The Long Goodbye - TWW S4E13

 

Original airdate: January 15, 2003

Written by: Jon Robin Baitz (1)

Directed by: Alex Graves (11)

Synopsis

• In a Very Special Episode of The West Wing, CJ travels to her hometown of Dayton for a class reunion, where her father is dealing with the ravages of the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Oh, and she gets frisky with an old classmate, played by Matthew Modine.

"Time matters."

This is an odd one.

People tend to find The Long Goodbye a bit divisive. Maybe it's the fact that it's just the second episode from the first four seasons that doesn't have Aaron Sorkin's name on the teleplay. Maybe it's the fact that a cynic might view this episode as nothing more than a vehicle to earn Allison Janney another Emmy (while it worked to get her her fourth Emmy nomination, for the first time in four years she did not win). Or maybe it's just that while it's a well-written and constructed episode of television, with outstanding performances from Janney and Donald Moffatt, dealing with serious topics of aging and responsibility and time slipping away from us all, it just doesn't fit into a West Wing-shaped slot in our minds.

And to me, that's the big one. It may be good television - but this is not a West Wing episode. Far from it. Now, there are some interesting reasons why this came to be (I'll go into that more later) and, in my opinion, this out-of-place episode serves as a bit of a harbinger of more changes to come (more on that, too) ... but it's simply not an episode of the series we've been following for over three and a half years.

More than anything else, it's a meditation on time. Think about how often "time" gets a mention in the script - CJ doesn't have time to get away from the White House to get to her high school reunion in Dayton, Carol doesn't make the airline schedules, Tal never gets to spend time catching up any more with all the "ticking clocks", "time matters," "I need a little more time" - and then, just to make sure we don't miss the theme, the author of this little piece, Jon Robin Baitz, makes CJ's classmate and touchstone for the weekend an actual watchmaker, giving us this little exchange as he listens to the workings of Tal's treasured old pocket watch:

Marco: "You're losing time, Mr. Cregg."

Tal: "That, son, I am."

We found out in The Two Bartlets that CJ's father was beginning to suffer from a failing memory. Now, as she comes back home for a whirlwind visit to speak at her high school reunion, we discover how bad things are. Talmidge Cregg is dealing with the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, where his memory starts to dissolve and his grip on his sense of self is loosening. The worst part, of course, is that the disease is at such an early stage that he knows what's coming, and there's nothing he can do about it except wait for it all to slip away. And that knowledge, that realization, spurs anger and frustration and rage at his inexorable destiny:

CJ: "I mean, tell me! You are holding on to something that -"

Tal: "What am I holding on to? My consciousness? My identity?"

CJ: "- can't be willed away by sheer force of personality, dad."

Tal: "Tell me, brilliant woman that you are, would you hand over those things without a fight? I need a little more time, CJ. If I let it in at its own pace, it'll just get dark faster."

As CJ travels to Dayton, she's still tightly connected with what's happening in the White House - she's on the phone with Toby as she goes through airport security, she's still talking to him waiting for her taxi home - it's as if her presence in the West Wing is totally indispensable and the administration can't survive without her there. Then we get to Tal's house - CJ's childhood home - finding it cluttered, with dirty dishes in the sink and barely lit cigarettes strewn all about. CJ has known (from a remove) the general outlines of what her dad is dealing with, but walking into the house, for the first time, she sees the stark reality of the situation. He miscalculates a basic math problem in his head - as a longtime math teacher, this knocks him for quite a loop. He's afraid to admit to CJ that his wife Molly (his second since CJ's mother died) has walked out in frustration.

CJ, with only a day to spare, does what she can to try to make things better. She goes to Molly's daughter's house to call Molly out for abandoning her father; she goes out to the river for a bit of fishing with her dad; she takes him to see a doctor, an old family friend; she takes over behind the wheel when Tal gets confused while driving on a busy street - and all of this before dressing up to go to her reunion to give a speech.

Of course it's all for naught, at least for the immediate term. Tal, knowing he's in a losing battle, refuses to give up his independence, refuses to give in to the onrushing darkness, and refuses to accept help. Molly bitingly complains about losing out on her time with Tal, time they put off through multiple marriages, and now that they're finally able to come together she discovers he's not going to be the person she knew for all those years. And she's ticked off about it.

Moffatt gives an achingly real portrayal of a husband and father fighting back against the inevitable. His anger, his frustration, his mental failings leaving him unable to recognize his daughter standing right in front of him ... it's truly heartbreaking. And Janney, of course, is outstanding - trying to reach out, trying to find the simple fix to make things better (in a single day), her deep sighs in private and her tears welling up when Tal admits he doesn't know who is in this photograph - a photograph of a young CJ.

(Speaking of which, while I'm just guessing that photo is actually of a young Janney, we definitely can recognize the high school photograph of Janney that we see in the class reunion decorations.)

It's understandable that CJ reaches out for solace with a high school classmate, Marco Arlen. They bump into each other at the airport as they arrive in Dayton, and after a moment of reminiscing, it's understandable that they agree to attend the reunion together to support each other. When they do arrive at the restaurant parking lot, just after the emotionally gutting moment when Tal can't recognize CJ as a child, she can't face it, she can't face giving a speech or putting on a brave face in front of her classmates. In fact now, for the first time, she can't even answer an (urgent) phone call from Toby. "I don't think I can ... face it right now," she tells Marco. Totally understandable.

Which leads us to a motel room; a couple of bodies intertwining, out of focus, in the bedsheets; a bit of post-coital pillow talk where Marco the horologist is able to point out that the motel clock is 20 minutes fast. 

(Again, CJ is making maximum use out of this single day in Dayton - she called out her stepmother, went fishing, took her dad to see a doctor, saved him from a car accident, got dressed up for a speech, went to the restaurant, left for a motel, had sex, and then still gets back to the restaurant after dinner to actually give the speech. That is one busy day.) Anyway, this plot choice is less understandable, to me at least. Having CJ fall into a "quickie" with someone she hasn't seen in 20-plus years, just because her nerves are shot from the situation with her father?

The West Wing has never been an overly romantic TV series, not in the traditional sense. Of course it's a very romantic view of progressive politics and humans striving to use the levers of government to do the right thing, but other than a bit of kissing here and there (and a very sexy tying of Josh's bow tie by Donna) there's never been any actual, you know, loving going on onscreen. But we have it here, with our CJ, falling into bed with a guy she barely knows, right there out-of-focus on our TV screens. I mean, as a play script about a high-powered political character finding herself lost from her moorings because of family drama and searching for momentary comfort in the midst of personal crisis, okay, it's good drama - but again, it's not really CJ and it's not really The West Wing.

Anyway ... CJ and Marco get themselves cleaned up and back to the reunion in time for her speech. And let's admit this, too, it's not a good speech, at all. It doesn't sound like CJ, it doesn't sound like anybody spent any time on it, it's a cliche-filled lazily written thing titled "The Promise Of A Generation." True, CJ didn't pick the topic, but her writing of the speech is just not very good.

(What I do like, though, is that topic. It ties right into the theme of time, of family, of promises we make to each other and promises we try and sometimes fail to keep. It works from two perspectives, at least as it applies to CJ in a very personal way: it's the promise of Tal's generation, the promise of fathers to always be there as the rocks for their children, a promise Tal is now finding unable to keep; and it's the promise of CJ's generation, of sons and daughters, to take care of their parents when they are unable to take care of themselves, a promise CJ is trying her best to uphold but finding very, very difficult. Anyway, I give Baitz credit for that speech topic, cause it really hits the mark.)

