Life On Mars - TWW S4E21

Original airdate: April 30, 2003

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (83)
Story by: Paul Redford (12) & Dee Dee Meyers (5)

Directed by: John David Coles (2)

Synopsis

• What a first day for newly hired associate White House counsel Joe Quincy, as he unravels a thread starting with a minor news leak that ends up bringing down the Vice President. Will and his interns work on a response to an attack ad. A bird drives Donna crazy.

"Yeah, we're gonna need a new Vice President."

An early morning rain pelts the White House. Charlie waits alone outside as a taxicab draws up and a woman gets out. She and Charlie make their way through the West Wing to the Oval Office, as CJ, Josh, Toby, and Donna look on somberly. A bit of small talk with the President, and then the letter she carries is opened.

Roll opening titles.

And we are swept into a whodunnit, an engrossing detective story starring the most unlikely of central figures - newly hired associate White House counsel Joe Quincy, on his first day on the job. Aaron Sorkin and his team deliver a whip-smart, tight script as Quincy puts the pieces together to find the evidence that brings down Vice President Hoynes in literally just 24 hours. It's a storyline so driving and so well-constructed that there's barely a B story at all (Will And The Interns' - there's a band name! - attempts to come up with a response to the fuel efficiency attack ad) and simply a whisper of a C plot (the bird pestering Donna - taptaptap "Stop it!").

Let's get a couple of things out of the way first: Sorkin admits the entire purpose of this episode is to set up the season climax coming over the next two telecasts. He's had an idea for a story brewing for quite a while - perhaps even as far back as Mr. Willis Of Ohio, if you remember President Bartlet's monologue to Zoey about her safety - and that story requires the office of the Vice President to be vacant. So he had to find a way to get Hoynes out of office, which leads us to what we watch here.

The other thing is Sorkin (more likely, former Bill Clinton White House press secretary Dee Dee Meyers) doesn't actually have to come up with a far-fetched fictional reason to have Hoynes resign. He and Meyers just copied the real-life story of Clinton confidant and political strategist Dick Morris. Morris resigned his White House position in 1996 after admitting he let a woman he was sleeping with listen in on his conversations with the President - and also told her about a then-secret report outlining the possible discovery of evidence of life on Mars. They even used the actual background of that 1996 event, with an asteroid from Mars found in Antarctica that carried that possible fossilized evidence.

But it doesn't matter that much that Sorkin and Meyers use something that really happened to get the result Sorkin needs, not when the real fun of this episode is watching Quincy's slowly growing realization as he puts things together piece by piece. It all starts with CJ getting called out by a Washington Post reporter and her science editor, claiming they have a source saying the government is covering up evidence of life on Mars. CJ thinks she can prank the new guy by giving him the job of tracking this far-fetched, outlandish, obviously crazy story down.

Science Editor Gish: "Is there an existing report that says anything at all, and if so, what? And will it be made public, and if not, why? And, if not, isn't that illegal?"

CJ: "Um, I don't know. But I'll find out to the first bunch of questions and, as for 'legal' and 'not legal,' that's a matter for the counsel's office. (light bulb goes on)

"Oh, hey, yeah, that's a matter for the counsel's office! I know the right guy to speak to down there. He's going to fix you right up."

The source says the Vice President, as head of the NASA Commission on Space Science and Research, was the person who let the story out. So immediately Quincy is tasked with having to speak with the Vice President himself - again, on his very first day.

But before he can get to that, word of another news leak arrives. Another reporter from the Post is claiming they have evidence the White House leaned on the Justice Department to drop an antitrust case against a computer manufacturer. Josh and Leo know that's not true, that a settlement was reached instead, but when that reporter reveals details of that settlement from his source that weren't made public, eyebrows are raised. 

Josh: "There's a leak. This, the Mars people ... don't even get me started on that 'cause the stuff I think you still won't tell me. Who knew about the terms with Casseon outside us ... and now them?"

Leo: "The President, me and you, Counsel, Counsel at Treasury and Commerce. Two, three guys at NEC. Hackley, Little, May --"

Josh: "The Vice President."

Leo: "Yeah. The Assistant Attorney General for Anti-Trust. Did we say the --?"

Quincy: "Excuse me. Are you saying the Vice President knew the terms of the Casseon settlement?"

Josh: "Sure."

Two confirmed news leaks; both possibly connected with Hoynes. Quincy's suspicions grow.

Then, another random piece of the puzzle, as Toby and Charlie are eating lunch and watching tennis in Toby's office. Charlie is reading the Post. 

Charlie: "Helen Baldwin is gonna write a book. She's retained an agent, who sent around a two-page outline, and there's a bidding war. Random House has bought it for low seven figures, according to Stu Winkle. Could that possibly be his real name? (reading) 'Baldwin, long a fixture in DC and Manhattan society, whether for her work on charity boards or her position on the arm of some of Wall Street, Washington and Hollywood's most eligible men, as well as hosting some of the beltway's favorite ...' What the hell kind of sentence is this? (pause) There's this 73-year-old lady who works in the residence, cleaning and winding all the clocks. She won't retire. She inherited it from her mother who inherited it from her mother. She earns $22,000 a year. She's trusted to walk in and out of rooms where there's personal correspondence, where she can hear if the President and First Lady are having a fight, where she can see people come for secret meetings, and she's been doing this for five decades worth of presidents. Her name is Mrs. Willey, and I said, 'Mrs. Willey, you really should write a book,' and she said, 'No, no, no, we don't do that.' Twenty-two thousand a year."

