Original airdate: January 15, 2006
Written by: Bradley Whitford (2)
Directed by: Andrew Bernstein (3)
Synopsis
- A visit from an old friend spurs CJ to take action about a humanitarian disaster in Sudan. Word of a potential scandal in New Hampshire and CJ's reaction to it upsets members of the Bartlet family. Josh tries to pull some strings to get the White House to help out the Santos campaign.
Tick tock. Tick tock.
Will: "Can I give you one piece of advice before you ask me to leave my own office?"
CJ: "What?"
Will: "I don't know where you're going with this --"
CJ: "I'm protecting the President."
Will: "Right. Whatever. This much I do know - there's only one thing worse than telling the President of the United States his son-in-law is having an affair."
CJ: "What's that?"
Will: "Telling the President of the United States his son-in-law is having an affair and then finding out you were wrong."
This topic also leads to a madcap moment of physical comedy, as CJ is on the phone with Danny trying to get him to confirm she's on the right track, and the phone knocks poor Gail off the desk and nearly onto the floor.
CJ is right there to catch it, though, saving Gail from a horrible fate. (Man, she's really good, hardly anything inside the bowl got disturbed one bit!)
CJ finally lands on a strategy. She asks Doug to come into her office, lays out what she's been hearing and the fact that the evidence is pretty strong against him, and basically orders him to go down the hall himself and request that the White House cancel the trip to come campaign with him. The fact that Doug rather meekly agrees to that seems pretty damning.
And that leads to this (I kinda like the whole CJ-Kate buddy thing they've got going on, you know, women of power sticking together in the male-dominated West Wing):
Kate (after CJ spilled the news of Doug Westin's affair): "And you're telling me this because ...?"
CJ: "I don't know if I should --"
Kate: "Tell her? No. No, no, no, no, now's the time everybody just looks at her funny until she figures it out."
CJ: "I know. I just don't know if I owe the President --"
Margaret (coming down the hall): "Sorry. Liz Westin's in your office, she needs to talk to you."
Kate (smiling): "Good luck." (She walks away)
Wait. Why is Liz, Doug's wife and Jed's daughter, coming to see CJ? Turns out ... she knows about his affair. It's not that she's okay with it, but she thinks getting past it for the good of their children is more important than getting her revenge on a cheating spouse. Plus, as we saw in Abu el Banat, Liz is all-in on helping Doug with his campaign, even if she may not think it's all that wise, because he wants to do it, he asked her to help, and she's his wife and he's the father of their kids and she's going to support him.
Liz is really disappointed to discover that even though she's telling CJ it's okay, and her father is the President and grandfather to the Westin kids, the opportunity for Bartlet to come to New Hampshire and help Doug campaign is gone.
The reason that date has been given away is another plot point. A big government contract to build a molecular transport lab is soon to be announced, but the actual location is not yet public. Josh stops by the White House to urge CJ and Will to go ahead and break the news that it's going to be in Austin, Texas - news that would serve as a huge boost to the Santos campaign in his home state. Trouble is, though, the administration had promised an embattled Democratic Senator from Kentucky facing a tough re-election campaign that they'd hold off on the announcement until after the election, as Kentucky was also on the short list for the lab's location.
CJ and Josh spar over this a couple of times, with CJ getting irate when she sees Matt on television implying the announcement is coming in a few days, but eventually the administration decides they will break their promise to the Kentucky Senator, that President Bartlet will fly to Texas to appear with Matt Santos to make the announcement (hence, the date formerly committed to Doug being given away), and then they will take up Josh on his offer to both fly to Kentucky to make a campaign appearance for Senator Bowles.
What helped spur CJ to recommend this change in course? That looming sense of "time's running out, try to do something big, something important with the time you have left" - which is the same reason we get the other big plot point from this episode.
Kate updates CJ on the latest word from Sudan, where government-backed militias are attacking civilians in refugee camps. The United States, while condemning the attacks, hasn't taken any other diplomatic or military action in return ... but CJ (after her talk with Danny the night before) suddenly has the impetus to try and do something.
(If we remember the Bartlet Doctrine from Inauguration: Over There, the administration should already have been in full-on retaliation mode against the Sudanese government, just as they were in Equatorial Kundu after that, and for almost exactly the same reasons ... but apparently the Bartlet Doctrine hasn't survived since the spring of 2002.)
Again, that sense of "we only have a few months left, let's make them count" inspires CJ to try to do something. She has a meeting with a representative of a refugee rights group, who gives her more details about the atrocities going on in Sudan. She comes up with the idea of cutting off oil revenues to the Sudanese government, but that would require a United Nations resolution that China would surely veto, given their reliance on Sudanese oil. But the situation in Kazakhstan gives her an opening: if the United States could help broker free elections in Kazakhstan, and thereby help guarantee the supply of oil from there to the Chinese, perhaps China would be disinclined to veto this resolution and agree to give up some of there Sudanese oil connections.
