The Birnam Wood - TWW S6E2

 

Original airdate: October 27, 2004

Written by: John Wells (5)

Directed by: Alex Graves (22)

Synopsis

• Arab-Israeli negotiations brokered by President Bartlet appear to hit a dead end, until a half-remembered book and a decision to provide American peacekeeping troops clinches a deal. Jed and Leo continue to clash over the President's decisions, leading to a dramatic turn of events with shattering changes to careers and lives.
  

"I'll need your successor in place before you leave." 

This is all about Jed and Leo.

 

Sure, there are momentous negotiations on a solution to the intractable and unending conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, with bold ideas bringing possible agreements - but all that Camp David stuff is a lot more dry and convoluted and less interesting than the spy-movie drama of Memorial Day or the tense phone-call-negotiations/ignore-the-past-24-hours back-and-forth of NSF Thurmont. The notion of an American President brokering a Middle East peace agreement at Camp David happened in real life already, with President Carter in 1978, and that certainly didn't turn out to bring a permanent peace - why should this fictional story some 25 years later be any different? But the Jed and Leo stuff, that's the real meat of the episode.

As it turns out, the conflict between Jed and Leo leading to Leo's dramatic heart attack in the woods was actually conceived because of John Spencer's real-life health issues. While doing a bit of research, I found that John Spencer was having some unspecified problems with his health that required surgery in the summer of 2004; with his recuperation set to take several months, Wells came up with this story line in order to get Spencer's character some off-screen down time in the early part of Season 6. My thoughts before I dug into the actual reasons ranged from a bold change in the show's character relationships to bring viewers back after the Season 5 falloff to a ploy to get a critically acclaimed audience-favorite actor more dramatic weight and responsibility on the show ...turns out it wasn't nearly that calculated, just Wells trying to work around Spencer's recovery schedule.

Jed and Leo first met in the late 1960s, and have been friends since the early 1990s (as Leo told the House committee in Bartlet For America). It was Leo who convinced Jed to run for President in 1997 in the first place, Leo who put the campaign in place, Leo who brought together the spunky group of young, enthusiastic staffers who thought up the plan that resulted in President Bartlet's election in 1998. As Chief of Staff the two have continued to work as a team over the past six-plus years, through Jed's anger with Leo over the McGarry marriage breaking up in Five Votes Down to to the President's steadfast support of Leo revealing his past addictions and rehab stay and Jed's tearful admission of hiding his multiple sclerosis from Leo in He Shall, From Time To Time ... to Leo's "Watch this" moment in Two Cathedrals, through the delicate balancing act with a wary military leadership in A Proportional Response, through thick and thin. Jed's devotion to his old friend was made most evident in He Shall, From Time To Time ... when he had this exchange with the designated survivor for his State of the Union speech, Secretary of Agriculture Roger Tribby, on what to do should Tribby find himself elevated to the Presidency:

President: "You got a best friend?"

Tribby: "Yes, sir."

President: "Is he smarter than you?"

Tribby: "Yes, sir."

President: "Would you trust him with your life?"

Tribby: "Yes, sir."

President: "There's your Chief of Staff."

Have these two had disagreements in the past? Of course, they must have, although we haven't seen a lot of that. Leo looks at his role as providing the best advice and counsel he can, helping to guide the President through the political thickets of leadership, but knowing the ultimate decision will come from Jed. He even says as much to Kate in the previous episode, after chewing Kate out for just doing her job in the Situation Room and making her feel like she needs to apologize for that. What's kind of strange about this arc that began in Gaza is how Leo seems to think of himself and his advice differently now, somehow. Leo does appear to have everyone else on his side, from the military to Toby to Will to almost all of the other White House advisors, as they press for a strong military response to the terrorist killing of four Americans, including two congressmen and the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. President Bartlet is reluctant to use force, reluctant to harm innocent civilians, reluctant to fall into what he sees as the trap of an overly aggressive retaliation that would only spur even more terror threats against the United States within its own borders. As Kate Harper steps into the void, following the President's lead to think outside the box and come up with options that don't include a military strike, Leo feels a little bit threatened, I think. He seems to think the President is choosing to ignore his advice, instead of listening, considering, and choosing a different path.

We saw that in Memorial Day, when Jed dismissed Leo in the middle of a sentence, the President's mind made up about trying Makharat's back-channel gambit. We saw it in NSF Thurmont, as Leo and Jed got involved in an Oval Office shouting match, with the President ominously responding "Or what?" to Leo's demand that he give the order for airstrikes. We saw it again as the Oval Office door was shut in Leo's face, the President concerned that his attendance in the meeting with the Israelis might give off mixed signals. We got to see a lot of shocked looks on Leo's face, as if he couldn't comprehend that Jed might decide to go in a different direction than what Leo advised.

I mean - surely that's happened before! Leo even made that point to Kate, more than once, that their role as advisors is to provide as many of the facts and as much of the course they think is prudent as they possibly can, so that the President can make the most informed decision. But now Leo is stuck firmly in the position that the only possible path is military force, and he's adamant that any other course of action is futile and worthless to pursue.

Sorry about that long preamble, but that sets the stage for where we are now. The President's efforts, led mostly by ideas provided by Kate, have led to a summit at Camp David with Israeli Prime Minister Zahavy, Chairman Farad of the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian Prime Minister Makharat. Tellingly, Leo has been left behind in the White House, not included on the negotiation team and not a part of the group giving the President guidance on the talks. This comes as a surprise to many: CJ was a bit stunned to hear Leo was in his office and not at Camp David, and when Josh returns from caring for Donna in Germany he's similarly taken aback.

