The Wedding - TWW S7E9

Original airdate: December 11, 2005

Written by: Josh Singer (5)

Directed by: Max Mayer (1)

Synopsis

• The White House wedding of Ellie and Vic gets complicated by a military crisis in Kazakhstan. Issues with the direction and funding of the Santos campaign cause some Democratic bigwigs to consider replacing Josh.
  

"Leo? Should Josh be running this campaign?" 

Yes, the episode is called The Wedding, and yes, Ellie Bartlet and Vic Faison tie the knot here (eventually, given President Bartlet's distractions with world events) - but the real meat of this episode rests with Josh, his obsession over how to best shift his limited resources around, the second-guessing by party bigwigs over Josh's decisions and performance, and the move to push him out and shake up the staff of Matt's campaign. And I gotta tell you, that's really timely considering the current real-world 2024 situation with President Biden's woeful debate performance causing panic and discussions in the Democratic Party about how to proceed, whether replacing Biden with a different candidate might be wise, and who that might be and how to go about it. (And now as I'm working on this post, we add the unprecedented move of Biden dropping out as a candidate and handing the reins to his VP).

 

We're six weeks out from election day, and Josh is frantically moving the campaign's limited advertising money around, pulling out of some states entirely and focusing on others where it seems they have a chance to make up some ground. The Santos campaign continues to trail Vinick by that stubborn seven-point margin, and the electoral vote map is very challenging for the Democrat contender. Then, stunning news: a new poll in Illinois shows Santos closing the gap, giving him a chance at stealing those 21 electoral votes away from Vinick.

The problem is Josh had decided earlier not to spend any precious ad dollars in Illinois, as Vinick had a double-digit lead there. Now that Santos appears to be in striking distance, not only are they at the disadvantage of working from behind, there just aren't any available dollars to move there without risking other vital states. As Josh obsesses over the right move to make, the knives come out in Democratic Party circles ... did he make the wrong move by not contesting Illinois earlier? Is there a better choice to run the Santos campaign?

What this really shows is the neverending pressure and stress of running a modern-day political campaign, and for Josh, it seems almost crippling. We've seen Josh's obsessive and unhealthy work ethic before (King Corn, Freedonia), and believe me, we're going to see it again. Leo makes the point to him; he has to slow down or things are just going to get worse.

Leo: "Did you get some sleep?"

Josh: "We cut New Hampshire, pull money out of Iowa and Wisconsin."

Leo: "Really, you've got to pace yourself."

Josh: "I mean, New Hampshire's a no-brainer."

Leo: "I'm serious. You should be getting at least five hours."

Josh: "Only four electoral votes, we're paying a premium because the ad buy is out of Boston."

Leo: "Soon you're going to be at two hours a night and it only gets worse if we win."

Not only is Josh running on fumes, second-guessing himself (to the eternal frustration of Lou), he's also paranoid. He sees party higher-ups out for his job around every corner, from MSNBC mouthpiece Mike Diacovo to former DNC chair Barry Goodwin to Senator George Montgomery, who's very critical of Josh's inattention to Illinois earlier. Couple that with all the party leaders upset with his plans to pull money out of various states, and it's a no-win situation.

 

And then, it turns out Josh's paranoia is fully justified. Goodwin and Montgomery meet with Matt and Leo before the White House wedding, and they are firm in their belief that Josh has to be replaced ... and replaced with Leo (who, to be honest, has already run a successful underdog Presidential campaign). Their case is strong enough that Matt wants to make the switch. Heck, even Josh seems okay with the idea ("They want you. It's you, isn't it? Hell, that's who I'd want. You would've known. You would have been in Illinois months ago, right?").

(Okay, this bothers me a lot. Matt only got into the presidential race because of Josh. He famously told Josh in Faith Based Initiative that he'd only run if his "nine-point plan" added a tenth: having Josh in charge. Matt has been all-in with Josh ever since - even when Josh offered to move aside when Matt's political instincts proved better than Josh's in some cases, even when Matt's wife Helen had issues with Josh, Matt never wavered in his belief that Josh was the right and only guy for the job. It's just not believable that he'd change his mind with six weeks left.)