As CJ speaks, Tal and Molly and Molly's daughter appear in the back of the room, just as Molly had pictured being able to do before the crumbling of Tal's mental stability. That's a nice moment, perhaps the best plot wrap-up we could hope for ... Tal's never going to get any better, there isn't going to be a happy ending of this story, but at least for now, for this night, he gets to be the proud father watching his daughter speaking in front of a crowd.

Until the White House intrudes, again. But ... why on earth is CJ answering her phone while she's in the middle of giving a speech to her class reunion? That's just nuts (especially considering she refused to answer a call earlier in the evening while sitting in the parking lot). This is a cheap shortcut to get us to the end of the story - some urgent crisis with bomb threats to embassies overseas, which means the White House Press Secretary has to drop what she's doing and dash back to DC because the administration would cease to function without her there. I mean, they have people in place to handle things while she's gone. The fate of the embassies doesn't rest in CJ's hands. But, yeah ... that's what Baitz decided to do to close out the episode.

Is The Long Goodbye good television? Like even the unsteady Season 5, a poor episode of The West Wing is better than a lot of things on TV, so I'd say yes. There are problems with the plotting, shortcuts with the script, some howlers in characterization of people we've gotten to know over the past three-plus years ... but the depiction of Alzheimer's disease, its effects on those suffering from it as well as those who love and care for them, the performances from Janney and Moffatt, all lift this episode up and make it better than it has a right to be.

But it's still not an episode of The West Wing.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- About the Sorkin situation with this episode: By this point in the series, with cast expenses rising and the show's budget starting to strain the network and the studio, Warner Brothers was leaning on Sorkin to find ways to cut costs while still submitting a full slate of 22 or 23 episodes a season. Sorkin, always a perfectionist who worked on scripts until the last minute, rapidly fell behind schedule every year, with the shows at the end of the season often not having a full script until shooting was about to begin. This led to budget overruns on locations and crew costs, since plans couldn't be made until the last minute and then they had to be accomplished then regardless of the cost.

The studio basically gave Sorkin an ultimatum: If you're going to continue to lead this series, you're going to have to start letting other writers in on the action - you can't keep the responsibility of writing every single episode. Sorkin, being Sorkin, couldn't really stomach that, which led (in part) to his leaving the series at the end of this season. During Season 4, though, he had to accept having two episodes written by others - Swiss Diplomacy and The Long Goodbye. Knowing he needed an episode to fill out the order for the season, and not having the time himself to take it on, Sorkin reached out to a fellow playwright he knew from working on Broadway in the 1990s, Jon Robin Baitz. Baitz did a quick catch-up on the overview of the show, and wrote ... well, he wrote a play, a play about Alzheimer's and children dealing with their aging parents and regret and time - overall, this is a play about time, time slipping away from us and time stretching ahead of us.

- This is just my opinion, mind you, but I think this episode is sort of a harbinger for the unsteadiness and loss of focus of the series that we're going to see in Season 5. Obviously, losing Sorkin's voice and commitment and overall control of the characters and the show was going to be apparent, but I think this episode - along with the next several, which were written by Sorkin - already show a loss of steam. I'd say this indicates it was probably time for Sorkin to step away; while he's not really running out of ideas, per se, he might be starting to drift a bit. He got Bartlet reelected, he's been through almost one entire term, how can he keep the drama and the political maneuvering and the forward action of optimism and hope going into another term? I'm not sure if he could. The next few episodes, while not quite lifeless, just don't live up to the crackling Guns Not Butter or the giddy drive of Election Night/Process Stories, let alone the incredible ride of Season 2 and the more intimate crises of Season 3. I will say this, though - Sorkin will wrap up Season 4 and his time with The West Wing with another outstanding crescendo of tight, gripping, engaging television. Once we get to Evidence Of Things Not Seen we are in for one wild ride.

- Rob Lowe continues to appear first in the opening credits, as he has done for every episode of the series. While he doesn't appear in this one (and hasn't appeared since Arctic Radar), that's not all that remarkable for this episode. Only Melissa Fitzgerald (Carol), Bradley Whitford (Josh), and a couple of the reporters actually have a speaking role in this episode, in addition to Janney and Richard Schiff's Toby. There's no Donna, there's no Ed or Larry, no Amy or Abbey, heck, not even Leo (except for seeing him in the background as he, Josh, and Toby wait to go into the Oval Office) ... and also, for the first time ever in the course of the series, no appearance by President Bartlet. Anyway, Lowe will show up in two upcoming episodes this season before leaving the series, although we do see Sam return at the end of Season 7.

- This episode appears to be out of order chronologically. When Tal asks CJ to go fishing with him in the morning, she responds, "Dad, it's February." Yet the next two episodes to air involve President Bartlet's second inauguration, which of course happens on January 20. I don't know if it was tone-wise, or story-arc-wise, or simply an issue of when the episodes were ready, but by the calendar the events of this episode occurred after Inauguration: Part I and Inauguration: Over There.

- Allison Janney was born in Boston but did indeed grow up in Dayton, Ohio. Interestingly, Martin Sheen is also a Dayton native. Janney did not attend the fictional "West Dayton" high school, but graduated from the Miami Valley school district.

- Also, what school has their class reunion in February, anyway? In his appearance on The West Wing Weekly podcast, Baitz says this episode was filmed in December, which explains the fall leaves blowing about at the Cregg house and the Christmas holiday lights we see at the restaurant.

- The West Wing is famous for shots of characters being seen through camera lenses and TV monitors. We get some of that right off the bat here, with CJ at her press briefing being shown on multiple screens as she speaks to the press in front of us.

- Before she leaves the White House, we get a bit of a look at Gail's fishbowl, but what's in there is unclear. It looks like a heart, which fits the father-daughter theme. It could also be a pretzel, signifying Tal's mental state, maybe?

- Pagers continue to be a thing in this White House ... we see CJ having to take a couple of pagers off as she goes through airport security.

- Some speculate a big reason for this Very Special Episode was to give Allison Janney an acting showcase to win yet another Emmy Award. She did earn a nomination for an Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series Emmy for this episode (her fourth nomination for the series, with wins for Supporting Actress in Seasons 1 and 2 and Lead Actress in Season 3). However, Janney did not receive an Emmy this time - Edie Falco took home the award for her work in The Sopranos.

Quotes    

Tal: "Tell me everything. I want to know everything. Let's sit up all night and catch up. I don't seem to do much of that anymore. Ticking clocks, you know, and so much to do."

-----

CJ (on phone): "I want to be clear about the briefing, Toby. What I meant when I said that you need to know who to look at and when to ask certain questions is avoid the calm ones. Get the anxious ones out of the way first, to give the pros room to figure out what it is they really want. And avoid the ones who don't blink. They're power devils."

Toby: "I don't know what that is." 

-----

CJ: "You were a wonderful teacher, Molly. You should be ashamed of yourself."

Molly: "Well, I am." 

-----

Tal: "Who are you? All these damn women hounding me! My mother, my mother calls this morning to remind me to fold the socks when I get back in. And my daughter just abandoned me! Mothers, wives, daughters, and none of them stay! All these damn women!"

-----

Tal: "I'd much rather see you on TV, darling, than sitting opposite me, watching the demolition derby going on in my brain."

-----

Tal (watching Toby on TV): "That man lacks grace and charm."

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

• Matthew Modine (Full Metal Jacket, Birdy, Vision Quest, Stranger Things) appears as Marco Arlens, CJ's punk-rock baseball-playing high school classmate who is now a watchmaker in Paris.

• Donald Moffatt (The Thing, The Right Stuff, Clear And Present Danger) is outstanding as Talmidge Cregg, CJ's father.

• Verna Bloom (National Lampoon's Animal House, High Plains Drifter) appears as Molly, Tal's third wife struggling with his disease and his loss of self.

