Walking And Talking And Yelling At Clouds: Enemies Foreign And Domestic

Original airdate: May 1, 2002

Written by: Paul Redford (9) and Aaron Sorkin (62)

Directed by: Alex Graves (9)

Synopsis

CJ's public comments about a tragedy in Saudi Arabia bring death threats, and the President demands she agree to Secret Service protection. Sam's negotiations with Russian representatives over an upcoming presidential summit may be derailed when a Russian-built nuclear reactor is discovered in Iran. Leo urges the President to help out a computer maker facing a huge business problem. Toby spars with a Russian reporter, and a baffling letter to the President has Charlie confused.

"By the way, I can't guarantee anything except to say that if you're dead, chances are I am, too."

CJ is pissed.

We've seen her pissed about the plight of women in the Mideast before, in The Women Of Qumar. In that episode, after powerfully pressing her point about the morality of the United States making military deals with a country that mistreats its women, she pulled herself together and didn't let any of that show in her briefing to the press. Not so here.

CJ: "Outraged? I'm barely surprised. This is a country where women aren't allowed to drive a car. They're not allowed to be in the company of any man other than a close relative, they're required to adhere to a dress code that would make a Maryknoll nun look like Malibu Barbie. They beheaded 121 people last year for robbery, rape, and drug trafficking, but they've no free press, no elected government, no political parties, and the royal family allows the religious police to travel in groups of six, carrying nightsticks, and they freely and publicly beat women. But 'Brutus is an honorable man.' Seventeen schoolgirls were forced to burn alive because they weren't wearing the proper clothing. Am I outraged? No, Steve. No, Chris. No, Mark. That is Saudi Arabia, our partners in peace."

(Also note that instead of using an already-created fictional Middle East nation to take the brunt of CJ's anger over how they treat women, Aaron Sorkin puts Saudi Arabia on blast. Part of that is because this story of girls killed in a school fire because they were prevented from leaving actually happened. Don't feel bad for Qumar, though - that country is going to play a really important role really soon.)

Speaking out against an American ally gets CJ in some hot water, as the complaints immediately start flying into her email. But there's also a death threat in those emails, and while CJ tries to shrug it off as no big deal, her colleagues are not going to treat it so casually. I love the look Donna gives CJ when CJ tries to stop her from bringing Josh in to read it:

Josh, you'll remember, nearly died after being shot by people who made death threats against White House staff, so he's particularly inclined to take this extremely seriously. The Secret Service gets involved, Ron Butterfield (yay!) takes a look at the email, and things start getting way more dangerous. It turns out this is no random threat from someone halfway around the world mad at having his country criticized; this is someone actively stalking CJ right here, in Washington. As Ron shows her the pictures included with the latest threats, the gravity of the situation sinks in:

CJ: "Where did you get these?"

Ron: "Today's email."

CJ: "That's me leaving my house on Monday. This one's at a restaurant where I had dinner with my niece. This one's from this morning ... it was taken from about twenty feet away."

CJ agrees to Secret Service protection, and Special Agent Simon Donovan is assigned to lead her detail. Now, why am I discussing this plotline first, in an episode that features a planned summit between the leaders of the US and Russia almost being canceled because of rogue hardliners building a a nuclear reactor in Iran?

Because Simon Donovan is played by Mark Harmon, and an actor of that stature means this guy is going to be pretty important. We don't see it yet in this episode - Donovan only shows up in the final two minutes - but the story arc of CJ's stalker and the agent protecting her takes us through the end of the season.

About that summit - Chigorin, a purported political reformer, has recently been elected as Russia's president, and plans are in place for President Bartlet to meet with him in Helsinki, Finland, at the end of the week. I say "purported" because the man has a history:

Toby: "The Russians finally elect a reformer, and you still -"

Sam: "Twenty years in the KGB, an election that will make Tammany Hall look like the League of Women Voters. I'm not sure that qualifies as a ..."

(Looking back, it's somewhat ironic that this "reformer" Russian president is somewhat loosely based on Vladimir Putin, who was elected to the office for the first time in 2000 [his first stint in office ended in 2008, then he was re-elected in 2012]. Putin did indeed spend 16 years in the KGB before moving into politics. There was some hope for him being a political reformer following the failed presidency of Boris Yeltsin, but as recent events have proved, Putin is far from a trusted protector of democracy.)

Unfortunately, news soon arrives in the Oval Office of a nuclear reactor being built by the Russians in Iran. The Russians say it's a light-water reactor designed to generate electricity, but:

President: "What's the problem?"

Fitzwallis: "Four intelligence agencies are telling me I'm wrong, and I am. The Russians are building them a heavy water reactor."