Toby (chewing on his salad): "You said I wouldn't even know you were here. Just so you know, I can tell that you are."

Quincy stops by, as he's concerned about a note Toby wrote on a draft statement about an appeals court decision, but as Toby laughs off his concern (of course CJ will clean up the language before it goes public) he drops in a mention about Baldwin's book.

Charlie: "Toby is distracted by a woman. And salads."

Toby: "You know, when you do ten minutes of Helen Baldwin getting a book deal, it's righteous, but I speak my mind after getting poked with a stick and it's 'cause of Andy."

Quincy: "Helen Baldwin has a book deal?"

Quincy has two separate news leaks at the Washington Post, possibly tied to the Vice President; he discovers Baldwin is preparing to write a tell-all book, and the Post's new gossip columnist has the details about that; and - as we'll discover later - he's heard rumors of a relationship between Hoynes and Baldwin. Connecting all the dots, he's starting to develop a theory - but he needs to confirm that the gossip columnist, Stu Winkle, was indeed the science editor's source for the Mars life story.

He goes to CJ, asking her to call Winkle and try to get him to spill that he knew about the Mars story. It takes some convincing, but she eventually goes along with Quincy and lays the trap for Winkle:

CJ: "Stu, I wanted to get you a direct answer to that NASA Commission question that Ralph Gish and Katie brought to me this morning. It was the Defense Department and not the White House that classified the report."

(long pause - CJ and Quincy stare at the phone)

CJ: "Stu?"

Winkle: "Uh, well, that makes perfect sense. I hope, I hope you don't mind, that sounded crazy enough ...."

As Winkle blathers on obviously, astonished by the fact that CJ Cregg herself would call him, Quincy lays out the evidence he's found - White House call sheets showing many telephone calls between Vice President Hoynes and Helen Baldwin. 

And everything becomes clear. Hoynes has been involved with Baldwin, he's been in contact with her, and he's been sharing confidential, classified information with her, information she's now willing to share in her tell-all book, information she's slipped out in her two-page outline.

When Quincy finally makes his way to Hoynes' office that evening (Hoynes having been made aware of the purpose of the visit), he brings along a delegation of Josh, CJ, and Toby.

Hoynes: "You brought friendly faces. That was considerate. You're Joe Quincy?"

Quincy: "Yes, sir."

Hoynes: "This is your first day?"

Quincy: "Yes, sir."

Hoynes: "Well, they're going to put your picture up someplace. They're going to honor you at a luncheon." 

You can tell Hoynes' admission of his guilt hits the staffers hard, especially Josh, who's almost tearing up.

(Remember, Josh had been on Hoynes' staff helping prepare him for his Presidential run before joining up with the Bartlet campaign in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part I.) 

Even later that night, Hoynes meets with the President and Leo on the Portico outside the Oval Office. They try to convince him to stay on and fight, but Hoynes has made up his mind.

President: "In the middle of MS, it looked like we were never going to recover, and we did."

Hoynes: "Which is why it is never going to happen again."

President: "John ..."

Hoynes: "That was it. That was the one you get."

President: "Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Vice President, if my multiple sclerosis was a bummer for your sex life. How the hell did you do this to us? You can't resign, John. It's a terrible signal to send."

Hoynes: "Sir, if I stay, it sabotages an entire agenda, and you know I'm right, and the party's going to need a candidate that can win. And I think, the least I think I can do for Suzanne is not to drag her through it so much."

But of course, by this point, we've already seen what happens the next morning. We know the decision Hoynes has made. And, as the President somberly tells Leo in the episode's final line, "We're gonna need a new Vice President."

The lever has been pulled. The necessary story-building steps have been taken. Sorkin has made the office of the Vice President vacant. Now he's ready to snap the rest of his pieces into place over the next two episodes to create yet another season-ending cliffhanger - which turns out to be not only another patented Sorkin season wrapup but a hard-to-solve "screw you and good luck" situation for the show runners he leaves behind for Season 5. 

Tales Of Interest!

- The title Life On Mars? (with the question mark) was used by David Bowie for a song he wrote for the 1971 Hunky Dory album. The lyrics of the song actually have nothing to do with, well, life on the planet Mars. The song was, however, key to the 2006-07 BBC television series Life On Mars, about a present-day policeman who apparently transports back to 1973 (a series adapted for American television in 2008). The song doesn't have any relationship to this episode - rather, the question of "life on Mars" is the subject of the original news leak that leads to Hoynes' eventual resignation.