• Okay - why is the Communications Office even entertaining the idea of Josh briefing the press? In the opening scene we hear CJ tell the reporters that, unlike what had been announced, Josh will not be doing the press briefings while she goes out of town. We can't help but remember Josh's disastrous performance in the briefing room in Celestial Navigation and his revealing of the President's "secret plan to fight inflation" - a performance so bad the President himself banned him from ever doing it again. Yet, here we are ... although Josh makes sort of a reference to that experience in mentioning the reporters' "sadistic, anticipatory glee" at having him at the podium.

• CJ's father has been mentioned twice before: In The Stackhouse Filibuster CJ was writing an email to him, apologizing for being late for his 70th birthday party in Napa that weekend. In The Two Bartlets for the first time CJ refers to her father's struggle with remembering things, while also blaming affirmative action for holding back his career and perhaps contributing to his failing mental health.

If Tal had been turning 70 in The Stackhouse Filibuster, which was set in late March of 2001, that means he'd be 71 in this episode, nearing his 72nd birthday.

• Tal makes a comment about a "nice lady from Catholic Family Services." We first discovered CJ was Catholic in The Crackpots And These Women, when Josh asked her if she was familiar with Ave Maria. 

• We found out in The Black Vera Wang that CJ has two older brothers (and at least one niece). There's not a mention of the brothers or any other siblings at all in this episode, which seems a bit odd considering the stakes of what's happening to their father.

• WHAT'S NEXT MOMENT - Somewhat surprisingly in an episode without an appearance by President Bartlet, we actually do get a "What's next?" moment, this time from Marco.

Marco: "No, I think the best day's gotta be the next day. Life is all ... 'what's next?'"

DC location shots    

• This episode was actually shot in the Chicago area, mostly in the Oak Park and Elmwood Park suburbs. Original plans were to film in Dayton, but it turned out to be cheaper to film in Chicago instead. Here's the Cregg family house, which is somewhere in Oak Park (I wasn't able to find the actual address in my sleuthing):

• The street scene with CJ and Tal driving was filmed mostly along West Taylor Street, just west of the University of Illinois-Chicago and near the Illinois Medical District (south of the Eisenhower expressway and west of the Kennedy). The scene where they drive off after CJ takes the wheel is near the intersection of Taylor and Loomis, looking east on Taylor.

• Horwath's Restaurant was located at 1850 North Harlem in Elmwood Park, Illinois. A mainstay of the area since 1931, it apparently closed in 2004, just over a year after this episode aired. It appears there's now a diving and swim school located at this spot.

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

• Seeing Marco at the airport, CJ is reminded of the Violent Femmes, among other things. 

• Tal says, "You could blast (Edward) Elgar in here with 25 speakers, you wouldn't wake up Molly." Later, while fishing with CJ, he quotes the mathematician Blaise Pascal ("We sail in a vast sphere, ever drifting in uncertainty, driven from end to end").

• Tal's cat is named Archimedes, after the ancient Greek mathematician and inventor.

• Tal mentions the drug Reminyl, which is indeed the brand name for a form of cognition-enhancing medication.

• We see the C-SPAN logo on the television as Tal and CJ watch Toby's frenzied press briefing ("That man lacks grace and charm").

• Hamilton continues to be a well-esteemed watchmaking company, although their operations moved out of the United States in the 1950s.

• CJ brings up F. Scott Fitzgerald's pessimistic view of the future to Marco.

• We hear the Ramones song I Wanna Be Sedated playing while CJ and Marco sit in the parking lot outside the reunion. If that's a song from their high school days, it was released in the fall of 1978, so that would place this graduating class around 1979 or 1980.

• The "motel" where CJ and Marco have their dalliance is actually the Wyndham Drake hotel (as we can tell from this shot of the telephone in the room), which was located in Oak Brook. The hotel was sold in 2009 and is now called the Drake Hotel Oak Brook.

End credits freeze frame: Tal and CJ sitting on Tal's bed with Archimedes.

Previous episode: Guns Not Butter

Next episode: Inauguration: Part I

Guns Not Butter - TWW S4E12

 

Original airdate: January 8, 2003

Written by: Eli Attie (6) & Kevin Falls (7) and Aaron Sorkin (75)

Directed by: Bill D'Elia (2)

Synopsis

• Josh pulls out all the stops to try to squeeze a foreign aid bill through the Senate. Charlie's effort to show off in front of Zoey and Jean-Paul backfires. CJ sets up a presidential photo op with a goat.

"I want to be the guy. You want to be the guy the guy counts on."

We're into the second half of Season 4, and therefore the second half of the series as a whole, and that means we'll start to see episode titles that don't ring much of a bell for me. For the folks who think I'm a true Wing-nut, that may sound crazy, but while I do consider myself a big fan of the show, I'm far from a super fan, if you know what I mean. I'm really interested to see what my reaction is when this blog advances to Season 5, and I watch episodes I've literally seen only once before in my life (and that was about four years ago - while I did watch the series when it originally aired almost faithfully, there was a swath of Season 5 where I lost interest).

Anyhow, this is one of those titles that doesn't bring back much of a recollection of what happens, but it turns out it's a really enjoyable episode. I think the writing is tight, the storyline following Josh and the administration fighting to get the last votes they need to pass a bill is gripping and cleverly plotted, and there's a lot of humor (mixing up Will Bailey's name in various ways never gets old). I can't explain why that doesn't stick with the title Guns Not Butter, but it just hasn't with me, anyway.

We've actually had something like this story before, in Five Votes Down, although that was told in a different way with a different outcome. The basic plot outlines are similar, but I think these are vastly different stories. 

We start the show with Josh being told the administration has lost one of the 50 Senate votes he thought  were in the bag to pass a foreign aid bill. The outlines of the bill are expressed eloquently by the President at a couple of speeches during the day, as well as discussion about the bill in the White House - Aaron Sorkin and his writing staff make a very good argument about the importance of American aid to foreign countries, and how it's an overall benefit for the nation as well as the world. 

But Senators are falling back on the results of a new poll - 68 percent of respondents think foreign aid spending is too high, and 59 percent think it should be cut. Josh repeats that stat over and over as he goes back to the drawing board to try to find someone else to flip, knowing if they can get to 50 votes they have Vice President Hoynes ready to break the tie. He settles on Grace Hardin, a newly elected Democratic Senator from Georgia whom Josh thinks would be unable to turn down a direct request from the President. 

Trouble is, they can't get hold of her. She's traveling back to Washington from Atlanta, and when an aide tells Josh she'll agree to vote yes if the President asks her directly, he assigns Donna the task of catching her at the airport and putting a cell phone directly in her hand, which gives Janel Moloney a great storyline in this episode. Hardin is pretty savvy, though ... when Donna arrives at National Airport with the flight information she was given, she finds out the Senator actually came back secretly on an earlier flight. With a bit of envelope-related subterfuge and the batting of her eyes, she tricks a staffer into revealing where the Senator is.

That brings us to a scene in a hotel kitchen, where we discover Donna is on a first-name basis with the squabbling chefs (that's pretty funny, with Giuseppe's encouragement to get her to eat something)

 - but she's been tricked again, as Senator Hardin sent a subordinate to speak in her place at that event. Donna tries to fool the Senator's aide, pretending to receive a phone call saying they've located the votes elsewhere, but by dropping the names of those Senators into the conversation she makes it simple for Hardin to verify that it was a ruse.

