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.

Previous episode: Freedonia

Next episode: A Good Day