In The Room - TWW S6E8

 

Original airdate: December 8, 2004

Written by: Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. (11)

Directed by: Alex Graves (24)

Synopsis

• A magic trick involving the U.S. flag at Zoey's birthday party causes a small media crisis. President Bartlet's MS worsens during his trip to China for the summit. A surprise entry joins the Republican presidential race, and Josh considers his options as the Democratic field starts to tighten.
  

"What's the difference?" 

There's a wealth of pull-quotes in this episode that I could use at the top of this post. There's a lot packed into this 42 minutes of TV drama, from slowly growing complaints about a "flag burning" magic trick in the White House to a President getting sicker with a progressive disease to an important economic summit with China to a shakeup in the field for the coming presidential race to Donna getting stiffed (again) on her request to talk to Josh about her future to Josh considering what he wants with his own future. So maybe I'll just take some of those quotes out to illustrate each section as I go along.

 

We start with Penn and Teller. The famous magicians are performing at Zoey's private birthday party in the East Room, and to finish the show with a flourish they do an illusion to spotlight the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment, and the freedoms this nation enjoys under them. And they do it in a dramatic way, first respectfully folding up an American flag before stuffing it into a rolled-up Bill of Rights:

 

 Then making the flag disappear in a burst of flame.

Toby and Josh watch, open-mouthed, as Toby says, "Did they just burn an American flag ... in the White House?" Well, of course they didn't, it's a magical illusion (you can actually see the opportunity for the flag to be removed from the tube when Penn holds it under his arm), but you know how people talk, and the story leaks to the media.

The media love non-issue divisive stories like this, and the questions start to take attention away from the China summit that's happening in just a day or two. CJ puts Josh on the case, trying to get a statement from Penn and Teller admitting they didn't actually burn a flag, but of course they're not revealing anything that might indicate they didn't do what it looked like they did ... and doing so would undermine the entire point of the trick in the first place.

Penn: "You tell me, Charlie, did we burn a flag, or did we just ... vanish a flag in a patriotic flash of fireworks?"

Charlie: "Don't know."

Penn: "What's the difference?"

Josh: "Well, there's a big difference politically."

Penn: "Why? I mean, what if we burned a flag, not in protest, but in celebration of the very freedoms that allow us to burn a flag, the freedoms that everyone who has ever worked in this magnificent building has pledged to preserve and protect?"

President Bartlet, as well, is adamant he's not going to give the story any attention that it doesn't deserve, insisting his only comment will be that he doesn't comment on what goes on at his daughter's private birthday party. We also know from 20 Hours In L.A. that even if Penn and Teller actually did burn a flag, the President recognizes the Constitution gives Americans the right to do it, no matter how others might feel about it. 

That story ends up getting sidelined by something far more important and dramatic, anyway.

 

"Think anyone's gonna ask about that flag-burning thing now?"

We saw in the previous episode that President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis was starting to reveal more symptoms, as he had difficulty seeing out of his right eye and that led to the diplomatic controversy with China when he accepted the gift of a Taiwanese independence flag that he never actually saw. He seems fine as this episode begins, with a meeting in the Oval Office to prepare for the trip to China, but when CJ hands him some papers to sign, his right hand lets them fall to the floor.

He has to force a pen into his right hand with his left, but he's unable to keep the pen in his hand.

So he sticks his right hand in his pocket and leaves it there for a large portion of the episode. He does pointedly make a last-minute request to his friend (and godmother to his daughter Ellie) the Surgeon General to join them on the trip to China - as it turns out, he suspects his condition might worsen and he wants her along, as a caregiver and as a voice of authority to the press.

As Air Force One is on its way to China, CJ notices the President isn't eating, as he's holding his arms strangely stiff. He denies anything is wrong, but asks to see Millie, the Surgeon General. There he admits he can't move his hands. The two try to keep the worsening situation between themselves, but when Kate and CJ have to interrupt a resting Bartlet because of a minor crisis in South Korea, he reveals he can't move at all. Which then leads to the sight of the President being moved on a stretcher in the corridor of Air Force One past a snoozing press corps.

CJ wants to turn the plane around to land in Alaska for medical treatment, but Toby argues turning the plane around and delaying or rescheduling the China summit would be the end of Bartlet's presidency, that he'd be able to accomplish nothing in his final year in office if he was seen as an ailing, weak leader. President Bartlet insists they go on.

President: "This plane is going to China! That's an order from your Commander in Chief."