Hardin plays both sides perfectly, telling the administration she'll change her vote if she gets the call from the White House, but then skillfully avoiding any way of actually taking the call. Meanwhile Toby gets an offer from a Tennessee Republican - he'll change his vote to yes if the administration will sign off on a study of the effectiveness of remote prayer. (The repeated confusion about the amount of his request - "$115 thousand." "Million. You mean million." - is more funny stuff in the episode.)

Josh is willing to take the offer mixing the federal government with religion, which shows his desperation about getting the bill through the Senate. The other staffers and the President, though, aren't onboard with the notion of federal funding for a study involving religion and prayer, even though it's only $115,000.

Josh: "$115,000 is what Commerce spends on Post-Its."

President: "Toby?"

Toby: "Threats to civil liberties only ever come a few dollars at a time."

I think Josh actually makes a good argument - the study could look at prayer of various faiths and creeds, so it's not funding a dedicated Christian religious point of view, and such studies were, in real life, actually funded by the NIH at about the time of this episode - but the President is firm. He's not going to devote taxpayer dollars to a study on the effectiveness of prayer (which, as a matter of fact, needs to be taken on faith alone anyway).

President: "Well, in my faith, we've known it's worked for two thousand years. I never knew there was data available, but okay."

The President hits the nail on the head with why Josh is so insistent:

President: "You're not willing to toss it overboard to win. You're willing to toss it overboard to avoid disappointing Leo. You know what the difference is between you and me? I want to be the guy. You want to be the guy the guy counts on."

So they agree, the vote is lost, they'll go to another continuing resolution to keep foreign aid funding (although at a lower rate), and they'll try again. Josh and Donna cross paths in the President's outer office:

Donna: "Is it me or is this getting harder?"

Josh: "It's getting harder."

Donna tells Josh the story of Fish Hooks McCarthy, a New York politician in the early 1900s who was credited with the prayer, "O Lord, give me health and strength. We'll steal the rest."

Donna: "You've got health and strength, both of which, coincidentally, I prayed for after hot lead was shot into your body."

Josh: "Yeah ... you're going to need some kryptonite, by the way."

Donna: "Okay, settle down."

Josh: "All right."

Donna: "So you've got health and strength."

(pause) 

Josh: "And we'll steal the rest?"

Donna: "Bet your ass."

And that conversation leads us to Josh talking to Will Bailey, who asks him why he's so obsessed with the poll showing public opinion against foreign aid:

Josh: "So, if we're lucky, foreign aid's going to be funded for another 90 days at 75 cents on the dollar. No one who's ever said they wanted bipartisanship has ever meant it. But the people are speaking, because 68 percent think we give too much in foreign aid, and 59 percent think it should be cut."

Will: "You like that stat?"

Josh: "I do."

Will: "Why?"

Josh: "Because nine percent think it's too high, and shouldn't be cut! Nine percent of respondents could not fully get their arms around the question. There should be another box you can check, for 'I have utterly no idea what you're talking about, please, God, don't ask for my input.'" 

There's really just one other storyline in the episode, but it's also about wanting to be "the guy the guy counts on." Charlie is feeling resentment toward Zoey's new boyfriend, Jean-Paul, and when Jean-Paul mocks Charlie for just sorting the President's mail without having any power to get anything done, Charlie goes a bit rogue. You see, one of those messages being sorted was from a service member handed to Charlie while the President was greeting the public at a rope line, a plea for the government to help members of the military who are paid so little they qualify for food stamps.

Charlie wants to show off a little for Zoey, particular when Jean-Paul calls him out for being "powerless" even when people see him standing next to the President.

As Charlie and Zoey exchange looks, Charlie determinedly says no, he's not powerless, and he's directed the note to the attention of the Pentagon.

Which he only then proceeds to do, calling a buddy at the Pentagon he plays basketball with. Trouble is, he tells the assistant in that office that he's calling from the office of the President, and instead of getting some ideas from a sergeant he knows, he's directed straight to a colonel - and now this is a big thing. At the colonel's request, Charlie sends the note over.

Which results in a thick memo being dropped on Charlie's desk:

"The table of contents is six pages long!"

... a memo that's also cc'ed to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Secretary of State, the Vice President, Leo - and President Bartlet himself. And now Charlie's effort to show off in front of Jean-Paul, to get a little attention paid to a service member who asked Charlie for help, has ended up in a huge Pentagon report listing all the things that would need to be cut in the military budget in order to pay soldiers more.

President: "There are a couple of thousand military families on food stamps. I can't stand it; the Pentagon knows it. Some families are eligible, some aren't. To change it, they'd have to raise everyone's pay, which they can't do, and this memo's a reminder. It's a get-off-our-backs memo. And you thought you were done with turf wars."

Charlie: "Did it cause any damage?"

President: "You decommissioned two aircraft carriers."

Charlie (incredulous): "Really?"

President: "No."

But Bartlet does ask Charlie to drop the note in his bag, so he can take a look himself.

Charlie's renewed interest in Zoey in the face of Jean-Paul's involvement brings us some funny stuff, too. The President is no fan of Jean-Paul himself, but as a father he's not that big of a fan of Charlie's romantic interest in Zoey, either. He baits him with this:

President (to Charlie): "Boy, Zoey's growing up nicely, isn't she?"

Charlie (smiling): "Yesss, she is."

President: "I'm on your side in this thing, but just barely. Just by a little bit, because he's French and royal. These are very special, very limited circumstances under which we're allies, you and I." 

This leads to the President's later discussion with Josh, with Josh ending up in hot water, too:

President: "Hey, Zoey's growing up very nicely, isn't she?"

Josh (too happily): "Man, I'll say."

Those two looks by Martin Sheen are just priceless.

The storyline with the photo op for Heifer International - supposedly with a cow, but then it turns out to be with a goat - is humorous in itself, but Sorkin uses President Bartlet to speak eloquently about how efforts like Heifer International to improve the lives of the impoverished around the globe ought to prove the worth of American aid to foreign countries. Before we get there, though, we get Leo's face when the goat arrives outside the White House:

And his hitting the nail on the head about how this goat photo op ever got approved:

CJ: "Well, first of all, that's not a cow. It's not! It's a goat. Yeah, I may have agreed to something about a goat."

Leo: "Did the First Lady get you drunk and take you shopping?"

CJ: "Leo ... yes."

And, of course, Will's reaction to finding a goat standing in his office:

The struggle of a second term in the face of congressional opposition really kicks off here, but the true theme is: Why do we do what we do? Is it for self-aggrandizement? Is it to please those whose opinions we respect and whose trust we crave? Or is it for the greater good, for the betterment of those around us, whether in this country or around the world? It's obviously that last one, but we're all human here with our own human frailties and needs and wants, and sometimes that gets in the way.

That's part of why I love The West Wing; maybe it is simplistic and hokey and overly trusting, but at its heart it makes us want to be better.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- This is the second straight episode with no Rob Lowe, not even a Seaborn For Congress poster. He's still in the opening credits, but he's only got a couple of appearances upcoming before he departs the show (SPOILER ALERT: Sam does return at the very end of the series).

- It's both refreshing and a little sad to see the give-and-take of politics from the early 2000s; legislators are willing to horse-trade for votes, helping someone (even from the other party!) to get their bill passed in exchange for a vote supporting one of their own pet projects. With the removal of earmarks from the lawmaking process, that has nearly disappeared in today's government. It's also oddly quaint to see Josh considering going to Republicans to try to sway their votes - today's entrenched partisanship almost always sees Republicans voting in a bloc against any kind of Democratic proposal (it happens the other way, too, but  today's Democrats don't seem nearly as monolithic as the anti-everything GOP).

- Jean-Paul is one of the least-liked characters in West Wing lore, and the performance of Trent Ford is just one of the many reasons why, but this barely stifled yawn as he and Zoey walk along with the President is actually a great little insight into his character.

