Han - TWW S5E4

Original airdate: October 22, 2003

Teleplay by: Peter Noah (1) 
Story by: Peter Noah &  Mark Goffman (3)  and Paula Yoo (3)  

Directed by: Christopher Misiano (16)

Synopsis

• A North Korean pianist's request to defect puts the Bartlet administration into a diplomatic dilemma. Josh's already outsized opinion of his powers of persuasion gets an unwarranted boost, which could lead to trouble down the line. Toby and Will mistakenly air their misgivings over the new Vice President right there on the President's teleprompter.

"It's what this country was built on - everyone's from somewhere else, someplace less free. That's my argument." 

Okay, this is more like it. For the first time in Season 5 it feels like a West Wing episode, with a prickly moral dilemma, some real Joshy arm-twisting of a reluctant Democratic congressman, and some pretty darn good writing. Even if some of this territory is kind of rehashed (Shibboleth, anyone?), it's still welcome to see. I think a big part of what helps is moving on from the Zoey/Abbey/family drama storylines and back into exploring some big-picture political and moral challenges. Peter Noah's first credited West Wing teleplay is also pretty good, with a nice amount of humor scattered through the episode (kudos also to Mark Goffman and Paula Yoo for their contributions - Goffman and Yoo both joined the writers' room at the beginning of Season 4, with Goffman earning credits on College Kids and Red Haven's On Fire and Yoo with story credits for Process Stories and The California 47th).

The complications begin when a heralded North Korean pianist, Jai Yung Ahn, appears at the White House for a cultural visit. As he's meeting the President for a photo op in the Oval Office - giving Jed a great opportunity to try out some comic lines about his piano-playing youth - he offers a signed CD of his work. Except, it's not a signature he leaves on the sleeve:

Of course, this would normally be a no-brainer decision, but we discover that the United States is in secret negotiations with North Korea in an attempt to stop them from selling nuclear weapons technology on the open market. The fear is that embarrassing the North Korean government by granting asylum to one of their artistic heroes would cause them to abandon the talks, sell nukes to Islamic terrorists, or perhaps even worse.

Barrow: "It's the most unpredictable regime in the world. Walking out on the negotiations could be the least thing they do."

Leo (scoffing): "They'd shell Seoul over this?"

Barrow: "You wanna find out?" 

CJ, once again, finds herself in the position of fighting back against the idea of the US doing the expedient thing, and she pushes for taking the high road and doing what's right instead. We saw her take the same path in The Women Of Qumar, fighting with Leo and Nancy McNally while calling out the government's military cooperation with a regime that openly mistreated women and girls; and just in the last episode we saw her questioning the administration's moral position over the killing of the Qumari Defense Minister in Season 3, sitting in her office alone stewing over the issue during the Fourth of July fireworks.

CJ is right, of course. Granting Jai's request to defect not only is the right moral thing to do, it's actually against United States law to deny it. However, the fact he didn't make his request in public gives the administration cover to keep it a secret, and thereby make it possible to send him back to North Korea in order to keep the diplomatic negotiations going. Showing up to make that argument is a new recurring character, Undersecretary of State Ted Barrow, who makes no bones about the fact that he thinks geopolitics rule supreme over morality or, well, pretty much everything else, and he won't stoop to politeness to make that point:

Barrow: "They are making plutonium, they can get it onto warheads, and their best customers are the people who hate us. Why are we still talking about this?"

Mike: "I don't see how we can get past the legal issues."

CJ: "I don't see how you can send someone back to the bleakest place left on the planet after he tells you he doesn't want to go."

Leo: "CJ --"

Barrow: "It's not that bleak. The DMZ is beautiful; it's like a nature preserve. Endangered Black-faced spoonbills, Amur leopards ---"

CJ: "What's your point?"

Barrow (bitingly, not a little rude): "That I know more about this than you do."

 The decision is made; the President can't openly grant Jai's request. During a rehearsal, Bartlet himself meets with Jai, hoping to sneak in a discussion behind the backs of his government minders - and also hoping Jai can gather enough meaning from what Bartlet tells him to find another way to get what he wants.

Jai: "I try to stay, you arrest me?"

President: "No."

Jai: "You give me back to them."

President (emphatically): "No. Freedom means choice. You must decide which is the most responsible choice."

Bartlet is trying to fight his way past the language barriers to let Jai know his choice - if he makes his request in public, or to anyone outside the White House, the United States would be bound to accept it. But by trying to defect in secret, he's giving the administration an out to sidestep the issue.

At the climactic concert, it's not certain whether Jai has understood Bartlet's coded message. After he plays, he stands up ... and it looks like perhaps he's going to make the choice for freedom.

Jai: "Ladies and gentlemen, I wish to ... (long pause) I wish to ... (longer pause. He exchanges looks with the President) I wish to ... (he sighs) ... thank the President, the American people for this opportunity. I wish it be start many exchanges and improve relations between our countries."

He bows, obviously in mental turmoil, then exits with his handlers, heading back to North Korea. 

Finally, the kicker. As President Bartlet tries to relax back in the Oval Office, his mind racing over missed opportunities, he tells CJ that the negotiations with North Korea are on hold, niggling complaints over the sizes of flags caused the Koreans to walk out, and denying Jai's request to defect turned out to be all for nothing.

Being President really is a tough job to have.

But at least he's finally going to have a Vice President! After John Hoynes resigned the office in Life On Mars after news of an affair (and his pillow talk involving classified information) became public, the office of VP was unfilled - which became a problem after Zoey was kidnapped in Commencement, causing Bartlet to use the 25th Amendment to step away from the office temporarily. With the Presidency being held by the Republican Speaker of the House in that period, the search for an actual Vice President became even more urgent. And as we saw in Jefferson Lives, the Republican-led Congress flexed its muscles to tell the White House they couldn't have the guy they wanted (Secretary of State Berryhill) without a fight, but if they wanted to get a VP quickly they could choose from a few weak pre-approved options. Which led us to Colorado Rep. Bob Russell being chosen, on the Fourth of July - and now, after what must have been some routine confirmation hearings, the House and the Senate are voting to confirm Russell to the post of Vice President.

