Game On - TWW S4E6

 

Original airdate: October 30, 2002

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (70) & Paul Redford (10)

Directed by: Alex Graves (10)

Synopsis

• Debate night arrives, and President Bartlet overcomes a last-second tie emergency to land a punishing blow on the Ritchie campaign. Leo and Jordon meet with the Qumari UN ambassador to try to stop the Qumari ship carrying arms for Ba'hi terrorists. Sam tries to end the "embarrassing" congressional campaign for a deceased candidate, but the fellow running the campaign ends up changing Sam's mind.

"There's no such thing as too smart."

This episode is all about neckties.

Okay, not really. Neckties do play a prominent role (we'll get to those details later), but the real meat of this episode is the election campaign, and the conclusion of the clash between Toby's "make it about smart, and not" and the others' concerns about Ritchie's plain-spoken appeal to the common man. As you can probably figure out by the quote I pulled out above, it is indeed the more complex approach of the Nobel Prize-winning economist and intelligence and just knowing stuff that takes more than ten words to explain that takes the day.

The battle between the two approaches goes all the way back to The Two Bartlets, when the President took the bait of Ritchie's comments on affirmative action to make a rather noncommittal statement on the subject, which first raised Toby's ire about "Uncle Fluffy." Aaron Sorkin has used this fictional campaign to express his views on the real-life 2000 election between George W. Bush and Al Gore - the easygoing Texan who talks in small words and keeps things simple for the "little guy" against the policy wonk who tries to explain his approaches to problems while recognizing all the possible complications. Simple vs complicated, "aw shucks" vs arrogance - Sorkin puts Ritchie in the Bush role and Bartlet, of course, in the position of the smart Nobel Prize-winning guy whom many see as "out of touch" to the common man.

Toby has pushed the President to lean into his advantages, to use his knowledge and experience and intellect as a plus, to "make it about smart, and not" as he said in Hartsfield's Landing. Others in the campaign, though, feel that Ritchie's approach is bringing him more votes, making him more popular because he boils issues down into simple slogans, and they want the President to try to pivot to that as well. It's been an internal struggle in the campaign we've seen since the middle of Season 3.

Now the debate is here, the one single debate agreed upon before the election, and the West Wing is on edge. Josh has been tasked with coming up with "ten words" - short, quippy, easily disgestible statements the President can use to sound folksy and down-home, like Ritchie. Meanwhile, Leo tells Toby the President has gotten too much "in his head," that he's botching his responses, and that the staffers need to just let him ride through it without calling him out on it during their morning practice questions. Toby tries - but when Bartlet stammers through about six different approaches to an answer on a death penalty question, he can't hold back any more and snaps back about how that question should be answered.

And then everyone else in the Oval Office bursts into laughter. Toby has been the victim of a prank - the President is not off his game, in fact he's so confident and ready that he came up with the idea of betting the others that Toby couldn't stay quiet if he messed up his answer. Toby's face when he realizes:

And as they depart the Oval Office, Toby has two words for Josh: "He's ready."

Let's talk about some of the ties now. Superstitious Jed has a favorite debate tie - at the last debate of the first campaign, he accidentally set his tie on fire while sneaking a cigarette. He borrowed Josh's tie, won the debate, and then the election, so that's the tie he needs for this debate. Problem is, as Charlie says, the dry cleaners have ruined it using a solvent "we probably shouldn't use any more."

A team of advisors are working to select the perfect tie for television presentation:

And Charlie has taken the tie of the Deputy Secretary of Labor because he thinks it might fool the President into thinking it's his old tie. But Bartlet brushes that off, at least outwardly, telling Charlie it's only a tie and all will be well. You can tell he doesn't really mean it, though.

Abbey to the rescue. With seconds to go before Jed takes the debate stage, as Abbey gives him her final pep talk, she whips out a pair of scissors

and snips his tie right off.

Which causes Bartlet to react in horror as Abbey chuckles in devilish delight.

The entire staff races down the corridor, and once again it's Josh who has to offer his tie to the President as a replacement.

It's a close thing, but Bartlet gets the tie on just before taking the stage, finishing with a quick slap on Abbey's butt.