- A little Easter egg here; at the airport baggage claim, we see a driver holding a sign reading "B. D'Elia." Bill D'Elia was the director of this episode.

- CJ actually talks to Gail ("What's up, there, Gail?" after Danny leaves); in the fishbowl we see some cows, a reference to the Heifer International photo op.

Quotes    

President: "And is there a cow on my schedule today?"

CJ: "It's called Heifer International. Don't worry about it."

President: "I'm meeting with a cow. I shouldn't worry about it."

CJ: "It's a photo op with a cow, sir. It's not a sit-down."

President: "I like your sass."

CJ: "You've got a very nice sass yourself ... sir."

President: "What, are you touring?" 

-----

President: "Please, my daughter's dating a kid who's better looking than my wife."

-----

President (yelling): "Zoey!"

Zoey: "I don't respond when you shout."

President: "Yeah, I think you'd respond if I stopped feeding you."

Zoey (to Jean-Paul): "Ignore him."

Jean-Paul: "Oh, yes, I do." 

-----

Leo: "If the President's wearing a hat, or that thing's wearing a Bartlet button, I'm hiding snakes in your car."

CJ: "Come on, don't say that! Not even to joke!"

Leo: "You're never gonna know where they are -"

CJ: "Leo!"

Leo: "Or if you got them all out. ... gonna lay their eggs right in the glove compartment."

-----

CJ: "I didn't put the goat in your office, someone else must have."

Will: "You didn't."

CJ: "I put it in the office that's being used by a new guy Toby and Josh are trying to give a hard time to - (spinning around to Will) oh, wait!"

Will: "You understand I'm working on the inaugural address, right?"

CJ: "How's that going?"

Will: "There's bicycles and goats in my office!"

-----

CJ: "So, I think this will work. I think it says, 'Well, you're impoverished and while we don't care, we don't want you to go away empty-handed, so we offer you this goat, Ron, to give you milk.'"

Will: "Do male goats give milk?"

CJ (considers): "No, no, of course they don't. So, we offer you this thing that'll just gnaw on your stuff." 

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

• Danica McKellar's Elsie Snuffin, Will's half-sister and joke-writing assistant, pops up for the first time since Swiss Diplomacy.

• Will and Josh make an inside joke about Aaron Sorkin's reputation for "walk and talks" with Will telling Josh, "You get a pretty good aerobic workout talking to someone in this building," to which Josh replies, "I've heard the jokes."

• Charlie's past romantic relationship with Zoey (which we saw at the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2) and his newfound rivalry with Jean-Paul is a key plot point.

• The President also refers to Charlie's past growing up around street gangs with his comment, "And you thought you were done with turf wars." Charlie spoke personally about gangs in his neighborhood in Isaac And Ishmael.

• Danny continues to dig into the story of the Shareef assassination from Posse Comitatus. We also discover the pilot's name was listed as Jameel Bari - if you recall from that episode, Admiral Fitzwallis said the plan would rely on putting one of "our people" on the plane as Shareef's pilot, and Danny is trying to follow that trail.

• Bartlet makes a remark about his memory having "only so much RAM" - Bruno Gianelli made the exact same remark ("I have only so much RAM in my head") about Title IX in College Kids.

• In the conversation with Senator Hoebuck Toby brings up CJ's experience as the focus of a remote prayer brigade "a few months ago"; while the story was told in Debate Camp, aired about four months before this episode, that story was actually a flashback to the early days of the administration in 1999 - four years ago.

• The Senator responds with a rude reference to Simon Donovan's death in Posse Comitatus.

• References to Will's office being filled with bicycles and Seaborn For Congress posters come from Holy Night.

• Donna tells Josh she prayed for his health and strength after he was shot (In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen). She later tells Senator Hardin's aide that, among other things, she went to North Dakota at Josh's request (We Killed Yamamoto).

DC location shots    

• None. The building we see the President and his entourage coming out of at the beginning of the episode is, I believe, the Los Angeles Convention Center (the sign for Compass Cafe led me to that, and the architecture checks out).

(Here's what the Convention Center really looks like on the outside.)

 

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

• Presidents Benjamin Harrison and Warren Harding get mentioned right out of the gate.

• Heifer International is a very real and very worthy organization that helps impoverished farm families around the world become more self-sufficient. They don't just provide animals for milk, though, they also contribute other agricultural supplies, including animals to start herds to supply meat (which would be Ron's role, to help start a herd of goats).

• A shot of the phone on Charlie's desk shows it's from Nortel Networks. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2009 and went out of business in 2013.

• Will tells Josh that Senator Cantina voted against Kosovo peacekeeping - in reality, the US military joined a joint UN peacekeeping force in Kosovo in 1999, under the Clinton administration; in The West Wing universe President Bartlet took office in January of 1999 and therefore this operation would have occurred under his watch (although it's never really been mentioned in the show; in Season 1 background TVs often depicted real-world cable news coverage of the crisis in the Balkans, however).

• Duke University Medical Center indeed exists (remember, Sam was a graduate of Duke Law). There have been several studies on the medical effects of "remote prayer" over the years, including a study tracking 150 AIDS patients between 2000 and 2003 that was, indeed, partially funded by the NIH.

• There are several mentions about Senator Hardin or her staff being at Dirksen; that's the Dirksen Senate Office Building, named after former Illinois Senator Everett Dirksen.

• Charlie is seen drinking from a can of Hansen's soda.

• British Prime Minister Winston Churchill gets quoted several times, as well as a mention of posing in a photograph with Will and Elsie's grandfather.

• President Bartlet calls Toby, Leo, Josh, and CJ The Temptations.

• Donna quotes "Fish Hooks" McCarthy's prayer to "Give us health and strength. we'll steal the rest." McCarthy was a real New York City political figure around the turn of the 20th century, though the prayer may be apocryphal.

• In the scene with CJ and Danny watching the vote and eating Chinese food, they're both drinking beer. I couldn't quite see Danny's bottle, but CJ is clearly drinking a Corona.

• Will brings up "101 Dalmatians" as he complains about bicycles and goats in his office; a clear reference to the Disney film.

• Will refers to himself as Eton valedictorian.

End credits freeze frame: Everyone gathered for the photo op with the goat.

Previous episode: Holy Night

Next episode: The Long Goodbye

Holy Night - TWW S4E11

 

Original airdate: December 11, 2002

Written by: Aaron Sorkin (74)

Directed by: Thomas Schlamme (11)

Synopsis

• As a huge Christmas snowstorm shuts down most of DC, the arrival of Toby's estranged father spurs tension between Toby and Josh. Will is tested on his ability to stand up to power, and doesn't do very well. Josh tries to figure out his feelings for Donna. Danny Concannon surprisingly returns, tracking a story about suspicious dealings in Bermuda in May. Both President Bartlet and Leo, feeling guilt over that May assassination, try to solve unsolvable problems to make amends.

"It's four years later and there are things that are worse and things that are exactly the same. Where do you start?"

"By fixing a roof."

"The past is never dead. It's not even past." William Faulkner's line from Requiem For A Nun pretty much sums up our episode here. The past that our characters thought was dead and gone, whether it be a father's involvement with mobsters in the 1950s or a reporter who might have been a love interest once upon a time or a political assassination thought to be securely kept under wraps ... they're not even past.

Pretty much every character here is dealing with echoes from the past, whether they be obvious in-your-face memories (like Toby's dad just showing up in his office) or a bit more subtle ones (like the return of Zoey with her new boyfriend bringing Charlie up short). From Josh thinking about how his past sabotage of Donna's private life may have had motives he wasn't even aware of (something he talked about openly in The War At Home, telling Sam about Donna's dating "I don't like it and usually do everything within my considerable capabilities to sabotage it"), to the specter of a dismantled airplane popping up in President Bartlet's head during a session with Stanley Keyworth - the memories are like little Christmas presents showering over the West Wing. Just a lot less welcome and joyous.

