The Cold - TWW S7E13

 

Original airdate: March 12, 2006

Teleplay by: Debora Cahn (13)
Story by: Debora Cahn  & Lauren Schmidt (5) 
 

Directed by: Alex Graves (30)

Synopsis

• New polling numbers after the San Andreo incident give a jolt of excitement to the Santos staff, while the Vinick campaign tries to change the subject. President Bartlet makes the decision to send troops into Kazakhstan, with long-term effects on whomever wins the election. Will and Kate take their relationship to another level, while Josh and Donna consider what theirs might mean. And Vinick has a cold.
  

"What's your exit strategy?"

"I don't have one. I suggest you both start giving it some thought."

An episode that begins on a couple of high notes - the polls showing the Santos campaign catching Senator Vinick in the wake of the San Andreo nuclear accident, the prospect of Irish rock star Bono meeting with Matt, not to mention Josh and Donna falling into each other's arms as the emotions swell with all the good polling news - takes on a much more sober, dramatic turn. The situation in Kazakhstan forces President Bartlet to order in American troops while Senator Vinick sees a trusted staffer fall on the sword in an effort to change the course of his campaign. All in all, it really highlights how political campaigns can find themselves at the mercy of unexpected events outside their control, particularly in the closing weeks as the election looms.

We start with Annabeth, Bram, Ronna and the other staffers breathlessly search out the latest tracking polls, polls that show a dramatic increase in support for Santos in important swing states in the wake of the San Andreo nuclear accident and essentially resetting the entire Presidential contest. The looks on their faces tell it all:

As Donna and the rest pound on doors, awakening everyone on the floor of the hotel to the good news, she reaches Josh's room to let him know. The celebration of the moment starts with a quick friendly kiss, and then:

 

 Hubba, hubba.

 

Viewers of the show have known since Pilot that Donna and Josh (thanks to the acting of Janel Moloney and Bradley Whitford) have a tremendous chemistry together. Moloney famously said she started from the beginning playing the role of Donna with the subtext of being desperately in love with Josh, and the moments they've shared together have become almost legendary: the (unseen) note Josh wrote in Donna's Christmas gift in In Excelsis Deo; the "If you were in the hospital I wouldn't stop for a beer"/"If you were in the hospital I wouldn't stop for red lights" exchange in 17 People; Josh's willingness to breach ethics and maybe even the law to save Donna from embarrassment over her diary in War Crimes; Josh's reassessment of their connection after she nearly dies in Memorial Day. They always seemed to be dancing around their personal relationship, which made sense considering the workplace supervisor/assistant framework they were in. And of course Josh not doing enough to help Donna advance in her career caused her to leave her post in the White House and work for Will Bailey and the Russell campaign, to Josh's regret and anger (anger that really came out once she came back looking for a job with Matt Santos).

That all comes to an emotional head now, driven by the huge rush of emotion and endorphins they get by seeing that maybe they've actually got a chance to win this thing in the final weeks. They both seem a little surprised by it, and Donna actually, maybe, tries to talk it out and talk herself out of it in a conversation with Will:

Donna: "If something had happened with us, when we were working, romantically, would that have been inappropriate?"

Will: "Wow, uh ... I'm flattered ... but --"

Donna: "Oh, no, no, no."

Will: "I'm actually seeing someone in a nonpublic and very poorly defined way."

Donna: "No, not you. I was talking about someone like you with your job in relation to me."

Will: "You're talking about Josh?"

Donna (two steps behind): "You're seeing someone?"

Will: "You're seeing Josh?"

Donna: "No."

Will: "Then who?"

Donna: "I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

Will: "Yours is Josh. You're not cryptic."

Donna: "And yours is ..."

Will: "Classified."

Donna: "Nothing happened with me and Josh, at all. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought this up. We should drop it."

Will: "Good idea. (pause) It's not inappropriate. Seeing someone. It's weird, maybe. But you'll figure it out."

But by the end of the episode, after many exchanged glances and unfinished conversations, we see Donna is okay with continuing this path. She slides her hotel room key across the table, pointedly indicating to Josh that he should use that key to visit her later that night. Their eyes connect.

 

But then Ronna notices the envelope and thinks Donna just forgot the key. The look on both of their faces as Edith returns Donna's key to her and they watch that opportunity slip by says volumes.

 

 

Will these two youngsters ever get the chance to experience true love? There's only nine episodes left, we're running out of time!

 

While we're talking about lovebirds, the awkward relationship between Will and Kate continues to ... well, get more awkward. Now they're spending nights together, as revealed by the fact Kate left her bra behind at Will's apartment. 

