casper: "Really?"

Sam: "Yes."

Casper: "What else do I know?"

When Sam leaves after their discussion, Casper quickly picks up the phone. We don't know who he's calling ... until Sam returns to the White House and Ginger gives him a message saying the National Security Advisor wants to see him. He meets Nancy McNally in the Situation Room, and she tells him in no uncertain terms to drop the pardon. He continues to protest, pointing out the flaws in the government's case and the lack of proof, until she drops a bombshell:

McNally: "He was a Soviet spy, Sam."

Sam: "Based on what?"

McNally: "Diplomatic cables intercepted by US Army Signal Intelligence in the 1940s."

Sam: "If that was the case, why couldn't the US Attorney make espionage in the 1950s?"

McNally: "Cause the cables weren't decrypted until the 1970s."

Everything Sam had known about the case, about the innocence of Daniel Gault, was based on the available information he (and the government!) had prior to the 1970s - but the real truth is Gault was a spy, had been responsible for giving American secrets to the Soviets, had been responsible for the deaths of spies and counterspies. The look on his face as Nancy pulls out the NSA file on Gault begins to show the shattering of everything he knew to be true:

Of course it's not just about Gault. It's about Sam's dad, about what you can really trust and what happens when that trust is betrayed, about knowing things to be certain that suddenly aren't true. Sam's entire worldview has crumbled.

Naturally he has to take that out on those around him. He's ready to tell Stephanie the truth, to reveal the fact that her grandfather actually was a spy and betrayed his own country, no matter what that means to the Gault family. Donna desperately tries to talk him out of it, but his passionate speech about treason and dishonesty really lays bare the fact that while, yes, Sam is angry about someone giving state secrets to America's enemies, he's angry about other kinds of betrayal, too:

Sam: "It was high treason, and it mattered a great deal. This country is an idea, and one that's lit the world for two centuries and treason against that idea is not just a crime against the living. This ground holds the graves of people who died for it, who gave what Lincoln called the last full measure of devotion. Of fidelity. You understand the last full measure of devotion to ... Treason against them is ..."

"Of fidelity." Sam has just had his beliefs in the goodness of Daniel Gault and his defense of democracy destroyed, just as his father's infidelity has destroyed everything he'd known to be true about his own family.

Sam: "There was a translator in the Hungarian trade mission named Shaba Demsky. She was murdered in 1952. She was about to reveal the name of a Soviet agent called Blackwater. This girl's going to find out who her father was."

Donna: "Sam ... you meant grandfather."

But did he?

Sam and Stephanie meet in Sam's office, and he's ready to lay bare the truth, to rip apart the world Stephanie and her father believed to be true, to betray Daniel Gault to his son and granddaughter just as Sam felt betrayed by his own father. Then Donna appears in the doorway, a reminder of the discussion they just had:

And he can't do it. He tells Stephanie he wasn't able to access the files they needed, but that the Gaults can try for a pardon again in three months. Stephanie is pleased with that, with the knowledge that Sam and the White House are open to exploring a pardon; and with her father not likely to survive three months, that news means he can die without the knowledge his father actually was a spy.

As Stephanie leaves, Donna gives Sam what he's needed this entire episode - a huge hug:

She's also able to make him smile for the first time all day (probably in four days), but the punchline for that won't make sense until we get to that plotline, so stand by. Sam wraps up his day (before Josh and Toby and Donna take him out to get drunk) by sitting down and giving his dad a call, as Henley's song takes over the soundtrack again.

Toby! Let's not forget Toby! This turns out to be the second (and final, unfortunately) Big Block Of Cheese episode of The West Wing (first shown in The Crackpots And These Women), where Leo honors the memory of Andrew Jackson's big hunk of cheese by giving groups typically without White House access a chance to meet with a staffer. Toby's assignment is to speak to a group of protesters in town to march against the policies of the World Trade Organization.

Now Toby isn't thrilled with this assignment, and not just because he doesn't agree with the protesters' stance. He also thinks they're amateurs at protesting, with their schedules and plans available on their website, and he knows better:

Toby: "In my day, we knew how to protest."

