Red Haven's On Fire - TWW S4E17

 

Original airdate: February 26, 2003

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (79)
Story by: Mark Goffman (2) & Debora Cahn (2)

Directed by: Alex Graves (12)

Synopsis

• An operation to rescue the three Marines kidnapped in Equatorial Kundu is successful, but at a significant cost. Toby's change in tactics for Sam's campaign throws Sam for a bit of a loop. Abbey counters Josh's political maneuvering with a smooth move of her own. Will abuses his hapless interns.

"You're gonna lose, and you're gonna lose huge. They're gonna throw rocks at you next week, and I wanted to be standing next to you when they did."

When it comes to military operations, President Bartlet can't seem to catch a break. From a aircraft carrying medical personnel getting shot down over Syria for, well, "reasons" ("Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc") to a rescue mission for DEA agents in Colombia resulting in an ambush and the deaths of American soldiers (The War At Home) to having US troops involved in a shooting conflict during a coup attempt in Haiti (the end of Season 2 and beginning of Season 3), thing just always seem to go sideways. Oh, sure, there's been some successes, too - the standoff with China over Taiwan in Hartsfield's Landing or the reveal of the missing submarine in Gone Quiet - but odds are, if troops are involved, something isn't going to go right.

That's mainly due to the requirements of drama, of course. Stories that always turn out well without conflict or pain just aren't very interesting, and who's going to tune in to that every week? In this episode, we have a situation Aaron Sorkin has set up from the get-go for potential disaster (the Bartlet Doctrine, sending troops into conflicts anywhere in the world to enforce human rights and protect freedoms) ... so he's got to make that Chekhov's gun pay off somehow.

The President ordered the United States military into Equatorial Kundu in Inauguration: Over There in order to stop the slaughter of the Induye tribe at the hands of the ruling Arkutu. In The California 47th American forces took over the airport in Kundu, and Bartlet gave President Nzele 36 hours to stop the killing before he'll give the order for US troops to topple Nzele's government. Nzele responded by speeding up the pace of the genocide, and as a kicker captured three American soldiers on patrol at the airport.

As this episode begins, we see those soldiers have been beaten and tortured by the Kundunese Army, placing enormous pressure on the Bartlet administration to do something about it. A rescue mission is quickly planned, with the operation set up at a base in Ghana. Once the rescue team has practiced and got the plan down, Bartlet orders them in, bringing on a tense hours-long waiting game. At last the word arrives - the rescue was successful, all three Marines are safe in American hands. But simultaneously, word arrives from the base in Ghana - attackers drove vehicles through the gates and exploded them, killing 17 US servicemembers. It's a stark reminder of the global realities in today's age. A few terrorists can spread death and destruction with no warning and few ways to defend against them, making even high-minded policies like protecting basic human rights and innocent lives dangerous.

Sorkin gives us the personal side of this as well, with the families of the captured Marines in the White House meeting with the President. This seems like a bad idea: I mean, on paper it's a good one, and having the President personally meet the family members and give them his support with a personal touch, that's great - but doing that while the rescue operation is actually going on? And leaving those people (including a three-year-old, for Pete's sake!) sitting around in the Mural Room for over four hours while you're down in the Situation Room doesn't seem plausible, or wise. To make things even more tense, the mother of one of the Marines is critical of the whole administration plan - why are we sending soldiers to other countries? Why is a President who never served in the military so eager to send troops into harm's way? Why aren't people who know what's going on telling us anything at all? We get no satisfactory answer to those questions. In fact, Sorkin doesn't even try.

To be fair, the car-bombing at the Red Haven base in Ghana is mostly being used to set up part of the dramatic arc over the end of the season, but it's also being used to tie in The West Wing universe with our own. The United States has been on edge since September 2001, seeing itself as a target of shadowy terrorist forces willing and able to strike almost anywhere at any time. While the specific events of September 11 didn't happen in the universe of the show, something like it must have, and that background fear and (somewhat justified) paranoia about where America stands in the world (particularly the Muslim world) have been a throbbing underlying theme throughout Seasons 3 and 4 - and Sorkin is using those emotions to help him build to another season-ending climax.

Okay, I've gone pretty deep with all this - surely there are other things happening in this episode? Well, there sure are. Let's start with those lovable goofballs Josh and Amy Gardner, who used to be a couple but then broke up when Josh made her lose her job in Posse Comitatus, later butting heads over Senator Stackhouse's efforts to get on the debate stage in The Red Mass.

Josh brushes off the First Lady's ... I don't know, Chief of Staff? Chancellor? Swordsman? Or just her nephew? ... in discussions over funds she wants earmarked for immunization education. Josh has traded that money away for something else, and Abbey's priorities are barely on Josh's radar. Leading to this visit to Josh's office:

"You're very stealthy, ma'am."

Josh breezily brushes off Abbey's concerns, telling her Max can't play at this level and Josh will continue to win every time, and Abbey needs to get a real Chief of Staff if she wants to get her priorities done. Abbey jets off to California to help campaign for Sam, whose financial situation is being guided by Amy (last seen encouraging Sam to step up and run in Process Stories). As Amy and Abbey chat about Josh's gloating foolhardiness after her speech, Amy steps in to protect her from an annoying supporter by gutting said supporter's motives:

Amy: "Ironically, I have a hunch that the First Lady could have been brought on board fair pay if she had been lobbied more, what's the word? More, you know ... professionally. Rather than being embarrassed in this morning's newspaper. Alana."

Which leads to this reaction from Abbey:

Amy: "You said, 'Save me.'"

Abbey: "I meant, walk me to the other side of the room or something."

But then Abbey has an idea. Maybe this is exactly the answer to Josh's preening, his power over all her priorities. Maybe Amy can shake things up in Abbey's corner.

Which leads to a funny discussion outside Josh's office. Donna is reading a fax from Amy to Josh about the financials of Sam's campaign, to which he is half listening to. Another staffer asks Josh why he approved shifting some $30 million in the HHS budget back to immunization education (which is, by the way, over twice as much as Abbey had asked for before). Once he realizes what's being talked about - no, he didn't approve it, but yes, there it is, and sure, he should have proofread and caught that change - he wants to pay attention to that fax.

Josh: "Read me the fax."

