Privateers - TWW S4E18

 

Original airdate: March 26, 2003

Teleplay by: Paul Redford (11) & Debora Cahn (3) and Aaron Sorkin (80)
Story by: Paul Redford  & Debora Cahn 

Directed by: Alex Graves (13)

Synopsis

• Amy's first day as Abbey's Chief of Staff finds her caught in a dilemma between Abbey and the President. An old friend of Toby's causes problems when he wants to expose his employer's illegal business practices. An Alaskan glacier melts, Charlie respectfully fights for Zoey's attention, and Donna has to keep an eye on a White House guest. Plus, we meet Marion Cotesworth-Haye, much to CJ's inappropriate glee.

"A privateer, actually."

"Isn't that just a hired pirate?"

So it turns out that Abbey has a pirate for an ancestor. A swashbuckling pirate, Thomas Broome Weathergill, who sailed the seas raiding ships for profit and adventure, thumbing his nose at maritime law, forging his own path without regard to custom or convention. Or, at least, that's how we can imagine the path he chose.

And we get to see quite a few unconventional, dare I say piratical maneuvers by our West Wing characters in this episode, from purposefully speaking out against the cautious administration position on global warming to tricking a romantic rival to making up an imaginary award to fool a troublemaking patrician, all the way to serious matters like "accidentally" involving administration staffers in a corporate coverup and trying to bait the President into threatening to veto his own bill. Okay, it's a stretch to call most of those moves something from the pirate playbook, but there's certainly some out-of-the-box thinking going on with almost all of our storylines. 

Let's also not forget to mention, this episode is funny. Not quite as comical as much of Celestial Navigation, but the DAR story with "Helena Hodsworth Hooter-Tooter" and Charlie taking Will's advice to "respectfully refuse" Zoey's demands to leave her alone do bring a smile to our faces. Once again, there's a lot going on here - as recently as The California 47th I said I thought Aaron Sorkin mucked up that episode by packing in too many stories and not really landing any of them - but this one is much more successful. I think it shows a tightening of the writing that often seems to happen toward the end of seasons, as Sorkin starts pulling threads together for his big season finish. There's actually not much here that's going to be important for the final episodes - Charlie, Zoey, and Jean-Paul, I suppose - but the writing is lively and I was entertained throughout. I'm not quite as enamored with the next episode, but after that we find ourselves on quite a thrilling ride to the end of the season.

Where to begin? Let's start where the episode starts, with Abbey and Jed squaring off over breakfast as news breaks of an anti-abortion amendment being attached to the foreign aid operations bill. This bill was a topic before, in Guns Not Butter, a critical policy for the Bartlet administration that has been limping along with continuing resolutions. Now the opportunity to actually pass a bill to help starving people overseas is at hand, and the President is reluctantly willing to swallow the anti-abortion-speech amendment in order to get the aid package into law. Abbey, on the other hand, is not so willing:

Abbey: "It's not that the money can't go to clinics that perform abortions. It's that it can't go to clinics that talk about abortions."

Jed: "I know what the gag rule is."

Abbey: "I wasn't reminding you what the gag rule was. I was reminding you that you sent 11,000 troops to Kundu because in your inauguration you told us that we were for freedom of speech everywhere."

Jed: "That's great except people are starving to death, and they're dying of disease to death, and they can't cook the Bill of Rights."

Luckily for Abbey, her new Chief of Staff is starting work today. Amy Gardner, who impressed the First Lady and accepted the offer in Red Haven's On Fire, is trying to set up her office by hanging some artwork and diplomas on the walls.

Maybe the fact everything is falling off her wall is a clue for how her first day is going to go. Abbey impresses on Amy the importance of killing the gag-rule amendment, encouraging her to go to the senior staff and get the President to threaten a veto ... a veto of a bill he's been shepherding through Congress for months, a bill he's desperate to get signed into law, amendment or no amendment. This is an impossible task.

Will: "Amy, we have a problem for your office."

Amy: "No, you can't. Cause it's only my first day, and Mrs. Bartlet already has me overthrowing the government."

Discussions ensue between Amy and Josh, even Amy and Leo, and despite the fact they are fruitless (as the senior advisors reiterate the position that the overall bill is urgently needed, and the amendment is an unavoidable irritance), Abbey won't let up. And neither will Amy's office, as even her door won't stay attached to the doorframe.

Amy, at last, stands up for herself, cutting off the First Lady as she approaches and laying out her qualifications and experience and the reasons why Abbey hired her in the first place:

Amy: "You hired me to put a professional face on your office. This bill is going to be law tonight. If you want to fire me, fire me."

Abbey: "I don't want to fire you."

Amy: "Oh. Why did you want to talk to me?"

Abbey: "To tell you you had a good first day."

Amy: "Oh. Okay, I jumped the gun."

Finally, that night, as Jed and Abbey prepare for bed in a bookend to the opening scene, they have a conversation that shows they really do have the same goals, that the President is thinking of ways to counteract the gag-rule amendment and protect freedom of speech and women's rights despite the best efforts of conservatives like Clancy Bangert. To, you know, use some "pirate" tactics to beat back the gag rule.

Jed: "German thinker Max Weber said that politics is the 'slow boring of hard boards, and that anyone who seeks to do it must risk his own soul.' You know what that means?"

Abbey: "I like how you think that patronizing me is going to make me feel better. It's sweet."

Jed: "It means that change comes in excruciating increments for those who want it. You're trying to move mountains. It takes lifetimes. But Zoey Bartlet is the newest Daughter of the American Revolution, so I like our chances in the long run."

Abbey: "That's what you have to say?"

Jed: "Yes."

Abbey: "All right, it's pretty good." 

Leo and Josh start their day talking about a flood in Alaska. A glacier-fed lake has overflowed, and a small town along the lake is being devastated by the flood. While the Coast Guard and other government operations gear up to provide support, experts from the US Geological Service have a somber warning - the flooding was caused by melting of the glacier, melting tied to global warming and rising temperatures in Alaska.

Toobin: "Mean temperatures in Alaska have risen seven degrees in the last 30 years. That's insane. The temperature hike has caused glaciers to shrink and go backwards, leaving lakes of melted glacier water in their wake. A shift in those collapsing glaciers puts pressure on the lakes forcing them to overflow their natural limits, and killing, this morning, fourteen people. Not spotted owls."