And then he proceeds to kick Ritchie's butt, responding to the Governor's first statement about keeping the federal government out of the states' business with this epic response:

President: "Well, first of all, let's clear up a couple of things. 'Unfunded mandate' is two words, not one big word. There are times when we're fifty states and there are times when we're one country, and have national needs. And the way I know this is that Florida didn't fight Germany in World War II or establish civil rights. You think states should do the governing wall-to-wall. That's a perfectly valid opinion. But your state of Florida got $12.6 billion in federal money last year - from Nebraskans, and Virginians, and New Yorkers, and Alaskans, with their Eskimo poetry. 12.6 out of a state budget of $50 billion, and I'm supposed to be using this time for a question, so here it is: 

"Can we have it back, please?"

And as the debate continues, the evisceration does, too. Ritchie answers a question about whether this is the time for more tax cuts with, "You bet it is. We need to cut taxes for one reason - the American people know how to spend their money better than the federal government does."

The President pauses. That's the patented Ritchie ten-word answer, simple, uncomplicated, appealing to the lowest common denominator. But that's not the kind of leader President Bartlet is:

President: "That's the ten-word answer my staff's been looking for for two weeks. There it is. Ten-word answers can kill you in political campaigns. They're the tip of the sword. Here's my question: What are the next ten words of your answer? Your taxes are too high? So are mine. Give me the next ten words. How are we going to do it? Give me ten after that, I'll drop out of the race right now."

The staff is exhilarated. CJ gathers them in the spin room and tells them they shouldn't provide spin to the reporters gathered there, they should just leave and let the President's performance speak for itself. As the debate wraps up and Ritchie and Bartlet shake hands, the Governor recognizes what this all means:

Ritchie: "It's over."

So even though the election is yet to come, this debate has given us the inevitable outcome. 

A quick mention of Albie Duncan, who we saw in Gone Quiet as the Assistant Secretary of State, a grumpy old State Department veteran who was dismissive of Bartlet's foreign policy and military experience. Here he's brought in as a Republican to spin for the President at the debate (as a response to a North Carolina Democrat doing the same for Ritchie). Duncan has a couple of very sweet moments with CJ ("I like you. You're the one I like"), especially when CJ steps in in front of reporters and assures Duncan it's okay to have complicated, complex answers rather than simple, surface ones ("You're the one I like, too").

(We'll just skip over the fact that Duncan currently serves in Bartlet's own State Department, even if he is a Republican, and it really shouldn't be surprising as to why he'd be on hand to support the President at the debate ... I think Sorkin forgot exactly what position he had Duncan holding in Season 3.)

In other tie-related stories, Sam makes a quick side trip to Los Angeles before the debate in San Diego. As we've learned in the past couple of episodes, Sam has taken an interest in the congressional campaign of Horton Wilde, a Democrat running in heavily Republican Orange County, developing the notion that the party needs to find better candidates and make better races even in lost causes. And this cause is more lost than usual, as Wilde died of a heart attack about a week ago.

But the campaign goes on, as California election law says Wilde's name will stay on the ballot. Sam meets with the campaign manager, Will Bailey, in an effort to shut the campaign down as it's an embarrassment for the party. Bailey continues to charge forward:

Will: "Nothing I can do about California election laws. The man's name stays on the ballot." 

Sam: "Yes, but you can't keep campaigning without a candidate." 

Will: "It's a campaign of ideas." 

Sam: "The candidate died." 

Will: "But not the ideas. The metaphor alone knocks me down." 

He's not about to give up, even arguing with a staffer about the notion of wearing a bow tie for a press conference.

After finding a different tie and dealing with the reporters, Sam meets Will on the beach. He still wants the campaign to stop, but he sees something in this plucky, energetic young guy:

Sam: "What are you doing?" 

Will: "Sam, I swear to God I'm trying to win an election. I think you of all people would be able to recognize it when you saw it."

Will says Wilde's widow wants to find another Democrat to run in Wilde's place should the campaign pull out an extremely unlikely win, but she can't find anyone willing to be that sacrificial lamb.

This is where Sam ends up offering his own tie to Will, because the one he grabbed to replace his bow tie "doesn't go."