Donna (reading): "'...latter on promise of opposition to partial birth ban, Mrs. B says you're encouraging her to hire a new chief of staff, need Treasury breakdown of cap gains cut, First Lady took your advice, she just hired me.'"

Donna: "Well .. a whole new chapter begins."

The potential for dramatic romantic-comedy conflict between Josh and Amy, two former lovers now working together/at loggerheads for the First Family, seems ripe for some great storylines. Spoiler alert: this promising ground for future storylines gets unceremoniously tossed away by the new post-Sorkin show runners in Season 5.

Meanwhile, across the street in the OEOB, Will is abusing the interns, who are all he has left for a writing staff. It's late on Saturday night, and Will has been after Lauren, Lauren, Cassie, and Lauren to keep writing additional remarks for administration officials on the tax plan to be announced Tuesday. Trouble is, they've been at it for hours and they're hungry and exhausted.

Will doesn't care. Not only is he unimpressed with their efforts, he jolts them awake by dropping a huge book on the table.

Elsie tries to get Will to listen to reason and give these girls a break, which he reluctantly does - until Toby calls to let him know the tax plan announcement has been moved up and they need the remarks by Sunday night, not Tuesday morning.

After another "pep talk" and a lesson on tax brackets the next morning, Elsie gets on Will's case. His methods are counterproductive; mean, insulting, and insensitive to the fact these four unpaid interns are just as much thunderstruck by events as Will is.

Elsie: "Sputnik crashed down on your head overnight. You were concentrating on one speech, and suddenly you're deputy director, and the director's a continent away, and the speechwriting staff quit."

Will: "Because of me."

Elsie: "Because they're idiots! And the tax plan's out two days early, and you weren't here for the nine months before, so you're cramming it. And you're taking it all out on four defenseless interns who, by the way, think Sputnik's crashed down on their heads, too!" 

That knocks some sense into Will, who takes the writing efforts of the interns and polishes them into something eloquent, pointing out how they were able to write the words, he just painted the picture. As he tells them the terrorist attack in Ghana will take the tax plan off the table for a few days and they should go home, they instead spring into action on their own accord to help pull together remarks about that incident - they're not quite interns any more, they're pulling together as a real writing staff (although, admittedly - still unpaid).

This surprises Will, but Elsie knows what's what.

Will: "Elsie? I don't think they understood. They can go home."

Elsie: "They understood." 

(And despite the fact Elsie really saved the day with Will's browbeating of the interns, she's finished with the series, and now departs to Mandyville.)

Sam's tenure on the show draws to a close as the congressional special election nears. With Scott Holcomb given the boot for mismanaging the campaign, Toby takes over for the final week (once he gets out of jail for the "bar fight" he was involved in while defending Andy). Toby wants to work his magic, turning Sam away from the business interests Holcomb had him cozying up to and instead pivoting to progressive, Democratic interests. Like the environment, and preserving Orange County's national treasure beachfront:

A scene which results in a comically outrageous amount of sand in Toby's shoes:

"I've still got sand in my shoes from like six hours ago."

But even with Toby's magic touch (you know, the one we discovered in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, Part I had never gotten any of his candidates elected), the die has been cast. Sam's down by 8 points with 10 undecided - it's impossible to get them all to break his way. He's going to lose, and he's "gonna lose huge," Toby tells him. To be honest, even in Process Stories when everyone was convincing him to keep his word to Horton Wilde's widow and take his place in the special election, the consensus was he had no chance in conservative, Republican Orange County, so this shouldn't come as a shock to Sam.

It does, though. So much so that he really, really needs a hug.

This is a nice scene between Toby and Sam, with Toby pledging his loyalty to his friend, wanting to be by his side and fighting even in a losing cause, and trying to help Sam build up his experience and his drive to follow up on his growing political ambitions. And it's pretty cool this takes place in the very same bar Sam decided to start this quixotic campaign, the bar in Laguna Beach (Game On) where Will and his team were building up to their unexpected election win. 

And Sorkin and director Alex Graves end the episode in a sort of tribute to Sam and the departure of Rob Lowe - two empty shot glasses, sitting on the bar, as Toby and Sam head out to face their fate.

A well-chosen final scene.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- Bid a fond farewell to Rob Lowe and his portrayal of Sam Seaborn. I'll rehash the situation - when the series began, Lowe was under the impression he was kind of "first among equals" with the cast: he appeared first in the credits, he was the very first cast member to appear in Pilot, and his salary was significantly higher than the others (with the exception of Martin Sheen, as the importance of President Bartlet rapidly grew). As the series continued into Season 3, however, Lowe felt Sam's storylines were becoming less important and more separated from the overall thread of the show (he was sent off to work on things alone like the elimination of the penny in War Crimes or how the poverty rate was determined in The Indians In The Lobby). Sorkin was honest about finding it tough to write good stories for Sam. In addition, all of the other main cast members received a big salary boost after Season 2, with most of them doubling their pay to almost match Lowe's. With Lowe feeling a lack of respect in the pay area and a feeling that his promised role wasn't playing out as he expected, he decided it was time to leave the series. Sorkin planted the seeds of Sam's departure at the beginning of Season 4, in 20 Hours In America, when Sam had to staff the President while Josh, Toby, and Donna were stranded in Indiana. Sam found an appreciation for the political leadership role, rather than his speechwriting/communications post, which led to his agreeing to step up and run in the California 47th special election - a move which helps ease Sam out of the White House and away from the show.

Sam does return for a few episodes at the end of Season 7, but for now - that's it for Mr. Seaborn. He's going to stay in California for a while and settle down. 

The last shot of Sam ... for a couple of years, anyway.

- Speaking of farewells, this is also the end for Danica McKellar's Elsie Snuffin. Will's half-sister came along with him to the White House for his temporary gig helping with the Inaugural Address, then shifting over to help write for the First Lady. After serving as a buffer in this episode between "very sweet hard-ass" Will and his inexperienced team of interns, she's apparently fulfilled her purpose and is never seen again. 

The last we see of Elsie before she heads off to Mandyland.