But it's complicated - the US can't be seen to be taking sides in Kazakhstan. Kate mentions that both the French and the Germans would like to start selling arms to China again, a move that's been sanctioned since the Tiananmen Square crackdown on protesting students in 1998. CJ tries the tricky maneuver of getting either France or Germany to present the resolution in the UN, in exchange for the US looking the other way on arms sales to China. The move in the United Nations would not be coming from the United States, keeping its neutrality in Kazakhstan, but still punishes the Sudanese government for their attacks on civilians. China keeps getting oil from Kazakhstan, the Germans (after the French pass on the notion) get to sell weapons to China, and the Sudanese get their oil revenues taken away.
It's a delicate dance. The scenes between CJ and the ambassadors from France, Germany, and China are fraught with the difference between high-minded moral leadership and commonplace concerns of state. The French ambassador, in particular, has a couple of pointed jabs at the United States general approach to world diplomacy:
French ambassador: "Perhaps a murderous government with intelligence on international Islamic terrorist organizations --"
CJ: "Could provide the United States with crucial information, absolutely."
French ambassador: "Perfectly understandable. But when we push things to the side, often they come back to haunt us."
CJ: "We all make calculations, Jacques."
French ambassador: "And your investors who continue to trade shares of the multinationals who do business with these killers on the New York Stock Exchange; that's another calculation, yes?"
CJ: "And there's plenty of hypocrisy to go around."
French ambassador: "Sure, sure. Unfortunately, CJ, we cannot afford to introduce a resolution so obviously aimed at the Chinese. You are so fond of calling yourselves the leaders of the free world. So ... lead."
(In general, this depiction of statecraft, diplomacy, and tricky multinational balancing acts is a bit dull and in-the-weeds for The West Wing, not to mention heavy-handed; but I'll allow it for the purpose of showing how committed CJ is to trying to achieve something truly important as the Bartlet administration winds down.)
And so, back to that restaurant, a couple of days after Danny's first attempt at baring his soul to CJ, someone he's been mooning over since 1999. This time CJ seems committed to actually having a meal and actually listening to Danny - his plea to her earlier about not getting hypnotized by complexity, to "Make it count" sank in, and she actually has accomplished something over the past two days. And now, it's getting personal.
Danny is all-in with his offer to share the future with CJ.
And CJ seems very receptive to his request this time.
Danny is eloquent and passionate, and makes his point well. His "fall off the cliff" metaphor is perfect.
Danny: "We're both about to fall off of a cliff and I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of my life except I know what I don't want to do. And on Inauguration Day you're going to be released from that glorious prison on Pennsylvania Avenue with --"
CJ (smiling): "No human skills?"
Danny: "Seems to me --"
CJ: "I should punch you in the face, but yes."
Danny: "That's what I'm talking about."
CJ: "Keep going."
Then the beeper goes off, there's urgent trouble somewhere, and CJ dashes back to the White House. Poor Danny.
And poor California, if Kate's scenario in the final scene actually comes to fruition. But that's for another day, and another episode, as events once again take over best intentions and high-minded policy initiatives in the final days of the Bartlet administration.
Tales Of Interest!
- The opening scene in the restaurant tells us it's Wednesday night. Given the tight timeline we are presented with over these pre-election episodes, my first inclination would be to say this means the Wednesday immediately after the events of Running Mates and the Sunday VP debate, so it's likely October 4, 2006. The next day, Danny offers to tell CJ whatever she wants to know if she'll have dinner with him "tomorrow night," so the final restaurant scene would likely be Friday, October 6.
Will: "I can't act, I'm a terrible actor."
Rumor has it that the original teleplay included this bit of stage direction to describe Will's/Malina's initial entrance in that scene:
Will waddles in. The actor playing Will struggles to be remotely honest. CJ ignores the insincere, one-dimensional acting of the guy playing Will. Will enters - scene dies. Will does deep background cross that nobody believes and punctures the suspension of disbelief globally.
Malina said later, "Hat tip to Whitford. This was a solid prank ... I think they made him take [the stage directions] out of the final script, sadly. It was very mean and funny."
Danny: "Well, there are two places where you can see a pumped-up egomaniac slathered with man-tan talking about how great he is and how he's going to kick his opponent's ass: one is a professional wrestling match, the other is a national political convention."
(Using the words "a pumped-up egomaniac slathered with man-tan" boasting about his greatness scarily fits the crude phenomenon that is Donald Trump today, considering this was written nine years before Trump rode down the escalator to announce his candidacy for President. Not to mention that Trump was also involved with professional wrestling and appeared in the ring several times since 2007. Trump is even a member of the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame, for chrissake!)
