Jefferson Lives - TWW S5E3

 

Original airdate: October 8, 2003

Teleplay by: Carol Flint (1)
Story by: Carol Flint & Debora Cahn (4)

Directed by: Alex Graves (16)

Synopsis

• It's Independence Day, and President Bartlet finds himself beset on fronts both personal and political. His rift with Abbey over endangering their family continues to fester, as she plans to take a recovering Zoey back to New Hampshire; meanwhile, his slam-dunk choice for a new Vice President gets rejected by both Democrats and Republicans angling for an advantage in 2006.

"This is your list?" 

We're three episodes into the post-Aaron Sorkin era of The West Wing, and already John Wells is exerting his influence as producer/showrunner to make it a more typical, run-of-the-mill network TV drama. The personal is overtaking the political; relationships are coming to the forefront instead of strategies; while it's not exactly a "soap opera," the overall tone of the show is certainly trending more in that direction.

Maybe that's not bad for every viewer, but it's clearly not the same track as Seasons 1 through 4. Here we end up with a mopey, distracted Jed unable to come to grips with Abbey's simmering anger, a rekindling of the Josh-Amy romance from Season 3, and a passive-aggressive CJ airing her doubts about the administration's moral position through hypothetical reporter questions. The introduction of Speaker Haffley provides us with an individual, personal point of conflict for the administration, a foil that will prove an ongoing pain in the administration's behind, which is a big contrast from the previous seasons of a mostly faceless/nameless idea of a "Republican Congress" as something to fight against. Wells has decided to make it about personal conflict and give the opposition a face, which may not seem like a big change in direction, but it really is. Even setting the episode in July, a time far outside the calendar time frame of when the show airs, is a new tack for the production (although it gives us a chance at a brand new holiday version of the show, the first and only Fourth of July episode).

The Jed/Abbey thing is particularly bothersome to me. I can understand Abbey's simmering fury - she believes the President's decision to kill Shareef was the direct cause of Zoey's kidnapping, and she may have a point. But Jed's sad, meandering unwillingness to fight for his point of view strikes a huge contrast from the previous Jed/Abbey tensions we saw in Season 2, from Bartlet's Third State Of The Union to the the Season 3 opening Manchester. That showed us another rift between the couple, one where Jed was absolutely in the wrong (he'd promised Abbey he'd only run for one term, and then he went back on his word without even discussing it with her), yet they had some crackling arguments and spirited back-and-forths where Jed wasn't shy about standing up for his point of view. We get hardly any of that here, only some weak halfhearted explanations about national security and terrorism - which is actually a really good justification for making the decision to kill Shareef, if that point was just hammered home! He might not be able to convince Abbey, but he hardly even tries - which just emphasizes the personal relationship problems more typical to regular TV dramas. You know, like ER, that other show John Wells was in charge of.

The episode begins with the President's dream/nightmare jolting him awake: memories of Zoey as a child and as a young adult, riding a horse back at the family farm. The horse-riding theme runs through the entire episode, and it turns out it's meant to help explain Zoey's struggles as she tries to cope with recovery after her kidnapping rescue. She puts on a brave face; smiling at her father as he comes to see her after his dream, waving at a press photo opportunity on the White House lawn, 

Remember, she was rescued in early May - this is July 4. Still bruised and in a sling?

looking through the messages sent in support while she was held captive, working on a letter of thanks to release to the public - but it's only Charlie who realizes what she's really going through and exactly why she's pretending to be strong.

Jed believes she's coping well, making a great recovery after the trauma of the abduction, and his memory of the horse-riding backs him up.

President (in flashback, watching Zoey ride): "Look at that. Fearless."

Charlie: "She puts up a good front."

President: "Name one thing, one thing, my little girl's afraid of."

In the present, Charlie has the hard truth for the President.

Charlie: "She knows you like to see her strong. She thinks what happened was her fault." 

This, along with Abbey's resentment of the President, of Leo, of Washington in general, brings Bartlet along in agreement with his wife that she should take Zoey out of the White House and back to their farm in New Hampshire. Abbey's motivations are more out of anger with what she believes to be Jed's disregard for his family's safety - but Charlie helps the President realize Zoey's mental health needs the respite away from Washington. And Zoey finally comes clean to her father about the ongoing terrors she's still going through.

Zoey: "There was an arm ... grabbing me. When I start to fall asleep, it comes back."

Jed: "We're going to help you. We're all going to help." 

The rift with Abbey continues to be huge. She goes about the residence in a robotically normal way, helps Zoey get to her photo op, but doesn't engage with Jed at all. And when Leo stops by in the middle of her meeting with Ron Butterfield, she makes it clear it's not just Jed she's furious with.

Abbey: "You laid us open. You laid me and my daughters wide open. And God knows what else there is that I don't know about."

Leo: "There is nothing else."

Abbey: "I swear to God, Leo, don't -- 72 hours, the bruises aren't even -- did you see her face? For God's sake, don't ask me to trust you."

Leo: "I'm not."

Abbey: "And don't think you took the bullet. I blame Jed. He did this." 

As I said, I understand a mother's grief and resentment in this situation, after her daughter had been kidnapped and nearly killed. It's natural that she'd lash out at anyone she feels had a hand in creating the situation to put her children in danger. But ... this is the First Family, after all. National security decisions have to be made for the good of the country, not for the President's family members alone (this was the entire reason Bartlet used the 25th Amendment to step away from the office, for crying out loud). And we've seen Jed stand up for himself before - it's just off-putting to see him mostly meekly take Abbey's withering fury here. 