- Speaking of that leak, in 1996 scientists actually revealed evidence of fossilized bacteria on an asteroid that originated on Mars, leading to speculation about the possibility of life on that planet. (If you remember the news clip of President Bill Clinton used in the film Contact addressing the possible discovery of extraterrestrial life, that was from a news conference about that announcement.) The notion that any fossils found on the asteroid actually proved there was life on Mars was later discredited.

The story used in this episode aligns closely with reality: an asteroid discovered in Antarctica, originating on Mars, contains fossils that might show the possibility of life (in reality, fossilized bacteria; in The West Wing, fossilized water molecules, however that's supposed to work). Unlike the fictionalized version that sees this discovery classified by the Defense Department, in 1996 news of the find was published in a major magazine a few days after the announcement.

- And furthermore, Clinton political strategist Dick Morris' story is almost exactly the same as Vice President Hoynes' in this episode ... in 1996 news broke of Morris' affair with call girl Sherry Rowlands, who kept notes about their discussions, some of which included private details about the Clintons' personal life. Morris also told Rowlands he had seen evidence of life on Mars prior to the public announcement of the discovery, exactly the same story as this episode's plot, and also leading to Morris' resignation from his government post after Rowlands made plans to sell her story to the tabloids. I feel like a lot of the details about this plot line came from Dee Dee Meyers' personal experience as the press secretary in the Clinton White House at that time.

(Also, can you imagine in today's world of the 2020s that a sex scandal involving pillow talk could bring about the resignation of the Vice President in just 24 hours? We're into the world of "grab 'em by the pussy" and serious allegations of sexual misconduct against Congressmen and former Presidents, and even the looming recent past of an outgoing President firing up a seditious rabble to overthrow election results ... and nobody's resigning, nobody's going to jail, no massive scandal is being covered in the mainstream media.  It's refreshing and yet depressing at the same time, to see a world not all that long ago where a political leader would take responsibility for their mistakes and give up his power, rather than double down to hold onto and expand his influence and authority. But I digress ...)

- Rain is a traditional dramatic go-to for authors and directors, often used to indicate things are going from bad to worse, or to signal the reader/viewer to prepare them for something serious yet to come (West Wing examples include the hurricane in The State Dinner that leads to the loss of at least one naval vessel, or the unusual tropical storm in Two Cathedrals as President Bartlet makes his way to the dramatic season-ending press conference). Sorkin goes to that well again here, with a drenching early-morning rain in the cold open leading us to the reveal of Hoynes' resignation letter.

- The famous West Wing spinning camera technique is seen early, in the hallway as CJ spars with the reporters in the morning gaggle.

- There's a quick glimpse of Gail's fishbowl on CJ's desk when Katie and Gish are in her office, but you can't see what kind of themed decoration is in there this time.

- Okay, follow along with me here - we know Danny Concannon has been the longtime Pulitzer-Prize winning White House correspondent for the Washington Post. While Danny was apparently out of the country for a time, we saw him return in Holy Night, and he's seen working at his old desk in the press room. Here, reporter Katie comes after CJ about the potential Mars-life leak, with her paper's science editor doggedly asking for more information based on a tip he received. CJ says the science editor is from the Washington Post, meaning that's where Katie works, meaning ... she's the White House correspondent? What about Danny? And if Danny's no longer the official correspondent, who was Katie working for previously when Danny definitely was the Post correspondent?

- Blair Spoonhour tells Quincy his new office is located in the Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue, which was the location of Ainsley Hayes' original office (first seen in And It's Surely To Their Credit). However, Ainsley's office actually was a separate, private room with a door at the bottom of the staircase we see here - the space we see with Quincy's desk was used for the secret "Sagittarius" meetings about President Bartlet's MS revelations at the end of Season 2, and also for meetings to discuss the Ritchie attack ad Sam received in The Black Vera Wang and to inform Congress members about revoking executive orders against assassination in Posse Comitatus. 

Quincy's office

Ainsley's office

- We can see the calls between Hoynes and Baldwin highlighted on the White House call sheets Quincy shows CJ - all the other names included on those pages are names of crew members working on The West Wing. Two I saw that jumped out to me (because I've looked them up for other blog entries in the past) are costume designer Lyn Paolo and property master Blanche Sindelar.

- The final scene with the President closing the door to Leo's office, shutting out the viewer, is reminiscent of the scene from The Godfather when the door to Michael's office closes, shutting out Kay (and the audience).

- EDITED TO ADD: Both Tim Matheson and Matthew Perry received Emmy nominations, partly for this episode. Both were nominated in the category Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series; Charles S. Dutton won that award for his work on Without A Trace.

Quotes    

CJ: "Well argued, though I do hate you and everything you stand for."

Quincy: "Claudia Jean, you've only known me for four minutes. It usually takes people the better part of an hour to hate me and everything I stand for." 

-----

Donna: "So you're our new sawbones."

Quincy: "A sawbones is a doctor."

Donna: "Is it?"

Quincy: "Yeah. Lawyer's a shyster."

Donna (to Josh): "I got him to say it."

Quincy: "I don't ... Josh is a lawyer."

