Original airdate: May 14, 2006
Written by: John Wells (10)
Directed by: Christopher Misiano (35)
Synopsis
- Farewells and new beginnings abound as Inauguration Day arrives, with the Bartlet administration coming to an end and the Santos administration getting started.
"You did a lot of good, Jed. A lot of good."
The final episode of The West Wing starts calmly and quietly, with dawn breaking over a cold Washington, DC, and the President-elect sipping coffee as he looks out over the capital. It's Inauguration Day, and it marks not only the beginning of a new administration, but a fond farewell to the past seven TV seasons of President Jed Bartlet.
It's a fitting valedictory to the series, paying tribute to the past while still looking forward to a bright future. And it also serves as a reminder of our nation's strength in tradition and norms, with the almost casual peaceful transfer of power America had seen for centuries before our most recent deterioration into the blustering, angry, destructive politics of Donald Trump and his unceasing accusations of "fraud" and violence against the very bedrock of our American democratic and electoral systems. So, in retrospect from the inaugurations of 2021 and 2024, this episode makes us yearn for that time once again, when inaugurations were peaceful national acknowledgements of election results, when transitions between administrations were cooperative, orderly, and generally smooth, and even when politicians might make decisions we might not agree with personally, they still operated within the bounds and norms of the Constitution and centuries of American history.
Oh, well ... enough about our "stormy present" (see what I did there?). This episode barely holds any drama - the only elements of that are the dispute between Massachusetts and New Hampshire over which state should respond to a train derailment on the border, and President Bartlet's internal struggle over whether or not to sign Toby's pardon (spoiler alert: he does). But that's fine. We roll through the day, the final morning for our West Wing staffers in the White House, and the first afternoon for the new Santos administration to start work, and the elements of the transfer are soothing in their own way.
The looming end of the Bartlet administration and the practical elements of the transfer of power are just neat to watch. We can see the emptiness of the West Wing as Inauguration Day dawns, with the empty shelves in Will's and CJ's offices, and the notes on computer monitors telling us files have been archived to prepare for the new staff:
As the day rolls on, there are more little moments about remembering the past as the future takes over. The President takes some time to say farewell to all the background staffers who did the work in the West Wing, giving us all a chance to do the same ourselves. This scene was actually the very last scene filmed for the show, so Martin Sheen was also saying goodbye to all these actors as well, which makes it even more moving to see them all standing there, watching and saying goodbye themselves.
As Jed and Abbey wait for the new First Couple to arrive from church, Jed shares a moment with his wife in the empty ballroom, remembering all the moments they'd experienced there together.
And before she leaves the building for the final time, CJ goes back into the press room, remembering how things started for her there eight years ago, standing behind that podium as she had so many times before.
The actual scenes of the transfer of the Oval Office are bittersweet: it's the end of an era we've watched for seven years now, but it's also a reassurance that the government and the presidency will continue to move on. Not to mention the impressive scene of fast-moving workers swapping out the furniture and decorations of one President to instantly replace them with another in the matter of minutes, including their official portraits. They roll in and roll out like a well-oiled machine, switching everything over in the Presidential office as the inaugural events take place at the Capitol.
One of the best things about this episode for me is the ongoing banter between Matt and Helen. I've always loved their relationship, it's so vital and connected and real, and the chemistry between Jimmy Smits and Teri Polo is always evident. Here, as the biggest day in their lives arrives, it's neat to see Helen able to keep things light, and the two riff off one another so jovially and so well.
It starts early, as Helen makes some remarks about Bram just knocking and then opening the door, saying they'll need a signal if they ever want some privacy (it's clear that Matt and Helen enjoy an ongoing, lively physical relationship; you remember they broke a bed at a hotel in Cleveland in The Mommy Problem). And then we get a look at how their whole political journey got started, a pathway that has led them to the White House:
Helen (helping Matt get his tie on): "'Come on, it'll be an adventure.' That's what you told me when you wanted to run for city council and I didn't want you to. 'Come on. It'll be an adventure.'"
As they leave Blair House for the final time, they joke about running away from all that is to come:
Helen: "You okay?"
Matt: "Sure."
