La Palabra - TWW S6E18

Original airdate: March 9, 2005

Written by: Eli Attie (15)

Directed by: Jason Ensler (1)

Synopsis

• A hectic four days in California leading up to Super Tuesday see Josh facing the financial realities of a campaign stuck in third place, Matt and Helen mortgaging their future to keep going for two more weeks, and Donna gaining a new title with the Russell campaign. Then a stunning revelation flips everything on its head.
  

"You won California." 

Just when we thought we knew all about what The West Wing was, they come up with this episode that's basically a suspense thriller. And a pretty good one! Eli Attie is sharp with the writing, and Jason Ensler does a terrific job in his one and only West Wing directing stint, keeping the action hurtling forward with energy and excitement, the characters hanging on for dear life.

 

In a lot of ways this episode rehashes territory already worked over in Opposition Research, Freedonia, King Corn (sort of), and (to a certain extent) A Good Day. Josh and Matt find themselves at cross-purposes with the campaign, Matt comes up with a long-shot out-of-the-box scheme that ends up paying off, and Josh comes around to Matt's point of view and they're on the same page as the episode ends. 

 

This is like that, sort of ... with a big difference being the reversal in how the two characters are viewing the campaign. In Opposition Research and Freedonia, it's Josh who's looking ahead for the long haul, believing the Santos campaign can really accomplish big things while Matt seems to just be in the race to spur the other candidates to talk about education or stop with the negative ads. Here, it's upside-down. Josh (after seeing the dreadful financial reports and a couple of conversations with Leo) has come around to the realization that the campaign is over, they're stuck in third with no hope of moving up and it's time to bow out, while it's Matt who's so dedicated to staying in the race (at least until Texas) that he'd even mortgage his house. 

 

I also like how we see the ways Josh and Matt have come together in what they're actually campaigning about. Instead of trying the usual battleground tricks that worked for Josh in the past, the things he tried to convince Matt to do in New Hampshire, we realize Josh has come around to the fact that Matt's education and health care policy positions are the real heart and soul of his campaign. They're the reason Matt is running, and if he's going to gain traction, it's because of those policies. We get that great montage in this episode of those TV interviews where Matt masterfully takes the questions about his opponents (or Hoynes's scandal) and turns them back into answers about what he wants to do as President. And, later, we're going to talk about how Josh works to keep the press attention on Matt's talking points instead of what he thinks about the latest scandal. Matt and Josh have come a long way together since Opposition Research.

We also get Donna asking for more responsibility in her job for Russell (as she asked Josh in late Season 4 and early Season 5) and Hoynes suffering the effects of not being able to keep his pants zipped, neither one of which is particularly new to us - but Will is quick to make Donna the spokesperson for the Russell campaign (as well as trusting her instincts when she feels something is fishy with the Hoynes campaign). But even though we're going over a lot of familiar ground, this episode is just so relentless and so well-crafted that we really don't care; we just anxiously watch to see how things are going to work out.

We start off with the Santos campaign plane heading to California, putting all their eggs into the biggest basket for Super Tuesday. We learn that even though Matt won a couple of primaries in Arizona and New Mexico, he's stuck in third place behind the two Vice Presidents (Russell and Hoynes), and isn't getting much traction in any attempts to really compete with them. The press is using oranges on the campaign plane to pass notes about polls showing Matt stuck well behind in third place.

 

That orange really rolls straight, doesn't it?

 

We also learn Hoynes has already gotten the endorsement of California's governor, and with that (and Hoynes' plans to come out to California to campaign over the weekend) the Russell campaign has given up on the state and will stay in New York to get after those East Coast Super Tuesday primaries.

Matt is also slated to get the endorsement of La Palabra, a Latino advocacy group that would really cement his status with Latino voters. To add a complication, though, the California legislature has just passed a bill preventing illegal aliens from getting drivers' licenses, and La Palabra insists that Matt has to denounce it. When he refuses (for reasons that will later become clear), La Palabra pulls back on its endorsement and actually aligns with the Hoynes campaign, even further locking Santos into third. 

All this intrigue doesn't get any better when Josh meets with the campaign's new fundraising chief, who lets him know they're basically out of money and the big Democratic donors aren't interested in giving to a candidate that appears to have no hope of rising above third place. He tells Josh, Matt, and Helen, "If we don't do something to beat expectations on Tuesday, I don't see how we continue the campaign." "Beating expectations" means finishing second, which seems out of reach given the huge resources and advantages of the two Vice Presidents.

Meanwhile, back in New York, as I said the Russell campaign is resigned to staying out East and raking in as many delegates as they can there, knowing Hoynes has California sewn up with the governor's endorsement and his upcoming trip. Donna asks Will for some more responsibility, and Will instantly gives her a release and puts her out in front of the press as the campaign's spokesperson.

In that role, Donna spars a bit with Hoynes' campaign director, who really just wants to spend a little time with Donna. When she relents, going to his room to maybe ask him to share a coffee or New York's "champagne of waters" just before Hoynes departs for California, what she sees in his hotel room instantly sparks her realization that things are not as they seem.

She races to find Will.

Donna (breathlessly): "He's just canceled his first policy speech and Brewer's not packed and this isn't a guy who throws things in a duffel bag, and why would he be working on a press statement if they were physically going to ---"

Josh: "Whoa, slow down. I'll lend you some punctuation."

She's figured out Hoynes has no plans to go to California, it's all been a fake-out to keep Russell from going out there. She doesn't know why, exactly, just that the trip isn't happening

Reporter 1: "Hoynes' campaign says it's his throat."

Donna: "You guys are supposed to be journalists, so unless one of you has a throat swab --"

Reporter 2: "Go over this one more time."

Donna: "Okay, look. Vice President Russell was going to campaign in California. Then the governor endorsed Hoynes and Hoynes practically announced he was moving there. But now that we've canceled our trip, Hoynes is holed up in New York, canceling his California events left and right like a Foghat reunion tour."

Reporter 2: "What do you think Hoynes is up to?"

Donna: "Do I look like an investigative reporter? The answer is I do not, and I can't believe you're just standing around when you should go do your jobs."

 

Even Matt gets in on the whole Where-Is-Hoynes thing, using that orange messaging system:

 

 

Back in California, Josh has finally come to grips with the harsh financial realities ... there's no way Matt can win the nomination, the donors are never going to come around, they absolutely cannot keep the campaign limping along for two weeks to get to the Texas primary. Matt and Helen have had discussions about mortgaging their home in order to self-finance the campaign, but Josh is desperately trying to discourage them from risking so much of their personal savings. And that brings us to the core of the episode, a speech by Matt that explains so much of why he's running the way he's running, why he doesn't want to just be the "brown candidate," why he doesn't want to pigeonhole himself as the Latino in the race and nothing else, and why he doesn't want to use his opposition to the drivers' license bill to gain Latino support.

Josh: "We're not going to win the nomination. I made myself believe it; you too, but ... you can't risk everything for this. You should go to La Palabra, make a strong statement against the drivers' license bill. You should remember who your friends are, not some names on an index card, but the people you're going back to - and then you should take a bow, and then you should step off the stage."