Donna: "Well, yeah, I mean he went to law school but ..." 

----- 

Quincy (to Toby): "Okay. The northwest lobby is ... (points) that way?"

Toby: "Yeah. You just go that way and then, you know, ask somebody else." 

-----

CJ: "How would a gossip columnist get a story about the Pentagon?"

Quincy: "I'd rather not say yet."

CJ: "Why?"

Quincy: "Cause if I'm wrong, it'll be inappropriate that I suggested it and I'll be held in contempt." 

CJ: "You are wrong."

Quincy: "No. I'm not."

-----

Hoynes: "I leaked classified information. It is their business. It's also a felony."

Leo: "Are you in a position to deny it?"

Hoynes: "No."

-----

President: "Didn't you have any sense that this was the kind of person who would do this?"

Hoynes: "Hasn't it been your experience that they look pretty much like the people who wouldn't?" 

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

• Blair Spoonhour, seen assisting Joe Quincy moving into his new office, is played by Kiersten Warren (the doomed kooky friend on the rooftop in Independence Day, also 13 Going On 30, Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Desperate Housewives). Warren was born in Creston, Iowa, so hooray for another Iowa actor!

• I have done a poor job of keeping you in the loop on when we see the usual suspects in the reporting pool. In the morning gaggle here we find Katie, Mark, and Chris; Steve doesn't appear in the gaggle; and Danny Concannon (while he returned to the White House press corps in Holy Night after a two-year absence) hasn't been seen since Inauguration: Over There.

• Always good to see Tim Matheson as Vice President Hoynes, here in his last appearance as he resigns --- what's that? This isn't his last appearance on the series? Well, hold the phone and hide the spoilers ...

• Former associate White House counsel Ainsley Hayes is recalled as Joe Quincy gets settled into her old basement office - well, sort of (it's not the exact same room).

• Will's interns Lauren, Lauren, Cassie and Lauren (first seen in The California 47th) are back, trying to brainstorm a response ad to a spot attacking the administration's bill requiring higher vehicle fuel economy standards.

• As CJ takes Quincy past the Roosevelt Room, he remarks, "I've been in there." That's where he was interviewed by Josh in Evidence Of Things Not Seen. 

• Toby throws his trusty rubber Spaldeen at Will when Will explains how effective the anti-fuel-efficiency ad is (the bouncy rubber ball has been seen quite a bit with Toby, most memorably in 17 People).

• Charlie and Will both make digs at Toby for not convincing Andy to remarry him; we found out Andy is pregnant with Toby's twins (and refusing his entreaties to get married) in Debate Camp.

• White House Counsel Oliver Babish is flying back to Washington to help deal with Hoynes' issues, according to Quincy: Babish was first seen in Bad Moon Rising, and while his name has come up several times recently, his last appearance was in Gone Quiet.

• Hoynes' meeting with Quincy and the senior staffers has a couple of subtle throwbacks/flash forwards - seeing Josh get so emotional about Hoynes' fall reminds us that he was a true believer back in the day, working for then-Senator Hoynes as he was preparing a Presidential run ... until Josh saw Jed Bartlet speak to a bunch of New Hampshire farmers. Second, Hoynes' remark "I've spoken with CJ," letting the staffers know he already knows why they're there, is interesting considering a storyline coming up in Season 5. CJ giving him a heads-up about their visit seems, well, pretty normal, although I might expect it to come from Josh instead ... but a non-Sorkin-approved plotline next year about a past connection between CJ and John Hoynes makes that line a bit interesting in retrospect (the episode is Full Disclosure, if you're interested). Even though there was nothing implied when Sorkin wrote it, it's just the way things play out in the post-Sorkin universe.

• President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis - revealed in He Shall, From Time To Time ... and key to events at the end of Season 2 and beginning of Season 3 - and the administration's/campaign's survival of that issue is politically compared to Hoynes' current situation as the President and Leo debate with the Vice President.

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• I don't see where the law President Bartlet mentions regarding the Vice President's resignation going to the Secretary of State actually exists. Title 3 of the US Code does pertain to the Presidency, and Chapter 4 (Delegation of Functions) includes sections 300-303; but there is no section 320.

• The asteroid in Antarctica containing possible evidence of life on Mars actually does exist, although it was thought to be fossilized bacteria that it carried and not "fossilized water molecules."

• I was unable to find any reference to a "Dolley Madison staircase," as CJ tells Quincy, but Dolley Madison, of course, did exist and was President James Madison's First Lady.

• Toby talks about the mountains K2 and Kilimanjaro and the Ford Falcon automobile when he's complaining about the fuel efficiency attack ad with Will. Fun personal fact, my parents had a Ford Falcon station wagon around the late 1960s/early 1970s - I can remember going to drive-in movies in my pajamas and eating from a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken in that car. And no, it would not be able to pull "the kids, the camping gear, Rex the dog, and what would appear to be his den" up any kind of hill.

• Author Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles) gets a shoutout from Leo in the Martian life storyline; the bird tapping at the window brings Donna to compare herself to actress Tippi Hedren (The Birds).