- Again, this timeline doesn't really make sense from what we've been told before, and there's absolutely no excuse for things like this when Aaron Sorkin can write whatever dates he wants in his scripts! In Game On Will tells Sam under California law a special election to replace the deceased Horton Wilde will happen "no more than 90 days" after the election. The election was November 5 (that's been confirmed by the President himself in College Kids when he asks CJ, "Look, win or lose on the 5th, I'm the President right now, right?"). Ninety days after that would be February 3rd. The events of these last two episodes happen over a weekend in February, which could only be the 1st and 2nd under these restrictions (and February 1 and 2 were indeed a weekend in 2003). But the election isn't the next day, it's still a week away. That means more than 90 days between elections, which seems to be in conflict with California law, so ... fraud! Call out the auditors! Check the ballots for bamboo!

- The timeline for Josh/Amy/Abbey and the immunization money also seems weird. Josh asked Donna to proofread the proposed HHS budget on Air Force One, flying back to DC on Saturday night - so he had the proposed budget in his hands then. His dismissal of Max and his meeting with Abbey gloating about his victory over her priorities had to be Sunday morning. Abbey then flew to California, gave her speech, saw Amy verbally gut Alana Waterman, and then hire her as chief of staff over the course of the day on Sunday. So when Josh learns of the shuffling of funds to pay for Abbey’s program, it would have to be Sunday evening. How would Donna’s proofreading of the budget Saturday night/Sunday morning possibly have been able to catch Amy’s shenanigans that didn’t happen until Sunday afternoon? Huh?

- Will's reference to the minimum wage being $5.15 an hour is correct for 2003; the federal minimum wage was set at that amount in 1997 and remained there until being raised to $5.85 in 2007 (at the time of this writing in 2021, it's $7.25).

- Why was CJ left behind in California when the rest of the traveling party (save jailbirds Toby and Charlie) headed back to Washington? Think about this for a moment - in The Long Goodbye CJ cuts short her visit home to her high school reunion because of bombings at American embassies overseas, because the press office simply can't run without her. In this episode, the President cuts short a campaign trip because American Marines have been captured in Africa, with a rescue mission almost certain to be sent in ... and that's not enough to get CJ back to the White House? When she appeared out of nowhere on the beach with Toby and Sam I immediately thought, "Hey, wait, why isn't she back in DC with everybody else?"

(On the other hand, The Long Goodbye appears to be out of chronological order, as CJ tells her dad it's February as they're fishing in the river. If this episode is set the first weekend of February, then The Long Goodbye hasn't happened yet, so maybe CJ learned from this episode that she needed to rush back in that one ... but why wasn't Will around to help Toby out in The Long Goodbye? Okay, now my head hurts.)

- Here's another point why I think this current string of episodes isn't exactly the strongest: Sorkin sets us up for a brilliant explanation of the Bartlet Doctrine, gets us ready for a stirring, high-minded monologue on the moral imperative for American force protecting human rights anywhere on the globe. He does this by bringing in a strident, unaware ("they have TV?"), conservative-leaning voice in Mrs. Rowe, mother of one of the captured Marines. She confronts Leo, and later Debbie, about the overall purpose of sending American soldiers to Africa.

Mrs. Rowe: "Can you tell us this? Why were these boys sent to a place I've never heard of? And to kill people I've never heard of?"

Debbie: "That's a complicated question."

Mrs. Rowe: "I'm a smart lady."

But that's the end of it! The question is left hanging there when Leo comes in to announce the Marines have been rescued. Not even when Rowe pushes Leo to tell them about the lives lost in Ghana as a result of the operation is the topic of Americans protecting the rights of others overseas discussed. Sorkin just ... leaves it. He blew a big opportunity, I think, and while he already had an eloquent speech on the subject from President Bartlet in Inauguration: Over There, I'm not sure why he broached the topic here just to let it ... fizzle. (Don't get me started on how the show runners that take over the series in Seasons 5 through 7 just ignore the fact that the Bartlet Doctrine ever existed.) 

- I'm impressed by some of the tight close ups we see in this episode. Real close ups aren't common in The West Wing, so when we see them, they have real impact. This one struck me, right after President Bartlet gives the order to go ahead with Task Force Dawn Sky. 

- This probably isn't fair to Rob Lowe, but it's his last appearance for a while, so why the heck not. Plus I've mentioned his hair before (remember how the part in his hair changed from one side to the other between What Kind Of Day Has It Been and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part I ... which was supposed to all be the same night?).

There's a continuity issue with his hair, in the final scene in the bar. After the hug, as Sam says, "We should get back to work," we see his hair perfectly coiffed - I mean, it's Rob Lowe, we wouldn't expect anything less, right?

Toby offers a toast to the President and Sam, and as they down their shots, Sam's hair is now raffishly hanging over his forehead.

They set the glasses on the bar, and as they stand up to leave - Sam's hair is perfect again!

Quotes 

Toby (on phone with Josh as he and Charlie are being released from jail): "By the way, you know what they don't tell you? You can post bond with a credit card."

Charlie (to police officer): "Yo, man, that's totally wack!"

Toby (to Josh): "Yeah. Charlie's trying to throw down with the street. It's kind of a sad sight to see."

Charlie (to police officer): "I've got American Express. I've got Visa. I could've posted bond and gotten miles, damn it."  

-----

Sam: "How'd you call Josh?"

Toby: "What do you mean?"

Sam: "Didn't they take your cell phone from you?"

Toby (motioning toward call girls): "I borrowed theirs."

Sam: "So on a call girl's phone bill, there's going to be a call to Air Force One?"

Toby: "You're really going to be teaching the seminar on call girl caution? Really?" 

-----

Toby (on phone): "Charlie and I got arrested."

Will: "Yeah, I saw it on the news."

Toby: "It made the news out there?"

Will: "A Jewish guy won a bar fight, it's news everywhere." 

-----

 CJ: "You should tell her not to talk about the House vote."

Charlie: "You want me to tell Mrs. Bartlet she's gonna look like a dilettante?"

CJ: "I once had to tell the President he was wearing two different shoes."

Charlie: "That's roughly the same."

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

• Hey, it's Ivan Allen, the go-to on-screen news anchor for plenty of TV series! He was first seen on The West Wing in A Proportional Response, introducing the President's address to the nation announcing airstrikes on Syria. He has appeared in several episodes since, usually with the name Roger Salier attached. While he first was onscreen with the fictional CND cable network, he once was seen as a reporter for a local TV channel (The White House Pro-Am). After that, his screen appearances usually had no network or TV channel logo, but now we find he's found a job with the very real MSNBC. 