(Helen rises, touching Matt's shoulder as she leaves the room)

Matt: "You know, when I got out of the Marines, I hadn't been around my old neighborhood in Houston in a few years. I had just gotten this job offer from the Pentagon, and it required a full FBI background check. After a few weeks, the investigators, they came up to me and they said, 'We can't give you the job. We've interviewed all your old friends and neighbors. They can't confirm anything - not even your name.' So I hop a plane, go back to the old block. I see my neighbor's 11- and 13-year-old kids, they're sitting on the stoop, same as always. They see me coming, they start running towards me and they're shouting, 'Tío Matt, Tío Matt - Uncle Matt - Tío Matt, the Feds, they were here looking for you. We told 'em we never heard of you.' (chuckling) Eleven and thirteen. (pause) You're not the only one who can read bad polls, Josh. I am running for President in that Texas primary ... and those kids are going to see me do that. And that's the only statement about my skin color I intend to make in this campaign."

 

So Matt is all-in, at least until Texas - quite a change from his "I'm only in it to get the others talking about education" that we saw in Opposition Research.

 

And then, a bombshell that shakes up everything. As the Russell campaign quickly pulls up stakes and heads out to California, desperate to gain an edge on Hoynes after giving up on the state earlier, word breaks on why Hoynes was holed up in New York - a couple of college-age staffers from his Senate days are splashed across the tabloids, having sold their stories of Hoynes making improper sexual advances. Let's be frank: this shouldn't be that much of a scandal, not eight years later and not when one of the chief reasons Hoynes resigned the Vice Presidency in Life On Mars was because of an affair he was having (and the fact he tried to impress his mistress with classified information), and he must have described various other affairs and womanizing in his tell-all book (Full Disclosure). But, for the purposes of this episode, it's a scandal worthy of him suspending his campaign.

Suddenly, it's basically a two-man race in California; and Santos is the one who's been there on the ground for several days as Russell tries to play catch-up. This is where both Josh and Matt really shine, grabbing the initiative in ways that can really make a difference. First, the conversation with Josh, Ronna, and Bram in the elevator - Josh knows Matt needs to keep hitting his policy proposals, and not take the bait about the scandal:

Bram: "We've gotten almost 300 press requests - all about Hoynes' overcharged libido. I assume you want to ride the story?"

Josh: "We're not riding it, we're not spinning it, the press may love it but the voters don't. Accept as many of those press requests as you can jam on his schedule."

(Ronna and Bram react, confused)

Bram: "Didn't you just say --"

Josh: "We have a message. It's health care and education. It's the only way he beats Russell."

Ronna: "Every question will be about Hoynes."

Josh: "But none of the answers."

And then yet another of Matt's long-shot difference-making leaps of faith - he goes to Governor Tillman, knowing he feels burned by Hoynes and isn't willing to go out on that endorsement limb again. Matt has a late-night conversation with the governor in his limo, where he lays out his reasoning why it doesn't do much good for a guy like Santos to come out against the drivers' license bill.

Gov. Tillman: "Are you so desperate for the appearance of my support that you'd stand behind me while I strike down a bill that you don't oppose?"

Matt: "Oh, I think the bill is an abomination. We need to toughen our immigration laws, make our borders 50 times more secure. But if we're not really willing to do that, it's wrong to punish the people that we bring here to pick our avocados."

Gov. Tillman: "Well, why don't you just come out and say that?"

Matt: "Cause people don't need to hear it from someone who looks like me. They need to hear it from someone who looks like you."

Matt has an offer for Tillman. If the governor lets Matt stand up at the podium behind him while the governor vetoes the drivers' license bill, he won't ask him directly for the endorsement. The governor vetoes a bill he thinks is bad, getting a little cover from a Latino presidential candidate; Matt gets the appearance of the governor's support.

 

That works even better than expected, as Gov. Tillman explains to the press that he gave the veto pen to Rep. Santos, then pumps up Matt's health care plan as he leaves the room. It's a media bonanza for the formerly third-place guy, and the perfect storm of Hoynes' scandal/governor's veto press conference/Russell's late arrival ends up with the result we never thought we'd see.

Josh: "You won California."

Not a second-place finish to stay alive, but a primary-race-defining victory in the biggest state there is, leading up to a Texas primary in Matt's home state. For the first time ever, Josh and Matt can actually see a path to the nomination starting to develop.

 

 

Tales Of Interest!

- Another of the few instances of the episode title appearing over the action of a scene, instead of simply white lettering on a black background. In Third-Day Story and Liftoff (sort of) the title appeared over the video, as it does here. In Twenty Five it was black lettering on a white background, while in Opposition Research it was black lettering on a gray background. 

- The direction of this episode is, in my opinion, really well-done. The moving camera zooming in on characters as they move toward the camera, the music cues hitting just the right emotional spot, the zooming sound of airplanes - gosh, it's all so right. Big props to Jason Ensler, who started his career trying to be an actor, got into studio promotion at Warner Brothers (including helping to launch The West Wing), then directed episodes of Ed and Scrubs before his one and only time directing The West Wing. Not just the direction, but the writing of the cold open by Eli Attie also does a wonderful job of setting up the episode and the driving tension of what we're going to watch over the next 43 minutes.

 

- On the Santos plane inbound to Sacramento we are told it's four days until the California primary/Super Tuesday. That means it's probably Friday, which would be March 3, 2006 (if Super Tuesday was on the first Tuesday of March, as it traditionally had been prior to this episode).

- Cliff congratulated Josh on the campaign's performance in Arizona and New Mexico in A Good Day. Here we discover Matt actually won both of those states. With Matt now being recognized as a solid third place in the Democratic race, we can assume he was able to rise above most of the rest of the "seven dwarfs" we saw in Freedonia.

- We find out a bit of news about the Republican race, as a reporter tells us Senator Vinick is sweeping the primaries on that side.

- As Vice President Russell is flying to California, we see a shot of the aircraft commonly referred to as Air Force Two. It's a Boeing C-32, which is a modified B757.

 

As Donna is walking in the interior of the aircraft, we see her pass a stairway to an upper level. This stairway would not exist in the B757 (which doesn't have two levels); it would, however, be seen in a B747 like that used by the President as Air Force One.

 

(Obviously the show filmed the scene in the same set they use for Air Force One, instead of building a new set just for this shot.)

- Josh tells us Russell wins the primaries in New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

- Why'd They Come Up With La Palabra?

Josh and Matt are hoping an endorsement from the (fictional) Latino group La Palabra will give them a boost in the California Democratic primary. La Palabra means "the word" in Spanish.

Quotes    

Bram: "Ed Garcia's in your room, then we'll do the home health care hit."

Matt: "Eddie's here?"

Josh: "Couple of last minute details about La Palabra's endorsement."

Bram: "They're huge in the Latino community, going to be a great hit."

Matt: "Are we gonna bump somebody off?" 

-----

Gordon: "The latest field polls say that if the election were held today --"

Matt: "People would be surprised because it's normally held on Election Day."

----- 

Bram: "I just talked to Garcia, about the rollout of the La Palabra endorsement ..."

Josh: "You realize it's redundant to say 'the' and 'la.'"

Bram: "Oh. La endorsement is off. Garcia says la Congressman knows why."