• Josh's banter with the interns includes mentions of U-Haul and the (Ku Klux) Klan.

• Real-life publisher Random House is the publisher of Helen Baldwin's tell-all book; the famous retailers Saks and Macy's also get mentions.

• Products: We can see cans of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sprite, and Red Bull, as well as a Starbucks cup.

Coca-Cola can

Pepsi can

Sprite can

Red Bull can

Starbucks cup

End credits freeze frame: The President, Leo, and Hoynes on the Portico.

Previous episode: Evidence Of Things Not Seen

Next episode: Commencement

Evidence Of Things Not Seen - TWW S4E20

 

Original airdate: April 23, 2003

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (82)
Story by: Eli Attie (8)  & David Handelman (2)

Directed by: Christopher Misiano (13)

Synopsis

• A Friday night card game is interrupted by an international incident with a downed UAV, an interview with a new associate counsel candidate, and - oh, yeah - gunshots fired at the White House. CJ's insistence on the vernal equinox' power to help stand an egg on its end draws ridicule.

"That's cause I've got faith, there, mi compadre."

"Faith?"

"The substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen."

Faith. Belief. Trust. These are mainstays of this really well put-together episode, whether it be CJ's faith in being able to balance an egg at midnight on the vernal equinox, President Bartlet's trust in being able to tell the Russian President the truth about a drone spy mission, Josh's belief that a principled Republican can serve in the administration, Charlie's understanding of Zoey's need to get away from Washington for a while, or everybody's faith in the protective qualities of the White House's bullet-proof windows.

Our evening begins with preparations for a Friday-night poker game, only to be interrupted by CJ's insistence that on this first day of spring, at the exact moment of the equinox, a person can balance an egg on its end. The others aren't buying it:

Toby: "Yeah, that doesn't work."

Josh: "You've tried it?"

Toby: "I don't need to try it, you can't stand an egg on its end. The elements involved with creating an equinox have no connection to the center of gravity of an egg."

CJ: "I've seen it."

Toby: "I've seen guys make the ace of spades jump out of their shoes, I don't think it was the equinox." 

The poker game also brings the interest of Presidential secretary Debbie Fiderer, the former professional gambler, who comes into the Oval Office as President Bartlet fiddles with an egg:

President: "This is a cash game, Debbie. These are hard-working people blowing off some steam and taking each other off their coin. We don't play for matchsticks and we don't play --"

(Debbie pulls out a wad of cash)

President: "Okay, can I ask you something? I forgot to have Charlie draw cash for me, can you float me a little?"

Just as the game really gets going, though, both the President and Josh are pulled out by other pressing events - Josh because there's a last-minute interview for a new associate White House counsel (to replace the apparently departed Ainsley Hayes), and the President due to a spy drone crashing on Russian soil.

When the President asks Will to sit in on the game in his place, we see the real difference between the weekend-relaxation card players and the more, shall we say, intense attitudes of people who've had experience at the poker table. Will, as we see, can shuffle impressively like a pro:

Which leads Debbie to regard him with a look of interest and calculation:

(Joshua Malina has been known to gamble a few dollars in professional poker tournaments in real life.)

Off to the real-world problems: Leo and some generals are cooking up a plan to have President Bartlet call Russian President Chigorin and politely get the crashed spy drone back - without actually admitting that the United States had a spy drone flying over Russian territory. The best they can come up is to tell Chigorin that the drone was taking pictures of coastal erosion on the Baltic Sea. President Bartlet is skeptical, but what the heck - he's game to try that anyway.

The call goes about as well as might be expected. Once the Russian president is aware of an crashed American drone on Russian soil, he is quick to send a team out to search for the aircraft and recover it himself, rather than allow a US military team to enter Russia. Suspicions fly, verbal elbows are thrown, and Bartlet threatens to blow up the drone rather than let its technology fall into Russian hands.

But President Bartlet and Chigorin have a little bit of history, with Bartlet showing a little bit of trust and Chigorin using coded language to respond in kind about their common interests in stopping the transfer of nuclear technology to Iran (Enemies Foreign And Domestic). Bartlet decides to ditch the cover story and just be honest:

President: :"We were taking pictures of Kaliningrad. We take pictures of black market nuclear materials being moved out the back doors of depositories and into trucks. The materials are being sold to non-governmental elements and, well, that's what we were doing. Rogue engineers, unemployed military scientists, and ex-KGB - it's just as big of a problem for you as it is for us, but you're not dealing with it, so we were taking pictures of Kaliningrad. We're going to have to trust each other a little, Peter."

It takes a little time for Chigorin to convince his advisers, but this tactic does work. The Americans will share their pictures of the black-market nuclear materials being moved, while the Russians will not interfere with the recovery of the crashed drone.

Josh's distraction from the poker game may not be quite as important on a global stage, but it turns out to be a key element in the Season 4 wrapup of The West Wing. He's tasked with interviewing Joe Quincy, a candidate to replace Ainsley Hayes as associate White House counsel, and it has to be right now because he's only in town one night. While Donna thinks Quincy is pretty dreamy, Josh is uneasy - and he can't quite put his finger on why that is. He thinks he should have run into this guy before, seeing the political circles Quincy has been working in.