After the debate, when Sam returns to LA to turn in his rental car, he meets Will and his staff again in a bar. Talk in political circles has been buzzing about a speech given by the governor of California, and Sam knows (after watching his performance with the press) that Will is the author. As they talk about the future of the Wilde campaign and what politics is even all about, Sam makes a surprising admission:

Sam: "Listen, if you can't find a Democrat, tell Mrs. Wilde ... tell Kay that I'll do it."

Will: "Are you kidding?"

Sam: "Tell her I'm a magna cum laude graduate of Princeton and editor of the Duke Law Review. Tell her I've worked for congressmen and the DCCC. I have seven years at Gage Whitney, and for the last four I've served as Deputy Communications Director and Senior Counsel. Tell her I grew up two streets from here."

(As I mentioned at the beginning of Season 4, Sorkin has been setting up Rob Lowe's exit from the show ever since 20 Hours In America, by showing Sam's increased interest in actually being "in the room" and getting politics done instead of just being a speechwriter. Lowe, as I said, had been disappointed in his lack of a salary increase and reduced story lines, even as the rest of the cast got considerable pay bumps, and told the studio he wanted to leave the show. So now we see the way out for Sam ... and in a symbolic passing of the torch, Sam leaves his tie with Will when it's offered back.)

Those are the two big storylines here. What else? Well, Leo continues to take a stand against Qumar and their support of Ba'hi terrorists in the Middle East. I mentioned in recent episode recaps that I was somewhat surprised by Leo's anger and determination to strike back against Qumar, that it didn't seem to fit the same character who held the President back when he wanted to blow Syria off the face of the earth in A Proportional Response - but I totally forgot the personal connection here. Just as the President was angered by the loss of Dr. Morris Tolliver when Syria shot down his plane, Leo had just received an award from his friend Ben Yosef, the Israeli Foreign Minister ... who ended up killed when Ba'hi terrorists shot his plane down over Lebanon in The Red Mass.

That, of course, is the real reason Leo is so hellbent on not letting Qumar get away with the Mastico supplying weapons to terrorist camps. He and Jordon (brought in to give the administration legal cover in the situation) sit down with Qumar's United Nations ambassador and give him an ultimatum - turn the ship around or else. The ambassador continues to blame Israel for the loss of Sharif as well as its bombing of Ba'hi camps in Qumar. Jordon urges Leo to make a deal - give Qumar something so they'll turn the ship around, instead of threatening them. But the ambassador goes a step too far:

Nissir: "Mr. McGarry, I think we are both men, and we both know there is a charade being enacted here. I understand Western politics, and I understand President Bartlet is unable to admit Israel's complicity in the death of the Sultan's brother during a close election. So perhaps we could --"

(Leo starts to laugh)

Nissir: "Did I say something funny?"

Leo: "You think the President's afraid that if he admitted complicity in Sharif's death, he would lose votes in this country? To sweep all fifty states, the President would only need to do two things - blow the Sultan's brains out in Times Square, then walk across the street to Nathan's and buy a hot dog. Mr. Ambassador, you are going to turn the Mastico around. You are going to cease and desist any disinformation campaign that links the death of Sharif to Israel. And sometime next year, the Sultan is going to propose a Middle East peace plan - the Qumar plan - and win the Nobel Peace Prize. Make your phone call. I'll be waiting."

So that seems to wrap up most of the Qumar situation that was kicked off in The Black Vera Wang. Leo doesn't care if Qumar finds out the Bartlet administration killed Sharif - he wants them to stop supporting terrorism against America and he won't let up until they do.

We've also got a quick mention of Toby and Andy and their situation - they're having twins, but Andy is refusing to remarry Toby, despite his entreaties:

Toby: "Let's make it interesting. Let's add incentive. The President wins the debate tomorrow night and you marry me again." 

Andy: "How about the President wins the debate tomorrow night, he gets elected President again?" 

Toby: "See, that's the difference between you and me. You're small time. And that's why the twins are gonna need their father around full-time. Cause your thing would be a terrible trait. A terrible family trait to pass on to little ... Beatrice and Bluto." 

Andy: "I'm going to name them Beatrice and Bluto now. I don't care if they're boys or girls."