-----

Josh: "It's a bad bill. You should be who you are. I was wrong to push the politics on this."

Matt: "I'm not taking a position."

Josh: "Garcia's serious about going with Hoynes."

Matt: "Maybe he should be, and not for nothing, Josh, Garcia can tell me if he thinks I'm not Latino enough. You can't, okay?"

-----

Matt (as Josh hands him a sheaf of papers): "What's this?"

Josh: "It's a campaign plan for Texas. Sell my own house if I have to."

Matt: "You'd be going to federal prison."

Josh: "Need to live someplace, won't I?"

 

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

• This is our introduction to Bram, played by Matthew Del Negro (The Sopranos, Scandal, Wind River). Bram will be a key part of the campaign from now on.

• Steve, the White House pool reporter, is now on the road (er, plane) covering the Santos campaign.

• Another White House reporter, Gordon, is seen in the hotel hallway, also covering the Santos campaign (Gordon was famously seen being pranked by CJ in Slow News Day when she used his speculative question about the President and Abbey possibly adopting a baby to lead him down the path of possibly being a sperm donor for CJ's prospective baby).

• The often-seen TV anchor played by Ivan Allen is seen and heard again, this time reporting on the latest Hoynes scandal.

• California Governor Tillman is played by Ray Wise (Twin Peaks, Robocop, Reaper).

• Governor Tillman has actually been mentioned before. In Game On, we keep hearing about an amazing speech Gov. Gabe Tillman delivered to the Stanford Club, and Sam figures out it was Will who ghostwrote it. That helps spur Sam to suggest Will to Toby as a writer for the White House staff, which happens in Arctic Radar.
  

• We're going to eventually find out a lot more about the physical and romantic chemistry between Matt and Helen; I've said it before, Helen Santos is probably my favorite performance by Teri Polo in anything, and it's obvious she and Jimmy Smits can play off each other terrifically. Anyway, the little moment on the plane just before they arrive in Sacramento really shows us these two love each other and have a lively, warm, loving marriage that includes an active sex life.

• The Hoynes scandal seems like, well, not all that much of a scandal, given what the public already knows about him. We've known for years that John Hoynes is a womanizer who's cheated on multiple wives; the entire reason he resigned the Vice Presidency in Life On Mars is because he was having an affair with a socialite who was writing a book, and he tried to impress her with classified information. In Full Disclosure we learned he'd had a one-night stand with CJ when he was a Senator. Heck, he wrote a book about his past, which I'm sure covered many of his affairs and peccadilloes, it's not like the public didn't know about his past. And even if he's campaigning now on the fact he's made himself a better, more faithful husband, news of having affairs with staffers when he was a Senator (at least eight years or more in the past) doesn't seem like it would cause as much of a firestorm as we see play out here.
  

• WHAT'S NEXT - After finishing up TV interviews on Super Tuesday, Matt says, "What's next?" To which Helen replies, "Besides the mother of all throat lozenges?"
  

DC location shots    

• None; the episode is set entirely in California and New York (well, except for the scenes of Leo on the phone with Josh).
  

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

• Using oranges to send messages up and down the aisle between the campaign and the press seems like something Eli Attie copied from reality, and he mostly likely did. My surface Googling of that, however, doesn't bring up any real-life instances prior to this. I did find a couple of articles about the Mitt Romney campaign in 2012 and the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 doing that, but that's getting their inspiration from this episode.

• At the beginning of the episode you can hear the pilot of the Santos plane say they're beginning their descent into Sacramento's Franklin Field. Franklin Field is a small general aviation airport with two 3000-foot runways, and would not be a place for a jetliner to land. The primary airport in Sacramento is Sacramento International, and there is also Sacramento Executive (with one of its runways 5500 feet long).
  

• Helen tells Matt she feels "trapped in a Tammy Wynette medley" as they talk about the possibility of mortgaging their house to continue the campaign. Wynette famously sang Stand By Your Man.
  

• All the television stations mentioned during Matt's remote interviews actually exist. KSEE in Fresno, KGET in Bakersfield, KNTV in San Jose, and KSBW in Salinas. And, of course, with The West Wing airing on NBC, they are all NBC affiliates.
  

• Leo says he's reading the new biography of James Madison. Apparently his last words were indeed, "Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear. I always talk better lying down."
  

• Donna mentions the band Foghat when the reporters are asking her about Hoynes canceling his California events.
  

• CNN is mentioned, and we get a look at the MSNBC logo once again.

• Russell jokes about voting for Pat Paulsen, a comedian who actually did run for President (as a satirical bit) in 1968 and 1996.

End credits freeze frame: Josh giving Matt the campaign plan for Texas.

Previous episode: A Good Day

Next episode: Ninety Miles Away

A Good Day - TWW S6E17

Original airdate: March 2, 2005

Written by: Carol Flint (5) 

Directed by: Richard Schiff (2)

Synopsis

• Matt Santos comes up with a clever ploy to outsmart Speaker Haffley on a stem-cell research bill. President Bartlet faces off with an old rival in economics. Toby talks voting age restrictions with middle schoolers. And Kate has to fend off a possible military intervention into Canada.
  

"Sometimes the American people wonder what it is we do here in Congress. Sometimes I wonder myself. Today wasn't one of those days." 

This episode, boy, I don't know. There's some things to like about it - Matt Santos' trickery to hide Democratic legislators away in Russell's office and bait Haffley into scheduling a vote, for one thing. Kate's flabbergasted disbelief at the military's eagerness to escalate a few drunk hunters across the border into a full-flung diplomatic escapade, for another. But by and large, this episode doesn't hang together well. The writing isn't sharp, the payoffs (except for Haffley getting punked) don't land, and a couple of key characters don't even get names.

 

The storyline that really doesn't resonate with me is President Bartlet and his old economic rival Dr. Takehashi. First off, how were we never told over the past six years that Bartlet actually split his Nobel Prize with a grad school rival who holds diametrically opposite views? Seems like that might have come up one of the times the Nobel Laureate fact was mentioned. Anyway, whatever, the appearance of Dr. Takehashi at the White House ceremony honoring Nobel Prize winners puts a big damper on the President's mood, taking him from carefree dancing with Abbey in the Oval Office to glumly pouting about Takehashi's digs at Bartlet's economic theories.

CJ: "Well, he's certainly a ..."

President: "Smug son of a bitch. 'Rational expectation.'"

CJ: "What?"

President: "Territory he claims to have pioneered. Footnote, my ass."

CJ: "I don't think he was --"

President: "As if his work would still be read if he hadn't spent a lifetime assigning it to hapless undergrads."

CJ: "All due respect, sir, you sit in this office, you're pretty much not allowed to harbor professional jealousies."

After Takehashi takes a fall while dancing he and President Bartlet sit in the Oval Office sharing an icepack and a drink. Takehashi tries to warn Bartlet about the dangers of American debt being bought up by other countries, and how the increasing budget deficit is going to cause longterm problems for the United States. The President waves him off - he's already considered the foreign ownership of debt and doesn't see it as a major problem - but being called out on the deficit bugs him. So much so that he and Abbey have a discussion about it as they go to bed ... and which leads him to announce reducing the deficit will be the top priority of the final year of his administration.