Josh: "It's the strangest feeling. It's like a ... really good baseball player is standing in the other team's locker room for the first time."

Donna: "You're the baseball player?"

Josh: "He's the baseball player."

Donna: "In the other guy's locker room?"

Josh: "Yeah."

Donna: "I don't understand. Are you writing poetry about this now?"

Josh needs some extra time to figure out exactly what the deal is with Quincy, and he ends up getting it in a quite unexpected way. Back at the poker game, Will takes the joker card and flings it across the room into the trash, to much admiration from the others. Toby, not to be outdone, tosses another card into the trashbin. This leads to a challenge from Will, that he can hit a specific seat in the fifth row of the press room from the podium, which later brings Will, Toby, and CJ to the darkened press room to carry out the challenge.

Until shots ring out from Pennsylvania Avenue:

The Secret Service springs into action, closing down the West Wing and - once they are told of other potential terrorist activities in Germany, Malaysia, and Guam - they crash the building into lockdown. So Quincy can't go anywhere even if Josh was satisfied with his answers.

Finally, Josh figures it out (as if his own baseball player analogy wasn't clear enough to everyone watching at home) - he doesn't recognize Quincy because he's been running in the wrong political circles, namely Republican ones. Josh keeps pressing:

Josh: "Why do you want to work here?"

Quincy: "I like public service. I want to serve. And you guys are the only ones left."

So yeah, he'll make an ideal replacement for Ainsley.

Meanwhile, during the crash of the building, Zoey just comes strolling up outside to check on the people she cares for - which includes Charlie. Charlie, though, can't help but insult her boyfriend Jean-Paul again (calling him "Chef Boyardee") which just continues to make her angry, hardly the result a lovestruck ex-boyfriend like Charlie wants considering his vow to win her back (Election Night). Zoey then admits she'll be spending the entire summer in France with Jean-Paul, planning to leave immediately after her Georgetown graduation in two weeks. Somewhat amazingly, though, she and Charlie come to an understanding about why she needs that:

Zoey: "It's been four years in the White House, another being the daughter of a candidate. Eight years as governor. My grades get printed in the paper. My boyfriends are in the paper. I live and die by my parents' successes and failures. And so do you. Sometimes even more than me. And Jean-Paul doesn't. He's happy. He's just ... happy."

Charlie: "That's cause he's got five hundred million dollars and no conscience."

Zoey: "No, it isn't. He cares about things. And one of them is me. And none of them are this, and that's appealing to me right now."

Charlie: "Yeah. I can understand that."

So, we come to the end of the night. The lockdown is lifted, as the gunman is found to be a disturbed person just hoping to be shot by the police. Zoey and Charlie are in uneasy agreement about her summer plans. Josh has come to see the wisdom of hiring a very capable Republican in the counsel's office. And the President went out on a limb, coming clean with the admission of a spy drone over Russian territory, and found the Russian president willing to meet him out there.

Folks are heading home, ready for another day tomorrow. CJ looks up - the clock reads midnight exactly, on the spring equinox. She steadies an egg.

"Guys? Hey, you guys?" she whispers ... but there is no one there to witness this, no one to see this evidence that CJ was right all along.

They'll have to take her story on faith. 

 

Tales Of Interest!

- In my opinion, this episode ramps things back up after a string of somewhat weaker offerings. It's a good palate cleanser to get us ready for three really good, taut episodes to bring us to the end of Season 4 - and, as it happens, the end of Aaron Sorkin's involvement with the series. Nothing here really is necessary for that final three-episode arc - we could get the same results of Joe Quincy's investigations in Life On Mars without seeing him being hired - but it helps tie things together and gives us a feeling for who Quincy is. Plus it's Matthew Perry, and he needs more than just one episode, right?

- Sorkin's casual relationship with calendars in the pursuit of dramatic convenience has been mentioned before, most egregiously with the confusion as to whether the Rosslyn shooting happened in May or August (The Midterms). This episode is set on a Friday night, apparently the exact date of the spring equinox. In 2003 the equinox actually happened not on a Friday, but on Thursday, March 20, almost five weeks before this episode aired. 

- Also, Charlie says to Zoey, "Can you believe you're graduating in two weeks?" Georgetown's 2003 graduation ceremony was on May 17, three and a half weeks after this episode aired (and more than two months after the spring equinox). With the graduation coming up, Charlie says, "That went fast" and Zoey replies, "It really did." If you recall from The Crackpots And These Women, Zoey started at Georgetown in the spring semester of 2000. With this being the spring semester of 2003, she was able to graduate in 3 1/2 years - so it was kind of fast.

- Gail's fishbowl features the White House this episode, fitting since we're inside the building for the entire time.

(Although did anyone else wonder about the strictness of the "crash" and the lockdown when Zoey could just come strolling up to the building along the Portico, and Charlie could dash out the door to meet her?)