That's really all we get on that storyline in this episode. In the DVD commentary Sorkin mentions the original script ran about six minutes long, and one of the things that got cut was another Toby/Andy scene that involved flowers of some kind.

In general, when I think on top-notch West Wing episodes, this isn't one that immediately comes to mind - but every time I see it, I remember how good this one is. It really is an excellent overall offering of the series, well-written and well-played, with real moments of heart and feeling. So yeah, this one should go on the list. I need to stop forgetting about this one!

Tales Of Interest!

- Much like the previous episode (directed by Paris Barclay), we get a lot of handheld shaky camera work during this one. It's not a directorial tactic we've seen from Alex Graves before. In the DVD commentary Graves talks about the choice, saying Aaron Sorkin told him from the beginning this episode would be the real election episode, making the outcome clear even though the actual election is yet to come. Graves decided to go with the hand-held method to heighten tension and give the episode a different feel from the typical West Wing (although, coming right after Barclay's hand-held offering, it just made it two in a row).

- I will give credit, though, for some imaginative camera shots during the debate scenes. I thought this one (with the debate moderator seen through the camera eyepiece) was particularly good:

- And we also get the West Wing trademark technique of the camera spinning around characters, here as the staff decides to abandon the spin room and let the President's performance speak for itself (and yes, I get the meta-ness of a spinning camera in the spin room):

- Timeline: Leo tells Jordon that the Mastico was stopped "about a week ago" - that action occurred during the previous episode, Debate Camp. The debate also takes place on a Wednesday night, which is the night of the week The West Wing aired at the time, so we might say that debate actually occurred on October 30, 2002 ... less than a week before the election.

- In a world before smartphones and GPS, we get to see Sam fighting to fold a paper map in the wind as he gets out of his rental car outside the Mattress World in Newport Beach.

- Sorkin goes a little nuts with the characters saying "Game on" ...

* Leo says it to the President when he tells him he can't be too smart

* Sam says it as the group is leaving the President's staging room before the debate

* Abbey says, "Game on, boyfriend! Let's go!" just before she slices Jed's tie

* Josh exults "Game on!" after the President slams Ritchie with the "Can we have it back, please?" line

- The practice question from Toby that the President uses to rile him up - "If your youngest daughter, Zoey, was raped and murdered, would you not want to see the man responsible put to death?" - is an almost exact copy of a question asked to Michael Dukakis about his wife during a 1988 Presidential debate ("Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?"). President Bartlet's bloodless, overly logical answer also mirrored Dukakis' response ("No, I don't, Bernard, and I think you know I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life.").

Quotes    

Toby: "He's ready."

-----

Sam: "I'm Sam Seaborn. I'm here to see William Bailey. He's expecting me." 

Elsie: "Okay." 

Sam: "Hey ... William Bailey. Bill Bailey. I just got that." 

Elsie: "You should definitely mention that cause he's probably never heard that reference before." 

Sam: "Okay." 

Elsie: "It's Will." 

Sam (imitating Jimmy Stewart): "Merry Christmas, you old Building and Loan." 

Elsie: "That's George Bailey." 

----- 

CJ: "Look at me. He's not a little bit crazy?" 

Toby: "Albie Duncan?" 

CJ: "Yeah." 

Toby: "No ... no ... no ... a little bit." 

-----

Will: "Sixty percent is six of ten in a focus group. You change one mind, it's a dead heat. We change two, it's a landslide. This campaign's a mechanism of persuasion. We're not asking for a show of hands."

-----

(Will lists problems with current Representative Chuck Webb, his fistfights on the floor of Congress, his support for expansive gun rights, his protests frightening pregnant women)

Reporter: "What's your point?" 

Will: "There are worse things in the world than no longer being alive."

-----

Donna: "You know what? I think maybe you and the President are obsessing on the tie. I'm going to throw this notion out on the stoop and see if the cat licks it up. I think the President's performance in the debate had actually very little to do with the tie." 

Charlie: "Okay. You heard me say it was his game tie, right?"

----- 

Toby: "What do you think?" 