But Leo sets him straight.

Matt: "You taking over?"

Leo: "No."

Matt: "Leo, I thought we --"

Leo: "Josh is going to make a lot of strategic decisions over the next few weeks. He's going to sweat them like life and death. And they'll be important, sure, which is why you and me are going to be in on every one of them. But they're meaningless compared to the decision the voters are going to have to make just by listening to you and trying to see if they can connect with the idea of Matt Santos as President. And Josh has nothing to do with that. Goodwin's right - Josh has taken you as far as he can. The rest is up to you."

So the team remains intact. Six weeks left, still flailing away at that stubborn Vinick lead, but maybe finding some traction here and there.

Then there's the wedding. We see right from the start that Abbey isn't all that confident in Jed being able to structure his time in running the free world to get a few hours away to walk his daughter down the aisle, let alone host the rehearsal dinner or practice his wedding dance. And she's probably right ... note Debbie's eyes when he starts asking for foreign leaders to get on the phone before the rehearsal dinner.

 He's doing his best, but global politics keep getting in the way. We've had the situation in Kazakhstan ever since Message Of The Week - the Russian-backed President who replaced the assassinated leader has killed an oil deal with the Chinese, delayed elections and started causing problems with the ethnic Chinese in the country. Both Russia and China have been rattling their sabers at each other over the situation, and in the previous episode troops from both countries have moved into position along the border. As tensions remain high, President Bartlet is able to squeeze out a little time to deal with wedding issues (including a talk with the groom, something Abbey isn't on board with):

Abbey: "So, rumor has it you're going to have a chat with the groom tomorrow morning."

Jed: "I am."

Abbey: "Well, that will be lovely, I'm sure."

Jed: "What, I did it with Doug."

Abbey: "Yeah, I don't recall that as being an unqualified success."

Jed: "Well, now I've had a run at it."

 

When time for the talk arrives and Vic is ushered into the Oval Office, he's greeted by a bevy of high-ranking military generals (intimidating from your future father-in-law, right?):

Vic and the President have an uneasy little discussion about tenure and other off-topic issues, and finally, as they're ending the conversation, Bartlet gets to the point that has been really bothering him:

President: "Ah, hell. Just tell me you decided to marry her before you got her pregnant."

Vic has the right answer.

Vic: "Eleven months, two weeks, and three days."

President: "Excuse me?"

Vic: "That's when I decided to marry her. A year ago, on our third date."

President: "What was the matter with the first two?"

(They shake hands.)

President: "I'll see you at the end of the aisle."  

So we're all ready for a grand White House wedding, right? Ha! Naturally, shortly before the ceremony, the powderkeg in Kazakhstan ignites. Taramov's government cracks down on protests by the ethnic Chinese, killing and injuring scores; the Russian troops move across the border, with the Chinese countering on their side. President Bartlet is stuck on the phone with China's President Lian, trying to slow down the eventual sparking of a military conflict in Central Asia, to no effect - until he plays the only card he's got at the time being.

President (on the phone, through his interpreter): "Damn it, Lian, will you shut up already!"

(The call goes quiet)

President: "Is your daughter married?"

Lian (through the interpreter): "Excuse me, Mr. President?"

President: "Your daughter, the one I met when we were in Beijing, is she married?"

Lian: "Yes. She was married two years ago, last spring."

President: "Then you will understand me when I tell you that my daughter's wedding is this afternoon and that she has been waiting 46 minutes for me to give her away, because I can't put down this damn phone until you tell me that you're not going to start World War III today! Now, for the love of God, Lian, will you give me just one half hour so I can go and walk my little girl down the aisle?"

(Pause)

Lian: "Mr. President, we can continue this discussion in one hour."

The crisis is put on hold, the President can go walk Ellie down the aisle, the wedding can go on. It's all kind of wrapped up with this story about Ellie as a child running out into no-man's-land at the Berlin Wall, causing the soldiers to wave at each other, as a tie-in to Ellie's wedding holding off trouble at another international hotspot, but that all sounds made up and silly, frankly. I'm not sure what Josh Singer was thinking about with that (dealing with international crises is easy! Just throw Ellie into the middle of them! I dunno) ...

