The Two Bartlets - TWW S3E13

Original airdate: January 30, 2002

Teleplay by: Kevin Falls (5) and Aaron Sorkin (56)
Story by: Gene Sperling (2)

Directed by: Alex Graves (8)

Synopsis

• President Bartlet swings by the Iowa caucuses, but his tepid remarks on affirmative action are the spark for a tense personal conflict with Toby; Josh and Amy's stop-and-start romance starts, stops, and then starts again; CJ reveals upsetting details about her father's health; Sam gets concerned about what's actually in Fort Knox; and Donna tries to get out of jury duty.

"He was Uncle Fluffy. It's Dr. Jekyll and Uncle Fluffy all over again."

The relationship between Toby and President Bartlet has always been fraught with complexity and tension. Think back to The Crackpots And These Women - Toby urges Jed to listen to his better angels, Jed gets snippy about his attitude, Toby is peeved when he discovers he wasn't the first choice for Communications Director - and they work it out with that marvelous Bartlet speech about how he'd "be in the weeds" without him and how much he needs Toby on his side. And then 17 People, where Toby's mind can't stop working until he susses out there's something going on behind the scenes, which causes Jed to erupt at him about having to reveal his multiple sclerosis and how he covered it up during the campaign - and again, they work it out at the end when the President begrudgingly admits he had been wrong, and he has to take responsibility for what he's done.

Even though (as we saw in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part I) Toby has been part of President Bartlet's inner circle longer than anyone except Leo, this clash of personalities and histories continues to play out. Toby, the old-school liberal who protested "The Man" as a youngster, who often serves as the conscience of the administration; and Jed, who despite his pledge in Let Bartlet Be Bartlet to follow his heart and not let noble goals be sacrificed on the altar of what's expedient, can often be seen taking the easier, more electorally possible path with many policies - showing one amiable, easygoing face to the electorate while suppressing his baser instincts of winning at any cost. Almost like there's, I don't know, two Bartlets?

The continuing friction between these poles bubbles over again in this episode. As the 2002 campaign kicks into high gear with the Iowa caucuses, one Republican Presidential candidate (Gov. Ritchie, about whom we will hear much more in the future) has spoken out against affirmative action for college admissions. Most of the staff pooh-pooh the entire issue, dismissing that particular candidate as having no chance, but both Toby and the President read the electoral tea leaves much differently. Toby insists President Bartlet must respond to Ritchie's comment, to stake a claim to the Democratic/liberal position of support for the concept of affirmative action. But Jed drags his feet, rewriting the script Toby has Sam write for him, and finally delivers a tepid answer to a reporter's question about the topic:

Reporter: "Mr. President, Donald Atwell, Iowa City Standard. Governor Ritchie came out this morning in support of the Pennsylvania Referendum banning affirmative action, with regard to college admissions, and I was wondering if you'd comment."

President: "Well, you know what, now that we've abolished discrimination in our laws, we need to abolish it in our hearts and minds."

Reporter: "But specifically with regards to -"

President: "Thanks a lot, everybody. It's great to be back in Iowa."

Once again, the President is trying to play both sides. He isn't really against the notion of affirmative action, but he also doesn't want to anger conservative-leaning voters who might still be considering him. Instead of using his office to fight for noble goals, he's tacking towards the expedient safety of the middle ground to garner more votes - exactly the kind of thing that drives Toby, liberal conscience of the administration, nuts.

Toby: "It's happening again."

CJ: "Toby ..."

Toby: "It is."

CJ: "He was good."

Toby: "No, he wasn't."

CJ: "He was what he was supposed to be."

Toby: "He was Uncle Fluffy. It's Dr. Jekyll and Uncle Fluffy all over again."

The real flashpoint comes later, once the trip to Iowa is over, as Toby comes to see the President in the Oval Office. After first telling Charlie he can't see him, Bartlet relents, offering Toby a bourbon as they talk. After a preliminary discussion of Ritchie and the types of personalities that appeal to voters nationwide, Toby gets to the point of what's bothering him:

Toby: "Well, there's always been a concern ... about the two Bartlets. The absent-minded professor with the 'Aw, Dad' sense of humor. Disarming and unthreatening. Good for all time zones. And the Nobel Laureate. Still searching for salvation. Lonely, frustrated. Lethal."

President: "You're gonna sing a country western song?"