Will: "I have a thing of yours."

Kate: "My Pyongyang book, good, I tore up my whole office looking for it."

Will: "It's not that."

Kate: "Really?"

Will: "Really."

Kate: "It's in a blue binder. It may not be --"

Will: "Nothing in a blue binder."

Kate: "Are you sure? I mean, picking it out --"

Will: "It's a bra."

Kate: "Oh, okay."

Will: "I put it in a padded envelope, which seemed appropriate."

Kate: "Really?"

Will: "You want it now?"

Kate: "No! No. Yes? (pause) It's in your office?"

Will: "It is."

Kate: "You keep it."

Will: "Permanently?"

Kate: "Mail it to me, your home address to my home address."

Will: "You don't think that's a little complicated?"

Kate: "It is, isn't it."

Will: "I'll hang onto it until we ..."

Kate: "Okay."

Will: "We'll get better at this."

Kate: "We can only hope."

 

When CJ has them come to her office together to put together a press briefing plan for Kazakhstan, even she notices things are a little weird.

CJ (seeing the awkwardness): "Is something weird happening?"

Will: "Nnnnnope."

CJ: "I feel like I'm the heroine in the movie who doesn't know there's a guy behind the refrigerator with an axe."

Kate: "Maybe it's the weather. People feel that way when it's ... damp."

CJ: "Thank you. Both."

(Will and Kate leave CJ's office)

Will (whispering): "We're really bad at this."

Kate (whispering): "Really bad."

Then we've got the opposing campaign, with Vinick, Bob, Bruno and Sheila trying to figure out how to respond to the San Andreo disaster bringing the national race to a dead heat. Turns out, though, it's not just up to them. The head of the Republican National Committee, Steve Hodder, comes by to have a meeting with Vinick, Governor Sullivan ... and none of the staff. And he brings along Jane Braun, a top fundraiser closely connected with the religious conservative right-wing of the GOP. Bruno is convinced the fix is in, he's going to be blamed for Vinick losing his lead, and the party is pushing him out.

Sheila knows he's right, and she knows there's another path. She tells Vinick on their way to his evening appearance - she's resigning. She'll take the fall, she'll take the blame for the "50-state strategy" and the appeal to moderates, and she insists Braun be brought in to shore up support with the conservative wing of the party and to fire up voter turnout. It's a tough pill to swallow for Vinick - Sheila has been by his side for years, his most trusted adviser - but he knows deep down this is the only path to follow.

The shadowy shot of Vinick after he gets out of the car, standing in the street contemplating his future before he goes into the event, is a striking image well-constructed by director Alex Graves.

The biggest story, of course, is President Bartlet's plans to commit American troops into Kazakhstan in an effort to stave off an all-out war between Russia and China. We can trace this story all the way back to Message Of The Week, when Vinick's new national security liaison, Charles Frost, mentions an issue in Kazakhstan as one needing particular attention. In the following episodes, we learned of a presidential assassination there, Russian interference in the ensuing election that installed a Russian-leaning candidate, a repudiation of an oil deal with China, and the attacks on ethnic Chinese in the country that followed. Those events led to the Chinese army gathering on the border, with the Russian army responding in kind - and now that both armies have advanced into Kazakhstan itself (delayed only temporarily by Ellie's nuptials in The Wedding), President Bartlet believes the only way to avoid war is to put American forces in between the opposing armies.

Of course it's a daunting task. Bartlet's advisers tell him it's going to take some 150,000 troops over at least 18 months to stop the advance and help Kazakhstan conduct free and open elections, and worst of all, that means this "intervention" (as Secretary Hutchinson calls it) will be a problem for whomever ends up winning the election in three weeks. The President calls both candidates in for a face-to-face meeting and lays out the facts. The news does not go over well.

Vinick: "What's this going to cost?"

President: "It depends on how long we stay."

Matt: "It doesn't matter. The first 100 days in office are the most productive of the whole term and there's no way we can extricate ourselves from something like this in three months."

Followed by:

President: "First twelve months - 70 billion."

Vinick: "I can say goodbye to my tax cut. Your education plan is certainly off the table."

So we're left with the final three weeks of the campaign, Vinick and Santos squaring off in a virtual dead heat, but both of them knowing the winner will have the military operation in Kazakhstan looming over them and their priorities throughout the years to follow. It's certainly a downer.

And even though we get the bittersweet image of Josh and Donna, yearning for each other while their plans are foiled by well-meaning friends, playing along with Billie Holiday on the soundtrack, the episode ends in the Situation Room as President Bartlet gives the order for the "invasion" (as he puts it), knowing he's doing the right thing for geopolitical reasons, yet leaving a giant mess financially and politically for his successor. For an episode that starts on such an emotional high, this is really a downer of a conclusion.