 

• Martha Rowe, mother of one of the Marines captured in Kundu, is played by Carrie Snodgress (Diary Of A Mad Housewife, Pale Rider, Blue Sky, and the longtime romantic partner of musician Neil Young).

 

• Alana Waterman, author of the op-ed who bears the brunt of Amy's "saving" of Abbey, is played by the familiar character actress Lee Garlington (Everwood, Medium, Sneakers, a memorable scene at a school parent meeting where she's insulted by Amy Madigan in Field Of Dreams).

• There's a quick shot of Nancy through a window on Air Force One, telling the President that Leo is on the phone. Nancy is played by Renee Estevez, Martin Sheen's daughter.

 

• Toby's wisecrack to Sam about teaching the seminar on call-girl caution is a callback to Sam's relationship with Laurie, the law student/call-girl, that was a big part of Season 1 (right from the very first scene of the series in Pilot).

• We discover Amy is working with Sam on the financials for his campaign, which is something she talked about doing while encouraging him to run in Process Stories.

• While we're never told exactly what Max's role is for the First Lady (besides being her nephew, of course), we kind of assume he's acting as her Chief of Staff (Josh tells Abbey, "You need a Chief of Staff, a real one"). Well, I think we already met Abbey's Chief of Staff earlier, and it was a very capable Lilli Mays in The White House Pro-Am. So ... where did Lilli go?

• Abbey's surprising reveal in Josh's doorway reminds me a bit of her being wheeled into his office in The Women Of Qumar (Josh to Donna: "Could I go five minutes without being interrupted by banality?" Abbey, appearing in the doorway: "It's not banality, it's the boss’s wife").

• Will's smashing of the glass between his office and Toby's ... well, the only reason there's fresh new glass in the window is because Will broke the old glass by throwing something at it in Inauguration: Over There.

• Abbey asks Amy, "How did you live with Josh Lyman?" which is a reminder of when Amy and Josh were a couple (from Dead Irish Writers until the events of Posse Comitatus, when Josh got Amy fired from her job as a result of pushing through a welfare reform bill).

• Mrs. Rowe's catty comment about "The Bartlet people aren't ones for joining the service" relates to the fact the President hadn't served in the military, a point Jed brought up himself in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc." She also goes after Leo, who responds with his experience in the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing in Vietnam (a plot point in War Crimes).

• The bar where Toby and Sam have a quick drink and discuss getting creamed is the very same bar in Laguna Beach from Game On where Sam talked to Will and he decided to go ahead with his promise to run in Horton Wilde's place.

The bar as Sam enters, with Toby trailing behind

The bar in Game On, with Will just before Sam enters

 

DC location shots    

• None, but several in southern California, where most of the series was actually shot anyway.

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

• The MSNBC network is starting to be used as an in-universe TV news source a bit more by the show runners, a reasonable thing to do on an NBC show.

 

• Toby calls Charlie "Hurricane" as the two leave the police station, a reference to Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongfully convicted of murder who served 20 years in prison before his release in 1985.

• Sam mentions Disneyland, which is in Orange County and conceivably part of the 47th congressional district.

• Josh calls Donna "Trotsky" in a reference to her meeting a member of the Communist Party on their trip to California ("Because you sent me there," she retorts).

• Will's interns are still wearing the Washington Redskins jerseys he used to tell them apart (handed out in The California 47th). I mean, it makes sense, since the events of late Saturday night we see here follow the Saturday morning when Will handed the jerseys out. In addition, Cassie looks to have a can of Diet Cherry Coke (I think that's what it is, with the wild late 1990s/early-2000s "punk rock" design they used).

 

• Will says his interns will use their White House experience to get jobs at Condé Nast (a publishing company that happens to publish Vogue, a magazine Will also references) and HBO (the cable entertainment channel), or at least marry executives at Condé Nast and HBO. He also calls them "the Ronettes," a girl group from the 1950s and 60s.

• There's bottles of Deer Park brand water on the table in the Roosevelt Room where Josh is meeting with the other staffers.

 

• President Lincoln gets a shoutout from Will, saying the concept of a progressive tax rate has been around since his presidency (which is true, although Lincoln's tax was found unconstitutional in 1872). It took the 16th Amendment in 1909 to make income taxes constitutional.

• Josh has a Starbucks cup on his desk when Abbey comes in to complain about the immunization education funding.

• Sam compares Toby to Charlie McCarthy, whereupon Toby reminds him he's actually be Edgar Bergen.

• The world's first artificial satellite is brought up by Elsie as she compares the reactions of Will and the interns to the ongoing events as "Sputnik crashed down on your head overnight." 

• When Toby dumps the beach sand out of his shoes in the hotel room, CJ sings "Sand in my shoes, sand from Havana" from Bobby Short's song Sand In My Shoes.

• That fictional KKOC TV station we saw in The California 47th is still on the TV in the hotel room.

 

• CJ, trying to convince Charlie to stop Abbey from talking about the nutrition assistance program, says, "When she talks about poor women wearing a $4000 Krizia dress, she looks like Marie Antoinette."

• Sam has a hard time believing he's supposed to talk about "Charles Darwin-omics" to the Chamber of Commerce.

• John Rawls, who came up with the "veil of ignorance" that Will tells the interns about, is a real philosopher (who called that thought experiment "original position.")

End credits freeze frame: The President meeting with the family members of the captured Marines.

Previous episode: The California 47th

Next episode: Privateers

The California 47th - TWW S4E16

 

Original airdate: February 19, 2003

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (78)
Story by: Lauren Schmidt (2) & Paula Yoo (2)

Directed by: Vincent Misiano (3)

Synopsis

• A Presidential trip to help Sam in his special election goes awry, from clashes with his campaign staff to traffic tieups to slurs against the French to meetings with California Communists. The genocide in Kundu accelerates as the ruling party tries to finish the job before the American deadline, and the capture of three American soldiers heats up the situation even more. Will gets a new writing staff made up of interns. Toby and Charlie end up in jail after a scuffle over Andy at a hotel bar.
  

"If I'm going to lose, I'd like to lose doing something."

There's a lot going on here. And I'm just not sure it all lands very successfully.