Toby: "The one whose father never liked him because he was too smart." 

He strikes a nerve. We know from Two Cathedrals that Jed's relationship with his father was also complicated, and fraught with (even physical) conflict. But to have Toby bring that up, in the context of Jed still searching for his father's approval by winning elections, enrages the President. And when Toby (ever the detective, as we saw in 17 People) figures out that Jed's father used to hit him, the President has had enough with the amateur psychoanalysis:

Toby: "He didn't like you, sir. That's why he hit you. That's why people hit each other. He didn't like you. You were smarter than he was."

President: "Why are we talking about this?"

Toby: "So maybe if you get enough votes, win one more election, maybe your father will -"

President: "You have stepped way over the line, and any other President would have your ass on the sidewalk right now."

Toby: "Yes, sir."

President: "They would've had you on the sidewalk a long time ago. I don't know what the hell goes on in a Brooklyn shrink's office, but get it the hell out of my house." 

Toby: "Thank you, Mr. President."

Unlike the previous confrontations we've seen between Toby and Jed, this one is not wrapped up at the end of the episode. There's still a lot of conflict and unease there ... just like life!

The Josh/Amy romance continues to heat up -despite the fact that Josh's strategy seems rather passive-aggressive. He careens from low-key affection cushioned in an abundance of snark to outright meanness wrapped up in a superiority complex. (Not even one college course in psychology, and look at me diagnosing and all!) And Amy can't seem to decide whether it'd be better to cut her losses and not deal with a box of neuroses like Josh, or if she'd rather act like she doesn't really like him while spending all her time mooning around him.

That said, the chemistry between the two is undeniable, and I give tons of credit to Bradley Whitford and Mary-Louise Parker, as well as the crackling writing Aaron Sorkin gives them both. Josh and Amy are outwardly confident, successful, professional people loaded with wit and intelligence, and that adds up to some entertaining sparring matches for us to watch.

The episode begins with Amy stopping by Josh's apartment at 5:15 in the morning. Why? She basically is there to tell him 1) she doesn't think much of him as a romantic partner; 2) her congressman boyfriend asked her to marry him; and 3) she turned him down, because ... well, why else would she be dropping by Josh's place at 5:15 in the morning? As the story develops, Josh decides to do something really out-of-character: he asks Amy to pick up and leave with him on a trip, right away, the day after tomorrow, to Tahiti, just off the top of his head. Amy is intrigued by this new, freewheeling, carefree Josh:

And she immediately sets out to buy bikinis and learn Tahitian.

Of course Josh can't actually consummate his "new self." A conversation with Sam foreshadows the way things always happen with Josh:

Sam: "I recognize this."

Josh: "As what?"

Sam: "She didn't break up with him for you. I guarantee it. She is a fully independent woman. She's the real thing. Stop looking at her different than you did yesterday."

Josh: "I just said it was a little fast."

Sam: "The next thing that happens, you find a reason to be mad at her."

Aaaaand ... Sam turns out to be right. Josh is dealing with a friend who is protesting American military exercises on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. When a meeting is set up for the day after tomorrow - the same day as his planned Tahiti getaway - he decides he needs to stay for that, even though Leo gives him an escape hatch:

Josh: "We were supposed to ... this is ridiculous. We were supposed to go away."

Leo: "Where?"

Josh: "It doesn't matter. We just ... we've been having trouble getting together on ... day after tomorrow?"

Leo: "Go."

Josh: "I can't."

Leo: "Go."

Josh: "I need to be here for this."

Leo: "No, you don't."

Josh: "Don't worry about it."

Leo: "My wife lives in my house. I live in a hotel. And this is why." 

So he calls Amy, who is relaxing on her bed learning Tahitian with her dog, Henry:

And he tells her the trip is off, he can't go, he has to stay because of this meeting, and no, Leo isn't making him stay, he wants to. Which eventually leads to him being, well, a jerk. Again.

Amy: "Look, don't get angry at me."

Josh: "I'm not."

Amy: "You're getting pre-emptively angry with me, which assumes I'm other people, and frankly, I'd rather be a political asset, if you know what I mean."

Josh: "I do, and when you're done comparison shopping, give me a call."

Amy: "Well, I'd definitely be waiting by your phone, Josh. Take it easy."