Kinda like life, right? At least in the United States in early November, 2024, know what I mean?

Tales Of Interest!

- The last appearance of John Spencer before his passing in December, 2005. You'll remember the first episode that aired after his death, Running Mates on January 8, had an opening message from Martin Sheen acknowledging his passing. This was the final episode Spencer had filmed, and this is the last shot of him in the series.

- Our timeline is clearly set as 21 days prior to the election, from a caption at the start of the episode. That puts us at Tuesday, October 17, 2006. That would also fit with the San Andreo accident happening around the previous Friday into Saturday (remember from Internal Displacement, CJ's dinner date with Danny where she first learned of the accident would have been a Friday night), given the Gallup three-day tracking poll after the event. We'll just have to disregard the caption from Duck And Cover telling us that happened on a Wednesday ...

- Lots (and I mean lots) of the trademark West Wing camera-spinning-around-the-characters here. It is an Alex Graves-directed episode, so that tracks.

- Gail's fishbowl appears to have perhaps a medicine bottle in it, reflecting Vinick's battle with his cold symptoms.

- Why'd They Come Up With The Cold?

As usual, multiple reasons. The obvious one, of course, is Senator Vinick beginning to suffer from cold symptoms during the episode. We also get the chill coming over the Vinick campaign from the tightening polls, as well as the consideration of how American troops headed to Kazakhstan need to be prepared for a Central Asian winter, and the cold setting in for both candidates as they realize what will be facing them if they win the presidency.

Quotes    

President: "I want to see invasion plans as soon as possible."

Hutchinson: "We wouldn't think of it as an invasion, sir, we'd call it an intervention."

President: "Show me a plan that doesn't look like an invasion and I'll call it whatever you want."

-----

Bruno: "The undecideds are moderates. They're not Bible thumpers. He's got to speak to their issues."

Sullivan: "What's he going to do? Suddenly pull the Arnold Vinick health care plan out of his tailpipe?"

Vinick: "Would that qualify as a miracle? They like the miracles, your people."

----- 

Bram: "Bono called."

Ronna: "Bono?"

Josh: "Really?"

Bram: "Yeah. He's in New York this weekend, he wants to have dinner with the congressman."

Donna: "Do it!"

Bram: "We're not in New York this weekend --"

Ronna: "Change his schedule!"

Donna: "Bono wants to meet him?"

Ronna: "Does he want to perform at a rally?"

Bram: "We didn't get into specifics --"

Donna: "He doesn't have to sing, they could just talk about debt relief."

Ronna (breathlessly): "Oh, did you talk to him?!?"

Bram: "I talked to a guy named Phil."

Josh: "Okay, invite him to San Diego."

Bram: "Phil?"

Josh: "Not Phil."

-----

Debbie (showing Vinick and his staff into the Mural Room): "Make yourselves comfortable."

Vinick: "Thank you."

Debbie (as she turns to leave): "Not too comfortable."

Vinick: "Excuse me?"

Debbie: "Hmm?"

Vinick: "Did you ..."

Debbie: "What?"

Vinick: "Nothing."

Debbie: "If there's anything I can get you, please let me know." (exits)

  

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

• Dean Norris (Breaking Bad, Under The Dome, The Big Bang Theory) reappears as Republican Party chairman Steve Hodder.

• Melinda McGraw (The Commish, The X-Files, The Dark Knight) makes her first appearance as GOP strategist Jane Braun.

• When Donna comes to Josh's hotel room in the morning with the polling news, we see Josh's chest ... there's no scar there (remember Josh had surgery for his serious injuries after being shot in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen). We'll actually get a better view of his scar-free chest in a few episodes.

• And of course, the kiss between Josh and Donna (and her conversation with Will, and her attempt to get her room key to Josh) is a kind of culmination of the long-standing chemistry between the two, all the way back to Pilot (and Donna's statement, "If you were in the hospital, I wouldn't stop for red lights" in 17 People).

• Donna's conversation with Will, by the way, reminds us of earlier days in the Russell campaign, when Will and Donna seemed to be the only two people on the campaign trail who weren't young, college-age enthusiastic volunteers, and who spent a lot of time and meals together.
  

• There's a van for TV station WPKW seen in the background of the park scene: WPKW is a fictional TV station, and we'd actually seen a van for that station previously covering the Santos campaign in Florida in The Mommy Problem. Those call letters later were used for a TV station in the CW series The Vampire Diaries that aired between 2009 and 2017.