Helen: "We could make a run for it, you know. Catch the first plane out of Dulles, head down to Panama."
Matt: "Maybe Uruguay is nice."
Helen: "Southern hemisphere, it's summer down there."
Matt: "Cheaper housing."
Helen: "You speak the language."
Matt: "Ha! What about the kids?"
Helen: "We'll send 'em a postcard."
Helen joshes Matt about wearing long underwear instead of a coat for the outdoor ceremonies, and just before they step onto the platform, with the emotions and the stress about as high as anybody is ever going to face in their lifetimes, there's this little exchange:Matt (smiling): "They'll be pissed."
Helen: "Man, I hope Janet Spragins has her TV on."
Matt: "Who?"
Helen: "Senior year, she beat me out for the last varsity spot on the swim team."
Matt: "Guess what."
Helen: "What?"
Matt: "You win."
Helen: "Though she did get Don Vogel to take her to the prom instead of me."
Matt: "We'll call it even, then."
Helen: "Naw, pretty sure Janet had to put out so Don would take her."
(they both smile as Matt chuckles)
There's just something about the Matt and Helen dynamic that I really love.There's also a satisfying payoff for Donna. She'd spent much of the first five seasons asking Josh for more responsibility, more upward career mobility, instead of being just his assistant answering his phones and making his appointments. While that led to her nearly being killed on a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in Gaza, and eventually to her leaving the White House to work with Will on Vice President Russell's campaign, she never really got what she needed working for Josh. Even when she joined the Santos campaign, she knew working directly for Josh in a new White House would never work out for her, or for any relationship they might be able to have.
Helen Santos to the rescue. In Transition we saw her ask Donna if she might be her chief of staff, to help her develop her path and her priorities as First Lady. Donna saw that as a prime opportunity to strike out on her own, so she and Josh could just work on their personal relationships without any professional complications. As the Santos staffers start to settle into the White House on this inaugural afternoon, Donna is shown an expansive office as the temporary quarters for the First Lady's use.
Donna responds that this will meet with Helen's approval, only to be told no ... this is Donna's new office, as chief of staff. Her face reflects the emotions she feels in that moment.
I think Donna is always easy to root for.
As for the drama, the train derailment issue (as Will puts it, perhaps President Bartlet's final act of governance) is dealt with quickly. The pardon takes a little longer. Bartlet leaves Toby's pardon sitting on his desk throughout the morning, as Debbie reminds him his time to take action on it is waning. He agonizes over the decision, wrestling with it in his mind, before finally picking up his pen and signing it.
A fitting act of mercy for an old friend who has done so much together with Jed. And it's also comforting for us to see CJ's reaction when she hears the news, as the shadow of a smile crosses her face.
CJ, of course, as well as the President, had been furious with Toby over his leaking of the classified military space shuttle to the press (CJ, particularly, because they had been so very close for so many years and then not only did he betray his responsibility to national security, he also let CJ twist in the wind as the prime suspect for weeks). But Toby did have his reasons (to rescue astronauts stranded and in danger on the International Space Station), and the final meeting we saw between CJ and Toby in Institutional Memory seemed to mend some of the rifts between them. It would be hard to imagine a final episode of the series without Toby getting a bit of forgiveness (not to mention we saw in the flash-forward of The Ticket that future Toby is apparently teaching at Columbia University and most definitely not in prison, at least three years in the future).
The wrapup of the episode comes with a fitting and emotional tie to someone we've lost. Mallory, Leo's daughter, stops by in the morning to give CJ a wrapped package for the President, something she's found in her father's things that she thinks Jed might want back. CJ brings the package to the Oval Office, but Debbie intercepts it to put in the baggage for the trip home to New Hampshire, after the inauguration. Finally, on the flight home, Jed takes the package out and unwraps it.
It's the napkin Leo slapped on that easel back in the Governor's office some ten years earlier, the first step in the process that led to Jed Bartlet's campaign for President, his election, and his two terms in office. A memory of Leo, Jed's dear friend and confidant, who passed away on election night just ten weeks earlier.
Even though we hadn't seen that napkin until Bartlet For America in Season 3, in the storyline of the Bartlet presidency this is where it had all began - making it perfect as the final moment of the Bartlet presidency and, by extension, The West Wing itself.