That would be the end of any normal budding relationship, right? This isn't exactly normal. Josh somehow convinces Amy to come back to his apartment later, which he has transformed into some Georgetown-lite version of Tahiti,with UB40 playing ("They don't have UB40 in Tahiti?"):

And this apparently works on her, as she pulls him in for a kiss:

You just hope things turn out for those two wacky kids!

CJ's revelation of her father's failing mental condition is actually setting up an episode coming in Season 4, but it's used here as a contrast to Toby's liberally positive view of affirmative action. While Toby sees it as a way to right past wrongs and provide opportunity to groups historically denied them, CJ sees it in a much more personal light:

CJ: "After my father fought in Korea, he became what this government begs every college graduate to become. He became a teacher, and he raised a family on a teacher's salary. And he paid his taxes, and he always crossed at the green. And anytime there was an opportunity for career advancement, it took an extra five years because invariably there is a less-qualified black woman in the picture, so instead of retiring as superintendent of the Ohio Valley Union Free School District, he retired head of the math department at William Henry Harrison Junior High."

And this backstory is brought to immediate attention in CJ's mind because of the battles her father is dealing with as symptoms of dementia begin to take hold:

CJ: "The President in Iowa. He said, 'Let's banish discrimination from our minds and hearts.' How is affirmative action doing that?"

Toby: "I'm talking about college admissions."

CJ: "I"m talking about my father."

Toby: "Why?"

CJ: "Cause he's not doing fine. He forgets things. ... He forgets things."

Toby: "He's not a young guy anymore."

CJ: "I'm not talking about dates and phone numbers."

Toby: "I know."

CJ: "He forgets what's going on. He thought this was the general election today, and ... he snaps back in, but ... And I ... I think sometimes that if he'd lived ... the life he wanted to ... and he's gotta watch me bopping around on Air Force One."

 

Making government policy personal is something Sorkin is pretty good at, and because we care about these characters, we care about what's going on in their lives - as well as how decisions made by government can affect individual people. 

We've also got Sam's storyline with Bob Engler, but that's notable really only for the return of Engler from the US Space Command (he got Sam wound up about tracking UFOs in the first Big Block of Cheese episode, The Crackpots And These Women). It adds a little humorous leavening to the episode, as does Donna's attempts to get help to get out of jury duty by pumping up Josh's ego while also ribbing him about seeing Amy:

Josh: "Yes, well, there's nothing I can do for you."

Donna: "I'm surprised to hear you say that 'cause you're such a powerful man. All the girls say so. Have you been zapped of the power by the lovemaking?"

(Overhearing this, Margaret is brought up short)

Bottom line, though, the seriousness of campaigning and following the twin tracks of governing/running an administration while also finding a way to convince voters to support you again is brought to the fore. And it serves to drive a bit of a wedge between Toby and the President, at least for the time being. It's a theme of gravitas that's going to keep building as Season 3 continues.

Tales Of Interest!

- The previous episode, 100,000 Airplanes, really had just two storylines, an A plot and a B plot. Here you could say the plotlines run all the way through letter F (the Toby/Jed conflict, Josh and Amy, CJ and her dad, the Vieques protest, Sam and Bob Engler, and Donna/jury duty).

- Even though Sam is shunted off to a low-level, humorous storyline (again), I really like the structure and writing of that thread. The silly suspense of Bob Engler's face being hidden behind a lamp when Sam comes into the Roosevelt Room; Sam's secretive, confiding tone with Bob after talking to Josh (about an entirely unrelated topic); and the fun Toby and CJ have at Sam's expense.

Sam: "What are we keeping in the bullion depository at Fort Knox?"

CJ (pause): "Soup?"

Sam: "No, seriously. There used to be 8500 metric tons of gold there, now most of it's moved out."

CJ: "Yeah."

Sam: "What's there now?"

Toby (conspiratorially): "I wouldn't ask a lot of questions, Sam."

Sam: "What do you mean?"

Toby (with a wink): "Don't worry about it."

- Speaking of Toby and CJ, we know they've always been close (from In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II, where we find they knew each other even before joining the Bartlet campaign). There's lots of little revelations dropped in throughout the series about how much regard they have for each other. The scene in CJ's office where she unloads about her father is a gem, and Toby's ability to just listen to her and offer unspoken support is wonderful - and then the way they can seamlessly shift gears away from that to poke fun at Sam ... it's like they have their own silent form of communication. It's golden.

