Arctic Radar - TWW S4E10

 

Original airdate: November 27, 2002

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (73)
Story by: Gene Sperling (2)

Directed by: John David Coles (1)

Synopsis

• The administration tries to dodge the issue when a Navy pilot's career is threatened after she refuses an order to stop an affair with another officer. Toby loses his writing mojo, and Sam thinks Will Bailey might be the answer. Donna tries to get Josh to help set her up with Jack Reese. A Star Trek fan in the office causes problems for Josh.

"You ready to saddle up?"

Hard choices - not just making them, but actually inviting the opportunity to make them. Whether it be a choice between angering the military for overriding their decision on discipline, or angering women voters by not stepping in; or a choice between going on a long-deserved vacation or helping write an important political speech for no pay; or a choice between doing your part for national security by staffing a lonely Arctic Circle radar base or, well, not ... stepping into the fray to actually have the opportunity to make these choices seems to be a theme of this episode.

(I may be reaching by including Jack Reese's quick mention of a memo to the radar base here, but Aaron Sorkin had to have some reason for naming the episode Arctic Radar. It had to mean something, right? Right?)

The theme of reinvigorating the administration, of stepping up to the hard challenges instead of avoiding them for expediency, is a good one to mark the beginning of Bartlet's second term ... although it's also a baldfaced ripoff of the theme from Season 2's Let Bartlet Be Bartlet. Can you rip off yourself? I guess, seeing as how Sorkin basically ripped off an important subplot from his screenplay of The American President for A Proportional Response, the answer is definitely yes.

Looming over the entire episode is the issue of Vicky Hilton, a high-ranking Navy pilot leading a trailblazing career for women in the military who finds herself in a heap of trouble after having an affair with a married, lower-ranking officer. The trouble isn't so much the affair, but the fact she ignored a direct order to stop. Leo and Toby are working hard to keep the issue away from the President, as they think involving the White House in the issue would only be a lose-lose proposition.

Of course, there are two sides here - which is what makes it a hard choice! - and Sorkin and Gene Sperling do a pretty good job of bringing them out. You've got mentions of all the wives/daughters/girlfriends weighing in. First, Amy:

Josh: "And the Commander-In-Chief chooses not to overrule his commanders."

Amy: "He chooses to do that without hearing informed argument?"

Josh: "Yes, cause then when he says no, I got a problem with women."

Amy: "Except that my friends and I can give you a problem with women right now." 

Then, Jordon and Andy:

Toby: "Is Jordon pestering you? Cause I'm getting it from Andy on this day and night."

Leo: "No, Toby, I meant a women's issue. The constituency of women."

Toby: "Yeah."

Leo: "Though Jordy hasn't shut up about Vicky Hilton."

Toby: "This is what I'm saying."

 And even the First Lady and Jed's daughters:

President: "You think we should get involved?"

Leo: "No, but you're gonna have problems with the women."

President: "Abbey and the girls?"

Leo: "No."

President: "Women?"

Leo: "Yes."

President: "Cause I got to tell you, I've been hearing it from Abbey and the girls."

Others weigh in on the side of Hilton - Charlie says "I don't think you can reasonably ask someone to control who they fall in love with," and even Toby believes "I think we invested time and money teaching her how to fly a warplane which it turns out she does very well and there aren't that many who do. So I'm going to go ahead and pick national security over caring who she sleeps with."

But Admiral Fitzwallis, in an uncomfortable conversation with Josh, drives the military's point of view home.

Josh: "Just out of curiosity, if you could step in, would you save her?"

Fitzwallis: "No. I'd discharge her, dishonorably, and I'm sure that's what's going to happen."

I have to think, in essence, Fitz has the point right. While other opinions may have some validity - who an officer chooses to sleep with should not have an effect on his or her job, or that a woman who has broken so many barriers and led the way for others to follow might deserve some special consideration, or even that we invested training funds in her, why fire her? - the bottom line is this: She failed to follow a direct order. Following legal orders is the bedrock essence of military discipline - once you give members of the armed forces a choice over which orders to follow and which to ignore, the military fails to function as designed. Plus, officers must be seen as impartial, so that when they make the decisions and give orders that necessarily result in the deaths of soldiers under their command, those soldiers know the orders are for a greater good, for national defense - and not to protect someone that officer has a special relationship with.