Chris: "Mr. President, as you head into your final year in office, do you have any regrets?"

President: "One big regret - and here's your lede, people - is my failure to bring the budget deficit under control. I know an election cycle is warming up and no one wants to hear about budget deficits, but both sides are going to hear about them from me. That's my campaign promise."

It comes out of nowhere, and over the next 27 episodes it pretty much goes nowhere. But then again, we haven't heard anything about the peacekeeping forces in Equatorial Kundu since Red Haven's On Fire, or the American troops in Gaza and Israel since Third-Day Story, or the Bartlet Doctrine of intervening anywhere to protect human rights since Inauguration: Over There, so storylines about major initiatives that go nowhere are sometimes par for the course. 

Another storyline that doesn't do much for me is the Future Leaders for Democracy, a group of middle-school students advocating for eliminating the age restriction for voting. Their visit to the White House gets passed along to Toby, who passes it along to Annabeth - but when Cody, the vocal leader of the group, calls out Toby for giving them the brush-off, he ends up sitting down in the Roosevelt Room and having a real discussion about the issue. That shows a lot of patience and openness on Toby's part, particularly given the meeting keeps him from attending the Nobel Laureate gala and this group's concerns would best be suited for the next Big Block of Cheese Day. Which is why this all falls flat ... well, that and the fact that Toby proves to be amenable to perhaps taking a look at lowering the voting age, which doesn't really seem like an initiative Toby (or any member of any administration) would truly take seriously. Giving Cody the opportunity to ask a question of President Bartlet at the press conference was a neat little moment, though, however unlikely it might have been.

The Canada storyline is kind of a hoot, but mainly because of Kate. Her reactions as the situation continues to escalate cartoonishly are just golden, from the disbelief that the Vice President is getting involved:

Will (talking about Vice President Russell): "Hunts with the governor of Montana, in fact. They spoke today."

Kate: "And he'd like to see this resolved bloodlessly."

Will: "Actually he's more concerned we not back down, that we not appear weak in any way."

Kate: "We?"

Will: "The United States."

Kate: "There's no 'we' in this, it's fifteen drunks in camo vests."

Will: "The Vice President advocates a hard line."

Kate: "Permanent lockout in the NHL, a maple syrup embargo, turn off Niagara Falls?"

To her incredulity at the Canadian Ambassador trying to extract trade concessions in exchange for getting the American hunters back across the border:

Kate: "Ambassador, listen carefully. An hour ago, I reviewed the United States contingency plan to invade your country."

Will: "Uh, there's a contingency plan --?"

Kate: "1789, amended in 1815, the calligraphy is beautiful, and if one more deal is floated in this room I'm going to ask DOD to reactivate it."

To her simmering anger at the "amped-up cowboys" in the military (and the Fish and Wildlife Department!) excited at the possibility of invading Canada. Her solution - just get on a bullhorn and announce hunting season is over, and any more gunfire means the loss of hunting licenses - would never work (she doesn't have anything like the authority to do that), but it does for story purposes, and we end up with "peace in our time."

Ah, but the story of the stem-cell bill and the Democrats hiding out, that's a pretty fun plotline. Matt Santos and a bunch of other Democratic congressmen have flown back to Washington from the campaign trail to vote against a Republican bill that would cut funding for stem-cell research. As soon as they arrive on the floor, though, the Speaker of the House pulls the bill off the floor. He knows he'll lose with all the Democrats there, but he figures if many of them depart to try to stump for Super Tuesday primaries, he can sneak in a vote with enough Democrats absent to get the bill through. 

Josh and Matt (and several other congressmen) are desperate to get back out and campaign, but Matt has an idea. His subterfuge starts with a quick meeting with Cliff Calley in the Capitol:

Matt (looking around to see if others are watching): "Look unhappy. You see how I'm, uh, shaking my head telling you, um, 'no way'?"

Cliff: "I do. Are you in fact telling me the opposite?"

Matt hatches a plan with Josh and Cliff - a bunch of Democrat Representatives will stay in town, secretly, waiting for Speaker Haffley to call the vote, after which they will spring onto the House floor and vote the bill down. Cliff remembers an Arkansas Representative who never leaves town, and thinks he can use him as a decoy of sorts to help fool any Republicans in the Capitol. After a conversation with Donna, Cliff also thinks they might be able to use Vice President Russell's office as their secret hideout.

Which they do.

And after hiding out all night - and rethinking their strategy after Haffley fails to immediately bring up the bill - the plot works when the bill actually does eventually come to the floor. It's a cool moment to see the congresspeople march through the halls of the Capitol, and the fact the plan was developed and carried out by Matt Santos helps us realize his growing respect and leadership in the Democratic Party.

(And also the fact that several of these congressmen actually want to be out of Washington to help campaign for him, considering before the New Hampshire primary nobody had the faintest notion of endorsing him for President.)

The poor Arkansas Representative doesn't even get a name, and he looks so lonely and sad sleeping in his office, but he does give us a nice little scene talking over the morality of stem-cell research with Matt while they're all hiding out in Russell's office. It's a real back-and-forth on the moral issues, that gives respect and credence to both sides. That's a very nice moment in an episode that doesn't give us a lot in the way of subtlety or nuance.

Unfortunately, that seems to be the only reason the character is included in the plot, even though Cliff seems to think he needs him to carry out the deception of hiding the Democrats. What is his role there? We see him peeking around corners and tiptoeing down the halls - the other congresspeople could do that without him. Was he the messenger telling the Democrats about Matt's plan? Maybe, but that could easily be done by phone without the Republicans finding out. I just can't quite put my finger on why Cliff thought he needed a guy who wouldn't look out of place in the Capitol to help shepherd the other congresspeople into hiding, when they could have easily found their way to Russell's office by themselves (even the scene where they're having a conversation in the hallway to mislead the Republican walking past, with the Representative saying, sorry, I've got to catch a flight ... that could have been done with a phone to his ear with the same result).

So ... we avoid war with Canada, we see President Bartlet energized with a priority for his last year in office (sort of, we'll see), we get the middle-school vote locked up for the Democratic Party, and Matt Santos really establishes his credentials as a savvy, out-of-the-box political thinker who really could be a leader for the party and the country. I guess that's enough for one episode, don't you think?

 

Tales Of Interest!

- Richard Schiff's second foray into directing, after Season 5's Talking Points.

- It's another campaign/administration combo episode, sort of, although Matt's involvement here is solely due to his role as a House member and not as a Presidential candidate. It gets Josh back around, though, including back at his desk in his old office (which is now Cliff's).

- Timewise, we're coming up on the Super Tuesday primaries. The real-life calendar previous to 2005 generally saw Super Tuesday happening in early March (the entire primary calendar moved radically earlier for a while in the late 2000s). 

 

- Josh mentions the trip in to the Capitol from Dulles Airport. Typically members of Congress would fly into Reagan National Airport, much closer to the center of DC (and to be honest, the use of the airport by government officials is likely what's keeping that airport open, given the flight restrictions and limitations of where that airport is located). But I suppose it's possible this particular flight went into Dulles instead of National.