I know hectic, events-driven episodes can be a hallmark of The West Wing; I've even praised Aaron Sorkin in the past for crafting well-balanced, satisfying stories out of the administration keeping multiple plot-related plates spinning while barely keeping its head above water as the hold on current events slips away. He's good at it. I just don't think he's very good at it here. To be honest, his hands are tied a little bit with the special election timeline and the Equatorial Kundu story and Will's writing staff (and Andy's pregnancy!) all meant to take multiple episodes to resolve, but ... that's still on Sorkin, right? These are his stories!

It's not just that there are multiple main plotlines, it's that every one of them seems to have expanding tendrils that make them more complicated and take more of our mental time dealing with them. The trip to California to help Sam campaign, that's a major plot, and you can include Scott Holcomb's handling of the campaign and the traffic issues and even the slam against the French in the "major" part; but then you add on the back-and-forth about when to announce the tax plan (which could be a major plotline on its own) and Donna's unwitting meeting with a Communist ... that's a lot. The episode opens with the ongoing storyline of the situation in Kundu, with American military forces taking over the airport in the capital; but that gets complex with the Kundunese president's demands and the escalating pace of the genocide to try to beat the American deadline and then - then - the capture of three American soldiers. Will's storyline with his writing staff quitting and his attempts to corral four interns into helping him write presidential comments is another episode plot - and I haven't even gotten to the bar scuffle that gets Toby and Charlie arrested, or the fact that Jean-Paul is along on this trip for some reason.

So, yeah. Not sure this goes high on the pantheon.

Let's begin with Sam's campaign. To recap, last fall Will ran a campaign for a Democratic House candidate in a heavily Republican district in California. The candidate, Horton Wilde, ended up dying before the election. Sam, knowing a Democrat (especially a dead one) would have zero chance to win, promised Wilde's widow he'd step in as the candidate if there was a special election. Will's campaign was strong enough (and enough factors coincided in the right way) that Wilde ended up winning, Sam kept his promise, and about 90 days later, here we are.

The Will-Wilde Democratic magic isn't holding up, though. As President Bartlet and his advisors make a trip out to Orange County to campaign for their old compatriot, Sam finds himself eight or nine points behind with about a week to go. Scott Holcomb, the big-time campaign manager sent out by the national party (and vouched for by Will in Game On, remember), is having Sam cozy up to business interests instead of the Democratic working-class base. Those tactics aren't appreciated by Will or the rest of Sam's friends:

CJ: "I think Holcomb's been making bad mistakes with you, Sam. I think Josh has been right."

Toby: "I know Josh has been right and if you think that's easy for me to say -"

Josh: "He's got you with business."

Sam: "He says it's how a Democrat wins Orange County."

Josh: "Has a Democrat ever won Orange County?"

The answer, of course, is YES! Just three months ago! A Democrat won an election in Orange County! Yes, he happened to be dead, and yes, the campaign got the unlikely and never-to-be-repeated trifecta of bad weather on Election Night/a presidential race decided early in the day/an overconfident Republican Party not spending any time on the race ... but for Holcomb to claim the only way a Democrat can win the district is by ignoring everything Will did the previous year and by sucking up to Republican-leaning business owners (who gladly checked the box for Chuck Webb the previous seven elections and will happily do it again) seems ... I don't know, disqualifying as a Democratic Party operative? 

Sam knows it's not a good situation, but his hands are tied. Toby is begging him to let him take over the campaign for the final week, but Sam can't do it. He can't really fire Holcomb, who is the best the DNC has to offer in a race that's the only one going on in the nation at the time. Not even when Holcomb encourages Sam to separate himself from the President on this trip, and not even when Holcomb finds out the administration is delaying the announcement of their tax plan in an effort to help (or at least, not hurt) Sam, and then he tells Sam to come out against it. That tax plan for deductible college tuition, you'll remember, Sam played a key role in developing after the events of 20 Hours In America, Part 2 and College Kids. Even then, he still doesn't really have the power to fire him.

But someone else does - the leader of the Democratic Party, one Josiah Bartlet, President of the United States. And when Holcomb basically admits he's not in this race to win it, but just to pad his own resume, the decision is swift:

President: "Scott?"

Holcomb: "Yes, sir?"

President: "Why are you putting Sam next to business?"

Holcomb: "Sir ..."

President: "No, I'm just curious."

Holcomb: "You read numbers as well as anyone, sir. Webb's going to win here. That's not a surprise. So why burn the DNC's bridges -"

President (cutting him off): "Josh?"

Josh: "Yes, sir?"

President: "Tell Toby to take over the campaign."

Luckily, Toby is available for a while, because as Josh says, "Toby probably can't leave the state anyway." Toby and Charlie were arrested for assault in a hotel bar, after an outspokenly rude patron insulted Andy, Toby's ex-wife Congressperson who is pregnant with Toby's twins (it's a long story, hopefully you've been along for the ride).

These two - who first accost Andy with "Those kids you got in there deserve a father," I mean, who says that? - are a real couple of peaches. Obviously meant to represent the "typical" conservative Republican Orange Countian, things get real weird when Toby stands up to force the guy to give Andy some space, and then when Charlie comes in to help, the wife says, "This is the one who was with the daughter." Racist much?

Unseen by us, we're later told the guy slipped, there was some contact, Charlie threw a punch, and Toby and Charlie wind up in the local hoosegow.

(Andy being along on the trip to support Sam is a hoot, especially the scene where Toby discovers she's on Air Force One - and how did he not realize that until the aircraft was over Arizona?

Toby: "Oh, my god. Have you been on the plane the whole time?"

Andy: "No, I hopped on board when you guys were over the Great Lakes.")

So that makes it rather convenient for Toby (and Charlie) to hang around southern California for a bit longer and help out Sam.

Continuing with Sam and the tax plan, we learn at the beginning of the episode that the administration is still waiting on final scoring of their plan before they can officially announce it. The Republicans jump on the chance to gain the initiative, rolling out their plan first (as the President is on his way to California). That plan, naturally, cuts taxes drastically, fifteen percent across the board plus a 50 percent cut on capital gains. That's a huge contrast to the Bartlet proposal, which raises tax rates one percent on the top one percent of incomes in order to pay for the full deductibility of college tuition.