But again, the real story here is Josh, burning out and unable to focus, trying to do the impossible by paying for ads with money the campaign doesn't have, and facing down the disapproval of the Democratic Party leadership because he couldn't predict the future ... and how even when Matt's faith in him wavered, Leo remained committed and steadfast. Josh is the guy.

Now we see where the final six weeks takes us.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- We get multiple references to it being six weeks before the election, which would make it around the last week of September, 2006. We also know it's a weekend (from Will's comment to Kate about how he spends his weekends), so it's probably Saturday, September 23 (or possibly September 30, but that's barely five weeks until Election Day).

 

- We first heard of Ellie and Vic's engagement (and Ellie's pregnancy) in Here Today, which was mid- to late-August (probably around August 20 or so). The actual wedding, planned and conducted inside the White House, is happening barely a month later. Insanely fast timing, considering all the protocol and preparations that had to be done in those five-ish weeks. On the other hand, they didn't need to go with an empire waist on the wedding dress, like CJ mentioned in Undecideds.

- We also hear Josh asking the Illinois party guy if they can get the full campaign office up and running "by November 8." While November 8 was a Tuesday in 2005 (the year this episode aired), Election Day was November 7 in 2006 (the year this episode is set in). So Josh's question is asking if they can get the campaign office running by the day after the election.

- Let's look at Josh's electoral map. Through freeze-framing and examination of the map, we can see it shows Vinick currently holding 23 states with 221 electoral votes; Santos holding 12 states and DC with 112 electoral votes; and 12 states "in play" with 204 electoral votes.

 

Josh also makes the point that the campaign needs to sweep all four of Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida. While those four states wouldn't give the victory to Santos (adding those four would make 214 electoral votes, meaning they'd still have to find 56 more somewhere to get to 270), Vinick taking any one of those four would get his campaign within 30 electoral votes of the presidency.

This electoral math also highlights the unexpected boost of Illinois coming into play. Add Illinois to the Santos map, in addition to Josh's four "must win" states, and suddenly that's 235 votes for the Democrat, with Vinick losing Illinois and dropping to 200 even. So that would be a huge, huge deal - and the party angst about Josh ceding Illinois to Vinick and not even contesting it becomes understandable.

(I had a whole, in-depth, detailed look at the states and their positioning in Josh's plans all written up, until Blogger ate my entire post on the Fourth of July, so ... you get Hoynes!)

- Why'd They Come Up With The Wedding?

The episode centers around the wedding of Ellie and Vic, duh.

Quotes    

Debbie (as the President heads into the Oval Office to be briefed by Kate on the situation in Kazakhstan): "I told them you were busy."

President: "Yeah."

Debbie: "I hear there's a rehearsal dinner tonight. Swanky event, President of the United States is supposed to show. He's got 15 minutes."

-----

Josh (talking to Edie about the Illinois Democratic guy): "Get him on the phone. See if we can fit him in for breakfast tomorrow."

Edie: "Okay, you do realize you have a breakfast every half hour between 8:00 and 1:00?"

Josh: "The later ones must be lunches."

-----

Diacovo (on the TV): "Of course, this campaign is still salvageable, but he certainly can't afford to make another Illinois-sized mistake, which is why I think some people have begun to question whether Josh Lyman is the right person to take the Santos campaign down the stretch."

-----

Abbey (at the ambassadorial gift exchange): "How many of these do we have?"

Carol: "There were a couple of additions: the Greek ambassador, the Latvians, the Romanian ambassador happens to be in town. All told, that brings us to 71."

Abbey (firmly): "The hairdresser comes at 10:00."

Carol: "Maybe we ought to skip Romania."

Abbey: "Or all of eastern Europe."

-----

Debbie (as Vic is waiting nervously outside the Oval Office): "Can I get you anything?"

Vic: "No, thank you."

Debbie: "Water?"

Vic: "No."

Debbie: "Coffee?"

Vic: "No."

Debbie: "Valium?"

-----

Kate (regarding Will, thinking): "Do you own a tux?"

Will: "Excuse me?"