Josh is on the warpath against Rep. Theile of Rhode Island - he's come out publicly against the decision, and if he's the only vote keeping the Russell confirmation from being bipartisanly unanimous, Josh thinks it'll embarrass the White House while elevating Theile in the news cycle. Which, again, ends up embarrassing the White House by keeping Russell's lack of qualifications firmly in the spotlight.

Theile is called to the White House and Josh is ready to use his usual strong-arm tactics to threaten him into changing his vote (we've seen Josh do this as far back as Five Votes Down, when he threatened Rep. Katzenmoyer with a primary challenge, ending his threat with "President Bartlet's a good man. He's got a good heart. He doesn't hold a grudge. That's what he pays me for"). This time, though, his threats aren't working.

Because Theile is using the White House's own position on Russell against them.

Theile: "My petty animus is that Russell's not good enough. Which is exactly what you've been saying to each other round here ever since his name was announced. You think I don't know how you got rolled on Berryhill, or forced to settle for this party hack? You've put someone second-rate next in line to a President with a serious health problem. You wanna talk about embarrassment? Be embarrassed about that."

Ryan Pierce, Josh's intern who talked Josh into sitting in on the meeting, takes it all in.

 And later, Ryan - who has some family connections with quite a few members of Congress, including Theile - puts in a call to the Congressman.

What happens with that call, we don't know, but Theile ends up voting for Russell's confirmation and it does sail through unanimously. Josh, somehow, thinks it was his doing ... and we're going to see the self-assurance and hubristic confidence Josh has in his own abilities nearly bring him to ruin in the near future.

But that's yet to come. Theile's comment about the White House's opinion of Russell is echoed in the Communications Office. Will is writing remarks for the President to make for his introduction of the new Vice President, but he can't find a "lofty" enough voice to make the speech soar for the President.

President: "Loftier. If I don't sound enthused, how do we expect the country to get excited about this guy?"

Will: "Yes, sir."

President: "You're not very excited about him?"

Will (stammering): "Oh, no, I mean ... sure ... I mean, I'm not ... not excited about him."

President: "What you sounded like just then, is how this reads." 

Will comes to Toby, admitting he can't seem to find enthusiasm for the guy, but Toby has his own issues. He wants to get involved in not just publicizing administration policy, but be part of crafting and shaping the policy. He goes to Leo to try to change direction in his role, but Leo - understandably caught up in the diplomatic intricacies of North Korea - doesn't have the time to devote to Toby. Plus, the President himself asks Toby to help Will out.

Which leads to a frustrated Toby and a Will with writer's block bouncing lines off each other as they unmercifully roast Russell and his complete lack of political heft and suitability for the role of Vice President. Toby throws out scathing lines:

 As Will gleefully adds his own, typing them madly into his draft remarks:

All in all, it's pretty devastating:

Toby (dictating to Will): "In a triumph of the middling, in a nod to mediocrity, and with gorge rising, it gives me great nausea to announce Robert Russell - Bingo Bob himself - as your new Vice President."

Will (typing): "This lapdog of mining interests is as dull as he is unremarkable."

Toby: "As lackluster as he is soporific --"

Will: "Good."

Toby: "This reversion to the mean --"

Will: "This rebuke to the exemplary --"

Toby: "Gives hope to the millions unfavored by the exceptional --"

Will: "Yes."

Toby: "The Vice Presidency, being famously once described as not being worth a warm bucket of spit - let's now hock a big loogie for Bob Russell. Not the worst. Not the best. Just what we're stuck with."

We see the words being typed on the computer screen, and then, as they settle down to work ... apparently they never get deleted.

 Which is just inexcusable. Because, naturally, that's the copy of the speech that gets loaded in the teleprompter, and as President Bartlet makes his introduction of the new Vice President in the Rose Garden, he sees this:

Gamely, the President shifts gears and muddles on, creating his own speech out of thin air.

Russell notices the change in tone, and he looks over and sees the prompter screen.

And Will and Toby also realize instantly what has happened - and if this was real life, their White House careers would be over so fast ...

But for some reason, President Bartlet doesn't fire them on the spot for ruining his VP introduction speech, and Russell's visit to Toby's office doesn't turn out to result in pink slips, either.

Russell: "I'd like a copy."

Toby: "There are no copies, we've shredded ..."

Will: "Wiped hard drives ... we're considering putting out our own eyes."

Russell: "Find one. Send it to my office. I thought it was hilarious." 

Toby: "Uh, hilarious, sir?"

Russell: "I know my public profile, my political persona. I'm just glad to see there's such a keen awareness of the scale of the job you've all got ahead of you. I'm part of the team now, which makes all this pretty much your problem. Good luck with it." 

I'll add a little mention of Josh and Amy - Amy started flirting with Josh in The Women Of Qumar, they were dating by Dead Irish Writers, then when a policy dispute over welfare spending caused Josh to pull some triggers that got Amy fired in Posse Comitatus they broke up. Their paths crossed again in College Kids and The Red Mass, then after Amy was hired as Abbey's chief of staff in Red Haven's On Fire and they were working in the same building, well ... fireworks definitely happened in Jefferson Lives, and now even Ryan can see there's something happening.

 

Ryan: "So what's the deal there? Boyfriend/girlfriend? Friends with privileges?"

Josh: "What?"

Ryan: "Something's going on."

Josh realizes he and Amy haven't really defined what they're doing together, and during the piano concert he has a little heart-to-heart with her.

Josh: "It's like what CJ said today about the economy; by refusing to put language to it we're trying to pretend it doesn't exist, but it's something ... even if we don't know what to call it. I just think it's time to start thinking about a language plan for whatever it is we're doing, too."

Oh, yeah, there's also talk about a looming recession, and whether or not the administration should do anything about it (or even make a public acknowledgement of the "bagel"); Donna's aunt and uncle from Wisconsin visit, causing Josh to think about cheese jokes and Donna to run on about diets and how choosing from them all in moderation is the best approach (an approach the President mirrors with his opinion over the best way to deal with the economy); and proposed message calendars. But the bottom line is the administration choosing the smoother expedient path over the harder, tougher trail - something we just saw in the last episode with the Vice Presidential decision and something we are no doubt going to see more of.

