The Stormy Present - TWW S5E10

 

Original airdate: January 7, 2004

Teleplay by: John Sacret Young (1)
Story by: John Sacret Young  & Josh Singer (1)

Directed by: Alex Graves (18)

Synopsis

• President Bartlet attends the funeral of a former President as turmoil grips Saudi Arabia. Josh gets involved in a fight between North Carolina and Connecticut, and CJ tracks down a story about secret Pentagon mind control projects.

"I guess this changes things."

"I'm not sure it changes anything." 

This may be just my own opinion, but we are in a series of quite pedestrian West Wing episodes. When people talk about the quality of the show dropping off in Season 5, the episodes between Shutdown and The Supremes are exactly the ones they mean (and don't forget, The Supremes is immediately followed by what is widely considered one of the very worst West Wing episodes ever). Let's be frank, I think for an entire year - from Shutdown until the introduction of Sen. Vinick and Rep. Santos about nine episodes into Season 6 - the series finds itself floundering, on unsteady ground, and not sure about what stories it's supposed to be telling.

Even worse, and again just in my opinion, this episode is trying pretty hard to be a conservative-ish screed promoting American imperialism and decrying Muslim fundamentalism. The real world is two-plus years past the events of 9/11, but the impact of that attack on politics, foreign policy, and the attitudes of everyday Americans is still pretty raw. Okay, sure, we get the calming liberal point of view from President Newman, and President Bartlet remains unwilling to use military force or even much in the way of diplomatic coercion against our ally Saudi Arabia - although he's about to before the protests are subdued! - but the overwhelming impression left by the end of the episode comes down firmly on the side of "The United States knows best, the United States is the beacon of freedom and democracy in the world, and thus the United States needs to compel Muslim nations to embrace freedom (by force if necessary) since the struggle against global religious fanaticism is a battle for our survival just like the Civil War." At least that's what I get from Lassiter's obsession with the soil from American battlefields, the in-your-face comparisons to Lincoln and the issues facing him, and the final scene of Bartlet contemplating America's future while he gazes at the Lincoln Memorial.

Essentially I see the writers of this episode taking the high school student's question from Isaac And Ishmael - "why do they hate us?" - and instead of considering Josh and Sam and their earnest attempt to address that question, they ignore that completely and double down to say, "Yeah, why DO they hate us? We can't think of any reason ... guess the United States need to show them by force why we are right and they are wrong." I don't know, folks, talk me out of this, but this is the direction I see the episode heading.

(Say, whatever happened to the Bartlet Doctrine unveiled in his second Inaugural speech in Inauguration: Over There? President Bartlet declared it was now American policy to promote human rights anywhere in the world, by use of the military if it came to that, and immediately sent troops into Equatorial Kundu to stop killings and genocide. Seems to me the wish for democracy and free elections, especially in the face of imprisonment and beheadings for those calling for change, would qualify - but then again, Equatorial Kundu isn't exactly Saudi Arabia, in military capabilities, alliances with the United States, or in oil reserves. Given the history of the doctrine with Kundu, I'd daresay the Saudi government's use of force against pro-democracy protests would be even more of a justification for American military involvement ... instead Bartlet sees that as a reason to back down and leave well enough alone.)

We can tear through the plot fairly quickly. A former Republican President, Owen Lassiter, has died, and President Bartlet and what I can only assume are the other two surviving Presidents (D.W. Newman and Glenallen Walken) fly across the country to attend the funeral. Events are complicated by pro-democracy uprisings in Saudi Arabia, putting Bartlet and his administration in kind of a sticky bind between promoting freedom and keeping a good relationship with the oil-producing monarchy in charge.

Bartlet and the other Presidents have some good back-and-forth talks about what to do, with Walken on the side of American power stepping in to back the protesters and force regime change, and Newman urging caution and reminding the President of the failed outcomes of such attempts in the past. We do get a neat scene with three Presidents, past and present, all sitting together on Air Force One discussing foreign policy:

As things are getting tense in the Middle East, President Bartlet makes the decision to move naval forces into the Persian Gulf as a sign of support for the democratic protesters, and is ready to give the Saudi royal family an ultimatum. But then, before the United States goes all-in with its big stick, the previously peaceful protests turn violent (perhaps at the instigation of government provocateurs?), government forces crack down, and the uprising is thwarted.

As that's happening in Saudi Arabia, President Bartlet has a few minutes with President Lassiter's widow, in the Oval Office mockup built as part of the Lassiter Presidential Library. A library that's apparently been closed to the public for some time, since Lassiter had been living there in his hospital bed before his death.

Lassiter had also spent his post-White House days traveling to battlefields where American soldiers had fought, collecting soil from the places where American blood had been shed. A bit obsessive, I think, and another real downer for people who may have been visiting the Lassiter library:

(Was Lassiter the one-term Republican who preceded Bartlet? We don't know for sure, but given that we only see Newman and Walker as other living Presidents, it's most likely. So all the collection of all the soil in these jars has happened just since Bartlet took office and replaced Lassiter in January 1999.)

Mrs. Lassiter gives President Bartlet a letter, one we saw Lassiter writing at the beginning of the episode, a sort of manifesto about the American ideal, its responsibility to stand firm in the face of Islamic fundamentalism - a real conservative screed. It ends with this:

Which seems to say Lassiter's point is Lincoln's fight to save the Union and America itself is reflected today in the global struggle against religious extremism. Huh. President Bartlet, back in Washington, seems to think Lassiter had a point, as he does exactly what he had been asked to do.