The Camp David talks are complicated. The President decides they'll start with four topics: security for Israel after they withdraw from their occupied territories; disposition of the Israeli settlements in Palestinian land; the right of return for Palestinian refugees forced out of their homes; and a requirement for Palestinian leaders to dismantle terrorist groups. The biggest issue, the status of Jerusalem and the Muslim holy sites there, are tabled for the moment - even though no outcome is possible without some kind of agreement on that topic.

Most of the episode is taken up with how these four topics are addressed. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians seem willing to budge on any of them, but Kate, Toby, Will, and Josh come up with some daring ideas, and by splitting up Zahavy and his Defense Minister, by using Farad's apparent crush on Kate ("I think he likes me"), and by striking just the right balancing act on the negotiating high wire, they appear to get a framework together on those issues.

We also get a nicely composed, beautifully shot Friday evening montage between the Palestinians praying to Mecca and the Israeli shabbat meal.

Along with some dialogue about how the Jews and the Arabs really aren't all that different.

Kate: "The tragedy is that the Palestinians and the Jews are so much alike."

Charlie: "How's that?"

Kate: "All through history no one's wanted either of them."

But as the negotiating threads start to pull together, it takes Abbey to knock some sense into Jed's head and bring Leo up to join the team.

"Jed ... where's Leo?"

(Very reminiscent of Shutdown, with Abbey returning from her New Hampshire self-exile in the midst of a total breakdown of communication between the White House and Congress, only to ask Jed, "Where's Josh?")

Leo has some good ideas - it was his notion to split up Zahavy and Defense Minister Massar - but it also looks like the stress of the past week or so is really wearing him down. The leftover taquitos he and Will found in the kitchen one night didn't help, but there's something else serious going on with Leo's health.

The Jerusalem issue is the final point, and it's going nowhere. Zahavy emphatically tells President Bartlet that he hasn't been listening, Israel will never agree to give up sovereignty to any part of Jerusalem, and despite the progress they've made on the other topics he's going home. As the White House group gathers in the wee hours of early Sunday morning to draw up a public announcement of their failure, Kate - of course it's Kate - has a brainstorm.

Kate: "It's a search for two freedoms - for Israel, the freedom from terror; for the Palestinians, the freedom from Israel. That's what Efram Nachum called it. His book on the Six-Day War was pretty ..."

(she trails off, a light bulb starting to glow in her mind. Not literally, but this shot makes it look like it is)

Josh: "What? Boring? Overwritten?"

Kate: "Find Toby and Will. I'll meet you at Aspen."

She's remembered that in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967 Israel offered the Palestinians a deal whereby they could have a sort of diplomatic control over Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem in exchange for peacekeeping troops in Palestinian territory. If they were willing then, why not now?

The sticking point, though, is the peacekeeping troops. Israel would never accept the United Nations providing them - the only possible way would be with American troops. Another late-night meeting in the Aspen cabin is convened ... and we see Leo, roused out of bed, looking absolutely terrible as he continues to deal with the stress and his own hidden health concerns.

Once Leo arrives at the meeting, he's struck by the direction they are heading.

Josh: "Is this really our job? Sending American teenagers into that breach?"

Leo (entering): "What are we talking about?"

Will: "About putting an American peacekeeping force in the territories."

Leo: "And we think that's a good idea?"

Again, as we've seen over the past few episodes, President Bartlet takes in the advice and the opinions, and makes a decision.

President: "It shouldn't be our job, but no one else can do it."

Leo is finally at his breaking point over Jed's seeming obsession to achieve a peaceful outcome, no matter the threat to American lives or his political legacy.

Leo: "Can I speak to you privately for a moment?"

Outside, the fateful discussion. The President remains firm in his direction, while Leo continues to push for a less radical, less dangerous option. They are at loggerheads, and for the first time in this relationship, there seems to be no pathway out.

Leo: "My counsel is no longer of use to you. Perhaps it's time --"

President: "So, if I disagree with your advice you have to threaten me."

Leo: "This is your own League of Nations. And it'll ruin you like it ruined Wilson."

(pause)

President: "Okay. I'll need your successor in place before you leave."

Leo dared the President to take his resignation. Jed called his bluff. Leo's time as Chief of Staff is over. 

Josh steps out of the cabin to make sure things are all right. He notices Leo doesn't look so good - unsteady, sweaty, shaken.

Leo brushes Josh off; he just needs some air. He heads off into the woods, alone, adrift ... and dramatically, about to suffer a devastating heart attack.

He collapses to the ground. No one knows he's there.

This leads us to couple of striking images provided by director Alex Graves, images that have stuck in my mind for 20 years. First, after Leo's collapse, a masterful crossfade of images from Leo prostrate in the woods to a pensive, heavy-hearted closeup of President Bartlet, who's basically just fired one of his oldest friends and confidants.

Then, as the wrapup of the summit is concluded, with preparations for an afternoon announcement of the talks' success, everyone from all the delegations packs up to leave Camp David. As Josh climbs into a vehicle, he mentions he hasn't seen Leo, thinking he must have headed back to DC earlier. Josh dials Leo's cell phone. Bringing us that final, memorable image ... as Marine One flies over the woods, President Bartlet on board, the camera pans down to the empty, lonely woods, with the sound of Leo's phone ringing and ringing, unanswered.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- Timeline shenanigans - all the events we see here are following immediately on the heels of what happened at the end of Season 5, with that final episode of that season set on Memorial Day, 2004. The back-and-forth between Farad, Zahavy, and President Bartlet shown in NSF Thurmont just covered a few days after that, as well as Donna's recovery in Germany and her urgent blood-clot surgery. This episode depicts five days at Camp David, with Day Three being a Friday ... that would have to be Friday, June 4, following Memorial Day. (You could stretch that a week to Friday, June 11, I suppose, but that really doesn't align with how the events of Memorial Day and NSF Thurmont are playing out.) Day Five, which was Leo's early-morning heart attack followed by the announcement of a 2:00 pm press conference on the outcome of the peace talks, would then have been Sunday, June 6 (or, again, June 13 at the latest).