By the time it's determined they'll have to awaken the press and give them the news, Bartlet's condition starts to improve. He calls the President of South Korea to help somewhat defuse that crisis over enriching uranium, and regains the use of his left hand. With his legs still out of commission and only partial use of his right hand, though, he has to strain himself to force his way down the corridor to the press conference in a wheelchair.

 

How will this development play out for the important summit in China? Stay tuned to find out.

"You have to care who's going to be sitting in that chair after Jed Bartlet's gone."

"I do. That's why I don't want Bob Russell to be President."

 

Things are starting to heat up for next year's presidential campaign. Vice President Russell, with his top advisor Will by his side, wants to jump on the flag-burning issue to take advantage on the right, knowing his top competition, Pennsylvania Governor Eric Baker, can't afford to do the same. Josh is able to talk Russell out of that move (which would undermine the President's position) with a nice speech about loyalty and controlling the narrative - which leads Russell to ask Josh to come aboard to run his campaign.

Josh is reluctant - he was already asked by former Vice President Hoynes to run his campaign for president, but Josh has issues with both candidates. He's always looked at Russell as a weakling, a joke, a placeholder forced on the administration by the Republicans; and as for Hoynes, he knows his background as a philanderer and leaker of government secrets who was forced to resign his position is going to be a lot to overcome. Plus ... he knows neither one has the "it" factor he found with Governor Bartlet in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part I. 

But Josh is also brooding, because he wants a Democrat to follow President Bartlet in office, and things get complicated when he's sent on an errand to ask the Republican California Senator Arnold Vinick to come on board as ambassador to the United Nations. Vinick has been a thorn in the side of the Bartlet administration for years, but he's an honest, respectable Senator with real values. And he stuns Josh when he tells him the UN job is attractive, but he has his sights on higher things.

Vinick: "UN. That's tempting. It's very tempting. But that's not the job I want."

Josh: "Well, the President didn't send me with a menu of jobs. Just this one."

Vinick: "The President can't give me the job I want."

Josh: "Which one?"

Vinick: "His."

Vinick is announcing his candidacy for the Republican nomination the very next day, and that move instantly shakes up the entire picture. When Vinick is asked about the flag-burning trick at his announcement speech, he deflects it perfectly, in a First Amendment-related answer comparing American rights to China that would make President Bartlet proud (and causes Donna to tell Josh, "You have a year to talk me out of voting for him").

 

Then another earthshaking surprise. Governor Baker, the supposed frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, announces he's not going to run for "family reasons." With that announcement, Russell and Hoynes become the only logical candidates for the Democrats, and Josh instantly realizes neither one would be a match for Vinick.

Leo: "Ever see Arnie Vinick campaign, up close? He'll go into those high school gymnasiums in Iowa and New Hampshire and blow them all away. Shake every hand in the joint, kiss every baby, hug every widow on Social Security ... and sound smarter and more honest than any Republican they've ever seen. Because he is. He could win, in the early states. Go into the South with some momentum, then ... who knows what happens."

Josh: "Republican who wins California wipes us out in the Electoral College."

Leo: "Right."

Josh: "He's not getting the nomination."

Leo: "If he does ... we've got no one who can beat him."

What's going to happen with the Democratic field? Again, tune in and find out.

 

 

"Then you've got that other thing."

"What thing?"

"Me."

 

 

We also have Donna, who keeps carving time out of Josh's schedule so they can talk about her future career and how she can grow by taking on more responsibility. It's carved-out time that keeps getting rescheduled by events and, frankly, Josh's disinterest in having that discussion. We've seen Donna's dissatisfaction with her role grow over the years, as Josh seems content on relying on her for running his office as smoothly and as efficiently as she always has - and even when he has a few moments of clarity about her worth (17 People for one, NSF Thurmont for another), it never lasts long. Donna surely can't take too much more of having this conversation be put off ... can she?

It's quite a good episode, with some really good crackling dialogue and fast-moving situations and the tide of events sweeping everybody along towards a future they can't quite make out yet. Yes, it's mostly setting the table for what's to come - but that table needs to be set, and it's looking quite dramatic.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- The two episodes this season where Jimmy Smits has appeared included Smits in the cast opening credits. The debut of Alan Alda on the show does not have him added as part of the credit sequence, but he's given just a "Special Appearance by" credit. That will change.

 

- Donna talks about turning down Christmas party invitations for Josh, and Millie discusses her plans for visiting family on Christmas with the President, so the events of this episode line up with the time of year it aired in early December. Remember, though, the show has skipped a year, so this is December of 2005 and not 2004, with the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary right around the corner. Josh helpfully reminds us of that fact when he complains to Leo about how "Vinick's been investigating us for seven years, nonstop" - another example of the "seven years" shorthand the writers have been pounding over our heads to make us realize we missed a year somewhere.