Then to prove the forward-looking premise of the series, as Jed gazes out the window of the airliner and Abbey asks, "What are you thinking about?" his answer ends the show with the only appropriate response.
"Tomorrow."
Let Me Take A Moment
Let me just say, thank you to everyone who's stopped by this blog, whether I directed you here from Reddit or Bluesky for a specific topic, or whether you've been following along for some time. Tracking the path of every episode in this series, one of the best-written television series ever, with some of TV's best performances to boot, was a joy for me and, I hope, worthwhile for you.
While I watched (most of) the entire series when it aired between 1999 and 2006, and had owned the complete DVD set for quite a few years, I'd never actually gone through the entire series until the slow-developing car wreck of the electoral campaigns starting in late 2015 that culminated in the election of Donald Trump in 2016. I went through the entire series on Netflix starting in late 2015, I think, finishing up sometime around the 2016 election - and as I've said before, that rewatch was actually the first time I'd ever seen Season 5 between 7A WF 83429 and Gaza.
When I started this project way too long ago (I first thought about starting a blog-along rewatch in February 2017, mostly inspired by Joshua Malina and Hrishikesh Hirway and their podcast The West Wing Weekly that had debuted the previous March), I never actually dreamed it would take me this long to finish. The podcast put out an episode nearly every week, with a few breaks in there, running through the entire seven seasons of the series by January, 2020 (so a couple of months short of four years). I knew I'd never be able to put out a blog every week - I was still working my job as an air traffic controller until 2018, I did some theatre gigs, I became a grandparent, there was a global pandemic, we experienced an unprecedented weather disaster in eastern Iowa, life was, you know, life - but I did have a goal to at least cover the entire series in less time than it actually aired.
Of course, I missed that goal, lol. My report on the first episode, Pilot, was posted in late April of 2017 (and then I immediately had to post a second entry to catch up on things I'd forgotten to include). And now I'm completing the series with its finale in early April of 2025 - nearly eight years exactly to cover the seven seasons of The West Wing. My technique has grown a lot over those years, my design of the blog finally took solid shape eventually, and my system of watching/taking notes/finding screenshots/researching took a while to come together. But I'm pretty proud of how things developed in the end.
Thank you again, reader. I mainly did this for me, but I always had you in mind, too. I hope you found something interesting or thought-provoking or new over the course of this blog.
Tales Of Interest!
- The opening title card is black text on a white background, significant for the final episode. Nearly every other West Wing episode opens with the title in white text on a black background. The only exceptions are:
Pilot: No title card was used.
Twenty Five: Black text on a white background, for Aaron Sorkin's final episode (also matches the fade-to-white ending of the previous episode Commencement).
Third-Day Story: White text over footage of the opening scene.
Liftoff: White text on a black screen which is revealed to be part of the opening scene.
Opposition Research: Black text on a gray background, for gloomy New Hampshire, I guess.
La Palabra: White text over footage of the opening scene.
Undecideds: Black text on a white background, perhaps because the episode dealt with issues of race.
- I mentioned the flash-forward we saw in The Ticket earlier. That was how Season 7 began, the cold-open to the first episode of the season, "three years" into the future at the dedication of the Bartlet Presidential Library. Most often when that technique is used, which implies the entirety of what we're seeing next is a flashback to the past and the setting three years ahead is now the "present," a show bookends that scene with another at the end, going back to that "present" of three years in the future to reset the audience in the show's timeline.
Frankly, that would have been odd in this case - mainly due to the unexpected death of John Spencer (who did not appear in that flash-forward, so his presence didn't need to be somehow explained away), but also because the ending scene of this episode just fits so perfectly. Ending it with Jed thinking about tomorrow as he and Abbey fly back home, his time in office at an end, is the well-earned cap to the episode and the series. Adding on another scene with our friends greeting President Santos in 2009 or 2010 just wouldn't work.
But all of Season 7 was simply a flashback, just sayin'.