- I've mentioned this before, but the prize for economics commonly referred to as a "Nobel" isn't actually one of the five prizes established by Alfred Nobel in his will. The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel was founded by Sweden's central bank in 1969, and while administered by the Nobel Foundation and presented at the Nobel Prize award ceremony, isn't technically a Nobel.

- I'm a little confused over exactly where Russell's office is located. As Vice President, he'd have an office near the Senate chambers (for his role as presiding over the Senate); but just because he has lifetime floor privileges on the House wouldn't mean he gets a huge office on that side of the building, right? And most congressional offices are in buildings located around the Capitol, not in the building itself.

- Why'd They Come Up With A Good Day?

As CJ is encouraging Cliff to get to the Capitol and whip Democratic votes against the stem-cell bill, she says, "The President doesn't need any more bad news in the next 18 hours. He needs a good day." We also see President Bartlet having a very good day health-wise and mood-wise ("the good days you don't take for granted"), at least until he discovers Dr. Takehashi is in the building. And, naturally, the events of the day turn out pretty "good" - Santos' ploy to trick Haffley and defeat the bill works, the President copes with his resentment of Takehashi and finds a topic to focus on for the end of his term, the middle-schoolers get to ask a question directly of the President of the United States, and we get through the entire day without invading Canada.

Quotes    

CJ: "They were bumped off the President's schedule yesterday, bumped from mine this morning, they're on yours for six o'clock."

Toby: "Why?"

CJ: "It's their last day in town."

Toby: "No, I meant why me?"

CJ: "Cause you're so good with kids."

-----

President: "Ours was not a shared prize for shared work. The prize was split. That year the Swedes chose to recognize two separate, some would say fundamentally divergent, even contradictory efforts in the same field."

CJ: "He is a bit conservative."

President: "Ha! He makes Milton Friedman look middle-of-the-road."

----- 

Fish and Wildlife Deputy: "Off-duty officers responded to the scene, and they infiltrated the 20-yard swamp demarking the border."

Major Anderson: "Have shots been fired?"

Deputy: "Yes. But ... there were geese in the air at the time."

-----

Kate (incredulous at the helicopter landing near the Canadian standoff): "I don't want deniability, I want absolute assurance that this was not part of a military action on our part."

Major Anderson: "I can't vouch for Black Ops."

Kate: "Okay. Enough. This is stopping now, the problem is not a few rowdy outlaws from a bygone era blowing off testosterone, the problem is us! We're still the wild bunch, I mean the higher it goes the hotter the risk. I just threatened the Canadian ambassador!"

 

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

• The veteran Japanese actor Mako (nominated for an Academy Award for The Sand Pebbles, Conan The Destroyer, Pearl Harbor, many TV appearances) is seen as President Bartlet's Nobel rival Dr. Yosh Takehashi.

• Speaker Haffley (Steven Culp) is back! We haven't seen him since Third-Day Story at the beginning of the season (and technically almost two years ago, as the events of that episode were in 2004 and the show is now in early 2006, given the time skip we saw around Liftoff; he even mentions "year seven" of the administration, although we are just in Season 6).

• Major Anderson, the gung-ho military adviser in the Situation Room with the Operation Northern Lights plan, is played by Jack Conley (Fast & Furious, The Purge: Anarchy, The Morning Show, Angel).

• The unnamed Fish and Wildlife deputy (who is also gung-ho about showing Canada what's what) is played by William O'Leary (Bull Durham, Hot Shots!, Home Improvement).

• I think Margaret eating at her desk is supposed to be a subtle reminder of her being pregnant, a fact we only discovered almost by accident in Drought Conditions.

• Campaign-wise, Cliff congratulates Josh on Santos' performance in the Arizona and New Mexico primaries, and also expresses appreciation for bringing back other congressmen who are now campaigning for him. So there is some momentum, considering absolutely nobody was backing Santos as recently as Freedonia.
  

• This is the first we've heard of President Bartlet having to split his Economics Nobel Prize. You'd think with all the times his Nobel had come up since we first discovered he was a Nobel Laureate in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" that might have been mentioned.
  

• President Bartlet shows us his jacket flip. Martin Sheen's left arm was injured at birth and he was unable to lift that arm above his shoulder, so he used this method to put on coats and jackets.

• Donna and Cliff have a little moment; you remember they dated in Ways And Means (and most definitely slept together, considering the story about Donna's journal in War Crimes) until Cliff's role with the committee investigating President Bartlet's MS coverup ended all that. The little exchange with Cliff saying, "Sometimes things are going so smoothly you don't see it coming until they fall apart" and Donna responding, "True" is a little callback to that. And then they make a tentative plan to catch up over dinner later.
  

• Speaking of romance, in Drought Conditions we saw Kate and Will casting glances at each other at the DNC gala. Now, as Will is trying to get information about the Canada incursion from Kate, she says, "Please tell me this is a ruse concocted to steal moments of my promising company."
  

• After Matt wakes up Donna in Russell's office (by sitting on her), he recognizes her as "Russell's chicken fighter." Donna was caught on camera chewing out one of the guys in chicken suits Josh sent to the Russell and Hoynes events in New Hampshire in Freedonia. 
  

• Matt's clever thinking to outwit Haffley does bring to mind the same kind of three-steps-ahead political mind he demonstrated with the health-care plan in The Dover Test, a mind that caused Josh to say, "You're too good at this, you can't just walk away."
  

• Jed's bedtime conversation with Abbey about the deficit brings us some reminders of earlier events in the series.

Abbey: "What keeps you awake is the deficit."

Jed: "First term we made so much progress we were talking balanced budget."

Abbey: "Economy slowed."

Jed: "Costs spiraled. Security at home, terrorism. Peacekeeping abroad, Republican tax cuts, I couldn't control it and I'm an economist, for God's sakes."

As a reminder, there was talk of how to invest a budget surplus in Mr. Willis Of Ohio (Donna wanted her money back to buy a VCR); while there's never any specific mention of an event like 9/11 we have plenty of references to terrorism concerns (the storyline at the end of Season 3 leading to the assassination of Shareef, as one example); and peacekeeping forces in Equatorial Kundu (Red Haven's On Fire) and in the Middle East (The Birnam Wood/Third-Day Story).

• There's one of our longtime White House reporters, Chris.

 

DC location shots    

• None. I'm pretty sure all the Capitol interior hallway scenes were filmed at Los Angeles City Hall - that's been a stand-in for the Capitol ever since Swiss Diplomacy, at least.

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

• Will mentions that Vice President Russell has lifetime House floor privileges as a former Representative: that's true, along with access to the Capitol gym, parking in House parking lots, and access to the Capitol dining rooms.
  

• As the President is crooning to Abbey in the Oval Office when CJ comes in, the Cole Porter tune Begin The Beguine is playing.
  

• The economist Milton Friedman gets scoffed at for his conservative views by President Bartlet as he and CJ are talking about Takehashi.
  

• Annabeth tells the Future Leaders for Democracy group the story of the Resolute desk, made from the timbers of the HMS Resolute and presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1880. Her story about the Presidential seal isn't totally complete; Franklin Roosevelt did request the adding of the seal (along with a door, to hide his leg braces) but it wasn't finished until after his death in 1945.
  

