Wednesday, October 5, 2022

An Khe - TWW S5E14







Original airdate: February 18, 2004

Written by: John Wells (3)  

Directed by: Alex Graves (19)

Synopsis
  • Leo's loyalty to a longtime friend is tested by an unexpected revelation. Josh's opposition to a Republican tax credit for stay-at-home mothers is tested by Ryan and Will. Abbey is ready to put her medical experience back to work by volunteering at a free clinic. CJ goes on the air to parry with a conservative TV show host ... and we finally get a look at the mysterious park ranger Ben.


"I won't desert him, Mr. President." 



Loyalty has always been a big underlying theme of The West Wing. From Pilot, where Josh's near career-ruining comment on TV was forgiven by the President, to Let Bartlet Be Bartlet where the entire staff pledged themselves as serving "at the pleasure of the President," to Noël where Leo famously tells Josh, "As long as I got a job, you got a job," to the tale of Bartlet For America where President Bartlet's loyalty to Leo (and the reverse) is on display ... well, you get it, it's everywhere you look.

But rarely has loyalty been so quite so deep or quite so damaged as we see in this episode. After all, Leo literally owes his life and his freedom to his friend and former flying partner Ken O'Neal, as we see in the Vietnam flashbacks. And speaking of the flashbacks - why are they in this episode anyway? They don't actually serve any purpose; the same story we see in those flashbacks is recounted by Leo in his emotional final scene with the President. In general, with the visual arts I'm a fan of showing, not telling, but in this instance we just get both, and in the Sorkin-era West Wing we'd have no gratuitous flashback scenes that only cover ground we've been over already.

Although I guess it does give us the cool visual of Leo and O'Neal punching out of their damaged fighter jet:



After being shot down in enemy territory, O'Neal patched Leo's wounds, refused to leave him behind in order to save himself, and physically carried the barely conscious Leo to safety and eventual rescue. Back in the United States O'Neal gave Leo a job at his aviation firm, and the two remain close friends 35 years later (to hear Leo call him "the finest man I have ever had the great privilege to call my friend" is really powerful for us to hear, knowing the extremely close personal relationship we already know Leo has with Jed).

So when O'Neal mentions some troubles his company, Mueller-Wright, is having with a government contract, Leo is ready to do what he can to help, even after O'Neal insists he do nothing. He sends Josh to bring up the subject with the Republican Senator leading the Oversight Committee, who is holding up approval of the contract. Senator Hunt gruffly dismisses Josh, which causes him to reach out to a Democratic member of the committee to try to work things from that side.

As Leo steps in to try to twist Senator Hunt's arm, Josh discovers from the other Senator that there are serious, well-founded problems with Mueller-Wright's conduct in the procurement process. Knowing there's actually a big issue there, and also knowing Leo's personal connection to O'Neal and Mueller-Wright, both Josh and the President try to talk Leo down from getting involved.

Leo refuses to believe it until O'Neal admits the truth.
O'Neal: "You can't testify."

Leo: "If it comes to that, I can handle Hunt."

O'Neal: "You can't testify. I'm going to take the Fifth."

Which leads Leo to press his friend further:

Leo: "Why not do the AOA? The Army wants the choppers. What, were they going to buy them from the French?"

O'Neal: "We had to have the contract. I'm under a lot of pressure from my board. That Hollander merger was a disaster and the Navy left us holding the bag on the Warrior III missile system."

And the point is made.

Leo: "This was about money?" 

Leo's world gets rocked. His dear friend, the man who literally saved his life in Vietnam, the man with whom he worked alongside for years, has pulled strings and cheated the rules in order to win a government contract. It's a betrayal not only of the country and the rules of fairness, but also a betrayal of Leo himself.

The realization leads to an emotional discussion between Leo and the President, Leo's eyes brimming with tears as he laments the moral fall of his trusted friend, wondering how O'Neal (and, by extension, himself) could have betrayed the legacies of all those soldiers who fought and died for American ideals. 


President Bartlet tries to reassure Leo.
President: "Corruptio optimi pessima. 'Corruption of the best is the worst.' You've done more, much more, all on your own to honor their sacrifice, Leo. They'd be as proud to know you as I am."
And leading to what I think is an inspired final shot, Leo in his chair, wrapped up in memories and sadness, and the President, who did what he could to comfort him, standing and reflecting in the Oval Office, the wintry evening sunlight pouring through the windows.


A companion storyline to Leo and O'Neal, and their flashback tale of evasion and rescue in the jungles of Vietnam, plays out in North Korea. A military reconnaissance aircraft has gone down in the sea off the coast of North Korea, and the crew has made it to land but needs to be rescued. A military mission onto North Korean territory brings the risk of inciting a major conflict, as it would be regarded as an act of war. 