 

 

Tales Of Interest!

- We're back to Stockard Channing not appearing in the opening credits, since she doesn't appear in the episode.

- There's a good old traditional West Wing walk-and-talk early between Donna and Josh.

- I really don't think President Bartlet would have made the choice he makes here about Jai's asylum had Aaron Sorkin still been running things. The nuclear negotiations are delicate, true, and the consequences of angering the North Koreans by allowing Jai to defect would be serious (although, attacking South Korea? Really?). I think the Bartlet we knew from previous seasons would have been more, I don't know, empathetic - more anxious to help a desperate freedom-seeking soul from a tyrannical country. And he definitely would have come up with a smarter plan to help Jai succeed than the stilted "freedom means choice" code words he tried to convince him with. Just tell him, "All you have to do is tell somebody, anybody, besides me that you want asylum and we have to give it to you."

- We don't know what Ryan has that changes Rep. Theile's mind, but it must be pretty powerful. Theile isn't just standing up to what he sees as the White House's surrender to the GOP, but he's also bucking his own party leadership. Remember what we saw in Jefferson Lives - the Democratic congressional leadership also giving a thumbs-down on Berryhill and agreeing with the list of mediocre candidates provided by Speaker Haffley. It's probably easier for a congressman to stand up against a President (even with a ruthless grudgeholder like Josh) than it is to go against your own party in Congress.

- Gail's fishbowl is seen in passing as CJ listens to the CD in her office, but there's nothing in particular seen inside it (other than Gail, of course).

- Why'd They Come Up With Han?

Jai Yung Ahn tells the President there's a Korean word, "han" - then he plays a melancholy piece (Chopin's Prelude in E Minor) to try to explain it. The President later tells CJ he's looked it up.

President: "There is no literal English translation. It's a state of mind, of soul, really. A sadness; a sadness so deep no tears will come. And yet, still, there's hope."

That's a fairly good definition - the word may also be described to mean "an internalized feeling of deep sorrow, resentment, grief, regret, and anger." 

In any event, it fits the emotions Jai must be feeling when he's told the President can't accept his defection.

Quotes 

Leo: "Why they're a rogue state."

CJ: "Rogue state ... makes them sound raffishly charming. Should be thug state. Psycho state."

Leo: "We'll ask the UN to re-designate."

CJ: "Punk state, that's what they are, a bunch of punks."

Leo: "Bunch of punks, with what could be six nuclear warheads."

CJ (to press in hallway): "In a minute, everyone."

(press murmurs their thanks)

CJ (to Leo): "Okay, you could obliterate Australia, but you know what, you're still just a punk."

Leo: "Good opener. Use that." 

-----

Josh: "Congressman Theile needs to come over before the VP confirmation vote."

Donna: "Which is noon?"

Josh: "Senate's noon; the House votes at four. Get him in after the Punch and Judy show."

Donna: "The citizenry would be comforted knowing that's how you refer to the President's economic advisers."

Josh: "The citizenry doesn't have to sit in a room with them."

-----

Donna: "I'm taking my aunt and uncle from Wisconsin, who are perfectly nice people, on a tour of the White House later today, and I'd rather not go through an entire morning of cheesehead jokes, which are beneath you anyway ..."

Josh: "You know what's the state bird of Wisconsin? The Muenster. The state motto? Live brie or die. It narrowly beat out you can have my wheel of cheddar when you pry it out of my cold, dead, stinky fingers." 

----- 

CJ: "If we don't allow this defection, if we blithely exploit this young man's ignorance, then I don't know who we are any more."

----- 

President: "We cancel the concert it's a red flag. I told him freedom means choice; my choice is to trust in his decision."

[...]

Leo: "It's a crapshoot."

President: "The negotiations are a crapshoot. (considering, smiling) The whole damn job's a crapshoot."

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

• It's the first appearance of Ron Canada (Dallas, Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, Boston Legal, Wedding Crashers) as Undersecretary of State Theodore Barrow. Barrow and his gruff, overbearing, egotistical self will make several more appearances over the rest of the series.

• Associate White House Counsel Mike (who will later get the last name Wayne) is seen in the meeting with Barrow, Leo, and a guy from Immigration. Played by Benjamin Brown, we saw Mike in Privateers, where he explained to Josh and Toby that their friend couldn't get whistleblower protection for the misdeeds of his chemical company.

• One of the regulars, Washington Post reporter Katie, is seen in CJ's press briefing. We haven't seen the other usual members of the press corps (Mark, Chris, Steve, Danny) for a while.

• When Jai Yung Ahn's words as translated as "All glory flows to our Dear Leader for whom he wishes long life and good health," President Bartlet jokingly responds, "Next time he's overseas it'd be nice if Yo-Yo Ma said that." The famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma has performed at the Bartlet White House at least twice, first (offscreen) in The State Dinner and then actually appearing in Noël (with Donna famously yelling, "Yo-Yo Ma rules!").

• Leo tells Toby (referring to Will), "The President loved his Zoey speech," which is a direct reference to the speech given after Zoey was rescued in The Dogs Of War. It's also a passing reminder of Zoey's kidnapping, rescue and recovery, a storyline running from Commencement through Jefferson Lives.

• Ed and Larry make an appearance in the economic advisers meeting, as well as the informal policy (from Josh) to call a recession a "bagel" (the notion of not using the word "recession" was first mentioned in Swiss Diplomacy; the idea of calling it a "bagel" instead happened in 7A WF 83429).

Ed (or is it Larry?)

Larry (or is this Ed?)

• We are reminded by Leo that President Bartlet holds a Nobel Prize in economics. That was first mentioned in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" - although there actually is not a real Nobel Prize given in the field of economics, but a Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences has been granted since 1969.

• CJ's moral reservations about the political maneuvering to try to sidestep Jai's asylum request reminds us of her personal questions over the administration's killing of Abdul Shareef that we saw in Jefferson Lives. We can also recall CJ's stances for doing the right thing instead of the profitable thing in The Women Of Qumar or The Indians In The Lobby or, well, many other episodes.