Leo: "Are you telling me the deaths this morning are the first fatalities of global warming?"

Toobin: "They're definitely global warming fatalities, but I doubt that they're the first."

This is an example of Sorkin using his TV soapbox to call attention to a, at the time, somewhat controversial subject. While today I think few people would disagree that the overall global climate is warming, in the early 2000s there was a little more debate on the topic - and even now, there are some who disagree that human activity has anything to do with the temperature increases. It's hard to argue with the carbon numbers in the atmosphere, though. In my opinion, we may already be too late to do anything significant to stop a climate catastrophe ... but that's a topic for a different venue, I guess.

Leo and the other staffers agree that, while the overall position of the administration continues to be support for industry and jobs and business (the drivers of increased carbon emissions, after all), they need to make the point that climate change is real and needs to be addressed - and the way to do that is to have an administration official speak out against the official stance, making the point in favor of change and reducing emissions. Even though that person will be criticized by the administration in public, it gets the point out there to be talked about. Will agrees to be the loyal privateer, to fall on the sword:

Will: "I think that's right, but I think that I should do it."

CJ: "You don't want to do it."

Will: "I really don't, but I don't think a researcher at Interior is going to jump-start this the way you need."

Remember Charlie and Zoey? Remember they were a thing, after meeting over chili in The Crackpots And These Women, and having a little kerfluffle over unwanted attention in a bar in Mr. Willis Of Ohio, and starting to date (which resulted in an assassination attempt in What Kind Of Day Has It Been/In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen)? Well, after the two were seen still going out in The Midterms, Zoey kind of disappeared and we heard next to nothing about the two - until this past Christmas in Holy Night, when Zoey shows up again with a boyfriend who is French royalty of some kind. Charlie has not been happy with the situation - in Inauguration: Over There he declared his ongoing love for Zoey (not to her, personally, but to Will, Josh, Toby, and Danny) and his plans to fight to get her back.

Well, fighting time has arrived. Charlie has a talk with Will about a "Dear John" email Zoey sent to him, basically telling him she's done with him, he makes Jean-Paul uncomfortable, and he has to stop chasing her. Will, oddly, actually has some decent advice:

Will: "I'd say no. I'd do it respectfully."

Charlie: "You'd say no?"

Will: "Respectfully."

Charlie: "What would that sound like?"

Will: "Zoey, you say Jean-Paul is uncomfortable with our relationship and he'd rather I not be around, and I respectfully say no."

Charlie: "Can I ask you something?"

Will: "Sure."

Charlie: "Do you have a girlfriend right now?"

Will: "No."

Even so, it turns out to be pretty good advice. Jean-Paul shows up at Charlie's office before the DAR reception to mark Zoey's induction into the group. He's confused about where he's supposed to meet Zoey's car, which obviously wouldn't be in Charlie's office - but Jean-Paul is stoned out of his gourd, so ...

Charlie grabs the opportunity in front of him, just like a pirate. He sends Jean-Paul off on a wild-goose chase, to meet Zoey's car in a place she's not going to be, and then heads off to the White House entrance to talk to Zoey himself. She's still angry, demanding he give her up and stop pursuing her, but he sticks with Will's approach:

Charlie: "I refuse respectfully."

Zoey: "You can't refuse and be respectful at the same time."

Charlie: "Watch me. Ask again."

Zoey: "Stop pursuing me."

Charlie: "Respectfully, no."

Zoey: "Why?"

Charlie: "Cause I'm in love with you and that's the way it goes."

Charlie's outright declaration of love must not be totally disagreeable to Zoey, as she can't hold back a smile.

And as she heads into the White House for the reception, Charlie's joyful leaping reaction is just perfect.

There's actually a story for Donna here, too - she's tasked with shadowing a guest at the reception who's had drug charges in the past - but it's not important in the least. So let's get to the final two plotlines.

The next move of piratical treachery comes not from one of the staffers, but from an old friend of Toby's. Burt Gantz, a chemical company executive, stops by to say hello on his way to testify in front of Congress against a bill that would force companies to pay to clean up their pollution messes. It turns out, though, that Burt isn't there just to talk about old times:

Gantz: "I'm supposed to be in here looking at pictures of Andy. Could you take out your wallet and look for a picture?"

Toby: "What?"

Gantz: "Toby, please take out your wallet and look for a picture you can show me. Kearney-Passaic's been lying for three years. I need protection under federal whistleblower laws."

Burt wants to turn in Kearney-Passaic for lying to the government about how much they're polluting, and he wants Toby to give him protection for doing it. Toby gets Josh, they bring in a lawyer from the counsel's office, only to discover it's not whistleblower protection laws they need.

Mike: "Well, you're talking about the anti-retaliation provisions in the False Claim Act."

Toby: "Yes."

Mike: "This entitles an employee to relief. If he's fired or demoted or suspended or in any matter discriminated against because of lawful acts done by the employee on behalf of the employer."

Toby: "Yes."

Mike: "These acts weren't lawful."

[...]

Mike: "Well, let me ask you this the way federal prosecutors will. Did you knowingly and purposefully sign fraudulent documents submitted to federal authorities?"

Gantz: "Well, it's not that the documents were -"

Toby: "Oh, my God ..."

Mike: "Yeah, he doesn't need 3730, he needs immunity from criminal prosecution."

Even worse, by laying out the details behind Kearney-Passaic's deceit of the government, Gantz has put Toby and Josh into the position of having to turn him in.

Josh: "We have to turn him in now?"

Mike: "No, you don't have to, but you'll go to jail as a co-conspirator."

Josh: "I don't understand. All I did was get up in the morning, (to Toby) then I got a message to go see you."

Toby: "How come he knows about the rule?"

Josh: "Everybody knows about that."

Toby (to Josh): "Was something else on your mind that moment in law school when they taught that rule? Were you distracted by a bumblebee?" 

But, clever guy that he is, Toby figures out this was Gantz' plan all along. He'll spill the story to Toby, Toby will be on the hook to get the facts to federal prosecutors, and Gantz counts on Toby helping him get immunity so he doesn't go to jail for helping to falsify the documents.