The other huge focus of this episode is the Vice Presidential pick. The office has been vacant since John Hoynes resigned in Life On Mars, after he admitted to leaking classified information to a woman he was having an affair with. Josh was just getting started with making a list of candidates before Zoey was kidnapped, then in The Dogs Of War (which ended on May 10th, remember) we heard Leo say they had some candidates for the President to consider. Well, now it's July 4, almost two months later, and they're finally ready to go with Secretary of State Lewis Berryhill. He's a slam-dunk nominee, a war hero who did masterful diplomatic work shepherding America's allies through the attack on/invasion of Qumar, and he's already gotten through Senate confirmation once before. He's such a great option, even Toby is ecstatic with the choice.

"This is my over-the-moon face."

But things never go easy for the Bartlet administration and Congress. It's been a truism from Season 1 - the Republican Congress has enough power to keep throwing roadblocks in Bartlet's way, and the President often finds his approval ratings too low to make it a fair fight. (At least, this is what we've been told over and over, even though the list of administration successes over the past four years is pretty sizable.) Now, even though Bartlet's approval ratings have zoomed upward in reaction to the kidnapping crisis, Congress still doesn't want to play along.

One can see the Republican side of this. Hoynes, the obvious front-runner for the 2006 Democratic nomination, is out of the way. Any replacement as Vice President would take on that mantle, so if the GOP could muck up the best Democratic choice in any way, that could prove to be an electoral advantage in three years. What's kind of surprising is the fact the Democratic leadership in Congress isn't onboard, either - they have "issues" with Berryhill, like the fact he's never run for office and that some State Department people don't like how he runs things. But at the center of it, I think, is the same idea as the Republicans: the Minority Leaders in the House and Senate don't want a new VP who might be too tough to run against in the next election.

But yet again, the Republicans. Jeff Haffley has been chosen to take over the Speaker's chair, after Glenallen Walken resigned to take over the office of the Presidency in Twenty Five. He's kind of a firebrand, a loose wheel (Josh called him a "fascist"), and he's frank in the meeting with the White House. He doesn't have the votes to confirm Berryhill. (In the meeting with the Democratic leadership Josh says they need four Republicans to cross over, so that means there aren't four out of 221 House Republicans willing to vote for confirmation.) But he's not just a naysayer, he's cooperative, he wants to work with the administration in this time of national crisis ... and he's got a list.

A list of (five, it looks like, although we only hear about four) candidates who, Haffley says, could be easily confirmed. Imagine the audacity - a Republican Speaker of the House telling the President here are the only Democrat options we'd be okay with as Vice President. It is telling to watch the reactions of Senate Majority Leader Royce as Haffley takes over the discussion - there's some eye-rolling, and an expression of eyebrow-raising surprise when Haffley dismisses Josh's comment about the popularity of Lincoln's Secretary of State by saying he was stabbed in his bed (I mean, it's true, but it was by Confederates as part of the plot to assassinate Lincoln and other members of the government). But Royce can tell which way the wind is blowing, dismissing Leo's attempt to leave the Republicans to fight amongst themselves and instead agreeing to go along with Haffley's list.

When the Democrats take their stand against Berryhill as well, the White House is up against it. They can continue to fight for their man, knowing it means a somewhat protracted battle in Congress, or they can give in and take the best option out of a list of poor choices. Here's where the timelines get a little screwy again - the main reason Bartlet and his advisers decide to go along with the list instead of standing up for Berryhill is because of the ongoing emptiness of the Vice Presidential office and the necessity to get that filled and establish a solid line of succession.

Leo: "You didn't want to fight?"

President: "I did want to fight but the country needs a President who's doing their work, and since they put their trust in a guy whose mortality is showing, they deserve a chain of command that's irrefutable."

But remember - Josh and Leo had their list of candidates ready for Bartlet on May 10, the day after Zoey's rescue. Berryhill was the obvious choice from the start. Why has it taken almost two months for the President to take action? Why is the entire West Wing in a tizzy about the country needing a Vice President right now when they haven't done anything about it since May? 

Oh, well. That's a failure of writing, which comes out of the perceived need to have an Independence Day episode.

In any event, the staff and the President meet with everyone on the list, the last being Bob Russell, the congressman from Western Colorado ("And I don't mean the state, I mean the mining company"). Since he's played by Gary Cole, we have a hint he might be a little bit important down the road. And there's something that happens in the meeting with Bartlet that stirs the President, at least a little bit. Russell actually makes some demands of his own - he'll need personal one-on-one time with Bartlet, getting to know each other, and trying to confound the expectations of those who chose Russell thinking he'd be easy pickings in three years. But probably what makes a bit more of an impression on the President is his footwear, and how it meshes with what's really on Bartlet's mind.

President: "Are you a horseman, Bob? I'm looking at your boots."

Russell: "Oh, I love to ride. You?"

President (shakes his head): "My youngest daughter is the one with the talent." 

There's really no other explanation for Bartlet choosing Russell over the rest, unless it's the fact that he was the last interview and the President was just over it. At least he got to show up at an immigrant citizenship swearing-in ceremony afterwards.

Then there's those kooky kids Josh and Amy. These two have known each other since college, when Amy was dating Josh's Harvard roommate. They reconnected in The Women Of Qumar, when Amy tossed a water balloon at Josh's head in that flirty way she has. By Dead Irish Writers they were a couple, but that fell apart in Posse Comitatus when a policy dispute ended with Josh getting his way, with the unfortunate fallout being Amy losing her job. She later worked with Senator Stackhouse as he explored a Presidential run, yet still mooning over Josh a little (College Kids, The Red Mass). When Abbey found herself outwitted by Josh over immunization funding in Red Haven's On Fire, she turned to Amy, hiring her as her chief of staff to be a more formidable proponent of the First Lady's agenda. 

So they've got a history. And history has a tendency to repeat itself. Amy is trying to keep up with the political interests of the First Lady, digging into a cut into CDC violence prevention spending even as Abbey is occupied with more pressing family matters at the moment.