As heavy snow shuts down most of Washington, Donna is hurrying to get away to spend the Christmas holiday with Jack Reese at the Washington Inn (remember, they only met on Election Day in early November, their first date came three weeks ago on the day before Thanksgiving, so things are zipping right along in DonnaJack land). Josh is supportive, even after Jack's comments in the previous episode opened the window into the fact that maybe, just maybe, Josh has some deep romantic feelings for Donna himself. But then a directive from the President lands on Josh's desk - he wants to rewrite the budget for the Department of Health and Human Services to provide more funding for early childhood programs, and it has to be done right away. Josh apparently can't hardly do anything without Donna's help, but she knows that and willingly delays her departure. "It's not what it looks like," Josh tells her, and she answers, "It's really okay. Where do we start?"

But what Josh said does stick with Donna, leading to this later conversation.

Donna: "What did you mean when you said it's not what it looks like?"

Josh: "Jack's already down there?"

Donna: "Yeah."

Josh: "I'll call him and apologize."

Donna: "What did you mean?"

Josh: "I meant that I wasn't keeping you here on purpose."

Donna: "Why would I think you were doing that?"

Well, if she remembers The Portland Trip, for one, when Josh sabotaged her date with unnecessary make-work, and there's been other examples, too (even if Josh's aversion to Donna seeing Cliff Calley in Ways And Means and War Crimes actually had solid practical foundations). Jack's remarks in the previous episode about how much Josh talks about Donna hit Josh pretty hard - and now he's dealing with the way he's tried to stop Donna from having romantic attachments in the past.

Donna does get away at last, thanks to a TV news helicopter that Leo arranges (how many ethics rules got violated for that?), but we're left knowing that Josh's denials of treating Donna differently than the past may not be completely honest.

Also in West Wing romantic soap opera plots, Presidential daughter Zoey pops up. We haven't seen her since The Midterms early in Season 2, and at that time she and Charlie were still quite an item. Charlie was just working out his unease about being a target for white supremacists gunmen because of their relationship, but near the end of that episode they happily walked off together as Charlie went to vote.

Things have changed since then. Zoey has brought her new boyfriend, Jean-Paul, to the White House to meet her father. Jean-Paul, it turns out, is French royalty (and also ends up being one of the more loathed characters appearing on The West Wing, but you'll need to stick around to find out why).

Zoey: "Jean-Paul Pierre Claude Charpentier Vicomte de Conde de Bourbon. He's the 22nd Vicomte de Bourbon, though obviously that got interrupted by the French Revolution."

President: "Yeah, that was a setback for the Bourbons." 

She's also hoping to convince the President to allow Jean-Paul to tag along to Manchester for the holiday, so things must be getting pretty serious between them. Charlie is, to put it mildly, not enthused to meet Zoey's new beau. We also get a little bit of a clue that things may not have ended very smoothly between Charlie and Zoey, whenever and however they did end, with a bit of a passive-aggression exchange between the two, with Charlie's snide "you've got a lot in common" definitely meant as a slam on Zoey:

Charlie: "But I wish you all the luck in the world. I like Jean-Paul. You've got a lot in common."

Zoey: "You are the worst kind of snob."

Charlie: "Well, I think there's snobs who are way worse. But thank you."

How about Will? As we discovered in the previous episode, Toby agreed to bring him in to help work on the President's inaugural address. However, Toby is frustrated with the logistics of Will working in his hotel and refusing to cross the "holy line of demarcation" in the White House lobby. Toby installs Will in Sam's office, which is currently unused as Sam is in California running for Congress in the special election. Will deduces that move will not go over well with the other speechwriters on the staff, as they will resent the move as a poor reflection on Sam's past legacy in the West Wing. His prediction appears to come to fruition when he find bicycles piled into the office and Sam Seaborn posters all over the windows.

 Will: "Who rides a bicycle to work when there's going to be a foot and a half of snow?"

It's all part of an elaborate test, though. Toby brings Will the President's notes on a section of the speech, saying he agrees with all three. Will doesn't agree with one of them, he wants to push more action, and Toby sets up an Oval Office meeting for them. Which turns out to be just two when Toby doesn't show up, and things don't go well when Will declines to take the meeting without Toby:

President: "Well, thanks for stopping by."

Will: "Thank you, Mr. Justice - Mr. Bartlet - Mr. President, actually."

(The President returns to the Oval Office)

Will: "Oh, my God."

Charlie: "You know what? I've seen worse."

Will: "Really?"

Charlie: "Well, no." 

When they finally do have the meeting, and the opportunity is given for anyone to speak up about potential changes to the speech, Will is reluctant to say anything - and it turns out he's fallen into the trap set by Toby and the President. The bikes were a planned distraction, the note Will didn't agree with was planted to see if he would catch it, and Toby bailing on their original meeting was a setup to see if Will would take some iniative, and, well:

Will: "You said that I caught the bad note?"

Toby: "Yeah, that was planted there to see how well you'd do telling truth to power."

President: "Not very well so far."

 Will: "I have no difficulty, sir, telling truth to power."

President: "Okay, except when I asked you to come into the Oval Office you said, 'No, no, no. No, no, no, no.'"

Will: "I was firm in my convictions."

President: "And you called me Mr. Justice."

(This does seem a bit of an odd performance considering what we've seen of Will before, standing up to Sam about how he ran the Wilde campaign with a dead candidate, then standing up to him again about staying on for Sam's run, then standing up to Toby and criticizing his writing style. I suppose the office of the Presidency and the importance of the Oval Office itself was just a bit too much.)

So Will has to deal with not only Sam's past shadow looming over the office space and his speechwriting role, but also his own past reputation for being a straight shooter and brutally honest fizzling under his awestruck respect for the White House itself.

Toby and his father ... that's quite a story. We've heard a bit about Toby's family past previously, from his brother being a NASA shuttle payload specialist in What Kind Of Day Has It Been to his sisters taking him to protests in 1968 in Somebody's Going To Emergency, Somebody's Going To Jail, but we know nothing about his parents. This episode changes that in a very unusual way, with a flashback to 1954 Brooklyn Heights and characters speaking in Yiddish, where we discover Toby's father, happy about his son being born the day before, is involved in some kind of criminal gangland activity.

Back to the present, Toby's dad is waiting for him in his office. Josh has set up the meeting, which pisses off Toby royally - because as we discover, it turns out his father served prison time for being a part of the mob group Murder Incorporated back in the '50s and Toby does not want to have any kind of relationship with him. His father, Jules, though, has heard that Toby and Andy are expecting, and he would love to have some contact with his grandchildren.

It's an icy back-and-forth between the two, but given that it's Christmas and that all the city's hotels are booked up, Toby eventually melts just enough to offer his apartment as a place for his father to stay for the night. It doesn't hurt that Josh brings up his own familial tragedies as a contrast for Toby to think about:

Josh: "All right, it was desperation. It wasn't out of a desire to do evil. He had a young family and he barely spoke the language. He went to jail. He went to jail and you went to school, and it was all a half-century ago. Look what he did in two generations. What room did you just walk out of?"

Toby: "I appreciate that that's what you think. Do I get to think what I think?"

Josh: "No, you don't, cause you don't know what I know."

Toby: "What?"

Josh: "That I would give anything to have a father who was a felon, or a sister with a past. That's it."

