Walking And Talking And Yelling At Clouds: 18th And Potomac

Original airdate: May 9, 2001

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (42)
Story by: Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr. (9)

Directed by: Robert Berlinger (2)

Synopsis

As the public announcement of President Bartlet's MS looms, the staff urgently presses for a decision on reelection. Meanwhile, the administration faces dire poll results from Joey Lucas, a military coup in Haiti, and congressional pushback about paying for the government's lawsuit against Big Tobacco. And then fate intervenes with an unexpected jolt.

"Thank you, but I'm buying this car myself. This car is going to feel good."

We all know what happens at the end of this episode - the tragic thunderbolt out of the blue that's going to echo throughout the upcoming season finale. If you don't know what happens, why are you reading this blog anyway? And go, right now, and watch it. Trust me, it's worth it.

Rather than dealing with that event upfront, I'm going to work through this like Aaron Sorkin and Lawrence O'Donnell, Jr. did, talking about what we know as we know it. And we'll deal with the hammer coming down when we get there.

Everybody is upset. Everybody is tense, everybody is on edge, everybody is snapping at each other (well, not Mrs. Landingham, she's in her usual happy mood because she's buying herself a brand new car for the first time). Leo is annoyed with Josh over the tobacco lawsuit funding:

Leo and Jed are annoyed with each other thanks to dangerous developments in Haiti:

Abbey is annoyed with both Sam and Babish over not feeling respected, as well as a little defensive for how she's dealt with Jed's MS over the years:

And Sam is none too happy to be dealing with Abbey, either:

Why is everybody grouchy? Well, first off, Joey Luca's poll results are a real downer, as her questions about a hypothetical governor hiding his health problems in order to win an election don't bode well for President Bartlet. 71% of voters say they won't vote for a candidate with a degenerative disease, including 78% of women over 55. Over 60% of Democrats and liberals say they wouldn't vote for a candidate who lied about his health. When the President asks Joey if there's any good news in the poll results, she has a two-word answer.

"No, sir."

The decision has been made to go public with President Bartlet's condition, as well as the fact he concealed his MS from the public during the campaign. In secret meetings in a basement room, the staffers decide to get 30 minutes of airtime on the networks this upcoming Wednesday, to have the President and the First Lady answer questions one-on-one (well, two-on-one, to be honest, but you get what I mean) on live television. That will be followed by a press conference to deal with the press corps as a whole, but there's a problem:

Sam: "Hang on. If we take him from the Mural Room to the press conference, isn't a smart reporter going to ask, 'Mr. President, are you planning on seeking reelection?'"

CJ (CJ and Toby exchange exasperated looks): "A smart reporter ... (scoffs) Sam, Ted Baxter is going to ask, 'Mr. President, are you planning on seeking reelection?'"

Sam: "So, we're going to need an answer to that, too."

Nobody knows what the President's thoughts are on seeking reelection, and they're going to have to know by Wednesday evening. In a neat scene towards the end of the episode, each staffer comes into Leo's office - first Toby, then Josh, then CJ, finally Sam - each of them demanding that a decision on reelection be made, and each of them getting reassured by Leo that a meeting is on tap for that very night.

Otherwise, in the course of this stressful day, the administration is dealing with a developing coup in Haiti. The military, led by a Colonel Bazan, put down a rally in support of newly elected President Dessaline, killing two people in the process. Members of Dessaline's cabinet have been arrested and military units are stationed outside every police precinct. Dessaline, who hasn't even been inaugurated yet, is missing. Bartlet is beside himself, both at military interference in the outcome of a free election and at the fact that his administration encouraged Dessaline to run in the first place.

It eventually turns out that Dessaline is hiding in the trunk of a car driven by an American official in Haiti to attend the inauguration. On President Bartlet's order, the car is allowed to enter the American embassy. Meanwhile, the aircraft taking the non-essential Americans out of the country is boarded by Haitian soldiers. Three of them are killed before the plane makes an emergency takeoff and departs Port-au-Prince. The pressure is rising on the administration, with the Haitian president-elect hiding in the American embassy and three Haitian soldiers killed by American forces.

Pressure is rising on the domestic front, too, as the rising cost of the government's case against the tobacco industry is causing concern in Congress. The House subcommittee in charge of funding the lawsuit is balking at providing more money, with two Democrats on the "no" side - not because of loyalty to the tobacco industry, but because of serious concerns with the merits of the government's case. Josh meets with the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, and then with the two recalcitrant Democrats themselves, but can't make any progress. He later tells Leo he's a bit hesitant to push too much, because one of those Democrats is also a key member of the Judiciary Committee and he's afraid of making too many enemies, considering what may be yet to come from Congress after the President's health announcement. Leo isn't having any of that:

Leo: "Both of you listen. We're not gonna stop, soften, detour, postpone, circumvent, obfuscate, or trade a single one of our goals to allow for whatever extracurricular nonsense is coming our way in the next few days, weeks and months."