I don't know. I don't buy the connection between freedom in Saudi Arabia and Lincoln fighting the Civil War. Saudi Arabian democracy advocates need their own Lincoln, not the military might of the United States kicking out the monarchy and roiling the Middle East even further into anti-American outrage. Perhaps Bartlet saw Arujunah as that Lincoln, and hoped to provide him enough support to survive. But I'm no foreign policy expert.

Otherwise Josh finds himself in the middle of a battle between North Carolina and Connecticut over a stolen copy of the Bill of Rights (based on a real event), but his primary contribution is a faltering "Go Whalers." We do get to see Josh's facial reaction to getting schooled by the President over knowledge of Lincoln trivia when they're all trying to get to Ford's Theatre:

There's another clever scene as the staffers are preparing for the Ford's Theatre event - Toby, who is hiding from the President and his Lincoln quizzes, is staked out on CJ's office sofa

as a distracted CJ has her eyes on the TV and starts to change her clothes ... until Toby makes a remark about something on the television.

CJ: "Was there something you wanted?"
Toby: "World peace?"

Those two have such a good relationship, you can tell there's history and respect and a real mutual understanding between them.

CJ also finds herself tangled up in news of a possible Pentagon mind-control project, which results in her meeting with a DARPA scientist (Dr. Milkman, of course) who gets her all riled up about medical records and privacy and the study of a person's gait ... but you know what? None of these stories really pay off, and that includes the A plot.

The mind-control thing just kind of ends with a conversation between CJ and Josh:

Josh: "Does the press have the story?"

CJ: "Huh?"

Josh: "The mind-control story, didn't you say it was going to break?" 

CJ: "Yeah."

Josh: "So the story breaks, and the public has roughly the same reaction you're having. No more mind control, no more sifting."

The Bill of Rights theft comes to a conclusion off-screen, as Josh tells CJ everything got worked out, no problem. And as I've gone over above, the storyline about democracy in Saudi Arabia ends pretty much exactly where it began, with President Bartlet's eventual decision to back the protests coming just late enough to not make a difference. To me, it's all very unsatisfying, with all the stories just - ending.

Maybe that's what John Sacret Young was after, to illustrate the frustration and futility and how all the best-laid plans and good-faith efforts in the world don't always pay off. But I mean, come on, that's not what we watch The West Wing for, is it? Particularly when those themes are as poorly defined and clunkily put together as what we get in this episode. It's little more than a West Wing curiosity of the time, a time capsule of George W. Bush-era American foreign policy - nothing more than that.

Well, a drunk Toby singing Suicide Is Painless while Charlie takes his whiskey bottle away is pretty good, but it doesn't really make up for the rest.

Tales Of Interest!

- This episode is the landmark 100th of the series. Typically, 100 episodes is the point at which a TV series becomes attractive for syndication, where it can be sold to distributors who air them on individual TV stations (or niche cable channels) rather than on the network schedule. As a matter of fact, the Bravo cable channel started with reruns of The West Wing in the fall of 2003, just as Season 5 started on NBC, so a syndication deal had already been done. I don't know if the series was ever syndicated to individual stations - one-hour dramas aren't nearly as attractive to TV stations as half-hour sitcoms, which fit their schedules better - but I do know episodes were shown on the TNT cable channel leading up to the 2020 election. Of course, with streaming services coming to the forefront, The West Wing had a long run on Netflix before moving to the HBO Max service in late 2020.

- There is no "previously on The West Wing" introduction to this episode with scenes from earlier shows, just the drum roll with the flag and then immediately to the title card. This usually indicates a stand-alone episode that doesn't tie in to earlier storylines, which is pretty much the case here. It's also rare - with the obvious exceptions of Pilot (when there were no previous scenes to show) and Documentary Special, it's only happened three times before now: Take This Sabbath Day, Isaac And Ishmael (which is non-canon and doesn't technically exist in the West Wing timeline), and The Dogs Of War.

- Speaking of pedestrian hackery ... having a Secret Service agent in the White House calling out "The President's dead" into his wrist microphone as he moves past Leo and Mallory in the hallway is just an outlandishly inconceivable device to throw a scare into the audience. Come on, John Sacret Young - I don't know if this is beneath you, but it's far, far beneath even an average West Wing teleplay. This is the reason the Secret Service uses code names for the figures they protect, like "Eagle" for President Bartlet or "Bookbag" for Zoey or "Flamingo" for CJ ... so they don't refer to every President, past and current, as "the President" and give Leo a heart attack (which is especially cruel considering Leo's upcoming storylines, as well as John Spencer's fate).

- I've mentioned the possible West Wing universe Presidential timeline before, particularly the fact that there's never been a reference to a real-life President since Kennedy or LBJ (only a couple of loose references to LBJ, and only two mentions of Nixon, neither one that clearly indicate he was President). The fact we find out about two former Presidents here - Lassiter and Newman - doesn't do a lot to clear things up. We know from The Short List and comments by retiring Supreme Court justice Crouch that a Republican preceded Bartlet in office ("I waited for a Democrat. Instead I got you"). We also know from In Excelsis Deo that Leo served as Secretary of Labor in a Democratic administration in 1993 (when he entered rehab), which means the Republican in office before Bartlet was a one-termer. We know from Separation Of Powers that there have been six administrations and 22 Congresses since Chief Justice Ashland was named to the Court in the early 1960s, although that math still doesn't work out unless you ignore either Bartlet or Kennedy (and as Josh mentions, no one is counting Walken's two-day administration):

Bartlet: elected 1998-present

Unknown Republican: elected 1994-98 (could this be Lassiter?)