Kate: "I mean, I was just going to go stag, but ... if you're not busy later ... don't have anything ... to do ..."

-----

CJ (to Kate, as they meet on the way to the Situation Room): "You look nice."

Kate: "Nothing says 'international crisis' like a pair of black stilettos."

CJ: "Do you know what's going on?"

Kate: "Just got paged."

CJ: "You really look nice."

Kate: "Okay. Now I'm starting to think you're hitting on me."

-----

Jed: "Have I mentioned this mother-of-the-bride thing agrees with you?"

Abbey: "When Liz got married, you said I didn't look old enough to be the mother of the bride."

Jed: "You didn't."

Abbey: "I do now?"

Jed: "I didn't say that."

Abbey: "What did you say?"

Jed: "Is there any way out of this for me?"

Abbey: "Probably not."

-----

Senator Montgomery: "Josh Lyman's done a terrific job, but Congressman, I'm not sure he can see you through to the finish line."

Matt: "Who can?"

Goodwin: "Only one guy I'd want running a campaign this tough and that's the guy standing next to you." (indicates Leo; Leo laughs it off, then realizes he's serious)

 

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

• The White House reporter Charlayne (Joyce Guy) is seen again. She first appeared in Constituency Of One.

• MSNBC talking head Mike Diacovo (David Garrison, Married ... With Children) is seen once again; even in-person and not just on a TV screen this time. He was first seen in The Ticket.

• Secretary of Defense Hutchinson is back.
  

• Senator Montgomery is played by Robert Foxworth (Falcon Crest, Syriana). We're not told precisely what state Montgomery represents, but he does push back on Josh pulling ad money out of Iowa ("As goes Iowa, so goes the Midwest").

• The crisis in Kazakhstan has been slowly building ever since Vinick's national security briefer Charles Frost told him, "There's a situation in Kazakhstan" back in Message Of The Week.
  

• We hear President Bartlet mention Russian President Chigorin. Chigorin was first heard of as the newly elected Russian president in Enemies Foreign And Domestic, and has been in that post ever since. Later in the episode President Bartlet is talking to Chinese President Lian on the phone; we saw Lian when the presidents met at the Beijing summit in Impact Winter.
  

• Donna tells the press Governor Baker will appear with Matt at a rally. Gov. Baker was first mentioned as a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in The Hubbert Peak, announced he was withdrawing his name from consideration for family reasons in In The Room, jumped back in during the Democratic convention in 2162 Votes and then saw his hopes crash when news of his wife's treatment for depression became public.
  

• The stubborn lead Vinick holds over Santos continues to be a point. Matt and his advisers were excited to come out of the convention only nine points down (The Ticket), but except for a bump that brought them within five points after Matt's Marine Reserve training (The Mommy Problem) - a bump that was quickly erased in Message Of The Week - Santos has not been able to get closer than seven points (which we hear in this episode). Also, Charlayne's question about it being a month since they were within five points matches up pretty well with the events of Message Of The Week (this is late September, that episode occurred in late August).
  

• We see the famous Bartlet jacket flip. Martin Sheen's left shoulder was injured at birth, which made it difficult for him to lift that arm above the shoulder.

• We have a couple of mentions of Berryhill and his deputy (with the wedding seating chart). Berryhill was first mentioned in A Proportional Response, was named as a "Secretary" in Debate Camp and was finally seen as the Secretary of State (and Bartlet's choice for his new Vice President) in The Dogs Of War.
  

• When news of the Illinois poll comes in, Josh says, "We should have Joey rerun this in the morning." He's talking about Joey Lucas, political pollster extraordinaire, who's been a fixture with polling in the series ever since 20 Hours In L.A. (she actually first was seen in Take This Sabbath Day, but she was a campaign manager in that episode, not a pollster).
  

• Doug, President Bartlet's son-in-law and husband of daughter Elizabeth, is mentioned when Abbey and Jed are discussing his plans to talk to Ellie's groom-to-be Vic.
  

• The growing attraction between Will and Kate continues, as she asks him to be his "plus one" at the wedding. They first regarded each other with some looks of possible romantic interest in Drought Conditions; in Undecideds we saw Kate distracted by watching Will's backside leaving the room.
  

