Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Undecideds - TWW S7E8

 





Original airdate: December 4, 2005

Written by: Debora Cahn (12) 

Directed by: Christopher Misiano (25)

Synopsis
  • A police shooting of a child heightens racial divides and may divide Santos' campaign. Tensions mount between Russia and China over Kazakhstan. Josh's visit to Toby doesn't end well. And Ellie's wedding plans end up going through Will, for some reason.


"You don't have to say the right thing, which conveniently doesn't exist, but you do have to say something from your heart."



This one is a dense, thickly plotted episode, as once again The West Wing tries to solve an impossible issue in the span of 43 minutes, with a main character giving a nuanced yet stirring address to a skeptical crowd that turns their opinion around. I'm willing to give a little bit on this one, though, because Matt is also fighting his own demons here. This isn't a savior on a white horse riding in to save the day by telling all parties what they should do, like President Bartlet wanted to do with the Middle East in NSF Thurmont, this is a conflicted man caught up in internal turmoil trapped in a corner and somehow, someway, finding the right path out.
 
In general, though, it's a gloomy, glum, brooding episode with old friends sniping at each other and trusted associates dropping the ball. We've got glares, we've got disappointments, we've got grumpy indicted colleagues saying their friend made a stupid decision. Not even Matt's soaring call for compassion at the church is quite enough to brighten this real downer, but it comes close.
 
And not even the D plot, the one that's supposed to be the humorous leavening in this heavy meal, not even that provides much in the way of fun. Ellie and Vic's wedding is spinning out of control, they can't get anything they actually want for the ceremony (not even Ellie's dress!), there are going to be 740 guests there neither of them know, and Ellie doesn't even have CJ there to help her. She has Will - not ideal for anybody, to be honest. And let's face it, having wedding plans devolve into this mess isn't funny, it's sad.

Let's begin there. CJ is coming into the White House on a Saturday morning to spend an hour or so with Ellie to help with some of the wedding plans. Unfortunately, when international affairs rudely step in, CJ has to farm out the wedding task to Will, who's also there for some reason. This does not go well. From narrowing down the guest list (which doesn't really get narrowed down) to the food choices (Margaret is on point with the foods to avoid for Ellie's pregnancy, which apparently only Margaret is aware of) to, eventually, the dress, everything goes awry - and it's really sad and frustrating to see, not humorous and happy!

Will: "Ellie's in tears, I've ruined her wedding, someone else needs to take over."

CJ: "Is Margaret not out there?"

Will: "You need to step in. Sorry about Central Asia, but it's been a disaster for years, you're really not going to fix it today."

 (Margaret enters carrying two wedding dresses)

CJ: "Oh good, maybe you can help Will."

Margaret: "Shirley stopped by, the social secretary. You need to talk to her about the dress."

Will: "I really don't."

Margaret: "Apparently Ellie bought a dress all on her own, which is sweet, but it's got applique flowers on it, which Shirley's worried about."

CJ: "I'm sure it's lovely."

Margaret: "There's some concern that they may have been hand-stitched in Saipan by (whispering) little slave children."
 
And, surprise, it's Ted Barrow of all people who figures out Ellie is pregnant ... which doesn't end up having that big of an emotional affect on anybody.

CJ: "Salmon's out, and so is swordfish and tuna and brie, which Margaret seems to think is a fish as well."

Barrow: "She's pregnant?"

CJ: "Excuse me?"

Barrow: "Swordfish, tuna, soft cheeses ... am I the only one in the room with kids?"

CJ: "Tell her we'll find her something with an empire waist."

Will: "I don't even know what that means."

Barrow: "In the service of your country, son."
 

That little international affair that pulled CJ away from helping Ellie and Vic? The situation in Kazakhstan is starting to spin out of control. If you remember from Mr. Frost, an intelligence advisor predicted the assassination of Chairman Farad in the West Bank would lead to assassinations of the President of the Kazakhstan and an oil company executive, predictions that were laughed out of the White House ... until Kazakh President Isetov was indeed assassinated. With Isetov replaced by a more Russian-friendly leader, concerns were growing that the oil-rich country might turn away from its growing associations with China and attach itself more clearly to Russia.