• Also, asylum seekers causing diplomatic/geopolitical problems for the Bartlet administration, as well as an outside-the-box solution, was previously seen in Shibboleth. In that episode it was Chinese Christians attempting to flee to America, with the United States facing trouble from China if they let them stay (but found a work-around by instead allowing them to "escape" federal detention). 

• The announcement of Russell as the new Vice President ties up the thread going back to Life On Mars when John Hoynes resigned the office. Russell was actually chosen as the replacement when a list of candidates was forced on the administration by Republican House leadership in Jefferson Lives, which was on July 4 - we don't know how long it's taken for Russell's confirmation to get through Congress (the vote on which happens during this episode) but considering the frenzy of the White House to pass up a fight over the guy they really wanted to get the office filled right away, it can't be too long after Independence Day.

• Leo's suggestion to Toby that he come up with a message calendar isn't the last time we're going to hear about that.

• Toby is still relying on his old rubber ball as a tool to help him think (or to get the attention of his co-workers). His Spaldeen was first seen in Ellie, and then most famously in 17 People.

• Donna fixing Josh's bowtie is getting to be a West Wing standard, and it's always pretty sexy. I think the first time she did it was in On The Day Before, as he was trying to look like Tony Bennett.

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• Already mentioned above, the cellist Yo-Yo Ma is specifically named (obviously a favorite of President Bartlet).

• The President compares a legislator on the phone to John C. Calhoun, who served as a Representative, a Senator, Vice President, and Secretary of State and of War during the 1800s. 

• The composers Schubert, Chopin, and Bach are specifically mentioned. Musical works that are referred to include Beethoven's Apassionata and Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier, as well as Chopsticks (or The Celebrated Chop Waltz).

• Pieces performed in the episode are all Chopin: Ballade No. 4 in F Minor, Opus 52 is the rehearsal piece; Prelude, Opus 28, No. 4 is what Jai plays to explain "han," and the performance piece is Etude, Opus 10, No. 12 "Revolutionary."  

• Leo is drinking a Diet Coke.

• Toby uses the phrase, "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" from Shakespeare's play Macbeth.

• The discussion about Presidents who don't know the price of milk recalls the story of President George H.W. Bush expressing surprise at the price of milk while seeing a demonstration of grocery store price scanners in 1992. While the story probably wasn't accurate (Bush was actually marveling at the technology, not the price of milk), the public impression of politicians being out-of-touch with citizens' everyday lives survives three decades later. The "asking politicians the price of milk (or bread)" question has been a consistent reality check from the press in both Britain and the United States since then.

• Josh compares Ryan to the comic book character Richie Rich.

• Toby's mention of the Vice Presidency "famously once described as not being worth a bucket of warm spit" is meant to recall John Nance Gardner, who was Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt for FDR's first two terms. Gardner's actual quote (perhaps to Lyndon Johnson) was that the office was "not worth a bucket of warm piss," but the oft-used line was cleaned up for public use.

• Hey, it's Ginger! Haven't seen her around the Communications office for a while.

• Jai Yung Ahn is seen playing a Yamaha piano. You might expect something like a Steinway to be used for such a performance, but perhaps the North Korean Jai is more familiar and comfortable  with a Yamaha.

End credits freeze frame: The Oval Office photo op with President Bartlet and Jai Yung Ahn.

Previous episode: Jefferson Lives

Next episode: Constituency Of One

A West Wing Special - Titles! Titles! Titles!

As my journey through the seasons of The West Wing continues, I still come up with little things that I wish I had thought about including right from the beginning. Maybe it's my weird focus on wanting to cover absolutely everything (some might say "obsession" - not me, but some) ... I just think it's another neat little fact that somebody else might like to know, too.

With my latest post on The Dogs Of War published, I've decided to start adding a note on why the episodes are titled what they're titled. In nearly all cases, the episode title comes directly from a quote in the script, and oftentimes has a direct relationship to the show's overall theme. Now that I thought of adding this to my blog posts as I begin Season 5, it's only fitting that I go back in time and get caught up with all the other episodes of this fine series.

Jefferson Lives - TWW S5E3

 

Original airdate: October 8, 2003

Teleplay by: Carol Flint (1)
Story by: Carol Flint & Debora Cahn (4)

Directed by: Alex Graves (16)

Synopsis

• It's Independence Day, and President Bartlet finds himself beset on fronts both personal and political. His rift with Abbey over endangering their family continues to fester, as she plans to take a recovering Zoey back to New Hampshire; meanwhile, his slam-dunk choice for a new Vice President gets rejected by both Democrats and Republicans angling for an advantage in 2006.

"This is your list?" 

We're three episodes into the post-Aaron Sorkin era of The West Wing, and already John Wells is exerting his influence as producer/showrunner to make it a more typical, run-of-the-mill network TV drama. The personal is overtaking the political; relationships are coming to the forefront instead of strategies; while it's not exactly a "soap opera," the overall tone of the show is certainly trending more in that direction.

Maybe that's not bad for every viewer, but it's clearly not the same track as Seasons 1 through 4. Here we end up with a mopey, distracted Jed unable to come to grips with Abbey's simmering anger, a rekindling of the Josh-Amy romance from Season 3, and a passive-aggressive CJ airing her doubts about the administration's moral position through hypothetical reporter questions. The introduction of Speaker Haffley provides us with an individual, personal point of conflict for the administration, a foil that will prove an ongoing pain in the administration's behind, which is a big contrast from the previous seasons of a mostly faceless/nameless idea of a "Republican Congress" as something to fight against. Wells has decided to make it about personal conflict and give the opposition a face, which may not seem like a big change in direction, but it really is. Even setting the episode in July, a time far outside the calendar time frame of when the show airs, is a new tack for the production (although it gives us a chance at a brand new holiday version of the show, the first and only Fourth of July episode).