- It's Inauguration Day, so it's January 20, 2007. That was a Saturday, if you're interested. And, frankly, I just want to add the final scenes (Ronna telling President Santos it's almost 6:00 and he needs to get changed for the inaugural balls, and seeing the Bartlets flying their way to New Hampshire) would be taking place in darkness, as on January 20 the sun sets at 5:16 pm in Washington, DC, and at 4:43 pm in Manchester, New Hampshire.
- President Bartlet, famous political/constitutional nerd that he is, gets things totally wrong about exactly who decided to have the inauguration happen in January.
Abbey: "Who in his right mind decided that January would be the best time of year to hold an outdoor ceremony north of the equator?"
Jed: "Jefferson. Adams. Franklin."
Abbey: "They should have lined them up and shot 'em."
Jed: "That's what King George had in mind."
Abbey: "January 20?"
Jed: "They got a few things right."
He blames Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin - but the original Constitution had the inauguration happening on March 4, four months after the election. That made sense when news traveled only as fast as a horse could carry it, and getting information spread throughout the original thirteen states took weeks or months, but it wasn't their idea to have it in January. That came in 1933, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, when the 20th Amendment moved the beginning of Congressional terms to January 3 and the start of the Presidential term to January 20.
- Josh and Donna are seen waking up in bed together. This is the first time we've seen them since Transition, when they went off on their week vacation as a couple. So that's apparently worked out okay for them.
- There is indeed an Amtrak line that runs between Exeter, New Hampshire, and Haverhill, Massachusetts, and it does cross the state line (although that's practically on the edge of Haverhill). It's doubtful a derailment there would actually result in a dispute between the states over whose responsibility it would be, but you know ... TV drama.
(Haverhill, Massachusetts, is actually pronounced "HAY-ver-ill," not "HAVE-er-hill," but maybe Kate doesn't know that.)
- The scene with President Bartlet walking through the West Wing, saying goodbye to the staff, was actually the very last scene filmed - not only the final scene of the episode, but the final shooting day of the entire series. So that added some emotion and depth to the entire exchange, as Martin Sheen was also saying goodbye to these background actors and less-central characters like Ed and Larry (Peter James Smith and William Duffy). There was a real sense of finality to have all those people, many of whom had spent several years working on the show, walking through corridors, passing papers back and forth, never having a line spoken out loud, stand there and pay a bit of tribute to Sheen as the series came to its final end.
And, then of course, a bit of humor and double meanings with Bartlet/Sheen's words to Nancy, who was played by Sheen's real-life daughter, Renée Estevez:
President: "Nancy, how's your mother doing?"
Nancy: "She's fine now, Mr. President."
President: "Tell her I'm looking forward to seeing her again soon, would you please?"
Nancy: "Absolutely, sir."
When Bartlet/Sheen asks Nancy about her mother and asks her to tell her he'll see her soon, he's talking about his real-life wife (and Renée's mom) Janet Sheen, whom Martin will indeed see soon once this final scene wraps. It's a neat little Easter egg.
- Let's note where we find out some of these people end up:
Of course Josh is Matt's Chief of Staff, like Leo to President Bartlet.
Sam will be Josh's deputy, as Josh was to Leo.
Ronna is going to be the Presidential secretary, like Debbie Fiderer and
Mrs. Landingham before her. An important role, to be sure, but it sure
does seem like Ronna is qualified for other, perhaps more high-profile jobs in this administration.
Bram is taking over Charlie's office. That was originally Sam's office, then sat empty for a short time until Will took it over, then sat empty for a long time after Will moved to Bob Russell's staff, then was Annabeth's office, and finally saw Charlie moving in there after Annabeth went off to Leo's campaign. But I guess we don't know exactly what Bram's title will be ... something in the Communications Department, for sure. Since he's in the Oval with Josh and Sam in that later scene, he must be a Senior Adviser.
Annabeth is going to be Helen's press secretary ... that seems like a real downgrade for her, given her work inside the West Wing after Toby's departure and her role running Leo's VP campaign.
Donna will be Helen's Chief of Staff, which we saw being offered to her in Transition and keeps her from working in any way under Josh's chain of command, which will be good for both of them.
We don't see her in this episode, but Louise is going to be the Communications Director (so she'll take over Toby's/Will's office, I imagine). No word on who the press secretary will be.
