Sunday, February 25, 2024

The Mommy Problem - TWW S7E2

 




Original airdate: October 2, 2005

Written by: Eli Attie (16)

Directed by: Alex Graves (27)

Synopsis
  • An overworked Josh tries to keep the Santos campaign on-message, but issues with national security leaks, broken beds, and Marine Reserves training make that impossible. Josh brings on a new media consultant. Greg Brock goes to prison.


"We're gonna beat him on security issues; we're gonna beat him on domestic issues; we're gonna beat him on trivia, too." 



We start with an energetic kickoff of Matt Santos and wildly enthusiastic crowds as he campaigns in the Northwest - Bram even tells us "He's on fire" - but we quickly grind into quicksand and see the campaign spinning its wheels as the trivia and minutiae and out-of-their-control headlines bog everything down. And, as it turns out, a considerable amount of that quicksand is actually Josh-generated!
 
Josh starts us off with his three boxes that make up a Presidential campaign:
 

He automatically cedes the security/military box to Vinick. As he tells his staff, "Democrats don't beat Republicans on security issues. I know it's phony. I know it's frustrating. But we have to stay in the box that we can win." That box is the domestic/economic box, and that's what Josh wants Matt to hit hard and nonstop. Matt has already built a lead on Vinick on those issues, and if they keep that box in the forefront of voters' minds, they win. The third box is trivia, that "out-of-their-control" stuff.

Unfortunately we get steered out of the domestic box instantly when word breaks that the White House is going to give up their internal investigation into the national security leak about the secret military shuttle (exactly what Oliver Babish proposed in The Ticket), and instead will just cooperate with the dual investigations being conducted by Congress and the Attorney General. Immediately Josh sees this making the Democrats (including Santos) look weak on defense and security, giving Vinick a huge boost and putting that box into the front of voters' minds. 
 
A quick mention of the White House portion of this episode ... the main conversation is how Greg Brock is refusing to cooperate with the grand jury, refusing to name the source for his story about the secret military shuttle, and how CJ is desperately trying to avoid talking to him. Until he shows up in her office, asking about day care options for his daughter while he's in prison. It turns out he's been found guilty of contempt and must report immediately to a minimum security prison in Maryland. 
 
Let me talk about this a moment. That whole scene strikes me as contrived, in an odd off-target story-creation sort of way. Why would Brock insist on coming to CJ's office to give her this news, especially considering how Babish considers her the prime suspect as the leaker? Are they actually having a secret relationship? Are they just really good friends, and he wanted to give her the news personally? How is having him in her office helpful to her as a target of the investigation? And then CJ stops him from walking out of the office, forcefully telling him, "Just name your source." First off, Brock would never give up his source, he'd consider that a breach of his journalistic responsibility - why does CJ think asking him to do that will work? Secondly, if CJ is actually the source, and she's begging Brock to give her up ... why wouldn't she just come forward? What benefit accrues anybody from Greg Brock becoming a reporter who can't be trusted just so CJ doesn't turn herself in? This is one of the pieces of the puzzle that I think torpedoes the fan theories about CJ and the leak, but that's a story to be resolved another day.

But basically - why the hell would Greg Brock throw even more suspicion on CJ by personally coming to her office just before he reports to prison? And why would CJ even ask him to turn in his source, when she has to know he'd never, ever do that?

Oh, well ... in addition to this security problem for the Santos campaign, the trivia distractions just keep coming, too. Josh's attempts to shield Matt from press inquiries about the White House's decision only lead to the press drawing the conclusion that Santos is taking naps during lunchtime; the press gets hold of a photograph of a Cleveland hotel bed that was trashed (heck, destroyed is probably a better word) the night Matt stayed there - the one night Helen was able to visit and share the evening with her husband, if you follow what we're laying down here; and while Josh is first overjoyed when Matt is called to complete his Marine Reserve flight training, that boost in the security box gets reversed when he is told that Matt has postponed his training some 40% of the time in the past.

The hotel bed thing is a humorous little sidetrack, especially the look on the faces when Ned brings the actual photograph of the demolished bed:

Bram: "He demolished his bed."

Lou: "Demolished it?"