The Jed/Abbey thing is particularly bothersome to me. I can understand Abbey's simmering fury - she believes the President's decision to kill Shareef was the direct cause of Zoey's kidnapping, and she may have a point. But Jed's sad, meandering unwillingness to fight for his point of view strikes a huge contrast from the previous Jed/Abbey tensions we saw in Season 2, from Bartlet's Third State Of The Union to the the Season 3 opening Manchester. That showed us another rift between the couple, one where Jed was absolutely in the wrong (he'd promised Abbey he'd only run for one term, and then he went back on his word without even discussing it with her), yet they had some crackling arguments and spirited back-and-forths where Jed wasn't shy about standing up for his point of view. We get hardly any of that here, only some weak halfhearted explanations about national security and terrorism - which is actually a really good justification for making the decision to kill Shareef, if that point was just hammered home! He might not be able to convince Abbey, but he hardly even tries - which just emphasizes the personal relationship problems more typical to regular TV dramas. You know, like ER, that other show John Wells was in charge of.

The episode begins with the President's dream/nightmare jolting him awake: memories of Zoey as a child and as a young adult, riding a horse back at the family farm. The horse-riding theme runs through the entire episode, and it turns out it's meant to help explain Zoey's struggles as she tries to cope with recovery after her kidnapping rescue. She puts on a brave face; smiling at her father as he comes to see her after his dream, waving at a press photo opportunity on the White House lawn, 

Remember, she was rescued in early May - this is July 4. Still bruised and in a sling?

looking through the messages sent in support while she was held captive, working on a letter of thanks to release to the public - but it's only Charlie who realizes what she's really going through and exactly why she's pretending to be strong.

Jed believes she's coping well, making a great recovery after the trauma of the abduction, and his memory of the horse-riding backs him up.

President (in flashback, watching Zoey ride): "Look at that. Fearless."

Charlie: "She puts up a good front."

President: "Name one thing, one thing, my little girl's afraid of."

In the present, Charlie has the hard truth for the President.

Charlie: "She knows you like to see her strong. She thinks what happened was her fault." 

This, along with Abbey's resentment of the President, of Leo, of Washington in general, brings Bartlet along in agreement with his wife that she should take Zoey out of the White House and back to their farm in New Hampshire. Abbey's motivations are more out of anger with what she believes to be Jed's disregard for his family's safety - but Charlie helps the President realize Zoey's mental health needs the respite away from Washington. And Zoey finally comes clean to her father about the ongoing terrors she's still going through.

Zoey: "There was an arm ... grabbing me. When I start to fall asleep, it comes back."

Jed: "We're going to help you. We're all going to help." 

The rift with Abbey continues to be huge. She goes about the residence in a robotically normal way, helps Zoey get to her photo op, but doesn't engage with Jed at all. And when Leo stops by in the middle of her meeting with Ron Butterfield, she makes it clear it's not just Jed she's furious with.

Abbey: "You laid us open. You laid me and my daughters wide open. And God knows what else there is that I don't know about."

Leo: "There is nothing else."

Abbey: "I swear to God, Leo, don't -- 72 hours, the bruises aren't even -- did you see her face? For God's sake, don't ask me to trust you."

Leo: "I'm not."

Abbey: "And don't think you took the bullet. I blame Jed. He did this." 

As I said, I understand a mother's grief and resentment in this situation, after her daughter had been kidnapped and nearly killed. It's natural that she'd lash out at anyone she feels had a hand in creating the situation to put her children in danger. But ... this is the First Family, after all. National security decisions have to be made for the good of the country, not for the President's family members alone (this was the entire reason Bartlet used the 25th Amendment to step away from the office, for crying out loud). And we've seen Jed stand up for himself before - it's just off-putting to see him mostly meekly take Abbey's withering fury here. 

The other huge focus of this episode is the Vice Presidential pick. The office has been vacant since John Hoynes resigned in Life On Mars, after he admitted to leaking classified information to a woman he was having an affair with. Josh was just getting started with making a list of candidates before Zoey was kidnapped, then in The Dogs Of War (which ended on May 10th, remember) we heard Leo say they had some candidates for the President to consider. Well, now it's July 4, almost two months later, and they're finally ready to go with Secretary of State Lewis Berryhill. He's a slam-dunk nominee, a war hero who did masterful diplomatic work shepherding America's allies through the attack on/invasion of Qumar, and he's already gotten through Senate confirmation once before. He's such a great option, even Toby is ecstatic with the choice.

"This is my over-the-moon face."

But things never go easy for the Bartlet administration and Congress. It's been a truism from Season 1 - the Republican Congress has enough power to keep throwing roadblocks in Bartlet's way, and the President often finds his approval ratings too low to make it a fair fight. (At least, this is what we've been told over and over, even though the list of administration successes over the past four years is pretty sizable.) Now, even though Bartlet's approval ratings have zoomed upward in reaction to the kidnapping crisis, Congress still doesn't want to play along.

One can see the Republican side of this. Hoynes, the obvious front-runner for the 2006 Democratic nomination, is out of the way. Any replacement as Vice President would take on that mantle, so if the GOP could muck up the best Democratic choice in any way, that could prove to be an electoral advantage in three years. What's kind of surprising is the fact the Democratic leadership in Congress isn't onboard, either - they have "issues" with Berryhill, like the fact he's never run for office and that some State Department people don't like how he runs things. But at the center of it, I think, is the same idea as the Republicans: the Minority Leaders in the House and Senate don't want a new VP who might be too tough to run against in the next election.

But yet again, the Republicans. Jeff Haffley has been chosen to take over the Speaker's chair, after Glenallen Walken resigned to take over the office of the Presidency in Twenty Five. He's kind of a firebrand, a loose wheel (Josh called him a "fascist"), and he's frank in the meeting with the White House. He doesn't have the votes to confirm Berryhill. (In the meeting with the Democratic leadership Josh says they need four Republicans to cross over, so that means there aren't four out of 221 House Republicans willing to vote for confirmation.) But he's not just a naysayer, he's cooperative, he wants to work with the administration in this time of national crisis ... and he's got a list.