So in the overall scheme of things I believe Leo and Toby are absolutely right. There's simply no upside for the President to get involved, even though as Commander-In-Chief he has the power and the right to intervene. Civilians (the President) do indeed have final authority over the armed forces in this country, as Amy says ... but countermanding a decision made for unit cohesion and the importance of following orders, just to placate a bloc of Democratic voters, doesn't seem like a wise decision. And even having the President make it known that he's even considering such a decision can only upset both sides, the military and women voters. It really is a lose-lose proposition.

But it makes for good dramatic television, so there's that.

The story of Jack and Donna (two American kids growing up, in the heartland) continues, this time with Donna begging Josh to let Jack know she kinda likes him. Yes, it sounds pretty juvenile, but at least Josh calls that out with his reference to Potsie and Ralph from Happy Days. What ends up being more important, though, is that Jack Reese can read Josh way better than Josh knows himself.

From the beginning of the series, from the first scene of Donna bringing coffee to Josh in Pilot, there has been a great chemistry between Josh and Donna. Sorkin and the showrunners had little intention of making Donna much of a recurring character - Mandy (remember Mandy?) was supposed to be the romantic foil for Josh - but Janel Moloney's dazzle and commitment and obvious spark in her character forced their hand, which is why Moira Kelly disappeared from the show and Moloney moved into the opening credits in Season 2. The spark and romantic tension has popped up here and there - the special moment of Josh watching Donna read the note he wrote in her Christmas gift in In Excelsis Deo, his sabotaging of her date and the recognition of how good she looked in The Portland Trip, Josh going above and beyond to save her and her diary from House investigators in War Crimes - but it hasn't really been acknowledged by the characters themselves.

Reese sees right through it. Josh's first effort to encourage Jack to ask Donna out includes a list of wacky things she's done in the past, a list that horrifies Donna when she finds out.

Donna: "Cause he's gonna think I'm flaky."

Josh: "Maybe, but he's not going to care."

Donna: "Why?"

Josh: "Guys will go out with anybody."

Donna: "That hasn't been my experience. Go back!"

So Josh does go back, trying to explain to Jack why he told him those stories ... because they're stories that make Josh think fondly of her:

Josh: "Listen, it occurs to me that, uh ... you know, I mentioned Donna before and it occurs to me that I told you ... that I named some things that tickled me. I ... I don't know. I certainly wouldn't want to leave you with the impression that she was ..."

To which Jack responds, "I don't want to get between anything." 

It takes Jack Reese, a character who has only been around a few weeks, to knock Josh over the head about what he really thinks about Donna. Josh actually has to process this for a moment before denying it.

But later, as Donna excitedly gets ready to leave to have a drink with Jack, Josh gets close to the (unspoken) point.

Josh: "Those are good stories about you, though. Those stories would make me like you." 

That flies right over Donna's head in her eagerness to have a date with Jack ("You like everybody," she answers, which we have seen over the past four seasons is obviously not true). But we are inching closer and closer to, maybe, Josh and Donna actually realizing there is something more than a work relationship brewing here.

I've said before this really isn't a healthy relationship, given the balance of power between the White House Deputy Chief of Staff and his assistant, nevermind the little indignities and cruelties Josh hands out to her. But Bradley Whitford and Janel Moloney do such a good job of playing the underlying truths of these characters, we almost can't help ourselves rooting for them.

A couple of minor plotlines in this episode: the President shouting at the UN Secretary General over parking tickets (as another thing Leo is trying to keep off Bartlet's radar, the story just exists as a reinforcement of the 'tough choices' Vicky Hilton theme), CJ putting a reporter in his place in the briefing room (tough-CJ stories are always welcome, and her tactic of letting Mitch back in the front row but pledging to show the seat empty on TV - with a sign pointing it out - is classic tough CJ). The Star Trek pin story, while also a minor one, is kind of a favorite with many West Wing fans.

What happens here is one of the temporary employees (Janice Trumbull) in Josh's office, there to help with all the appointments and new hires for the second term, wears a Star Trek pin on her outfit. Josh is miffed, asking Donna to tell Janice to take it off (unless it's a Star Trek holiday or something), which sends Janice off into a complaint to her supervisor.

