Original airdate: February 11, 2004
Written by: Peter Noah (2)
Directed by: Bill D'Elia (3)
Synopsis
- News of a secret nuclear test in the Indian Ocean has the United States on the brink of attacking Iran - until Vice President Russell remembers something that could be pertinent to the situation. Josh goes out stargazing with a cute NASA administrator. CJ gets called "chicken" by a conservative TV show host.
I don't think it's just me. It's not just me, right? Season 5 is continuing to be kind of a slog ... partly because this year's post-Sorkin John Wells-led team is treading ground already worked over in the past, while ignoring some key chain-of-command consistencies at the same time. I mean, keeping important knowledge away from CJ so she can unknowingly mislead the press? Didn't we do that in Lord John Marbury, and wasn't it made clear that the President and is men weren't going to do that again (spoiler alert: they did that again)? How about bringing Toby in on the top-secret news of nuclear tests and attacks on Iran while Leo keeps Josh out of it - Toby, the Communications Director, gets in on high-level secret meetings while Josh, the Deputy Chief of Staff and Leo's right-hand man, blissfully goes out stargazing without being told of the impending crisis? How about hard-nosed political realist and arm-twister Josh going from telling off NASA about their failures to suddenly cheerleading for a mission to Mars just because he looked through a telescope?
Leo: "We've got to give him something."
Toby: "What can he handle? Potholes."
Leo: "You mean infrastructure?"
Toby: "No, I mean actual potholes, on, I don't know, the Interstate."
Leo insists, Toby comes up with "good government" (reducing bureaucracy, using plain English in regulations, that sort of thing), Will is less than enthused, knowing Toby is just going through the motions of "helping."
Russell isn't that excited, either. For one thing, one of the "good government" proposals is to reduce the number of junkets, overseas trips made by lawmakers ostensibly to gather information from foreign allies but seen by the public as government-funded vacations. In a conversation with Will, Russell defends the use of junkets as a valuable information-gathering tool, and then:
A light bulb goes off in his head.
A little background: Russell, who was basically forced on the Bartlet administration as a Vice Presidential choice by the Republicans in Jefferson Lives, has never been seen as a full partner in the administration. Only informed of the nuclear test as a courtesy (Bartlet almost forgets to tell him), he completely misconstrues the situation as Leo tries to explain it to him (multiple times, in fact). Nobody really thinks the Vice President has any knowledge or ability when it comes to foreign policy or diplomacy ... but this discussion of junkets and how they sometimes allow a more frank sharing of information reminds him of something. Something rather important, as it turns out.
Russell asks to see the President, urgently. In a Situation Room meeting, he tells the story of a boozy Mediterranean boat trip where secrets may have been let slip:
Russell: "I was on a Congressional junket to the Mideast last year. Wound up at a party on a boat cruising the Mediterranean. The combination of jet lag, booze, and choppy seas made some guests sick. As they leaned over the rail, one of our high-level government hosts came over to me and drunkenly mused he hoped they weren't puking on one of their nuclear subs. He winked and lurched off. And the host country was ... Israel."
Israel! Perhaps it wasn't Iran after all, but Israel conducting a secret nuclear test. Now, why would Israel need an atmospheric test? Technology has come far enough that an advanced nation could develop nuclear weapons without actually detonating them, right? The Vice President happens to have an answer for that, too:
Russell: "Getting nuclear warheads on submarine-based missiles requires miniaturization technology that could need to be tested."
How does Bingo Bob, the Congressman from Western Colorado (not the state, the mining company) have this kind of knowledge about nuclear weaponry? Turns out, he tells Leo and the President later, Colorado mines are the nation's biggest source of uranium. As he turns to leave, after confounding the belief that he's a low-IQ placeholder as Vice President, Jed gives Leo a look of surprised satisfaction, or perhaps a little smugness.
It's almost a smirk that says, "See how well I did when I chose the best of the worst Vice Presidents that was forced on me by the Republicans and who I picked only because his cowboy boots reminded me of Zoey riding a horse? Suck it, Leo." Which would make more sense if the President actually showed he'd had much faith in Russell before this moment.