Josh: "It was his wife's only night on the road. It was an old, wooden bed: slats, hand-cranks, what have you."

Lou: "Hand-cranks?"

Josh: "And what have you."

Lou: "Look, as much as I respect good craftsmanship, I'm still not clear about what happened."

Josh: "They broke it together. Get it?"

(Ned brings in the wire service photograph. Everyone gathers around and looks at it)

Ned: "The wire photo's out."

Lou: "Oh, my."

Bram: "Hurricane Santos."

Josh: "You repeat that outside this room and I'll have you knocking on doors in Alaska, and not the urban part."

Meanwhile, as Josh is told (again) that he really needs to delegate instead of taking on all the work of running the campaign, he comes up against Lou Thornton, a media consultant who has run primary campaigns against several of Josh's candidates in the past (and won). Josh doesn't like Lou very much, and he really doesn't like the fact she's not shy about pointing out how Josh's decisions to stay safe and not go negative are just dulling whatever undefined message the campaign is putting out. Josh is smart enough to realize that having a different perspective presented can help Matt navigate some of the rough patches of the campaign, such as what they're going through right now. He brings Lou along as the campaign swings into Florida, so she can meet Matt and he can decide if he wants her on the campaign.

Lou is equally brusque and direct with Matt in their short meeting, but Santos finds that refreshingly important. As Josh tries an old law school study trick (belting himself into a chair until he comes up with an idea to break the campaign out of the trap it finds itself in):


Matt breezes in to say he's bringing Lou onboard - but Josh won't be able to serve as a filter for her views, she's going to report directly to the candidate. Josh forgets his legs aren't available to stand on as he tries to react:

 
Even so, the thinking is that the campaign should continue status quo, staying positive, focusing on the economy, and Matt should resign his commission with the Marines and forego the Reserve training that would only look like a stunt. But two things happen simultaneously: Josh and Lou see a tracking poll that shows the public isn't actually all that happy with the administration's decision to shut down their own investigation; and Matt decides to take the option to speed up his training and report a day or two early.

The tracking poll information gives Matt the chance to address the national security issue, staking his claim of what he'd do in that situation while at the same time backhandedly supporting President Bartlet and his 66% approval rating. And he does it in the typical crafty Matt Santos style, just like he got his health care bill through in The Dover Test and how he outsmarted Speaker Haffley in A Good Day - he goes to the press pool to make a statement, only to make a joke about the bed's steel reinforcement. But that opens the door for reporters to ask about the White House:

Reporter: "Still no comment about the President stopping his investigation?"
 
Matt, who has turned to leave, stops, a tiny little smile playing on his face. The press has taken his bait.
 
 
He turns back to the reporters.
 
Matt: "You know, if that were my White House, I'd call in the FBI. I would do everything in my power to cooperate with both the Congress and the grand jury. I'd play it by the law, not by politics. In case you haven't noticed, that's exactly what this President is doing."
 
Well played, Congressman. Meanwhile, as Josh comes to Matt to tell him he should go ahead with the Reserve training, Matt reveals he's already rerouted the plane to Fort Worth, that he's already agreed with the Marines to get there and do his training, before his past postponements even come out as an issue. And he tells Josh why this is important to him.
Matt: "Look out the window."

Josh (peering through the glass): "That's the Rocky Mountains. You turned the plane around?"

Matt: "We're going to Fort Worth. The Marine commandant in Washington was my CO in the Gulf. He said I could get it out of the way right now if I wanted to. You know, I didn't have so much as a high school diploma in my gene pool. That commission is the reason I'm on this plane. I'm not giving it up."

Then Matt goes to Josh's whiteboard of boxes.

Matt: "We're gonna beat him on security issues; we're gonna beat him on domestic issues; we're gonna beat him on trivia, too." 

And the episode concludes with footage of Matt flying fighter jets, wearing his Marine uniform, as a reenergized Josh and his staff work to keep the campaign driving forward.

Well, actually it concludes with the Republican candidate Vinick, still working his crowds, still a looming presence over the underdog Santos campaign, always there on TV.

(Interestingly, the second episode in a row where the only appearance by Alan Alda is via a TV screen in-universe. We'll get quality time with the real, live Vinick soon enough.)