The whole thing ends with Josh's incredibly condescending speech at Janice, apparently outlining the differences between being a "fan" of something and being "obsessed" - which would be hard to discover just because someone is wearing a freakin' pin on their jacket. To me, it just seems to be another example of Sorkin's disregard for people who spend time on the internet (as we previously saw in The U.S. Poet Laureate), whether it be in discussions of his show or gathering together in appreciation of, well, any kind of deep communal regard for a creative work. Josh's incredibly rude assumption of Janice being a weird Star Trek groupie - without any information to the contrary except for her admonishing him about "honor and loyalty and civic duty" - just feels wrong and out-of-left-field uncharacteristic. And then having Janice smile at the end when Josh says "Well, work hard around here. We'll make one [Star Trek holiday]" is just cringeworthy.

(Crazy sidebar: here's a side-by-side comparison of the Space Force seal, the new branch of the military created in 2019, and a Starfleet seal from Star Trek, which is possibly something close to the pin Janice wore. We went from a temporary employee being chastised for wearing a pin in the West Wing to nearly the same design being an actual branch of the military):

The storyline that I think is the meat of the episode involves Toby, Sam, and Will Bailey. Sam is packing up his office to head for California for 90 days and the special election campaign for the California 47th.

Toby urges him to leave his Lakers banner, but Sam recognizes that as Toby's desperate need for Sam to come back after the election. Toby is overwhelmed with picking up Sam's writing duties, as he doesn't trust anyone else on the writing staff to do, well, anything:

Sam: "Are you going to use Michael?"

Toby: "From the staff?"

Sam: "Yeah."

Toby: "Michael's who you use when you need brief remarks to whoever wrote the check we couldn't turn down."

Sam: "What about Jerry?"

Toby: "Jerry's who you use when you can't get Michael."

Naturally, there is a pretty big speech on the horizon, as in Bartlet's second inaugural address in January. Toby insists there's no one else but him who can do it any justice, and as he also stubbornly continues to write even routine remarks from lower-level White House offices, the strain is definitely showing.

Sam has an idea. He was blown away by a speech from the governor of California that he knew was written by Will back in Game On; he tells Will that Toby liked that speech, too, and might be interested in getting some help on the inaugural address. He convinces Will to stop by DC on his way to a vacation in France, writing a quick note he tells Will to deliver to Toby.

Except that's not the story Sam tells Toby. Will arrives as Toby continues to fight his writer's block with a bit of fire:

Will thinks Toby asked him to come to help with writing the speech; Toby thinks Will is coming on his own accord to ask for a job. The realization that Sam set them both up starts to come as Toby nonchalantly puts out the fire in his wastebasket:

(Handy that he has that seltzer bottle handy, as is often seen in offices everywhere, right?)

As two high-powered writers with a command of the English language, this first little butting of heads results in this delightful skewering of each by the other:

Toby: "Call and response isn't going to work in front of a joint session. You're alliteration happy: 'guardians of gridlock,' 'protectors of privilege.' I needed an avalanche of Advil. And when you use pop culture references, your speech has a shelf-life of twelve minutes. You don't mind constructive criticism, do you?"

Will: "No, sir."

Toby: "Anyway, thanks for coming in. I told Sam I can do this by myself."

Will: "Well, maybe he thought that your speeches were obscurantist policy tracts lost in a cul-de-sac of their own internal self-righteousness and groaning from the weight of statistics. I'm just speculating. I can't say for sure."

Toby is not used to getting pushback like this on his writing. He grudgingly recognizes Will may have a point, and gives him an assignment: write a 500 word section for the speech, as an "audition" of sorts. Toby will try his hand and they'll compare later.

That comes late at night, in the Mess, as Toby continues to struggle with his writing spark. Will comes in and drops the legal pad on the table - "Four hundred ninety eight," he says, "but with my name, it's 500." In a terrifically taut scene that makes outstanding use of silence, of light and shadow, they start reading.

I just love Richard Schiff here. Well, I love most of what he does with Toby (in my initial original broadcast viewing of the show, I thought Toby was unnecessarily gruff and mean and unfeeling - but watching the series over, Toby has become one of my favorite characters). As they start reading each other's work, Toby quickly realizes what has dropped into his lap with Will.