Unknown Democrat: possibly two terms, elected 1986-94 (could this be Newman? The fact Toby says he'd "voted for you a couple of times" could indicate he served two terms. However, Leo - who we know served in this President's Cabinet in the early 1990s - makes no mention of any relationship with Newman. It's a puzzler ...)

Possibly another two-term unknown elected 1978-86

Possibly another two-term unknown elected 1970-78

Possibly another two-ish term unknown (LBJ, perhaps?) serving from 1963 to 1970 (and yes, I realize there's a shift between election years from real-life to the West Wing universe)

Kennedy: elected real-world 1960, assassinated 1963

I've speculated before about the timeline changing at Nixon, with his resignation in 1974 bringing about new elections called that year to reset the electoral timeline as we see it in the series. That would mean a Kennedy administration until 1963, LBJ from 1963 to 1968, Nixon from 1968 to 1974 ... then there would have to have been at least three Presidents between 1974 and the one-term Republican serving before Bartlet (there's five terms in between there, that means at least three different administrations). That makes six full administrations between Kennedy and Bartlet, which doesn't at all agree with the count for Chief Justice Ashland in Separation Of Powers. So, I dunno.

- The story of North Carolina's copy of the Bill of Rights, its theft by a Union soldier in 1865, and its mysterious whereabouts until the FBI got involved and recovered the copy in 2003 is pretty fascinating. Although unlike how it's described in this episode, Connecticut plays no role in the actual story. The document turned up on a businessman's wall in Indiana in 1897. That family refused to surrender it until they offered to sell it back to North Carolina in 1925, but the state refused to pay for what they considered their own stolen property. Descendants offered to sell it again in 1975, were again rebuffed, and it was eventually sold to an antique dealer in 2000. When he tried to sell it to the National Constitution Center in 2003 (claiming he did not know the document's origin), the FBI got involved in a sting operation to seize the copy. It would take another five years of court battles before North Carolina got full ownership rights.

- We can see just a bit of Gail's fishbowl while Dr. Milkman is talking about DARPA, but we can't see if anything is in there.

- Why'd They Come Up With The Stormy Present?

As President Bartlet and Walken reminisce about President Lassiter, Walken recalls a time Lassiter was quoting Lincoln's second inaugural address and Bartlet fills in the line: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present." Lincoln was, of course, referring to the Civil War; Bartlet draws a parallel to the pro-democracy protests in Saudi Arabia, and relations with the Arab world in general. 

Quotes    

CJ: "Is there a reason you're following me?"

Toby: "Do I need a reason?" 

----- 

CJ: "Leo, I got a question yesterday ... tell me we're not conducting mind-control research at the Pentagon."

Leo (deadpan): "We're not conducting mind-control research at the Pentagon."

CJ (staring back intently): "You're not doing it on me right now?" 

-----

Carol: "There's a man in your office."

CJ: "Okay."

Carol: "I didn't see him come, I turned around, and he was there."

CJ: "A man in my office. (Carol nods) Is he dashing?"

Carol: "Not how I'd describe him."

-----

Toby: "Without strong guidance popular elections could be a one-time event."

President Newman: "Strong guidance ... you think we should colonize?"

Toby: "No, I think we should run away, as fast and as far away as we can."

-----

Toby: "I've been walking up and down these aisles, looking at these old men - these great and terrible old men - and thinking, a prosperous, free, and democratic Saudi Arabia is something to wish for. But the men on this plane spent the better part of the late 20th century trying to play God in other countries, and the regimes they anointed are the ones that haunt us today."

 

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

• The fantastic actor James Cromwell (Babe, Star Trek: First Contact, Succession, on and on and on) appears as President D. Wire Newman.

• The equally wonderful and instantly recognizable Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day, The Goldbergs, Mississippi Burning, on and on and on) shows up as DARPA scientist Dr. Milkman.

• And there's Bellamy Young (Scandal, Scrubs, We Were Soldiers) as the North Carolina representative trying to get the state's copy of the Bill of Rights back. Young's role on Scandal is just a part of the West Wing to Scandal actor pipeline (see: Joshua Malina, Jeff Perry, Liza Weil, etc, as well as character names Huck and David Rosen), as Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes is a big fan of The West Wing.

• Libby Lassiter is played by Diana Douglas, who doesn't really ring a bell with me but was in over 800 episodes of the daytime drama Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing in the early 1970s. She also has been seen on The Waltons, The Paper Chase TV series, and has a blink-and-you'll-miss-her scene as the mother-in-law of Steve Martin's character in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Fun fact: Douglas was married to Kirk Douglas from 1943 to 1951, and is Michael Douglas' mother.

• A nice callback to Glenallen Walken's time in office (played by John Goodman) when President Bartlet invoked the 25th Amendment during Zoey's kidnapping (Twenty Five through The Dogs Of War). While only President for a couple of days, he's included in President Lassiter's funeral arrangements.

And Bess!

