Original airdate: October 27, 2004
Written by: John Wells (5)
Directed by: Alex Graves (22)
Synopsis
- Arab-Israeli negotiations brokered by President Bartlet appear to hit a dead end, until a half-remembered book and a decision to provide American peacekeeping troops clinches a deal. Jed and Leo continue to clash over the President's decisions, leading to a dramatic turn of events with shattering changes to careers and lives.
This is all about Jed and Leo.
President: "You got a best friend?"
Tribby: "Yes, sir."
President: "Is he smarter than you?"
Tribby: "Yes, sir."
President: "Would you trust him with your life?"
Tribby: "Yes, sir."
President: "There's your Chief of Staff."
Have these two had disagreements in the past? Of course, they must have, although we haven't seen a lot of that. Leo looks at his role as providing the best advice and counsel he can, helping to guide the President through the political thickets of leadership, but knowing the ultimate decision will come from Jed. He even says as much to Kate in the previous episode, after chewing Kate out for just doing her job in the Situation Room and making her feel like she needs to apologize for that. What's kind of strange about this arc that began in Gaza is how Leo seems to think of himself and his advice differently now, somehow. Leo does appear to have everyone else on his side, from the military to Toby to Will to almost all of the other White House advisors, as they press for a strong military response to the terrorist killing of four Americans, including two congressmen and the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. President Bartlet is reluctant to use force, reluctant to harm innocent civilians, reluctant to fall into what he sees as the trap of an overly aggressive retaliation that would only spur even more terror threats against the United States within its own borders. As Kate Harper steps into the void, following the President's lead to think outside the box and come up with options that don't include a military strike, Leo feels a little bit threatened, I think. He seems to think the President is choosing to ignore his advice, instead of listening, considering, and choosing a different path.
We saw that in Memorial Day, when Jed dismissed Leo in the middle of a sentence, the President's mind made up about trying Makharat's back-channel gambit. We saw it in NSF Thurmont, as Leo and Jed got involved in an Oval Office shouting match, with the President ominously responding "Or what?" to Leo's demand that he give the order for airstrikes. We saw it again as the Oval Office door was shut in Leo's face, the President concerned that his attendance in the meeting with the Israelis might give off mixed signals. We got to see a lot of shocked looks on Leo's face, as if he couldn't comprehend that Jed might decide to go in a different direction than what Leo advised.
I mean - surely that's happened before! Leo even made that point to Kate, more than once, that their role as advisors is to provide as many of the facts and as much of the course they think is prudent as they possibly can, so that the President can make the most informed decision. But now Leo is stuck firmly in the position that the only possible path is military force, and he's adamant that any other course of action is futile and worthless to pursue.
Sorry about that long preamble, but that sets the stage for where we are now. The President's efforts, led mostly by ideas provided by Kate, have led to a summit at Camp David with Israeli Prime Minister Zahavy, Chairman Farad of the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian Prime Minister Makharat. Tellingly, Leo has been left behind in the White House, not included on the negotiation team and not a part of the group giving the President guidance on the talks. This comes as a surprise to many: CJ was a bit stunned to hear Leo was in his office and not at Camp David, and when Josh returns from caring for Donna in Germany he's similarly taken aback.
The Camp David talks are complicated. The President decides they'll start with four topics: security for Israel after they withdraw from their occupied territories; disposition of the Israeli settlements in Palestinian land; the right of return for Palestinian refugees forced out of their homes; and a requirement for Palestinian leaders to dismantle terrorist groups. The biggest issue, the status of Jerusalem and the Muslim holy sites there, are tabled for the moment - even though no outcome is possible without some kind of agreement on that topic.
Most of the episode is taken up with how these four topics are addressed. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians seem willing to budge on any of them, but Kate, Toby, Will, and Josh come up with some daring ideas, and by splitting up Zahavy and his Defense Minister, by using Farad's apparent crush on Kate ("I think he likes me"), and by striking just the right balancing act on the negotiating high wire, they appear to get a framework together on those issues.