Not a great episode - lots of memorable little bits, that I usually think of as being in several different episodes, but they're all together in this one - but a solid entry in the early campaign story.

 


Tales Of Interest!

- This is another one of those episodes that has a lot of memorable moments that I always think happen across several episodes, but no - they're all here. The frenetic campaign montage rocking out to Jet Airliner? That's here. The bed Matt and Helen break at the hotel in Cleveland? This one. The Reserve training with Matt on the flightline getting a leg up with media coverage of his military experience? Yep, right here.
 
- We get no Charlie in this episode, no Leo, no Will, no Donna, and no President Bartlet. In fact, starting with this episode, the opening credits do not include Dulé Hill, Joshua Malina, or Janel Moloney if they do not actually appear in that episode. While this episode does focus on the campaign, there are several scenes in the White House with Toby and CJ (and Margaret, and Carol), but not those other primary cast members.
 
John Spencer as Leo appeared in every single episode of the first five seasons of The West Wing (including The Long Goodbye, where we saw him for an instant preparing to go into the Oval Office, but he had no lines). He did not appear in four campaign episodes of Season 6. Of course he'll be a key part of the upcoming Santos campaign, as the VP candidate, until a tragic real-life event strikes in December 2005.
 
Dulé Hill as Charlie debuted in the third episode of the series, A Proportional Response. With the exception of Take Out The Trash Day in Season 1, he appeared in every episode through Season 5, then did not appear in five campaign episodes of Season 6. Hill has been in the credits of every single West Wing episode since his first appearance ... until this one. We did see Charlie in the flash-forward opening of The Ticket, but he will only appear in five other episodes over the course of Season 7 (Dulé Hill was trying to branch out into movie roles as The West Wing wound down, and started filming his role in the series Psych in the spring of 2006).

Like Charlie, we saw Will (now a Congressman) in the season-opening flash-forward, but he hasn't appeared since. That actually makes sense, as he'd be back in Vice President Russell's office and out of the way of both the West Wing national security leak and the campaign storylines. He'll get back into the swing of the series after a few more episodes. Donna, of course, is currently drifting along jobless, after the Russell campaign lost and Josh refused to bring her on in The Ticket. She'll eventually get back on her feet.
 
- As per usual, the showrunners are completely screwing up the timeline as they present it. We saw in The Ticket that they put "105 Days Until Election Day" on the screen, which would have meant July 25, 2006 (105 days before November 7, 2006) - obviously that can't be correct, as July 25 is actually before the "178" days remaining in the Bartlet administration (from Leo's whiteboard) that we saw during the Republican convention in Things Fall Apart. The "101 Days Until Election Day" (and later "100 Days Until Election Day") that we see onscreen in this episode tracks with The Ticket (this episode is indeed about four days after those events), but that would mean July 29 and 30 - again, before the Democratic convention actually got rolling in 2162 Votes.

Just about everything we get about the timeline here matches in general with what we already know - 12 days ago Josh says they thought they were going to be unemployed, which would match with the Democratic convention starting 12 days ago; we hear the convention ended eight days ago, which matches with The Ticket being four days after the convention. So those all go together ... except for the onscreen "101/100" days countdown. Jeepers, people, just change the freaking number of days left!

If we go from the 178 day countdown of Leo's whiteboard in Things Fall Apart (178 days left until January 20, 2007), that puts the Republican convention happening July 25. With the Democratic convention coming the following week, July 31 through August 3, then The Ticket was August 7 and this episode is August 11-12. That all makes sense, we can just change the onscreen countdown to "89 Days Until The Election," and we're good to go.

And then, everything gets thrown topsy-turvy again. Josh says the letter that calls Matt up for Reserve training expects him to report "in two days - the Tuesday after Labor Day." All of a sudden that means we're at Sunday, September 3. How did three weeks evaporate just like that? And 100 days from the Sunday before Labor Day puts Election Day at apparently December 12, 2006? All of these things cannot be true!!!

- Toby misspeaks when he's talking about the International Space Station news. He says, "NASA just announced the astronauts fixed the space shuttle all by themselves," when it was the ISS, not the shuttle, that was in need of repair to fix the oxygen leak.