• We haven't seen Secretary of Defense Miles Hutchinson for a bit. He's back in the Situation Room.

• Speaking of not seeing someone for a while, here's Leo's daughter Mallory, played by Allison Smith (the longest running Annie on Broadway). We met her first in Pilot, she had a flirtatious relationship with Sam in Season 1, but we haven't seen her around since Twenty Hours In America Part Two.

• West Wing veteran director Alex Graves uses the tried-and-true camera-spinning-around-characters-talking technique quite a few times.

• Col. Gantry is still the pilot of Air Force One, last mentioned in Disaster Relief and previously heard as the pilot in a couple of earlier episodes. 

• Leo is still wearing his wedding ring, despite his wife leaving him in Five Votes Down and his divorce coming through in The Portland Trip. It makes the scene where Mallory tells him about Jenny getting remarried even more poignant.

• Meanwhile, Toby is not wearing a wedding band. At the start of the series Richard Schiff, unbeknownst to Aaron Sorkin, wore a ring as part of the widower backstory he created for Toby. Sorkin took that actor's choice and changed it into the storyline of Toby's former marriage to Congresswoman Andy Wyatt. Perhaps Toby has given up the ring as part of his pursuit of Andy and attempt to get her to remarry him.

• Also, Toby's insistence that the United States should break off ties with Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia - "we should run away, as fast and as far away as we can" - is quite a change from his rant in Night Five that American democracy needs to defeat Islamic fundamentalism ("They'll like us when we win!").

• President Newman brings up Bartlet's "illness" and the angry reactions to the announcement both he and President Lassiter had. We discovered President Bartlet was hiding his multiple sclerosis in He Shall, From Time To Time ..., and watched his staff learn the news throughout late Season Two until he revealed it to the nation in Two Cathedrals.

DC location shots    

• The final shot, with President Bartlet somberly considering President Lincoln's legacy at the Lincoln Memorial.

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

• There are several direct references to former Presidents: obviously Abraham Lincoln, also George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman (the Truman battle group, which is a thing as the Truman Carrier Strike Group), and Woodrow Wilson.

• There are also many Civil War references in this episode: Ford's Theatre, where Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth; Major Rathbone and Clara Harris, who were in Lincoln's box at the theatre when the assassination happened; generals Sherman, Grant, and Lee; the Emancipation Proclamation; General Order 100 (which did allow for Union soldiers to confiscate Confederate property, although there appears to not have actually been a Special Order 88), and the fact that North Carolina's copy of the Bill of Rights was indeed taken by a Union soldier near the end of the Civil War.

• Several actual poems and songs are quoted, from The Charge Of The Light Brigade ("into the valley of death rode the 600") to The Battle Hymn Of The Republic ("mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord") to the M*A*S*H theme song Suicide Is Painless ("it brings on many changes").

• When CJ asks about Pentagon mind control experiments, Toby responds with MK-Ultra, which was a CIA project that used drugs, electroshocks, and other forms of physical and mental torture in an attempt to manipulate subjects' mental state and brain function. The project was officially ended in 1973. The 1959 novel and 1962 film The Manchurian Candidate also is brought up in the discussion.

• Josh mentions the Whalers a couple of times, meaning the Hartford Whalers, a WHA/NHL hockey team that played in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1974 to 1997. The team then moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, and became the Carolina Hurricanes.

• DARPA (and ARPA) are topics of discussion - originally founded as the Advanced Research Projects Agency and later renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, DARPA's research can claim at least partial credit for technological advances including the Internet, GPS, drones, weather satellites, and the Moderna COVID vaccine. 

• William Shakespeare is directly mentioned, as well as his character Lady Macbeth. We also have references to the authors Carl Sandburg, Herman Melville and Dante, plus a line from Charles Dicken's A Tale Of Two Cities ("tis a far, far better thing I do").

• President Lassiter is compared to Attila the Hun. Toby refers to Lassiter's elderly administration members coming to the funeral as "Madame Tussaud's" (wax museum).

• President Bartlet mentions the famed portrait artist Gilbert Stuart (one of his portraits of Washington is hanging on the Oval Office wall).

• Leo says he has plans to meet Mallory at Oberdorfers. It sounds like he's taking her shopping, yet ... There was a U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia named Louis Oberdorfer from 1977 until his death in 2013 - perhaps a family friend of Leo's? It's an interesting name to drop in to a West Wing script, in any event. There actually was a Christian Science Monitor article from 2002 that made a comparison based on moral relativism between President Bartlet's decision to kill the Qumari Defense Minister and a case before Judge Oberdorfer involving Exxon and its employees' rights violations in Indonesia, so somebody had already linked Oberdorfer and the TV series.

• President Bartlet includes FedEx in his list of options to get a message to Crown Prince Bitar (along with fax and carrier pigeon).

• Al-Jazeera is mentioned by Leo. CNN comes up a few times, and in addition to the by-now-familiar view of the MSNBC logo we get a rare glimpse of the CNN logo as well.

• A Dunkin Donuts cup is seen in the press room.

• Toby has a bag of David brand sunflower seeds.

• There's a bag of Lay's potato chips on Donna's desk.

End credits freeze frame: President Bartlet listening to Lincoln.