We also get a nicely composed, beautifully shot Friday evening montage between the Palestinians praying to Mecca and the Israeli shabbat meal.
Along with some dialogue about how the Jews and the Arabs really aren't all that different.
Kate: "The tragedy is that the Palestinians and the Jews are so much alike."
Charlie: "How's that?"
Kate: "All through history no one's wanted either of them."
But as the negotiating threads start to pull together, it takes Abbey to knock some sense into Jed's head and bring Leo up to join the team.
 |
| "Jed ... where's Leo?" |
(Very reminiscent of Shutdown, with Abbey returning from her New Hampshire self-exile in the midst of a total breakdown of communication between the White House and Congress, only to ask Jed, "Where's Josh?")
Leo has some good ideas - it was his notion to split up Zahavy and Defense Minister Massar - but it also looks like the stress of the past week or so is really wearing him down. The leftover taquitos he and Will found in the kitchen one night didn't help, but there's something else serious going on with Leo's health.
The Jerusalem issue is the final point, and it's going nowhere. Zahavy emphatically tells President Bartlet that he hasn't been listening, Israel will never agree to give up sovereignty to any part of Jerusalem, and despite the progress they've made on the other topics he's going home. As the White House group gathers in the wee hours of early Sunday morning to draw up a public announcement of their failure, Kate - of course it's Kate - has a brainstorm.
Kate: "It's a search for two freedoms - for Israel, the freedom from terror; for the Palestinians, the freedom from Israel. That's what Efram Nachum called it. His book on the Six-Day War was pretty ..."
(she trails off, a light bulb starting to glow in her mind. Not literally, but this shot makes it look like it is)
Josh: "What? Boring? Overwritten?"
Kate: "Find Toby and Will. I'll meet you at Aspen."
She's remembered that in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967 Israel offered the Palestinians a deal whereby they could have a sort of diplomatic control over Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem in exchange for peacekeeping troops in Palestinian territory. If they were willing then, why not now?
The sticking point, though, is the peacekeeping troops. Israel would never accept the United Nations providing them - the only possible way would be with American troops. Another late-night meeting in the Aspen cabin is convened ... and we see Leo, roused out of bed, looking absolutely terrible as he continues to deal with the stress and his own hidden health concerns.
Once Leo arrives at the meeting, he's struck by the direction they are heading.
Josh: "Is this really our job? Sending American teenagers into that breach?"
Leo (entering): "What are we talking about?"
Will: "About putting an American peacekeeping force in the territories."
Leo: "And we think that's a good idea?"
Again, as we've seen over the past few episodes, President Bartlet takes in the advice and the opinions, and makes a decision.
President: "It shouldn't be our job, but no one else can do it."
Leo is finally at his breaking point over Jed's seeming obsession to achieve a peaceful outcome, no matter the threat to American lives or his political legacy.
Leo: "Can I speak to you privately for a moment?"
Outside, the fateful discussion. The President remains firm in his direction, while Leo continues to push for a less radical, less dangerous option. They are at loggerheads, and for the first time in this relationship, there seems to be no pathway out.
Leo: "My counsel is no longer of use to you. Perhaps it's time --"
President: "So, if I disagree with your advice you have to threaten me."
Leo: "This is your own League of Nations. And it'll ruin you like it ruined Wilson."
(pause)
President: "Okay. I'll need your successor in place before you leave."
Leo dared the President to take his resignation. Jed called his bluff. Leo's time as Chief of Staff is over.
Josh steps out of the cabin to make sure things are all right. He notices Leo doesn't look so good - unsteady, sweaty, shaken.
Leo brushes Josh off; he just needs some air. He heads off into the woods, alone, adrift ... and dramatically, about to suffer a devastating heart attack.
He collapses to the ground. No one knows he's there.