President: "What do you use heavy water for?"

Leo: "Plutonium."

So the Russians are helping Iran enrich plutonium and possibly develop a nuclear weapon. This is something the United States cannot allow, and certainly can't be seen to condone by meeting with the Russian president should word of this reactor leak to the public. Some advisers have a thought, though - perhaps this reactor is being pushed through by hardliners, ex-Soviet Cold War military and government types who aren't on the side of the newly elected president, and who are taking advantage of the early steps of a new administration just getting on its feet to spread influence into the Middle East. There's no way to be sure, though, so Leo and Josh start thinking of excuses to get Bartlet out of the summit:

Josh: "There's something ... really good on television."

Leo: "What?"

Josh: "That's why he can't go, there's something really good on television and the President doesn't know how to work a VCR."

However - all is not lost. Sam is negotiating with a couple of fellows from the Russian Embassy over some last-minute details on the summit - scheduling, menu items, little things like that. In the course of their discussions, Sam encounters some communication-related problems - phrases like "it's coming down to it" and "it's funny you should mention that" are puzzling the Russians, as they don't have a grasp of English idioms.

And then, as they're wrapping up, Nikolai Ivanovich has a request of his own. He wants to add language to the joint statement released at the close of the summit, a statement with wording already worked out at the highest levels of diplomacy. Why would an Embassy staff member want to get this wording - wording he tells Sam he wrote himself - cleared through the White House Deputy Communications Director? And about that statement:

Sam: "What he wanted added was, 'Together in partnership, we must stem the tide of nuclear proliferation, for why should our two nations still possess the power to destroy themselves ten times over; surely once is enough.' Now, I have to tell you, sir, that both these negotiators had conversational English, but they didn't have idioms. I promise you -"

President: "'Stem the tide' is an English idiom."

Sam: "Yeah, and they don't have 'surely, once is enough,' either."

Josh: "Sir, Chigorin wrote that."

Sam: "I think he's trying to send you a message, Mr. President."

President: "He is trying to send me a message!"

Chigorin uses idiomatic phrases familiar in English, but obviously not familiar to the two guys from the Embassy, to get a sort of coded message to the White House that he is in favor of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, that he is not on board with the reactor in Iran being built by holdovers from a previous regime. And the summit is saved.

You gotta give Sorkin the writer credit by making words the hero - he's able to use language, written language, and the structure and form and color of English phrases as a key plot point in the episode. International tensions and a possible Iranian nuclear weapon are avoided thanks to idioms! It's like the wildest possible geopolitical fantasy a writer and student of language could ever have.

Toby has absolutely nothing to do (except shoot the breeze with a White House security officer) - until CJ gives him a job. He's asked to deal with a Russian journalist from a newspaper critical of the Russian government, so critical, in fact, that the government refuses to issue her press credentials to cover the summit. Toby has to figure out if the Americans should credential her instead. Of course freedom of the press comes to the forefront, and the credentials are issued, but not before Toby gives the reporter a lecture about the responsibilities the press also holds to maintain that freedom:

Toby: "You reported the failing grades of the Defense Minister's twelve-year-old son! Does that even count as journalism? Does that do anything but bring ridicule on a defenseless kid? We've got people like you here, on cable and on the internet, and there's no one anywhere on the ideological spectrum that doesn't roll their eyes when their names are spoken out loud."

(Another personal note, from the viewpoint of 18 years in the future - if only people "anywhere on the ideological spectrum" would still roll their eyes at commentators like this "on cable and on the internet," instead of having people in positions of power who should know better amplify and spread conspiracy theories and wild attacks against serious journalism. It'd be a far, far better country we'd be living in.)

In addition to the summit and the Iranian reactor problem, President Bartlet has another problem. Antares, a huge American computer chip manufacturer, has found a problem with their product and they're going to announce a recall of all their computer chips. Leo tells the President that's some 80,000 chips, a move that will prove devastating (if not fatal) to their company. Leo presses Bartlet to provide some government help, some loan guarantees, something to help them through this calamity - but the President has an issue with that. Jake Kimball, head of Antares, was one of the largest contributors to Bartlet's presidential campaign. The President knows he can't provide any government support for Kimball - it'll look like a favor being granted in return for his financial support, a "quid pro quo," if you will. Bartlet turns down the plan Leo draws up, but he does commit to the federal government keeping their contracts with the company. Even if their sales take a massive hit in the market, the US government will keep buying Antares products.