Previous episode: Abu el Banat

Next episode: The Benign Prerogative

Abu el Banat - TWW S5E9

 

Original airdate: December 3, 2003

Written by: Debora Cahn (5)

Directed by: Lesli Linka Glatter (4)

Synopsis

• As Christmas approaches, President Bartlet deals with an Attorney General grandstanding for political gain, a son-in-law who wants his backing to run for Congress, a hostage situation in Sudan, a daughter who may or may not show up for dinner, and a grandson who can't flip a switch in front of crowds. To make things even more festive, he also has to face his own mortality.

"It'll get ugly and that's that ... you gonna be there?" 

"Yeah."

It's Christmas in the White House ... well, three weeks before Christmas, anyway. I've mentioned before how I have a soft spot for television shows that clearly set episodes during holidays, and tie the plots and themes into the season. There's just something about it that grounds the fictional world of a TV series into the reality we can relate to, I don't know. 

Plus the set decorators of The West Wing do a great job with setting the scene for Christmas. Check it out:

There's holiday cookies there for Ted Barrow!

We even get CJ's Christmas tree falling over on Toby.

We need to particularly soak up this Christmas episode because it's basically the last one we're going to get from the series. Yes, in next season's Impact Winter there are some decorations in the background around this time of year, but the episode itself barely mentions the holiday and the plot isn't Christmas-themed at all. There's also a time jump in Season 6 and the episodes no longer align with the actual calendar when they air.

That's kind of too bad, because West Wing Christmas episodes have been among some of the best in the series. In Excelsis Deo focused on Toby and his determination to give a homeless Korean War veteran a proper burial. Noël showed us Josh's internal torment as he struggled with PTSD after being shot at the beginning of Season 2. Bartlet For America was Leo's story, his inspiration fueling Bartlet's candidacy and the fallout and rebound from his alcohol relapse. Holy Night was less of a success, I think, partly because we went back and repeated our focus on Toby, this time exploring his fractured relationship with his former mob hitman father. 

This episode is another less memorable attempt, in my opinion because it meanders and seems unfocused, but what I do like is that this one centers on President Bartlet. At its heart, it's about family, it's about the love and devotion and commitment between family members, and it's about who's going to be there when the chips are down. That's really what this entire series is about, isn't it? All these folks we've come to know have become a family of sorts, they'll all do almost anything for one another, and that's why we connect with them so much.

It's time for the annual National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony, and the entire Bartlet family is gathering at the White House. That is, as long as Ellie can get away from her research at Johns Hopkins to make it in time. Gus, the First Grandson (son of Liz and Doug), is set to help the President flip the switch on the tree lights. Unfortunately, he's only five and is a little hesitant:

Some rehearsal is in order, but there doesn't seem to be any time in the day for that. (Also, you'll note Gus is not even the same grandson we saw arriving at the White House in 7A WF 83429.)

First, a rogue DEA office is going after a doctor in Oregon for assisting a terminally ill patient's suicide, which is a problem because assisted suicide in that situation is legal in Oregon. When the Attorney General decides to weigh in and back prosecution of the doctor, that presents a problem for the administration. Add to that a couple of American aid workers in Sudan arrested by the government for proselytizing, and the President has a full plate without the tree lighting.

The assisted suicide story threatens to derail the administration's agenda, taking them off topic just as they're ramping up for the State of the Union address. Leo tries to talk the Attorney General into backing off, but AG Alan Fisk stands firm.

Leo: "The voters of Oregon have declared the termination of life, pain, and suffering to be a legitimate medical purpose, and frankly whether they were right or wrong is none of the DEA's business. Assisted suicide should be --"

Fisk: "It's not 'assisted' anything. It's murder."

Leo: "Okay. We're done. You'll be hearing from the President."

In an effort to get attention on the topic away from the President, Toby asks Will to have Vice President Russell take the lead. Will - who, for some reason, still has his office in the West Wing next to Toby - finally agrees to take the proposal to the VP, but his obvious lack of enthusiasm linked with his motivation to help set up Russell as a 2006 Presidential candidate show Toby where Will's true loyalties lie.

Which leads to:

Toby's finally moving Will out of the White House. (Will seems unusually perturbed about this, although he should be happy with having an office nearer to his boss.)

Of course, there's an additional deeply personal angle for President Bartlet. As we've known since He Shall, From Time To Time ..., Jed suffers from multiple sclerosis, an incurable degenerative disease that will eventually debilitate him. No one knows exactly how long that might take, or how the effects will specifically manifest, but a physical decline almost certainly will happen, perhaps before his term is up. And as Toby points out, a significant number of those seeking help to end their lives have MS.

Toby: "One in five patients requesting aid in dying has MS. One in five. Do you know what the questions sound like?"

President: "I've got a pretty good idea."

Toby: "'How long does the President think he has before his MS will become debilitating?' 'Do the doctors anticipate a speedy decline?' 'Does he have a plan?' 'Does the First Lady have four glass vials and a syringe in a lock box in the nightstand?'"

President: "She may chicken out. Maybe I'll call you." 

This does lead to a pretty funny line from Bartlet later:

President: "Toby asked me today if I have a plan for my death. Liz has never asked. Zoey. I understand Ellie asked her mother once, but I'm not supposed to know about it. I get Toby."

When it's later revealed the AG's support for prosecuting the doctor is being played up in the press in Fisk's home state of Mississippi, the staff figures out he's laying the groundwork to run for state office. President Bartlet takes time away from his family dinner plans to read Fisk the riot act. I'll include the entire conversation here, because it's well-said:

President: "You don't run for governor from my Cabinet."