- Martin Sheen famously has trouble keeping names straight, a trait the series' writers have occasionally given to President Bartlet as well. That shows up here in the Oval Office meeting preparing for the China trip, after the trade representative is interrupted by news of the release of the political prisoner. President Bartlet gets back to business by saying, "Go ahead, Leonard," to which he's corrected by the representative saying, "Stanley."

- Charlie's replacement as the President's body man, Curtis Carruthers, was mentioned in passing in A Change Is Gonna Come. Now we get a look at him (played by Ben Murray), although his name is never said in this episode.

 

 

 

Sorry for the timing of the screen grab, Allison

 

- The website for something called "Worldlink" appears in the background twice, first on the computer monitor on Donna's desk

And then again in the office Charlie shares with CJ's other assistants.

 

 

I have no idea why "Worldlink" would pop up twice like this. In my research here in 2023, the top results for Worldlink are an internet provider in Nepal, a talent and technology services firm, and an information technology services company. While the first two companies did exist in 2004, I'm not sure the third one did. There's also a truck driving academy with that name, but I'm pretty sure that's not the reference the show is after.

- Why'd They Come Up With In The Room?

The phrase "in the room" is repeated at least seven or eight times in the dialogue. It refers to "in the room" where the President can speak frankly to the Chinese, "in the room" where Vinick might meet the President over the ambassadorship, and who was "in the room" where Penn and Teller did their "flag burning" magic trick.

Quotes    

Josh (seeing Leo in the hallway): "Hey. You're back."

Leo: "Nah. I just have to sort out some files I left in my office."

Josh: "Can't Margaret send them to the house?"

Leo: "It'd be a federal crime if she did."

-----

President: "Progress isn't good enough for me now. I want to get something done."

----- 

President: "Madam Surgeon General, the briefing book on public health in China is maybe a touch too technical for someone who almost flunked organic chemistry."

CJ: "What'd you get, a B?"

Millie: "B plus, as I recall."

-----

Charlie: "She wants you to help out on the flag-burning thing."

Josh: "Instead of getting us a UN ambassador?"

Charlie: "Not instead of, just before. Twenty-seven congressmen signed this letter demanding the President explain what happened. The story's all over cable news. CJ's afraid it's gonna drown out coverage of the China trip. She needs you to --"

Josh: "Put out the fire? Did she actually say, 'put out the fire'? Tell me she said, 'put out the fire.'"

-----

Will (talking to Josh about Russell's offer to run his campaign): "He's not stupid."

Josh: "That's your bumper sticker?"

(later)

Will: "Bob Russell might be the next President. You get in now, you can make him the candidate you want him to be. After that, we make him the President we need him to be."

-----

Josh (grudgingly impressed by Penn's First Amendment defense): "Did you go to law school?"

Penn: "No. Clown school."

-----

Will: "This isn't a Broadway show, Josh, we don't just close it down after a successful eight-year run. You have to care who's going to be sitting in that chair after Jed Bartlet is gone."

Josh: "I do. That's why I don't want Bob Russell to be President."

  

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

• Famous magicians Penn and Teller appear, first performing at Zoey's birthday party and later called back the the White House to defend their illusion to Josh.

• Looks like Charlie and Zoey may still be a thing. They first met in The Crackpots And These Women, almost immediately started dating with a relationship continuing through at least The Midterms, then Zoey disappeared from the show until returning with new boyfriend Jean Paul in Holy Night. Charlie declared his love for her and how he'd keep fighting as he threw snowballs at Donna's window in Inauguration: Over There, and was a reliable friend after her kidnapping and rescue over the end of Season 4 and beginning of Season 5. They'd seemed to be cozy again at least since Abu el Banat.

• Undersecretary of State Ted Barrow (Ron Canada) returns as the State Department representative on the China trip ... although you'd think this would call for Secretary of State Berryhill (probably too tough to get William Devane back for that).

• Stanley (or is it Leonard?), the trade representative in the China meeting, is played by Stanley Kamel (Monk, Melrose Place, Cagney & Lacey, a four-year run on Days Of Our Lives).

• Surgeon General Millicent Griffith (Mary Kay Place) makes another appearance. First seen in Ellie, where she almost lost her job for not being tough enough on marijuana, Millie is a longtime Bartlet family friend and Ellie's godmother.

• There's Nancy, the sometime Oval Office secretary who's played by Martin Sheen's daughter, Renée Estevez.

• Governor Eric Baker (Ed O'Neill) is seen on background TV screens, although his presence over the potential Democratic presidential field looms large.