Abbey: "Amy, you're going to have to handle things for me a little while longer."

Amy: "I know. Do you want me to --"

Abbey: "I trust you. That's why I hired you."

(Remember those words. They may come back to bite someone pretty soon.)

Amy comes to Josh to get a deal done - but Josh has problems of his own, nearly tearing his hair out over Congress' failure to support Berryhill, and the frantic search for somebody, anybody who can fit in the Vice Presidential role. It's quite a combination - Amy, usually so self-assured and always pressing forward, finding herself a bit at odds without guidance from her boss; Josh, equally confident and never satisfied with losing a battle, discovering he has nothing but a losing hand in the VP situation.

Josh begs Amy to be quiet, but she simply can't. Her personality won't let her. She has to keep responding, trying to fill the empty space in the conversation. Finally, though, Josh's desperation gets through to her, and she settles herself into a chair, kicking off her shoes, placing her feet up on Josh's desk.

Josh finally breaks, as he sees Amy studying her watch, proving that she can take Josh up on his request for her to stay quiet for "one minute, in silence." He bursts out in a laugh, moves over to her, and then ...

So I guess they're back together. Seeing them both sneak away from the fireworks viewing party later kinda solidifies that.

Once again, the show has come down to personal stuff - Jed sullenly letting Abbey lash out at him, Zoey dealing with PTSD while trying to prove herself to her father, a singular figure stepping out from Capitol Hill to serve as a symbolic foil, Josh and Amy dealing with professional struggles by reaching out to each other - and that's so much like hour-long dramas we've seen before and since. Even the gleeful excitement of Fourth of July fireworks over the Mall can't quell the looming weight of personal drama, as CJ sits alone in her office mulling over the moral responsibilities of the administration, the rest of the staff outside marveling at the display: 

And President Bartlet - the rest of his family gone away - watching gloomily from the residence balcony.

I feel like the series needs a kick in the pants to get things up and running in Season 5, but it's not happening here.

  

Tales Of Interest!

- While we've had rather famous and beloved West Wing episodes centered around Thanksgiving and Christmas, and even several focusing on that special Beltway holiday, the State of the Union address, this is the very first (and only) Fourth of July episode. In the previous four seasons, the events we see generally took place around the time of year they aired - this time we get an episode set in the summer, between the end of one TV season and the beginning of the next. So it's quite different for us to see a July-based episode of the show air in October. The art directors do slip in a few items in the background to remind us of the holiday, if you look closely:

A bit of bunting outside Toby's office

A staffer wearing a patriotic hat

Fourth of July decorations hanging over Donna's desk

More Independence Day-themed decorations in Donna's bullpen

A random person walking by with an American flag

Another staffer with a Stars-and-Stripes hat

- It's really dark again, the third consecutive episode with way too much shadow and darkness. It almost makes one think that the spending cuts NBC requested from the production mostly came out of the electric bill and the lighting budget.

- I get that the government keeps running, even on holidays, but there are also deputies and assistants who can do government work on weekends and other times. The White House is extremely busy for a Fourth of July federal holiday, particularly given that it's a Friday and would make it a three-day weekend. Getting the congressional leadership from both parties in for meetings is quite an accomplishment, not only because it's a holiday but especially considering Congress probably wouldn't have been in session at the time. Would Toby's mohel have scheduled a bris for the morning of the Fourth?

- Timeline verification: Okay, back in the Aaron Sorkin days, he took pride in claiming to never pin down the exact year in which the show was set. I mean, he took pride in it, even though that's not exactly what he did (there was a debate on the millennium/year 2000 in 1999's In Excelsis Deo, and Toby explicitly referred to the upcoming Presidential election happening in 2002 in 17 People), but okay ... the premise is that The West Wing takes place in a kind of indeterminate alternate universe. Here, though, we are pinned down to exactly Friday, July 4, 2003. How do we know?

- We know it's a Friday because when CJ asks Toby if they'll get a decision on Berryhill in time to get him on the Sunday shows, Toby replies, "Two days? You bet."

- We know it's 2003 because President Bartlet says, "Two hundred twenty-seven years ago, a bunch of guys got together on the Fourth of July and decided, because they didn't have any cherry bombs, they would declare some self-evident truths." Add 227 years to 1776 and you get 2003. 

- Of course you recall Season 2, and the calendar mismatch between the Rosslyn shootings of May, 2000 (seen in What Kind Of Day Has It Been and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen) somehow shifting to have happened in August by The Midterms. A shooting that, by the way, was later confirmed to have happened in May in later episodes. Well ... here we go again.

- Zoey's abduction in Commencement came in May, after her graduation from Georgetown - specifically May 7, as outlined in Charlie's note about meeting with Zoey to dig up the bottle of champagne.

- Zoey's rescue in The Dogs Of War came about 72 hours after the kidnapping, in the early hours of Tuesday, May 10 (again, the dates are going by what the show explicitly stated; May 7 was actually a Wednesday in 2003).

- It's clearly the Fourth of July here, almost two months after the kidnapping crisis, there's absolutely no doubt about the date, it's specifically referred to many times ... yet we get a huge number of inconsistencies with what we see in the episode:

- Zoey's injuries are not yet healed, her face is bruised, she's wearing a sling.

- There's some mentions of the support of foreign governments in the wake of the crisis, the impact of getting the President back in the Oval Office, Ryan tells his buddy on the phone they've just been through a national crisis, Josh tells Amy everything "before last Saturday" is a blur ... people, this all happened two months ago, not a few days ago!

- Haffley is referred to as the "new Speaker" as if it just happened, even though his naming as Speaker of the House was a big deal in The Dogs Of War in early May.

- Toby tells us that Huck had his bris in the morning. Remember, Huck and Molly were born between Commencement and Twenty Five, which essentially means the morning of Sunday, May 8. A bris is traditionally celebrated for Jewish boys 8 days after their birth, which would have been Monday, May 16 ... not six weeks after that, on Friday, July 4. 