CJ: "What day was that?"

Toby: "1968."

Josh: "How the hell old were you when you were protesting?"

Toby: "My sisters took me. Anybody have a problem with that?"

Leo: "No one has a problem with that."

Toby: "The police are always seven steps ahead of them. The cops know exactly where they're going to be and what's going to happen. You know how they know? By logging into their website. We had the underground. We had rapid response."

But then Toby also finds out the group (World Policy Studies forum) has given away something pretty important:

Toby: "What about press?"

CJ: "Just wires."

Toby: "No, I mean TV."

CJ: "No cameras."

Toby: "You negotiated that?"

CJ: "Yeah."

Toby: "They agreed to it?"

CJ: "You want to make out with me right now, don't you?"

Toby: "Well, when don't I?"

And check out the look CJ gives Toby after that exchange. Did these guys have a romantic history or something?:

Toby goes to the raucous protest meeting, and lets the leader know he made a mistake by giving up the cameras, because instead of looking foolish by not being able to control the crowd, Toby can simply sit and read the sports section and then tell reporters outside that they talked. Which is exactly what he does when the crowd starts to shout him down when he tries to introduce himself:

Toby does take advantage of this forum to exchange flirty quips with the police officer assigned to him, Rhonda Sachs. Sachs gives Toby as good as she gets - they make a nice couple. Later, when Toby is about to give up on the meeting, Sachs steers him back on track (this is actually a really great description of persuasive techniques in speechwriting, by the way):

Toby: "Food is cheaper, clothes are cheaper, steel is cheaper, cars are cheaper, phone service is cheaper. You feel me building a rhythm here? That's cause I'm a speechwriter and I know how to make a point."

Sachs: "Toby ..."

Toby: "It lowers prices, it raises income. You see what I did with 'lowers' and 'raises' there?"

Sachs: "Yes."

Toby: "It's called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites and now we end with the one that's not like the others. Ready? Free trade stops wars. And that's it. Free trade stops wars! And we figure out a way to fix the rest. One world, one peace. I'm sure I've seen that on a sign somewhere."

Sachs: "God, Toby ... wouldn't it be great if there was someone around here with communication skills who could go in there and tell them that?"

Toby: "Shut up."

As Josh arrives, Toby remembers his own protesting past and makes the decision to actually involve himself in the forum:

Toby: "Josh. The WTO is undemocratic, and accountable to no one, decisions are made by executive directors and the developing world has little to say about operational policy."

Josh: "What was that?"

Toby: "I protested to you."

Josh: "Why?"

Toby: "Cause I'm not allowed to get arrested anymore." 

Toby goes in and uses his rhetorical skills to blow the roof off the place, apparently (according to Josh's later description, anyway ... we don't see it).

We also get a little bit of disappointment from the point of view of the President. His first choice for a site for his Presidential library isn't going to work, due to a New Hampshire law preventing the destruction of some buildings at the site. The fact they're even thinking about a library site at this stage is a bit odd, as Charlie and Sam remark:

Sam: "They'll find another site."

Charlie: "Yeah, anyway, he's kind of in a mood."

Sam: "They shouldn't be talking to him now about the library, anyway. We're not going anywhere for a few years, right?"

Charlie: "Well, I think that's what's got him in a mood." 

Now, what nobody else knows is what we discovered in Bartlet's Third State Of The Union and The War At Home. President Bartlet promised Abbey he'd only serve one term because of his health issues, and with the staff starting to ramp up into re-election mode and Jed realizing he'd like to have more than two more years to accomplish what he wants to do, there's a lot of conflicts going on inside President Bartlet's head. He reveals just a little bit of that internal conflict to Leo, who also is unaware of Jed's promise to Abbey:

President: "This is the last job I'm ever going to have. This is the last time I'm going to come to work with people. I swear to God, I feel like I was just starting to get good at it."

Leo: "Well, it's two years, with an option for four more."

(The President avoids looking at Leo.)

Leo: "Mr. President, is there anything we need to talk about?"

President: "Not yet, okay?"