Toby: "It didn't occur to me until I asked you why you didn't tell your lawyer. You knew what you were doing the whole way, right? Get the President's muscle to lean on Justice for immunity."

[Toby may need to choose his friends better, considering he got "screwed with his pants on" financially after helping a buddy speak before Congress, resulting in a public relations fiasco about some stocks he owned (Five Votes Down), then getting played by a old friend into helping set up the Republican Senate Majority Leader for a Presidential run (The Leadership Breakfast) ... ] 

At last, then, the giddy laughter of CJ and the haughty imperiousness of an old-money Marblehead patrician come together in a classic West Wing moment. Abbey, naturally, with her lineage somewhere in New England, is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. That group requires proof of an ancestor who provided support to the effort of the American colonists fighting for independence in the Revolutionary War - and Abbey has a guy, some 17 generations back, who sailed the Eastern seaboard to help defeat the British. It turns out, though, that the guy was essentially a pirate. He did work under hire for the American war effort, attacking British shipping under the revolutionaries' flag, so that technically made him a privateer, not a pirate.

Even so, an old adversary of Abbey's in the DAR has leaked word of this disgraceful ancestor to the press, and is threatening to boycott a White House reception to honor Zoey's induction into the group (which makes me stop and think - if Abbey's membership is based on her privateer relative, wouldn't all the Bartlet daughters automatically be members as well? They, of course, have the exact same relative in their ancestry ... what makes this induction of Zoey happen now, anyway? She's not 18, she's not even 21, at this point she'd be 22 years old, given that she was 19 when we met her in The Crackpots And These Women). In any event, it's up to the Communications Office to put a stop to the boycott, by any means necessary.

Will and CJ put their heads together about the news story, and there we discover Abbey's old adversary is named Marion Cotesworth-Haye, a name of stature, of tradition, of 18th-century snobbishness - and a name that's going to make somebody break into the giggles.

Will: "No, I'm just telling you that if this day ends up with me face-to-face with Marion Cotesworth-Haye I'm going to, you know ..."

CJ: "Laugh inappropriately?"

Will: "There's a very real possibility." 

CJ and Will enlist Amy to help them out, since she is now officially Abbey's Chief of Staff. As noted earlier, Amy already has plenty on her plate, but she'll take some time to speak to Ms. Cotesworth-Haye and help stave off the boycott. But how? In a plot right out of I Love Lucy, our gang decides that giving an award to Marion will impress her enough to give up on her disdainful attacks on Abbey's pirate relative.

Until they meet. CJ, Will, and Amy make their introductions, and then Marion stands and announces her presence:

"I'm Marion Cotesworth-Haye!"

Which results in not Will, but CJ dissolving into a fit of laughter:

Which she can't bring under control, leaving Will and Amy to try to deal with the scion of Marblehead society:

(Let's just take a moment to bask in the genius that is Allison Janney and her laugh. Remember her breaking into helpless laughter when Danny gave her a goldfish, instead of Goldfish crackers in The Short List? She's a national treasure.)

Our trio of trouble-stoppers have forgotten one thing in their plan ... they don't actually have a fake award put together to give to Marion! Will tries to help out Amy with some quick charades:

Marion: "May I ask what the award is for?"

Amy: "It's for your many years of service."

Marion: "Is it the Liberty Award?"

Amy (at a loss): "No ..."

 Amy: "It's a key."

 Amy: "The Francis Scott key. It's the Francis Scott Key ... key."

Amazingly, this works.

Marion: "Well, that is a different fox hunt altogether, isn't it?"

Subterfuge a pirate would be proud of, right there, used to counter the efforts of a haughty rich lady to shame a rival because she has a pirate in her family tree. Excellent.

Sorkin has been a master over the past three seasons of building to a terrific climax at the end of the year. This will be no exception, with the added complication that it's not just the end of the season, but the end of Sorkin's tenure with the series. We're not quite there for the buildup yet - I'm not a huge fan of the next episode - but he gets things revved up into high gear after that for the final four entries of Season 4. Trust me, there's plenty to look forward to coming up.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- This is Amy's first official day as Abbey's Chief of Staff, so it can't be that long after she was offered the job the first weekend of February in Red Haven's On Fire, just before the special election in the California 47th House District. We have no mention of the outcome of that election, though, nor anything more than a passing reference to the American military operation in Africa.

- When Leo opens up the newspaper in his office, there's a full-page ad for a "Holiday Sale." There's no holiday in late March, when this episode aired, but since this episode is set sometime in mid-to-late February (considering Amy's timeline mentioned above), this prop could be referring to a Presidents' Day sale, which has been a thing for major American retailers for many years.

- There's some really bold, artistic-looking shot composition from Alex Graves in this episode. I'm kind of in love with it. From the opening scene, which starts with an over two-minute long unbroken take between Jed and Abbey (bookended with another one-minute long unbroken take back in the Presidential bedroom in the closing scene), to the choice to film the beginning of the Josh/Leo scene from outside the window through the shutters:

To the strong contrasting morning light colors used in the scene with CJ and Will:

To the shot of Josh and Amy talking as they walk down the hallway, with Donna prominently in the shot even though she's not actually involved in the scene:

To the long shot of Will and Charlie, panning from a model of a old sailing ship (perhaps a pirate ship, even?):

To several walk-and-talk scenes filmed through glass on the set:

I think the look is original, interesting, and really different from much of what we've seen before. Considering this is actually Graves' 13th time directing the show, I give him a ton of credit for taking a truly fresh approach to this episode. 

- You know, I realized while putting this together that we really don't know much at all about Abbey's family or her background. We don't even know her maiden name, or where her family comes from, or much of anything besides the fact Jed was planning to enter the priesthood before he met Abbey while he was a student at Notre Dame (The Portland Trip). I always took that to mean he actually met her in South Bend (although women didn't start attending Notre Dame itself until 1972, which was after Jed's time there, but there was Saint Mary's College right next door that was a "sister" institution for Notre Dame). But maybe that's not where they met, maybe she was also from New Hampshire. The fact is, we simply don't know, but her membership in the DAR and the seafaring privateer in the family tree seem to indicate her background being in New England somewhere.