CJ: "I think it depends who shows up. If it's Uncle Fluffy, we've got problems. If it's the President, in his last campaign, his last debate, for the last job he'll ever have ... if the President shows up, I think it's going to be a sight to see, I mean a sight to see. What do you think?" 

Toby: "I think you're going to enjoy yourself tonight."

-----

(The President asks for a moment alone with Abbey before the debate begins. Everyone leaves except Toby, munching a carrot)

 

 Toby: "I just assumed you wanted to include me."

-----

Toby (watching the President eviscerate Ritchie in the debate): "I'm not sure I can watch any more. No, wait. I can. I can."

-----

President: "I'm the President of the United States, not the President of the people who agree with me."

-----

Will: "I thought he was going to have to fall all over himself trying to be genial." 

Sam: "So did we. But then we were convinced by polling that said he was going to be seen as arrogant no matter what performance he gave in the debates. And then, that morning at 3:10 my phone rings, and it's Toby Ziegler. He says, 'Don't you get it? It's a gift that they're irreversibly convinced that he's arrogant cause now he can be.'"

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

• The first appearance of Will Bailey, played by Joshua Malina (Scandal, The Big Bang Theory, Sports Night). Malina, a longtime collaborator with Sorkin (A Few Good Men on Broadway as well as the film, and Sorkin's earlier project Sports Night) is going to join the regular cast as Rob Lowe departs. 

• Danica McKellar (The Wonder Years) appears as Bailey's campaign staffer Elsie Snuffin (really, Sorkin, that's the name you're going with?), in what appears to possibly be a long-term role connected with Will Bailey. It doesn't work out that way, though.

 

• The return of Albie Duncan (Hal Holbrook), first seen in Gone Quiet; we also get the mention of Schweppe's Bitter Lemon, which Duncan said was his chosen beverage in that episode. In Gone Quiet, we learned Duncan was the Assistant Secretary of State, and had worked in the State Department since Truman (a Democrat); in this episode, we're told Duncan served in the State Department under Eisenhower (who came after Truman) and is a lifelong Republican, and the press might be surprised to see him speaking in support of a Democratic president after the debate. Well, if he's actually part of the Bartlet administration, why would that be a surprise?

 

• The Qumari ambassador to the United Nations, Ali Nissir, is played by familiar character actor Tony Amendola (The Mask Of Zorro, Stargate SG-1). 

• CJ's reference to the President's less assured, more easygoing side as "Uncle Fluffy" is a callback to The Two Bartlets, when Toby argued "He was Uncle Fluffy. It's Dr. Jekyll and Uncle Fluffy all over again" after the President gave a lukewarm answer on affirmative action at a campaign stop in Iowa.

• On Air Force One there's a quick shot of a TV screen showing Ritchie campaigning in North Carolina, with references to Ritchie's AMA speech shunning a needle exchange program - we saw that storyline playing out in The Red Mass. 

• Minnesota Senator Howard Stackhouse (George Coe) is seen in the background of the debate prep room getting a photograph taken with Abbey. He first appeared in The Stackhouse Filibuster and played a major part in the events of The Red Mass. 

• There's also a quick glimpse of Vice President Hoynes (Tim Matheson) hanging out in the debate prep room. In the DVD commentary Graves and Sorkin mention how much it helped the reality of the scene to have these two actors show up merely to be background extras.

 

• We haven't seen Debbie Fiderer since College Kids. Her absence is acknowledged when CJ asks, "When is Debbie actually starting?" and Leo answers by saying she's getting a "crash course in everything" at the Maxwell School. 

• We know Leo's marriage fell apart in Five Votes Down and his divorce papers were served in The Portland Trip ... but, much like the divorced Toby, he still wears his wedding band.

• In the mad dash down the hallway, we see Toby and then CJ trip through a doorway. Our introduction to CJ in Pilot was seeing her falling off a treadmill as she looked at her pager; later we saw her fall into her pool when Toby was meeting with her to have her join the campaign in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II.

• There's mention of the Bartlet daughters attending the debate, with Abbey specifically saying Ellie put on makeup for the event. We know there are three Bartlet daughters, but so far we have only met Zoey and Ellie and not the oldest (Elizabeth). We do see two younger women join Abbey to greet the President onstage after the event, but they are clearly not the daughters we've met - they must be granddaughters.