- While I get that it's realistic to see prior commitments and promises get left behind and forgotten as time passes, let us not forget that the very theme of this episode - we hold the power to do great things, but our time to do them is running out, therefore let's use the time remaining to actually do great things - is the exact same theme as we saw in 365 Days. While that episode aired almost exactly a year before this one, the events of that episode occurred only about eight months prior to what happens here (January 20 to early October, 2006). Leo was making the exact same points that Danny does here, spurring CJ to actually work at trying to make a difference - you realize that CJ was in the room with Leo back in 365 Days, even offering ideas of initiatives the administration could pursue in its final year?
Again, it's not unrealistic for a group of hard-working people to forget those good intentions and let them fall by the wayside over a few months, being distracted by election campaigns/a potential space shuttle disaster/leaks of top secret government information by a key staffer/a potential global war breaking out, but maybe at least have CJ remember they already talked about this in January. And that's not even including the "Bartlet Doctrine" of Inauguration: Over There, which has been long sent to the ash heap of Aaron Sorkin Plot Points We Don't Care About Anymore and dropped like it was hot, even though it fits ideally with a military intervention into Sudan right now.
The formal definition of "internal displacement" is the movement of refugee populations within a country's borders, or what we see described in this episode with the forced relocation of people within Sudan. I think we can extend the metaphor to include the forced "relocations" of some of our characters: Danny, giving up reporting to try something else; CJ, facing the reality of leaving the White House and political life in a few months; and the administration overall, with the same looming deadline of leaving the office to someone else. How do they take on this change in their lives? Will they do something with the time they have left, or simply run out the clock?
Quotes
Danny: "Your boss never has to get elected ever again. But you guys are content to run out the clock with the same game of well-intentioned defense you've always played."
-----
Danny: "You could do more in a day than most people could do in a lifetime."
CJ: "You think I'm not aware that I'm living the first line in my obituary now?"
Danny: "So don't get hypnotized by complexity. Make it count."
Danny: "I think the President's son-in-law may be banging the nanny."
CJ: "Is that a euphemism?"
Danny: "No. Well, 'banging' is, I guess."
-----
CJ: "I think Doug Westin is having an affair with his nanny."
Will (astonished): "Geez, I don't want to know that, why did you tell me that?"
CJ: "Because you deal with the press and I don't want you to get blindsided."
Will: "Exactly, I work with the press, I do my best work when I'm the least informed person in the room - you taught me that."
CJ: "Suck it up."
Will: "I can't act. I'm a terrible actor."
CJ: "You were up in New Hampshire --"
Will: "I don't like to pretend."
Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)
- It's Danny! We saw him in the flash-forward opening scene of The Ticket, so we already know he and CJ become a couple eventually, but other than that we haven't seen him since 7A WF 83429 at the beginning of Season 5.
- Steve Laussen from Refugee Rights Alliance is played by Tim Guinee (Major Allen in Iron Man, The Good Wife, Homeland, The Staircase).
- Chinese ambassador Ling-Po is played by George Cheung (then credited as George Kee Cheung - Rush Hour, Murder In The First, Starsky & Hutch). We saw Cheung play this role earlier in A Change Is Gonna Come.
- Another appearance by Doug Westin (Steven Eckholdt) and his wife and Presidential daughter Liz (Annabeth Gish), both of whom we last saw campaigning in New Hampshire in Opposition Research. Doug's intent to run for a House seat (in the face of the Democratic Party's plans, and hoping to use his Presidential-family connections to help) was first discovered in Abu el Banat.
- Kate leaves CJ's office rather quickly when she learns Will is on his way, and they exchange a little awkward glance at the door. The two have been flirting on-and-off since Drought Conditions, and had a date of sorts (watching the debate and eating take-out in Will's office) in Running Mates (which would have been just a few days before this episode).
- I've been trying to keep tabs on the older background actor with the close-cropped gray hair who keeps popping up in the West Wing scenes. Here he is again!
- The ongoing potential conflict between China and Russia in Kazakhstan has been a topic ever since Mr. Frost.
- The rumors of Doug Westin having a affair with the nanny reminds us that in Abu el Banat we first heard of this nanny, as the Bartlet family was waiting for everyone to arrive for Christmas dinner:
Zoey: "Where's Doug?"
Liz: "I think he's making sure Gus is down."
Jed: "Isn't there some kind of person ---"
Liz: "A nanny is not a substitute for a parent."
Jed: "I thought that's exactly what a nanny was."
Zoey: "She has a strange chin."
Abbey: "No, she doesn't."
Zoey: "Well, she kind of has no chin."