- We get pretty much a full CV from Amy Gardner. She told Abbey in the previous episode that she graduated from Brown and Yale Law School (and she's attempting to hang her Yale Law JD diploma in her office here). She goes on to describe her work history: a year and a half as issues director for NOW (National Organization for Women), two years as the political director of EMILY's List (an organization we learned CJ also worked for in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, Part II), founder of the Democratic Women's Forum, AA to Hope Schrader, and Director of the Women's Leadership Coalition (where she was working when she first appeared in The Women Of Qumar). Oh, and Abbey used to babysit her, which is quite a connection to have.

- Stockard Channing earned an Emmy nomination for an Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her work in this episode and the upcoming Twenty Five. Tyne Daly took the award for her appearances on Judging Amy.




Quotes    

Leo: "You don't want to stand here for a minute and reflect on the fact that a glacier melted this morning?"

Josh: "Well, I would, Leo, but a glacier melted this morning, so at this point Americans are simply trying to outrun it." 

-----

Will: "The legitimacy of her membership in the DAR is being questioned because her qualifying relative was a pirate."

Amy: "A pirate?"

Will: "A pirate. A pirate, oh yes, a pirate, he."

CJ: "A privateer, actually."

Amy: "Isn't that just a hired pirate?"

CJ: "Yeah. Anyway, Mrs. Helena Hodsworth Hooter-Tooter of Braintree wants to organize a boycott of the reception and, well, there it is. Yes, Mrs. Bartlet descends from quite the murderous band of ruffians, and her membership in the DAR is suspect on those grounds, or so believes the Boston Globe."

----- 

Amy: "I make up an award?"

CJ: "Save yourself the headache."

Amy: "Am I being hazed? Is this a hazing? Cause I'll go along and everything but I have to see Josh again so -"

Will: "It's not a hazing. They don't do that. (reaches into jacket pocket, turns to CJ) ... except yes, you put olives in my jacket again."

CJ: "I did. I put olives in his jacket but this is on the level."

 

-----

Abbey: "I gave a made-up award to Marion tonight."

Jed: "Marblehead?"

Abbey: "I think she's from Marblehead."

Jed: "No, some of us call her Marblehead."

  

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

• Burt Gantz, Toby's old roommate and current chemical company bigwig trying to save his own skin, is played by Jeff Perry (best known from Scandal - Shonda Rimes, creator of the DC-set drama Scandal, is a West Wing fan and used several members of the cast in her show, including Joshua Malina).

• The fabled Marion Cotesworth-Haye of Marblehead is played by Helen Slayton-Hughes, who you may recognize from her role as Ethel Beavers in Parks and Recreation.

• Our favorite TV news anchor Ivan Allen is seen again, still with MSNBC as he was in his most recent appearance in Red Haven's On Fire.

• After the Bartlet Doctrine, the insertion of troops into Equatorial Kundu, and the related terror attack on the military camp in Ghana that took up most of the oxygen in the past four episodes, Abbey's passing mention of the 11,000 troops in Kundu is the only reference to those events. It does seem a little odd that the wrenching, deadly attack on the Red Haven base from the previous episode isn't even a topic of discussion now. There's also not a peep about the Democratic tax plan that was key in a recent episode.

• Jordon Kendall, Leo's romantic interest (first seen in Bartlet For America, last seen in Process Stories) gets mentioned by Abbey, so those two kooky kids are still a thing.

• The foreign aid bill, the one with the gag rule amendment, is a followup to the bill we saw being thwarted by Congress in Guns Not Butter. That episode saw quite a discussion about using three continuing resolutions as a stopgap until a bill could get through Congress, which adds to the willingness of the administration to accept the amendment as a condition for finally getting the bill passed.

• Burt Gantz mentions Andy's pregnancy and the twins, fathered by Toby. That was first revealed in Debate Camp.

• Of course the whole Charlie/Zoey/Jean-Paul romantic triangle stems from Charlie and Zoey's original relationship from Season 1 (with the last reference to their being a couple coming in The Midterms; after that Zoey disappeared until showing up again with her new boyfriend Jean-Paul in tow in Holy Night). Charlie's continued pursuit of Zoey - and his plans to declare his love for her - was boldly stated during the snowball-throwing scene in Inauguration: Over There.

• Amy's reference to hazing, Will's denial of anything like that taking place, then the discovery of CJ's olives in his jacket pocket remind us of the bicycles, the Sam Seaborn posters, and the goat being put in Will's office to prank him when he first moved into the West Wing (Holy Night and Guns Not Butter).

• Amy ticks off a list of Bartlet administration cave-ins to Republicans, including allowing marriage incentives into a welfare reauthorization bill (we saw that in Posse Comitatus, as well as Amy being forced out of her job at the Women's Leadership Coalition because of her efforts against that bill) and burying the Surgeon General's report on birth control (we saw a similar report on sex education - perhaps the one Amy is referring to - put in a desk drawer in Take Out The Trash Day, supposedly not to be released until after the midterm elections, but it was never referred to again).

DC location shots    

• There are none.

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

• Abbey calls Jed "Sheriff Taylor," after the character played by Andy Griffith on The Andy Griffith Show.

• The "global gag rule," also called the Mexico City policy, is an actual US government policy that blocks funding for groups that provide abortion counseling or work to expand abortion services. The policy was first put in place under President Reagan in 1985, then rescinded by each Democratic administration since and reinstated whenever a Republican President took office.

• Of course the Boston Globe is an actual newspaper. Also, the Daughters of the American Revolution is a real group, and members do need to trace their lineage back to someone who personally provided support during the Revolutionary War for American independence. Interestingly enough, the list of "accepted Revolutionary War service" for membership expressly includes privateers, so Marion Cotesworth-Haye has absolutely zero ground to stand on here.

• Josh calls Abbey's privateer ancestor "Captain Feathersword," who is actually a character appearing in performances by the Australian children's music group The Wiggles. Captain Feathersword has been a part of Wiggles shows since 1993. It begs the question of why Josh would be familiar with The Wiggles in any way ...

• While the Francis Scott Key Key is not an actual award, Francis Scott Key was an actual person (who wrote The Star-Spangled Banner).

• There's a shot of a caterer holding a box of Geyser Peak wine.

• Toby has a Starbucks cup in one scene (I believe Leo actually has one in his office at the beginning of the episode, but he does a better job of hiding the Starbucks logo).