As for poor Otto, who got chewed out by a frazzled and overworked Josh in Transition just because he had the gall to say he didn't want to just be an assistant ... we don't know where he ends up.
- We get a good look at Toby's actual pardon. It looks pretty official, like a Presidential pardon might, but notice ... the year is left off, just completely blank:
It's so funny to see the show trying to maintain the fiction that this universe can't be set in any particular time or actual year, when we know the first Christmas episode, In Excelsis Deo, was clearly set in 1999 (they're talking about the upcoming millennium of 2000), and we know Bartlet's re-election came in 2002 (in 17 People Toby specifically mentions the year, saying, "Leo, has there been a discussion in some room, someplace, anywhere, on any level, about Hoynes being dropped from the ticket in 2002?"). Even though Aaron Sorkin himself tried to pretend there weren't any actual signposts of what year it was (in his DVD commentary for 18th And Potomac he fell all over himself saying Sam's mention of "millennium things" in the White House basement was a "mistake," "we don't have actual years mentioned in this show" - Aaron, you wrote much of In Excelsis Deo and all of 17 People, you put those years in there yourself!), it's clear Bartlet was elected in 1998, re-elected in 2002, and therefore Santos won the election in 2006, making this January of 2007. Even though the actual timeline gets jumbled around Liftoff and the series skips over a year, it doesn't change the fact of what year the Presidential election falls in.
(It's also interesting to see the phrase "His trial is pending" on the pardon, when he's already told CJ he has to report to the federal prison, which implies his trial is done and his sentence has been handed down.)
- The inaugural platform supposedly outside the Capitol was actually built in the parking lot at the Warner Brothers studios in Los Angeles.
- Gail's fishbowl looks to be just the White House on a bed of green gravel, much like it's been since Transition. Some sharp-eyed viewers say there's a "That's All, Folks" sign included in a later shot, but I'm not sure I see that.
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| Maybe there's a sign there, but I can't read it |
- As CJ exits the White House grounds for the final time, accosted by a couple of tourists, we see the White House from Pennsylvania Avenue. Being this is supposed to be Inauguration Day, there would be a huge viewing stand for the inaugural parade standing right there in front of the fence, blocking the view of the White House. Of course, this wasn't actually filmed during an actual inauguration (it was probably filmed in February or March of 2006), so there's no viewing stand there.
- Martin Sheen was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for this episode. It was his sixth nomination in that category for The West Wing, but he never took the trophy, losing to James Gandolfini for The Sopranos multiple times. This year the Emmy went to Kiefer Sutherland for his role in 24.
- Why'd They Come Up With Tomorrow?
As a forward-thinking series should, the final scene has Abbey and Jed on the Presidential aircraft, flying back to New Hampshire after his job as President has been handed off to Matt Santos. Abbey asks, "What are you thinking about?" and Jed replies, "Tomorrow."
(In the current era of streaming and binge-watching, it could be fitting to have Jed reply, "Two Absolut martinis up, another Dewars rocks" in order to fade right into the beginning of Pilot, to start the whole story over again.)
Quotes
Margaret: "We're supposed to leave our credentials at the front desk when we exit the building, and they've asked that we vacate our parking spaces by 2 pm."
CJ: "Not a problem, I walked today."
Margaret: "Really?"
CJ: "Yes, I often walk."
Margaret: "You do?"
CJ: "Sometimes I walk. I'm gonna walk a lot more when I get back to California."
Margaret: "Los Angeles being a pedestrian nirvana."
-----
President (to Will and Kate, as he's choosing which governor to talk to first): "Pick a number, two or four."
Will: "Two."
Kate (simultaneously): "Four."
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| I love the President's quick glare here |
-----
Helen: "Didn't a two-hour inaugural address kill a President once?"
Matt: "William Henry Harrison, but, uh, you know, he was 68 and, uh, he refused to wear a coat."
Helen: "You refuse to wear a coat."
Matt: "But I'm wearing long underwear."
Helen: "Oh."
-----
Steve: "President Bartlet pardoned Toby Ziegler today. Any comment?"
CJ: "Nope."
Steve: "You have an opinion?"