- Timeline-wise, Amy says it's still January. The Iowa caucuses were held in January in both 2000 (January 24) and 2004 (January 19).

- Interesting that in a world that previously gave us the much-used fictional cable news channel CND, that used real-life MSNBC as host of a Presidential town hall, and has real-life CNN on constantly in the background, so much news coverage of the day's events is seen on a non-labeled generic TV channel that doesn't change the screen composition all day long.

- Sam and CJ's reaction to Governor Ritchie possibly being the Republican nominee, and their glee at how easy he would be to defeat, certainly has parallels to 2016 and the early general belief that nominating Donald Trump would be a gift to Democrats. We all know how that worked out.

- Both cruising altitudes we hear from the pilot of Air Force One (FL 410 on the way to Iowa, FL 370 on the trip back) are for eastbound air traffic only. So the trip to Iowa was at an inappropriate altitude for the direction of flight.

- There's a quick glimpse of Gail's fishbowl, but not enough to see exactly what's in there this episode:

- I am terrifically impressed by some really, really nice direction/composition of scenes by Alex Graves. This was the eighth time Graves had directed an episode, becoming one of the show's mainstays. He also was named a producer on the show beginning with this season; with the next upcoming episode (Night Five) he became a supervising producer. He was co-executive producer for Seasons 4 and 5, then executive producer for Season 6 and much of 7.

Anyway, just a sampling of some of the creative composition/camera work in this episode: Amy coming into Josh's apartment, reflected in a mirror:

The steadily held shot of Josh and Amy talking, with just the back of Amy's head. When Josh eventually moves out of the shot toward the camera, Amy turns to face us. This is just an usual way to picture the scene; a typical director would cut between the actors instead:

Likewise, this shot of Josh's office just has the camera unflinching steady, looking into the office, as Josh and Donna move in and out of the shot. It's just great:

The humorous depiction of Bob Engler, his face hidden behind a lamp, as Sam comes to meet him in the Roosevelt Room:

The out-of-focus framing of decorations at the edge of the shot of Josh and Amy:

Toby leaving the Oval Office after his confrontation with the President, turning off the television coverage of the caucuses while Bartlet broods in the background:

...



Quotes    

Josh (thinking he's talking to Amy on the phone): "Time number one was on the steps in front of my apartment when you kissed me. It was snowing. Time number two was when you came over after the State of the Union. Time number three was at your house when you put on your bootleg tape of the Stones at Wembley Stadium and put on your feather boa and sang "Honky Tonk Woman." Time number four involved a variety of hosiery -"

Leo: "Josh, I'm gonna stop you right here, okay?"

Josh: "Leo?"

Leo: "Yeah."

Josh: "Anybody else in the office?"

Margaret (over Leo's shoulder): "Hey, Josh."

-----

CJ: "Duchamp is the father of Dadaism."

Toby: "I know."

CJ: "The dada of Dada."

Toby: "It's like there's nothing you can do about that joke. It's coming, and you just have to stand there." 

-----

Sam (on the phone with Toby): "Hey, I'm gonna guess where you are right now, okay?"

Toby: "Okay."

Sam: "Wheels up was 5:35 heading west-northwest. You're not at your cruising altitude yet, so I'm gonna say an average of 400 knots with a light headwind, but I'm gonna go ahead and guess Cumberland, West Virginia. Am I right?"

Toby: "I have no idea."

Sam: "Well, then we'll say I'm right."

-----

Toby: "Sir, I've read it twice, and I don't even know where you stand on affirmative action."

President: "Yeah, I was trying to avoid a quote."

Toby: "As well as nouns and pronouns." 

-----

Sam: "All right, well, the lawyers are gonna ask you some general questions, and -"

Donna: "For instance?"

Sam: "Do you know any reason why you can't render an impartial verdict?"

Donna: "I hate criminals."

Sam: "Do you have any prejudices or feelings that might influence the jury in rendering a verdict?"

Donna: "I hate criminals, and I'm assuming if you're in this courtroom, you did something wrong, so -"

Sam: "Yeah, the judge is gonna throw you in jail."

-----

Sam: "Hey, you know what? You remember that UFO you were tracking over Maui? Turned out to be an abandoned Russian satellite. One of its rockets didn't fire, so it couldn't reenter."

Engler: "So you would have us believe."

Sam: "No, really."