Now, I don't know if this is just me, or if this happens to a lot of other West Wing fans as well. I definitely recalled this episode as the one with Sam's pardon storyline, with the conflict with his father and the NSA file revealed to him by Nancy McNally and the upsetting of his whole belief system ... but what I didn't recall was that this is also the episode where CJ meets the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality, and gets her mind blown by their maps. I mean, that storyline is a classic in West Wing history ... I just didn't remember it was in the same episode as Sam's pardon/father story.

The mapmakers are CJ's assignment for Big Block Of Cheese 2: Cheesy Boogaloo. While the staffers are all puzzled as to what role maps play in social equality, maps and how they depict landmasses has been an ongoing issue in many areas of social studies. It's impossible to accurately portray the geography of a round globe on a flat map; every kind of projection used to make a flat map distorts something about how that area actually appears on the globe. Dr. Fallow and his "merry men" do a nice job of summing up their points, showing how the commonly used Mercator projection distorts the relative size of landmasses, and asking the administration to promote teaching the Peters projection instead:

The Mercator, on the left, expands the apparent size of landmasses as you approach the poles, making Greenland look about the same size as Africa, which is not true. The Peters, on the right, actually shows landmasses accurately as far as relative size goes; South America appears much larger than Europe, Alaska is back to its appropriate relative size, Africa is huge. The Peters projection is called an "area accurate" projection, but of course, it has its own issues with distortions as well. It does get CJ thinking, though:

Fallow: "So, uh ... you're probably wondering what all this has to do with social equality."

CJ: "No. I'm wondering where France really is." 

But then, the cartographers make the point that north-at-the-top is simply a construct, and there's no particular reason that maps have to have north at the top. They argue that acceptance of such as a given grants the Northern Hemisphere more apparent importance than the Southern, and they have an idea to, heh, switch things up:

CJ: "But wait ... how ... where else could you put the Northern Hemisphere but on the top?"

Sayles: "On the bottom."

CJ: "How?"

Fallow: "Like this."

CJ: "Yeah, but you can't do that."

Fallow: "Why not?"

CJ: "Cause it's freaking me out." 

And this, then, brings us to that much-needed Sam smile that Donna helps give him. Sam's entire world lies in tatters, everything he knew to be real and true is all a lie, and as Donna gives him that hug he explains that to her:

Sam: "It's just there's certain things you're sure of. Like longitude and latitude."

Donna: "Sam ... I don't know if this is the best time to tell you, but according to CJ, I wouldn't be so sure about longitude and latitude." 

This is a wonderful episode, and really, it's the start of a fantastic seven-episode run to wind up Season 2. The connections to the end of the season are still a bit tenuous (really, it's just the plotline about the presidential library and the uncertainty of Bartlet's re-election plans that has anything to do with the arc), but the quality of this one is top notch, with more great ones yet to come.


Tales Of Interest!

- I thought I'd work my way through Leo's description of the traffic issues and closed streets from the opening scene. He says a four-block radius of the World Bank (850 I Street NW) is shut down, with Pennsylvania Avenue only one-way from M to 21st. That makes sense, plus that four-block radius would include the White House. Having Constitution Avenue closed from 23rd to the Ellipse also could conceivably be part of that, although that's a long way from the World Bank - but closing 15th and 17th all the way to Independence (crossing the National Mall) seems like a bit much.

We can also deduce that Leo lives in Georgetown, both from his statement about Pennsylvania being one-way from M to 21st and his story about taking P past DuPont to Logan Circle, then backtracking to 16th only to find the National Geographic Society cordoned off (which would also be right on that four-block radius of the World Bank) ... why Logan Circle would be blocked off is, much like 15th and 17th to Independence, kind of a mystery.

- Kind of a neat detail - and a hat tip to costume designer Lyn Paolo - in the scene where Charlie is talking to the President in the Oval Office, you really see how Charlie's suit jacket is baggy and ill-fitting. An inexpensive, non-tailored suit would be expected for a young fellow essentially on his own, supporting his younger sister, and making plans to work his way through college.