• Speaking of Ellie, in her first appearance in early 2001 (Ellie), she was described as being 24 years old. Now, in October 2002, Abbey says she's 27. That math does not add up.  

• Jordon also mentions Leo's daughter Mallory, who we last saw in 20 Hours In America Part Two.

• The debate moderator, Alexander Thompson, is played by John Aniston, recognizable for his long-running role in the daytime drama Days Of Our Lives. He's also the father of Jennifer Aniston of Friends fame. 

• Sam gives us more background on himself; he graduated magna cum laude from Princeton, was editor of the Duke Law Review (there's actually no such thing, it's called the Duke Law Journal), and worked at Gage Whitney for seven years. We saw him leave that firm in what would have been early 1998 in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen. 

• Story threads from previous episodes include the tension between Toby and the President over how smart to appear in the campaign (since The Two Bartlets); Sam's itch to get involved more on the political elected-office side (since 20 Hours In America); the issue of Qumar sponsoring terrorism and the Bartlet-ordered assassination of Sharif (since the end of The Black Vera Wang); and the relationship between Toby and Andy, with her pregnancy and Toby's repeated pleas for her to marry him again (the fact they were previously married was revealed in Mandatory Minimums, while the pregnancy storyline began in Debate Camp).

DC location shots 

• None.

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

• Leo says Debbie is getting a crash course at the Maxwell School, probably meaning the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs which is located in Syracuse, New York. Sorkin has mentioned the school before - it's where Stephanie Gault teaches international relations in Somebody's Going To Emergency, Somebody's Going To Jail and the school's program in Diplomacy and International Relations was also mentioned as a place Jordon Kendall attended in College Kids.

• In the discussion about ties and which one will look best on television, the advisers say "they're broadcasting in HD digital now and with the pixels." The first HD broadcasts in the United States were in 1998, and were extremely limited for the next few years. Cable and satellite programmers didn't start carrying HD content until 2003 (a year after this episode aired), and the full transition to digital TV broadcasts did not happen until 2009.

• The Eisenhower administration gets a mention, as Toby says Albie Duncan was part of that State Department (in Gone Quiet it was said he'd worked in the State Department since Truman).

• Will makes a joke about Wendell Willkie being their candidate - Willkie ran against Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election.

• When Will rants about Chuck Webb and his support of the NRA and various weapons, he clearly mentions AK-57s. There's no such thing - the AK-47 is, of course, a famous military rifle developed by Soviet weapons maker Mikhail Kalishnikov. 

• Sam says Will should offer Winston Churchill as his candidate should the Wilde campaign win the election.

• The USS Austin was indeed, as Leo says, an LPD (landing platform, dock) vessel in the US Navy. In 2002 the Austin actually was in the Mediterranean supporting operations in Kosovo and in Africa. It was not, however, a San Antonio-class vessel - that class was originated in 2000 (the Austin entered service in 1965). The ship was decommissioned in 2006 and sold for scrap in 2009.

• Jordon mentions the Boland Amendment, an 1980s-era law limiting the ability of the US government to assist groups trying to overthrow foreign governments. This would have a direct application to Bartlet's ordering of the assassination of Qumari Defense Minister Sharif in Posse Comitatus.

• Jordon also brings up Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro.

• We clearly see both MSNBC and CSPAN logos in coverage of the debate. NBC has used their own cable news network in The West Wing before (first in What Kind Of Day Has It Been) which makes plenty of sense in a synergistic way, but the cable news operations we see in the background aren't always MSNBC, so it's notable when it is. 

• The President says Florida didn't fight Germany in World War II.

• CJ uses the example of fighters Muhammad Ali and George Foreman when she comes up with her "no-spin" strategy ("It's the punch Ali never gave Foreman when he was going down").

• We hear The Grass Roots' song Midnight Confessions as Sam meets Will at the bar.

• Heineken is Sam's beer at that bar (it looks like Will might be drinking a Corona).

End credits freeze frame: An odd choice, as no one is facing the camera - a shot of the President and Governor Ritchie during the debate.

Previous episode: Debate Camp

Next episode: Election Night