Engler (condescendingly): "Yes, of course." 

-----

Sam: "Who brought it to your attention?"

Engler: "Let's just say a friend of ours."

Sam (pause): "A human friend, or ...?"

-----

Toby: "No word on the Republicans?"

Charlie: "There's a poll that has Ritchie pulling even."

CJ: "Oh, that'd be too much to hope for."

Toby: "There's an old expression: Quando dio, ole castigarci ci manda, quello che desideriamo. When the gods wish to punish, us, they answer our prayers."

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

• Josh is wearing the too-big pajamas CJ gave him as a present (The Midterms) during his recuperation from being shot. Here's the debut of those pajamas from that episode:

And here he is wearing those same pajamas as he waits for Amy to come up:

• We got a glimpse of  CJ's relationship with her father as she wrote an email to him during The Stackhouse Filibuster. Now we learn about his teaching history (wrapped up with CJ's distaste for affirmative action programs) as well as his faltering mental state, which will be addressed again in a Season 4 episode.

• We hear the voice of Lt. Col. Gantry as the pilot of Air Force One. That's the same pilot we heard on the intercom in Manchester Part I.

• We get a reference to Leo's divorce when he tells Josh his wife lives in his house while he lives in a hotel.

• Bob Engler (Sam Lloyd, best known for Scrubs) of the US Space Command returns (first seen in The Crackpots And These Women).

• Toby's comments about Jed's father - how he used to hit Jed, how Jed was too smart for him - reflect directly on what we saw and heard about the Bartlet's relationship in Two Cathedrals.

DC location shots    

• None

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

• We get references to Hamlet and Ophelia in the early conversation between Josh and Amy, so Shakespeare is a thing in this universe.

• Josh brings up Amy's bootleg tape of the Stones (the Rolling Stones, presumably) at Wembley Stadium, as well as their song "Honky Tonk Women."

• The pilot of Air Force One says they'll be landing at the very real Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (my old workplace from 1991 to 2018!). We also see Bartlet speaking at the University of Iowa (which is typically called the U of I, not UI as Toby says).

• The butter cow is indeed a real Iowa thing, created each year since 1911 for the Iowa State Fair in August (not for a 4-H convention in January). A butter Elvis Presley was also made for the state fair in 1997, and a version of The Last Supper (originally by Leonardo da Vinci) was made in 1999 (just over two years prior to this episode). It's unclear whether the butter version of The Last Supper actually had a stick of butter on the table.

• The tale of actor Billy Molina and his protest of American practice bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques is based on real events, and has a future West Wing tie-in: actor Jimmy Smits (who will play a major role on the series in future seasons) was arrested for taking part in a similar protest on Vieques in 2001.

• Marcel Duchamp, the father of Dada, gets a shoutout from CJ.

• To me, this kinda looks like an MSNBC-branded webpage showing the island of Vieques on the laptop screen behind CJ.

• Star Wars must exist, as Toby mentions the name Obi-Wan.

• Presidents mentioned in this episode include William Henry Harrison (namesake of the school CJ's dad taught at),  Franklin Roosevelt, Truman (both visited Fort Knox), and Washington (Toby quotes his words on the need for a national university).

• Amy appears on C-SPAN, and we also see footage of the President speaking on KWWL, channel 7 (that's the NBC affiliate in Waterloo, Iowa, which covers the Iowa City market).

• Josh mentions the reggae group UB40, then plays their cover of "Red, Red Wine" when Amy comes to his Tahitian-decorated apartment.

• Disneyworld's Epcot and the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox are referred to.

• Toby makes a reference to Dr. Jekyll and Uncle Fluffy, so the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde exists.

• CNN anchor Bobbie Battista is seen on a TV screen fleetingly in the background. In a somewhat coincidental connection in this episode including the Iowa caucuses and President Bartlet's trip to the University of Iowa, Battista was actually a native of Iowa City (she just passed away in March of 2020, and I didn't realize she was from Iowa until her obituary appeared in my local newspaper).

• Josh tells Donna if she skips out of jury duty, she can't complain about the OJ (Simpson) verdict.

• In products, Josh has an empty Folgers can in his refrigerator (as well as some cans of Dole fruit and some variety of V8 drink); he's later seen carrying a couple of Starbucks cups:

End credits freeze frame: The President mulling things over after his tense discussion with Toby.