• Will tells Kate he wasn't invited to the wedding, and he attributes that to "my encounter with the happy couple" (when CJ made him help with the planning while she was tied up with bigger matters in Undecideds). Which leads to Ellie's irritated line to Abbey, "Why is Will Bailey wearing a tux?"

• SPOILER AHEAD: The exchange between Leo and the President ("You know, if you win this damn thing, you're stuck working here another four years." "I like to think of the Vice Presidency as more of an emeritus position.") has some real sadness in light of what happens in only a few short weeks, both in the show universe and in reality. Not to mention Leo's reply to Josh when he's asking for Leo to take over the campaign ("You're all trying to kill me").
  

• We have mentions of Senators Triplehorn and Stackhouse among the political figures calling to criticize Josh. Senator Triplehorn was seen as the Senate Minority Leader (and possible presidential contender) in Swiss Diplomacy, and appeared again as part of the Democratic group that helped torpedo Berryhill's VP chances in Jefferson Lives. Senator Stackhouse (while mentioned way back in Season 1) first appeared in The Stackhouse Filibuster, and was also seen as a possible primary challenger to President Bartlet in The Red Mass.
  

• When President Bartlet tells Chinese President Lian about "the daughter I met when we were in Beijing" is a callback to President Bartlet's trip to China in Impact Winter, a trip marred by his MS attack.
  

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• At the wedding rehearsal Abbey tells CJ Jed was "about to go into his Spencer Tracy routine." This refers not only to the actor Spencer Tracy but also his famous role in the 1950 movie Father Of The Bride. This shot of Jed leading his daughter down the stairs is also reminiscent of a scene from the film (except for the Marines, of course).
  

• There is indeed a Westin in Philadelphia.

• The Zogby poll is mentioned. That poll was huge in presidential political circles in the late 1990s and early 2000s; while it's still around, it's much less of a player in the polling world these days.
  

• Media outlets named and/or seen include the Trib (Chicago Tribune), MSNBC, C-SPAN, the Washington Post, AP, Reuters, the (New York) Times, Le Monde, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

• Josh tells Donna to make sure Matt gets Cheez-Whiz on his cheesesteak ... which he does, resulting in this:

• Will is seen talking about the music at Ellie's wedding (Sorge Nel Petto from Handel's Rinaldo). He also describes Ellie's wedding dress choice, a Peau de Soie from designer Monique Lhuillier instead of the lace Vera Wang. [Interestingly, the music we actually hear as Jed and Ellie walk down the aisle is indeed a Handel piece, but it's a Concerto Grosso from Feuerwerksmusik (Music for the Royal Fireworks).]
  

• The reference to the Russians and Chinese having a "little Sharks and Jets routine in Central Asia" is to the warring gangs in the musical and movie West Side Story.
  

• Leo mentions Eisenhower and the Democrats running behind him in Illinois, which means Leo was aware of the polling during the presidential campaigns of 1952 and 1956. We don't know exactly how old Leo is, but John Spencer was 58 years old in 2005 - he was only 5 during the 1952 campaign and 9 in 1956, so not exactly involved in politics at that time.
  

End credits freeze frame: President Bartlet and Ellie preparing to walk down the aisle.

Previous episode: Undecideds

Next episode: Running Mates

 

Arrgh, blast it, God bless, you know ..

God bless America, on this July 4th ... (and I'm using it both as a timely patriotic statement and as an oath about Blogger eating all my work, dammit).

I spent a good amount of time yesterday working on my next post, for the episode The Wedding. As it turns out, it's very fitting considering current events in the Democratic Party (the bigwigs like Senator Montgomery and Barry Goodwin wanting to force Josh out of running the Santos campaign has some eerie similarities to the current pundit talk about Joe Biden stepping back from his run for re-election).

But anyway ... I had a lot of work put into that yesterday, several hours worth. I jump back on today to do a little more, and the page doesn't want to load, and then I get it opened again, and ...

It's blank. All that work, just gone.