Finally, the big shadow hovering over the episode, a shadow of a momentous secret decision made last spring at the end of Season 3, President Bartlet's call to take out a Qumari government official who was sponsoring terrorism against the United States. While the beginning episodes of Season 4 had some references to the Shareef assassination, with Qumar reopening the investigation and blaming Israel for it, it's been a while since the topic has come up in our episodes. So it caught me unawares, really, when the President unknowingly and unexpectedly says the word "airplane" in his therapy session with Stanley, when he's supposedly talking about how he can help children's health and well-being:

President: "The President can't do anything about nature or bad luck. I ought to be able to do something about the airplane."

Stanley: "Uh-oh."

President: "Wait, what'd I just say?"

Stanley: "It's hard to figure, sir, but you've introduced a new word into the conversation."

President: "What do airplanes signify?"

Stanley: "Death."

Just seems like a weird misstatement in context, especially when Bartlet goes on to explain that he's been spacing out in meetings lately ... but Sorkin is too good of a writer to plant that nugget there in the script without it meaning a lot more.

Apparently the Christmas season has caused the guilt felt by the President and Leo over the assassination to fester. Bartlet focuses on children's health and infant mortality, directing Josh to rewrite the HHS budget before the new year, as a way to atone for the killing, apparently. Leo explodes over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem being closed on Christmas Eve for what he sees as petty reasons, with his fervor to fix the problem and reopen the church his way of reacting to his guilt.

This guilt about the secret is an interesting psychological plotline in itself, but things get really dicey when Danny Concannon returns (after a nearly two-year absence) to his position as a White House correspondent. He first pops up in the guise of Santa Claus, giving CJ a gift of a goldfish pin from the press corps, along with a little something else:

(A smooch. It was a big smooch, which hearkens back to Danny talking about CJ's "randomly grabbing me and kissing me" in Season 1.)

Danny (who hasn't been seen since The Portland Trip in Season 2) has spent some time working overseas, but now he's back - and he has a little tidbit of information for CJ. He tells her in the course of enjoying cricket matches in Bermuda, one of the players who is also a ramp worker at a small airstrip had an unusual situation come up in May. The airport staff was told to take a day off, with a training crew coming in to replace them for that day, but when this fellow realized he'd left something in his locker and went to retrieve it that "training staff" refused him entry.

Danny puts things together and tells CJ he believes these were U.S. Army Rangers, clearing a Bermuda airstrip of local workers for a day, the same day Abdul Shareef's aircraft supposedly disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle - and he knows there's some kind of connection there. And he's working on the story.

CJ believes him.

Josh: "Danny thinks we somehow got a Gulfstream in land in Bermuda, assassinated Shareef, then disassembled the plane and distributed the pieces throughout the Bermuda Triangle?"

CJ: "Yeah."

Josh: "I think he spent too much time in the Africa hot."

CJ: "Thing is -"

Josh: "Yeah?"

CJ: "I'm absolutely certain that's what happened."

And then we get a clear callback to the private and eventual public disclosure of President Bartlet's health issues and the staff's involvement in that during Season 2:

Josh: "We're not supposed to talk about this."

CJ: "If it is true, we need to say so before Danny does. We've been here before."

And that's the biggest example of past not being dead, not even being past, as the Shareef assassination isn't buried under the waves of the Atlantic but struggles to be revealed, as such things almost always eventually are.

The episode ends with a skillfully presented montage, scenes of the characters striving towards truth and closure as the Whiffenpoofs sing "O Holy Night." We first see Danny, hard at work on his story digging at the events in Bermuda and Shareef's disappearance:

Then CJ in her office, turning over Danny's story in her mind and thinking about the consequences:

Charlie leaving for the night, followed by Zoey and Jean-Paul heading out for Manchester:

(There in front of Zoey and Jean-Paul I'm pretty sure we see a gingerbread White House, something that has been shown in all the Christmas episodes, but never quite in this blink-and-you'll-miss-it way before.)

Those shots lead us to Sam's office, where Will continues to work on the inaugural address among the bicycles (this after Leo sent him away from the Oval Office, saying surely Will had somewhere to be for Christmas - he doesn't):

Meanwhile, in the Oval Office, President Bartlet gazes out at the snow, deep in thought over his past decisions and making moral amends:

Speaking of amends, here's Leo, working the phones to try to get a roof fixed so a church can be open on Christmas Eve:

Josh, helping his friend and mentor with his moral struggles, working those phones alongside him:

And as Josh looks through his office window, he sees Toby and his father, listening to the Whiffenpoofs sing, perhaps signs of a bit of thawing in that icy relationship:

A terrifically put-together montage to close the episode - the pictures tell us so much without words, laying out the emotions and truth behind the stories we've been told over the past 40 minutes. It's Christmas, it's a season of hope and forgiveness ... and yet, the past won't stay dead.

Tales Of Interest!

- This episode marks the exact midpoint of the series, 3 1/2 seasons into the 7-season run. Holy Night is the 78th episode (including Documentary Special), and there are 78 episodes still to come. Meanwhile, it's taken me close to four years to blog my way through those 78 episodes (my first entry was posted in April 2017). Here's hoping I'll be able to pick up the pace somewhat for the second half.

- For the third time in four seasons, the title of the Christmas episode refers to a Christmas hymn (In Excelsis Deo in Season 1, Noël in Season 2 - only Bartlet For America in Season 3 broke the pattern). I do think this is the first time, though, that the song referenced in the title is actually heard in the episode. At the end of In Excelsis Deo the children's choir sang The Little Drummer Boy, and at the end of Noël we heard Carol Of The Bells sung by the choir outside the White House gates. This time we actually do hear the Whiffenpoofs singing O Holy Night.

- This episode marks Toby's 48th birthday (born December 23, 1954, this episode is set on December 23, 2002). Richard Schiff was born in May, 1955, so he's just five months younger than his character.

- Joshua Malina appears in the opening credits for the first time. Rob Lowe also remains in the credits, but for the first time he does not appear in the episode ... unless you count the Sam Seaborn for Congress posters that the irritated West Wing workers use to cover the windows of the office while Will is trying to work there.

- It's always great to see the lights and set decorations used to set the holiday scene in the Christmas episodes:

- Check out the long, one-take shot with the camera slowly pushing in on Danny as he tells CJ the story he heard from the Bermuda ramp agent. It's one minute and 15 seconds, uncut, with the camera starting in the hallway and ending up in a tight shot of Danny's face. Awesome work by Tommy Schlamme. Here's where that unbroken shot begins and ends:

- There's some kind of round glass object in Gail's bowl. Is is a Christmas ornament? Is it a bowling ball? Are the holes a reference to, perhaps, bullet holes? Who can say?

- You of course recall the heavy use of pagers in the early episodes of The West Wing - mixing up pagers, in fact, was a key plot point in the Sam/Laurie story in Pilot. Pagers seem to have drifted out of favor (as they did in real life) as cell phones become more common and useful. Here we can see Josh's flip phone attached to his belt, which is fairly typical for high-powered people in the early 21st century:

- This is the first time the Christmas episode did not earn any Emmy nominations; the previous three seasons all had performances that ended up as Supporting Actor Emmy wins (Richard Schiff for In Excelsis Deo, Bradley Whitford for Noël, John Spencer for Bartlet For America), while In Excelsis Deo also won the Writing Emmy for Aaron Sorkin and Rick Cleveland.



Quotes    

(Carol and CJ are listening to the Whiffenpoofs sing 'Bye, Bye Blackbird') 

Carol: "You think they should wrap it up?"

CJ: "Well, one more after this."

Carol: "I know. Aren't they great?"

CJ: "You just want them to take you to their place and ..."