- The President tells Berryhill, "There hasn't been much about the last couple of weeks that I wouldn't rather erase" ... it's a couple of months, sir.  

- The big thing, though, is the fact the White House is finally ready to name a new Vice President - something that was an urgent necessity to do right away with candidates being given to the President in The Dogs Of War, which was still May, remember? They sat on that for two months? The fact they are in a frenzy to name somebody instead of fight Haffley and Congress on Berryhill's nomination is based totally on needing to get someone put in the office immediately, to show the American public that everything is under control, and this turns out to be the reason they eventually scrap their slam-dunk choice and go with Russell ... so why didn't they feel this sense of urgency back on May 10 when Josh said they had several great candidates for Bartlet's consideration? Why did they sit on their hands for six weeks and just now decide they have to give in to Haffley because the clock is running out?

So, yeah. While generally speaking, The West Wing tends to keep its episodes grounded in the calendar timeline of when they air, the writers sometimes struggle to keep the timing of things straight - particularly when they find it necessary to shoehorn in a connection to July 4th for no particular reason except to hurry the timeline along. And just hold on, we're going to lose an entire year of timeline by Season 6, wait until we talk about that! 

- New showrunners mean less subtlety in storytelling, I guess. Instead of letting us figure things out through dialogue and context, they go with onscreen graphics to explain who Josh and Toby and Leo are meeting with as they try to coordinate their Vice Presidential pick.

- Apparently the GOP holds a 221-214 edge in the House of Representatives. In the meeting with Democratic leadership, Josh says they only need to get four votes on their side to confirm Berryhill. As Section 2 of the 25th Amendment requires a majority vote in both the House and Senate to confirm a new VP, that would mean 218 votes out of the House's 435 members - therefore, with four Republicans joining all the Democrats, that makes it a 221-214 split.

- Director Alex Graves brings back the traditional camera-spinning-around-the-characters in the scene between Donna and Ryan.

- Gail's fishbowl has a huge American flag to celebrate the Fourth.

- Joshua Malina will be the first one to tell you he really went overboard with the facial reactions for the fireworks-viewing scene (he mentions it in the West Wing Weekly podcast covering this episode). He kept being told to "go bigger," so he did ... which gives us this goofy face as the fireworks go off over the National Mall.

- Why'd They Come Up With Jefferson Lives?

Zoey is talking about her father's love of "Fourth of July stuff" with Charlie and Will, particularly the fact that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826. Adams' last words were "Jefferson lives," as he wasn't aware that Jefferson had died shortly before.

Quotes    

Toby: "He was confirmed by the Senate, not by the House. We've got 24 hours to make this happen. Right out of the gate, even a whiff of a whiff of a rumor, we're ready to bat it down."

CJ: "Smart offense."

Will: "Error-free ball."

Josh: "Knock yourselves out, but he's a slam dunk."

Toby: "Okay, that's one too many sports metaphors." 

-----

Josh: "Let it go. You're going to have to breath through it for a while."

Amy: "Not my forte. Waiting."

Josh: "You have other fortes."

Amy: "What's that supposed to mean?"

Josh: "Nothing. I didn't mean that."

Amy: "You absolutely meant that."

Josh: "Okay, maybe I did."

Amy: "Careful what you start." 

----- 

Debbie: "Uh, Mrs. Bartlet ... I can't tell you how hard I prayed for you."

(pause, as Abbey is genuinely touched) 

Abbey: "I appreciate that." 

Debbie: "Well, you shouldn't. I'm not very religious, so there's the risk that my praying could be taken as insincere or even an affront, which, if it's a vengeful God, could have made matters worse."

Abbey: "Well, it didn't. So maybe there's a clue." 

-----

President (escaping the droning story being told by Senator Adair): "Debbie, you were supposed to interrupt after five minutes."

Debbie: "It's only been three, sir." 

-----

Charlie: "She knows you like to see her strong. She thinks what happened was her fault. I'm sorry, sir, but --"

President: "Her mother wants to take her back to New Hampshire for a while. What do you think?"

Charlie: "I think her mom is right."

-----

Leo: "Bob Russell? Really?"

President: "He ain't my choice. But hey, we hated the last guy. So ... start the vetting process."

 

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

• It's our first meeting with the new Speaker, Jeff Haffley, played by Steven Culp (JAG, Thirteen Days, Desperate Housewives). 

• Along those lines, we see the Republican Senate Majority Leader Robert Royce, played by H. Richard Greene (The Wonder Years, Armageddon, Mad Men). We've seen Royce previously in 2001's On The Day Before - then he was a member of the House that Sam went after to try to stop an override of the President's veto of a bill ending the estate tax. Now he's been elected to the Senate, and is already the Majority Leader. Quite the advance! 

• We also see the Democratic Senate Minority Leader Triplehorn, played by Geoff Pierson (Grace Under Fire, 24, Dexter) and another Democrat (likely meant to be the House Minority Leader) Sheila Fields, played by Charlotte Colavin (Law & Order, Summer Of Sam). Triplehorn has appeared a couple of times, first in Swiss Diplomacy arguing with Josh over Hoynes trying to lock up the 2006 nomination by tying up precinct captains (there's a callback to that scene here when Josh tells Toby, "Our esteemed Minority Leader is running for President in three years"). Fields was previously seen complaining about President Bartlet giving up his office to a Republican Speaker in 7A WF 83429. If she reminds you a bit of real-life Congresswoman (and current Speaker) Nancy Pelosi, it's probably not by accident - Pelosi was elected House Minority Leader in 2002, just a year prior to this episode.