• President Bartlet tells a joke told by President Harry Truman, and later quotes Thomas Jefferson to Abbey while he's complaining about Takehashi. Abbey brings up President Eisenhower and his inability to control the military-industrial complex in the late-night conversation between her and Jed.
  

• A congressional staffer uses the phrase "Elvis has left the building" after Speaker Haffley departs, as Santos begins his scheme to sneak Democratic legislators into the building.
  

• I was unable to find any references to a 1789 plan to invade Canada, although the United States and Canada did have conflicts during the War of 1812, which ended in 1815. However, there was a War Plan Red approved in 1930 which set out American military plans in the event of a war with Great Britain, which did include an invasion of Canada.
  

• We see Matt on television talking to reporters on C-SPAN at the end of the episode.

End credits freeze frame: Matt and the unnamed Arkansas congressmen having their late-night conversation over stem-cell research.

Previous episode: Drought Conditions

Next episode: La Palabra

Drought Conditions - TWW S6E16

 

Original airdate: February 23, 2005

Written by: Debora Cahn (10)

Directed by: Alex Graves (26)

Synopsis

• Toby's frustrations, both political and personal, come to a head as he lashes out at Josh and pulls strings behind the scenes to support a spoiler in the Democratic primary. Leo convinces CJ to bring on a familiar face as a congressional liaison. Kate tries to get back in the dating game.
  

"What happened to your face?" 

This one is really about Toby. Let's face it, that makes it pretty good all by itself. Not only do we learn probably about as much about him and his emotional life as we have over the entire last five years, we get to watch Richard Schiff put on a master acting class.

 

Toby has always been kind of a tough nut to crack. During my first watch of The West Wing, when it originally aired, Toby was one of my least favorite characters. He was just so grumpy, so dour, so much a thorn in the side of the President and, well, everybody. As time has gone by, though (and as I've gotten older myself), I've come to appreciate Toby a lot more, and now regard him as one of my favorites in the show. To watch his story, from the guy scoffing at the flight attendants over his Radio Shack cell phone in Pilot to his background as a campaign strategist who never had a candidate actually win in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part I to his key contributions to the Bartlet administration, his clever turning of phrase in his writing, his dedication to the role of Presidential voice and to the legacy of White House speechwriters we saw in Arctic Radar, his recognition of the valuable skills of Sam and Will, and eventually to his press room role in replacing CJ ... well, it's all been a trip. Yet, with perhaps the exception of seeing his father in Holy Night and some of his complicated relationship with his ex-wife Andy, we haven't really seen very far into the emotional and personal center of Tobias Ziegler.

This episode is likely most generally thought of as "the one where Toby and Josh fight," and while that's the central part of the plot, there's so much more building under the surface that leads to that moment. I think it's worth it to figure out why they ended up fighting, why Toby felt the need to verbally lash out at Josh, what made him end up crying on the couch with CJ later. At its core, Toby feels abandoned - abandoned by Josh, with whom he'd always pictured as a partner who would help find the next President Bartlet; abandoned by his party, which is putting up ineffective losers like Bob Russell and hopeless long shots like Matt Santos instead of fighting for the progressive, liberal soul of the party and the country; and perhaps most of all, abandoned by his brother, who sat in his car with the engine running, leaving his family behind instead of fighting back against the cancer eating him from inside.

All of those things are a lot for one person to bear, particularly all at the same time. And when Josh barges in accusing Toby of betraying the primary process, of deliberately trying to sink Josh's efforts to get traction for Santos, of selfishly going out to prop up a spoiler instead of working together ... well, it's not a surprise that conversation ends in violence.

 

The fight itself catches us by surprise. We know Josh is mad at Toby over his sneaking around with Rafferty, an effort that could very well sink the Santos campaign just when it's starting to make some headway. But while we know Toby doesn't agree with Josh's choice of candidate or his decision to leave his White House post, we may not be sure he's this angry, physically angry, violently angry. This scene gives Toby the chance to lay it all out there on the table - the fact Josh left so many projects behind, giving up on the good work the administration could still do; the way Josh didn't even consult Toby when he decided to back a certain failure like Matt Santos; and then how Josh is running that campaign, avoiding the hard choices, moving to the center "for a stinking 19 percent in New Hampshire."

What Toby isn't acknowledging is his desperate feeling of loneliness and abandonment brought to an emotional climax by his brother's death. That's the thing he doesn't want to face, not in front of other people, and while he is definitely upset about those other facets of Josh's decision, those alone wouldn't have brought him to screaming, "Get out!" at his old friend. That scream - and Toby actually calling Josh out for his campaign methods - are what really brings Josh to a boil, as he hurls papers off Toby's desk into his face.

Which takes us to an illuminating flash-forward back to the bar, with Toby and Rafferty, as we're reminded Toby grew up as the son of a Brooklyn mobster, that he knew how to take care of himself on the streets, and he and his brother walked around with rolls of pennies in their fists to "do some damage." He doesn't take Josh's little paper-tossing fit lightly.

So that's where the cut on his face comes from.

After the brief struggle, the two walk away, out of breath and still simmeringly furious at one another. It's a sad moment for these two who we've watched do so much together over the years.

Schiff is just outstanding in this entire episode, from his distracted efforts to try to get back into the swing of work after his brother's funeral to his barely disguised anger at Josh's breezy visit (while Toby thinks he's wasting his time on the entire quixotic campaign) to, finally, his emotional collapse when CJ brings him some ice and a cloth. Look, pretty much the entire cast of The West Wing is firing on all cylinders during the run of the show, but this is truly a showcase for Schiff, and it's a travesty he didn't receive awards recognition for his work in this episode.

 

There's so much: the back-and-forth with Rafferty at the bar, dancing around what he really wants to say while making their meeting appear to be a romantic tryst; his story about he and his brother carrying rolls of pennies in their fists as kids walking in the mean streets of Brooklyn; his explosion at Josh, not just over the Rafferty health care plan, not just over Josh picking the wrong guy, but over all the abandonment issues Toby is feeling; and finally, his breaking down when CJ comes to tend to him.

 

That entire scene is a gem, and not least because it shows us a little more of that special relationship between CJ and Toby. We know they've known each other since before Bartlet's first campaign, and we know they've been close and they've shared secrets. The fact that it's CJ who Margaret goes to, sending her in to comfort Toby after the fight, isn't a coincidence ... and the fact that CJ gets emotional at Toby's tale of his brother fits right into what we know about these two.

 

 

It also gives us the touching moment when CJ is reaching for something, anything that might make Toby feel a little better.

CJ: "You want some water?"

Toby: "No."

CJ: "Scotch?"

Toby (chuckling through his tears): "No."

CJ: "You want me to go?"

Toby (choking out his reply, in a whisper): "No."