President Bartlet calls back the bombers on their way to Iran and demands a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, where ... nothing much really happens. Would nuclear war be a devastating event with no winners? Yes. Does the proliferation of nuclear weapons make nuclear war more of a threat? Sure. Does Israel have the right to defend itself from others who wish to wipe them off the earth? Of course. So what's the final answer? We don't know, and we don't find out here. Then Jed goes back downstairs to watch the explosion again, for ... reasons.
Meanwhile, Josh has a meeting with NASA administrators hoping to increase their visibility in the administration and perhaps get some space initiatives funded. Josh blasts them for screwing up past missions and flatly tells them the White House has no interest in spending more money on space. This leads to one of the administrators coming straight to Josh to beg their case.
Alex Moreau insists on Josh coming out with her that night to take a look at what the exploration of space might really mean, and that brings out a bit of petulant jealousy in Donna.
Donna: "Stargazing?"
Josh: "You were listening?"
Donna: "I'm right outside. (pause) Would you be going if she weren't attractive?"
Josh: "We'll never know."
Somehow gazing at the planets and nebulas on a chilly night stirs something in Josh, as he asks Moreau to tell him more about the plans for exploring Mars. Then he goes on to write up a policy statement in favor of more space exploration, waxing rhapsodic about the Voyager I spacecraft and its journey outside the solar system, carrying the music of Blind Willie Johnson.
Now, I admit, the idea that a song from a blind, penniless blues musician who died from pneumonia after sleeping in wet newspapers in the ruins of his burned-out home could actually someday be found and heard by interstellar aliens is almost literally mind-blowing. It's a bit hard to believe that Josh could change his attitude toward NASA so quickly, though - he's never been afraid to leave scorched earth behind when he's trying to get his priorities funded by defunding others (he got his own girlfriend fired with his pressure in Posse Comitatus and ended up causing a Senator to change parties in Constituency Of One, for goodness sake - a cute NASA administrator bats her eyes at him and he's ready to argue for billions for a Mars mission?).
Maybe it was the bribe, er, I mean, gift that Alex sends Josh:
It's also strange to me that Toby gets brought in on the nuclear test/attack on Iran stuff while Josh doesn't. Josh, as Leo's number two, has always been in the loop on pretty much everything going on. While it makes some sense, I guess, to have Toby included (his policymaking status is supposed to be going up, as we saw starting with Han, and as Leo says he'll need to have a statement ready once the bombs hit Iran), there's no reason to keep Josh in the dark.
CJ has very little to do in this episode, except - as I mentioned earlier - get shut out of any info on the nuclear test, the pending bombing run on Iran, or why the Israeli Prime Minister is called to the White House - which ought to really make her furious considering Leo and the President promised they wouldn't keep things from her again. She does get called out by a conservative TV show host, Taylor Reid, who attacks the administration as liars and calls CJ "chicken" for refusing to come on his show. CJ makes the convincing argument that it's hard for her to refuse to go on a show she's never heard of. There's nothing more to this yet, as the showrunners are setting up a situation for future episodes, but it does give us this cute moment when Toby comes in and plops down in CJ's office while she's watching a tape of the show. As CJ angrily punches the remote to turn off the TV, Toby exclaims:
Toby: "I want to see where he calls you a chicken."
Resulting in this glare of doom:
And Toby's backpedaling response:
 |
| "But it can wait." |
Items of great import - the spread of nuclear weapons, the survival of Israel in the Middle East, the exploration of space, the very fate of all mankind, CJ getting insulted by a TV talking head - they are all the subjects of this episode, but nothing gets settled. They all get talked about, talked around, acknowledged and put on a shelf, but that's it. Maybe that's why this all feels so ... unsatisfactory. Like a lot of Season 5.
Just wait until next episode, where we meet a young Leo shot down in Vietnam. Ooh, flashbacks! Is it like In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen?
No. No, it's not.
Tales Of Interest!
- It's the second consecutive episode that begins in the wee hours of the morning - in Slow News Day it was Toby unable to sleep while he thought about Social Security, here the President is awakened by a phone call about the nuclear test. Also, isn't it interesting that while President Bartlet throws on a fleece jacket to go to the Situation Room, Leo, Nancy, Secretary Hutchinson, and everyone else is nattily dressed in their professional attire at 3:30 in the morning.