• This is our introduction to Congressman Bob Russell from Western Colorado ("And I don't mean the state, I mean the mining company"). Soon to be the new Vice President, Bingo Bob - played by the wonderful Gary Cole (Midnight Caller, American Gothic, Office Space, The Brady Bunch Movie, Veep) - is going to be an important part of the next three seasons.

• There's a shot of Josh's bulletin board that he used to pare down VP candidates, seen in his office since Commencement; let's compare it in this episode to how it looked in The Dogs Of War.

From the previous episode, with Berryhill and four others

As it appears in this episode: Berryhill and Lyndell photos remain, but the one on the left is new and two others have been removed (Sen. Ryan Lyndell and Sen. DeJoie, a name seen on a Post-It, were names we saw during Josh's initial VP search in Commencement)

• When Leo asks how the Syrians are responding to the attack on Qumar, Secretary Berryhill replies, "Better. Probably afraid they're next." Syria has already been attacked once by the Bartlet administration, with a bombing raid ordered by the President in A Proportional Response as retaliation for Syria's shootdown of an airplane carrying medical personnel.

• Obvious long-playing storylines include:

- Bartlet ordering the assassination of Qumar's Defense Minister Shareef (whose involvement in terrorism against America was first discovered in Enemies Foreign And Domestic, and his killing occurring in Posse Comitatus), leading to Ba'ji sleeper agents escaping from observation in Portland, Oregon (first mentioned in Commencement and referred to in this episode), and possibly Zoey's abduction.

- The search for a replacement Vice President, an office vacated when John Hoynes resigned after a sex scandal in Life On Mars.

- The on-again/off-again relationship between Josh and Amy, which first kindled in The Women Of Qumar, was first seen in public in Dead Irish Writers, fizzled away thanks to Josh's political tactics costing Amy her job in Posse Comitatus, showed a few sparks in College Kids and The Red Mass, and now appears to be igniting yet again.

- Toby's twins (and Andy, their mother) get a quick mention in passing. They were born after Andy turned down Toby's offer of remarriage and a house in Commencement.  

• The Bartlet jacket flip makes an appearance, although from behind and out of focus. Martin Sheen's left shoulder was injured at birth, and since he's unable to lift that arm above the shoulder, he developed this "flip" technique to put on a jacket.

• President Bartlet's remark to Leo "We hated the last guy" is a reference to the tension that existed between Bartlet and Vice President Hoynes all the way through their relationship (seen several times, notably in Five Votes Down, Enemies, 20 Hours In L.A., War Crimes, and Stirred).

• WHAT'S NEXT - We get to hear the President say "What's next?" as the camera moves into the Oval Office meeting with Ron Butterfield and other military and security officers.

DC location shots    

• None. The "Rose Garden" Zoey-walk scene was shot in California.

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

• Founding Fathers Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Ben Franklin all get mentioned (appropriately, I suppose, on Independence Day).

• The Truman Balcony is referred to as the White House viewing location for the fireworks.

• Josh scoffingly refers to the green flag at Daytona (meaning the NASCAR race held there around Independence Day prior to 2020, which at one time was called the Firecracker 400) as a reason why Haffley keeps changing their meeting schedule.

• President Lincoln and his Secretary of State William Seward are brought up as Josh and Haffley debate the VP choice.

• John Trumbull's painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence gets a shout-out.

• We get to see the logos of C-SPAN and MSNBC.

End credits freeze frame: President Bartlet meeting with Bob Russell.

Previous episode: The Dogs Of War

Next episode: Han

The Dogs Of War - TWW S5E2

 

Original airdate: October 1, 2003

Written by: John Wells (2)

Directed by: Christopher Misiano (15)

Synopsis

• Tensions grow between Jed and Abbey over the implications of how his actions may have contributed to Zoey's kidnapping. Josh calls out a Walken aide over Republicans potentially using the crisis for political gain, only to get slapped down in response. A new intern arrives in Josh's office. A random encounter in Virginia brings Zoey's abduction to an end.

"A truly self-sacrificing act usually involves some sacrifice."

Another emotional downer of an episode tries to turn things around with the relief of Zoey's rescue, but John Wells can't let us even enjoy that for long as dark days in the administration and the Bartlet household are obviously ahead. I'm already starting to miss the touch of humor that Aaron Sorkin always seemed to bring at the right time.

It's dark, again - darkly shot, full of dark shadows, faces half-hidden in the dark. It fits the tone, but where's the joy? Even Zoey's rescue feels ... off-putting and strained. I have mentioned before

that President Bartlet's decision to step away from his office, leaving Speaker Walken in charge in Twenty Five, turned me off during the series' original run, and that I hadn't watched any of Season 5 when it actually aired. Thinking a bit more, I believe I may have given the show a shot at the beginning of the season, and I likely did watch 7A WF 83429 when it was originally broadcast ... but I am certain I was no longer tuning in by the end of this episode, and did not see any of the Season 5 episodes after that until about five years ago and my first full re-watch. The unrelenting darkness and sadness and sourness completely turned me off.

But don't let me talk you out of continuing with this run through Season 5! It's better if you don't go it alone, right? Let's hit the major themes - a couple of which will have some long-lasting impacts.

How about the Jed-Abbey relationship to start? There was obvious tension between them all the way back in Bartlet's Third State Of The Union and The War At Home ... that's when we first discovered that Jed, in exchange for not making his multiple sclerosis condition public, had promised Abbey he'd serve only one term. And so, by starting to govern in a way to gain reelection, he was going back on his word. Abbey was mad about that, rightfully so, as not only was she put in a position to continue her life in the public eye for another term, she'd also have to go through the scrutiny of her role in Jed's coverup (which ended up with her giving up her medical license, you'll remember).