• Charlie says it's possible his great-great grandfather is Thomas Jefferson - a reference to the fact that Jefferson fathered several children with his enslaved African-American servant Sally Hemings.

• Donna compares her assignment to shadow one of the guests at the DAR reception to a plot point from the TV show Laverne & Shirley. We also see Donna and the guests she's tailing drinking from bottles of Rolling Rock beer.

• President Bartlet quotes Max Weber with his comparison of politics to the "slow boring of hard boards" in the final scene.

End credits freeze frame: The White House entrance where Charlie and Zoey have their discussion.

Previous episode: Red Haven's On Fire

Next episode: Angel Maintenance

Red Haven's On Fire - TWW S4E17

 

Original airdate: February 26, 2003

Teleplay by: Aaron Sorkin (79)
Story by: Mark Goffman (2) & Debora Cahn (2)

Directed by: Alex Graves (12)

Synopsis

• An operation to rescue the three Marines kidnapped in Equatorial Kundu is successful, but at a significant cost. Toby's change in tactics for Sam's campaign throws Sam for a bit of a loop. Abbey counters Josh's political maneuvering with a smooth move of her own. Will abuses his hapless interns.

"You're gonna lose, and you're gonna lose huge. They're gonna throw rocks at you next week, and I wanted to be standing next to you when they did."

When it comes to military operations, President Bartlet can't seem to catch a break. From a aircraft carrying medical personnel getting shot down over Syria for, well, "reasons" ("Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc") to a rescue mission for DEA agents in Colombia resulting in an ambush and the deaths of American soldiers (The War At Home) to having US troops involved in a shooting conflict during a coup attempt in Haiti (the end of Season 2 and beginning of Season 3), thing just always seem to go sideways. Oh, sure, there's been some successes, too - the standoff with China over Taiwan in Hartsfield's Landing or the reveal of the missing submarine in Gone Quiet - but odds are, if troops are involved, something isn't going to go right.

That's mainly due to the requirements of drama, of course. Stories that always turn out well without conflict or pain just aren't very interesting, and who's going to tune in to that every week? In this episode, we have a situation Aaron Sorkin has set up from the get-go for potential disaster (the Bartlet Doctrine, sending troops into conflicts anywhere in the world to enforce human rights and protect freedoms) ... so he's got to make that Chekhov's gun pay off somehow.

The President ordered the United States military into Equatorial Kundu in Inauguration: Over There in order to stop the slaughter of the Induye tribe at the hands of the ruling Arkutu. In The California 47th American forces took over the airport in Kundu, and Bartlet gave President Nzele 36 hours to stop the killing before he'll give the order for US troops to topple Nzele's government. Nzele responded by speeding up the pace of the genocide, and as a kicker captured three American soldiers on patrol at the airport.

As this episode begins, we see those soldiers have been beaten and tortured by the Kundunese Army, placing enormous pressure on the Bartlet administration to do something about it. A rescue mission is quickly planned, with the operation set up at a base in Ghana. Once the rescue team has practiced and got the plan down, Bartlet orders them in, bringing on a tense hours-long waiting game. At last the word arrives - the rescue was successful, all three Marines are safe in American hands. But simultaneously, word arrives from the base in Ghana - attackers drove vehicles through the gates and exploded them, killing 17 US servicemembers. It's a stark reminder of the global realities in today's age. A few terrorists can spread death and destruction with no warning and few ways to defend against them, making even high-minded policies like protecting basic human rights and innocent lives dangerous.

Sorkin gives us the personal side of this as well, with the families of the captured Marines in the White House meeting with the President. This seems like a bad idea: I mean, on paper it's a good one, and having the President personally meet the family members and give them his support with a personal touch, that's great - but doing that while the rescue operation is actually going on? And leaving those people (including a three-year-old, for Pete's sake!) sitting around in the Mural Room for over four hours while you're down in the Situation Room doesn't seem plausible, or wise. To make things even more tense, the mother of one of the Marines is critical of the whole administration plan - why are we sending soldiers to other countries? Why is a President who never served in the military so eager to send troops into harm's way? Why aren't people who know what's going on telling us anything at all? We get no satisfactory answer to those questions. In fact, Sorkin doesn't even try.

To be fair, the car-bombing at the Red Haven base in Ghana is mostly being used to set up part of the dramatic arc over the end of the season, but it's also being used to tie in The West Wing universe with our own. The United States has been on edge since September 2001, seeing itself as a target of shadowy terrorist forces willing and able to strike almost anywhere at any time. While the specific events of September 11 didn't happen in the universe of the show, something like it must have, and that background fear and (somewhat justified) paranoia about where America stands in the world (particularly the Muslim world) have been a throbbing underlying theme throughout Seasons 3 and 4 - and Sorkin is using those emotions to help him build to another season-ending climax.

Okay, I've gone pretty deep with all this - surely there are other things happening in this episode? Well, there sure are. Let's start with those lovable goofballs Josh and Amy Gardner, who used to be a couple but then broke up when Josh made her lose her job in Posse Comitatus, later butting heads over Senator Stackhouse's efforts to get on the debate stage in The Red Mass.

Josh brushes off the First Lady's ... I don't know, Chief of Staff? Chancellor? Swordsman? Or just her nephew? ... in discussions over funds she wants earmarked for immunization education. Josh has traded that money away for something else, and Abbey's priorities are barely on Josh's radar. Leading to this visit to Josh's office:

"You're very stealthy, ma'am."

Josh breezily brushes off Abbey's concerns, telling her Max can't play at this level and Josh will continue to win every time, and Abbey needs to get a real Chief of Staff if she wants to get her priorities done. Abbey jets off to California to help campaign for Sam, whose financial situation is being guided by Amy (last seen encouraging Sam to step up and run in Process Stories). As Amy and Abbey chat about Josh's gloating foolhardiness after her speech, Amy steps in to protect her from an annoying supporter by gutting said supporter's motives:

Amy: "Ironically, I have a hunch that the First Lady could have been brought on board fair pay if she had been lobbied more, what's the word? More, you know ... professionally. Rather than being embarrassed in this morning's newspaper. Alana."

Which leads to this reaction from Abbey:

Amy: "You said, 'Save me.'"

Abbey: "I meant, walk me to the other side of the room or something."