CJ: "Sure, I do." (she exits)
Story threads, callbacks, and familiar faces (Hey, it's that guy!)
- The Chief Usher, Curtis Schaefer (played by Van Epperson) is seen again, preparing the White House staff for their move out of the building. We saw him previously meeting with Helen and CJ in Transition.
- Leo's daughter Mallory (Allison Smith) returns, with a farewell gift for the President from Leo's things.
- Good old Ron Butterfield (Michael O'Neill), head of the White House Secret Service detail, is seen. It's kind of weird, though ... oddly in his recent appearances he's been on Santos' detail, not President Bartlet's, so who knows what his actual assignment is at the moment.
- Here's the flat-top gray-haired actor who can be seen in the background of literally dozens of West Wing episodes, here referred to as "Ray" as the President makes his farewells.
- Ed and Larry get their personal goodbyes from the President.
- As does Nancy, who is played by Martin Sheen's daughter, Renée Estevez.
- It's Ginger (Kim Webster)! She nearly disappeared from the show after early Season 5 (since Han she had only been seen in Impact Winter), but she's here for the finale.
- A glimpse of Republican candidate (and future Secretary of State) Arnold Vinick on the inaugural podium.
- Another little Easter egg sees series creator (and writer of nearly every episode over the first four seasons) Aaron Sorkin as one of the attendees on the inaugural platform.
- We saw some conflict over who would take over as the Democratic Speaker of the House in Requiem. Now we discover it was indeed Rep. Mark Sellner (John Getz) who won the speakership, the one who vowed to stand in the way of Matt's lobbyist and funding reforms.
- Sam returns to the White House ("Home sweet home," he says). You may note while we see Donna, Ronna, Bram, and Annabeth in the group, there's no sign of Louise or Otto.
- There's reporter Steve (Charles Noland), trying to get one last answer out of CJ before she leaves the press room for the final time.
- Toby's old Spaldeen shows up, one of the last items left in Will's office. Toby bounced it off the wall to help him think (most famously in 17 People), and he left one behind for Will when he took over as Communications Director.
- The Josh and Donna storyline, stretching all the way back to the beginning (Janel Moloney has said she played Donna as being secretly in love with Josh from the start), looks to wrap up with them as a couple. Also CJ and Danny as a couple, which we already saw will happen in the future in The Ticket, as CJ tells Josh she has a flight to California the next morning to meet him.
- Will keeps getting asked about leaving a note in the flak jacket for the incoming press secretary. As we saw in Access, there is a real-life tradition of White House press secretaries leaving notes in a "flak jacket" (actually a men's vest with a bulletproof lining) for their successors. The tradition started in 1977 when Ron Nessen, President Ford's press secretary, left a note for the incoming Carter staff.
- We see President Bartlet using a cane, which reminds us, of course, of his multiple sclerosis. That was first revealed in He Shall, From Time To Time ..., was the subject of a congressional investigation and eventual censure in Seasons 2 and 3, but only popped up at dramatically important times (Election Night, for one, but then disappeared again until A Change Is Gonna Come and the trip to China). After Impact Winter, President Bartlet used a cane intermittently, but hadn't been seen with it much prior to this episode. And, naturally, Abbey's emotional "Jed ... you made it. You're still here" in the car after the inauguration reflected her concern about his condition perhaps making it impossible for him to carry out that second term, or (as she feared), perhaps ending his life before then.
- The President is also wearing a Notre Dame fleece jacket. Martin Sheen asked that Jed Bartlet be a graduate of Notre Dame before agreeing to take the role.
- CJ mentioning Sam's return to the White House when she's talking with Mallory reminds us that Sam and Mallory were kind of a thing in the early seasons. By Galileo Mallory had moved on to a professional hockey player but Sam was still a bit smitten with her.
- The move to name Eric Baker as Vice President/Arnie Vinick as Secretary of State (finalized in The Last Hurrah) comes up in the discussion between CJ and Josh.
- Charlie going to law school has been a priority of President Bartlet's pretty much ever since Charlie came to work for him in A Proportional Response. Also, the gift of the Constitution and the emotion between the two emphasizes how Charlie was the son Jed never had.
