Isaac And Ishmael - TWW S3E1

Original airdate: October 3, 2001

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (44)

Directed by: Christopher Misiano (5)

Synopsis

• With the nation on edge due to some unspecified event, a possible link between a terrorist entering the country and a low-level White House staffer causes the building to be locked down. A group of high school students caught inside have a give-and-take with senior staffers, and even the President himself. Leo goes a bit off the deep end in questioning the suspect government employee.

"Bad people can't be recognized on sight. There's no point in trying."

Isaac And Ishmael was Aaron Sorkin's instant reaction to the 9/11 attacks on the United States, and boy, are opinions divided about this one. On one hand, it's been widely criticized for its preachy tone, its overly simplistic takes on terrorism and America's response, and (certainly for me) its radically out-of-character portrayal of Leo as a closet racist. On the other hand, it's been noted as a well-intentioned, if not entirely successful, attempt to respond to the events of 9/11, to lay out the differences between radical fundamentalists and the Muslim faith, and an effort to apply logic and reason to the anger and fear radiating throughout the nation. While it rates among most critics' least favorite episodes of The West Wing (although not much can get lower than Access or Ninety Miles Away), there are a few who put it among their favorites - or, at least they did in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. I think with nearly 20 years of reflection, it doesn't completely hold up. Even Sorkin himself, in interviews he gave the following year in 2002, recognizes the fact that maybe the episode wasn't what he hoped it would be.

Sorkin: "Some sort of respect had to be paid to the event that just happened. We couldn't just do a regular West Wing. I don't think that it was a good episode of The West Wing. I don't think it was an episode of The West Wing. I don't even know if it was good television. But what I do know for sure is that it was well-intended."

In another interview he said:

"I know there were ways to deal with September 11 on the show and do it well. But I wasn't able to find them."

But let's give Sorkin a little bit of credit. The reverberations of the attacks in September affected almost every aspect of life in America, including prime time television. Every network delayed their fall season premieres from their original September airdates, with many series not starting until October. NBC wanted to get The West Wing's third season started the first week of October with the originally scheduled two-parter that would kick off President Bartlet's re-election campaign - but Sorkin insisted that this special episode addressing terrorism, racism, and the differences between religion and fundamentalism be aired first.

A typical West Wing episode would have about three weeks between the end of shooting and the episode going to air, three weeks for editing, post-production, and everything involved in getting the show ready - and that was after the writing, casting, and filming process that took several weeks as well. Sorkin started thinking about this special episode immediately after the attacks, then he wrote the script, the guest roles were cast, the episode was filmed and went through post-production, and it hit the air three weeks and one day after 9/11. Sorkin's script was delivered September 20, production started the next day, and the last day of filming was October 1, two days before the episode aired. That's a ridiculously fast turnaround from genesis to final product; given that, some of the preachiness and odd tone can be excused.

First off, we're told this episode doesn't fit into the timeline continuity of the series; it's a Very Special Episode, a play, if you will, and it's not meant to be part of the storyline of the overall series. This information comes to us in an opening segment (not seen on the Netflix version, but included on the DVD, and I definitely remember it from watching the broadcast in 2001) where the actors, as themselves and not their characters, explain why this episode exists. There is no "previously on The West Wing," there is no cold-open teaser segment, there are no opening credits - just  a few somber piano notes of the show's theme, then Martin Sheen, Rob Lowe, Allison Janney, John Spencer, Dulè Hill, Bradley Whitford, Richard Schiff, and Stockard Channing talking about this special episode, and how profits will be sent to relief funds for New York City firefighters and police and their families.

The actors then plug the upcoming season and the premiere airing the following week, mentioning some of the storylines that will be included. So this is very, very obviously different from a regular episode. And instead of the normal opening of the show, more somber music plays with a graphic encouraging viewers to donate to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.

Just seeing that (again, only on the DVD and not the Netflix version) takes me emotionally back to that fall in 2001, when Americans were giving to the suffering residents of New York and Washington, and everyone was still in shock and on edge after that fateful day. So at least that part is effective.

We can dispatch with the plot fairly quickly. A suspected terrorist caught crossing the border from Canada to Vermont gives up the names of other suspects, and one of those names matches someone working in the White House. As the Secret Service investigates, they "crash" or lock down the building, meaning no one can enter or leave. This means a group of high school students (the "Presidential Classroom") are stuck inside with Josh as their host. He takes them to the Mess, where a discussion is kicked off by the question, "Why is everyone trying to kill us?" Josh, Toby, Sam, CJ, and Charlie all step in, covering various angles of the threat of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism:

• Josh draws the parallel of Islamic fundamentalism being to the Muslim faith as the Ku Klux Klan is to Christianity, meaning the efforts of terrorists to attack America shouldn't be confused with the religion of Islam as a whole (just as American Christians would not consider the KKK a valid expression of their faith).

• Toby builds on that, radically, by comparing the Taliban takeover of the government of Afghanistan to the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939.