I've already gotten behind the eight-ball with this (there's been quite a bit of stuff going on, from being in a three-week run of Julius Caesar to traveling to grandkid time to getting some preparations done for a family wedding of our own in October to my wife's recent retirement meaning she's suddenly taking up my computer time), but this didn't help. At all.

No idea when I'll get caught back up and finish this post (or re-finish, as it turns out). Have patience!

Undecideds - TWW S7E8

 

Original airdate: December 4, 2005

Written by: Debora Cahn (12) 

Directed by: Christopher Misiano (25)

Synopsis

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

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

This one is a dense, thickly plotted episode, as once again The West Wing tries to solve an impossible issue in the span of 43 minutes, with a main character giving a nuanced yet stirring address to a skeptical crowd that turns their opinion around. I'm willing to give a little bit on this one, though, because Matt is also fighting his own demons here. This isn't a savior on a white horse riding in to save the day by telling all parties what they should do, like President Bartlet wanted to do with the Middle East in NSF Thurmont, this is a conflicted man caught up in internal turmoil trapped in a corner and somehow, someway, finding the right path out.

 

In general, though, it's a gloomy, glum, brooding episode with old friends sniping at each other and trusted associates dropping the ball. We've got glares, we've got disappointments, we've got grumpy indicted colleagues saying their friend made a stupid decision. Not even Matt's soaring call for compassion at the church is quite enough to brighten this real downer, but it comes close.

 

And not even the D plot, the one that's supposed to be the humorous leavening in this heavy meal, not even that provides much in the way of fun. Ellie and Vic's wedding is spinning out of control, they can't get anything they actually want for the ceremony (not even Ellie's dress!), there are going to be 740 guests there neither of them know, and Ellie doesn't even have CJ there to help her. She has Will - not ideal for anybody, to be honest. And let's face it, having wedding plans devolve into this mess isn't funny, it's sad.

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

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

CJ: "Is Margaret not out there?"

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

 (Margaret enters carrying two wedding dresses)

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

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

Will: "I really don't."

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

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

Margaret: "There's some concern that they may have been hand-stitched in Saipan by (whispering) little slave children."

 

And, surprise, it's Ted Barrow of all people who figures out Ellie is pregnant ... which doesn't end up having that big of an emotional affect on anybody.

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

Barrow: "She's pregnant?"

CJ: "Excuse me?"

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Josh: "Name something else, please."

Toby: "He's not Presidential material?"

Josh: "Why?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lester: "Different identities, different issues."

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

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

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

Lester: "It's not true."

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

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

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

Lester: "Yeah. We had about enough of picking with the cotton."

 

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

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

The visit to the Burke house does not go well. An angry family member storms into the house and demands the motorcade leave, demands they free up the street so other family members can actually be there for the grieving mother. 

Man: "You need to take your people out of here and get your cars off the street so her sister can get up the block and into this house. The family needs to be here, you do not."

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

(The man steps toward Matt, raising a finger)

Man: "You should know better."

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

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

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

Helen: "Nobody expects that."

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tales Of Interest!

- Another rare instance of the episode's title screen not being simple white text on a black screen. Since Pilot (which didn't have a title screen at all) this is the 140th episode of The West Wing (not counting Documentary Special) ... just five of those 140 episodes have anything different from that black-screen white-text title card.

• Twenty Five was black text on a white screen, just like this episode.
• Third-Day Story and La Palabra both had the title text over video of the opening scene.
• Opposition Research was black text over a grayish screen, which I suppose was meant to indicate the grayness of winter in New Hampshire.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Why'd They Come Up With Undecideds?

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

Quotes    

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

CJ: "One too many double entendres?"

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

CJ: "Right."

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

-----

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

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

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

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

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

----- 

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

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

Margaret: "Kate Harper needs you."

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

Margaret: "Imagine her delight when she learned."

-----

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

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

Kate: "Exceptionally."

CJ: "Margaret!"

Kate: "Sorry. I was golfing."

CJ: "You golf?"

Kate: "Mini."

-----

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

Vic: "It's not a phobia."

Ellie: "I was exaggerating."

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

Ellie: "It's really nothing."

Vic: "Sometimes I pass out."

-----

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

Toby: "Thank you."