- United States
- Russia (formerly the Soviet Union)
- United Kingdom
- France
- China
- India
- Pakistan
North Korea - a subject of concern in this episode - joined the nuclear club with a test in 2006. Meanwhile, Israel - who turns out to be the secret detonator in this episode - has never confirmed that it has nuclear weapons in its arsenal, but it is widely suspected that they could have had some nukes as early as 1966. Obviously any atmospheric or underground testing by Israel would likely be discovered immediately, just as we see in this storyline - which makes the entire plotline about the test ridiculous, as it's incredibly unlikely that Israel would actually perform such an atmospheric test. They'd know that the United States, Russia, and China would discover the blast almost instantly, the trail would lead back to Tel Aviv, and then ... there's a lot of enemies of Israel who might think it necessary to strike against the country's nuclear assets once it was proven they had weapons. Keeping their enemies guessing is about all that's keeping Syria, Iran, certainly Hezbollah, maybe even Saudi Arabia or Egypt from raining some bombs down on Israel.
From the Hans Bethe quote President Bartlet tells Prime Minister Zahavy:
"If we fight a war and win it with H-bombs, what history will remember is not the ideas we were fighting for, but the methods we used to accomplish them. These methods will be compared to the warfare of Genghis Khan, who brutally killed every last inhabitant of Persia."
Quotes
Josh: "Why am I even meeting with some geeks from NASA?"
Donna: "I'm sure they're not geeks. I'm sure they're not all geeks, and it's to discuss administration space priorities. Do we even have space priorities?"
Josh: "Exactly."
Carol: "It's him again."
CJ: "Him, who? Ben? Take a message."
Carol: "He gets any more persistent, they're going to open a case file. Can I just tell him you're not worth it?"
CJ: "We used to date, he knows better."
-----
Will: "Not that chestnut. Reducing bureaucracy, rewriting regulations into plain English ..."
Toby: "Extremely important."
Will: "And incredibly boring."
Toby: "As is the Vice President. A match made in heaven."
Will: "I don't think many theologians would stipulate Toby Ziegler's office as heaven."
Moreau: "The Orion Nebula. Gas and dust. Stars are born in that. Well, born and die, actually. Everything, every atom in our bodies comes from exploding stars. I guess Joni Mitchell was right. We are stardust."
Josh: "Or, put another way, nuclear waste."
-----
(Donna is less than impressed with Josh's pro-space statement, saying it needs 'inspiration')
Josh: "Voyager, in case it's ever encountered by extraterrestrials, is carrying photos of life on earth, greetings in 55 languages, and a collection of music from Gregorian chants to Chuck Berry. Including Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground by '20s bluesman Blind Willie Johnson, whose stepmother blinded him when he was seven by throwing lye in his eyes after his father had beat her for being with another man. He died, penniless, of pneumonia after sleeping bundled in wet newspapers in the ruins of his house that burned down. But his music just left the solar system."
Donna: "Okay, that got me."
-----
Toby: "We bomb, then they nuke, then we nuke. This is the best we've gamed this out? The fate of the world just hung on a Bingo Bob brainstorm. You want to live by those odds?"
Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)
- The CIA Director played by Ryan Cutrona (Hot Shots, Mad Men, 24) reappears, mainly to have eye-rolling fun poked at his overly cautious approach. This character appeared in Lord John Marbury and The Stormy Present (although a different person was introduced as the CIA Director in Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics).
- As mentioned above, Thomas Kopache reappears as Assistant Secretary of State Bob Slattery. This is his 12th appearance on the show.
- The recognizable Armin Mueller-Stahl (Oscar-nominated for Shine, Eastern Promises, Amerika) shows up as Israeli Prime Minister Efraim Zahavy. While this is his first appearance on the show, it will not be his last.
- I'll put this in callbacks/threads instead of things that actually exist - President Bartlet continues to rock the Notre Dame apparel, this time in a fleece jacket. Martin Sheen insisted that the character of Jed Bartlet be a Catholic and a graduate of Notre Dame.
- Another appearance by Martin Sheen's daughter Renée Estevez as Nancy.
- Steve the reporter shows up in the press room.