• Sam is shown to be an expert on terrorism, for some reason ("I dabble"), and he talks about the origins of terror as a religious and political tool, as well as terrorism's consistent failure to achieve its aims.

• CJ pipes up as the defender of the CIA and the intelligence community, making the point that since our enemy is not a nation with capitals and elected leaders, some of these people will need to be taken out by "a busboy with a silencer," and there has to be a balance between civil liberties and actions taken for our safety. That viewpoint also riles up Toby, our resident moralist and old-school civil libertarian (even though her views are not even close to the trampling of the civil liberties of white-power groups Toby wanted in The Midterms).

• Charlie makes a quick point about the respect and "honor" terrorists can earn in their communities, similar to gang members right here in his neighborhood in America.

Then the President and First Lady breeze in, as Jed is looking for apples and peanut butter (although the students have eaten all the apples; looks like Sam got the last one).

President Bartlet gets to make his point about martyrdom not being the same as killing yourself along with innocents. Abbey sticks around to get to the Biblical basis for conflict in the Mideast; the story of Isaac and Ishmael, two sons of Abraham by different mothers who are seen as the beginnings of the tribes of Israel (Isaac) and the Arabs (Ishmael).

So, yeah, boiling down the conflict in the Middle East and the basics of Islamic fundamentalism and terrorism into a part of one episode of an American TV drama can get, well, simplistic and preachy. No two ways around that.

The other part of the episode involves the White House staffer whose name matches that given by the captured terrorist in Vermont. Rakim Ali is taken at gunpoint by the Secret Service, then interrogated in some unused room somewhere. Oddly (I know, dramatic license by Sorkin) Leo is included in the questioning, and even grills Ali himself for a while (I'm trying to picture Mick Mulvaney sitting across from a suspected terror suspect, giving him the third degree while actual interrogation experts sit and watch, and I can't quite make that work in my head).

This is where things get jarring for me. We've had absolutely no reason to believe Leo, a staunch old Democrat liberal from way back, would be any kind of secret racist or hardcore law-and-order trampler of civil rights. But here, with Ali, he acts very un-Leo-like:

Ali: "It's not uncommon for Arab-Americans to be the first suspected when that sort of thing happens."

Leo (sarcastically): "I can't imagine why."

Ali: "Look -"

Leo (still sarcastically): "No, I'm trying to figure out why anytime there's any terrorist activity, people always assume it's Arabs. I'm wracking my brain."

Ali: "I don't know the answer to that, Mr. McGarry, but I can tell you it's horrible."

Leo: "Well, that's the price you pay."

I suppose part of this approach shows the emotional gut punch 9/11 gave to America as a whole, causing even rational, level-headed Americans to want to lash out at those who looked like the people who attacked us. But I'd rather go by Toby's words from earlier in the episode:

Toby: "Bad people can't be recognized on sight. There's no point in trying."

It sure doesn't seem like the Leo we've gotten to know over the past two seasons.

Eventually the actual Rakim Ali they are looking for is found in Germany, and the questioning of the White House staffer Ali is abruptly ended, without even a "sorry" or a "thanks for your time." Later, Leo goes to see Ali at his desk, and makes a convoluted, almost incomprehensible attempt to apologize for how he treated him earlier.

Leo: "I think if you talked to people who know me, they'd tell you that ... that was unlike me. You know? (pause) We're obviously all ... under, um ... aaaa greater than usual amount of ... you know. And like you pointed out with the shooting, and everything ... (pause) ... yeah. All right. Well, that's all."

And then makes it worse, if that's possible, with his parting comment:

Leo: "Hey, kid ... way to be back at your desk."

Holy moley, that's a tone-deaf thing to say to a guy who obviously passed multiple security checks, is serving his country by working for the government, and has just been unfairly and seriously accused of being involved with terrorists. Sorkin even sets this up to intentionally make us feel better about Leo, and Ali as well. "Way to be back at your desk"? I wouldn't have blamed Ali for flying the finger at Leo and walking out at that moment. Of course, maybe he was distracted by the Buffalo Springfield song that began playing under that scene and on through the closing credits: "There's something happening here ... what it is, ain't exactly clear ..."

So that's it, that's how Season 3 gets underway. I can't blame Sorkin for wanting to address the issues of 9/11 right away, right after it happened. I can't say I think it was a bad idea to have a show so deeply tied to political issues and the government as a whole take a moment to recognize the impact of this real-world event that shook America to its core. And I have to agree that doing it before kicking off the scripted events of the season, with Bartlet's campaign and all there is to follow, was probably better than addressing it later. Was the execution as good as it could have been? No, not quite. But I do give credit where credit is due - it was a good effort (under the three-week circumstances of its production), it came from a good place, and it tried to answer some of the questions we as Americans were struggling with after the attacks. Does that make this episode more than a curiosity in West Wing and American cultural history? I don't know about that.


Tales Of Interest!

- While the opening segment has the cast members appearing as themselves and not their characters, as they describe events to come in the third season we see Janel Moloney say, "And I get a boyfriend," with a hopeful smile that really does not fit into the mood. Does that mean Janel is getting a boyfriend? No, obviously, it means Donna will get one, but it's a weird approach in the opening segment that falls completely flat.