Fisk: "You really think a run to the right on a couple of pro-life standards is going to win me Mississippi?"

President: "'The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution are reserved to the States respectively.'"

Fisk: "How long before there's a lawyer arguing, 'We can't limit this to terminal patients.'? We ought to include the chronically ill? When is it allowing children to make the decision for their parents?"

President: "Yes. When is it allowing the state to decide, not families? We'll just start knocking off the weak and the indigent along with the sick and the dying. When does my administration completely deteriorate into the Third Reich?"

Fisk: "I'm not suggesting --"

President: "The federal government has no place here. The question is a moral one, an individual one. Grappling with the nature of life and the purview of God, in which the federal government has no ... Forget it. Do what you want. The courts are going to nail you. You're counting on my silence, and you just lost it."

Fisk: "Sir, a public debate --"

President: "Yeah, I didn't want to get on TV with Oprah and talk about who's gonna cut my meat when the coordination goes, but c'est la vie. The lid's off. (walking out the door) You pull this crap one more time, you're fired. Tell Janet Merry Christmas."

Back in the dining room, as Jed and Abbey wait for the rest of the family, Jed reflects on what Toby spoke about, and on his future and his mortality. And Abbey touchingly expresses her love and devotion to him.

Jed: "I'm putting together a panel on assisted suicide. If you got any names, medical ethicists."

Abbey: "Your position has changed?"

Jed (shakes his head): "Uh uh. ... No syringe in the nightstand. It'll get ugly and that's that. (pause) You gonna be there?"

Abbey: "Yeah."

The Sudan incident turns out to be another minor irritant on the day. The President, assured by the aid organization that the workers were not missionaries, sends a strongly worded message to Sudan about detaining American citizens. Which would be great, until they find out the two workers had indeed smuggled in Bibles and were, in fact, breaking Sudanese law by promoting Christianity:

Leo: "They never identified themselves as evangelists. Never mentioned religion."

President: "So they're undercover agents?"

Leo: "Spies for Christ, yeah."

As is the usual custom with these issues, the US government directs some back-channel economic aid to Sudan in exchange for the release of the two women, and that's that.

The Bartlet family issue gets complicated, not only by Ellie's delayed arrival, but by Jed's son-in-law having an unexpected political agenda of his own. Doug Weston stops in to see Josh, who is involved in finding Democratic candidates for national office, and tells him he would be the perfect choice for New Hampshire's 1st District seat in the House of Representatives.

This turns out to be a problem. The Democratic Party has plans for that seat, they already have a candidate groomed, and having the President's son-in-law (who has no experience in running for political office at all, as well as some dicey issues with a failing business) asking for the White House's endorsement is not in the cards. Josh is told to nip Doug's effort in the bud, but he's not very good at that:

Josh: "What about the state legislature? It's the place to learn, the President started there --"

Doug: "Come on. I run while Jed's in office, I've got a leg up like no two terms, six terms as a state legislator ever's gonna give me. What kind of fool is gonna let a moment like that sail by?"

Josh: "I don't know."

After getting chewed out by Leo, Josh calls Doug back in, telling him in no uncertain terms he won't get the President's endorsement if he decides to run. In the meantime, Jed, Abbey, Zoey and Liz are waiting for Doug (and Ellie) in the dining room.

When Doug sullenly shows up at the dinner table, Liz is miffed with how things played out, and she heads upstairs to start packing up Gus' clothes.

Jed follows.

Jed: "He's a great guy and a fantastic father. You're the politician. Why the hell don't you run?" 

Liz replies with the weight of motherhood, of family responsibilities, of the impossibility of doing it all. 

Jed: "We all made sacrifices, but Elizabeth, when Annie and Gus watch you walk onto the floor of the US House of Representatives --"

Liz: "I don't want my son to be part of my entourage. A photo op is not his idea --- I don't want it."

Jed: "Then why would you let Doug?"

Liz: "Because he's my husband, and he asked me to."

Finally - at last! - Ellie arrives ... finding the dining room empty.

The Bartlets just can't catch a break for this holiday meal.

But things aren't all bad. For the first time in the series, I believe, we get to see all three of the Bartlet girls together, smiling and hugging as they enjoy some carols in the atrium:

And the President rousts Gus out of bed. Gus, upset and frightened by the crowd, ended up not helping with the tree lighting ceremony (Zoey filled in instead), but Jed now has decided to give him the chance to flip the switch anyway. Alone, in the dark, grandfather and grandson trudge through the snow to the Christmas tree, and Gus happily turns the lights off and on, watching them glow in the winter sky.

Like I said, this one is really about family.

Tales Of Interest!

- It's three weeks before Christmas (CJ says as much in her phone call to her father's facility), which is exactly when this episode aired in 2003.

- Snow on the ground in Washington, DC, in early December is very rare. While the historical average snowfall in December is just over three inches, it doesn't tend to come in the first week of the month, and the average temperature for the month stays above freezing, even at night. Yet, we've got a nice snow cover on the ground for the President and Gus to walk through on their way to the tree.

- Speaking of the tree, the national Christmas tree is not on the South Lawn of the White House grounds, as depicted in this episode. It's actually located outside the White House grounds on the Ellipse.