 

Despite all that, information on the West Wing Continuity Guide website tells us this episode is set in the fall of 2004, similar to its actual broadcast dates, using the President's reply to Farad saying his granddaughter Annie "started high school last week" as evidence. You know, I'm sorry, but 1) Josh didn't spend three months in Germany looking after Donna; 2) Congress, the American public, and the President's chief military and domestic advisers weren't going to sit by for those three months watching Bartlet dilly-dally over whether or not to strike back after the deaths in Gaza; and 3) the splinter-cell leader Naisan wasn't going to sit in his known location all summer long, nor was Farad going to be held in isolation by Israeli troops for all that time. This all clearly had to take place in a week (at most, two weeks) following Memorial Day.

- That said, why would Annie have "started" high school at the end of May? Well, obviously, she wouldn't have ... West Wing writers have historically been terrible about keeping their timelines consistent between season-ending cliffhangers and season-opening resolution episodes. Remember The Midterms from Season 2, where the shooting at Rosslyn was (temporarily) moved from May to August, Josh was still in the hospital 10 weeks or so after his emergency surgery, and the few weeks of "good feelings" in the polls towards the President after he was shot lasted almost until November? Also, we were told Annie was 12 years old in 1999's Pilot, when the President ripped into the Christian leaders at the White House for not denouncing radical groups that sent her a doll with a knife in its throat; that means in the fall of 2004 Annie would be 17, which seems a bit old to be starting high school. Of course, Annie's little brother Gus also regressed in age several years between his appearances in 7A WF 83429 and Abu el Banat, so maybe there's a magical age-reducing potion going around the Weston household.

- I keep bringing this up, but why the heck is Will always around for presidential stuff? He quit working for Toby and the President in Constituency Of One, remember - he works for Vice President Russell now. Yet he's always roaming around the West Wing, trying to arm-twist the administration into helping Russell's positioning for 2006, and now he's actually included in the Camp David talks, for some reason. We never saw Vice President Hoynes' staffers around the West Wing unless they were there with Hoynes, what's different about Will and his role? Why did the show runners write him out of the Communications Department if they were going to just keep him hanging around anyway?

- Mary McCormack was pregnant during filming of the first few episodes of Season 6, but director Alex Graves did a pretty nice job of camouflaging that fact, using darker clothing, a lot of camera angles from the shoulders up, and strategically placed books, binders, and pillows to hide her baby bump.

 

- Whenever I look up information about John Spencer, I'm always gobsmacked by what I perceive as the dichotomy between his appearance and his actual age. As Season 6 kicks off, the craggy-faced elder statesman Leo's appearance continues to make him look like the mentor for President Bartlet and the entire West Wing staff, as he's looked since the beginning. Turns out John Spencer was 57 years old in 2004; he was just 52 years old at the end of Season 1! I'm 59 at the time of this post, and even though I'm bald I'd like to think I look far younger and less, shall I say, weathered than Spencer did even in his early 50s. Martin Sheen is about seven years older than Spencer - I can't say you'd guess that by looking at them! 

- Why'd They Come Up With The Birnam Wood?

"The Birnam Wood" is a reference from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, as the witches prophesy "Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him." Macbeth takes this literally, in that a forest could never pull up its roots and move against his castle, thus his rule as king of Scotland will never be overthrown.

As witches' prophecies often turn out, though, they were being intentionally misleading. When the army led by Macduff marches against Macbeth, they cut down tree branches from Birnam Wood to hide their numbers behind the branches as they advance - so Birnam Wood did, indeed, come to Dunsinane.

But why is this the episode title? Which, by the way, is never actually spoken during the episode ... I think pretty much every previous West Wing episode title was heard somewhere in the dialogue of the show, but not this one. Is the phrase illustrating an occurrence that none of our characters could have possibly foreseen, i.e., the dramatic split between President Bartlet and Leo? Or, for another unexpected plot twist, Prime Minister Zahavy and Chairman Farad coming to an actual agreement in the peace talks? Or is it just a literal reference to the forests around Camp David where the episode takes place, and where Leo is left in the woods undiscovered after his heart attack as the others head back to Washington? Maybe it's some of all of that.

Quotes    

CJ: "CNN's got the Speaker on an endless loop like a ... Pink Floyd concert. It's their way of punishing us for cutting off access to Camp David."

Leo: "Natives restless?"

CJ: "There might be a mutiny afoot. I heard a couple of them plotting to throw our Mr. Coffees into the Potomac."

-----

Leo: "We're losing the media war. I want us on the morning shows, Crossfire, Dateline, book This Old House if we can figure out an angle."

CJ: "Who goes?"

Leo: "You, me, the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Fishery Exploitation, I don't care. We've got to get our message out."

CJ: "What is our message?"

Leo: "'Shut up while we're trying to get them to stop killing each other.'"

-----

Massar: "I've always wanted to try skeet shooting. Do you shoot often?"

Toby: "Yeah. You know, once or twice a week, when it's in season."

-----

President: "We may just have our tennis match. (Leo stands silently) You don't think so?"

Leo: "We haven't got to the tough part."

President: "We're making progress."

Leo: "Yes, sir, you are. And that's laudable."

President (scoffing): "Laudable. You make it sound like an honorarium from some two-bit chiropractic college in Arizona." 

-----

(as the staffers head for the Suburbans to drive back to DC)

Will (to Kate): "No round trip on Marine One?"

Kate (who mentioned in the previous episode that she gets airsick in helicopters): "Yeah, it's a shame."