Toby: "When did we decide this?"

Leo: "Just now."

Toby brings Donna in on the MS secret, because he knows Josh is going to need all the support he can get and it can only help if Donna has the information she needs. This leads to a couple of touching moments: First, Donna provides quite a contrast with her personal, caring reaction of hearing the news as compared to Toby's initial reaction of anger and political outcomes when he found out in 17 People:

Toby: "You're the first person on the assistant level to find out. Margaret doesn't know, Bonnie and Ginger don't know. Donna, Mrs. Landingham doesn't know."

Donna: "Is the President in a lot of pain or discomfort right now?"

And second, when Josh is still trying to make up reasons why he's needed for a late-night meeting with the President and Donna lets him know she knows:

Donna: "Josh ..."

Josh: "Yeah?"

(a long, awkward pause)

Donna (stammering): "Um ... I'm trying to ... see, this is why I'll never have a career as a -"

Josh: "Donna, what?"

Donna (quickly): "Sagittarius."

(Josh stares, thunderstruck)

Josh: "Are you all right?"

Josh later takes Toby to task, a little bit, for telling Donna before he did, but Toby makes the point that Josh hadn't done it yet, and also admits her reaction to the news was better than his own:

Josh: "You told Donna."

Toby: "Yeah."

Josh: "Why didn't you let me?"

Toby: "You hadn't yet."

Josh: "How'd she take it?"

Toby: "If everybody out there takes it the way she did, we may be okay. If a few more people in here took it the way she did, that'd be all right, too."

Josh: "Was that for me?"

Toby: "That was for me."

That's good writing.

And now, the thunderclap. Mrs. Landingham is buying a car, the first new car she's ever had, the first car she's bought on her own, since her late husband always got something dependable from Calvin Hilly in Concord. She's paying full sticker price, she tells Charlie, because government ethics regulations make it a crime to accept any gifts greater than $20. She holds firm even when Jed quotes her the section from the regulations saying any discount or bargain available to the public at large wouldn't be an ethical violation. This is all playing out like one of Sorkin's humorous C or D subplots, to leaven the drama and heft of the MS story and the Haiti coup.

Jed tells Mrs. Landingham to bring her car by the White House after she picks it up, because he has something he wants to tell her. Obviously, he's going to bring his trusted assistant in on his health condition and the upcoming public announcement.

And off she goes.

And then ...

Charlie: "Leo, there was an accident at 18th and Potomac. Mrs. Landingham was driving her car back here."

Leo: "What happened?"

Charlie: "There was a drunk driver and they ran the light at 18th and Potomac. They ran it at a high speed."

Leo: "Charlie, is she all right?"

Charlie: "No. She's dead."

Charlie, holding the phone in shock, as if he can't believe what he's just been told. Leo, his face frozen, knowing he has to bring this news to Jed. Which he does, walking to the Oval Office by way of the outside Portico, seeing the President working through the wavy, distorted glass:

A shot of Leo, uncertainly looking through that glass as he gathers himself:

And then we see, but do not hear, Leo telling Jed the news he doesn't want to say and Jed doesn't want to hear, with the distortions of the antique glass in the doors heightening the impact of the moment:

(In the DVD commentary Sorkin and Berlinger discuss how some people on the production wanted to replace the glass for this scene, to show it clearly and undistorted. I think the decision to keep it this way was perfect.)

So as plans are made, plans to announce earthshaking news to the public, plans to make a decision on reelection, plans to deal with Haiti and the tobacco industry ... fate brings a devastating tragedy to bear right in the middle. What's next?

One of the best episodes in the history of television. That's what's next.

Tales Of Interest!

- The events of this episode take place over the course of a Monday (it's noted a couple of times that the Wednesday interview/press conference will be the day after tomorrow) in May (CJ remarks how the networks won't want to give up a Thursday night during May sweeps, one of the nationwide Nielsen TV rating periods). Stay with me here - the timing expressly laid out in the previous episodes, starting with The Stackhouse Filibuster on a Friday in late March, has the events of The Fall's Gonna Kill You occurring early in the third week of April. That's when Josh tells Joey she has to put together her poll and get it in the field in 96 hours. She urgently brings the poll results to the White House in this episode. Trouble is, the first Monday in May, 2001, was May 7, which is a full three weeks after Josh met with Joey about getting that poll out in four days. Oh, those wacky timelines!