Toby: "Stop reading mine."

Will (impressed with what he's seeing): "Actually, it's --"

Toby (quickly): "Stop reading, please." 

Will's effort is such a great piece of writing that Toby, while he's still reading it, offers Will the (unpaid) opportunity to work on the inaugural address.

Toby goes on with one of the great monologues of the show, a howl of frustration at his slump, a devastating note of regret at feeling he can't measure up to the history of Presidential speechwriters, a recognition of a common member of the brotherhood of writers. I hate to put the whole thing down here, but it's just masterfully delivered by Schiff:

Toby: "This is incredibly good, Will. 'Never shrinking from the world's ...' 'a fierce belief in what we can achieve together.'

"I used to write like this. It was ten months ago. I don't understand what's going on. I really don't. I've had slumps before, everybody does, but this is different. I'm sorry, we don't know each other, but there aren't that many people I can talk to about it.

"I don't understand what's happening. There's no blood going to it. I've never had to locate it before. I don't even know where to look. I'm the President's voice and I don't want it to sound like this. And there's an incredible history to second inaugurals. 'Fear itself,' Lincoln ... I really thought I was on my way to being one of those guys. I thought I was close. Now I'm just writing for my life and you can't serve the President that way. But if I didn't write - I can't serve him at all."

Will tries to console and encourage Toby, telling him what he really needs is a few days in Atlantic City, but also - "You are one of those guys." He's touched by Toby's praise, by his acknowledgment of Will as a member of a very small group of talented specialists, but he's still committed to taking some time off after the grueling Horton Wilde campaign:

Will: "Okay. I'm glad you liked what I wrote. I'm pretty tired. I've been tired for a pretty long time and you've been tired even longer. I'm getting on a plane tonight and going to a place in Nice and I'm going to stay there for a few weeks. When I get back, it'd be a privilege to give you all the help you ask for."

Toby is outwardly appreciative, but he knows he needs the help now, not in a few weeks. Will's insistence on taking a break seems to show Toby he's not really all-in on this opportunity. Until Will remembers Sam's note:

Will: "Oh, man, I forgot. Sam wanted me to give you this."

(Hands Toby an envelope)

Toby: "You didn't give it to me yesterday?"

Will: "Yeah, you know what? Not your FedEx guy. Happy Thanksgiving." 

Will walks away. Toby opens the envelope.

 

Then, in the absolutely pitch-perfect ending to this episode, Will returns in the background shadows.

Will: "Unless you want to start now." 

 

Tales Of Interest! 

- We got a couple of special themed Thanksgiving episodes the past two seasons, with Shibboleth and The Indians In The Lobby. This turns out to be the Season 4 Thanksgiving episode, but we only know that because characters wish each other a happy Thanksgiving as the episode draws to a close.

- Sorkin and Sperling cram in a hefty amount of references to previous episodes in this script. You can see the ones I found in the Story Threads section below ... there were a bunch.

- Toby has been wearing a wedding ring from the beginning of the series, even after we discovered (in Mandatory Minimums) that he was divorced. Here is the first time I've noticed he's no longer wearing the ring, which is interesting when we think about the fact that he's trying to get Andy to re-marry him as they await the birth of their twins.

- I'll talk about this more in the They Do Exist! section, but Toby is wrong about "fear itself" coming from a second inaugural address. That's actually from FDR's first inaugural speech.

- It seems like kind of a crappy deal for Will; Toby says they'll set him up in a hotel room, but there will be no pay for working on the inaugural speech, and if he wants Elsie onboard Will has to pay her out of his own pocket. It's not like Will is really concerned with money, though, considering his plan to stay at the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Nice for a couple of weeks.

Quotes    

President: "What can she get?"

Leo: "She could go to jail for two years."

President: "For failure to follow an order?"

Leo: "Sure."

President: "We should have that here." 

-----

Mitch: "You can't just do this. It's a slap in the face."

CJ: "Well, I certainly didn't mean it as one."

Mitch: "It is."

CJ: "Mitch, I put you in the very first row I don't care about. Of the things I don't care about, I put you right up front. I'll see you later." 

-----

Donna: "We're running about 15 minutes behind."