 

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

• As this is really a carryover episode from last week, it's not a big surprise to see Armin Mueller-Stahl back as Israeli Prime Minister Zahavy.

• The President, Josh, Toby, Will, and Charlie playing basketball at Camp David reminds us of The Crackpots And These Women, which opened with the President and his staffers shooting some hoops on Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House.

• Likewise, the image of Toby being blasted back off his feet by the shotgun is a callback to CJ getting blasted off her feet when she fired Simon Donovan's handgun at the firing range in We Killed Yamamoto.

• We know Toby is a Brooklyn native (particularly from Holy Night) and a New York Yankees fan. He's wearing a Yankees shirt to play basketball.

• Taylor Reid's TV show gets a mention, as Carol tells CJ she's been booked to appear. We saw parts of Reid's show several times between The Warfare Of Genghis Khan and Full Disclosure, with CJ seeming to enjoy her times on the air debating with the conservative TV host Reid (played by Jay Mohr).

• Abbey's comment of "Where's Leo?" to Jed is an echo of her return to the White House from New Hampshire in Shutdown when she asked, "Where's Josh?"
  

• Katie is the only regular White House reporter seen in this episode.
  

• When Josh and Toby are tossing a football around and debating the fate of the Jews trying to flee 1938 Germany as well as the administration going after the Ku Klux Klan today (which was a topic of The Midterms, actually), Toby scoffs at Josh, "What, now suddenly you're Jewish? I don't remember seeing you at temple." In Six Meetings Before Lunch, when Josh was debating slavery reparations with Jeff Breckenridge, we are shown a photograph of Josh's grandfather, who survived being a prisoner at the Birkenau concentration camp during World War II. Even before that, in Pilot, Josh is clearly described as Jewish by Toby, who says to Josh after a snide remark by Mary Marsh, "She meant Jewish. When she said, 'New York sense of humor,' she was talking about you and me." I suppose you could take Toby's comment as a satiric slam at a non-observant Josh, since we have seen in Take This Sabbath Day that observant Toby does indeed go to temple ... but it just doesn't hit right.
  

• If you know, you know ... Leo's heart attack turned out to have a tragic real-life parallel in the future with John Spencer.
  

DC location shots    

• As in the previous episode, the Camp David scenes were set at ThorpeWood, a nonprofit retreat and event center located in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains. It's actually not very far from the real Camp David, so the scenery fits.

• The skeet-shooting scene with Toby and Defense Minister Massar was filmed at Quiet Waters Park, south of Annapolis, at about the same time as the Annapolis scenes of Admiral Fitzwallace's funeral were filmed for NSF Thurmont. This park is actually about 90 miles away from the ThorpeWood/Camp David area.
  

• Here's a couple of maps of the DC/Maryland area.

 

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

• The CNN logo gets on screen.

• Also in all the talk about news coverage we hear mentions of TV shows Crossfire, Dateline, Meet The Press, the Al-Jazeera network, magazines Time and Newsweek, the Washington Post newspaper ... plus This Old House.
  

• As I told you in the previous entry, the USS Abraham Lincoln (named by General Alexander) is a real US Navy aircraft carrier.
  

• CJ compares CNN's obsession with Speaker Haffley to a Pink Floyd concert. She also mentions the game Twister.
  

• The Gallup polling company gets a shout-out in the conversations about how many Palestinians would actually take Israel up on the right to return.
  

• Apparently Kate's quote about "It's a search for two freedoms" from the Efram Nachum book about the Six-Day War was fictional, as was the book and the author. I haven't found any reference to an actual book by an author of that name. That must mean John Wells came up with the Palestinian-authority-over-Muslim-holy-sites-in-Jerusalem gambit.
  

• Leo says the President's use of American peacekeeping troops in the occupied territories will be his League of Nations, and will ruin him like the League ruined President Wilson.
  

End credits freeze frame: The fateful early-morning meeting between Jed and Leo.

Previous episode: NSF Thurmont

Next episode: Third-Day Story

NSF Thurmont - TWW S6E1

 

 

Original airdate: October 20, 2004

Written by: John Wells (4) 

Directed by: Alex Graves (21)

Synopsis

• President Bartlet's insistence on pursuing a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Gaza deepens the rift between Jed and Leo. A hail-mary effort to get cooperation from the Palestinians pays off. Josh continues to stick around at the German hospital as Donna fights complications from her injuries.
  

"... you are going to have to give the go-ahead for the bombings." 

"Or what?"

It feels like things are nearing the breaking point - which is the exactly the goal of John Wells' script, to show us the cracks developing between old friends and trusted advisers as one continues chasing what the other sees as pipe dreams. So, good job, John, I guess! It's certainly an involving kickoff to Season 6, even if the plot threads are twisty and complicated and sometimes a bit hard to follow.

 

Let's recap and set the scene for where we begin. A congressional fact-finding delegation to the Middle East was hit by a roadside bomb in Gaza, killing four Americans (including two congressmen and Jed's dear friend, Admiral Fitzwallace) while seriously wounding Donna, who was along on the trip on Josh's direction as he tried to fulfill her desire to get more responsibility out of her career. Calls for a retaliatory military strike against Palestinians immediately came down on the President, from Congress, the American people, and most of his closest advisers - particularly Leo. President Bartlet, though, was reluctant to use military force, even after the leader of the splinter cell responsible for the bombing was located - estimates of civilian casualties in a strike were too large for him to accept. Meanwhile, the relatively new NSA adviser, Kate Harper, (at the President's request) continued to provide non-military approaches to keep the administration's options open, including reaching out the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority to try to apprehend the splinter cell leader peacefully. That earned her a chewing out from Leo as he continued to press for what he believed to be the only realistic outcome, using the US military to strike back. More complications in the Middle East ensue, as the Israelis attack Gaza in a strike against terrorists (killing several civilians), which leads the Palestinians to respond with a suicide bombing of a bus in Israel, which in turn results in the Israelis surrounding the chairman's compound and cutting him off from all communications.