Liz: "She's Swedish."
Zoey: "Yeah, most Swedes have chins."
Jed: "Would you like to call him up and tell him we're waiting, and he can leave the child in the confident care of the chinless Swede?"
So no real foreshadowing of an affair there, but we learn there is a nanny, and she's Swedish. In this episode we learn the nanny had worked with the Westins for three years before being let go in August, which means she had started her job not that long before Christmas 2003 and this discussion in Abu el Banat.
- Will's protest to CJ of "I didn't do it ... Toby did it" when she was simply asking him to close the door is a reminder of Toby's confession to leaking information on a secret military space shuttle to the press (Mr. Frost/Here Today).
- The mention of "losing a VP in a sex scandal" takes us back to Life On Mars and the randiness of John Hoynes forcing him to resign the Vice Presidency.
- Sort of a missing story thread, but whatever happened to the Bartlet Doctrine outlined in Inauguration: Over There? President Bartlet made a pledge for the United States to intervene anywhere, anytime, if human rights were threatened. Seems like an obvious situation to trot that out in Sudan, but nobody even mentions it.
President (just before his second inaugural): "We're for freedom of speech everywhere. We're for freedom to worship everywhere. We're for freedom to learn, for everybody. [...] And so we are for freedom from tyranny everywhere, whether in the guise of political oppression, Toby, or economic slavery, Josh, or religious fanaticism, CJ. That most fundamental ideal cannot be met with merely our support. It has to be met with our strength. Diplomatically, economically, materially. [...] No country has ever had a doctrine of intervention when only humanitarian interests were at stake. That streak ends Sunday at noon."
And, as I mentioned earlier, the entire concept of not wasting your final days in office and using that time to do something meaningful was already addressed by Leo in 365 Days, but that also seems to have been forgotten ...
- Danny was previously writing for The Washington Post, a very prestigious job for a political reporter. Now we see him apparently working for the (fictitious) Washington Leader, given the sign on the wall behind him when CJ calls. Seems less than likely ... unless the Leader has taken over the mantle of the leading newspaper in DC from the Post in this universe (even though we have literally never heard the Leader mentioned in dialogue, while the Post keeps coming up over and over).
- We get the Bartlet/Sheen jacket flip, only partially in the foreground, but it's there.
- Danny's reference to "As long as you didn't kill our fish" goes back to The Short List, when a smitten Danny wanted to give CJ a gift. Josh told him she likes goldfish ("can't get enough of 'em"), but not understanding that Josh meant the snack crackers, he showed up in her office with an actual goldfish in a fishbowl. Hence, "our fish."
- The San Andreo nuclear power plant accident is going to be really, really important over the coming episodes.
CJ: "What is it?"
Kate: "Some kind of nuclear accident."
CJ: "Oh, lord. A weapon?"
Kate: "Power plant."
CJ: "Is it Russia?"
Kate: "San Andreo, California. They think it might blow up."
DC location shots
- None. There is an establishing shot of the outside of the restaurant where Danny and CJ are meeting at the opening of the episode; what we see there is actually the Sherry-Nederlander Hotel on the Upper East Side in New York City. Not Washington DC at all!
They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing
- The conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan really happened, and to a certain extent is still going on 18 years after this episode aired. The war started in 2003 when two rebel groups began fighting the Sudanese government, in opposition to the government's treatment of non-Arabs. The government responded with ethnic cleansing of the non-Arab population, resulting in the "internal displacement" of millions and the starvation deaths of hundreds of thousands. The Janjaweed is an Arab militia in Darfur with founding ties to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, first appearing in 1988, and operating as an arm of the Sudanese government during the 2003-2010 war. While a peace agreement to end the hostilities was signed in 2010, a civil war between factions of the Sudanese military (including one made up of Janjaweed fighters) broke out in spring 2023, and is ongoing as of the fall of 2024.
- CJ, referring to Westin's possible sex scandal as well as Hoynes' resignation, says she feels like she's handing out towels at the Playboy Mansion.
- Steve Laussen mentions the 1963 photo of the Vietnamese monk who lit himself on fire to protest the war in Vietnam. The monk, Thich Quang Duc, actually immolated himself in a protest against how the South Vietnamese government was treating Buddhist monks, so not an anti-war protest at all (but that didn't matter to those who saw the photo, or to Laussen's point to CJ, either).
- We see Matt's speech touting a potential announcement of the molecular transport lab being shown on C-SPAN. We also see some coverage of Steve Laussen criticizing the administration on MSNBC.
- There's a mention of Tiananmen in the discussion between CJ and the Chinese ambassador, which implies the events of the government's brutal crackdown on protestors in Tiananamen Square in 1998 happened in this universe.
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