The tree is traditionally lit by the President from the Truman Balcony on the south side of the White House, but the tree itself is open to the public outside the fence. President Bartlet and Gus would not have been able to walk out there on their own. I mean, they wouldn't have been able to stroll out onto the South Lawn without the Secret Service around, either, but this is TV, after all.

- Also speaking of the tree, computer generated graphics have come a long way since 2003. This CGI Christmas tree looks pretty low-tech compared to what TV shows can come up with about 20 years later. I mean, it's like a piece of paper with a tree printed on it rolled up into a cone with some obviously fake lights. (If you look closely in the background, that wreath hanging on the White House balcony looks pretty pasted-on, as well.)

- And speaking of Gus, we saw the President's grandson (although we didn't find out his name) when the Westons arrived at the White House during Zoey's kidnapping in 7A WF 83429. 

That child is obviously not the same Gus we see here. He's lost quite a few years since last spring, it appears (it's mentioned he's five years old - spring Gus is closer to seven or eight, I'd guess).

- In A Proportional Response it was said the Attorney General was Black. In Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics we met the Attorney General, who was named Dan Larson and definitely not a Black man. That means Alan Fisk must be at least the third AG in the Bartlet administration (and you'll also remember from Debate Camp the newly elected Bartlet had to withdraw his first choice for the AG post, Cornell Rooker, so Attorney General has long been a trouble spot).

- Gail's fishbowl has a Christmas tree.

- Why'd They Come Up With Abu el Banat?

Let's let President Bartlet explain it: "You know, 15 years ago, we took a trip to Egypt, all five of us, saw the pyramids and Luxor, then headed up into the Sinai. We had a guide, a Bedouin man, who called me Abu el Banat. Whenever we'd meet another Bedouin, he'd introduce me as Abu el Banat. The Bedouin would laugh and laugh and then offer me a cup of tea. And I'd go and pay them for the tea, and they wouldn't let me. Abu el Banat means 'father of daughters.' They thought the tea was the least they could do."

Quotes    

Toby: "This is fine. I just cut some of the naked gloating."

CJ: "We restarted the government, Toby. There was a showdown at the OK Corral, and we gunned down the Clantons. We're heroes."

Toby: "And yet, self-effacing."

-----

Debbie: "Did she tell you about the walkthrough at 11:00?"

CJ: "No. Can you maybe handle that?"

Debbie: "She asked for you."

CJ: "I've got a meeting. Could you tell her?"

Debbie: "You can't say no to her, can you?"

CJ: "Not really."

Debbie: "I'll see you at 11:00." 

-----

President: "All right. Push the rehearsal. I need to stop at Nancy McNally's. Is Ellie even coming?"

Debbie: "She's working on it."

President: "One would never know that the leaders of powerful nations respond to my call on a moment's notice."

Debbie: "Not at first glance, sir, no."

-----

President: "Three point two billion men in the world, she picks him."

Debbie: "I hear he had a great pitching arm."

President: "When he was 19, sure. She dumped a Rhodes scholar for this guy. Zoey left Charlie for the frog. Ellie and the guitar player with the purple van. My children choose morons, every one."

Debbie: "They say daughters look for their fathers."

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

• The wonderful Dylan Baker appears as Attorney General Alan Fisk. I think Baker is good in everything he does, from Owen, the tobacco-drooling pickup driver in Planes, Trains And Automobiles ("She's short and skinny, but she's strong. Her first baby - come out sideways. She didn't scream or nothin'") to the hospital administrator in The Laramie Project (2002) to Murder One and Spider-Man 2 and 3 to many, many, many other TV and movie appearances.

• Ron Canada returns as Assistant Secretary of State Ted Barrow. You remember Barrow was a real jerk to CJ in Han; he'll be sort of a recurring character from now on.

• Mark Moses (Platoon, Mad Men, Desperate Housewives) appears as Congressman Donald Richter. He's one of those character actor faces that shows up in all sorts of TV shows and movies, and you know you've seen him somewhere before.

• I think every Christmas episode of The West Wing has included a shot of a gingerbread White House. This one is no exception.

• At the very beginning of the episode, as CJ is trying to set up her tree, we get a mention of "restarting the government" and being "heroes," which is a direct reference to the previous episode Shutdown.

• We get a reference to Liz and Doug's daughter, Annie (although she's missing the tree-lighting festivities because of a swim meet and a pierced eyebrow). Annie was actually mentioned in Pilot, receiving threats from a religious group after stating her opinion on women's rights to choose in a magazine interview. She was 12 then, which would make her about 17 now.

• This also means the President's story about going to Egypt with the girls 15 years ago would have been after Liz and Doug were married and had Annie. So I guess Annie stayed home with Doug while Liz made the trip with her parents and sisters?

• Ellie's medical school work at Johns Hopkins - and her complicated relationship with her father - was addressed in the episode Ellie.

• Toby's role in setting the agenda for the State of the Union address ties into his request to have a bigger role in administration policy that he first brought up to Leo in Han.

• Toby spars with Will over the Vice President taking the hit for the assisted suicide story, and that argument brings up the memory of Russell's nomination as VP from Jefferson Lives as well as Will leaving the Communications Office to be Russell's top aide in Constituency Of One:

Toby: "We didn't ask you to groom Russell for a Presidential run. He asked you."

Will: "He was chosen by the President."

Toby: "He was chosen by the Republicans!"