(A rather sultry look comes over CJ) 

 

Carol: "They're 20 years old, ma'am."

CJ: "Yes. Sing ... is what I was going to say. Take you to their place and sing." 

-----

Will: "Seriously, Toby, you put me in that office and everyone who works on the speechwriting staff is going to resent me."

Toby: "Don't be ridiculous. It's a West Wing office. Everyone who works in the White House is going to resent you."

Will: "That's right."

Toby: "Yet curiously, I don't care." 

-----

Zoey: "This is Jean-Paul. Jean-Paul, this is Charlie Young."

Charlie: "How do you do."

Jean-Paul: "Ah, Zoey talks about you all the time. She talks about you so much I think sometimes I want to kill you."

Charlie: "Hey, that's nice of you. Thanks." 

-----

Zoey: "My dad's going to love him."

Charlie: "Oh, yeah."

Zoey: "Well, I love him, so my father will love him."

Charlie: "That's absolutely the way it works." 

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

• John Diehl (Miami Vice, Jurassic Park III) returns as Larry Claypool, the guy from Freedom Watch who grilled Josh in a deposition over the investigation of drug users in the White House in Lord John Marbury. Now he's grilling Toby over Andy Wyatt hiding her pregnancy from the voters before the election.

• Danny Concannon (Timothy Busfield) returns! Last seen on Air Force One in The Portland Trip, he apparently spent some time in Africa (at least according to Josh's comment "I think he spent too much time in the Africa hot") and is now back as a White House correspondent. At the time, Busfield actually had a role on the TV series Ed, which is one reason why he hadn't shown up here for a while. 

• Speaking of returning, here's Dr. Stanley Keyworth (Adam Arkin). He first appeared in Noël as a psychological trauma specialist helping Josh. This marks the third time we've seen him working with President Bartlet on some of his issues (Night Five and Posse Comitatus being the others) - and it's unfortunately the last appearance for Dr. Keyworth.

• And Zoey is back. We haven't seen Elisabeth Moss since The Midterms, when Zoey and Charlie were still dating and Charlie was struggling with the fact their relationship made him a target of white supremacist gunmen at the end of Season 1. Somehow, unseen by us in the 51 episodes and over 2 years since that appearance, Zoey and Charlie are no longer together and Zoey has found some French royalty to date.

• Toby's father Jules is played by Jerry Adler (The Sopranos, The Good Wife, Mad About You, Rescue Me).

• President Bartlet's comment to Dr. Keyworth drops a couple of callbacks.

President: "Stanley, the width and depth of what I haven't done about it yet ... you know you can't do anything about hurricanes? The President can't do anything about nature or bad luck. I ought to be able to do something about the airplane."

Keyworth: "Uh-oh."

President: "Wait, what did I just say?"

Keyworth: "It's hard to figure, sir, but you've introduced a new word into the conversation."

First, of course, the mention of hurricanes and being unable to do anything about it recalls Hurricane Sarah from The State Dinner, which unexpectedly changed course and hit a carrier battle group off the coast of Virginia resulting in the loss of the USS Hickory. The introduction of "airplane" into the conversation seems odd at the moment, but as the episode develops we realize both Bartlet and Leo are having internal moral struggles with last spring's assassination of Qumari Defense Minister Shareef. We saw that play out over the end of Season 3, with the actual killing of Shareef and destruction of the evidence - the airplane - happening in Posse Comitatus.   

• That story thread gets pulled some more by Danny Concannon and his source from the airstrip in Bermuda. We do find out that event happened on May 22 ... which happens to be the very day Posse Comitatus aired on NBC. Go figure.

• Toby says his full name is Tobias Zachary Ziegler. In Ways And Means when the special prosecutor read off the list of names subject to subpoenas in the investigation into Bartlet's MS coverup, his name was read as "Toby Zachary Ziegler."

• Toby's father is seen looking at the framed newspaper that was used to confirm Toby's identity to the Wesley, Connecticut, police in Celestial Navigation.

• The Bartlet jacket flip appears. Martin Sheen's left shoulder was injured at birth and he's unable to raise his arm above the shoulder, so this is how he puts on a jacket.

• Will's speech he wrote for the Governor of California at the Stanford Club is mentioned again (it first came up in Game On).

• Josh tells Toby "I would give anything to have a father who was a felon, or a sister with a past." Josh's father died the night Bartlet won the Illinois primary (seen in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II) and we learned his sister was killed in a house fire when Josh was a little boy in The Crackpots And These Women.

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• There's a quick glimpse of Bob Hope on a television and we can hear his voice in the opening 1954 scene. Hope began hosting TV specials in 1950, with the first Bob Hope Christmas Show airing in December, 1953. However, his 1954 Christmas special did not air on television until January 9, 1955 - so it would not have been on the air on December 24 as seen here.

• Cole Porter is mentioned in the opening 1954 flashback, as well as his membership in the Whiffenpoofs, a Yale a capella singing club. The actual Whiffenpoofs then appear, singing songs in the lobby of the White House (including the songs Bye, Bye Blackbird, Girl From Ipanema, and O Holy Night), with one of the members prominently wearing a Yale sweatshirt in their final scene. The singing group was also mentioned by CJ in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" when she said the President's knowledge of Latin would have had them rolling in the aisles at the Whiffenpoof dinners (of course, Bartlet never went to Yale, being a graduate of Notre Dame and the London School of Economics, but Sorkin may not have had that figured out yet in the second episode).

• The Washington Inn - or, more precisely, the Martha Washington Inn - is a historic hotel in Abingdon, Virginia. Abingdon, though, is in far southwestern Virginia, a good 5 1/2 hours away by car in good weather (and probably a lot further than a news helicopter would be flying from DC). So perhaps that's not actually the inn they are referring to - although Donna's reference to I-66 checks out, as she would take Interstate 66 west out of DC before heading southwest on I-81 to get there.

• Leo is all wound up about the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem being closed on Christmas Eve.

• Ebenezer Scrooge, a character in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, gets a mention, since it's Christmas.

• The snowstorm shutting down travel and keeping people somewhat trapped in the White House has President Bartlet thinking of Agatha Christie murder mysteries.

• Charlie tells Jean-Paul he read 150 words about him in US Weekly.

• There are Coca-Cola bottles visible as part of the refreshments provided for the Whiffenpoofs stranded by the snowstorm.

• A CNN logo is seen on a TV screen, as well as former CNN weatherperson Flip Spiceland (Spiceland left CNN in early 2001, so he actually was not at the network at the time of this episode):

• All the Murder Inc. references are from real life. Albert Anastasia (who did indeed die in October 1957), the Brownsville candy store, Louis Amberg, the sixth floor of the Half Moon Hotel on Coney Island, Dutch Schultz - all of those relate to mob activity in New York.

• Josh has a Starbucks cup (with the red holiday design).

• Josh says he'll take Donna to the Hawk 'n' Dove. That was a famous hangout for Democratic politicians near Capitol Hill (although not very convenient to the White House). While the name of the bar wasn't said in Dead Irish Writers, you could see a neon sign reading "Hawk 'n' Dove" in the window of the bar where Toby and Lord Marbury were meeting.

• As Josh and CJ go over what Danny thinks might have happened in Bermuda, Josh says how ridiculous the idea is that Shareef's Gulfstream would have been forced to land there and then taken apart and dumped in the ocean. During the events leading up to the killing of Shareef at the end of Season 3, his private jet is referred to as both a Learjet and a Gulfstream - but the scenes of the shooting at the airstrip in Posse Comitatus clearly show it's a Learjet.

End credits freeze frame: President Bartlet contemplating at the Oval Office window.

Previous episode: Arctic Radar

Next episode: Guns Not Butter