-----

Leo: "Oh, how did yesterday go?"

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

Leo: "Little bit."

 

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

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

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

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

• Santos has been stuck at nine points behind Vinick ever since coming out of the convention in The Ticket (the lead was cut to around five points in Message Of The Week, but Vinick quickly struck back with immigration/border issues to regain that nine-point edge). Lou tells Matt here his performance at the debate has brought Vinick's lead down to seven points.

• Ellie's wedding - and the reason it needs to be scheduled quickly, and why they need to avoid certain seafoods and soft cheeses on the menu - was covered in Here Today when she brought her fiancé Vic to meet the President and First Lady.
  

• Margaret's knowledge of Ellie's pregnancy is unexplained (but, I mean, it's Margaret, she knows everything) but her insight on the foods pregnant women should avoid reminds us of Drought Conditions and her own obvious pregnancy - which is something that was never mentioned again in the series.
  

• The crisis in Kazakhstan is a continuation from the events of Mr. Frost, from the assassination of Chairman Farad in the West Bank to the assassination of Kazakh President Isetov to the Chinese being furious at the new Russia-friendly leader of Kazakhstan throwing out their oil deal. In fact, a conversation between CJ and Kate in Here Today is eerily similar what Kate tells her in this episode:

Here Today

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

CJ: "What will the Chinese do?"

Kate: "That's the question."

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

Kate: "Over oil."

This episode

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

• Russian President Chigorin gets mentioned. He was first referenced in Enemies Foreign And Domestic as the newly elected leader of Russia, and also played a big part in Evidence Of Things Not Seen in negotiations over the crashed American drone.
  

• Josh and Toby discuss Toby's kids briefly (you can also see children's toys and chairs in the corner of his apartment). Toby, of course, fathered twins Huck and Molly with his ex-wife Andy (born in Twenty Five, where he pledged his undying devotion to them) but we've barely heard of them since. They'd now be just about 3 and a half years old, being born in the spring of 2003 and this being the fall of 2006.
  

• Josh and Toby also clash about Toby's lack of faith in Matt Santos' electability. That was clear from the first time Matt was mentioned as a potential candidate in Liftoff:

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

Toby: "Are you high?"

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

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

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

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

DC location shots    

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

Interior of the church in the episode

 

Interior of the church on Google

House across the street seen in the episode

House across the street in Street View

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

• CNN, USA Today, and Newsweek are brought up in polling talk. We also get a mention of Meet The Press, while we're in the media mode.
  

• Helen tells us Bram is "a Venezuelan from Princeton."
  

• Lester tells Josh Ronnie Burke was riding in a stolen Escalade before he was shot by police.

• Schrodinger's Cats is the name of Vic's grad school band, which implies the existence of Erwin Schrodinger and his 1935 quantum physics thought experiment about a cat in a box. Their performance of the song Baby Got Back apparently gets ditched from Ellie's wedding playlist ("I like big butts and I cannot lie ...").
  

• There's someone wearing a Yale sweatshirt on this Saturday in the West Wing.

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

• There does not appear to be a real "Capitol Taxi" company in Washington, DC - the "KL5" and "555" phone prefix gives that away, also.

• Toby has a book offer from the very real publishers Simon & Schuster.
  

• Helen talks about Matt's singing of the hymn O, Heavenly Shepherd. I haven't been able to find a Catholic hymn by that name (and Matt is most definitely Catholic) - there is a hymn called Heavenly Shepherd, Thee We Pray that hasn't been included in hymnals since about 1940, and there's also the Catholic hymn Shepherd Me, O God, but that's not the exact title she says.
  

• Josh brings Starbucks to Toby, after which Toby complains about him bringing eight packets of Splenda instead of a bagel.

• Toby refers to a "Freudian fratricidal mania," meaning Sigmund Freud.
  

• The Greater Page Temple Church of God in Christ is an actual church in Los Angeles, at the corner of Adams and South La Salle.

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

• Matt brings up "Dr. King" (the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.) in his speech to the church.
  

End credits freeze frame: Matt speaking in the church.

Previous episode: The Debate

Next episode: The Wedding