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