That's basically where we are as this episode kicks off. The President, in some ways, absolutely does look "feckless" (as Toby describes Congress defining him) and maybe somewhat naive in his continued obsession with finding a way out of the situation without killing innocent civilians. But, a couple of comments he makes, I think, state his case very clearly about seeing the long-range picture, which his generals and Congress and Leo seem to be missing in their table-pounding insistence on bombing - and even the fact that a link to the bombing is made to a Syrian terrorist camp, where an attack would not mean any civilian lives being lost, doesn't shake the President's stance of insisting on trying peace first.

In Memorial Day, the President tells Leo, "Bombing Gaza could be the most dangerous move this country has made in two centuries." He knows a strike against Islamic radicals could very well bring down terrorist attacks right here in America, a continuing and growing cycle of violence that has no end. And later on in this episode he expounds on the point, telling Leo, "Why would Palestinians murder American government officials? They never have before. They're deliberately provoking us, Leo. They know that we have to retaliate. They've studied us. They want us to overreact."

President Bartlet believes this splinter cell leader, Khalil Naisan, attacked the congressional delegation fully expecting an American military strike against Palestinians in return, and wants to use that attack as provocation to hit targets in the United States. He can see further down the escalating path of response begetting response, something that Leo isn't seeing, and that's illustrating a serious divide beginning to split these old friends.

And that, of course, is the major theme of the episode. We saw the split beginning a little at the end of Season 5, with Leo starting to react to the President dismissing his counsel in favor of others (particularly Kate's), and the realization that they are no longer on the same page with this particular aspect of foreign policy. Remember, these guys have been through thick and thin together, they've known each other since the 1960s, then became attached at the hip from the beginnings of Jed Bartlet's first Presidential campaign back in the late 1990s, through the election, through the exposure of Leo's drug and alcohol addiction and rehab, through the revelations of Jed's multiple sclerosis coverup, through re-election ... and now, Leo feels like his advice is being ignored and his friend is going astray. 

Leo believes he's truly on the right side. A military response is the only practical avenue, and the American public, the military brass, and nearly all of the President's advisers agree, even Toby and Will (Will, in particular, is ready to bomb every Palestinian he can find - "if the keffiyeh fits," in an especially unfortunate bit of phrasing by John Wells). When Speaker Haffley leads a delegation from Congress to the White House to insist on an attack - even bringing some Democrats along - the response from the President is not what he expected:

Haffley: "Mr. President, you have to go on national television, admit your mistake, and retract those invitations. You've insulted these men and their memories. You have to put this summit back in the cereal box it came in."

President (seething): "I didn't come here to play games." (begins to walk out) "I'm trying to find a way to make peace. And when I do, you can go on TV and explain why you're against it."

Meanwhile, Kate's idea of reaching out to Chairman Farad seems to be at a dead end, since the Israelis have him isolated and his public announcement of inviting himself to Camp David to talk peace has only enraged the Israeli government (Farad has a habit of agreeing to work with the Israelis on efforts toward peace, only to double-cross them at every turn, so they are dead-set against having Farad involved in any discussions). When the President cooks up a brainstorming session, looking for any ideas to pursue peace, no matter how stupid or outrageous, she speaks up:

Kate: "We ignore everything that's happened in the last 24 hours. Yesterday, Farad was cooperating with us, planning to arrest Naisan and the other perpetrators of the CODEL bombing. Then the Israelis surrounded his compound in the West Bank and his people in Gaza refused to arrest Naisan, right?"

Will: "Yeah, so?"

Kate: "So we hold Farad to his earlier promise. Tell him if he wants a summit then he has to arrest Naisan. Show us and the Israelis that he's serious about punishing terrorists."

The Americans manage to get a phone to Farad, then they wait, as a naval battle group gets into position to strike the camps in Syria. The Israelis continue to refuse to take part in any meetings that include Farad, even while Palestinian Prime Minister Mukharat tries to work around Farad to be included himself.

Finally, a phone call. President Bartlet debates with Farad, trying to get him to live up to his deal to arrest Naisan. Farad is reluctant - with so many different warring factions on the Palestinian side, arresting Naisan at the behest of the United States and Israel could mean he'd be removed from his position of power, or worse. Kate has a idea ... if only she can find paper and a pen:

Clumsy Kate, knocking over Jed's coffee mug

She has the President give Farad an offer ... if he can capture Naisan and turn him over to the FBI, the administration would be happy to say the FBI made the arrest themselves, leaving Farad out of it.

It's the best they can come up with, and it's not very likely. It's the dimmest spark of hope one can hope for, but it continues to be one President Bartlet continues to grasp, even as the Navy is in position waiting for the word to strike. That brings us to the pivot point of the episode, as Leo continues to insist on the attack.

The old friends shout at one another.

President (shouting): "Tell me how this ends, Leo! You want me to start something that may have serious repercussions on American foreign policy for decades, but you don't how it ends."

Leo (shouting back): "We don't always know how it ends!" (steadily) "The Lincoln will be in position in a few hours and then you are going to have to give the go-ahead for the bombings."

President Bartlet is not accustomed to being told not to do, not even by Leo. He doesn't appreciate it much, either, particularly as he knows Leo knows exactly where Jed stands on this issue, and why.

His glare speaks for itself.

President: "Or what?"

 Leo is in shock at this thinly veiled threat.

So here we are. The President has heard Leo out, but he's not going to take his advice. Leo is going to have to deal with that somehow. Which is going to be even harder for him when the Director of the FBI unexpectedly drops by the Oval Office:

Director Arnold: "Our FBI team in Gaza was just contacted by Palestinian security forces. They have Khalil Naisan in custody and they'd like to turn him over to us."