Kate tells CJ that is indeed the case. New Kazakh President Teremov has canceled an oil deal Isetov had made with China, and the Chinese are furious. Couple that with rising tensions and demonstrations in Kazakhstan over delayed elections and worries that the ethnic Chinese in the country might face mistreatment and things are getting dicey. It doesn't get better when the Chinese start troop movements near the Kazakhstan border. We're getting on the verge of a crisis, and this storyline isn't over yet.

While tensions grow in central Asia, things aren't much better at Toby's apartment in DC. Josh, in town to ask a favor of the White House, stops by to see how Toby is doing after his firing from the administration and his indictment over leaking the existence of the secret military space shuttle to the press. It's, well ... not a joyful reunion.


Toby is unhappy that none of his colleagues or friends have stopped by to see how he's doing. He's mad about the whole thing, of course - we think he believes he did the right thing in saving the astronauts on the space station but the consequences are pretty crappy. And he's irked thinking Josh only came by out of obligation, not out of friendship or concern ... and Toby shows his feelings by dumping all over Josh's current job, running Santos' campaign, telling him he picked the wrong guy and he's going to lose.

Toby: "You really think I brewed up some sort of Freudian fratricidal mania built around your success? You don't think I have anything other than that against the Democratic nominee for President?"

Josh: "Name something else, please."

Toby: "He's not Presidential material?"

Josh: "Why?"

Toby: "Why, because he left. He left Congress, he left Washington to go home and do small, important work. You had to haul him by the hair out of the family bed. Did you never stop to wonder if that was a good choice?"

Josh: "He stepped up. When presented with the opportunity --"

Toby: "Man in that job shouldn't have to be presented with anything! It's for someone who grabs it and holds onto it! For someone who, who thinks the gods have conspired to bring him to this place, that destiny demands of him this service! You don't have that kind of drive, that hubris, how in the hell are you going to make the kind of decisions that stump every other person in this country? How in the hell are you going to hold that kind of power in your hands?"

Josh: "You don't know he's not that man!"

Toby: "You don't know that he is."

To be fair, this at least is a consistent and considered reason for Toby to think this way. We've seen him be dismissive of Matt from the very beginning, not considering him a serious candidate, trying to get a challenger in the primary race to steal the health care issue away (Drought Conditions), and actually getting angry at Josh for leaving Toby behind at the White House for what Toby thinks is a futile, wasted effort. This conversation here lays out the fact that Toby believes the most important trait for a Presidential candidate is he has to want it more than anything in the world, he has to believe he's been chosen for this role, and if you have to be talked into it or dragged along into running you're automatically not worthy. You can argue the point, but at least you can see the logic in it.

And some of that reluctance gets reflected in our A story, the main plotline of the episode, but (I think) a reluctance that's outlined in a very well-written way. A 12-year-old Black boy, Ronnie Burke, is shot and killed by a policeman in Los Angeles, a policeman who happens to be Latino. Now, you may or may not know about some of the divisions between the Black community and the Latino community in cities like L.A., and while the show can't give us a full-scale education on that topic, Edie and Lester can give us a bit of the background.

Lou: "The two speeches where we take sides go in the garbage. We are a community divided."

Lester: "Oh, you don't want to say that."

Edie: "It's two communities, not one."

Lester: "Different identities, different issues."

Donna: "Maybe it's a 'we must face our differences' thing."

Lester: "That's just a way of saying Blacks hate Latinos and Latinos hate Blacks."

Edie: "Which is kinda true but shouldn't be said."

Lester: "It's not true."

Edie: "Yeah, it's a little true."

Lester: "Perhaps some of the folks are a little riled about the coming in and the taking of the jobs."