The President and his advisors know making that plan public while they are on the campaign trip will sink Sam in Orange County, making it easy for the Republicans to tie Sam directly to higher taxes and the administration (which won't play well in a district that has a lot of those top-one-percent of incomes). So they decide to hold off on the announcement, not even telling Sam about their play.

When Sam finds out, he is not pleased. He doesn't want to run away from the President and his accomplishments and his proposals; he wants to embrace them (and he's been prevented from doing that by his campaign staff).

Sam: "You are missing news cycle after news cycle after news cycle, but you didn't announce 'cause you didn't want to do it from Orange County."

Josh: "Would you?"

Sam: "Yes! I say to hell with the election! There's a guy in St. Louis making $55,000 a year trying to send his kid to Notre Dame."

[...]

Sam: "If I'm going to lose, I'd like to lose doing something." 

Oh, and a guy who represents agricultural workers wants to meet with somebody in the administration. Josh sends Donna, just to make sure the guy is legit, and he seems to be (although Donna is distracted by somebody taking a picture of them meeting), and only later do they all discover Izzy Perez ran for Governor of California on the Communist Party ticket.

Reporter: "How do you think the picture of Donna and Mr. Perez is going to play in Orange County?"

CJ: "Really, really well."

And another thing, the President insults the French (or, perhaps, hairdressers), loudly, while waiting for his cue to come up and speak in support of Sam. Not to mention the traffic issues and Interstate closures that end up trapping crying children trying to get home from Disneyland. I said there was a lot going on, I meant it!

Turning our attention to Will, before the trip Toby directs him to utilize his staff to include comments supporting the tax plan with every public administration pronouncement the following Tuesday. Will, who has been unsuccessfully trying to curry favor with his staff through the use of Rice Krispies Treats, decides to meet with them all to get things situated. But when the meeting time arrives, there are no speechwriters there - only interns.

On the phone from California, Toby clears things up.

Will: "I was just starting the staff meeting, and there's no staff."

Toby: "Yeah, I fired some of them."

Will: "How many of them?"

Toby: "All of them."

[...]

Will: "Okay. The speechwriting staff - you didn't fire them, they quit, right?"

Toby: "Yeah."

Will: "Because of me, right?"

Toby: "Yeah."

Toby encourages Will to just tell the interns what he wants, and then expect it. The interns are, eventually, game for the task - but the fact their names are "Lauren, Lauren, Cassie, and Lauren" make it complicated for Will. He turns to numbers instead of names, handing out Washington Redskins football jerseys so he can refer to each intern by a number.

And they try to live up to Will's expectations, as he explains how they need to provide defenses of the administration's tax plan on these previously written remarks. Oh, do they try. But their speechwriting skills still need some work.

Toby (on phone): "Read me what you've got for the swearing in of the ambassador."

Will (reading what one of the interns has written): "'Ambassador Stannis will help to build and sustain a new era of cooperation between the United States and Hungary. And let's please all remember that cutting capital gains taxes is a bad idea.'"

Toby (beat): "Okay, you're going to polish that up?"

The situation in Equatorial Kundu continues to deteriorate. You'll recall in both the Inauguration episodes the ruling Arkutu had begun mass killings of the minority Induye. President Bartlet felt a moral urge to do something, but couldn't find a clear diplomatic path without overriding Kundunese sovereignty - let alone the political, financial, and human costs of a military option. Eventually, with the push of some frank talk from Will, Bartlet decided to craft a bold new foreign policy to use American power anywhere in the world where human rights are being violated.

At the close of Inauguration: Over There the President told his staff that he was ordering military forces into Kundu (remember how he told them, on the night of the inaugural balls, "I'm sorry, everyone, but this is a work night"). At the open of this episode we find Bartlet, Leo and Fitz in the Situation Room awaiting word on the 82nd Airborne taking over the airport in Bitanga, which they do quickly and uneventfully. The President sees the ambassador from Kundu in the Oval Office, and in no-nonsense terms tells him what's up:

President (interrupting Ambassador Tiki's protest): "I've just taken your airport - clearing the way for the 101st Air Assault to take the capital. Seven thousand troops, 25 battle tanks, 15 Apache attack helicopters, and three destroyers. Strictly speaking, I conquered your country without the paperwork."

He then issues a deadline: 36 hours for President Nzele to order his troops to turn over their weapons to the Americans and stop the slaughter of the Induye, or the American military will take over the capital city.

This leads to some pretty bold bargaining by Nzele. His opening offer: he wants $500 million in undirected aid (straight to his pockets, in other words), immunity from war crimes, and an assurance he will stay in power. Leo practically laughs the Kundunese diplomats out of his office, but then aerial surveillance shows a sobering turn. Fitz has the pictures:

Leo: "Are we seeing any pictures of the Arkutu getting ready to surrender?"

Fitz: "No. Here's what we're seeing. These are 3,200 Induye being marched down a road toward Mutsato. These are cranes and bulldozers at work, and twice as many smokestacks burning as of an hour ago. So this is the mass gravesite that the 3,200 Induye are being marched to."

Leo: "How many more in the next 20 hours?"

Fitz: "We think about 20,000."

Leo: "So why not talk about blowing off the deadline?"

Fitz: "'Cause we'd need 55 more aircraft off the USS Colonnade and 3rd Infantry."

Leo: "He's trying to finish the job before the deadline."

The administration is trapped. They're using the U.S. military to put pressure on Nzele to end the genocide, but they can't actually force him to stop until all the pieces are in place - and before that happens, Nzele is working to kill tens of thousands more Induye.

And then, a final thunderbolt. Everything has been going smoothly for the military, as they hold the airport and consolidate their forces in preparation for the deadline. Until it doesn't go smoothly.

Leo (on the phone): "Two Marine Lance Corporals and a PFC have been taken."

President: "What do you mean they've been taken?"

Leo: "Patrolling Bitanga Airport in a Humvee. Fifty guys came out of nowhere."

President: "We secured the airport."

Leo: "They came out of nowhere."

(I share the President's disbelief here. After being told "The airport is secure," to have fifty soldiers appear and kidnap three Americans is, well, mind-boggling. Not to mention, "they came out of nowhere" is hardly the foolproof excuse the commanders seem to think it is.)