This leads us to couple of striking images provided by director Alex Graves, images that have stuck in my mind for 20 years. First, after Leo's collapse, a masterful crossfade of images from Leo prostrate in the woods to a pensive, heavy-hearted closeup of President Bartlet, who's basically just fired one of his oldest friends and confidants.
Then, as the wrapup of the summit is concluded, with preparations for an afternoon announcement of the talks' success, everyone from all the delegations packs up to leave Camp David. As Josh climbs into a vehicle, he mentions he hasn't seen Leo, thinking he must have headed back to DC earlier. Josh dials Leo's cell phone. Bringing us that final, memorable image ... as Marine One flies over the woods, President Bartlet on board, the camera pans down to the empty, lonely woods, with the sound of Leo's phone ringing and ringing, unanswered.
Tales Of Interest!
- Timeline shenanigans - all the events we see here are following immediately on the heels of what happened at the end of Season 5, with that final episode of that season set on Memorial Day, 2004. The back-and-forth between Farad, Zahavy, and President Bartlet shown in NSF Thurmont just covered a few days after that, as well as Donna's recovery in Germany and her urgent blood-clot surgery. This episode depicts five days at Camp David, with Day Three being a Friday ... that would have to be Friday, June 4, following Memorial Day. (You could stretch that a week to Friday, June 11, I suppose, but that really doesn't align with how the events of Memorial Day and NSF Thurmont are playing out.) Day Five, which was Leo's early-morning heart attack followed by the announcement of a 2:00 pm press conference on the outcome of the peace talks, would then have been Sunday, June 6 (or, again, June 13 at the latest).
"The Birnam Wood" is a reference from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, as the witches prophesy "Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him." Macbeth takes this literally, in that a forest could never pull up its roots and move against his castle, thus his rule as king of Scotland will never be overthrown.
As witches' prophecies often turn out, though, they were being intentionally misleading. When the army led by Macduff marches against Macbeth, they cut down tree branches from Birnam Wood to hide their numbers behind the branches as they advance - so Birnam Wood did, indeed, come to Dunsinane.
But why is this the episode title? Which, by the way, is never actually spoken during the episode ... I think pretty much every previous West Wing episode title was heard somewhere in the dialogue of the show, but not this one. Is the phrase illustrating an occurrence that none of our characters could have possibly foreseen, i.e., the dramatic split between President Bartlet and Leo? Or, for another unexpected plot twist, Prime Minister Zahavy and Chairman Farad coming to an actual agreement in the peace talks? Or is it just a literal reference to the forests around Camp David where the episode takes place, and where Leo is left in the woods undiscovered after his heart attack as the others head back to Washington? Maybe it's some of all of that.
Quotes
CJ: "CNN's got the Speaker on an endless loop like a ... Pink Floyd concert. It's their way of punishing us for cutting off access to Camp David."
Leo: "Natives restless?"
CJ: "There might be a mutiny afoot. I heard a couple of them plotting to throw our Mr. Coffees into the Potomac."
Leo: "We're losing the media war. I want us on the morning shows, Crossfire, Dateline, book This Old House if we can figure out an angle."
CJ: "Who goes?"
Leo: "You, me, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Fishery Exploitation, I don't care. We've got to get our message out."
CJ: "What is our message?"
Leo: "'Shut up while we're trying to get them to stop killing each other.'"
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Massar: "I've always wanted to try skeet shooting. Do you shoot often?"
Toby: "Yeah. You know, once or twice a week, when it's in season."
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President: "We may just have our tennis match. (Leo stands silently) You don't think so?"
Leo: "We haven't got to the tough part."
President: "We're making progress."
Leo: "Yes, sir, you are. And that's laudable."
President (scoffing): "Laudable. You make it sound like an honorarium from some two-bit chiropractic college in Arizona."
-----
(as the staffers head for the Suburbans to drive back to DC)
Will (to Kate): "No round trip on Marine One?"