Edie: "Well, who do you know that wanted an avocado-picking job? You know how hot it is out there?"

Lester: "Yeah. We had about enough of picking with the cotton."
 
Matt is already scheduled to make an appearance at a Black church in Los Angeles, a church not far from where Burke lived, and the decision is made to go ahead with that visit and try to say something about the issue. This puts Matt in an incredibly uncomfortable position - as a Latino candidate for President, there's already resentment by much of the Black community over a Latino getting a chance to run before an African-American; not to mention the overall tension between the two communities.

Lou is uncertain about the plan as well, particularly when the idea is floated to pay a visit to the Burke family to show Matt's respects. And when Lou puts it the way she does after Matt suggests using a psalm from the Bible in his speech - "They don't want you to close your eyes and pray. They want you to open your eyes and lead" - now Matt's resentment is growing.

The visit to the Burke house does not go well. An angry family member storms into the house and demands the motorcade leave, demands they free up the street so other family members can actually be there for the grieving mother. 
Man: "You need to take your people out of here and get your cars off the street so her sister can get up the block and into this house. The family needs to be here, you do not."

Matt: "Sir, I just wanted to let you and your family know how very sorry I am for your loss."

(The man steps toward Matt, raising a finger)

Man: "You should know better."

Lou knows she's screwed up, feeling that her handling of the issue over the weekend has been like "I just told the congressman it was his responsibility to solve the race problem in America, if possible, by noon tomorrow." Matt feels the overwhelming weight of that responsibility being asked of him, knows he's probably making things worse, and realizes he's trapped into being a symbol of so much he's not actually responsible for. 

After Helen tells Matt he needs to speak from his heart, he definitely unloads his lifetime of frustrations.

Matt: "Nobody wants to hear that, Helen. They want to hear what I have to say as the representative for every Latino man, woman, and child in the 50 United States. And let me tell you something: I'm frankly getting very tired of being responsible for every Jose Miguel Rodrigo Martinez de Lopez in America. I'm exhausted!"

Helen: "Nobody expects that."

Matt (anguished): "Of course they do! They want me to make sense out of all this. And you know what, Helen, I've got nothing. Why the hell do they shoot a kid who's trying to surrender? There's some guy on the scene who says the kid was trying to put his hands up in the air. The cop couldn't have waited, like, a half-second more before he fired? And who walks around South Central with a plastic M-16? Where did this kid think he was living, Martha's Vineyard? Nobody figured out that when you live in the ghetto, you carry around something else if you don't want to get your ass blown away? That's what I've got right now. You think that's going to make anyone feel better?"

And literally, with that, it's time to leave for the church service.

The final scene nearly redeems everything - it doesn't solve the race problem, it doesn't address the deeper issues behind the divisions between Black and Latino, it doesn't make Matt into the all-knowing savior of the day: but when you couple it with the discussion he just had with Helen, with his despair over the tragedy, with his frustration over the weight being put on him, and with the fact he couldn't deliver any of the speeches prepared for him and simply - just as Helen told him to - spoke from his heart, it's at least a small window of positive energy in this overwhelmingly gloomy episode. And the stained-glass lighting of the congregation doesn't hurt, either.

Matt begins tentatively, facing a skeptical audience unwilling to buy into anything he says. But as he rolls into the topic of compassion, as he relates to listening to Dr. Martin Luther King speak on the radio, as he moves into the traditional call-and-response delivery of Black church pastors everywhere (okay, seriously, how did Matt figure out how to do that in the drive over from the hotel?) he wins us and the crowd over.

Matt: "We must know that we have made some progress, and blame will only destroy it. Blame will breed more violence, and we have had enough of that. Blame will not rid our streets of crime and drugs and fear, and we have had enough of that. Blame will not strengthen our schools, or our families, or our workforce. Blame will rob us of those things, and we have had enough of that."