That said ... even though there's so much to like, this episode doesn't play fair with the audience. The framing technique, of Toby meeting a mysterious woman at a bar, is played intentionally as if the two are having a clandestine romantic affair, with lines like "I'd offer to make an honest woman of you but you'd tire of me" and "do you think we rushed into it?" Of course, we discover later that the woman is actually Senator Ricky Rafferty, the spoiler candidate Toby reached out to to try to get his progressive ideas into the Democratic campaign (and, in a way, get back at Josh for ditching him and teaming up with Santos). Debora Cahn writes the dialogue to lead us down the path of a sexual affair, of a secret meeting of lovers at a bar, intentionally using ambivalent phrases that, yes, in retrospect fit a conversation about a political campaign, but in the moment ... real people wouldn't talk around their issues like that, not for this long. Sure, it's for the drama ... but it's not playing fair. And what makes the script even more unfair is Josh's accusation in Toby's office, about Rafferty's health care plan:

Josh: "You're not a good sharer. The only way it doesn't bother you is if you handed it to him yourself."

Josh knows Senator Ricky Rafferty is a woman! The only reason to have Josh say "him" here is a deliberate misdirection by Cahn to lie to us, the audience, and keep us from figuring out the identity of the woman at the bar until she wants to spring it on us. That's an almost unforgivable trick - it kind of makes me actually angry, to have such a blatant lie written into Josh's dialogue just to hide the truth from us until the "proper" dramatic time. 

(And of course, shooting Margaret strategically to hide from us the fact she's pregnant until Josh notices is another example of the episode cheating with us watching at home.)

I'll just quickly touch on the storyline of the entire episode here. It's a rare case where the Santos/Vinick/Russell/Hoynes campaign storyline intersects with the Bartlet administration storyline, after generally alternating for the past few episodes. 

Toby, completely dissatisfied with the Democratic primary field, secretly gets some discarded elements of Bartlet's first campaign to Senator Rafferty and helps her jump into the primary as a spoiler (and as a mouthpiece for Toby's own progressive views). Then, his astronaut brother David dies. We are fed little tidbits along the way, that David had been sick, that his death was a surprise - but it's eventually sprung on us that he killed himself rather than deal with fighting his cancer. 

 All the Democratic candidates come to Washington for a DNC gala, and while those with a connection to the Bartlet White House (Josh and Will, specifically) make an effort to stop by and link their candidates with a Presidential endorsement, they find themselves stymied. Josh (who didn't know about David's death) is mystified at Toby's standoffish reaction to his visit, and after he discovers Toby's involvement in Rafferty's campaign, we get the explosive scuffle in Toby's office.

Meanwhile, CJ is trying to broker an agreement on water use in Western states, but a sharp talker from the Urban Development Lobby is standing in the way. That turns out to be Cliff Calley, who we remember from his time dating Donna in Ways And Means, serving as counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee during its investigation of the President's MS coverup in Bartlet For America and H. Con-172, and the guy who was able to stave off public exposure of Leo's 1998 alcohol relapse during congressional hearings. Leo suggests Calley might be a good addition to CJ's staff, particularly as a way to help catch up from Josh's absence, and after CJ discovers Calley's assessment of the political situation is exactly the same as Josh's, she reluctantly agrees.

There's also a cute little scene between Annabeth and Will, after Will asks her for some ideas on improving Russell's "package - er, I mean, packaging." Annabeth is so touched to be asked, to be recognized at being good at helping candidates with their image - it's really sweet. And it serves as foreshadowing for Season 7, by the way.

Then there's Kate and Charlie. Somebody Charlie knows from the gym asked him if Kate was seeing anyone, leading Charlie to wonder if perhaps Kate might be interested in getting fixed up on a date. Kate goes back and forth on the idea, finally agreeing to take the plunge, but after quite a bit of consideration she figures out why this particular guy may not be a good choice.

Charlie: "You do an NSC background check before every date? No wonder it's been slow."

Kate: "I'm not gonna do a background check, I just want to poke around a little at DOD."

Charlie: "He doesn't work at DOD."

Kate: "You said he worked with Keegan and Hach."

Charlie: "He plays ball with them, he works at State."

Kate: "What desk?"

Charlie: "Somewhere in South America, maybe Paraguay."

Kate: "Uruguay?"

Charlie: "Yes."

Kate: "Red hair?"

Charlie: "Yeah."

Kate: "Dick Van Dyke nose?"

Charlie: "You know him?"

Kate: "I used to be married to him." (she walks off, disappointed)

Charlie (realizing): "'Is Kate Harper seeing anyone?' I misunderstood the initial inquiry, didn't I?"

She goes to the gala on her own anyway, ready to "get back in the pool." This does lead us to a rather interesting (and also foreshadowy) moment. Will, desperate to not continue with repeated empty conversations with the other attendees, asks Kate if he can use her as an excuse to not talk to other people, but as they stand quietly munching grapes ... they each regard the other with building interest in what can only be interpreted as the romantic kind.

But all the other stuff is just seasoning for the real meat of the plot, which is Toby - Toby, trying desperately to deal with the feeling of being left alone, trying to cope with a world where his brother abandoned his entire family and a world where his friend just left to try to fix the world without his help. Toby, finally using his brother's glasses to maybe take a fresh look at the world, and perhaps reset his perception of how the world works around him.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- Richard Schiff famously wore a wedding ring right from the start of the series, making up his own backstory about Toby being a widower. Once Aaron Sorkin noticed the unmarried Toby was wearing a ring, he came up with the actual canon backstory of the former Mrs. Ziegler, Maryland Congresswoman Andy Wyatt. That led us eventually to the complicated story of Andy becoming pregnant with twins (using Toby's frozen sperm, we are left to conclude), Toby's failed efforts to re-propose (by buying a house), and the birth of said twins (Commencement and Twenty Five). At some point, Toby stopped wearing his ring (unlike Leo, who still sports his wedding band even after being divorced back in 2000 [The Portland Trip]). Sometime before Inauguration: Over There Toby was no longer wearing his ring; I don't know how much further back than that he actually took it off.

- This episode occurs right after the New Hampshire primary; the Globe article Matt is reading references "last week's debate," which we saw about to start in Freedonia and happened two days before the primary.

 

- The direction and camera movements in this episode really call all kinds of attention to themselves, which is somewhat surprising given that it's West Wing veteran Alex Graves behind the camera. There's a lot of constant camera movement here ... a lot. It almost never stands still. Not only do we get repeated use of the patented West Wing camera-spinning-around-the-characters shot (most effectively used in the three Debbie Fiderer scenes as she keeps the campaign staffers from getting in to see the President, but also seen many, many other times too), the handheld shaky-cam in Toby's office for the fight, the guy-moving-in-front-of-the-camera-to-mask-the-scene-change gimmick:

 

we also get the ever-moving low-angle camera shots circling characters and jumping from place to place at the DNC gala as a jazz combo plays Take Five (although I believe the version we hear is actually Dave Brubeck's recording - another little cheat). Another camera gimmick that calls attention to itself is at the bar with Toby and Rafferty, as the shot alternates between the two the camera starts with a high-angle shot, slowly moving downward (from each angle, identically) until it's basically head-on with the characters. It's kind of cool, but what's the point? Is Graves just doing this because he can? Because he's gotten bored with shooting West Wing episodes and he's digging into his bag of tricks? Or is he making most of the episode look manic and disjointed to illustrate Toby's feelings of abandonment and unease, making the audience feel that as well, and contrast that with the quiet, still scene with CJ and Toby after the fight? That may be giving him a little too much credit, but he is a really good director, so maybe?