Farad has come through, the desperate gambit has paid off. He's made the good-faith effort, which gives the President what he needs to lean on the Israelis to insist they take part in peace discussions. The Camp David summit is back on.

But Leo isn't going to be a part of it, at least not at the start. As the Israeli ambassador comes to the Oval Office to take part in the phone call with Prime Minister Zahavy, he's told this:

President: "Leo, head down to the Sit Room and tell the generals to keep their pistols in their pockets for the time being. You don't believe in this, Leo, and they're not going to want to do it. I can't have them pick up any signals from you that we disagree."

And the door is literally shut in Leo's face.

You gotta think that hurts.

Everyone heads to Camp David, the President and his team (sans Leo), Chairman Farad, Palestinian Prime Minister Mukharat, and the Israeli Prime Minister. President Bartlet, though, does have one last move up his sleeve - he tells Leo as soon as the Palestinians land in the United States he'll give the order for the military strike on the terrorist training camp in Syria. So Congress and those baying for retribution will get their bombing, but the peace talks will go on anyway. A neat little trick to have it both ways and an illustration that Bartlet wasn't totally oblivious to what had to happen - although this does still fit in with President Bartlet's desire to limit civilian casualties, which an attack in Gaza would have resulted in.

The peace talks - and the outcome of the split between Jed and Leo - will be the subject of the next episode.

Meanwhile, in Germany ... we were left with Donna heading to urgent surgery after a blood clot threatened her recovery from injuries suffered in the Gaza bombing. Josh had gone to her bedside immediately upon her arrival at the military hospital, only to meet Colin Ayres, the Irish photographer who grew close to Donna on her trip, eventually sleeping with her just before the explosion.

Before going under anesthesia for the surgery, Donna asks to see Josh (not Colin, which is kind of important). While she can't speak with the oxygen mask on, she writes a note saying she's scared. Josh, while scared too, tries to comfort her ... and their hands touching certainly seems meaningful, somehow.

The Josh-Donna relationship has been a simmering storyline throughout the series. Famously, Janel Moloney says from the start she played Donna as being deeply in love with Josh, even without expressing it outwardly, just using that as character-building backstory to inform her scenes with Bradley Whitford. The two actors did have instant chemistry, as audiences were quick to respond to (so much so that the Josh love-interest character originally included in the series, Mandy, was written out after Season 1). Even while the two characters had their own other romantic couplings - Josh with Amy and a bit with Joey, while Donna dated Cliff and Jack Reese and others - there was always some kind of special bond seen between them. While that bond showed up in many episodes, from In Excelsis Deo to The Portland Trip to War Crimes to Arctic Radar to Inauguration: Over There and others, I think it was best expressed in 17 People, after Donna told the story of being taken to the hospital after a car accident and her then-boyfriend stopping off for a beer on his way to see her:

Josh: "I'm just saying, if you were in an accident, I wouldn't stop for a beer."

Donna: "If you were in an accident, I wouldn't stop for red lights."

Even so ... Josh doesn't really treat Donna as well as he should. In No Exit CJ tried to explain to her that if Josh really was trying to help Donna grow in her career, he wouldn't be keeping her stuck in her assistant role. And there are so, so many examples of Josh taking Donna for granted, not recognizing her excellent work in supporting him and her devotion to him and his position.

Colin just met Josh, and he can see it.

Colin: "There was this girl when I was 16. No, 17."

Josh: "This is when you were a bagman for the IRA?"

Colin: "She was mad about me, worshipped me, really, and I liked her, but I was off to the university in Dublin and she was going to stay in Belfast, work in her dad's shop."

Josh (concerned about the surgery): "This is taking too long. Isn't this taking too long?"

Colin: "She wrote to me every single day, and she called weekends. And she ... she was always there. And I took her for granted, you know?"

That's a truth bomb for Josh. But it only gets worse when the doctor reports the result of the surgery - there's a possibility Donna may have suffered hypoxia, a lack of oxygen to the brain, during the procedure, and she may have irreversible brain damage. Her life, and Josh's, may never be the same.

Josh stays by her side. Colin disappears - apparently his only purpose was to be Donna's guide in Gaza and a spur in the side of Josh to make him realize what she truly means to him. While there's a lot of indications in these recent German hospital episodes subtly illustrating Donna's true feelings for Josh, her reaction as she awakens from unconsciousness says, well, everything really.

"Josh?" she weakly calls out. "Josh?" Remember, she's only just coming out of what's basically a coma following her surgery. She has no idea of who or what is around her right now. She knew Colin had also been at the hospital, her mother was on the way, her eyes are barely open and she can't see who is there by her bedside. And yet, her very first instinct is to call out for Josh. What do you think that says about her deepest feelings for him?

"You're still here."

"Yeah ... I'm still here."

Does this mean Josh has realized how much he's taken Donna for granted, that these two will recognize and act on their romantic feelings, and everything will be happy every after for these lovebirds? Ha! I mean, well, eventually ... but we've got pretty much two entire seasons left before that actually works out, so Josh is still gonna be ... Josh.

Season 6 is off and running. Big changes are on the way, both in and out of the White House. As Paul Harvey used to say, "Stand by, for news!"

Tales Of Interest!

- Mary McCormack is added to the regular cast, promoted from her Special Guest Star role in Season 5, with a spot in the opening credits. Stockard Channing also shows up in the credit sequence, but she's had that going on only for episodes she's appeared in for a while.

- Speaking of Stockard Channing's Abbey, there's nothing I like more than military-grade snarky Abbey. Her comment in the limo on the way to Fitz's funeral is a golden example:

Leo: "Tell Farad he can have his summit if it can double as his retirement party. I'll spring for the watch."