But then Abbey has an idea. Maybe this is exactly the answer to Josh's preening, his power over all her priorities. Maybe Amy can shake things up in Abbey's corner.

Which leads to a funny discussion outside Josh's office. Donna is reading a fax from Amy to Josh about the financials of Sam's campaign, to which he is half listening to. Another staffer asks Josh why he approved shifting some $30 million in the HHS budget back to immunization education (which is, by the way, over twice as much as Abbey had asked for before). Once he realizes what's being talked about - no, he didn't approve it, but yes, there it is, and sure, he should have proofread and caught that change - he wants to pay attention to that fax.

Josh: "Read me the fax."

Donna (reading): "'...latter on promise of opposition to partial birth ban, Mrs. B says you're encouraging her to hire a new chief of staff, need Treasury breakdown of cap gains cut, First Lady took your advice, she just hired me.'"

Donna: "Well .. a whole new chapter begins."

The potential for dramatic romantic-comedy conflict between Josh and Amy, two former lovers now working together/at loggerheads for the First Family, seems ripe for some great storylines. Spoiler alert: this promising ground for future storylines gets unceremoniously tossed away by the new post-Sorkin show runners in Season 5.

Meanwhile, across the street in the OEOB, Will is abusing the interns, who are all he has left for a writing staff. It's late on Saturday night, and Will has been after Lauren, Lauren, Cassie, and Lauren to keep writing additional remarks for administration officials on the tax plan to be announced Tuesday. Trouble is, they've been at it for hours and they're hungry and exhausted.

Will doesn't care. Not only is he unimpressed with their efforts, he jolts them awake by dropping a huge book on the table.

Elsie tries to get Will to listen to reason and give these girls a break, which he reluctantly does - until Toby calls to let him know the tax plan announcement has been moved up and they need the remarks by Sunday night, not Tuesday morning.

After another "pep talk" and a lesson on tax brackets the next morning, Elsie gets on Will's case. His methods are counterproductive; mean, insulting, and insensitive to the fact these four unpaid interns are just as much thunderstruck by events as Will is.

Elsie: "Sputnik crashed down on your head overnight. You were concentrating on one speech, and suddenly you're deputy director, and the director's a continent away, and the speechwriting staff quit."

Will: "Because of me."

Elsie: "Because they're idiots! And the tax plan's out two days early, and you weren't here for the nine months before, so you're cramming it. And you're taking it all out on four defenseless interns who, by the way, think Sputnik's crashed down on their heads, too!" 

That knocks some sense into Will, who takes the writing efforts of the interns and polishes them into something eloquent, pointing out how they were able to write the words, he just painted the picture. As he tells them the terrorist attack in Ghana will take the tax plan off the table for a few days and they should go home, they instead spring into action on their own accord to help pull together remarks about that incident - they're not quite interns any more, they're pulling together as a real writing staff (although, admittedly - still unpaid).

This surprises Will, but Elsie knows what's what.

Will: "Elsie? I don't think they understood. They can go home."

Elsie: "They understood." 

(And despite the fact Elsie really saved the day with Will's browbeating of the interns, she's finished with the series, and now departs to Mandyville.)

Sam's tenure on the show draws to a close as the congressional special election nears. With Scott Holcomb given the boot for mismanaging the campaign, Toby takes over for the final week (once he gets out of jail for the "bar fight" he was involved in while defending Andy). Toby wants to work his magic, turning Sam away from the business interests Holcomb had him cozying up to and instead pivoting to progressive, Democratic interests. Like the environment, and preserving Orange County's national treasure beachfront:

A scene which results in a comically outrageous amount of sand in Toby's shoes:

"I've still got sand in my shoes from like six hours ago."

But even with Toby's magic touch (you know, the one we discovered in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen, Part I had never gotten any of his candidates elected), the die has been cast. Sam's down by 8 points with 10 undecided - it's impossible to get them all to break his way. He's going to lose, and he's "gonna lose huge," Toby tells him. To be honest, even in Process Stories when everyone was convincing him to keep his word to Horton Wilde's widow and take his place in the special election, the consensus was he had no chance in conservative, Republican Orange County, so this shouldn't come as a shock to Sam.

It does, though. So much so that he really, really needs a hug.

This is a nice scene between Toby and Sam, with Toby pledging his loyalty to his friend, wanting to be by his side and fighting even in a losing cause, and trying to help Sam build up his experience and his drive to follow up on his growing political ambitions. And it's pretty cool this takes place in the very same bar Sam decided to start this quixotic campaign, the bar in Laguna Beach (Game On) where Will and his team were building up to their unexpected election win. 

And Sorkin and director Alex Graves end the episode in a sort of tribute to Sam and the departure of Rob Lowe - two empty shot glasses, sitting on the bar, as Toby and Sam head out to face their fate.

A well-chosen final scene.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- Bid a fond farewell to Rob Lowe and his portrayal of Sam Seaborn. I'll rehash the situation - when the series began, Lowe was under the impression he was kind of "first among equals" with the cast: he appeared first in the credits, he was the very first cast member to appear in Pilot, and his salary was significantly higher than the others (with the exception of Martin Sheen, as the importance of President Bartlet rapidly grew). As the series continued into Season 3, however, Lowe felt Sam's storylines were becoming less important and more separated from the overall thread of the show (he was sent off to work on things alone like the elimination of the penny in War Crimes or how the poverty rate was determined in The Indians In The Lobby). Sorkin was honest about finding it tough to write good stories for Sam. In addition, all of the other main cast members received a big salary boost after Season 2, with most of them doubling their pay to almost match Lowe's. With Lowe feeling a lack of respect in the pay area and a feeling that his promised role wasn't playing out as he expected, he decided it was time to leave the series. Sorkin planted the seeds of Sam's departure at the beginning of Season 4, in 20 Hours In America, when Sam had to staff the President while Josh, Toby, and Donna were stranded in Indiana. Sam found an appreciation for the political leadership role, rather than his speechwriting/communications post, which led to his agreeing to step up and run in the California 47th special election - a move which helps ease Sam out of the White House and away from the show.

Sam does return for a few episodes at the end of Season 7, but for now - that's it for Mr. Seaborn. He's going to stay in California for a while and settle down. 

The last shot of Sam ... for a couple of years, anyway.