- The fast-paced frenetic campaign montage with the Steve Miller Band's Jet Airliner playing is really a great way to portray how much of a nonstop roller coaster ride campaigning can be. It also gives us the impression that we are seeing multiple days pass (the campaign montage contains scenes in daylight to darkness and back again, beginning in Olympia at night and then showing us Portland in daylight hours) ... towards the end of the episode as they are flying from Florida to California (which Matt reroutes to Fort Worth) we get the graphic "100 Days Until Election Day," indicating everything we've seen happened in one day. This, however, is seemingly impossible - the "101 Days" is shown during Matt's nighttime speech in Olympia, which is followed by his daytime appearance in Portland, which is then followed by his trip to Florida. Unless he flies to Florida the same day he appeared in Portland, which seems doubtful considering the full day they put in between Jacksonville and Tampa, the days simply don't add up.
 
- Director Alex Graves also gives us multiple, multiple instances of the old West Wing camera-rotating-around-our-characters gimmick.

- While Josh's joke is pretty lame, I love the moment in the meeting with the media consultants where he says, "This is probably the greatest assemblage of Democratic talent since the last time Jed Bartlet dined alone." The line is met with stony silence by the consultants, but as soon as Kenny translates the joke to Joey, she breaks out into a guffaw.


That joke is attributed to President John F. Kennedy, who said at a dinner honoring Nobel Prize recipients, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

- We see a TV news van for WPKW in the background when Josh arrives in Florida. WPKW is not an actual TV station, but interestingly those call letters were used for a fictional TV station in the CW series The Vampire Diaries that aired between 2009 and 2017.
 
 
- When Matt was introduced before speaking at the convention in 2162 Votes, we heard he was a proud graduate of the Air Force Academy. I mentioned in that blog entry that that was highly unlikely, given he served as a Marine (which is most closely tied to the US Navy), and in Opposition Research we were told he graduated first in his class at the Naval Academy. That is verified here when Lou says, "You went to Annapolis for free."

- Matt's Marine pilot callsign is "Badger."

- Gail's fish bowl - is it the White House?


- Why'd They Come Up With The Mommy Problem?
Josh explains "the mommy problem" to the staff during a telephone conversation with Matt, after Joey brings it up:

Josh: "When the voters want a national daddy, someone to be tough and strong and defend the country they vote Republican; when they want a mommy to give them jobs, health care, the policy equivalent of matzo ball soup, they vote Democratic."

The throughline of most of the episode is Josh's conceding of national security/military issues to Vinick and his trying to keep the Santos campaign focused on jobs, tech, and the economy; it becomes unexpectedly flipped when Matt is called up for his Reserves training and is able to show his commitment to national defense and the military (and contrast that with Vinick, who never served in the armed forces).



Quotes    
Margaret: "They want to line the President's signing table with a great big row of --"

CJ: "Little flags."

Margaret: "Yes."

CJ: "And the message is?"

Margaret: "This is America."

CJ: "Not to be unpatriotic, but they do realize this is a fisheries bill."

Margaret: "You'd like them to come up with --"

CJ: "A sign, a slogan, something a little more specific than a great big row of --"

Margaret: "Little flags."

CJ: "Thank you."

(CJ goes into her office, Margaret thinks a moment, and then --) 

Margaret: "Little fish."

-----

Ned: "The New York Post wants to know if we canceled the foreign policy lunch to keep Santos away from the leak story."

Josh: "Tell them no, not everything's a conspiracy."

Ned: "But you changed the town hall to a reverse town hall because ...?"

Josh: "Certain things are conspiracies. I need sexier economic policy for the reverse town hall."

----- 

Josh: "I'm running a national campaign here."

Joey: "By yourself?"

Josh: "Joey, twelve days ago we thought we were going on unemployment, we barely got the nomination, we spent the last four days arguing with the press over Leo's cholesterol level, I delegate plenty."

Joey (through Kenny): "Name one thing you've delegated."

Josh: "I would never have chosen this paint color."

-----

Lou: "All I know about Santos is what the country knows. He's smart and he's cute. That is hardly the stuff of global leadership."

Josh: "It's better than fat and dumb."

Lou: "That's such a good bumper sticker. You don't need me!"