With this news, everything changes. The President is going to cut his Sam-support trip short and head back to Washington, knowing he now has American lives in serious jeopardy and the prospect of many more troops about to put their lives on the line. As he waits to go on stage to speak, he notices an Army lieutenant, a military liaison there as part of the Presidential traveling party.

President: "Lieutenant."

Lt. Smith: "Yes, sir."

President: "How old are you?"

Lt. Smith: "I'm 22 years old, sir."

President Bartlet knows what he's asking these young men and women to do, and he knows he carries the responsibility - yet it's also clear he's committed to furthering his Bartlet Doctrine to try to make life better for more people around the world.

And that's the end of the episode ... with Sam's electoral race, the kidnapped soldiers in Kundu, Toby and Charlie facing assault charges, and Will teaching his interns how to write all storylines still in progress. That's part of what makes this episode less successful, for me ... there's no conclusion on anything, it's all left for the future, which really isn't satisfying at all, I don't think. 

Tales Of Interest!

- After five episodes without Sam, we get Rob Lowe back. He'll be in the next episode, too, but after that he departs the series (Sam does return at the tail end of Season 7). I've talked about the issues around Lowe's departure before, and I'll go over that again in the next post.

- According to Will (Game On), after the deceased Horton Wilde won the general election contest for the seat in the California 47th, "a special election will be held after no more than 90 days." Since the 2002 election was on November 5, 90 days from that puts us at February 3, 2003. That was a Monday. This Presidential visit is over a weekend, and it's explicitly stated it's already February, which could only be the 1st and 2nd with the election the following day - but it's clearly about a week prior to the election. So that 90-day thing Will told us doesn't fit the calendar The West Wing is using.

- Just a pondering on the military timelines, we know President Bartlet gave the order to send in American forces to Equatorial Kundu on the night of the inauguration (which, constitutionally, is January 20). We're now in early February, perhaps the 1st (as that was a Saturday in 2003), and the forces are just landing in that country. It makes total sense for such an operation to take 10-plus days, so that's all accurate, I suppose.

- The California 47th congressional district does cover parts of Orange County, and as mentioned in this episode, Orange County was for many years and remains a stronghold of Republican politics. A Republican held this seat in the House from the creation of the district before the 1992 election until the midterms of 2002 (which in The West Wing universe was a Presidential election year). The district boundaries were adjusted with the results of the 2000 census, which brought more of Los Angeles County into the district. In that 2002 election (which in real life happened just three months before the events of this episode) the seat was won by the Democrats and has been a Democratic seat since. Several of the cities/locations mentioned in this episode as campaign sites, such as Newport Beach, were not actually in the 47th district.

- Gail's fishbowl is apparently missing! There's a quick scene in CJ's office where we can see her entire desk, and there's no fishbowl there.

- While I've made my case on my opinion of the overstuffed plots in this episode already, I do have to say I appreciate some of the structuring in the script (and the direction by Vincent Misiano) to carry us from place to place and from plotline to plotline. The telephone conversations between Will and Toby are used quite expertly to transport us from a scene in Washington with the interns, to the Will/Toby discussion, directly into California and what's going on there. That stuff is quite well done.

Quotes    

(Josh, Toby, and CJ at the door of the Oval Office as the President has a frustrating talk with Jean-Paul as Zoey listens) 

Josh: "Sir, we didn't know you were busy, we'll wait outside."

President: "No, that's all right. What do you need?"

Josh: "The three of you should bond."

President: "Come here."

(The President pulls Josh aside)

President (whispering): "If you leave, I'll kill you." 

-----

Toby: "Get over the dress, would you?"

CJ: "It was a suit and they hit me with an avocado."

Toby: "It could've been worse."

CJ: "How?"

Toby: "They could have hit me." 

-----

Holcomb: "Sam, while they're here this weekend, you're going to need to work at avoiding the appearance you're sitting in his lap, he's reading you a bedtime story."

Sam: "I'm going to need to work hard to avoid that appearance?"

Holcomb: "Yeah, you are."

Sam: "Well, let me ask you, what do we have planned that might be mistaken -"

Holcomb: "You stand next to him, you're aide-de-camp. You're a waterboy."

Staffer: "Second banana."

Sam: "Did you not think I knew what he meant?"

Holcomb: "This went fast in an ugly direction." 

-----

Toby: "And I told you you couldn't fly."

Andy: "And Dr. Salmi said I could fly through the 32nd week, and I thought since he's my doctor, and you're really dumb, I'd join the congressional delegation and help out Sam. Isn't it great?"

Toby: "Listen to me. We've got all kinds of atmospheric cabin pressure up here. We're a little late, so the Colonel's got the hammer down in a 747. You've got windshear, downdraft, massive turbulence, not to mention four giant engines burning jet fuel at galactic temperatures. We're standing in a giant death tube!"

(Donna, Ed, and Larry stare at Toby)

Toby: "No, not the rest of you. It's just my family. It's ... it's fine."

-----

President: "I'm not an economist, but - no, wait, I am an economist. So, their plan will do what, CJ?"

CJ: "Explode --"

President: "Explode the deficit. Will it stimulate the economy, Josh?"

Josh: "It will stimulate the Swiss economy."

President: "Josh gets extra credit for being funny and right at the same time, and how long do I have to stay quiet, Toby?"

Toby: "You're the leader of the free world, sir. You can speak any time you like."

President: "And not kill Sam?"

Toby: "No, for that you have to shut up for 50 hours."

----- 

Cassie: "Will, we're interns. Do you think we have a clue as to how to write a tax policy speech?"

Will: "Well, I'm sure you had to write in college in the many, many government and poli-sci and economics classes you took while attending ... ?"

Cassie: "The London School of Ballet."

Will: "What the hell are you doing here?"

Cassie: "I'm changing direction."

 -----

Toby (as he's being booked): "Excuse me, officer, ballpark ... how long do you think this is going to be?"

Police officer: "Assault - six to twenty months."

Charlie: "It wasn't assault. He slipped on a thing."

Police officer: "Yeah, one of the guys says you hit him."

Charlie: "Well, that was different. That part may have been assault." 

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

• We first heard Scott Holcomb's name in Swiss Diplomacy, when Will told the press about Sam's new campaign staff (he's supposed to be the best the DNC has to offer for this special election, the only game in the nation at this point). Now we meet Holcomb, played by the familiar actor Matthew Glave (The Wedding Singer, ER, Argo, Army Wives).