Gratefully, Abbey came to terms with most of that by the time the campaign got into full gear (Manchester, Part II) but now ... it's not just herself she has to worry about. President Bartlet's decision to secretly kill the Qumari defense minister (Posse Comitatus) has become public, enraging Islamic terrorists across the globe - and now it seems some of those terrorists have kidnapped their daughter and are threatening her life. She directly blames Jed for all of this - his continued Presidency, (which he was supposed to have given up) which led to his decision to kill Shareef to protect American interests, which led to the kidnapping and possible death of their youngest daughter. Abbey cannot forgive her husband for this.

When the news breaks that Walken has ordered an attack on Qumar (in retaliation for the movie theatre attack in Turkey in the previous episode), the Bartlet family is watching TV together. Jed, helplessly watching his administration carry out the orders of another leader, launching an attack that results in the deaths of American soldiers and, quite possibly, his own daughter, hands clasped in front of his face, looks over to gauge Abbey's reaction:

Abbey hears the news on the television, but can't focus on anything - especially not Jed:

She tormentedly leaves the room, followed by Elizabeth and Doug, and finally, Ellie ... Ellie, who was one source of support for Jed in the previous episode, now leaving her father alone to mull over his decisions and cope with the results:

Even with what should be the joyous reunion of the Bartlet family when Zoey is rescued, Wells can't give us the "happy ending" we're yearning for. First off, Zoey is discovered purely by chance - a drunk couple having an argument, the wife calls 911, the trooper sent to pick her up can't find her, but pokes his head into a nearby barn and sees a suspicious white van, he calls the FBI ...

The FBI strikes quickly, as Agent Casper outlines the events to the Bartlets in the helicopter:

And Zoey is rescued with the kidnappers being killed.

Abbey finally smiles when she embraces her daughter:

Jed, too, gratefully relieved, kisses her head:

But all is not well. As President Bartlet takes back his office and speaks to the nation, his family (and Charlie) watches from Zoey's hospital room:

Except for Abbey.

Abbey, literally turning her back on her husband as he speaks to the nation.

It's hard for us to watch, and it's obvious it's going to take a lot of time to heal this rift.

The other sobering, intended-to-be-long-running storyline has to do with Josh. In 7A WF 83429 he was worried about the motives of the Republicans meeting with Walken and his staff, convinced they were planning to use this situation of temporarily holding the Presidency to make some moves for crass political advantage. On the Monday morning opening this episode, Amy (yeah, Amy's back!) ends up playing directly to his worst fears and stokes up his conspiracy theories to a dangerous level.

Amy: "They're going to start legislating again, Josh. Partial birth, federal funding for family planning clinics --"

Josh: "Walken does anything by executive order, we overturn it as soon as we get back."

Amy: "A cheering thought to the women whose lives are ruined in the meantime. Do you even know when you'll be back?"

Josh: "Not exactly. Damn it."

Amy: "If Walken's holding partisan pep rallies in the West Wing, leak it."

So Amy gets Josh completely worked up about what the Republicans are doing, and how they're using this tragic national crisis to gain political advantage. I mean, political advantage is Josh's wheelhouse, so he was already heading in that direction - but Amy gives him a huge shove.

This eventually leads Josh to take a Republican press release and read it with the worst possible motives, which then leads us to the one and only White House restroom scene ever filmed in The West Wing.

Josh accosts Walken's aide Steve Atwood as he's trying to take a leak, accusing him of undermining the Bartlet administration under cover of the kidnapping crisis.

Josh: "You're campaigning in the middle of a national tragedy. Zoey Bartlet's out in a field, breathing through a straw - you're test-driving sound bites for the next election? Straight answer, Steve, once in your life: what are you guys up to? Closed-door meetings, planting quotes in the Times ... What's next? Spontaneous speeches on the House floor questioning President Bartlet's fitness to lead?"

Atwood tries to set him straight:

Atwood: "You don't get it, do you? Republicans are in awe of Bartlet. He recused himself in the only way he could. In the way envisioned by the Constitution."

Josh is not mollified, but Atwood has a particularly telling way of describing how far off the deep end he has gone.

Atwood: "No. You beat the terrorists at their own game. We're not stupid, Josh. We try to use this to our advantage, it'll blow up in our faces. We'd seem callous and unfeeling, in contrast to Bartlet's extraordinary gesture of courage and patriotism. And anyone who thinks otherwise ... has a particularly craven way of looking at politics."

Josh has always been a political operative first, perhaps always starting out from a, well, "craven" way of looking at situations, but he's also always had the humor and humanity and soul to overcome it. That appears to be melting away, and it's not going to get better for a while.

Speaking of Josh and longer-running story threads, he gets a new intern. A brash, privileged Ivy League youngster is sitting in his office on Monday morning, awaiting instructions. Ryan Pierce is his name, Harvard graduate and self-described descendant of a former President, and we can tell right away he's going to clash with Josh, not to mention Donna:

Donna: "Am I being passed over?"

Josh: "What?"

Donna: "If you're going to bring someone in over me, you can at least have the common courtesy --"

Josh: "I don't even know who that guy is."

In my view, I see Ryan as an attempt by Wells and the producers to entice younger viewers to the show - much in the way the addition of Chekov and his Beatle-esque haircut to the cast of Star Trek in 1967 was meant to do. I don't think it was a particularly smart move, not least because Ryan doesn't prove to be a very sympathetic or likeable character, but that's just my opinion. He sticks around for quite a while, so you'll get your opportunity to make up your own mind about him. 

A few other things happen in this episode - the opening scene, with Leo's surreptitious meeting with the mysterious Angela Blake, is just set-up for storylines to come (although her line, "If she dies, his approval ratings will go through the roof" is certainly something); the revelation that Admiral Fitzwallis is hoping to retire and go sailing in the Caribbean; our first meeting with Secretary of State Berryhill, mentioned many times before but never seen until now; the continuing search for a new Vice President

(You might notice that Berryhill is featured prominently among these final five options, even with a dart in his photo - the options are trimmed to four at the end, as Josh removes one of the candidates - but if you will recall in Commencement Josh had added Leo to his list. I guess he's taken him off by now.)