- Speaking of clothes, Sam has been wearing shirts with his monogram on the shirt pocket in the past couple of episodes. Changing his shirt (because he slept in Toby's office) is a minor plot point in this episode (Josh even asks him, "Is that a new shirt? Looks good"). While he does look sharp in his shirts ... his monogram is wrong. If your monogram style makes the middle letter a larger size than the outside letters, that middle letter should be for your last name, not your middle name. Samuel Norman Seaborn's monogram should be "SSN" rather than what Sam is wearing, which is "SNS" (why would your middle name be emphasized? So weird).

- Josh and Sam's discussion of Lincoln's pardon on the day of his assassination was indeed thought to be fact at the time this episode was shot. Ten years later, in 2011, the historian who claimed to have discovered that pardon admitted that he forged the year, changing it from 1864 to 1865. So while President Lincoln did indeed pardon Patrick Murphy for deserting from the Union Army, he did it exactly a year before he was shot, not the same day.

- Rob Lowe was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work in this episode, and I think he deserved the nod (it's a great performance). James Gandolfini took home the Emmy for his work on The Sopranos.


Quotes    

Charlie: "I've got it here in my notes. 'Requires that all non-housing farm and ranch structures built prior to 1900 be preserved by the owners unless destroyed by an act of God.'"

President: "What plaid flannel-wearing, cheese-eating, yahoo of a milkman governor signed that idiot bill into state law?"

(pause, as Charlie uneasily looks away)

President: "It was me, wasn't it?" 

-----

CJ: "Are you saying the map is wrong?"

Fallow: "Oh, dear, yes. Uh, look at Greenland."

CJ: "Okay."

Fallow: "Now look at Africa."

CJ: "Okay ..."

Fallow: "The two landmasses appear to be roughly the same size."

CJ: "Okay ..."

Fallow: "Would it blow your mind if I told you that Africa is in reality fourteen times larger?"

CJ: "Yes."

-----

Fallow: "Salvatore Natoli of the National Council for Social Studies argues, 'In our society we unconsciously equate size with importance, and even power.'"

(Josh looks at CJ. She looks back. His questioning expression isn't about the size of maps. CJ nods slightly.)

Josh: "I'm going to check in on Toby."

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

• The police officer assigned to Toby at the World Policy Studies forum is played by Roma Maffia (Chicago Hope, Profiler, Boston Legal, Nip/Tuck). She certainly makes an impression with her quippy back-and-forth with Toby.

• It's our first time meeting FBI Special Agent Mike Casper, played by Clark Gregg (from a bevy of Marvel productions, including Iron Man, The Avengers, Captain Marvel, and Agents of SHIELD, as well as The New Adventures of Old Christine, The Spanish Prisoner, State And Main ... I'm a huge fan, so lots to credit him with). It won't be the last, however.

• Dr. John Fallow from the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality is played by John Billingsley (who's been in a lot of stuff, including Star Trek: Enterprise, 2012, and True Blood).

• Sam refers to "Tribbey's office" when talking to Leo about pardons, so Lionel Tribbey is still White House Counsel at this point (we saw John Larroquette play Tribbey in And It's Surely To Their Credit).

• Do you remember in both Bartlet's Third State Of The Union and The War At Home we've seen a Florida Gators coffee mug rather prominently held by background extras to highlight the logo? Well, it appears again, this time on Ginger's desk. I don't know if it's set decorator Ellen Totleben or prop master Blanche Sindelar or some other production staff person who's going all out for the Gators (and for product placement, Ginger also has a mug with the APC logo on it; we saw that same logo featured on the webpage of the Surgeon General's online chat in Ellie).

• Of course this is the second Big Block Of Cheese Day we've seen (The Crackpots And These Women was the first). In that Season 1 episode it's mentioned that Leo wants to hold them once a month, although they'd only been able to accomplish a couple by that point; here it's said he "designates one day" for the meetings, but it's not specified how often that one day comes around. Unfortunately, despite the fact President Bartlet remains in office for six more years, we never again see Big Block Of Cheese Day on The West Wing.