A list of (five, it looks like, although we only hear about four) candidates who, Haffley says, could be easily confirmed. Imagine the audacity - a Republican Speaker of the House telling the President here are the only Democrat options we'd be okay with as Vice President. It is telling to watch the reactions of Senate Majority Leader Royce as Haffley takes over the discussion - there's some eye-rolling, and an expression of eyebrow-raising surprise when Haffley dismisses Josh's comment about the popularity of Lincoln's Secretary of State by saying he was stabbed in his bed (I mean, it's true, but it was by Confederates as part of the plot to assassinate Lincoln and other members of the government). But Royce can tell which way the wind is blowing, dismissing Leo's attempt to leave the Republicans to fight amongst themselves and instead agreeing to go along with Haffley's list.

When the Democrats take their stand against Berryhill as well, the White House is up against it. They can continue to fight for their man, knowing it means a somewhat protracted battle in Congress, or they can give in and take the best option out of a list of poor choices. Here's where the timelines get a little screwy again - the main reason Bartlet and his advisers decide to go along with the list instead of standing up for Berryhill is because of the ongoing emptiness of the Vice Presidential office and the necessity to get that filled and establish a solid line of succession.

Leo: "You didn't want to fight?"

President: "I did want to fight but the country needs a President who's doing their work, and since they put their trust in a guy whose mortality is showing, they deserve a chain of command that's irrefutable."

But remember - Josh and Leo had their list of candidates ready for Bartlet on May 10, the day after Zoey's rescue. Berryhill was the obvious choice from the start. Why has it taken almost two months for the President to take action? Why is the entire West Wing in a tizzy about the country needing a Vice President right now when they haven't done anything about it since May? 

Oh, well. That's a failure of writing, which comes out of the perceived need to have an Independence Day episode.

In any event, the staff and the President meet with everyone on the list, the last being Bob Russell, the congressman from Western Colorado ("And I don't mean the state, I mean the mining company"). Since he's played by Gary Cole, we have a hint he might be a little bit important down the road. And there's something that happens in the meeting with Bartlet that stirs the President, at least a little bit. Russell actually makes some demands of his own - he'll need personal one-on-one time with Bartlet, getting to know each other, and trying to confound the expectations of those who chose Russell thinking he'd be easy pickings in three years. But probably what makes a bit more of an impression on the President is his footwear, and how it meshes with what's really on Bartlet's mind.

President: "Are you a horseman, Bob? I'm looking at your boots."

Russell: "Oh, I love to ride. You?"

President (shakes his head): "My youngest daughter is the one with the talent." 

There's really no other explanation for Bartlet choosing Russell over the rest, unless it's the fact that he was the last interview and the President was just over it. At least he got to show up at an immigrant citizenship swearing-in ceremony afterwards.

Then there's those kooky kids Josh and Amy. These two have known each other since college, when Amy was dating Josh's Harvard roommate. They reconnected in The Women Of Qumar, when Amy tossed a water balloon at Josh's head in that flirty way she has. By Dead Irish Writers they were a couple, but that fell apart in Posse Comitatus when a policy dispute ended with Josh getting his way, with the unfortunate fallout being Amy losing her job. She later worked with Senator Stackhouse as he explored a Presidential run, yet still mooning over Josh a little (College Kids, The Red Mass). When Abbey found herself outwitted by Josh over immunization funding in Red Haven's On Fire, she turned to Amy, hiring her as her chief of staff to be a more formidable proponent of the First Lady's agenda. 

So they've got a history. And history has a tendency to repeat itself. Amy is trying to keep up with the political interests of the First Lady, digging into a cut into CDC violence prevention spending even as Abbey is occupied with more pressing family matters at the moment.

Abbey: "Amy, you're going to have to handle things for me a little while longer."

Amy: "I know. Do you want me to --"

Abbey: "I trust you. That's why I hired you."

(Remember those words. They may come back to bite someone pretty soon.)

Amy comes to Josh to get a deal done - but Josh has problems of his own, nearly tearing his hair out over Congress' failure to support Berryhill, and the frantic search for somebody, anybody who can fit in the Vice Presidential role. It's quite a combination - Amy, usually so self-assured and always pressing forward, finding herself a bit at odds without guidance from her boss; Josh, equally confident and never satisfied with losing a battle, discovering he has nothing but a losing hand in the VP situation.

Josh begs Amy to be quiet, but she simply can't. Her personality won't let her. She has to keep responding, trying to fill the empty space in the conversation. Finally, though, Josh's desperation gets through to her, and she settles herself into a chair, kicking off her shoes, placing her feet up on Josh's desk.

Josh finally breaks, as he sees Amy studying her watch, proving that she can take Josh up on his request for her to stay quiet for "one minute, in silence." He bursts out in a laugh, moves over to her, and then ...

So I guess they're back together. Seeing them both sneak away from the fireworks viewing party later kinda solidifies that.

Once again, the show has come down to personal stuff - Jed sullenly letting Abbey lash out at him, Zoey dealing with PTSD while trying to prove herself to her father, a singular figure stepping out from Capitol Hill to serve as a symbolic foil, Josh and Amy dealing with professional struggles by reaching out to each other - and that's so much like hour-long dramas we've seen before and since. Even the gleeful excitement of Fourth of July fireworks over the Mall can't quell the looming weight of personal drama, as CJ sits alone in her office mulling over the moral responsibilities of the administration, the rest of the staff outside marveling at the display: 

And President Bartlet - the rest of his family gone away - watching gloomily from the residence balcony.

I feel like the series needs a kick in the pants to get things up and running in Season 5, but it's not happening here.

  

Tales Of Interest!

- While we've had rather famous and beloved West Wing episodes centered around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and even several focusing on that special Beltway holiday, the State of the Union address, this is the very first (and only) Fourth of July episode. In the previous four seasons, the events we see generally took place around the time of year they aired - this time we get an episode set in the summer, between the end of one TV season and the beginning of the next. So it's quite different for us to see a July-based episode of the show air in October. The art directors do slip in a few items in the background to remind us of the holiday, if you look closely:

A bit of bunting outside Toby's office

A staffer wearing a patriotic hat

Fourth of July decorations hanging over Donna's desk

More Independence Day-themed decorations in Donna's bullpen

A random person walking by with an American flag

Another staffer with a Stars-and-Stripes hat

- It's really dark again, the third consecutive episode with way too much shadow and darkness. It almost makes one think that the spending cuts NBC requested from the production mostly came out of the electric bill and the lighting budget.