- The graphic in the scene with Rakim Ali smoking by the window just before the Secret Service arrives places that room in the Old Executive Office Building. The name of that building (just west of the White House, where we've seen exterior shots filmed in The Short List and The Fall's Gonna Kill You) was officially changed to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building by a bill signed into law in November, 1999 (nearly two years prior to this episode), although the official re-dedication ceremony didn't occur until May of 2002.

- Ron Butterfield tells Leo they captured the terrorist Khuram Sharif as he crossed the border from Ontario into Vermont. Vermont does not share a border with Ontario, but with Quebec.

- There's a directorial/lighting choice that is subtle until you notice it, then it's like a hammer to the forehead. In the background as the students and staffers talk is the whiteboard Josh used to make his Islamic fundamentalist/KKK syllogism. Notice here how there's a spot of light directed right on that "KKK."

Quotes    

Josh: "This is the White House, the home of the President and the Executive Branch, the most powerful of the three branches of the federal government. (pointing to student) Yeah?"

Billy: "Actually, Mr. Lyman, isn't it true that the Framers made sure that the Executive Branch was the weakest of the three branches? Because we were breaking off from the royalist model that put absolute power in just one place. I mean, isn't that why they made the Legislative Branch - or, peoples' branch - the most powerful?"

Josh: "What's your name?"

Billy: "I'm Billy Fernandez."

Josh: "I'll call you Fred. A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. I don't know how long we're all going to be here, but you just made my list." 

-----

Josh: "It's not just that they don't like Irving Berlin."

Donna: "Yes, it is."

Josh: "No, it's not."

Donna: "No, not about Irving Berlin, but your ridiculous search for rational reasons why somebody straps a bomb to their chest is ridiculous."

Josh: "You just called me ridiculous twice in one sentence."

Donna: "Hardly a record for me."

-----

Josh: "We are a plural society. That means we accept more than one idea. That offends them."

-----

Toby: "And by the way, there's nothing wrong with a religion whose laws say a man's got to wear a beard or cover his head or wear a collar. It's when violation of these laws become a crime against the state and not your parents that we're talking about lack of choice." 

-----

Girl: "Weren't we terrorists at the Boston Tea Party?"

Sam: "Nobody got hurt at the Boston Tea Party. The only people that got hurt was some fancy boys that didn't have anything to wash down their crumpets with. We jumped out from behind bushes, while the British came down the road in their bright red jackets, but never has a war been so courteously declared. It was on parchment with calligraphy and 'Your highness, we beseech you on this day in Philadelphia to bite me, if you please.'"

-----

Girl: "Well, what do you call a society that just has to live everyday with the idea that the pizza place you're eating in can just blow up without any warning?"

Sam: "Israel."

-----

Boy: "Well, don't you consider - I mean, I know they're our enemy, but don't you consider there's something noble about being a martyr?"

President: "A martyr would rather suffer death at the hands of his oppressors than renounce his beliefs. Killing yourself and innocent people to make a point is sick, twisted, brutal, dumbass murder."

-----

Ali: "You know what, Mr. McGarry? You have the memory of a gypsy moth. When you and the President and the President's daughter and about a hundred other people - including me, by the way - were met by a hail of .44 caliber gunfire in Rosslyn, not only were the shooters white ... they were doing it because one of us wasn't."

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

• It's always good to see Ron Butterfield, head of the White House Secret Service detail. Michael O'Neill does a great job playing him.

• The student that Josh picks on, Billy Fernandez, is played by Josh Zuckerman (the young Dr. Evil in Goldmember, as well as stints on 90210 and Desperate Housewives):

• Another student is played by Marcus Toji (Little Giants, Patriot, appearances on Maniac and Workaholics):

• And yet another is played by Arjay Smith (The Day After Tomorrow, Sons Of Anarchy):

• Rakim Ali is played by Ajay Naidu, who you've probably seen somewhere (Office Space, Blindspot, lots of other appearances):

• Josh makes a reference to being shot at Rosslyn, and Ali makes the point he was there when the West Virginia White Pride gunmen took aim at Charlie (from What Kind Of Day Has It Been and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen).

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• Josh gets pretty emotional when he recalls the Yankees cap signed by Joe Pepitone that his mother wants him to keep in his emergency box. 

• Songwriter Irving Berlin gets mentioned, as well as Founding Father Benjamin Franklin ("Hey, look, I invented the stove"), former Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev and actor and posse-organizer John Wayne.

• There's a lot of products to see here in the Mess. It's Skippy brand peanut butter they're using on the apples:

• Sam drinks a Coca-Cola:

• And the students have enjoyed Mtn Dew, Dr Pepper, Minute Maid soda, and Snapple (among other snacks):

End credits freeze frame: There is none. The episode ends with a black background as the cast and crew names are displayed, with For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield playing, Eventually the closing music of The West Wing is heard (how jolly it sounds after this dead serious episode), but we never get the typical freeze frame.