And as he walks out of the church, the sound of the choir ringing in the air, he reaches for Helen's hand. Family, love, compassion - a nice ending as we fade out into a blindingly white screen. 



Tales Of Interest!

- Another rare instance of the episode's title screen not being simple white text on a black screen. Since Pilot (which didn't have a title screen at all) this is the 140th episode of The West Wing (not counting Documentary Special) ... just five of those 140 episodes have anything different from that black-screen white-text title card.
  • Twenty Five was black text on a white screen, just like this episode.
  • Third-Day Story and La Palabra both had the title text over video of the opening scene.
  • Opposition Research was black text over a grayish screen, which I suppose was meant to indicate the grayness of winter in New Hampshire.

Twenty Five opened with the white screen, as a reflection of the previous episode, Commencement, fading to white instead of black as Leo and Ron Butterfield were running to the residence. This episode also fades to white as Matt and Helen exit the church with the choir singing, as a reflection of its own title screen.

- Why, oh why, can't the writers of this series agree on their timelines? We know for a fact The Debate took place on a Sunday night, soon after Labor Day (Vinick challenged Matt with "How's Sunday night?" in The Al Smith Dinner, you can hear a TV report in the background of this episode saying, "Polling data released today after Sunday's debate," plus the debate episode aired live on a Sunday night, lol). That most likely puts that episode on Sunday, September 10, 2006.

At the start of this episode Lou and the Santos team are talking about the immediate post-debate poll bump, and we see TV news coverage about the debate - it would appear to be immediately afterward, like the next day. So it should be Monday, right? However, an on-screen caption tells us it's 52 days before the election, which means it's Saturday, September 16. Not even back in the misty time-forgotten pasts of 2005 does media polling work so slowly that it takes five full days to come up with numbers.

At least that date works with the setting of the episode (starting on a Saturday morning, with CJ and Will coming in to work in casual clothes and Kate being taken off the golf course ... "mini," actually), but it makes no sense to see all the debate poll talk and TV coverage that appears to be immediately following the debate, if it's been almost a week.

- The wedding planning appears to be going extraordinarily fast (especially considering the wedding takes place in the very next episode). I mean, yes, given we discover Ellie is pregnant at the same time she introduces her fiance Vic to her parents in Here Today, time is of the essence, but that occurred just three or four weeks prior to this episode. That's really fast for a White House wedding involving 800-some guests.

- It's a bit interesting that in the Situation Room, when Kate is briefing everyone about the Chinese troop movements on the Kazakhstan border, she uses Eastern Standard Time. In reality, you'd think she'd use UTC (or Zulu) time, that's the same across the globe, but even so ... this is mid September. The United States is still under Daylight Time, not Standard Time. EST wouldn't go into effect until October 29, 2006.

(If you're interested, Washington DC local time is five hours behind UTC, and China's Xinjiang Province is another six hours behind that, so 1:30 am EST would be 12:30 pm Xinjiang Time.)

- I really love the lighting choices inside the church, bathing the congregation in all those different colors, as if they were lit only by the sunlight coming through the stained glass windows.


- It looks like Gail's fishbowl has a small White House in it.



- Why'd They Come Up With Undecideds?
The topic of undecided voters comes up a couple of times: once in discussion about the polling bump post-debate and Helen wondering why Vinick's numbers can go up even when Matt's numbers go up more; and another time when Lester is talking about how 12 percent of Black voters are unusually staying undecided instead of going with the Democratic candidate. I think the title also plays into Matt's reaction to Lou and Lester and Edie pulling him in different directions - he's also "undecided" about the best reaction to the shooting and whether or not he should visit the family, until he tosses the prepared speech into the trash and talks from his heart.



Quotes    
Will (about Ellie's wedding): "Tell her I saw the band's playlist for the reception. We may need to make a few adjustments."

CJ: "One too many double entendres?"

Will: "It's the single entendres I worry about."

CJ: "Right."

Will: "World stage, shadow of our forefathers."