Charlie's story is quite engaging. He's got a letter, but it's not just any letter - it has the President's secret mail code, a code number that's only used by those with some kind of relationship to Bartlet. But this letter is from a kid who says he met the President's assistant Mr. Farley, meeting at a Presidential speech on the budget in Pittsburgh. This is baffling, though - President Bartlet never gave a budget speech in Pittsburgh, and no one can recall an assistant named Farley.

Charlie just can't let this go. Something about this letter has him determined to solve the puzzle, but every direction he can think of turns up empty. Until, in a frankly incredible coincidence that Sorkin should probably be ashamed of concocting, he overhears a casual remark between Toby and the President:

Toby: "The Journal probably wrote an editorial about his broken promises, too."

President: "Hey, I should be able to reference that speech. When did he give that? It was in the industrial Northeast."

Toby: "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania."

President: "Charlie, FDR gave a budget speech in 1932 in Pittsburgh, can you get your hands on a copy?"

Charlie puts two and two together - Bartlet used the same mail code as Franklin Roosevelt (one of his heroes, it turns out), it was Roosevelt who delivered that speech in Pittsburgh, and somehow a letter written in 1932 was delivered to the White House 70 years later.

Charlie actually tracks down the "kid" who wrote the letter, Alan Tatum, now 70 years older, and brings him and his son to the White House to finally meet the President. Of course the Tatums are thrilled and excited to be in the Oval Office, but it's sweet to see Tatum's reaction when he realizes it was Charlie, a young African-American working right next to the President of the United States, who made the extra effort to respond to a letter sent decades ago. Not only is he honored to get photographed with the President, but he makes a special effort to get a picture with Charlie, too:

A lot going on this episode, as we're thrown back into the neverending stream of events and crises, big and small, that an administration deals with every day. On the one hand, Sorkin the writer gets to use the English language as a code system for special undercover diplomatic communication; on the other hand he uses a coincidental off-topic remark at just the exact right time to solve a problem for Charlie, in a conceit that's barely believable in science fiction. Ha! But the key for us, the viewers, is to get on board the CJ death-threat storyline and get ready to ride that to what we expect to be a cliffhanger ending to Season 3.

Tales Of Interest!

- The opening of the episode - the part that usually gives us scenes "previously on The West Wing" - simply shows snippets of earlier episodes where characters announced their job titles. We also saw this with the Season 1 episode Celestial Navigation; I think it's partly because there's not really a tie-in with previous stories here (we're ramping up for the final arc to finish the season) and partly because it followed the Documentary Special, perhaps as a way to greet new viewers to the show.

- Gail's fishbowl has the symbol for "female," the one that looks like a mirror (as opposed to the shield/spear symbol depicting "male").

That ties in with CJ's anger over how women are treated in Saudi Arabia.

Here's a close-up:

- The story of the schoolgirls who died after being prevented from fleeing a fire by Saudi religious police is based on a real tragedy. Sorkin made a few changes around the edges - in reality, 15 girls died, while in the script it was 17; the actual fire was at a school in Mecca, while in the show it occurred in Medina. But the point is the same: the mutawa would not let the girls leave the burning building, because in their view they could not be seen by rescue workers in their "inappropriate" garb, and therefore the girls died in the fire. Some articles about this episode said more Americans probably learned of this event from The West Wing than read about it in news media reports at the time.

- Another point about that plotline - the fire in Mecca happened March 11, just 50 days before this episode aired. That means Sorkin was still working on the script six weeks before broadcast, a really short time for a major network TV show (although if you remember Isaac And Ishmael, that entire episode went from idea to script to filming to editing to broadcast in only 22 days ... but I'll grant that one is a special case). The time-crunch problems with the series' production caused by Sorkin's individual deep involvement with every episode is well-known, and the pressures of keeping up with the network's schedule and contracted number of episodes (along with the studio's reluctance to keep paying the ballooning shooting expenses caused by later and later delivery of scripts) led to him leaving the show after Season 4.

- Multiple times over the past two-plus seasons we've seen CJ working on a Gateway brand laptop at her desk. Now, for the first time (I think), she's using a Mac laptop.

- As you know, I keep an eye on how President Bartlet has his desk arranged, as he (or, more likely, the set decorator) likes to change things up. Instead of the grouping of several family photographs that are usually seen there, now he's just got one photo of Abbey, along with a clock and his glass paperweights. The other photos have been moved to a table behind his chair, which I don't remember noticing previously:

- Alex Graves brings us some cool shot compositions. I really liked the swivel and pulling back of the camera to the overhead shot of the Presidential seal on the Oval Office carpet, right after Bartlet gets the word about the Iranian reactor:

Another neat shot is the low angle up from the floor, as Ron Butterfield shows CJ the pictures that her stalker has taken:

- Speaking of CJ's laptop, we get a couple of shots of her laptop screen when Ron is investigating the email death threats. An earlier onscreen title tells us it's Tuesday, and the dates of the emails we see here establish that scene's date as April 30, 2002 - that day was indeed a Tuesday, and in reality was the day before this episode aired.