• Toby also reaches all the way back to when Will came aboard the Communications Office in Arctic Radar, after his dedicated campaign work got a dead Democrat to win a House election in California:

Toby: "You're the guy we pulled out of Botox Babylon out there, brought to work for the President."

• There are callbacks to Zoey's relationship with Jean-Paul between Holy Night and Commencement (or, as Jed calls him, "the frog") and her previous relationship with Charlie (those two are still close, as you can see by Charlie's teasing her about everyone telling her she looks good - "You don't look that good," he jokes, and she responds with a smile and a playful tap).

Charlie also offers his coat to Zoey when she decides to go help her father with the tree lighting.

 

• We hear references to National Security Adviser Nancy McNally and Secretary of State Berryhill, but we don't see either of them.

• There's a deep dive into Margaret and her complicated relationship with muffins. In Let Bartlet Be Bartlet, she locked up the White House e-mail system with a question about the calorie content of the raisin muffins in the Mess, giving Toby a golden opportunity to prank her:

Margaret: "IT support is now accusing me of being a hacker. They're accusing me of spamming or smurfing. They asked me if I was running a Trojan horse. I said no, I ... I was simply informing the others that the calorie count in the raisin muffins was wrong. And it is, Toby. You don't believe me ... you should take one of those muffins and, you know, take it down to the lab."

Toby: "I'll do that."

Margaret: "You will?"

Toby: "Get me a muffin. Be careful not to handle it yourself. You want to use gloves. Slip it to me in a plastic bag. I'll send it off to the lab."

Margaret (realizing): "You're mocking me, aren't you?"

And in this episode, when Margaret is complaining about Leo's "maybe" responses to Christmas party invitations, she goes back to the muffins in the Mess:

Margaret: "I think we shouldn't go with 'maybes' on the Christmas parties this year because 'maybe' means I RSVP yes, and you cancel ten minutes before it starts, and I have to call and say the honored guest isn't coming, and you remain lovable Leo McGarry, and I'm the dope who couldn't accurately assess the constraints of your schedule."

Leo (hearing the news announcer on the TV): "'Hostages'? Did he just say 'hostage'?"

Margaret: "And by New Year's, I'm a pariah. People hexing my muffins in the Mess ..."  

I guess Margaret just really likes muffins.  

• Of course President Bartlet's health condition and his ongoing multiple sclerosis has been part of the story since He Shall, From Time To Time ...

• CJ's father and his struggle with Alzheimer's disease had an entire episode devoted to it (The Long Goodbye).

• Josh's teasing of Donna over her Christmas present reminds us of In Excelsis Deo, when Donna really wanted a pair of skis but Josh ended up giving her a book about skiing instead. But the real gift was the note Josh wrote to Donna inside the book. We never know what he wrote, but we saw her reaction and her beaming smile when she read it.

• At the Bartlet dinner table there's a throwaway discussion about the Weston's nanny and what her job entails (and her chin status). It's also mentioned she's Swedish. This nanny will come up again in the future.

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• In the past The West Wing would sometimes invent a fictional nation in order to have storylines play out without offending a real country (Equatorial Kundu and Qumar are the two obvious examples). Post-Aaron Sorkin it appears that's no longer a concern, as Sudan is definitely on the hook here for holding American Christian missionaries prisoner.

• Speaking of real nations, President Bartlet mentions "193 countries." According to Wikipedia, they name 194 widely recognized sovereign states in the 2000s. So we're in the ballpark here (and 193 may have been exactly correct for 2003).

• The tree-lighting ceremony includes performances by the Three Tenors and the singing of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.

• Attorney General Fisk's daughter was in a performance of Verdi's opera Aida at the Kennedy Center. Aida was actually part of the Kennedy Center's 2002-03 season, so that's factually accurate (although it would have happened well before the events of this episode, maybe Leo and Fisk hadn't had a chance to catch up since then).

• Leo comes up with the song title "Grandma Got Run Over By The Bartlets," a reference to the real novelty song "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer."

• Liz has offered CJ's name to replace her on a charity board that should be working with the World Food Programme (but isn't).

• Toby compares Will's efforts to change Vice President Russell's image to what happens with Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion/My Fair Lady.

• President Bartlet mentions a "Fisher-Price gizmo" on Gus's crib with "more cranks and levers than a DC-10."

• Gus's Secret Service code name is Tonka, which is obviously related to the toy company with the metal trucks.

• We get the MSNBC logo onscreen, as the NBC network has realized they can promote their own 24-hour news network on their shows. Although, would the Christmas tree lighting ceremony actually be billed as "BREAKING NEWS"?

• As the President chews out the Attorney General for getting involved in the Oregon assisted suicide case, he talks about the government and not the families making decisions about who lives and who dies, comparing it to the Third Reich (Nazi Germany). He goes on to say, "Yeah, I didn't want to get on TV with Oprah and talk about who's gonna cut my meat when the coordination goes, but c'est la vie."

• Liz brings up the feminist icons Ms. Steinem (Gloria) and Ms. Friedan (Betty) in her conversation with Jed over who should really run for Congress.

• Josh jokingly tells Donna he got her a Tower Records gift certificate for a Christmas gift.

• Abbey says to Jed they've never been the traditional Currier and Ives family at the holidays.

End credits freeze frame: Some of the Bartlet family waiting for the others at the dinner table.

Previous episode: Shutdown

Next episode: The Stormy Present