A high-risk plan to get the crew out secretly is developed, the President gives the go-ahead, and it all goes according to plan - except for one member of the rescue team who dies during the parachute jump. Obviously, this story serves pretty much only as a modern-day companion to the tale of Leo and O'Neal, with Leo's pondering of the sacrifices made by the soldiers and pilots to save them in Vietnam coupled with the sacrifices - and in one case, the ultimate sacrifice - made by the Navy rescue team in North Korea, as well as what the government (and Leo, Jed, and O'Neal personally) owe to those making the sacrifices. 

In other news, Josh is on the warpath against a Republican plan to offer tax credits to stay-at-home mothers. This idea in general goes against the typical Democratic approach of trying to make things easier for parents who want to work, instead of helping them stay home and out of the workforce. However, both Will and Ryan (Josh's intern) study the proposal and think there might be something positive to it.

(I think this is yet another effort by John Wells and the post-Sorkin production team to try to balance the political viewpoint of the show. The usual liberal-leaning positions of the Bartlet administration depicted on the show over the first four seasons brought criticism from some conservatives, and once Sorkin left it's fairly easy to see where the Wells team made some plot adjustments in an attempt to show that Republicans can have good ideas, too.)

Josh takes Ryan along on his briefing with the President, and it goes a little off the rails:
President: "What's the tax benefit for the typical family?"

Josh: "About $100 a year."

Ryan (speaking up): "Closer to $300. But that's not the point. A typical family of four making $68,000 can still get $1200 in child care credits if the wife decides to work, but if she wants to stay home with the kids we won't help."

President: "Who's this?"

Josh: "Ryan Pierce. He's interning in my office for a few months ..."

President: "Pierce?"

Josh: "... maybe less."

Ryan goes on to offer the President a pathway to negotiate around both tax credits for working families and those who choose to stay at home, which makes Josh a little bit miffed by the intern stepping on his toes. 

Ryan: "He asked a question."

Josh: "And I was answering it."

Ryan: "Incorrectly."

Josh: "You work for me, you don't correct me in front of the President."

Ryan: "Even when you're giving him wrong information?"

Josh: "Yes." 

Meanwhile, CJ finally agrees with Toby and Josh that she needs to go on Taylor Reid's TV show, after he had called her a "chicken" in the previous episode for ducking his invitations (which, in fact, had never been issued). She appears, gets flustered at first by Reid's rapid-fire questions and changing of the subject, but eventually gets in her groove and enjoys the experience.

She enjoys it so much that she stays at the studio longer than planned, missing out on the visit from her ex-beau and current park ranger Ben. But what we do get is one of the longest, slowest, most drawn-out reveal scenes in show history.

We start with Carol, having a discussion with the unseen Ben in her office. The camera slowly inches its way into the doorway.

After an interminably long camera push in, it finally edges around the corner to reveal ... this guy.

I don't think the character or the show has earned this kind of tease. It's a blatant ploy to the CJ/romance fans among the viewers, not to mention the fact that Ben himself and his constant phone calls to CJ have been an ongoing story since Constituency Of One which aired five months previously. I mean, okay ... this old college flame of CJ's is finally here to see her, Carol has been ga-ga over the guys' voice and persistence for weeks, we get it ... why do we take what seems like a few more weeks just to slowly push the camera around the door to get a look at him? It's a cheap gag, with hardly any payoff. I mean, Brian Kerwin's a handsome enough actor, but is he really a Robert-Redford's-hair-in-The-Way-We-Were looker?

And CJ doesn't even connect with him this time! Since she's spent way too long sparring with Reid on TV, Ben leaves before she gets back. Although the photograph and note he leaves for her gives her a smile:


CJ is also taken aback when Abbey stops by to give her a heads-up about her plans to volunteer at a free clinic, helping to give vaccinations to low-income toddlers. 


It's a reversal of her decision in Dead Irish Writers to voluntarily give up her medical license as long as Jed remains President, a way to sidestep the political ramifications of her complicity in Jed's coverup of his multiple sclerosis during his first campaign. Of course her plan to get back to medicine (and go back on her word) is going to have some blowback from the press, and probably some of the President's political adversaries, but that will wait for another episode.

It's loyalty, and the betrayal of it, that's the overriding theme of this episode. John Spencer's performance, particularly in that final conversation with the President, helped to earn him a fourth Supporting Actor Emmy nomination, and it's well-earned ... but the episode as a whole is not quite all it could have been.

 


Tales Of Interest!