(Which is kind of neat to see the attention to detail of the show producers to make the episode feel "real," like it's happening right now - but since we're told the final scenes of the show take place on Thursday, which would actually have been the day after the show was broadcast and therefore in the future, maybe we shouldn't read too much into that.)

A later shot shows us more of the actual addresses of email accounts that sent CJ mail. The threats are coming from an account called 2ala@mail.sa (which sounds like a pretty bogus excuse for an address, and as Ron later confirms as it's a spoofed email address to avoid tracking - although .sa would mean a Saudi Arabian web host). Some other accounts look like a West Wing intern quickly slapped together some phony names to fill out the screen: 16858_Bob@msn.com, ihateusa@riyadh.saudiarabia.sa, Bob37L@msnbc.com, and perhaps my favorite, msnbc23@msnbc.com. I'm sure plenty of important Presidential press secretary information is coming from that one! (I do appreciate the synergy of an NBC television series trying to work in msn.com and msnbc.com email addresses into the show. Gotta push that brand!)

- Attention to detail: Ron puts his hand over his jacket on the left side as he sits at CJ's desk, obviously holding his holster and weapon steady.

- Dulé Hill earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, for this episode along with Hartsfield's Landing. John Spencer would win that Emmy, marking the third year in a row a West Wing actor took that trophy.

- Mark Harmon, beginning his multi-episode arc as Special Agent Simon Donovan, would be nominated for an Emmy as Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (Tim Matheson and Ron Silver were also nominated from The West Wing). That award would go to Charles S. Dutton for The Practice.

Quotes

CJ: "Hey, aren't we pretty much admitting all the countries we formed NATO to fight?"

Toby: "Yes."

CJ: "Then why not dissolve it?"

Toby: "We like the bomber jackets."

-----

Sam: "See, President Chigorin only has to fly through one time zone. President Bartlet has to fly through seven. Don't get me wrong, this President can do three shows a night, but there's no one in the Western Hemisphere who has a worse reaction to jet lag than he does. Any trip eight hours or longer and someone gets fired at the end of it, and it's already been me three times, so ..."

-----

President: "Fitz! Fitz, you old polecat, you old so-and-so!"

Fitzwallis: "You trying to be one of the fellows, sir?"

President: "Yeah."

Fitzwallis: "Well, well done, sir."

President: "Thank you."

(at a later Oval Office meeting)

President: "Fitz, you old horse thief, you old muckety-muck!"

Fitzwallace: "Well, good morning again, sir."

-----

Butterfield: "Muslim extremists don't get personal. They don't know your name, they don't care. They don't want one person, they want dozens or hundreds, that's why they don't use bullets. Killing one person is a waste of a bomb. He wants you, why doesn't he want me?"

-----

Ivanovich: "Sam, it is freezing too cold in Reykjavik, it is freezing too cold in Helsinki, it is freezing too cold in Gstaad, why must every American president bound out of an automobile like he's at a yacht club, while in ... excuse me, compare?"

Kozlowski: "Comparison."

Ivanovich: "Comparison. While in comparison, our leader looks like ... I don't even know what word is."

Sam: "Frumpy?"

Ivanovich: "I don't know what 'frumpy' is, but onomatopoetically, sounds right."

-----

Sam: "Or maybe it's just a crazy letter."

Charlie: "It's not."

Sam: "How do you know?"

Charlie: "Cause I read a lot of crazy letters."

Sam: "I got a letter last year asking me if I would donate my brain to a medical school in Grenada. I'll tell you, there are days when I think, 'Yeah, why not just get it over with?'"

-----

Koss: "Oh, so your First Amendment only extends as far as it's polite?"

Toby: "No, it extends farther than that but it only protects us. Believe me, if we were able to enforce US law around the world, I'd retire and go scuba diving."

-----

Toby: "If the Enquirer asked us, we'd credential them. Making sure the Enquirer can write whatever it wants is the only way I can be sure the New York Times is writing whatever it wants."

-----

President (asking CJ to agree to Secret Service protection): "Let me tell you something. The last time a member of my staff got a death threat, they missed him and hit me!"

-----

Fitzwallace: "Wait a second. Hang on ... you're telling me that foreign policy of this magnitude is conducted through Sam - and I'm still alive?"

Sam: "We're pretty impressed ourselves, Mr. Chairman."