President: "What do I need from him to get the Israelis to Camp David?"

Kate: "He'd have to promise to arrest the leaders of Hamas, put the Palestinian security forces under Mukharat and the moderates, and adopt a new PLO charter that gives up that portion of historical Palestine he's going to recognize as Israel."

Abbey: "Plus the watch?"

- For the fourth time out of five season premieres, the action of the episode picks up exactly where the previous season-ending episode left off. The only exception was Season 4's 20 Hours In America, which is set about six weeks prior to the November election and about four months after the events of Posse Comitatus.

It makes sense, of course, for season-ending cliffhangers to be addressed in the season opener, so the debuts kinda need to follow those cliffhangers directly. Season 2's In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen began in the immediate aftermath of the shooting at Rosslyn in What Kind Of Day Has It Been; Season 3's Manchester picked up in the midst of President Bartlet's press conference from Two Cathedrals; and Season 5's 7A WF 83429 began on the same night of the events seen in Twenty Five.

- Bringing up What Kind Of Day Has It Been reminds me of somebody I left out of my Season 5 wrapup post, when I was going over the list of characters who'd showed up and then departed over the series' first five years. I forgot about Gina Toscano (Jorja Fox), Zoey's personally assigned Secret Service agent. She first was seen in 20 Hours In L.A., played a very important part in the events of What Kind Of Day Has It Been, but then left the show after In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen. Fox - who was part of the ER to West Wing John Wells pipeline - got a major role in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation in 2000 which left her no time for The West Wing.

- The timing does seem rather breakneck, although given the seriousness of the situation in Gaza, the murders of American congressmen, and the known location of Naisan, that all makes sense ... but the idea that a summit involving the Israeli Prime Minister, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, and the Palestinian Prime Minister can all be organized and begun in a matter of a couple of days is bordering on unbelievable. The explosion in Gaza happened the weekend before Memorial Day, then we saw the events of that holiday Monday leading up to President Bartlet's appearance at a Baltimore Orioles baseball game that night to wrap up Season 5. We start here immediately after that, with Donna still in surgery for her blood clot and the administration trying to deal with Chairman Farad's self-invitation to Camp David that we first heard about as Jed was taking to the diamond at Camden Yards. It does appear "a couple of days" might have passed (going by Josh's mention of when Donna's surgical outcome might be known), but we're still talking about the week following Memorial Day, and already we're getting Middle Eastern leaders gathering in Maryland. That's pretty fast. No wonder that lady was so rushed she got the spacing of the documents wrong on the table to bring down the wrath of Debbie.

- I do appreciate the overhead-shot montage as the President and his advisers talk over possible approaches to their dilemma ("no idea is too stupid or outrageous"), as the camera slowly spins in that West-Wingy kind of way. For me it's a callback to the final scene of Pilot, where the camera pulled back high above the seal in the Oval Office carpet as President Bartlet and Mrs. Landingham got to work on the day's events.

- I've mentioned before that the show's writers and producers have completely forgotten about the nation of Qumar, whose existence has been talked about since The Women Of Qumar. The country became a serious player in The West Wing late in Season 3 with its Defense Minister planning terrorist attacks against the United States mainland, the eventual secret assassination of said Defense Minister on President Bartlet's order, sleeper-cell terrorists being tracked in the Pacific Northwest, and then the abduction of First Daughter Zoey by some of those terrorists that resulted in President Bartlet actually stepping away from the office for a day or so. Pretty important country, right? Here's where it was shown to be located at the beginning of Season 5, which agreed with maps we saw early in Season 4:

It's right across the Strait of Hormuz from the United Arab Emirates and Dubai.

Well, as I've made note of this with several late Season 5 episodes, when maps of the Middle East appear in the Situation Room, Qumar no longer exists. We get two looks at that map in this episode, and Qumar has been - *poof* - erased from existence, as Doc Brown would say.

- Speaking of erased from existence, we get a look at CJ's desk and the spot where Gail's fishbowl usually is ... but Gail isn't there.

 

- The budget for this episode must have been pretty high, considering the location shoots, the aerial photography, and the rental of the Sikorsky Sea King helicopter. Joshua Malina tells the story of the unfortunate props painting crew who mistakenly lettered "UNTIED STATES OF AMERICA" on the side of the helicopter instead of "UNITED STATES" (obviously, the error was caught and corrected before filming).

(You can see from this candid photograph from the time of filming that Mary McCormack was quite pregnant. Scenes with Kate were rather artfully shot to conceal that fact from the audience.)

- Charlie remarks to the President at Camp David while they're waiting for the other delegations to arrive, "The Israelis just cleared our airspace." Typically the phrase "clearing our airspace" means an aircraft has just left ... in context here, Charlie means they've just entered the airspace, so he's phrasing it wrong (thanks a lot, John Wells).

- CONTINUITY ERROR: When Donna is about to go under for her surgery and writes notes to Josh, her first note says, "Nice Hat!" with an exclamation point. A moment later, just before she adds, "Scared" to the note, the exclamation point disappears.

- Why'd They Come Up With NSF Thurmont?

As the staff is heading to the Marine One helicopter, Toby asks Kate, "Have you ever been to NSF Thurmont before?" to which she replies, "Camp David? No, I haven't." The Presidential retreat commonly referred to as Camp David, located in Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland, is technically named Naval Support Facility Thurmont.

Quotes    

Kate: "Sir. I feel as if my counsel is largely responsible for this mess."

President: "I get lots of counsel, Ms. Harper. What I choose to do with it is my responsibility."

----- 

Will: "The President knows, right? You guys are telling him?"

CJ: "Knows what?"