- Speaking of reporters, there's a mention of reporter and CJ's old flame Danny Concannon, who was a big part of Season 1, disappeared after The Portland Trip, showed up again at Christmas just after Bartlet's re-election with information about Sharif's killing, but hasn't been seen since 7A WF 83429.
- Speaking of old CJ flames, she's still getting phone calls from Ben, the Alaska park ranger. We learned in Constituency Of One that CJ lived with this guy for six months, they drifted apart, and now he's been calling (and being put off by CJ) ever since that episode.
- The snarky TV show host Taylor Reid is played by Jay Mohr (Jerry Maguire, Pay It Forward, Ghost Whisperer), which means we are going to see more of him than we get in this episode.
- Leo is still wearing his wedding band. His wife left in Five Votes Down, we saw the divorce papers come through in The Portland Trip, he went on several romantic dates with his lawyer Jordon Kendall between Christmas 2001 and at least late 2002 ... yet he won't give up that ring.
- Reid accuses CJ of being kept out of the loop by the President, which nags at her enough that she snaps at Toby -
CJ: "You mean the thing you had me shrug off yesterday as a non-story?"
Toby: "That was yesterday."
CJ: "I'm trying to decide if I'm gullible, an idiot, or being completely left out of the loop."
This reminds us of Lord John Marbury, when information about a border incursion between India and Pakistan was intentionally kept from her for fear she might leak the news to Danny Concannon. After her embarrassment in front of the press in that episode, it seems she was assured it would never happen again. Well, guess what ... it happens again right here. I think CJ has the right to be furious about this, even if it is about a highly sensitive national security topic like unexpected nuclear explosions.
- The Truman biography we see President Bartlet reading (Man Of The People by Alonzo L. Hamby) is the same book we saw Abbey reading in On The Day Before. Although it looks like she had the softcover version ...
DC location shots
- The shot of Alex's car driving her and Josh across the Arlington Memorial Bridge with the Lincoln Memorial in the background was shot on location.
- I would guess the stargazing scene was also shot somewhere in Virginia, rather than California. It's obviously cold, the camera crews (and at least Josh) were already there getting some location shots, so it probably was near DC somewhere.
- Josh with his telescope and the Capitol Dome in the background was in DC. My guess is that was shot on the higher elevation north of the Capitol in Northeast Washington, maybe around the National Arboretum. I'm thinking that columned building to the right of the shot is Union Station.
They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing
- There's quite a selection of space-based topics mentioned with things and people that do exist in reality.
- Josh talks about "telescopes that can't focus," which is a reference to the problems the Hubble Space Telescope encountered soon after it went into operation, as well as the shuttle missions used to correct those focusing problems.
- Josh also mentions "planetary probes that crashed because engineers mixed up meters and feet" which actually happened with the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999.
- Of course both the Hubble Space Telescope and the Webb Space Telescope are referred to. The Webb is kind of interesting, given the contract for its construction had just been granted less than a year before this episode aired, with a proposed launch date in 2011. Obviously that didn't happen - the telescope finally launched in 2021 and images from that have just started being revealed to the public in the second half of 2022.
- Neil Armstrong walking on the moon gets a shoutout, as well as the International Star Registry, the International Space Station, and Galileo.
- Josh waxes eloquently to Donna about the Voyager I probe, how it just left the solar system (which actually occurred in 2012, so it hadn't really happened at the time Josh was talking to Donna), and some of the items included on the spacecraft, which does include recordings of many songs and greetings from humans - yes, music by Chuck Berry and Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground by Blind Willie Johnson is traveling out there right now somewhere beyond our solar system.
- The New York Times is mentioned.
- There's a quick reference to (Christopher) Columbus. We also get a shoutout to Joni Mitchell and her song Woodstock ("We are stardust").
- There's also a lot of references to people and events related to the development of nuclear weapons.
- The Iranian ambassador talks about (Albert) Einstein, (Robert) Oppenheimer, and (Edward) Teller.
- President Bartlet muses about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, and Charley asks him if he'd make the same decision as Truman did.
- The President wonders if Truman's desire to show off America's atomic power to Stalin was as much of a motivation in dropping the bombs as staving off a costly invasion of Japan.
- President Bartlet evokes (Leo) Szilard and Hans Bethe in his discussion with Prime Minister Zahavy.
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