• The older background actor with the glasses and the white buzzcut (who shows up many, many times in the series) can be seen as part of the crowd watching Penn and Teller juggle.

• Of course, the big reveal here is Alan Alda (M*A*S*H, The Four Seasons, California Suite) as Senator Arnold Vinick. You can bet this isn't the only time we'll see him on the show.
  

• Regular members of the White House press corps that we see include Mark and Katie.
  

• There's a small reference to Josh getting taken off the lead for the China summit after the Taiwan flag thing, the events we saw in A Change Is Gonna Come. Josh says Donna can say the words "the China trip," that it won't bother him that he's not on it. We are also reminded of former Vice President Hoynes offering Josh the job of running his campaign that we saw in that episode as well.
  

• Donna's desire to talk with Josh over increasing her responsibilities and evolving her career path past "assistant" has been another long-running undercurrent of the show. One of the first times she brought up her need to have more responsibility to Josh directly was in Angel Maintenance, while the storyline of her current dissatisfaction can be traced back to her being assigned the work on the pardons in The Benign Prerogative and her outright request to Josh to be involved more in Talking Points, which led to her inclusion on the CoDel to Gaza and nearly getting blown up there. Actually, you can go all the way back to Night Five when she's offered a lucrative job of Issues Director at an online news startup ("Is that your operating budget?" "It's your starting salary") as the point where she starts to realize she's stagnating in the role of Josh's phone scheduler and buffer against nagging requests.
  

• Kate brings up the controversy over the Taiwanese independence flag that played out over the previous episode, A Change Is Gonna Come.
  

• President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis has been an underlying story since we first heard about it in He Shall, From Time To Time ... While his public revelation of that health issue and its impact on the 2002 campaign was a huge part of Season 2, we didn't see the President suffer much in the way of symptoms until Election Night, and that was a short, one-time thing. Abbey did use that event as a spur to tell Jed (and us) his symptoms were only going to continue to deteriorate over the immediate future. The Taiwanese flag controversy from the previous episode was caused by President Bartlet not being able to see out of his right eye, and he recognized enough about his worsening condition to make sure the Surgeon General was included on the flight to China. 
  

• Also in The War At Home we heard Abbey tell Jed that his relapsing/remitting form of MS would likely worsen into secondary/progressive MS in his second term, should he go through with running again. This episode is appearing to show some of that deterioration as she predicted.
  

• There's a mention of Bruno (Gianelli), a hotshot campaign manager who was brought in to help with President Bartlet's 2002 presidential run. Josh says he's going to be handling Baker's campaign, which by late in this episode we discover isn't going to happen. Played by Ron Silver, we haven't seen Bruno since Process Stories - but he'll be back. 
  

• Vice President Russell's enthusiastic support of a flag-burning amendment - and President Bartlet's deeply held desire to keep events at Zoey's birthday party private - remind us of 20 Hours In L.A., when pollster Al Kiefer was pushing the President to embrace such an amendment for political advantage (much as Vice President Russell wants to do here) and Bartlet vehemently refused.
  

• Senator Vinick's mention of investigating someone named Margudian for using a government helicopter for a golf trip is a deep cut reference, going all the way back to Take Out The Trash Day. In that episode a Chad Margudian, an advance man in the Vice President's office, was fired for using a Navy helicopter to go on a golf trip (although that was at Pebble Beach in California, and not Florida as the Senator says here). He was also involved in other shady dealings such as using his influence to get Broadway tickets and scuba diving expeditions while he was doing his advance work. Josh's mention of firing the guy "over a year ago" isn't all that accurate, since this story occurred in 2000, or five years prior.
  

DC location shots    

• None.
  

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

• Penn and Teller are indeed real-life famous performers of magic.
  

• The MSNBC logo continues to appear, often, in an example of corporate synergy.

• There's also a glimpse of the CNN logo in the background on Air Force One.

• The CNN show Crossfire is mentioned, as well as Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, and the publications Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.
  

• Senator Vinick's office is referred to as "Dirksen 464," meaning an office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, so former Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen exists in this universe.
  

• Josh compares the nonspeaking Teller to Harpo Marx ("What's the difference?").
  

• President Bartlet brings up President Franklin Roosevelt and the fact he led the country from a wheelchair (although he doesn't mention that FDR and the press cooperated in keeping the symptoms of his polio mostly out of the public eye).
  

End credits freeze frame: Toby, Kate, and CJ taking in the situation of the President's health issue on Air Force One.

Previous episode: A Change Is Gonna Come

Next episode: Impact Winter