-----

Lou: "You saw Vinick on TV this morning. Clearly it wasn't about content, but he was tough and he was authentic. He was Neil Young to your Neil Diamond."

Josh: "I like Neil Diamond."

Lou: "I'm sure you do."

-----

Ned: "You heard about the siesta story."

Josh: "When I said tell the Post we cancel lunches all the time, the point wasn't to emphasize --"

Ned: "That we cancel lunches all the time?"

Josh: "Right."

Ned: "Kind of a fine-line situation."

Josh: "Not really."

 



Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)
  • Ivan Allen, the newscaster who's been seen lots and lots of times since his first appearance in A Proportional Response, is back several times here. Allen has made a living playing a news anchor in TV shows and films, like Sicario, Apollo 13, and many others.

  • Let's not forget Otto, another staffer on the Santos campaign, played by Ramón De Ocampo (12 Monkeys TV series, xXx: State Of The Union).

  • The introduction of Janeane Garofalo (Mystery Men, The Truth About Cats And Dogs, Wet Hot American Summer) as Lou Thornton, a pain in Josh's side but an important voice as the Santos' campaign's new communications consultant.

  • Nancy, the presidential secretary played by Martin Sheen's daughter Renée Estevez, makes another appearance.

  • The reporter Gordon, who we first remember from getting pranked by CJ when she appeared to be asking him to help her make a baby in Slow News Day, is back on the campaign trail following Santos.

  • Greg Brock (Sam Robards) returns briefly, on his way to prison. Brock first arrived as part of the White House press corps in Full Disclosure.

  • We saw David Garrison (Married ... With Children, The Practice) as an MSNBC talking head in The Ticket. He's back, and now has a name - Mike Diacovo.

  • The mention of stopping the White House internal investigation of the leak, instead cooperating with Congress and the Attorney General; Josh complaining about the White House dealing away the campaign's education plan; the remark about Leo's cholesterol levels being a topic for the press over the past few days; and Josh's general failure to delegate any kind of important campaign duty are all topics we saw introduced in The Ticket.
  • Bruno Gianelli is mentioned as a possibility to bring on the campaign to help Josh. Obviously Josh and the Santos staffers are clueless about Bruno's work with Arnie Vinick that we saw in In God We Trust.


DC location shots    
  • None. The "Fort Worth" Marine fighter jet sequence was filmed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego.

They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    
  • Matt tells the press that Popular Mechanics magazine in 1949 predicted that "in the future, computers will weigh no more than 1 1/2 tons." The March 1949 issue actually did say something like that, although the actual quote was comparing the giant ENIAC computer of the day to future devices, saying, "... computers in the future may have only 1000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh only 1 1/2 tons."


  • MSNBC, CNN, Meet The Press, The New York Post, Time magazine are all media outlets that get mentioned.

  • Toby says Vinick's statement about finding the leaker and throwing them in federal prison is a "plan to turn the federal government into an episode of Dragnet."
  • When Matt pranks Josh with the made-up story about Bruce, the flight attendant in Cleveland, he refers to Aer Lingus.
  • When Lou is chewing out Josh over his strategy, she says, "You're the problem. Not some box on a grid, not the Marine Reserves ... no negative campaigning, no outside opinions within five miles of the candidate, no deviation from some Jonestown-like obsession with your pals at the White House. When are you gonna stop drinking the Kool-Aid?"
  • Brock tells CJ the news of his contempt charge "should be on Fox by now."
  • Lou compares Matt's Reserve duty to "playing GI Joe."
  • Josh sarcastically calls Matt "the Latin Luther Vandross" as he, Edie, and Lou bemoan Vinick getting the upper hand on the day's press.
  • Lou says, "Make way on Mount Rushmore" in referring to President Bartlet as being revered, but also points out he goofed with the national security leak investigation.
  • Matt is seen climbing into an F/A-18 Marine fighter jet for his Reserve training. Although if you notice, the nose number on the plane he gets into is 15; the first plane we see taxiing out has the number 00; and the next time we see it it has the number 01. 


 


End credits freeze frame: Matt on the Marine flightline with a couple of other pilots.



Previous episode: The Ticket
Next episode: Message Of The Week
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