Kate (who mentioned in the previous episode that she gets airsick in helicopters): "Yeah, it's a shame."
Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)
- As this is really a carryover episode from last week, it's not a big surprise to see Armin Mueller-Stahl back as Israeli Prime Minister Zahavy.
- The President, Josh, Toby, Will, and Charlie playing basketball at Camp David reminds us of The Crackpots And These Women, which opened with the President and his staffers shooting some hoops on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House.
- Likewise, the image of Toby being blasted back off his feet by the shotgun is a callback to CJ getting blasted off her feet when she fired Simon Donovan's handgun at the firing range in We Killed Yamamoto.
- We know Toby is a Brooklyn native (particularly from Holy Night) and a New York Yankees fan. He's wearing a Yankees shirt to play basketball.
- Taylor Reid's TV show gets a mention, as Carol tells CJ she's been booked to appear. We saw parts of Reid's show several times between The Warfare Of Genghis Khan and Full Disclosure, with CJ seeming to enjoy her times on the air debating with the conservative TV host Reid (played by Jay Mohr).
- Abbey's comment of "Where's Leo?" to Jed is an echo of her return to the White House from New Hampshire in Shutdown when she asked, "Where's Josh?"
- Katie is the only regular White House reporter seen in this episode.
- When Josh and Toby are tossing a football around and debating the fate of the Jews trying to flee 1938 Germany as well as the administration going after the Ku Klux Klan today (which was a topic of The Midterms, actually), Toby scoffs at Josh, "What, now suddenly you're Jewish? I don't remember seeing you at temple." In Six Meetings Before Lunch, when Josh was debating slavery reparations with Jeff Breckenridge, we are shown a photograph of Josh's grandfather, who survived being a prisoner at the Birkenau concentration camp during World War II. Even before that, in Pilot, Josh is clearly described as Jewish by Toby, who says to Josh after a snide remark by Mary Marsh, "She meant Jewish. When she said, 'New York sense of humor,' she was talking about you and me." I suppose you could take Toby's comment as a satiric slam at a non-observant Josh, since we have seen in Take This Sabbath Day that observant Toby does indeed go to temple ... but it just doesn't hit right.
- If you know, you know ... Leo's heart attack turned out to have a tragic real-life parallel in the future with John Spencer.
DC location shots
- As in the previous episode, the Camp David scenes were set at ThorpeWood, a nonprofit retreat and event center located in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains. It's actually not very far from the real Camp David, so the scenery fits.
- The skeet-shooting scene with Toby and Defense Minister Massar was filmed at Quiet Waters Park, south of Annapolis, at about the same time as the Annapolis scenes of Admiral Fitzwallace's funeral were filmed for NSF Thurmont. This park is actually about 90 miles away from the ThorpeWood/Camp David area.
- Here's a couple of maps of the DC/Maryland area.
They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing
- The CNN logo gets on screen.
- Also in all the talk about news coverage we hear mentions of TV shows Crossfire, Dateline, Meet The Press, the Al-Jazeera network, magazines Time and Newsweek, the Washington Post newspaper ... plus This Old House.
- As I told you in the previous entry, the USS Abraham Lincoln (named by General Alexander) is a real US Navy aircraft carrier.
- CJ compares CNN's obsession with Speaker Haffley to a Pink Floyd concert. She also mentions the game Twister.
- The Gallup polling company gets a shout-out in the conversations about how many Palestinians would actually take Israel up on the right to return.
- Apparently Kate's quote about "It's a search for two freedoms" from the Efram Nachum book about the Six-Day War was fictional, as was the book and the author. I haven't found any reference to an actual book by an author of that name. That must mean John Wells came up with the Palestinian-authority-over-Muslim-holy-sites-in-Jerusalem gambit.
- Leo says the President's use of American peacekeeping troops in the occupied territories will be his League of Nations, and will ruin him like the League ruined President Wilson.
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