- Speaking of Debbie's scenes fending off the campaign staffers, it's pretty funny to see her talking about her potential treatments for her back pain go from "shiatsu" to "yoga" to, finally, "heroin" - that last comment gets a little reaction out of Donna. "Really?" she says.

- We learned in Freedonia that Matt Santos "bombed" in the Iowa caucuses. Here we discover Santos got 19% of the votes in the New Hampshire primary, finishing a strong third (behind Russell and Hoynes, I'm guessing). It's also very cute to see Matt's upbeat mood, singing Alison to Josh the first time we see him and joking around with Josh at the DNC gala.

- Donna lists off the staffers who worked on the original Bartlet health care plan during the first campaign - Josh, Toby, Sam, Melanie, and Ken. We don't know who Melanie and Ken are ... and whatever happened to Mandy, anyway?

- Gail's fishbowl is empty, except for Gail.

- Why'd They Come Up With Drought Conditions?

The obvious reference is to Cliff Calley saying the proposed Western water plan would just "allow the federal government to ignore drought conditions in eleven states for another five years," and then his later comment about other droughts across the globe. A deeper dive might be a comparison to Toby's fragile state, as he's suffering emotional "drought conditions" after he feels left behind by everybody he cares about.

Quotes    

Josh: "New Hampshire was a coup for us, you're the Cinderella story, everybody should be writing about you."

Matt (singing): "My aim is true ..."

Josh: "There's only room for one scrappy insurgency, we're it."

Matt (leaning in to Josh's face, singing): "My aim is true."

Josh: "You're not going to kiss me, are you?"

-----

CJ: "This lack of Josh is becoming a problem."

Leo: "You thinking about a replacement?"

CJ: "I've been working under the assumption we'd get him back, I never thought Santos would hang on this long." 

----- 

Kate: "Diplomatic mission to Mali?"

CJ: "Bali?"

Kate: "Mali with an M."

CJ: "Not Bali with a Hai?"

Kate: "No."

CJ: "I thought maybe you had a cold."

-----

Kate: "He works for the government?"

Charlie: "It's DC, he's not the only one."

Kate: "I just thought maybe he was a regular person."

Charlie: "Sorry."

Kate: "You really don't want to roll out of bed with drool on your face and a little bit of a hangover, and change your drawers in the car and show up at the office only to find last night's strategic error in your 9 a.m. strategic planning session."

Charlie: "Tell me I'm not having this conversation."

-----

Cliff: "I was summoned?"

CJ: "You were. Sit."

Cliff: "Heel."

CJ: "Excuse me?"

Cliff: "I was just seeing if it works both ways ... It doesn't."

-----

CJ: "I'm hiring you to work at the White House. I looked into what you said about desalination and I think you've got a point. I'm still concerned you may be soulless but we can work on that."

Cliff: "Yeah, I turned you down."

CJ: "Nobody turns us down, we're like the Mob but less violent. Ultimately responsible for more death and destruction, but still ..."

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

• Mel Harris (thirtysomething, Saints And Sinners) appears as the mysterious woman flirting with Toby at the bar, who is eventually revealed as Senator Ricky Rafferty.

• Cliff Calley (Mark Feuerstein) returns, first seen as the blind date Ainsley set Donna up with in Ways And Means, later the attorney questioning Donna over her journal in War Crimes, and as the counsel for the House committee in Bartlet For America questioning Leo about the coverup of President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis during his first campaign. As Leo mentions in this episode, it was Calley who maneuvered the committee (and Rep. Gibson) away from exposing Leo's drinking relapse just before the 1998 election. Leo says, "I'm talking about a guy who shut down an investigation of my substance abuse history because he thought maybe we should be governing the country."
  

• When Cliff first steps into the Mural Room to meet with CJ and Leo he stops and says something about "deja vu." As far as I can remember, Cliff never was in the White House in his appearances in Ways And Means, War Crimes, Bartlet For America, or H. Con-172.

• And there's Greg Brock (Sam Robards)! Brock, the New York Times White House reporter who first appeared in Full Disclosure, hasn't been seen for a while, which is kind of surprising since in Opposition Research we found out he was covering Josh's story as Santo's campaign manager in New Hampshire.

• Toby's bafflement at Josh picking Matt Santos, of all people, as the guy to back in a run for President was really brought to the fore in Faith Based Initiative, when he suggested one of Josh's planks in his "nine point plan" had to be a military junta. And Toby's disappointment at Josh leaving the White House really came out with this exchange in that episode:

Toby: "You can't skip out with the President lying flat on his back - seven years, you're gonna leave us with a candygram and a get-well card?"

Josh: "Someone's gotta think about the ninth year."

• Hey, it's that background actor, the one with the glasses and the flattop haircut, the one that's popped up again and again in the background of West Wing scenes for five-plus years! We haven't seen him since he was watching Penn and Teller do magic tricks in the Communications bullpen in In The Room, but here he is at the lobby checkpoint entry while Josh is being kept out by Margaret.

• Of course we know the special relationship Josh and Donna have had, ever since the beginning of the series. We touch on that when Donna pulls Josh into the closet to tell him about the details of Rafferty's health care plan, as Josh says in the dark, "Is our relationship about to change?"
  

• We've also known that CJ and Toby have been friends for a long time, and their interactions over the past five seasons show us that they have a special connection. In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II first let us know that they'd known each other before the campaign, and things like Toby comforting CJ after the revelations of Full Disclosure and lots of other telling comments over the years have solidified that connection for us. Which makes this little throwaway at the DNC gala quite a bit more meaningful:

 CJ: "Can this be one of those nights where we get sloshed and forget that we work together?"

Toby: "Wow, that would be lovely."

• Josh tells Matt he's standing between Clarkson and Rafferty for the photo op at the DNC gala. We've heard about Clarkson being one of the other Democratic primary candidates before. 

 

DC location shots    

• None.

 

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

• Good-mood Matt Santos is singing Elvis Costello's 1977 song Alison. He's happy about the positive Newsweek magazine article written by (the fictitious) Allison Wexler, which is his inspiration for singing that song.
  

• Ned brings Matt a copy of the Boston Globe. Slate and Newsweek are also mentioned in the discussion between Ned, Josh, and Matt.
  

• When Kate is pestering Charlie about the guy at the gym, a couple of real-life names come up.

Kate: "What's he look like?"

Charlie: "Like a white guy."

Kate: "A pasty white guy?"

Charlie: "He's Brad Pitt. He's Henry Kissinger."

• The M&Ms with the Presidential seal are actually a thing.
  

• Josh talks about Meet The Press and complains about them trying to bump Matt's appearance for Ricky Rafferty.
  

• Kate uses Dick Van Dyke's nose as a way to identify her ex-husband as the guy Charlie is trying to fix her up with.
  

• Matt's joking around with Josh - "Let's take a minute and remember where we came from." "I can't remember ... I was born a poor black child ... close, but no" - is a direct reference to the 1979 Steve Martin movie The Jerk. His "I was born in the bayou?" references the Creedence Clearwater Revival song Born On The Bayou.
  

End credits freeze frame: CJ offering Toby ice and a cloth in Toby's office.

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