- Speaking of farewells, this is also the end for Danica McKellar's Elsie Snuffin. Will's half-sister came along with him to the White House for his temporary gig helping with the Inaugural Address, then shifting over to help write for the First Lady. After serving as a buffer in this episode between "very sweet hard-ass" Will and his inexperienced team of interns, she's apparently fulfilled her purpose and is never seen again. 

The last we see of Elsie before she heads off to Mandyland.

- Again, this timeline doesn't really make sense from what we've been told before, and there's absolutely no excuse for things like this when Aaron Sorkin can write whatever dates he wants in his scripts! In Game On Will tells Sam under California law a special election to replace the deceased Horton Wilde will happen "no more than 90 days" after the election. The election was November 5 (that's been confirmed by the President himself in College Kids when he asks CJ, "Look, win or lose on the 5th, I'm the President right now, right?"). Ninety days after that would be February 3rd. The events of these last two episodes happen over a weekend in February, which could only be the 1st and 2nd under these restrictions (and February 1 and 2 were indeed a weekend in 2003). But the election isn't the next day, it's still a week away. That means more than 90 days between elections, which seems to be in conflict with California law, so ... fraud! Call out the auditors! Check the ballots for bamboo!

- The timeline for Josh/Amy/Abbey and the immunization money also seems weird. Josh asked Donna to proofread the proposed HHS budget on Air Force One, flying back to DC on Saturday night - so he had the proposed budget in his hands then. His dismissal of Max and his meeting with Abbey gloating about his victory over her priorities had to be Sunday morning. Abbey then flew to California, gave her speech, saw Amy verbally gut Alana Waterman, and then hire her as chief of staff over the course of the day on Sunday. So when Josh learns of the shuffling of funds to pay for Abbey’s program, it would have to be Sunday evening. How would Donna’s proofreading of the budget Saturday night/Sunday morning possibly have been able to catch Amy’s shenanigans that didn’t happen until Sunday afternoon? Huh?

- Will's reference to the minimum wage being $5.15 an hour is correct for 2003; the federal minimum wage was set at that amount in 1997 and remained there until being raised to $5.85 in 2007 (at the time of this writing in 2021, it's $7.25).

- Why was CJ left behind in California when the rest of the traveling party (save jailbirds Toby and Charlie) headed back to Washington? Think about this for a moment - in The Long Goodbye CJ cuts short her visit home to her high school reunion because of bombings at American embassies overseas, because the press office simply can't run without her. In this episode, the President cuts short a campaign trip because American Marines have been captured in Africa, with a rescue mission almost certain to be sent in ... and that's not enough to get CJ back to the White House? When she appeared out of nowhere on the beach with Toby and Sam I immediately thought, "Hey, wait, why isn't she back in DC with everybody else?"

(On the other hand, The Long Goodbye appears to be out of chronological order, as CJ tells her dad it's February as they're fishing in the river. If this episode is set the first weekend of February, then The Long Goodbye hasn't happened yet, so maybe CJ learned from this episode that she needed to rush back in that one ... but why wasn't Will around to help Toby out in The Long Goodbye? Okay, now my head hurts.)

- Here's another point why I think this current string of episodes isn't exactly the strongest: Sorkin sets us up for a brilliant explanation of the Bartlet Doctrine, gets us ready for a stirring, high-minded monologue on the moral imperative for American force protecting human rights anywhere on the globe. He does this by bringing in a strident, unaware ("they have TV?"), conservative-leaning voice in Mrs. Rowe, mother of one of the captured Marines. She confronts Leo, and later Debbie, about the overall purpose of sending American soldiers to Africa.

Mrs. Rowe: "Can you tell us this? Why were these boys sent to a place I've never heard of? And to kill people I've never heard of?"

Debbie: "That's a complicated question."

Mrs. Rowe: "I'm a smart lady."

But that's the end of it! The question is left hanging there when Leo comes in to announce the Marines have been rescued. Not even when Rowe pushes Leo to tell them about the lives lost in Ghana as a result of the operation is the topic of Americans protecting the rights of others overseas discussed. Sorkin just ... leaves it. He blew a big opportunity, I think, and while he already had an eloquent speech on the subject from President Bartlet in Inauguration: Over There, I'm not sure why he broached the topic here just to let it ... fizzle. (Don't get me started on how the show runners that take over the series in Seasons 5 through 7 just ignore the fact that the Bartlet Doctrine ever existed.) 

- I'm impressed by some of the tight close ups we see in this episode. Real close ups aren't common in The West Wing, so when we see them, they have real impact. This one struck me, right after President Bartlet gives the order to go ahead with Task Force Dawn Sky. 

- This probably isn't fair to Rob Lowe, but it's his last appearance for a while, so why the heck not. Plus I've mentioned his hair before (remember how the part in his hair changed from one side to the other between What Kind Of Day Has It Been and In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part I ... which was supposed to all be the same night?).

There's a continuity issue with his hair, in the final scene in the bar. After the hug, as Sam says, "We should get back to work," we see his hair perfectly coiffed - I mean, it's Rob Lowe, we wouldn't expect anything less, right?

Toby offers a toast to the President and Sam, and as they down their shots, Sam's hair is now raffishly hanging over his forehead.

They set the glasses on the bar, and as they stand up to leave - Sam's hair is perfect again!

Quotes 

Toby (on phone with Josh as he and Charlie are being released from jail): "By the way, you know what they don't tell you? You can post bond with a credit card."

Charlie (to police officer): "Yo, man, that's totally wack!"

Toby (to Josh): "Yeah. Charlie's trying to throw down with the street. It's kind of a sad sight to see."

Charlie (to police officer): "I've got American Express. I've got Visa. I could've posted bond and gotten miles, damn it."  

-----

Sam: "How'd you call Josh?"

Toby: "What do you mean?"

Sam: "Didn't they take your cell phone from you?"

Toby (motioning toward call girls): "I borrowed theirs."

Sam: "So on a call girl's phone bill, there's going to be a call to Air Force One?"

Toby: "You're really going to be teaching the seminar on call girl caution? Really?" 

-----

Toby (on phone): "Charlie and I got arrested."

Will: "Yeah, I saw it on the news."

Toby: "It made the news out there?"