-----

Margaret: "The only new piece is, we're squabbling with Fish and Wildlife on the salmon-flow schedule, so she should think about sea bass or perhaps a trout?"

CJ: "Sea bass is endangered, Whitman does a great swordfish with green peppercorns, that'd be nice."

Margaret: "Let's stay with the trout."

CJ: "No one wants trout at a wedding, it's not festive."

Margaret: "It's flavorful! And underappreciated. No swordfish, or tuna, or brie."

----- 

Margaret (knocking at the door, smiling): "Excuse me."

CJ: "We're not at the trout yet."

Margaret: "Kate Harper needs you."

CJ: "No she doesn't, she doesn't know I'm here."

Margaret: "Imagine her delight when she learned."

-----

Kate: "Isetov wanted to do business with the Chinese, Teremov has stronger ties to the Russians."

CJ: "So he killed the China oil deal and China's pissed."

Kate: "Exceptionally."

CJ: "Margaret!"

Kate: "Sorry. I was golfing."

CJ: "You golf?"

Kate: "Mini."

-----

Ellie: "I know my father needs to invite a lot of people, but I'm not crazy about the spotlight and Vic's a little agoraphobic."

Vic: "It's not a phobia."

Ellie: "I was exaggerating."

Vic: "It's the occasional shortness of breath ..."

Ellie: "It's really nothing."

Vic: "Sometimes I pass out."

-----

Josh: "I am constantly amazed ... at your ability to continue to be a bastard. It really is something."

Toby: "Thank you."

-----

Leo: "Oh, how did yesterday go?"

Lou: "Visit to Ronnie Burke's mother's house was a disaster, the congressman hates the very idea of the speech, never mind the speech itself. I think he's planning on replacing me with a Labrador retriever. Is that more information than you were looking for?"

Leo: "Little bit."

 



Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)
  • Lester is played by Cress Williams (Fallen, Nash Bridges, Hart Of Dixie, 14 episodes of ER as the John Wells ER-West Wing pipeline continues). I'm not entirely sure what Lester's role is with the campaign other than outreach to the Black community - in The Ticket we saw someone named Steve Lacey as the African-American steering committee chair.

  • We haven't seen Assistant Secretary of State Ted Barrow (Ron Canada) for a while.

  • The cutesy exchange over mini golf and Kate watching Will leave the room (or, more specifically, Will's butt) are callbacks to the DNC gala in Drought Conditions when the two started exchanging stolen glances and flirting over grapes while the band played Take Five. 


  • Santos has been stuck at nine points behind Vinick ever since coming out of the convention in The Ticket (the lead was cut to around five points in Message Of The Week, but Vinick quickly struck back with immigration/border issues to regain that nine-point edge). Lou tells Matt here his performance at the debate has brought Vinick's lead down to seven points.
  • Ellie's wedding - and the reason it needs to be scheduled quickly, and why they need to avoid certain seafoods and soft cheeses on the menu - was covered in Here Today when she brought her fiancé Vic to meet the President and First Lady.
  • Margaret's knowledge of Ellie's pregnancy is unexplained (but, I mean, it's Margaret, she knows everything) but her insight on the foods pregnant women should avoid reminds us of Drought Conditions and her own obvious pregnancy - which is something that was never mentioned again in the series.
  • The crisis in Kazakhstan is a continuation from the events of Mr. Frost, from the assassination of Chairman Farad in the West Bank to the assassination of Kazakh President Isetov to the Chinese being furious at the new Russia-friendly leader of Kazakhstan throwing out their oil deal. In fact, a conversation between CJ and Kate in Here Today is eerily similar what Kate tells her in this episode:

Here Today

Kate: "It's Russia's interests that are most directly served by removing the sitting President."

CJ: "What will the Chinese do?"

Kate: "That's the question."

CJ: "Russia and China, eyeball-to-eyeball in Central Asia?"

Kate: "Over oil."