- The ongoing military operation in Kazakhstan is mentioned, not only by the Cardinal at the mass Matt and Helen attend, but also as a topic of the Joint Chiefs discussion Matt brings up with Josh and Sam. That storyline stretches all the way back to the mysterious Mr. Frost bringing up Kazakhstan with Vinick in Message Of The Week.
- The issue of Toby's pardon stretches back to his leaking of classified information about a secret military space shuttle in order to save astronauts trapped on the International Space Station. The ISS emergency started in Things Fall Apart; Toby admitted to the leak in Mr. Frost; he was fired and walked out of the White House in Here Today; and we've seen him dealing with plea bargaining/trial dates throughout the latter part of Season 7. The notion of a pardon was brought up by Andy, his ex-wife, in Institutional Memory, and we see the final decision in this episode.
- There's photographs of Zoey and Ellie on the Oval Office desk as the movers pack up.
- Chief Justice Evelyn Baker Lang is announced as administering the oath of office to Matt to swear him in as President. Lang, of course, was played by Glenn Close in The Supremes, the episode where President Bartlet made a historic move to put both a liberal and a staunch conservative on the Supreme Court at the same time. Close was either unavailable or too expensive for the scene, leading to actress Ann Ryerson standing in.
 |
| Not Glenn Close |
- Colonel Gantry remains the pilot of Air Force One (not technically Air Force One in this episode, as Bartlet is no longer President; it'd have a "Special Air Mission" callsign). I believe we first heard the name as Lieutenant Col. Gantry in Manchester Part I and The Two Bartlets; there was a Col. Weiskopf flying the plane in Angel Maintenance; and then Gantry returned as pilot and a full Colonel in Disaster Relief.
- Of course the napkin Mallory returns to Jed from Leo's things dates back to Bartlet For America, the napkin Leo slaps on the easel in Governor Bartlet's office to inspire him to run, and was given back to Leo by the President on the Christmas Eve Leo was testifying before Congress about Bartlet's MS coverup ("That was awfully nice of you").
- WHAT'S NEXT moment: As Matt settles into the Oval Office, he asks, "What's next?" leading into a discussion with Josh about his upcoming priorities. It's a very nice callback to President Bartlet's continued use of "What's next?" throughout the series, first seen in Pilot.
DC location shots
- Blair House, the residence just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and where the Santos' were staying before the inauguration, is seen in a couple of shots.
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| Blair House during a state visit from Queen Elizabeth II in 2007 |
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| Matt and Helen on Pennsylvania Avenue outside Blair House |
- The archway where the motorcades arrive at "the Capitol" is actually at the EPA Building along Constitution Avenue. This location has been used several times before in the series.
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| (That's the Smithsonian Museum of American History across the street) |
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| View of the entrance to the archway from Constitution Avenue |
- CJ walks out of the northwest gate of the White House along Pennsylvania Avenue.
They Do Exist! It's The Real Person, or Thing
- The founding fathers Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin are brought up by Jed in a conversation with Abbey - even if his beliefs on what they did were faulty.
- We hear references to C-SPAN and CNN, and see the MSNBC logo once again.
- We hear that Helen and Matt are going to attend services at "Holy Trinity" before visiting the Bartlets in the White House prior to the inauguration. There is a Holy Trinity Catholic church in Georgetown, less than three miles from the White House.
- Not only do we hear that singer Gloria Estefan and poet Jimmy Santiago Baca are going to perform at the inauguration, we actually get to see Keb' Mo' sing America The Beautiful during the event.
- Helen tells Matt she's not dancing to You Can Leave Your Hat On at the inaugural balls (a song written by Randy Newman and made famous by Joe Cocker).
- John F. Kennedy and his famous inaugural address ("Ask not what your country can do for you") comes up a couple of times. William Henry Harrison and his death in office only a month after being inaugurated also is brought up, in connection with Matt not wearing a coat for the inaugural address.
- We see the book Society Must Be Defended by Michel Foucault on the bookshelf as the movers are packing up the Oval Office.
End credits freeze frame: The freshly sworn-in President Santos taking his seat behind the Resolute desk for the first time.
Previous episode: Institutional Memory