The WPKW news van from The Mommy Problem

• Likewise, WBJH and WKZN (seen on other news vans) are also fictional TV stations, although both call signs have been used by radio stations in the past. WPFW is another fictional TV station, although the call letters do belong to a listener-supported "Jazz and Justice" radio station in Washington, DC.
  

• President Bartlet, who had been using a cane for several past episodes, particularly after his MS attack on the trip to China in In The Room and Impact Winter, hasn't been seen with that cane for quite a while. It's back here (mainly, I think, to provide Debbie with a comment about it and his official portrait).

• Will and Kate have been dancing around a flirtation ever since Drought Conditions, and it's been growing bit by bit recently (with them sharing a meal on Will's desk during the Vice Presidential debate in Running Mates). It's full-out serious now, with Kate leaving her underthings at Will's apartment.
  

• Josh mentions Joey (Lucas), his trusted pollster first seen in Take This Sabbath Day, and Lou (Thornton), the campaign strategist he hired in The Mommy Problem.
  

• The situation in the Middle Eastern nation of Qumar played a major role in Seasons 3 and 4, with President Bartlet ordering the killing of Qumari Foreign Minister Shareef in Posse Comitatus, and the fallout from that reverberating through Season 4 all the way to Zoey's kidnapping in Commencement through her rescue in The Dogs Of War. Yet, since seeing Qumar on Situation Room maps in Season 3, that country has ceased to exist on maps since that time. Still no evidence that Qumar ever existed with the quick view of the Situation Room displays here.

Qumar as it was seen in 7A WF 83429

• Russian President Chigorin is mentioned again. He first came to power as a moderate reformer just before Enemies Foreign And Domestic, where he signaled his intent to cooperate to shut down an Iranian heavy-water nuclear reactor, then met with President Bartlet in a summit in Finland immediately afterward. He also agreed to let the United States retrieve a secret military drone that crashed in Russian territory in Evidence Of Things Not Seen. Here he's less inclined to cooperate with the Americans given the Russian interference in the Kazakh elections.
  

• President Bartlet's decision to send troops into Kazakhstan kinda-sorta reminds us of the Bartlet Doctrine unveiled in Inauguration Day: Over There, when he pledged to use American political and military force to address attacks on human rights anywhere in the world. Of course, we've seen multiple situations since then where the doctrine should have been warranted (most recently in Sudan in Internal Displacement), but was never mentioned, let alone considered. Here it's less the attacks on Chinese nationals after Russian-rigged elections causing President Bartlet to act, than it is the threat of a major war between Russian and China over oil. But, still, you can trace a thread back to the Bartlet Doctrine, if you squint your eyes and turn your head a little (thanks for that, Bob Russell).
  

DC location shots    

• None. The fountain we see in the background when Josh gets the call from President Bartlet asking - no, telling - him to bring Santos to the White House looks to be the Friends fountain on the Warner Brothers lot (which was also seen in War Crimes, when Josh and Donna turned over her diary to Cliff Calley).

 

The same fountain in War Crimes

The same fountain in Friends

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

• Annabeth mentions numbers from the Gallup poll; there's a little drama about trying to get the New York Times website to come up on a computer.
  

• Vinick says the medicine Sheila is trying to get him to drink looks like Hawaiian Punch.
  

• The lead singer of the Irish group U2, Bono, excites the women of the Santos campaign when they discover he's called to see if Santos would have dinner with him. Matt later tells the crowd at the rally Dave Matthews is going to come up on the stage.
  

• Donna says reporters from the Sacramento Bee have called with rumors about Vinick's cold; we see MSNBC coverage on TV screens.

• The medications Vicks VapoRub and Sudafed are mentioned in connection with Vinick's cold symptoms.
  

• While the Santos staff is in the Roosevelt Room, Bram hands out hotel keys/menus saying they're in the Marriott (there's a host of Marriott brands fairly near the White House, including the Washington Marriott Metro Center, the JW Marriott, and the Washington Marriott Capitol Hill). But, when Donna tries to leave her key for Josh later that night, the key envelope says Capitol Grand Hotel. That hotel is fictional, but it was also used in pilot of the TV series Covert Affairs, which aired on the USA Network from 2010 to 2015. Fun fact: that pilot episode was directed by Tim Matheson (who plays John Hoynes on The West Wing).

• We hear Billie Holiday singing Body and Soul over the Santos staff and the Donna attempted key handoff at the hotel.
  

End credits freeze frame: Vinick standing alone outside the venue after Sheila resigned.

Previous episode: Duck And Cover

Next episode: Two Weeks Out