- but let me spend just a moment on the speeches.

Leo mentioned to Toby in the previous episode that he needed to get to work on two speeches - when Will asked why two, Toby explained they'd need one if Zoey was found alive and another if, well, she wasn't. Toby starts on the first muscular, revenge-oriented option, but Will has a few ideas that Toby finds ... lacking.

Will: "It's a new and difficult time. He needs to acknowledge that we've all been visited by our own mortality."

Toby (reading Will's edit): "'I know I am not alone in thinking how fragile is the safety and security we all take for granted.' You're leading with failure. What kind of message is that? If we go two lines without using the phrase 'unimaginably large military arsenal' we're out of our minds."

Will: "You want me to start on the second one?"

Toby: "You're already doing it!"

Later, as Bartlet wanders the West Wing, he stops by Toby's office and asks to see the speech he knows they're working on. Jed takes a look at Toby's work, then, without looking up, he quietly asks:

President: "Where's the other one?"

Toby: "What other one?"

President: "The other speech."

Toby: "We only wrote one."

Bartlet levels a steady, wordless gaze at Toby. Toby pulls Will's second speech out of a drawer and hands it over.

The President looks it over, his breath catching as he reads a speech intended to be given after the death of his daughter. It's a fine bit of acting from Martin Sheen.

"The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away ..."

Bartlet asks to keep the speech, and ends up using it as the basis for the address to the nation after Zoey is rescued.

The twin crises of Zoey's abduction and the related constitutional handover of Presidential power finally come to a close - although too late to keep me as a viewer during the show's original run! What we, the audience, are left with is a broken relationship between Jed and Abbey, and a top adviser who's obsessively consumed by his mental image of how the Republicans are trying to screw over the administration. Not exactly the groundwork for thrilling, uplifting storylines as we move ahead into Season 5, in my opinion, but let's see together. After all, it's dangerous to go alone. 

Tales Of Interest!

- Another episode full of darkness and shadows and tough-to-see scenes, which is kind of a thing for Season 5, it seems.

- It's approximately 72 hours from the morning of Zoey's graduation, which was Saturday, May 7, until President Bartlet's reclamation of his office after her rescue on the morning of Tuesday, May 10. The actual time it took for viewers to see these events over four episodes (created by two separate show runners) covered almost five months (from Commencement airing on May 7 to this episode's debut on October 1).

- When the administration needed secret polling in The Fall's Gonna Kill You, to measure public opinion over the possible reactions to President Bartlet's revelation of his MS coverup, Leo trusted Josh to go to his pollster, Joey Lucas. Now, when Josh thinks the administration could use secret polling about the electorate's reactions to President Bartlet's stepping away from the office, Leo brushes him off - only to contact a different secret pollster, Angela Blake.

- Walken's mention of being a "Truman fan" is fitting, considering Walken is from Liberty, Missouri - which is only about 10 miles north of Independence, where Harry Truman lived much of his life and where the Truman Presidential Library is located. His comment about Truman being a Republican if he were alive today is way off base, though, for anyone who's read anything about Harry Truman.

- With all the focus on Qumar (on and off ever since The Women Of Qumar, and certainly a geopolitical hot spot in episodes like College Kids and Debate Camp, where we saw maps of the country), isn't it odd that we see a Situation Room map that doesn't include Qumar at all? (Remember, according to the maps we've seen before it should be located in what is southern Iran, along the Persian Gulf directly across the Strait of Hormuz from the United Arab Emirates.)

Here's a good look at a map of Qumar from 7A WF 83429:

And here's a map in the background of the Situation Room from this episode ... with no Qumar shown!

- Why'd They Come Up With The Dogs Of War?

"Cry 'Havoc!' And let slip the dogs of war" is a line spoken by Mark Antony after Caesar's death in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar. President Bartlet quoted that line to Leo as he asked about President Walken's attack plans in the previous episode, 7A WF 83429. 

Quotes    

Blake: "The people need to believe that when he comes back he'll be able to govern effectively, even if he can't secure the safety of his own family. They need to know he's willing to sacrifice his own child's life for his country."

Leo: "Would you be?"

Blake: "I wasn't stupid enough to run for President." 

-----

Ambassador Yusef: "We are one of the only friendly governments you have left in the region that is growing younger, poorer, and more radical every day. If you undermine us, who do you think will take our place?" 

----- 

Donna: "You have 132 phone messages."

Josh: "Half of them want me to switch my long-distance carrier."

Donna: "There'd be at least as many faxes if we had a fax."

Josh: "We don't have a fax?"

Donna: "The FBI boosted it for evidence."

-----

Ryan: "You guys always walk so fast?"

(He trips and falls)

Josh: "Yes." 

-----

President Walken: "If Truman were alive today, he'd be a Republican."

Debbie: "Oh, I doubt that very much."

President Walken: "You know, it's funny. This was never an ambition of mine. I never wanted to be President of the United States."

Debbie: "Neither did Mr. Truman."

-----

President Bartlet: "You going to run again?"

Walken: "I haven't decided."

President: "If you do, let me know. I'll come campaign for you."

Walken: "I'm not so sure that'd be a plus in my district, Mr. President."

President: "You stick around for the press conference?"

Walken: "Thank you, sir, but I think the nation's best served by seeing only one President at a time." 

 

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

• Our first look at Angela Blake, played by Michael Hyatt (The Wire, Nightcrawler, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend). Leo asked Margaret to set up a meeting with her in the previous episode, and she plays a big role in upcoming storylines.