Will: "That there is no viable alternative. He's going to have to bomb Palestinians."

-----

Toby: "What's the President doing, Leo? A summit? He's already got a Nobel Prize. What does he need a second one for, bookends?"

-----

Colin: "So you fly halfway around the world at a moment's notice to rush to a woman's bedside when the White House is facing off a biblical apocalypse?"

(pause)

Josh: "We work together."

-----

President: "It passed?"

Toby: "Yes, sir."

President: "How many Democrats against us?"

Toby: "Too many."

President: "But we swept the Vermont delegation, am I right?"

Toby: "Actually, no."

-----

Toby: "Ever been on Marine One?"

Kate: "No, I haven't."

Toby: "You like helicopters?"

Kate: "No, not really. I get airsick."

Toby: "Okay, you can sit with Will."

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

• Armin Mueller-Stahl (Shine, Eastern Promises, Angels & Demons) returns as Israeli Prime Minister Zahavy. Mueller-Stahl was first seen in that role in The Warfare Of Genghis Khan.

• Jason Isaacs (the Harry Potter films, The Death Of Stalin, Star Trek: Discovery) is back as Colin Ayres, the Irish photojournalist who had a fling with Donna in Gaza before the bombing. Oddly, this will be the end of Colin for us ... Donna apparently drops him like he's hot.

• Along with Speaker Haffley, who shows up at the White House to harangue the President again, we get the House Democratic Minority Leader Sheila Fields, played by Charlotte Colavin. Rep. Fields has appeared as the House Minority Leader a couple of times before, and she's meant to remind us of California Representative Nancy Pelosi, who actually was the House Minority Leader from 2002 to 2007, when she became Speaker of the House.

• When the President enters the room with the congressional leaders, he says, "Are these the same right-wing turkey basters that said I faked MS to get the sympathy vote in the last election?" President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis diagnosis was revealed in He Shall, From Time To Time ... and the impact of that news becoming public was the Season 2-ending plot line from 17 People through Two Cathedrals. In H. CON-172 the President took a congressional censure for covering up his disease during his first campaign.
  

• Debbie shows up briefly, with a ruler but without even one line, although she does have quite the scornful look for the woman who didn't get the documents lined up correctly on the negotiating table.

• If you remember Access, we were introduced to FBI Director George Arnold (Michael Kagan), where in flashback scenes we learned he had been FBI Director from the beginning of the Bartlet administration in 1999 (even though the President called the FBI Director by a different name in A Proportional Response). Just to reinforce the never-before-heard information we learned in Access, here's Director Arnold once again, doing his FBI stuff.

• The regular reporters Gordon and Chris are seen in the briefing room.
  

• Here's the background actor I only call Buzz Cut Guy, who pops up in West Wing scenes all the time. Once you notice him, then you start seeing him all over the place.

• We get not one but two Bartlet jacket flips. Martin Sheen's left shoulder was injured at birth, making it difficult for him to raise that arm above the shoulder, so he came up with the over-the-head flip to don jackets.

• Toby complains about the President's peace efforts, saying he's doing it only to get a second Nobel Prize. President Bartlet was granted the Nobel Prize for Economics before entering politics - while the economics prize isn't one of the five official awards established in Alfred Nobel's will, it is still awarded by the Nobel Foundation at the Nobel Prize Award ceremony.
  

• This is almost certainly not foreshadowing, but Toby telling Kate she can sit with Will in Marine One (because she gets airsick) and then her friendly conversation with Will as he's jogging at Camp David might take on a different note once we really roll our way into Season 7. You'll see what I mean.
  

DC location shots    

• The opening hearse/casket shots and then the scenes around Admiral Fitzwallace's funeral were filmed at and around St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Maryland.

•  I believe the Camp David scenes were filmed at ThorpeWood, an environmental education center located in a forest preserve in the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland.

 

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

• I'm still a little amazed it took NBC the entire first season to realize they had a 24-hour cable news network they could promote on their own series, but by Season 6 they are taking full advantage to get MSNBC's logo onscreen. (CNN also gets mentioned in this episode, as well as the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes.)
  

• With the mention of the military strike coming from the Lincoln Battle Group and the video of aircraft taking off from the carrier deck, it's worth noting the USS Abraham Lincoln is indeed an aircraft carrier in the US Navy, and does have the designation CVN-72 as seen in the Situation Room.
  

• We see a USA Today newspaper in the bullpen outside Josh's office.

• CJ brings bottles of Aquafina water into Toby's office with her peanut butter crackers, and she also mentions she likes Diet Dr Pepper.

• President Bartlet is seen wearing a Notre Dame fleece. When he was offered the role, Martin Sheen insisted that Jed Bartlet be a Notre Dame graduate.

• Will is jogging at Camp David in a Carnegie Mellon T-shirt, which implies he's a graduate of that school. While it was mentioned previously that he went to Cambridge on a Marshall Scholarship, that could have been graduate work. What is also of note is that Joshua Malina tells the story that director Alex Graves didn't want Malina to have his sleeves rolled up for this scene, but the actor did it anyway to show off his toned arms. Again, that's according to Malina.

• Will mentions Beanie Babies in his criticism of Chairman Farad; Josh compares the nurse ordering him to shut off his cell phone to Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
  

• As the President gets ready to greet Prime Minister Zahavy at Camp David, Abbey tells him, "Go get 'em, Cassius." This is likely a reference to the Roman general Gaius Cassius Longinus, who is best known as one of the plotters in the assassination of Julius Caesar, but prior to that sought to find peace during the civil war between Caesar and Pompey.
  

End credits freeze frame: The Oval Office as the President talks on the phone with Chairman Farad, with Kate looking for something to write on, or a coffee mug to spill.

Previous episode: Memorial Day

Next episode: The Birnam Wood