- I get that the government keeps running, even on holidays, but there are also deputies and assistants who can do government work on weekends and other times. The White House is extremely busy for a Fourth of July federal holiday, particularly given that it's a Friday and would make it a three-day weekend. Getting the congressional leadership from both parties in for meetings is quite an accomplishment, not only because it's a holiday but especially considering Congress probably wouldn't have been in session at the time. Would Toby's mohel have scheduled a bris for the morning of the Fourth?

- Timeline verification: Okay, back in the Aaron Sorkin days, he took pride in claiming to never pin down the exact year in which the show was set. I mean, he took pride in it, even though that's not exactly what he did (there was a debate on the millennium/year 2000 in 1999's In Excelsis Deo, and Toby explicitly referred to the upcoming Presidential election happening in 2002 in 17 People), but okay ... the premise is that The West Wing takes place in a kind of indeterminate alternate universe. Here, though, we are pinned down to exactly Friday, July 4, 2003. How do we know?

- We know it's a Friday because when CJ asks Toby if they'll get a decision on Berryhill in time to get him on the Sunday shows, Toby replies, "Two days? You bet."

- We know it's 2003 because President Bartlet says, "Two hundred twenty-seven years ago, a bunch of guys got together on the Fourth of July and decided, because they didn't have any cherry bombs, they would declare some self-evident truths." Add 227 years to 1776 and you get 2003. 

- Of course you recall Season 2, and the calendar mismatch between the Rosslyn shootings of May, 2000 (seen in What Kind Of Day Has It Been and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen) somehow shifting to have happened in August by The Midterms. A shooting that, by the way, was later confirmed to have happened in May in later episodes. Well ... here we go again.

- Zoey's abduction in Commencement came in May, after her graduation from Georgetown - specifically May 7, as outlined in Charlie's note about meeting with Zoey to dig up the bottle of champagne.

- Zoey's rescue in The Dogs Of War came about 72 hours after the kidnapping, in the early hours of Tuesday, May 10 (again, the dates are going by what the show explicitly stated; May 7 was actually a Wednesday in 2003).

- It's clearly the Fourth of July here, almost two months after the kidnapping crisis, there's absolutely no doubt about the date, it's specifically referred to many times ... yet we get a huge number of inconsistencies with what we see in the episode:

- Zoey's injuries are not yet healed, her face is bruised, she's wearing a sling.

- There's some mentions of the support of foreign governments in the wake of the crisis, the impact of getting the President back in the Oval Office, Ryan tells his buddy on the phone they've just been through a national crisis, Josh tells Amy everything "before last Saturday" is a blur ... people, this all happened two months ago, not a few days ago!

- Haffley is referred to as the "new Speaker" as if it just happened, even though his naming as Speaker of the House was a big deal in The Dogs Of War in early May.

- Toby tells us that Huck had his bris in the morning. Remember, Huck and Molly were born between Commencement and Twenty Five, which essentially means the morning of Sunday, May 8. A bris is traditionally celebrated for Jewish boys 8 days after their birth, which would have been Monday, May 16 ... not six weeks after that, on Friday, July 4. 

- The President tells Berryhill, "There hasn't been much about the last couple of weeks that I wouldn't rather erase" ... it's a couple of months, sir.  

- The big thing, though, is the fact the White House is finally ready to name a new Vice President - something that was an urgent necessity to do right away with candidates being given to the President in The Dogs Of War, which was still May, remember? They sat on that for two months? The fact they are in a frenzy to name somebody instead of fight Haffley and Congress on Berryhill's nomination is based totally on needing to get someone put in the office immediately, to show the American public that everything is under control, and this turns out to be the reason they eventually scrap their slam-dunk choice and go with Russell ... so why didn't they feel this sense of urgency back on May 10 when Josh said they had several great candidates for Bartlet's consideration? Why did they sit on their hands for six weeks and just now decide they have to give in to Haffley because the clock is running out?

So, yeah. While generally speaking, The West Wing tends to keep its episodes grounded in the calendar timeline of when they air, the writers sometimes struggle to keep the timing of things straight - particularly when they find it necessary to shoehorn in a connection to July 4th for no particular reason except to hurry the timeline along. And just hold on, we're going to lose an entire year of timeline by Season 6, wait until we talk about that! 

- New showrunners mean less subtlety in storytelling, I guess. Instead of letting us figure things out through dialogue and context, they go with onscreen graphics to explain who Josh and Toby and Leo are meeting with as they try to coordinate their Vice Presidential pick.

- Apparently the GOP holds a 221-214 edge in the House of Representatives. In the meeting with Democratic leadership, Josh says they only need to get four votes on their side to confirm Berryhill. As Section 2 of the 25th Amendment requires a majority vote in both the House and Senate to confirm a new VP, that would mean 218 votes out of the House's 435 members - therefore, with four Republicans joining all the Democrats, that makes it a 221-214 split.

- Director Alex Graves brings back the traditional camera-spinning-around-the-characters in the scene between Donna and Ryan.

- Gail's fishbowl has a huge American flag to celebrate the Fourth.

- Joshua Malina will be the first one to tell you he really went overboard with the facial reactions for the fireworks-viewing scene (he mentions it in the West Wing Weekly podcast covering this episode). He kept being told to "go bigger," so he did ... which gives us this goofy face as the fireworks go off over the National Mall.

- Why'd They Come Up With Jefferson Lives?

Zoey is talking about her father's love of "Fourth of July stuff" with Charlie and Will, particularly the fact that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826. Adams' last words were "Jefferson lives," as he wasn't aware that Jefferson had died shortly before.

Quotes    

Toby: "He was confirmed by the Senate, not by the House. We've got 24 hours to make this happen. Right out of the gate, even a whiff of a whiff of a rumor, we're ready to bat it down."

CJ: "Smart offense."

Will: "Error-free ball."

Josh: "Knock yourselves out, but he's a slam dunk."

Toby: "Okay, that's one too many sports metaphors." 