- Clocks are always a problem with film/TV shows, because of the different actual times of the takes you might use and the varying clocks in the background (a good example was from The White House Pro-Am and the time on the clock in the scene in the gym jumping around, or The Portland Trip when the clocks on Josh's bullpen wall don't agree with the timeline of the night). Here we have CJ noting it's exactly midnight on the wall clock:

But immediately afterward, as she takes the opportunity to try to stand an egg upright, her watch indicates 7:25:

This is why clocks and watches being caught in filmed scenes drive script continuity people absolutely nuts.

- Emmy nominations from this episode include Bradley Whitford for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (20 Hours In America was also included in his entry); he lost to Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos). Matthew Perry received a nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, for his appearance here and in the next episode; that award went to Charles S. Dutton (Without A Trace).

Quotes    

Leo (to CJ, waxing rhapsodically over the deli buffet): "This is what I call a night off. Squeeze this piece of rye bread."

(CJ grabs the bread, squeezes it)

CJ: "Now what do I do?" 

-----

(The staff is in the midst of bidding on a hand) 

Debbie: "Fifty dollars."

Larry: "Fold."

Josh: "Fold."

Toby: "I'm out."

Ed: "Out." 

CJ: "Take it."

Josh (as Debbie rakes in the chips): "Nothing like the mounting tension of a well-contested hand."

----- 

Will: "What is the exact moment of the equinox?"

CJ: "I don't know ... midnight?"

Will: "Midnight where?"

CJ: "All right, maybe it's not at the exact moment of the equinox. Maybe it's at some point during the equinox and you just have to keep trying, but I've seen it."

----- 

Donna (talking about Quincy - who is, you recall, played by Matthew Perry, with whom Donna flirted offscreen in Los Angeles back in Season 1): "There are some who would consider him handsome. I don't, personally, cause you're the only one I think is handsome."

Josh: "Uh-huh." 

 ... (Later) ...

Josh (to Quincy): "Cause if you're a Republican, then you damned well better look like Ainsley Hayes."

Donna (indignantly): "He does!" (pause, sheepishly) "He will to others." 

-----

President (to Chigorin): "We're going to have to trust each other. Our two countries have stopped the world from annihilating itself for 60 years because of conversations like this one. Why don't you talk it over?" 

 -----

Josh: "There may not be anything any more that outpaces the hatred the right feels for the left or the tonnage of disrespect the left feels for the right."

-----

Josh: "Why haven't you signed the questionnaire?"

Quincy: "Because I can't."

Josh: "You lied on it?"

Quincy: "Yes."

Josh: "Which question?"

Quincy: "Number 75. 'Have you ever done anything that would reflect poorly on the President?'"

Josh: "What'd you do?"

Quincy: "I didn't vote for him."

Donna: "That's really very sweet." (Josh gives her a look) "Not to me."

——

Quincy: “Could I be any more of a Republican?” 

(Sorry, not an actual quote, but I couldn’t resist a Chandlerism)   

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

• Yes, indeed, it's Matthew Perry (Friends) as Joe Quincy, the Republican candidate for Ainsley's replacement as associate White House counsel. Fun fact, in 20 Hours In L.A. at the fundraising party, Donna claims to see Matt Perry and heads over to flirt with him. Yet now, when Matthew Perry himself is sitting in the Roosevelt Room, she doesn't seem to recognize him as the Hollywood actor but instead as some Joe Quincy fellow (she does find him attractive, though, so that tracks): 

• The wonderful Michael O'Brien appears as Secret Service chief Ron Butterfield. He has some good stuff coming up in the next few episodes.

• Speaking of Secret Service agents, here's former Olympic sprinter and NFL wide receiver Willie Gault. This is his third appearance with a speaking role in the series, with his first in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part I.

• Bartlet's daughter Zoey (Elisabeth Moss, from Mad Men and The Handmaid's Tale), Charlie's former girlfriend and currently dating French royalty Jean-Paul, makes a quick appearance on the Portico. There's plenty more to come for Zoey this season.

• We first saw the President and the staff blowing off some steam with a weekend card game in Season 1 (Mr. Willis Of Ohio).

• Josh mentions Ainsley Hayes a few times, as the interview with Quincy is part of finding her replacement. Hayes was last seen in The U.S. Poet Laureate, and apparently she has now left the White House counsel's office (Emily Procter got a major role on CSI:Miami, which left no time on her schedule for appearances on The West Wing). 

• Josh also brings up Oliver Babish in his interview with Quincy. Babish is the current White House counsel (portrayed by Oliver Platt), who played a key role in events at the end of Season 2 and into Season 3. He was last seen onscreen in Gone Quiet.

• Debbie's eagerness to join the Friday night poker party - and her success at the table - reminds us of one of her previous careers, professional gambler. She told Charlie about that when he was trying to convince her to interview for the Presidential secretary position in Posse Comitatus.

• Leo is seen fidgeting with his wedding ring. We saw his marriage fall apart in Five Votes Down, with the divorce becoming official in The Portland Trip. We've also seen him wooing his attorney, Jordon Kendall, in Bartlet For America and Process Stories. Yet he still wears the ring.