This episode

Kate: "Best-case scenario, I'm ruining your Saturday. Worst-case scenario, two nuclear powers are positioning themselves to actively engage in an armed conflict over oil."

  • Josh and Toby discuss Toby's kids briefly (you can also see children's toys and chairs in the corner of his apartment). Toby, of course, fathered twins Huck and Molly with his ex-wife Andy (born in Twenty Five, where he pledged his undying devotion to them) but we've barely heard of them since. They'd now be just about 3 and a half years old, being born in the spring of 2003 and this being the fall of 2006.
  • Josh and Toby also clash about Toby's lack of faith in Matt Santos' electability. That was clear from the first time Matt was mentioned as a potential candidate in Liftoff:

Will: "Term or two as governor, he can come back here and run for the big chair."

Toby: "Are you high?"

Will: "People like him. Ex-Marine --"

Toby: "He's not running for -- no."

And Josh and Toby have argued over this topic before, actually coming to blows in Drought Conditions, so Toby has always been very dismissive of Santos.

  • And we get yet another example of Matt's talents in turning the tide of events through sheer political and oratorical will, despite the best-laid plans and written speeches of his advisers. We got that in The Dover Test, when his maneuverings got a better health-care bill through the House; we got it in Freedonia, when he delivered a live one-minute TV ad that ended up changing the focus of everybody's campaign and forced the entire Democratic field to his debate; we saw it in A Good Day when he cooked up the plan to hide the Democratic congresspeople in order to vote down Haffley's bill: we saw it in La Palabra when he cannily showed his opposition to the California drivers' license law by appearing with the Governor, but without actually saying it; and we saw it yet again in The Mommy Problem when he turned the public perception of being a "weak" candidate on its head by going on Marine Reserve training. Most of these political jiu-jitsu moves end up surprising Josh by going against his plans, but this time it's just a general power move of coming up with his own speech and his own direction at the church service, confounding Lou, Edie, Lester, and everybody. You'd think Josh and the campaign staff would realize by now they can't lose by just going with Matt's political instincts from the get-go. 


DC location shots    
  • None. The church scenes, interior and exterior, were shot at the real Greater Page Temple Church of God in Christ on South La Salle Avenue in Los Angeles - the building directly across the street from the entrance that we see behind Matt and Helen as they get out of the car is still visible on Google Street View.

Interior of the church in the episode

 


Interior of the church on Google



House across the street seen in the episode

House across the street in Street View


They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing    
  • CNN, USA Today, and Newsweek are brought up in polling talk. We also get a mention of Meet The Press, while we're in the media mode.
  • Helen tells us Bram is "a Venezuelan from Princeton."
  • Lester tells Josh Ronnie Burke was riding in a stolen Escalade before he was shot by police.
  • There's someone wearing a Yale sweatshirt on this Saturday in the West Wing.

  • "Andrew Edward," His Royal Highness, the Duke of York would be Prince Andrew. And his mother, the Queen, gets a sideways mention as well.

  • Helen talks about Matt's singing of the hymn O, Heavenly Shepherd. I haven't been able to find a Catholic hymn by that name (and Matt is most definitely Catholic) - there is a hymn called Heavenly Shepherd, Thee We Pray that hasn't been included in hymnals since about 1940, and there's also the Catholic hymn Shepherd Me, O God, but that's not the exact title she says.
  • Josh brings Starbucks to Toby, after which Toby complains about him bringing eight packets of Splenda instead of a bagel.

  • Toby refers to a "Freudian fratricidal mania," meaning Sigmund Freud.
  • The Greater Page Temple Church of God in Christ is an actual church in Los Angeles, at the corner of Adams and South La Salle.

  • The song the church choir sings, Oyaheya, was written by Rickie Byars and released on her album In The Land Of I Am in 2000.



End credits freeze frame: Matt speaking in the church.




Previous episode: The Debate
Next episode: The Wedding
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