- The storyline of corruption at a military contractor - including the granting of favors to a military procurement official after they helped the firm land a contract, and even the notion of an Arizona Senator heading an investigation - is based on real events. In 2002 Air Force procurement official Darleen Druyun recommended the Air Force lease brand new tanker aircraft from Boeing, bypassing the usual competitive-bid process while also costing the government more than expected. At the same time she was negotiating with Boeing for jobs for herself, her daughter, and her daughter's fiancé. Arizona Senator John McCain led the investigation into the scheme, similar to Arizona Senator Matt Hunt in this episode. Druyun ended up serving a nine-month jail sentence, Boeing's chief financial officer served four months, and both the chief executive officer of Boeing and the Secretary of the Air Force ended up resigning because of the scandal. 

- I do appreciate how a plot point like "an AOA" can be a serious issue in the story, the lack of which in a contract proposal can kick off a congressional investigation, yet the writers of the show feel no need to explain to us what an "AOA" actually is. I like it! Leo and Josh and Senator Hunt all know what it means, they have no need to define it just for us viewers, it's way more realistic to just leave it as-is. Frankly, the definition of it isn't important to us or the story, as long as we understand the fact that it's missing is a serious problem. 

Anyway, what an AOA is is an Analysis of Alternatives, required for military contract proposals as a way to show the contractor has looked at more than one way of accomplishing the contract requirements. It's intended to prove that the method proposed is the most effective, the most suitable, and has the lowest life-cycle costs of any other alternative. Obviously leaving that step out could mean the contractor is padding their price or including unnecessary, additional costs in their proposal.

- There's a mysterious "Mr. Thomas" meeting with the President in the Oval Office while Toby and Josh anxiously await their chance to go in. The actor is purposely shot to avoid seeing his face. It almost makes the viewer think this is setting up a later surprise appearance by "Mr. Thomas," or maybe it's an Easter egg with someone connected to the show, or perhaps even it's a viewer who won a contest to appear onscreen. Nope. None of that. It's just actor Allan Kolman, who's appeared on a wide range of TV shows and movies since the 1970s, often playing a character of Russian background. I have no idea why this scene was filmed in such an obviously framed way to avoid showing his face.



- John Spencer was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for this episode and the upcoming Memorial Day. It was his fourth and final nomination for the award, with one win for Bartlet For America/We Killed Yamamoto in Season 3. This year's Emmy went to Michael Imperioli for The Sopranos.

- Why'd They Come Up With An Khe?
Part of the radio chatter in the Vietnam fighter scene at the opening of the episode includes "Raven One approaching An Khe." While An Khe was an area of strategic importance during the Vietnam War, it was located in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam, well south of the DMZ/border with North Vietnam and nowhere near Hanoi (Josh tells Charlie that Leo had been shot down "over Hanoi," but An Khe is over 500 miles south of Hanoi).



Quotes    
Jed: "I don't need a portrait."

Abbey: "Of course you do."

Jed: "What, me with my Irish wolfhound gazing with portent out over the Potomac?"

Abbey: "You don't have an Irish wolfhound."

Jed: "My point exactly."

[...]

Jed: "And when am I supposed to find time to sit for some cut-rate Rubens while he angles me just so to catch the afternoon light?"

Abbey: "You do know it's not a nude, right?" 

-----

Carol: "And Toby and Josh are in your office."

CJ: "What do they want?"

Carol: "To make fun of you, I think."

CJ: "And you let them in?"

Carol: "And got them coffee."  

----- 

Show assistant: "Address Taylor, not the camera. If he points to the Truth Meter --"

CJ: "The Truth Meter? Am I on a game show?"

Show assistant: "If he points to the Truth Meter keep looking at Taylor."

CJ: "If he dunks me in a river and I float, does that mean I'm a witch?" 

-----

Toby: "Can I get a ballpark on how much longer it's going to be? An era, a Tchaikovsky symphony, a brief ice age perhaps?"

Debbie: "You have some food stuck in your beard." 

  



Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)
  • Leo's friend and former Vietnam War flying partner Ken O'Neal is played by Jeffrey DeMunn, another of those actors whom you know the face but not necessarily the name (The Green Mile, The Walking Dead, The Shawshank Redemption, Law & Order, etc, etc).

  • Ryan Pierce, Josh's intern played by Jesse Bradford, returns for the first time since Disaster Relief. We discover he's not only the great-great (-great?) grandson of former President Franklin Pierce as we were told earlier, but he's also the nephew of a current Senator - which might help explain the mysterious phone call he makes to a Congressman in Han that helps out Josh in his quest for a unanimous vote confirming Vice President Russell.

  • The wonderful character actor Philip Baker Hall (you've seen him everywhere, from Secret Honor to Magnolia to the memorable library cop in Seinfeld) plays Senator Matt Hunt. Hall died just a few months prior to this post, in June of 2022.

  • We finally get a look at Ben, CJ's old boyfriend and current Alaska park ranger. He's played by Brian Kerwin (BJ And The Bear, One Life To Live, 27 Dresses).