Amy: "At 10:00? That's, like, half an hour ahead."

Donna: "I know, we're very proud." 

-----

Janice (to Josh): "Okay, well, you got the cards but Star Trek and the entire Starfleet series is about honor and loyalty and civic duty and the fact that you don't think that those are characteristics that should be displayed inside the White House is sad. But I wouldn't expect you to understand those types of things."

-----

Josh: "Admiral, you know I have all the respect in the world for you, right?"

Fitzwallis: "Yes."

Josh: "And if I didn't, I'd respect the uniform and the rank and the position anyway."

Fitzwallis: "What is it, son?"

Josh: "I feel like I have to go to Leo."

Fitzwallis: "Good. That's the way it's supposed to work."

-----

Reese: "I have an aide who, in my life, I haven't talked as much about as you've talked about Donna in our entire relationship, yours and mine, which is a cumulative total of seven minutes old."

Josh: "Nah, nah, no."

Reese: "You sure?"

Josh: "Sure. Tell me your aide's name. I'll ask her out. We'll double."

Reese: "Chief Petty Officer Harold Wendell."

Josh: "I got the fuzzy end of that lollipop."

Reese: "I don't know, Wendell's not 'cute' cute, but he's so funny." 

-----

(The President is told the UN Secretary General is on the line about diplomats' parking tickets) 

President (jabs telephone button and starts yelling): "There are big signs! You can't park there! I hope they get towed to Queens and the Triborough is closed and there's a big craft show at Shea, a flea market or a tractor show!" 

(He jabs the telephone button again)

Charlie: "Well, that was probably his secretary." 

-----

President (to Leo): "Are we together on this? Do we have resolve? We've got four years, no election, and a Republican Congress that hates me and actually hates you more. You ready to saddle up?"

 

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

• Mitch, the reporter who clashes with CJ over seating assignments, is played by Vyto Ruginis. He's been seen in many, many TV shows including NCIS: Los Angeles and ER (also, ironically considering this episode's subplot, Star Trek: The Next Generation) as well as the movies Moneyball and Broken Arrow (which also stars this episode's Christian Slater).

 

• Janice Trumbull, the Star Trek fan temporarily assigned to Josh's office, is played by Audrey Wasilewski, who has a long list of credits in TV shows and movies, as well as many many voice work credits in animated productions. She may be best known for her appearances in Big Love, Mad Men, and as the rocket-propelled-grenade-toting "businesswoman" in Red.

 

 

• There are a TON of references to past episodes here. Behold:

• At the opening Cabinet meeting, President Bartlet boasts that he's had the most stable cabinet since Hoover's. If you think back to Enemies, though, and the first Cabinet meeting we saw, none of the people in the room are the same as we saw that episode. I made this same point about the Secretary of Agriculture shown in Enemies (the one Bartlet joshes about never having eaten a vegetable) not being the same person as Secretary of Agriculture Roger Tribby, whom we saw as the "designated survivor" in He Shall, From Time To Time ... We've also seen CCH Pounder as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Deborah O'Leary in Celestial Navigation, but she's not in this scene, either.

• A press question to CJ references an increase in Shehab missile tests, a plot point from Swiss Diplomacy.

• Sam and Toby both mention Will's speech he wrote for Governor Tillman to deliver at the Stanford Club, which was first referenced in Game On. 

• Toby's frustration with losing his writing touch was previously seen in Enemies, where he ended up helping Sam with the "birthday message" for the Assistant Secretary of Transportation in order to get his groove back.

• Nancy, played by Renee Estevez, Martin Sheen's daughter, pops up again in the door of the Oval Office.

• Donna gets a bunch of callbacks: there's a mention of Donna trading votes with Jack Reese, from Election Night; a story about her accidentally leaving her underpants at an art gallery as part of the Karen Cahill caper (The Leadership Breakfast); and Josh reminds her that she got her job by pretending she already had the job, as we saw in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II.