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

Nikolai Ivanovich, one of the negotiators from the Russian Embassy, is played by Ian McShane (American Gods, John Wick, Deadwood, Dallas).

The unnamed State Department representative who urges Toby not to grant credentials to Ludmila Koss is played by Gregory Itzin, who played the President in another TV series (24).

Jake Kimball, head of the computer chip maker Antares, is played by Peter Scolari (Bosom Buddies, Newhart, Girls).

Alan Tatum, the fellow who wrote FDR a letter when he was a child, is played by recognizable character actor Bill Cobbs (I'll Fly Away, That Thing You Do!, many, many other appearances).

The handsome and dashing Secret Service agent assigned to CJ, Simon Donovan, is played by Mark Harmon (St. Elsewhere, Chicago Hope, NCIS). Harmon, who only appears at the tail end of the episode, is beginning a multi-episode arc. On another note, I always have an initial (irrational) reaction when I see Harmon; I remember him quarterbacking the NBC squad in the 3-on-3 football competition of Battle of the Network Stars in the early 80s, and I always thought it was unfair for a former UCLA quarterback to be showboating against actors like Scott Baio and Donna Mills ... Look, I said it was irrational.

Admiral Fitzwallace returns! We haven't actually seen the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs since the end of Season 1 (What Kind Of Day Has It Been), but John Amos' Fitz (you old polecat, you old so-and-so) is going to play a bigger role in the series going forward.

And it's also always great to see Michael O'Neill as Ron Butterfield. I am consistently impressed by his performance as head of the White House Secret Service detail.

Martin Sheen's daughter Renee Estevez shows up again as Nancy, getting a line and a couple of smiles at Charlie and the Tatums.

With the death threats against CJ, we get some callbacks to the Rosslyn shooting seen in What Kind Of Day Has It Been and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen (Josh says, "Yeah, it's a death threat, CJ, I take it seriously. I had some experience with this" and the President tells her "The last time a member of staff got a death threat, they missed him and hit me!").

Alan Tatum's letter to FDR referring to meeting his aide Mr. Farley is a reference to James Farley, a key director of Roosevelt's 1932 presidential campaign who later served as Postmaster General while simultaneously the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Toby's wisecrack to the Russian reporter about "if we were able to enforce US law around the world" seems to reflect his attitude seen in Night Five ("They'll like us when we win!").

When CJ compares her reluctance to getting Secret Service protection to the President shrugging off his detail and "going to a bookstore," we saw Bartlet make a shopping trip to a rare book store in In Excelsis Deo (although he didn't slip his Secret Service protection to do it).

CJ mentions a niece. We'll actually get to meet that niece soon.

The President's demand that CJ accept her protection includes the line "You're part of my family, and this thing is happening and I simply won't allow it." We know Bartlet looks at both Charlie and Josh like sons he never had (he made his feelings about Josh explicit in Two Cathedrals and passed down a family heirloom to Charlie in Shibboleth), and it's been obvious over the course of the series that he cares deeply about these senior staff members and what's going on in their lives. "Family" is a good word for it.

DC location shots

None.

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

The opening scene of Carol looking at news headlines online shows us a White House Information Server which is showing stories from AP/Reuters. (If you look closely, you can see most names have been scrubbed from the text of these actual news stories, and one of them mentions New Year's celebrations in Scotland - even though this is late April).

While sparring with Toby over NATO countries, CJ goes on a Marx Brothers tangent, making references to the fictional nation Freedonia (most famously popularized in the Marx Brothers film Duck Soup), Captain Spaulding (a character played by Groucho Marx in Animal Crackers), and the song Lydia The Tattooed Lady (made famous by Groucho). Coincidentally, Freedonia reappears as the title of a West Wing episode in Season 6.

As mentioned above, the death of Saudi schoolgirls in a fire because religious police prevented them from escaping is based on a real event.

CJ refers to Maryknoll nuns and Malibu Barbie in her biting briefing room commentary about Saudi Arabia. She also quotes William Shakespeare, from his play Julius Caesar.

The Novaya Gazeta is an actual Russian publication, and indeed critical of the government. Toby also later comments on the (National) Enquirer and the New York Times.

Toby's hilarious rant to CJ about Russia and freedom of the press includes a vodka brand and a famous composer:

Toby: "Time to teach those Stoli-drinking Tchaikovskys a thing or two about free press, American style."

Admiral Fitzwallis mentions the bottled water brand Perrier in passing as he describes the Iranian reactor.

The Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster was an event that occurred in this universe, mentioned by Leo.

President Bartlet brings up Jean Valjean (from Les Misérables) and taking Abbey to see plays at the Kennedy Center (we actually saw the President attend a Kennedy Center event in Galileo).