Will: "A Jewish guy won a bar fight, it's news everywhere." 

-----

 CJ: "You should tell her not to talk about the House vote."

Charlie: "You want me to tell Mrs. Bartlet she's gonna look like a dilettante?"

CJ: "I once had to tell the President he was wearing two different shoes."

Charlie: "That's roughly the same."

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

• Hey, it's Ivan Allen, the go-to on-screen news anchor for plenty of TV series! He was first seen on The West Wing in A Proportional Response, introducing the President's address to the nation announcing airstrikes on Syria. He has appeared in several episodes since, usually with the name Roger Salier attached. While he first was onscreen with the fictional CND cable network, he once was seen as a reporter for a local TV channel (The White House Pro-Am). After that, his screen appearances usually had no network or TV channel logo, but now we find he's found a job with the very real MSNBC. 

 

• Martha Rowe, mother of one of the Marines captured in Kundu, is played by Carrie Snodgress (Diary Of A Mad Housewife, Pale Rider, Blue Sky, and the longtime romantic partner of musician Neil Young).

 

• Alana Waterman, author of the op-ed who bears the brunt of Amy's "saving" of Abbey, is played by the familiar character actress Lee Garlington (Everwood, Medium, Sneakers, a memorable scene at a school parent meeting where she's insulted by Amy Madigan in Field Of Dreams).

• There's a quick shot of Nancy through a window on Air Force One, telling the President that Leo is on the phone. Nancy is played by Renee Estevez, Martin Sheen's daughter.

 

• Toby's wisecrack to Sam about teaching the seminar on call-girl caution is a callback to Sam's relationship with Laurie, the law student/call-girl, that was a big part of Season 1 (right from the very first scene of the series in Pilot).

• We discover Amy is working with Sam on the financials for his campaign, which is something she talked about doing while encouraging him to run in Process Stories.

• While we're never told exactly what Max's role is for the First Lady (besides being her nephew, of course), we kind of assume he's acting as her Chief of Staff (Josh tells Abbey, "You need a Chief of Staff, a real one"). Well, I think we already met Abbey's Chief of Staff earlier, and it was a very capable Lilli Mays in The White House Pro-Am. So ... where did Lilli go?

• Abbey's surprising reveal in Josh's doorway reminds me a bit of her being wheeled into his office in The Women Of Qumar (Josh to Donna: "Could I go five minutes without being interrupted by banality?" Abbey, appearing in the doorway: "It's not banality, it's the boss’s wife").

• Will's smashing of the glass between his office and Toby's ... well, the only reason there's fresh new glass in the window is because Will broke the old glass by throwing something at it in Inauguration: Over There.

• Abbey asks Amy, "How did you live with Josh Lyman?" which is a reminder of when Amy and Josh were a couple (from Dead Irish Writers until the events of Posse Comitatus, when Josh got Amy fired from her job as a result of pushing through a welfare reform bill).

• Mrs. Rowe's catty comment about "The Bartlet people aren't ones for joining the service" relates to the fact the President hadn't served in the military, a point Jed brought up himself in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc." She also goes after Leo, who responds with his experience in the 355th Tactical Fighter Wing in Vietnam (a plot point in War Crimes).

• The bar where Toby and Sam have a quick drink and discuss getting creamed is the very same bar in Laguna Beach from Game On where Sam talked to Will and he decided to go ahead with his promise to run in Horton Wilde's place.

The bar as Sam enters, with Toby trailing behind

The bar in Game On, with Will just before Sam enters

 

DC location shots    

• None, but several in southern California, where most of the series was actually shot anyway.

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

• The MSNBC network is starting to be used as an in-universe TV news source a bit more by the show runners, a reasonable thing to do on an NBC show.

 

• Toby calls Charlie "Hurricane" as the two leave the police station, a reference to Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongfully convicted of murder who served 20 years in prison before his release in 1985.

• Sam mentions Disneyland, which is in Orange County and conceivably part of the 47th congressional district.

• Josh calls Donna "Trotsky" in a reference to her meeting a member of the Communist Party on their trip to California ("Because you sent me there," she retorts).

• Will's interns are still wearing the Washington Redskins jerseys he used to tell them apart (handed out in The California 47th). I mean, it makes sense, since the events of late Saturday night we see here follow the Saturday morning when Will handed the jerseys out. In addition, Cassie looks to have a can of Diet Cherry Coke (I think that's what it is, with the wild late 1990s/early-2000s "punk rock" design they used).

 

• Will says his interns will use their White House experience to get jobs at Condé Nast (a publishing company that happens to publish Vogue, a magazine Will also references) and HBO (the cable entertainment channel), or at least marry executives at Condé Nast and HBO. He also calls them "the Ronettes," a girl group from the 1950s and 60s.

• There's bottles of Deer Park brand water on the table in the Roosevelt Room where Josh is meeting with the other staffers.

 

• President Lincoln gets a shoutout from Will, saying the concept of a progressive tax rate has been around since his presidency (which is true, although Lincoln's tax was found unconstitutional in 1872). It took the 16th Amendment in 1909 to make income taxes constitutional.

• Josh has a Starbucks cup on his desk when Abbey comes in to complain about the immunization education funding.

• Sam compares Toby to Charlie McCarthy, whereupon Toby reminds him he's actually be Edgar Bergen.

• The world's first artificial satellite is brought up by Elsie as she compares the reactions of Will and the interns to the ongoing events as "Sputnik crashed down on your head overnight." 

• When Toby dumps the beach sand out of his shoes in the hotel room, CJ sings "Sand in my shoes, sand from Havana" from Bobby Short's song Sand In My Shoes.

• That fictional KKOC TV station we saw in The California 47th is still on the TV in the hotel room.

 

• CJ, trying to convince Charlie to stop Abbey from talking about the nutrition assistance program, says, "When she talks about poor women wearing a $4000 Krizia dress, she looks like Marie Antoinette."

• Sam has a hard time believing he's supposed to talk about "Charles Darwin-omics" to the Chamber of Commerce.

• John Rawls, who came up with the "veil of ignorance" that Will tells the interns about, is a real philosopher (who called that thought experiment "original position.")

End credits freeze frame: The President meeting with the family members of the captured Marines.

Previous episode: The California 47th

Next episode: Privateers