-----

Josh: "Let it go. You're going to have to breath through it for a while."

Amy: "Not my forte. Waiting."

Josh: "You have other fortes."

Amy: "What's that supposed to mean?"

Josh: "Nothing. I didn't mean that."

Amy: "You absolutely meant that."

Josh: "Okay, maybe I did."

Amy: "Careful what you start." 

----- 

Debbie: "Uh, Mrs. Bartlet ... I can't tell you how hard I prayed for you."

(pause, as Abbey is genuinely touched) 

Abbey: "I appreciate that." 

Debbie: "Well, you shouldn't. I'm not very religious, so there's the risk that my praying could be taken as insincere or even an affront, which, if it's a vengeful God, could have made matters worse."

Abbey: "Well, it didn't. So maybe there's a clue." 

-----

President (escaping the droning story being told by Senator Adair): "Debbie, you were supposed to interrupt after five minutes."

Debbie: "It's only been three, sir." 

-----

Charlie: "She knows you like to see her strong. She thinks what happened was her fault. I'm sorry, sir, but --"

President: "Her mother wants to take her back to New Hampshire for a while. What do you think?"

Charlie: "I think her mom is right."

-----

Leo: "Bob Russell? Really?"

President: "He ain't my choice. But hey, we hated the last guy. So ... start the vetting process."

 

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

• It's our first meeting with the new Speaker, Jeff Haffley, played by Steven Culp (JAG, Thirteen Days, Desperate Housewives). 

• Along those lines, we see the Republican Senate Majority Leader Robert Royce, played by H. Richard Greene (The Wonder Years, Armageddon, Mad Men). We've seen Royce previously in 2001's On The Day Before - then he was a member of the House that Sam went after to try to stop an override of the President's veto of a bill ending the estate tax. Now he's been elected to the Senate, and is already the Majority Leader. Quite the advance! 

• We also see the Democratic Senate Minority Leader Triplehorn, played by Geoff Pierson (Grace Under Fire, 24, Dexter) and another Democrat (likely meant to be the House Minority Leader) Sheila Fields, played by Charlotte Colavin (Law & Order, Summer Of Sam). Triplehorn has appeared a couple of times, first in Swiss Diplomacy arguing with Josh over Hoynes trying to lock up the 2006 nomination by tying up precinct captains (there's a callback to that scene here when Josh tells Toby, "Our esteemed Minority Leader is running for President in three years"). Fields was previously seen complaining about President Bartlet giving up his office to a Republican Speaker in 7A WF 83429. If she reminds you a bit of real-life Congresswoman (and current Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, it's probably not by accident - Pelosi was elected House Minority Leader in 2002, just a year prior to this episode.

• This is our introduction to Congressman Bob Russell from Western Colorado ("And I don't mean the state, I mean the mining company"). Soon to be the new Vice President, Bingo Bob - played by the wonderful Gary Cole (Midnight Caller, American Gothic, Office Space, The Brady Bunch Movie, Veep) - is going to be an important part of the next three seasons.

• There's a shot of Josh's bulletin board that he used to pare down VP candidates, seen in his office since Commencement; let's compare it in this episode to how it looked in The Dogs Of War.

From the previous episode, with Berryhill and four others

As it appears in this episode: Berryhill and Lyndell photos remain, but the one on the left is new and two others have been removed (Sen. Ryan Lyndell and Sen. DeJoie, a name seen on a Post-It, were names we saw during Josh's initial VP search in Commencement)

• When Leo asks how the Syrians are responding to the attack on Qumar, Secretary Berryhill replies, "Better. Probably afraid they're next." Syria has already been attacked once by the Bartlet administration, with a bombing raid ordered by the President in A Proportional Response as retaliation for Syria's shootdown of an airplane carrying medical personnel.

• Obvious long-playing storylines include:

- Bartlet ordering the assassination of Qumar's Defense Minister Shareef (whose involvement in terrorism against America was first discovered in Enemies Foreign And Domestic, and his killing occurring in Posse Comitatus), leading to Ba'ji sleeper agents escaping from observation in Portland, Oregon (first mentioned in Commencement and referred to in this episode), and possibly Zoey's abduction.

- The search for a replacement Vice President, an office vacated when John Hoynes resigned after a sex scandal in Life On Mars.

- The on-again/off-again relationship between Josh and Amy, which first kindled in The Women Of Qumar, was first seen in public in Dead Irish Writers, fizzled away thanks to Josh's political tactics costing Amy her job in Posse Comitatus, showed a few sparks in College Kids and The Red Mass, and now appears to be igniting yet again.

- Toby's twins (and Andy, their mother) get a quick mention in passing. They were born after Andy turned down Toby's offer of remarriage and a house in Commencement.  

• The Bartlet jacket flip makes an appearance, although from behind and out of focus. Martin Sheen's left shoulder was injured at birth, and since he's unable to lift that arm above the shoulder, he developed this "flip" technique to put on a jacket.

• President Bartlet's remark to Leo "We hated the last guy" is a reference to the tension that existed between Bartlet and Vice President Hoynes all the way through their relationship (seen several times, notably in Five Votes Down, Enemies, 20 Hours In L.A., War Crimes, and Stirred).

• WHAT'S NEXT - We get to hear the President say "What's next?" as the camera moves into the Oval Office meeting with Ron Butterfield and other military and security officers.

DC location shots    

• None. The "Rose Garden" Zoey-walk scene was shot in California.

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

• Founding Fathers Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Ben Franklin all get mentioned (appropriately, I suppose, on Independence Day).

• The Truman Balcony is referred to as the White House viewing location for the fireworks.

• Josh scoffingly refers to the green flag at Daytona (meaning the NASCAR race held there around Independence Day prior to 2020, which at one time was called the Firecracker 400) as a reason why Haffley keeps changing their meeting schedule.

• President Lincoln and his Secretary of State William Seward are brought up as Josh and Haffley debate the VP choice.

• John Trumbull's painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence gets a shout-out.

• We get to see the logos of C-SPAN and MSNBC.

End credits freeze frame: President Bartlet meeting with Bob Russell.

Previous episode: The Dogs Of War

Next episode: Han