• Cassie, the intern, is played by Claire Coffee (a long run on General Hospital, Grimm, Franklin & Bash).

• The estimates of Induye deaths at the hands of the Arkutu in Equatorial Kundu were at 25,000 in the previous episode. Now Leo tells the Kundunese ambassador that 115,000 have been killed. 

• Leo tells the President he has a meeting about salmon runs in Oregon - when Josh and Donna were trying to get the Flender family to vote for President Bartlet in the New Hampshire primary in Hartsfield's Landing the topic of salmon and some of the Flenders' relatives in Oregon was a key issue.

• We see a Senator Alan Broderick (R-FL) on television, identified as "GOP Leader." I don't think that necessarily makes him the Senate Majority Leader, a person who's been talked about but never identified by name in the past (remember Ann Stark was the Majority Leader's chief of staff, setting up his apparent Presidential run in The Leadership Breakfast, which was never heard about again, for one example). There was a Broderick mentioned in Enemies, as one of the congressmen behind the land-use rider attached to the banking reform bill, but that person was in the House at the time (perhaps he's moved on to the Senate since 1999).

• You recall Andy is due with the twins in May. With this being early February, she's about six months along (or about a month shy of the 32 weeks her doctor said was still okay to fly). Toby apparently thinks this is the size of a minivan ("I saw him first, girls").

• Toby's rant to Andy about flying and his knowledge of windshear and turbulence and jet fuel reminds us of his very first scene in Pilot, when he lists off the details of the Lockheed L-1011 he's sitting in as he tries to convince the flight attendants to let him keep talking on his phone.

• It's an ongoing joke to mix up Ed and Larry, who always seem to appear to together. In addition, President Bartlet's weakness at remembering names is actually based on Martin Sheen's same issue. So here's a reference to both things:

Larry: "Plus, it's worse than we thought."

Ed: "It is."

President: "Sing it, Larry!"

Ed: "Uh, Ed." 

• The Charlie/Zoey/Jean-Paul triangle continues, with a direct reference to Charlie and Zoey dating from the wife at the hotel bar. Charlie and Zoey were a couple in Season 1, first meeting in The Crackpots And These Women, with their relationship turning out to be the driving force behind the assassination attempt in What Kind Of Day Has It Been. Zoey just up and disappeared after The Midterms in Season 2 (they were still a couple then), then reappeared in this season's Holy Night with her new French royalty boyfriend. Charlie's been dedicated to try to win her back from Jean-Paul ever since.

• When Sam tells Josh off for waiting on announcing the tax plan, he says, "There's a guy in St. Louis making $55,000 a year trying to send his kid to Notre Dame!" We saw that guy, Matt Kelly, talking with Josh and Toby in a hotel bar in Indianapolis in 20 Hours In America Part 2, a conversation that inspired the administration's plan to provide a tax break for college tuition in College Kids.

• There's Nancy, making the trip to California. Nancy is played by Renee Estevez, Martin Sheen's daughter.

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• Several warships are mentioned, both real and fictional, including a list of them right at the start of the episode. The USS Harpers Ferry is a landing ship dock, used to transport and launch landing ships and amphibious vehicles, commissioned in 1995 and still a US Navy ship today. The USS Cleveland was a similar type of ship, an amphibious transport dock, and was indeed in service at the time of the episode. That ship was decommissioned in 2011. The USS Boxer is, as we hear, designated LHD-4, an amphibious assault ship in service with the Navy since 1995. Fitz tells the President that the general on the video call may be talking to the captain of the Tallahassee - the only Navy ship with that name was a submarine tender during World War I. Later on Fitz tells Leo they'd need "55 more aircraft off the USS Colonnade" in order to move up the attack deadline ... there hasn't been any Navy ship with that name, let alone an aircraft carrier.

• Leo makes a joking comment about "The same reason Willie Sutton robbed banks," the reason of course being that's where the money was. Willie Sutton was a famous bank robber in the 1920s and 30s.

• There's some kind of proclamation on the wall by Charlie's desk that pretty obviously features photos of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. While they served as President and Vice President in reality between 1993 and 2000, they did not in The West Wing universe, so ... why are they there? I've actually noticed nearly identical displays around the West Wing in earlier episodes, some of them featuring photographs of President George H. W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle.

• Debbie uses a Mac laptop, and we see another being used by Cassie in Will's intern group. You'll notice the one Cassie is using is actually an older model, with the Apple logo appearing upside-down when the laptop is open.

• Debbie sarcastically calls the President's wit "Noel Coward-esque."

• CJ complains about her DKNY outfit being ruined by vegetables thrown at her during an earlier trip to California.

• Will made Rice Krispies treats for his staff, which didn't prevent them all from quitting (and while the common phrase would be to call them "Rice Krispie treats," since the name of the cereal is actually Rice Krispies, Will's usage is correct).

• There's a couple of products visible in the Air Force One galley, including Coffeemate and a can of Diet Coke.

• Will calls his interns the "Robert Palmer girls," a reference to the music video for Addicted To Love.

• We hear the Stray Cats song Rock This Town playing at the rally before Sam introduces the President. Sam also says the traffic tieups caused by the Presidential visit trapped families trying to get home from Disney's California Adventure.

• Will uses Washington Redskins football jerseys to try to keep Lauren, Lauren, Cassie, and Lauren straight in his head.

• There's a news broadcast from KKOC in the background as CJ, Toby, Sam, and Josh go over the morning headlines. That's apparently a fictional TV station, as I've found no evidence of a station using those call letters.

• Speaking of fictional news outlets, the New York World newspaper dropped on the table is also fictional (there was a New York World newspaper at one time, but it stopped publishing in 1931). The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post papers, of course, do exist.

• Charlie is drinking a Heineken as he plays pool with Jean-Paul.

• Charlie is concerned about Zoey getting her picture taken with Jean-Paul at the Versace runway show.

• The President wonders why "every time we come to Southern California we are absolutely the Clampetts," a reference to the TV show The Beverly Hillbillies.

End credits freeze frame: The President, Fitz, and Leo in the Situation Room awaiting word from the operation to take the Bitanga airport.

Previous episode: Inauguration: Over There

Next episode: Red Haven's On Fire