  • Debbie Fiderer is back - haven't seen her around since Christmas and Abu El Banat - but we're also reminded (since Ryan has reappeared) that Toby's new assistant Rena hasn't popped up for a couple of episodes.
  • After a quick glimpse of the comedian and actor Jay Mohr as Taylor Reid on a TV screen in the previous episode, here's more of him hammering CJ with rapid-fire questions on his show. He represents any number of conservative media hosts of the early 2000s, from Rush Limbaugh to Bill O'Reilly to Sean Hannity.

  • In both War Crimes and Red Haven's On Fire we are told that Leo flew F-105s for the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing. In this episode's flashback scene, we see him wearing a patch for the 333rd Fighter Squadron (both units did in fact fly F-105s out of Thailand during the Vietnam War). Perhaps he was reassigned? In War Crimes a mission he flew in September 1966 is mentioned; in this episode Leo says he's known Ken O'Neal for "35 years," which would be around 1969 (although he could certainly be rounding off that number).


  • Leo's still wearing his wedding ring - we get a good look at it when he hugs Ken at the Chicago banquet. Leo's wife left him in Five Votes Down, the divorce became final in The Portland Trip, and even though he's had an on-and-off relationship with attorney Jordon Kendall in 2001 and 2002 he still wears that ring. It reminds us of Toby's wedding ring, an acting choice Richard Schiff made on his own after being cast in the role (his backstory was that Toby was a widower, which helped explain his dour demeanor). After Aaron Sorkin noticed Toby was wearing a wedding ring, he came up with an ex-wife Congresswoman backstory and got Rep. Andy Wyatt involved in several episodes. At some point in the recent past - perhaps after Andy conclusively turned down his request to remarry him in Commencement - he stopped wearing the ring.
  • (Speaking of which, we haven't heard much about the twins Molly and Huck lately. In Twenty Five Toby pledged his undying fatherly love and devotion to the twins, which surprised him given his feelings about his worth as a father before they were born. Well ... not much devotion since, given the new show-writing staff and all.)
  • The prospect of American military personnel trapped in North Korean territory - and a potential mission to save them - was the topic of Gone Quiet.
  • Abbey's return to medicine, volunteering at a free clinic, reminds us of her decision to give up her license in Dead Irish Writers. Her quote from that episode also serves to back up CJ's concern about Abbey possibly going back on her word, despite Abbey's assurance that that's not what she meant.
Abbey (from Dead Irish Writers): "I'm going to voluntarily forfeit my license for the duration of our stay in the White House."

Abbey (in this episode): "I voluntarily chose to stop practicing, CJ. And now I'm choosing to give a few underprivileged toddlers vaccinations. I never said I was hanging up my stethoscope for good." 

  • Likewise, Reid uses Abbey's decision to volunteer as a way to bring up her role in covering up President Bartlet's health condition. We discovered Jed suffered from multiple sclerosis in He Shall, From Time To Time ... and the story of how that was kept from the voters and the political/electoral fallout from that has resonated ever since, especially at the end of Season 2. 
  • We learn a bit more about CJ and Ben. She told us in Constituency Of One that they'd lived together for six months, but when they tried to reconnect later they always quickly got on each other's nerves. He's been calling her office since that episode, and we eventually discovered he's a National Park Ranger in Alaska. Now we find out he's transferring to the Washington area, that he went to the University of California with CJ, and their time living together was around or perhaps immediately after their college years. We also learn he was married but is now single again.


DC location shots    
  • The shot of a snowy hotel, supposedly in Chicago, is ... I don't know where for certain. Somewhere snowy! I know in later seasons the show often got exterior/location shots in Canada and around Toronto, which was a cheaper place to film, but I couldn't find any information about this particular shot.

  • The scene between Ken O'Neal and Leo along the Tidal Basin with the Jefferson Memorial in the background was obviously shot on location. It was also pretty cold, as the Tidal Basin is frozen over. This is almost the exact same place where we saw Toby and his ex-wife Andy have a picnic meeting in Mandatory Minimums. 

Scene from Mandatory Minimums




They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    
  • Pop culture references are made to Jimmy Olson (the Daily Planet photographer in the Superman comics), Wilma Flintstone (from The Flintstones TV series), Robert Redford's hair in The Way We Were, and the devious Eve Harrington (from the movie All About Eve). We also get a mention of McNuggets from CJ, as well as a reference to Tyson Foods in regards to the Taylor Reid/chicken incident.
  • The Navy aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson and the missile cruiser USS Cowpens are discussed in the Situation Room. We also hear about the European aviation company Airbus being a competitor of Mueller-Wright for the military helicopter contract.



End credits freeze frame: The President and Leo in the Situation Room awaiting word on the rescue attempt.







Previous episode: The Warfare Of Genghis Khan
Next episode: Full Disclosure

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