• The name "Berryhill" is mentioned as someone Bartlet really wants in the Cabinet. That name was first heard in A Proportional Response as somebody working something out with Syria. The name came up several more times throughout Seasons 2 and 3, often in connection with Secretary Hutchinson (who must be Secretary of Defense, as there's a particular Bartlet statement in Swiss Diplomacy that says Hutchinson and Fitzwallis are building an urban warfare military). Finally, though, in Debate Camp Berryhill was referred to as a "Secretary" in the discussion of the Qumari ship carrying weapons for the Ba'hi terrorists. If he's already a Secretary involved in that level of action, wouldn't Berryhill already be in the Cabinet?

• Danny Concannon gets a shoutout, although we haven't seen him onscreen since The Portland Trip.

• As the President and Leo talk about the Hilton affair they get sidetracked into a story about Bartlet getting rid of an ambassador to somewhere in South America because he had an affair with the daughter of the President of Brazil, with the President saying he set the guy up with a job. This is very close to, but not exactly the same as, what we saw in Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics. Bartlet asked for the resignation of the ambassador to Bulgaria because he was having an affair with the daughter of the Prime Minister, with the President finding him a private-sector job for a landing spot.

• President Bartlet says he likes basketball but he can't play. We actually have seen him playing basketball, in The Crackpots And These Women, as he and his staff played a game on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. It's possible he's telling the truth about not being very good, as he did bring in a ringer who used to play for Duke to be on his team.

• Bartlet's appeal to Leo, to not let things be kept away from the Presidency because they're "too sticky" and to "saddle up" against the Republican Congress, sounds a lot like the reinvigoration of the administration we saw happening in Let Bartlet Be Bartlet (even down to Leo's "I serve at the President's pleasure" quote, which reminds us of the staff repeating "I serve at the pleasure of the President" in that episode). A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then (the MS coverup, congressional hearings, censure, an election), so perhaps it makes some sense to do it all over again.

• Will and Elsie Snuffin went from being co-workers and co-speechwriters in Game On to siblings in Election Night (when Elsie called him "big brother") to now step-siblings (Will tells Toby he has a stepsister who works with him on speechwriting).

 DC location shots    

• None.

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

• President Bartlet recalls Hoover's Cabinet.

• Toby asks Sam to leave his Los Angeles Lakers banner in his office (Sam used to have a Lakers jersey hanging in his office back in Season 1, just to prove he's always been a Southern California guy).

• The kerfluffle with Janice Trumbull and her Star Trek pin brings the TV show Star Trek and all its various series into the universe, including Romulans and Cardassians.

• Josh gives Donna a hard time about her asking him to help set her up with Jack Reese, and includes a reference to Potsie and Ralph, characters from the TV show Happy Days.

• Sam recommends the Hotel Beau Rivage in Nice to Will; Will responds that he's staying at the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild (which is actually more of an art museum than a place to stay).

• Josh uses Jackie Robinson as an example of a groundbreaker in his discussion with Fitzwallis.

• Toby has a City College of New York mug on his desk. As my wife and I are watching some Season 1 episodes right now, I noticed that mug pop up in Take Out The Trash Day when Toby is defending public broadcasting in the Roosevelt Room. We also saw him wearing a CCNY sweatshirt during the Pennsylvania Avenue basketball game in The Crackpots And These Women.

• Will tells Toby he was president of the Cambridge Union on a Marshall scholarship. His speech to the Stanford Club is also referenced.

• Josh tells Reese a story about Donna writing a letter to tennis star Ilie Nastase.

• Bartlet refers to Eisenhower and Kay Summersby as an example of affairs in the military not ending careers.

• CJ tells Mitch that Danny Concannon won a Pulitzer Prize.

• Bartlet's rant at the UN Secretary General includes mentions of "the Triborough" (meaning the Triborough Bridge) and "a big craft show at Shea" (meaning Shea Stadium).

• Toby (or, actually, Sorkin) is incorrect with the reference to important second inaugural addresses. He quotes "fear itself" as a famous second inaugural example: Franklin Roosevelt actually delivered the line "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" in his first inaugural address; his second was famous for the line "I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished." Toby's reference to Lincoln's second inaugural is fine, though, as it's famous for "divine providence" and "bind[ing] up the nation's wounds."

• We get mentions of the cable movie network Showtime, the pain reliever Advil, and the shipping company FedEx.

 End credits freeze frame: Toby alone in the Mess, considering the loss of his writing ability.

Previous episode: Swiss Diplomacy

Next episode: Holy Night