• President Bartlet and Russian President Chigorin developed a good deal of trust over stopping the spread of nuclear materials in Enemies Foreign And Domestic.

• Will's position in the Air Force Reserve was mentioned in passing by CJ in the previous episode, Angel Maintenance. Here he is in uniform.

• CJ also said in that episode, "I never imagine my life would be in danger with really uncommon frequency." In this episode, she's standing directly in front of a window hit by a rifle bullet.

• President Bartlet's collection of glass paperweights is still there on his Oval Office desk.

• Josh talks about hearing a brass quintet playing The First Noël when the shots were fired, a direct callback to the PTSD he was suffering after the Rosslyn shootings (Noël). Donna actually gets Dr. Stanley Keyworth (from that episode, also Night Five) on the phone to help him if he needs it. His comment also leads to this snarky reply from Quincy:

Quincy: "Did you hear the shots?"

Josh: "No, but I heard a brass quintet playing The First Noël, so I just assumed somebody somewhere was locked and loaded."

Quincy: "You know, not for nothing, but the people that I talk to don't believe that story, and the people that you'd like don't care."

• There are a couple of other references to the attempt on Charlie's life that led to the President and Josh being shot (seen in in What Kind Of Day Has It Been and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen). Zoey says to Charlie, "Sorry you got shot at again," and at the poker table Larry says to CJ, "You know, you're particularly upbeat for someone who's been shot at twice in four years." 

• Here we see Nancy, played by Martin Sheen's daughter Renée Estevez.

• UPDATES, DECEMBER 6:

A couple of things I forgot as I rushed to publish last week - Debbie's whispered reminder to the President about checking his blood pressure after shots were fired at the White House recalls President Bartlet's health issues. Remember, he's suffering from multiple sclerosis, first detailed in He Shall, From Time To Time ... and a key part of Season 2. The most recent mention of the disease's progression was in Election Night.

Also, Josh tells Quincy he hears the song The First Noël when he hears gunshots. The story we've had before, stretching all the way back to The Crackpots And These Women and Josh's guilt over surviving a house fire as a child that killed his sister, was that it was Ave Maria running through Josh's head during times of stress. In Noël, in Josh's talks with Stanley Keyworth, it was that he was associating music (Christmas music in that episode) with sirens, following his near-fatal shooting at Rosslyn depicted in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen.

DC location shots    

• None. The episode takes place entirely inside the White House (except for Charlie and Zoey talking on the Portico).

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

• Leo lovingly describes the pastrami from Krupin's - "it's tissue paper thin" - which was a DC deli at the time. Mel Krupin had taken over a deli and named it Krupin's in 1993, after which it went through several owners (including Mel's brother Morty) until it closed in 2010.

• Will says he's been stationed at Bolling Air Force Base since he moved to Washington. That was a real air force base located across the Potomac from Reagan National Airport until it combined with Naval Support Facility Anacostia to become Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in 2010. Fixed-wing flight operations ended at both facilities in 1962 due to the airspace constrictions with a major commercial airport literally a mile away. Will says he is going to Cheyenne (Wyoming) to defend an airman in a court-martial, although he might mean the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado, headquarters of NORAD at the time. 

• The SF-86 form Josh keeps bugging Joe Quincy to sign is the real Questionnaire for National Security Positions, but instead of a form with numbered questions it's more of an in-depth record of previous addresses and jobs, connections with friends and family members, and descriptions of financial backgrounds and possible foreign or mental health-related entanglements. I don't believe there's a question asking "Have you ever done anything that would reflect poorly on the President?" although the form does ask if you've ever belonged to a terrorist organization or a group advocating for the violent overthrow of the US government.

• Joe Quincy takes a gander at the bust of Teddy Roosevelt as well as Roosevelt's Nobel Peace Prize.

• The MSNBC cable news network gets their logo shown (good synergy, there, NBC). President Bartlet also tells Chigorin he'd be up to date on the events at the White House if he was watching CNN International.

• Charlie refers to Jean-Paul as "Chef Boyardee." The schools George Washington University, Georgetown, American University, Catholic University, University of Virginia, and Johns Hopkins University are also mentioned as Zoey's information-gathering network to keep track of Charlie's dates.

• Joe Quincy says he has an interview lined up at the law firm Debovoise and Plimpton in New York. Not only is that an actual law firm, as Josh says (and we first learned in Six Meetings Before Lunch) that is the firm where Josh's father worked.

• Product placement:

- There's a bottle of MBC beer on the poker table. I seem to faintly remember this as a variety of Miller beer (MBC = Miller Brewing Company) but my google-fu is unable to find any historical mention of this brand, only Miller High Life, Miller Genuine Draft, and of course Miller Lite.

 - President Bartlet once again is wearing his Notre Dame sweatshirt.

End credits freeze frame: Josh and Joe Quincy in the Roosevelt Room.

Previous episode: Angel Maintenance

Next episode: Life On Mars