• There are a couple of throwbacks to the shooting at Rosslyn that wrapped up Season 1/started Season 2. Agent Casper's testy exchange with Sam refers to a couple of events, specifically from parts I and II of In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen:

Casper: "But the difference is our failures are public and our successes are private. So when we apprehend an enemy of the state, like, say a fugitive member of West Virginia White Pride, we don't take a curtain call on Sunday with Sam and Cokie. When we learned that it wasn't the Secret Service who ordered the canopy down in Rosslyn we kept it to ourselves."

At the end of the episode Josh jokes about almost being killed at Toby's meeting (getting hit by a piece of banana) and then brings up being shot at Rosslyn as he tells Toby:

Josh: "That was the second time this year I almost got killed and both times I was with you so you're going to need a new wingman." 

• National Security Adviser Nancy McNally (Anna Deavere Smith) is back! We saw her first in Part I of In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, and she's badass here as she not only tells Sam to drop Daniel Gault, but shows him the top-secret NSA file proving Gault's guilt.

• WHAT'S NEXT MOMENT - The President turns to Charlie and says, "What's next?" as they head into the Oval Office after talking with economic advisors in the hallway.

DC location shots    

• The scenes set at the World Bank protest sure don't appear to have been filmed in Washington DC. You clearly see Toby going into a building with an 1800 address - while the World Bank is located at 1850 I Street NW in Washington, DC, the 1800 address is currently affiliated with Arizona State University, and doesn't look anything like the building Toby goes into. 

Here's the shot showing the front of the building marked "1800" where Toby meets the World Policy Studies forum:

And this is a reverse shot showing what's across the street (there also appears to be a skywalk connection over the street):

This is what 1800 I Street NW actually looks like:

And this is across the street. Obviously there's no skywalk connection here:

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

• Former presidents Andrew Jackson, FDR, Abraham Lincoln, and Dwight Eisenhower are mentioned (also Patrick Murphy, who was pardoned by Lincoln). 

• Donna mentions that Stephanie Gault is an associate professor at the Maxwell School, which is a program in citizenship and public affairs at Syracuse University.

• Toby calls the leader of the World Policy Studies forum "Solzhenitsyn," a reference to Russian author and critic of the Soviet Union Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Former Soviet leaders Lenin (as in Daniel Gault receiving the Order of Lenin) and Stalin are also name-checked.

• In the tense exchange between Sam and Agent Casper, Casper brings up Senator Joe McCarthy and his "20 years of treason" remarks, supposedly identifying Americans who shared secrets with the Communists. Sam points out several of those who were wrongly accused, including General George Marshall, author and China advisor Owen Lattimore, journalist I.F. Stone, and journalist and screenwriter Ring Lardner.

• Casper also spits out that the FBI doesn't take a "curtain call on Sundays with Sam and Cokie" when they get things right with a big arrest. Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts were the hosts of the ABC Sunday morning news/talk show This Week between 1996 and 2002. 

• The cartographers tell CJ and Josh about both the Mercator and Peters map projections. Dr. Huke also quotes Salvatore Natoli of the National Council for Social Studies - while the NCSS actually exists, the only Salvatore Natoli I could find a reference to is an Italian professor and philosopher specializing in the philosophy of pain, not cartography.

• Someone in the rowdy World Policy Studies crowd hollers something about the healthcare company Kaiser Permanente.

• Josh tells CJ to call him if the cartographers find Brigadoon (a mythical place that appears once every 100 years, according to the Lerner and Loewe musical).

• Products: Starbucks cups in the Big Block Of Cheese meeting (in front of Ed, as well as CJ):

Josh has an Apple laptop on his desk:

Josh mentions a "Wheat Thin the size of Lake Tahoe" to compare with Andrew Jackson's two-ton block of cheese; the previously mentioned APC mug on Ginger's desk; machines holding USA Today and The Washington Post outside the building where the World Policy Studies forum is held; Sam tosses Sugar In The Raw packets into a metal pot as he sits in the mess mulling things over. 

End credits freeze frame: From the opening early-morning montage in the West Wing lobby, artfully shot in blues and yellows.