- For the first time, we see an elevator in the White House, bringing Sam and Toby down to the basement level.

In previous episodes we've only seen people taking a winding staircase past the Mess to the lower levels containing the Situation Room and Ainsley's office. Speaking of Ainsley's office, the conference room we see used for the secret "Sagittarius" meetings here is the same set as Ainsley's office area, with walls moved around. (Also, I thought it was a little weird that everybody enters the room from the floor above, coming down that little staircase - while at the same time there is a door at the other end of the room that opens up onto that floor. You can even see a guard's shadow through the frosted glass of that door. Why wouldn't people just come in through that door? I mean, other than this guy who brings a message to CJ:)

- A couple of nice directorial touches by Robert Berlinger: First, we see CJ during a press briefing, while at the same time we see CJ on the TV giving the press briefing.

We've seen this before (I mentioned it when Charlie meets the President back in A Proportional Response), and in the DVD commentary it's mentioned this character-plus-same-character-on-a-TV-screen was a hallmark of Sorkin's previous series Sports Night.

Second, this dramatic uplighting in Josh's office as he and Donna talk. It's, well, dramatic, making it appear the only lighting in the room is being reflected off the papers on Josh's desk.

- Speaking of the DVD commentary, this episode is the first time we learn Mrs. Landingham's first name (the President calls her "Delores"). In the commentary, Kathryn Joosten says her character didn't have a first name at the beginning of the series, and she thought she'd be able to choose her own first name. She was disappointed, though, because after choosing "Margaret" the show runners told her there was already another character with that name.

- Also on the DVD commentary, Sorkin makes quite a howler of a statement. In the scene where Sam tells Abbey they had used the basement conference room for planning some of the millennium things, Sorkin remarks:

Sorkin: "But I just noticed a mistake I made. We never say what year it is, on this show, you just never do. Um, cause if you say, I mean this show, uh, has a parallel universe and if you say if it's 2003, well, George W. Bush is President, it's 2003. Anyway, Sam just said they used this room to plan some millennium activities. Um, which means they were in office, uh, in the year 2000. That was a mistake, we don't do that on the show."

Well, Mr. Writer-Man Sorkin, you yourself wrote a conversation between Sam and Toby in In Excelsis Deo where they argued about whether or not the upcoming millennium would begin in 2000 or in 2001:

Toby: "It is not the new millennium, the year 2000 is the last year of the millennium, it's not the first year of the next one."

So you've already established, in the tenth episode of the entire series, that President Bartlet was in office in 2000. Also, just three episodes ago, in 17 People, you had Toby say outright that the upcoming election is in 2002:

Toby: "Leo, has there been a discussion in some room, someplace - anywhere, on any level, about Hoynes being dropped from the ticket in 2002?"

If you thought this offhand remark by Sam was a writing mistake you made, Aaron, well, you've been making those mistakes consistently for a year and a half.

- Let's take a look at the titular intersection in Washington, DC. We know Mrs. Landingham was bringing her new car back to the White House from the dealership. Charlie tells Leo a drunk driver ran the light at 18th and Potomac, running into Mrs. Landingham's car. That intersection is in far southeast DC, quite a distance from the White House.

It's also a quiet residential area, directly across from the Congressional Cemetery, and it doesn't appear there'd be any car dealerships around. The DC Jail and Correctional Treatment Facility is right nearby, but probably not any places to buy a new car.

Furthermore, 18th Street dead ends at Potomac Avenue, and there's just a stop sign there, not a light (this is looking south on 18th, with Potomac crossing directly ahead and the Congressional Cemetery across the street).

I guess Sorkin just liked the sound of "18th and Potomac," because that intersection doesn't make any logical sense in context.

Quotes

President: "Where are we going?"

Leo: "The basement."

President: "Why?"

Leo: "'Cause I don't like the way it looks, seven of us meeting in the middle of the night."

President: "You like the way it looks if we're meeting in the basement?"

-----

CJ: "Sam, he's going to go on TV and say he lied, I don't want him doing it behind the seal of the President."

Sam: "You think without the seal, people are going to forget he's the President?"

-----

McNally: "Jeff, what's the latest estimate?"

Jeff: "It's about 500 soldiers, maybe 300 of them with AR-15s."

Leo: "We sold those to them, right?"

McNally: "Well, until a few hours ago they were on our side."