• We finally get to meet Secretary of State Will Berryhill, whose name has been mentioned many times over the past four seasons. He's played by William Devane (Knots Landing, 24, Marathon Man). No stranger to political drama, he played President John F. Kennedy in the 1974 TV movie The Missiles Of October - which also featured a young Martin Sheen as Robert F. Kennedy.
  

• We meet Josh's new intern, Ryan Pierce (Jesse Bradford, known for Swimfan, Bring It On, and the Marvel One-Shot Item 47), apparently an effort by the producers to draw in younger viewers with a fresh, young, wisecracking face. It's ... not really a successful effort.

• We haven't seen Nancy in a while (played by Martin Sheen's daughter Renée Estevez).

• Blake throws out a mention of a "failed Mars probe," which we saw in Galileo.

• Leo is still wearing his wedding ring. Remember, his wife left him in Five Votes Down and the divorce became final in The Portland Trip.

• The "brutal assassination" of Defense Minister Shareef is brought up by Ambassador Yusef. That happened in Posse Comitatus, with the fallout continuing throughout Season 4. We also hear the five Ba'ji sleeper agents that went missing in Commencement are still at large.

• We get to see Andy and the twins, Molly and Huck. She apologizes for what she said "Saturday," when she turned down Toby's offer of marriage and the house - which happened only two days before the events of this episode (but was broadcast five months prior in Commencement).

• Donna says the FBI took their fax machine for evidence. The picture of Zoey with a ransom note was sent to Josh's fax machine in Twenty Five. Now, why the FBI would need the actual fax machine for evidence seems a little bit tenuous.

• There's recall of the search process for a new Vice President, something that's been underway since Vice President Hoynes resigned in Life On Mars.

• President Bartlet's glass paperweights remain on the Oval Office desk.

• We get a reminder that Josh graduated from Harvard as Ryan examines his diploma, with the additional information that he graduated cum laude (even though, as CJ says in A Proportional Response, he missed the dean's list "two semesters in a row"). When Josh goes on to say his girlfriend earned summa cum laude that year, we might be led to believe he's talking about Amy ... but Amy wasn't his girlfriend in college (she was dating Josh's roommate, as we were told in H. CON-172) and we learned in Red Haven's On Fire that she did her undergrad at Brown, not Harvard (both Josh and Amy did go to Yale Law School, however).

• The West Wing tradition of "walking and talking" gets a shout out as Ryan has trouble keeping up with Josh and Donna walking through the halls ("You guys always walk this fast?").

• One last fleeting look at President Walken's dog Bess, as she stretches across a chair in the Oval Office while he calls the parents of soldiers killed in the Qumar attack.

• President Bartlet says he'll bum a smoke off one of the Secret Service agents. In Posse Comitatus we famously saw him toss a borrowed lighter back to one of the agents after telling Governor Ritchie, "In the future, if you're wondering, 'Crime, boy, I don't know' is when I decided to kick your ass."

DC location shots    

• The parking ramp where Leo and Angela Blake meet must be somewhere in DC, considering the shot of the Capitol dome in the background. This was confirmed by director Christopher Misiano in the DVD commentary, who said they filmed scenes for five different episodes during that trip to Washington ... including several episodes that didn't yet have complete scripts.

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

• The parking garage meeting between Leo and Angela Blake is meant to remind the viewer of the clandestine meetings of Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward with their Watergate scandal source "Deep Throat," described in the book and movie All The President's Men.

• Blake quotes a New York Times/CNN poll; later we see a front page of USA Today, as well as a mention of Roll Call. Interesting choice for the prop USA Today to feature the Jefferson Memorial photo on a story about the new Speaker of the House of Representatives ...

• Blake has a retort about Bartlet's constitutional maneuver involving the Dean of Columbia Law.

• Berryhill's line to Leo about informing Qumar of the American attack as it's happening ("Doesn't it remind you a little of the Japanese on December 7th?") is a reference to the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, and the Japanese diplomatic message delivered to Secretary of State Cordell Hull after the attack had already begun.

• Leo refers to the Gutenberg Bible as he talks to the Qumari ambassador.

• The MSNBC logo is seen several times, as NBC continues with their synergistic decision to feature their real 24-hour cable news network instead of the previously used fictional CND network.

• Andy mentions finding a house that's a three-minute walk from the Rayburn Building, which houses offices for Representatives just south of the Capitol Building. The building is named for former Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn.

• Leo scoffs at Josh's concerns about Republican treachery by saying "This isn't the grassy knoll" - which is a reference to conspiracy theories over the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas in 1963.

• President Bartlet quotes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , although in a slightly abridged version ("The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral. Returning violence with violence only multiplies violence, and deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars"). Bartlet also stops before the most famous part of that quote, "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

• Ryan Pierce appears to claim that President Franklin Pierce is his "great-great-grandfather." This is actually impossible, for a couple of reasons. Franklin Pierce left no direct descendants; his three children all died in childhood. Also, for Ryan to be his great-great-grandson means Franklin Pierce would have to have been born around 1875 (using a rough 25 years per generation). He actually was born in 1804 and died in 1869, which would seem to work out to something like a great-great-great-great-great grandfather.

• There also does not appear to be a "Pierce bedroom" in the White House, as Donna refers to.

• Josh tells Ryan about his time working at the Harvard Crimson newspaper.

• Presidents Truman and Eisenhower are mentioned, as well as Truman's documented reluctance to be President.

• The Al Jazeera news outlet has the new demands from the kidnappers with Zoey's picture.

• We see a can of Hype Energy drink on the table in the Situation Room.

• President Bartlet says Zoey has been taken to Walter Reed Medical Center.

End credits freeze frame: President Bartlet leading Toby and Josh on the way back to the Oval Office to sign the 25th Amendment letter.

Previous episode: 7A WF 83429

Next episode: Jefferson Lives