-----

Steve: "CJ, is the US prepared to invade Haiti?"

CJ: "It should be clear that we're talking about two separate issues - one is a democratically elected president whose people are being denied their leader by an armed militia, the other is the lives of the Americans in the embassy and the American Marines who are guarding them."

Steve: "You didn't answer my question."

CJ: "How about that."

-----

Hackett: "Between friends ..."

CJ: "Yeah?"

Hackett: "Is the water over your head?"

CJ: "No. The water is exactly at my head."

-----

President: "I don't want to make the same mistakes over again."

Leo: "Not when there are so many new mistakes we can make."

-----

Abbey: "Sure you don't want some acetylsalicylic acid?"

(Sam looks at her blankly)

Abbey: "Aspirin, my brother."

Sam (smiling): "What a dumb major you had."

-----

Abbey: "When did I stop being Dr. Bartlet? When in the campaign did I decide that women were going to like me more if I called myself 'Mrs.'? When did I decide that women were that stupid?"

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

Congressman Andy Ritter, ranking minority member of the House Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary, is played by John Rubenstein (Family, Crazy Like A Fox, The Boys From Brazil).

(By the way, wouldn't the subcommittee in charge of appropriations for the Justice department already include the judiciary? Why would these be listed separately? At least as of 2019 it's officially named the Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, which makes more sense.)

Congressmen Warren and Rossiter are played by Richard McGonagle (left, lots of voice work in video games and animated series, as well as appearances in shows like Third Rock From The Sun and The Practice) and Robert Walden (right, All The President's Men, Lou Grant, Brothers)

The network executive Paul Hackett is played by familiar face Peter Michael Goetz (the Father Of The Bride movies, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Glory). We'll assume Hackett is with NBC, as that's the network that broadcasts Dateline (as well as The West Wing).

The badass National Security Adviser Nancy McNally is back, played by Anna Deavere Smith:

(We don't get to see Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Fitzwallace (John Amos) in this episode, but we hear President Bartlet order that he be briefed and that's who's on the other end of the phone call above.)

In the course of ordering the removal of non-essential personnel from Haiti, the President mentions "pulling nine dead bodies out of Colombia" - a reference to the failed hostage rescue mission in The War At Home.

We see those old-school pagers again, this time on Josh's belt:

Sam's been wearing monogrammed shirts pretty much all season. They're still wrong, by the way, reading sNs instead of the sSn they should (the initial of the last name is supposed to be the large initial in the center, not the one for his middle name, Norman):

I'm not sure if the name has been mentioned before, but Abbey and Babish confirm Dr. Herman Vikram was the original diagnosing doctor for Jed's MS.

DC location shots

The scene where Josh meets with Congressman Ritter was filmed outside the Department of Commerce building, on 15th Street NW (just southeast of the White House, facing the Ellipse):

Here's a street view of the building today. The canopy over the sidewalk isn't there now, but you can see that exit, the guard shack they walk past, and the archways behind them:

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

Sam says President Bartlet's favorability ratings are right up with those of famed, trusted newsman Walter Cronkite.

Sam also says the public announcement of Bartlet's MS should be done from behind the Kennedy desk, so John Kennedy must have been President in this universe. The desk Kennedy used in the Oval Office is usually referred to as the Resolute desk, originally a gift to President Rutherford Hayes in 1880, and which has been used in the Oval Office by almost every President since Jimmy Carter brought it back to the White House in 1977.

The deal is made to have the interview with the Bartlets on the NBC news show Dateline; possible interviewers mentioned are Russert (Tim Russert), Diane (Diane Sawyer), and Stone Phillips (who was in real life a co-anchor of Dateline from 1992 to 2007).

CJ brings up fictional television newscaster Ted Baxter (from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) as well as the 1960s TV series Petticoat Junction.

Jed's good-natured ribbing of Mrs. Landingham over her car purchase includes his calling her Bob Cratchit (from Dickens' A Christmas Carol), Mammy Yokum (from the comic strip Li'l Abner), and Fannie May (a chocolate brand with 197 shops in North America before 2002). If he meant "Fannie Mae" instead, that refers to the Federal National Mortgage Association.

We get lots of CNN on TVs in the background here. It appears Geraldo Rivera is doing a live shot behind Charlie here:

Then we later get what is meant to be footage from demonstrations in Haiti:

And it appears Bernard Shaw is anchoring while Leo has CNN on in his office:

Mrs. Landingham says her new car is highly rated by Consumer Reports.

Products: Once again Keeper Springs water makes an appearance, in the basement conference room. Keeper Springs has practically been a season sponsor this season: