Here Today - TWW S7E5

Original airdate: October 23, 2005

Written by: Peter Noah (6) 

Directed by: Alex Graves (28)

Synopsis

• A long Saturday night sees Toby facing the music after his confession; the assassination in Kazakhstan leading to a potential global conflict; Jed and Abbey with conflicting emotions over Ellie's engagement; and a staff shakeup in the Santos campaign.
  

"Is it possible to be astonished and, at the same time, not surprised?" 

The penny has dropped. The shadows have fallen, the chips have been laid down, and it's time for Toby to face the music after his stunning admission to leaking classified information on the military space shuttle to the New York Times. It makes for a rather gripping episode, made so much better by the incredible direction and framing choices made by Alex Graves. This episode just looks great, all the visual choices are so intentional and fit the mood perfectly. It almost seems like too much to have lighter subplots like Ellie's engagement or Josh shaking up the Santos staff included along with the overwhelming weight of Toby's fate (and possibly the fate of the world), but as we've seen many, many times before, the world of politics and government doesn't stop just because something important is happening.

 

We actually begin before the previous episode even comes to its end; we are thrown back to the start of the final scene of Mr. Frost, with Toby coming into CJ's office as she bustles about, distracting herself from her upcoming appearance before Congress and her being the target of the leak investigation by offering to split a bottle of champagne with Toby ... and it's so much more laden with dread for us, the viewers, because we know what's coming. 

We get to that moment, that confession, and instantly we see the news fall on CJ like a thunderbolt. Perhaps her dearest friend, the one who brought her into the Bartlet campaign in the first place, the one she joked with and flirted with and created communications policy with for years, one of the people she truly trusted ... is now admitting not only to betraying government secrets, but also to leaving her to twist in the wind for months. She tries to be professional, cutting Toby off when he tries to explain - "We really can't have any further conversation without counsel present," she tells him - but her face can't deny what she's feeling inside, as we see a tear roll down her cheek.

We get a full minute of silence then, sixty seconds of uncomfortable tension, before someone arrives from the White House Counsel's office. And then we are off. Toby is marched into the Roosevelt Room, told to sit there quietly and speak to no one while Mike handles the securing of his office. He curtly dimisses Ed and Larry when they poke their heads in ... but he can't resist taking the opportunity to call his lawyer and tell her voice mail what's going on.

Oliver Babish starts his questioning, from the point of view of protecting the President and White House, with Toby seeming merely an afterthought in the process. Toby seems okay with that, he knows what he did, he knows why he did it, and he says he's ready to take the consequences - but he did call his lawyer. And when she arrives, she gives Toby an ultimatum: he either stops answering Babish's questions, or she's not going to be his lawyer on this case. This doesn't please Babish, but it does give Toby a little something to be thankful for.

Toby (struggling with himself, considering, then finally): "I decline to answer on the advice of counsel."

Babish (pause, then curtly): "Please wait here."

(Babish and Alana trade looks as he exits the room)

Toby: "Well, you certainly earned your fee today."

Alana: "I'm deeply gratified that you decided to heed my guidance."

Toby: "No, I just meant it was the first time tonight he used the word 'please.'"

In the midst of all this, with only a few people privy to what's going on, we get a humorous little moment attached to the clearing of Toby's office. Kate and Margaret are walking by the Communications bullpen (remember, Margaret just finished up her testimony before the Senate committee in the leak investigation a few hours before):

Margaret: "When's your turn?"

Kate: "With the committee? Supposedly Friday, but if they took all day with you ..."

Margaret: "I'm really looking forward to things getting back to normal around here."

And then they stop.

 

Yeah, "back to normal" isn't very likely.

Toby is in it, up to his neck. And it doesn't get any better once it's time to inform the President. After CJ and Babish give Bartlet the news, and their recommendation for Toby's immediate dismissal, the President insists he needs to do it himself. And once Toby is ushered into the Oval Office, it goes extraordinarily badly for him.

Toby: "I was hoping we would be able to speak in private."

President: "Your actions have pretty much made that impossible. I haven't had much time to absorb this news, so I'll apologize in advance if I express any half-formed thoughts. But the one thought that hits the hardest is that this was somehow inevitable; that you've always been heading for this sort of crash-and-burn. That self-righteous superiority - not that you were smarter than everyone; that you were purer, morally superior."

Toby: "Due respect, sir, I don't think I'm morally superior to everyone."

President: "No. Just to me."

Toby offers to resign, but the President refuses; he has to fire him. And with his final words as Toby is heading out the door, a little twist of the knife:

President: "When you walk out of here, there'll be people out there, perhaps a great many, who'll think of you as a hero. I just don't for a moment want you thinking I'll be one of them."

 

And then we see a shaky, tearful CJ, going to the office of the Vice President's Chief of Staff, offering - "well, not so much offering as dragooning" - Will Bailey to take over as Communications Director. An unexpected way to bring Will back into the West Wing after he abandoned Toby to work for VP Russell in Constituency Of One, but almost full-circle, as he ends up in the same office he started in back in Holy Night. 

 

While Toby is waiting for his escort out of the building, there is a nice little moment with Babish, who hasn't been treating Toby with a lot of kindness or compassion throughout the evening. But it's only Oliver among everyone who speaks to Toby this night who thinks about his contributions to this President and this country over the years.

Babish: "Rough in there."

Toby: "To be expected."

Babish: "I thought he'd thank you for your service."

Toby: "He's angry."

(pause)

Babish: "Someone should thank you for your service."

And then Toby is marched out of the White House, accompanied by a Secret Service agent, taken through the halls and past the offices and down the lobby and out the doors to a waiting car - all as President Bartlet speaks to the nation on TV to announce Toby's betrayal of national secrets and his dismissal. Toby Ziegler, a guy who was there in New Hampshire at the start, a guy who'd finally gotten that gold ring of leading a winning campaign after years of losing, a part of a team of dedicated public servants who've served this administration so long and so well - he will never again set foot in this building.

Yeah, that's a hell of a storyline. But guess what - there's more!

Let's stick with another somber, long-lived plot going on here this Saturday night. In Message Of The Week, Arnold Vinick's designated CIA/NSA intelligence briefer Charles Frost brought word of a "situation in Kazakhstan." His briefing was so long-winded and so weird that Vinick asked to be assigned a different intelligence briefer. In Mr. Frost Frost incessantly pestered CJ via phone, and when she wouldn't respond he finally just showed up in her office to tell her his wild conspiracy theory that the assassination of Palestinian Chairman Farad in East Jerusalem was just the first in a line of assassinations that would eventually involve the President of Kazakhstan and the regional vice president of an international oil company. After CJ threw him out of her office, she later discovered his prediction of the Kazakhstan assassination had actually come true, and maybe there is something to his bizarre theory.

So now the fallout of that event plays out in and around the Situation Room. Frost is still intent on getting access to, if not the President, at least the military bigwigs inside, but Kate is not about to let a wild card like him into the room. The theories start to come together - Kazakhstan under President Isatov was starting to pull away from Russia and make some oil deals with the Chinese; getting Isatov out of the way results in a former Soviet-connected politician taking over, which means Russia might have a vested interest in that assassination; and the big issue at play is, of course, oil reserves in Kazakhstan (hence Frost's mention of a Unocal executive being the next target). What seemed like minor, run-of-the-mill unrest in Central Asia is starting to look like the trigger to a widespread conflict, perhaps even a global one - and it does highlight Frost's rather eccentric creepiness:

Frost: "All right, your theory; what is it? Tell me."

Kate: "It's a pretty scary scenario, actually. It leads to Russia and China on the brink of confrontation; two neighboring nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, poised to take sides; Japan and the United States being drawn in against their will. It's your basic horror show, World War III nightmare."

Frost (with just the hint of a smile): "Very cool. You want to grab coffee?'

Also we have a little Bartlet family drama. As Jed and Abbey head back to the residence after the Kennedy Center board event we saw in the previous episode, they have a talk about their upcoming meeting with their daughter Ellie and her fiance, a researcher who studies fruit flies (remember, Ellie was in medical school at Johns Hopkins doing research on an HPV vaccine when we last saw her in Eppur si Muove). After a rather odd conversation where the parents discuss their daughter's sexual preference:

Abbey: "Are you ...?"

Jed: "A little, how about you?"

Abbey: "Astonished, actually."

Jed: "Why? Did you and she never discuss --"

Abbey: "Oh, no. There are some things that are outside even the mother-daughter bond, at least for us. Did you and she ...?"

Jed: "We always adhered to a strict 'don't ask, don't tell' policy; clung to it, actually."

Abbey: "She is one's daughter. And she wants her to be happy in whatever."

Jed: "Of course, true to herself."

Abbey: "There's nothing wrong with that inclination."

Jed: "Nothing, whatsoever."

Abbey: "But God Herself strike me dead, it is not to be denied that I am not unhappy that my daughter is straight after all."

Jed: "At least straight enough to be marrying the fruit fly guy."

... they have a pleasant meeting with Ellie and her beau, Vic, who seems excessively nervous, even for a man who's intending to marry the daughter of the President of the United States. As they discuss wedding plans (Jed thinks a Christmas wedding at the White House would be terrific, although Abbey wonders if maybe it would be better to wait until after he leaves office), Ellie drops a little bombshell:

Ellie: "Where, at the moment, is the less pressing concern.There's another consideration that may need to take precedence as far as scheduling goes."

(Jed and Abbey look at her, trying to comprehend)

Ellie: "And ... why we ... might not want to ... wait."

So there's another Bartlet grandchild on the way, which means that wedding probably ought to come sooner rather than later, and also explains why Vic is so uncomfortable in front of the President and First Lady. I love this little moment after the President is called away (to get the news from CJ and Babish), where Doctor Abbey takes the champagne flute away from Ellie:

And then, outside all these things happening in the White House, we get a look into some trouble in the Santos campaign. The tracking polls have Matt stubbornly stuck nine points behind Vinick, which was good coming out of the conventions, but several weeks later is not so good. (As viewers we do remember Message Of The Week, where Matt started to close the gap to around five points, but Vinick's pivot to border/immigration issues ended up taking the lead back to a 10-12 point edge ... which doesn't seem to match the plot point of nine points being a steady margin that they can't seem to overcome, let alone Matt's education/religion pivot in Mr. Frost that ought to have brought him a nice bounce, but ... yeah, let's just accept this nine-point thing and move on.) Anyway, Lou is convinced there are too many young, unaccomplished staffers around who don't have the moxie for a national presidential campaign, and she thinks things need to be shaken up, by firing a few dozen members of the longer-term Santos team and bringing in some more knowledgeable Democratic operatives.

Chief among Lou's targets is Ned, who we first saw working alongside Ronna in Matt's congressional office in Liftoff. In the previous episode there was a little moment where Lou called Ned "Ted," and when Josh corrected her she said, "I don't like his head." In this episode the two clash a couple of more times, making it clear that Lou really doesn't believe he's cut out for this kind of campaign. So, Josh agrees, takes the firing/hiring plan to Matt, who also goes along (although Helen is not as happy with it), and then takes care of making the changes.

Which naturally, ticks off Ned.

Ned: "You know, you can fire as many of us grunts as you want, but if you want to know why this campaign is floundering, look in the mirror."

So, just a subplot to show us the ruthlessness of modern day campaigns and the efforts to break out of the August doldrums ... but it does give us yet another example of the incredible chemistry between Matt and Helen/Jimmy Smits and Teri Polo. I love those two together, with their risqué little exchanges, and this moment when Helen is trying to convince Matt to watch a movie together with her is a great example.

Helen: "Come on, the headphone thing should be a plus. You hate it when I get loud."

Matt: "You're just going to get louder. You're not going to fool me."

Helen (flirtatiously): "I thought you liked it when I got loud."

 

Matt: "In this, as in all things, context is king."

The hubris of the "morally pure," the contentment of a seemingly calm future, and the refusal to settle for the satisfaction of "good enough" all come to fall in this episode, from Ned to the Bartlet family to the situation in Central Asia to, of course, the biggest and hardest fall of all - Toby.

 

Tales Of Interest!

Things Fall Apart timeline: Night of August 26 into August 27, 2006

The Ticket timeline: Night of August 19 into August 20, 2006

 

- I have to apologize, big-time, for a mistake I've made in complaining about how the writers have screwed up the timeline since The Mommy Problem. I know I've ranted quite a bit about that issue, and probably showed off a little of that "self-righteous superiority" that President Bartlet accuses Toby of, so this is more than a little humbling.

 

Anyway, I misheard Josh's line in The Mommy Problem about the letter calling Matt up for his Marine Reserve training. I thought he said "in two days, the Tuesday after Labor Day" - he apparently said "for two days, the Tuesday after Labor Day." So my projected calendar assuming events were happening in September and complaining about how that didn't align with the other dates we've been given was, and I don't say this lightly, absolutely wrong.

 

Which isn't to say everything is fine and hunky-dory with the timeline the writers are giving us, that isn't true ... but man, I was so very, very wrong about that September thing. If any of the writers are looking at this blog (yeah, sure, it's got a wide reach in the Hollywood TV scriptwriting community, lol), I do personally apologize to you.

 

- So, let's get to the brass tacks of timelines. This episode is clearly set in "still the middle of August," as Josh says to Lou. Let's go back to Things Fall Apart and Leo's whiteboard counting down the days of the Bartlet administration, which will come to a close on January 20, 2007.

- In that episode the whiteboard reads "178." That would mean it was July 26, 2006 (178 days until January 20), with the Republican National Convention going on that week (July 24-27, most likely).

- That would make 2162 Votes, the following episode with the Democratic National Convention, occurring the following week, July 31 through August 3.

- In the next episode, The Ticket, as Matt and Leo hit the campaign trail hard, we hear references to being four days after that convention, which makes the two days we see there August 7 and 8.

- Then comes The Mommy Problem, where we hear Josh say they thought they were all unemployed "twelve days ago" (before the convention started) and the convention being eight days ago. That would place us over the weekend of August 12 and 13, with Matt's (hurriedly rescheduled) Reserve training being sometime that week of August 13.

- Message Of The Week happens over a Monday and Tuesday after that Reserve training, so that's August 21 and 22; Mr. Frost is the following Friday and Saturday, so August 25 and 26; with this episode running into the overnight hours of August 26.

So, it's a bit generous to say August 26 is "the middle of August," but that can fit - as long as we're using Leo's whiteboard as our starting point.

But let's also remember the writers are including countdowns of days until the election on the screen for us.

- The Ticket says it's 105 days until the election; with Election Day 2006 being on November 7, that would mean it's July 25 ... which is before the date indicated on Leo's whiteboard three episodes prior in Things Fall Apart.

- The Mommy Problem tells us it's 101 and 100 days before the election, which would be July 29 and 30 - putting the Democratic convention around July 18-21, again far off the Leo whiteboard timeline.

 

- Message Of The Week doesn't give us any definite calendar signposts, except it's a Monday and Tuesday and Matt's Reserve training is still fresh ... so that would probably be August 7 and 8.

- And in Mr. Frost we get a caption saying it's 82 days until election day, which would be August 17 (which was a Thursday, not a Friday in 2006). That makes it a week and a half since Message Of The Week, yet the Santos staffers are still whining about Vinick hitting them on border issues (which he started in that episode), and while that's possible, I dunno.

 

So ... yeah. Still not ideal, and still an easy fix that they refused to make (if the writers just made their countdowns agree, it's not hard, they just have to add). Me, I think I'm going to stick with Leo's "178" days signpost as the starting point, and then all the dates agree to make this episode late on Saturday, August 26. Or we have to ignore Leo's math skills and assume he had a totally wrong number on his board in Things Fall Apart, which means the Republican convention must have been the week of July 10-13, the Democratic convention July 17-20, Matt's Reserve training the first days of August, Vinick's immigration/border gambit the second week of August, and Matt's religion/education appearances, Toby's confession, and Ned's firing coming about 10 days later.

Just as an aside, holding the convention in mid-July, as the onscreen Election Day countdown would lead us to believe, doesn’t fit with recent reality. The 2004 Democratic convention was held in late July, but every other convention between 1996 and 2012 was in August or even September (while 2016’s event was indeed the last week of July). A July 31-August 3 gathering seems much more realistic than a July 17-20 convention. 

 

- Just a weird catch-up thing that has absolutely no bearing to this episode at all, but I caught it a few days ago and don't want to forget. In 2162 Votes the 2006 Democratic convention is being held in San Diego. During the 2002 campaign episodes in Season 3, in The Black Vera Wang, Toby says the two party conventions will be held in New York and … San Diego. And of course, the single debate between Bartlet and Ritchie in Game On was held in, you guessed it, San Diego. What is it with this show and San Diego? Would the same city host national conventions in back-to-back presidential elections?

 

- In Message Of The Week the tracking polls had Santos catching up to Vinick, getting within five points and leading in a few unexpected states. Vinick's pivot to border issues reversed that trend, though, knocking Matt back to 10-12 points down. In Mr. Frost Matt seemed to really make some waves with his intelligent design/separation of church and state/defense of the First Amendment approach, and one of his staffers said something about seeing some movement in the polls. Now we discover the polls are stuck at 9 points behind Vinick, and they have been for a while (perhaps even since coming out of the convention in The Ticket, which was about three weeks prior). This is literally the same/next day as Mr. Frost.

- Alex Graves does some outstanding work in shot composition and just how this entire episode looks. I'm a huge fan of this one - Graves creates an oddly unnerving sense of unease, of characters being distant and separated from one another, of secrets and hidden agendas ... all just by how he composes shots in the frame and how he reveals characters to us (or not reveal - there's several shots where we are looking at a character listen to someone else talking off the screen). It's terrific work.

Tight on Toby, Mike's feet out of focus as Mike and CJ talk

The shot of Kate, as Sec. Hutchinson & Rollie argue offscreen

Frost seen only in reflection, Kate's back to us

Slattery's head in the way of this Sit Room shot

Frost and Kate seen only in reflections and on a TV screen

Kate, off-center on screen talking to an unseen CJ

The President getting the news about Toby, seen through a window

That last shot reminds me of Leo telling the President the news of Mrs. Landingham's death in 18th And Potomac - also shot through the wavy glass of the Oval Office windows, no sound, just us being separated from the immediacy of what's happening and how striking, uncomfortable news is being received.

- I talked about Richard Schiff's discontent with Toby's classified secrets leaker storyline in my last blog entry, and mentioned one of the reasons for tagging Toby with the felony was to cut down on his episodes towards the end of the series. There are 17 episodes yet to come for The West Wing ... and after being walked out of the White House in this one Toby is only in seven of them. 

- Yes, I know, waiting around for things to happen in what would be real time would be horrible television - but how about Mike getting from the counsel's office to CJ's office in one minute flat from her making the call? That is some good traveling time!

 

- We get one look at Gail's fishbowl early, but as it's literally an extension of the same scene that ended Mr. Frost, it's no surprise that the bowl looks the same (filled with icy frost).

 

- Why'd They Come Up With Here Today?

About all I can think of is the saying, "Here today, gone tomorrow" - which obviously fits in with Toby's situation as he's being walked out of the West Wing.

Quotes    

Mike: "I'll need the key to your office."

(Toby starts walking toward the door)

Mike: "Where are you going?"

Toby: "The key's on my desk."

Mike: "I'll have to ask you to accompany me to the Roosevelt Room. You'll need to wait there quietly while I retrieve your key, lock your office, and post a uniformed Secret Service agent at the door. That needs to happen right now."

----- 

Frost: "Whom will I be addressing in the Sit Room?"

Kate: "That would be no one. You're not going in the Sit Room. You're going to tell me what you have to say, then I'm going in. But first, you can't stalk the White House Chief of Staff."

Frost: "She wouldn't return my calls."

Kate: "She's a little busy helping to run the free world. I doubt she calls her mother back."

Frost: "Her mother is dead and her father's Alzheimers' so bad, he'd have no idea whether she called or not."

Kate: "Do you try to come off this creepy? Cause I've got to tell you, as a strategy for getting people to like you, it leaves a bit to be desired."

-----

Margaret: "I reached Oliver Babish, he says you owe him a raspberry panna cotta cheesecake."

CJ: "He'll live."

Margaret: "Longer, probably."

-----

Lou: "What's wrong with the word 'vigorous'?"

Josh: "It sounds like we're taking a shot at Bartlet."

Lou: "We're not running against Bartlet, we're running against a Methuselah Republican."

Josh: "'Vigorous' isn't the opposite of old, it's the opposite of ... vigor, less ... ness. It's going to come off like we're referencing the MS."

Lou: "That's a win-win in my book."

Josh: "Arnold Vinick isn't some broken-down feeb doddering from one campaign stop to the next, he's got more energy than I do."

Lou: "He is inconveniently spry."

Josh: "Use that."

Lou: "What?"

Josh: "Spry. It's a word that's only used to describe old people. Ever hear of anyone under the age of 70 who's ever been called spry?"

-----

Toby: "I really appreciate your concern but I am taking full responsibility and I am prepared and ready to face the consequences."

Alana: "Well, that's very noble and very stupid."

Toby: "Thank you."

----- 

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

CJ: "What will the Chinese do?"

Kate: "That's the question."

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

Kate: "Over oil."

Hutchinson: "With 900 US Marines stuck right in the middle."

-----

Alana: "Why'd you do it?"

Toby: "To save lives."

Alana: "Your brother was an astronaut."

Toby: "Astronauts' lives in the short term, start a discussion about whether we want to extend mankind's capacity for warfare into the heavens."

Alana: "The weaponization of space."

Toby: "I believe in an open society. You debate these things in the light of day. That's what's supposed to happen in a democracy."

 

 

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

• The attorney from the White House Counsel's office, Mike Wayne, was first seen in Privateers helping Toby and Josh try to deal with the fallout of Burt Gantz' admission of his company lying about pollution, and also appeared in Han discussing the potential defection of the North Korean pianist. He's played by Benjamin Brown (Liar Liar, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, a couple of episodes of ER as part of that ER/West Wing pipeline).

• The older background actor fellow with the short buzz-cut hair who passes by in the background of many, many episodes is seen again.

• The middle Bartlet daughter, Ellie (Nina Siemaszko), is back, and this time she's engaged! And pregnant, apparently. Ellie's fiancé, Vic Faison "the fruit fly guy," is played by Ben Weber (Twister, Sex And The City, The Secret Life Of The American Teenager).

• We've actually seen Toby's attorney Alana Waterman (Lee Garlington from Sneakers, Dante's Peak, Everwood, many, many TV series appearances) before! In Red Haven's On Fire, after Abbey's speech in support of Sam's House campaign, she is approached by a woman wanting to talk about her op-ed on fair pay. Abbey asks Amy to save her, and she does by zinging the woman so hard she has to walk away. That was Alana! And now she's Toby's lawyer ... talk about a deep cut callback.
  

 

Alana from Red Haven's On Fire

• Check it out, Ed and Larry!

• We haven't seen CIA director George Rollie (Ryan Cutrona) since Ninety Miles Away. He's been a subject of criticism from the President and his staff ever since his first appearance in Lord John Marbury, but somehow he's survived all that to stay CIA director throughout both terms.

• Nancy (Renée Estevez) shows up again, but as part of Alex Graves' masterful and creative direction of this episode, we only see her from behind.

• Will Bailey is back ... we see him working as the Vice President's chief of staff as CJ enlists him to be the new White House Communications Director. Will, of course, came to the White House to help Toby with the second inaugural address (Arctic Radar), left the West Wing to run VP Russell's presidential campaign (Constituency Of One), and we haven't seen him around since the convention (2162 Votes) where Russell lost the nomination to Matt Santos.

• The Secret Service agent walking Toby out of the White House is Donnie (Bradley James), who's been around since Season 1 but hasn't been seen since The Benign Prerogative. Donnie was one of the primary Secret Service agents we saw in the early seasons (including the one who called in the medical emergency when President Bartlet collapsed in He Shall, From Time To Time ...). 

• Margaret and CJ have discussions about a call to Jerusalem about Farad's funeral and about Margaret's testimony to Congress, storylines from the previous episode. Abbey and Jed also have a short conversation about the funeral ("Isn't that what Vice Presidents are for?").
  

• Speaking of Farad, Frost made it clear to CJ in Mr. Frost that his assassination was the first in a linked series of three, with the President of Kazakhstan and the Unocal executive being the next two. Isatov's assassination is the one that's concerning the administration here, with the connections to oil agreements leading to a potential conflict between Russia and China ... but it's left completely unanswered as to why Farad's assassination had anything to do with this angle.
  

• President Bartlet's multiple sclerosis is referenced, a disease we first learned about in He Shall, From Time To Time ... and that has been an important plot point ever since.
  

• Frost creepily brings up CJ's family history of her mother being dead and her father suffering from Alzheimer's, both of which we learned in depth in The Long Goodbye (we first found out about her father's condition in The Two Bartlets).
  

• Toby angrily accuses Alana of trying to use "my kids" as a reason to work out a plea deal. The story of Toby's twins with his ex-wife Andy began in Debate Camp; we saw the newborn twins in Twenty Five, with Toby pledging his undying devotion to being their dad; but since then (and the departure of Aaron Sorkin) Toby hasn't been seen having much of a relationship with either Andy or Huck and Molly.
  

• Toby's astronaut brother is a topic of Babish's questions and Alana's discussion. We found out Toby's brother was a space shuttle mission specialist in What Kind Of Day Has It Been. We learned of his suicide after a cancer diagnosis in Drought Conditions, and CJ asked Toby if his brother had ever mentioned a military space shuttle in Things Fall Apart.
  

• The President's speech about Toby's "self-righteous superiority" brings to mind several past examples of the rather fraught relationship between the two, including Toby's resentment after discovering he wasn't the first choice for Communications Director in The Crackpots And These Women and his badgering of President Bartlet over his campaign style and his relationship with his father in The Two Bartlets. And of course, Toby's angry high-minded and, yes, "self-righteously superior" reaction to learning about President Bartlet's MS coverup in 17 People.
  

• It takes her a bit to get there, but CJ finally does land on the fact that the office available for Will to work in is the one he used to work in.

CJ: "White House Counsel's sealed Toby's office, so feel free to use Annabeth's old one for the time being which, come to think of it, used to be yours. Funny how things work out."

Will: "Not so funny, really." 

We saw Will moving into that office next to Toby to work on the inaugural address in Holy Night - of course that office was originally Sam's.

DC location shots    

• None.

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

• We hear a reference to Al Qaeda as Secretary Hutchinson and Director Rollie are arguing over Frost's reliability.
  

• Helen is watching "the latest Rob Zombie film" on the plane. At the time, the latest film from Zombie was The Devil's Rejects, which came out over a year earlier in July 2005.
  

• Alana is close on her quoting of 35 USC 799 as the pertinent federal law regarding disobeying a regulation from the director of NASA. That is actually under Title 18, so it's 18 USC 799 (she did get the paragraph right). Title 35 pertains to patent law, which would have no bearing for poor Toby here.
  

End credits freeze frame: Toby in the Roosevelt Room answering Babish's questions.

Previous episode: Mr. Frost

Next episode: The Al Smith Dinner

Mr. Frost - TWW S7E4

 

Original airdate: October 16, 2005

Written by: Alex Graves (1)

Directed by: Andrew Bernstein (2)

Synopsis

• The assassination of a Palestinian leader in East Jerusalem shakes President Bartlet and threatens the fragile peace agreement he brokered; an enigmatic intelligence briefer shakes CJ when his predictions about turmoil in Central Asia start to come true; Matt uses his political judo moves to turn a "gaffe" about intelligent design into a smart discussion on the separation of church and state (while shaking Vinick off his game). And the investigation into the national security leak inside the White House elicits a stunning confession.
  

"I did it." 

There's a lot packed into this episode. Probably too much, to be honest ... a lot of it doesn't really land, and some of it is kind of a mess. The whole thing with Charles Frost coming up with these wild conspiracies that start to come true, then he disappears, but there's no resolution or indication of what this all means; the assassination of Palestinian chairman Farad is huge on a geopolitical scale, of course, but it doesn't do much in the course of the story except to remind us of the implausible and unworkable peace plan President Bartlet arm-twisted out of Farad and Israeli Prime Minister Zahavy in The Birnam Wood. 

 

I did like the elegance of Matt's political jiu-jitsu in using Pennsylvania's debate over intelligent design in the classroom to change the conversation and catch his opponent Senator Vinick unaware - although, goodness, by this point hasn't Josh figured out how good Matt is at this sort of thing? From The Dover Test to Freedonia to A Good Day to La Palabra to 2162 Votes to The Mommy Problem, Matt has shown his uncanny ability to outmaneuver his political adversaries without them even realizing it. You'd think Josh wouldn't be surprised by how he keeps doing it. 

Looming over everything is the continuing story of the national security leak, and how someone in the White House gave top-secret information to a reporter and now has the FBI, the Attorney General, and a congressional subcommittee hot on their heels - which leads us to the stunning final scene of the episode that flips everything from what the show has been leading us to believe.

So, yeah, that's an awful lot. Some of it's kinda good, some of it less successful, and maybe not all of it needed to be jammed into these particular 43 minutes, but anyway ... let's proceed.

I'll start with the rather delightful and not-weighty-at-all subplot of Leo and Annabeth. Annabeth, you recall, joined the White House Communications Office after CJ was promoted to Chief of Staff (Liftoff), and has more recently left the West Wing in order to help shepherd Leo through his vice presidential campaign. It also appears she's starting to get a little sweet on Leo. When Josh and Lou get concerned over the appearances of Leo checking his watch while Matt is speaking, Annabeth has a plan (which ends with a rather meaningful remark from her):

Annabeth: "Give me your watch."

Leo: "I wasn't --"

Annabeth: "People don't think you liked the speech."

Leo: "I like the speech, but I'm getting it five times a day --"

Annabeth: "We didn't put you up here for your own entertainment, Leo."

Leo: "Is there somebody on that phone?"

Annabeth: "CJ."

Leo: "Give me the phone."

Annabeth: "Give me that watch."

Leo: "For the love of --"

Annabeth: "Give me the watch."

(Leo removes his watch and hands it over. Annabeth smiles)

Leo: "You're not a tall person."

Annabeth: "And I think you're fabulous."

Later, as the two board a plane to fly from Pennsylvania back to DC, Annabeth goes through her pre-flight routine of a couple of anti-anxiety pills washed down by a couple of gulped champagnes:

 

Which leads to the scene of her zonked out while holding Leo's hand:

 

And once they get back to campaign headquarters and then are heading home for the evening, we get this little exchange (the emotions playing across Annabeth's face in this scene are just darling; Kristin Chenoweth does such a good job): 

Annabeth: "Headed back to your hotel?"

Leo: "Yeah, it's been a day."

Annabeth: "Hmmm."

Leo: "What are you up to?"

Annabeth: "Heading back to my apartment and a nice, hot bath."

Leo: "You feel like dinner?"

Annabeth: "I do, but ..."

Leo: "We'll get a bite, it's early."

Annabeth: "Thanks, but no."

(pause, as Annabeth thinks, considers, then:)

Annabeth: "I just think it's better while we're spending so much time together that we try and keep our distance as much as possible."

Leo: "Keep our distance?"

Annabeth: "Because of the tension."

(she gets off the elevator)

Leo (baffled): "What tension?"

 

Yep, Annabeth has got it bad for Leo, and Leo - the typical guy - has absolutely no idea.

 

As I said before, Matt's storyline is quite well constructed, although we (as well as Josh) ought to be able to see what's coming by now. During a campaign appearance in Pennsylvania, Josh cautions Matt to stay clear of a debate going on in the state over whether or not "intelligent design" should be taught in schools alongside evolution (as Josh describes it, intelligent design is basically "creationism in a Groucho mask"). Matt can't resist, though, when a reporter calls out a question:

Reporter: "Congressman, can you tell us if you believe in intelligent design?"

Matt: "I believe in God, and I'd like to think He's intelligent."

 

That ends up riling up Democrats who don't like the idea of religion being brought into schoolrooms, and Republicans who don't trust Democrats on the issue anyway. In the midst of protests by pro- and anti-intelligent design adherents, Matt goes into a high school to talk to some teachers and parents - and, no surprise, turns the issue on its head.

Reynolds: "Do you believe that the theory of intelligent design and the theory of evolution should be taught alongside each other in the public schools?"

Matt: "Absolutely not. One is based on science, the other is based on faith. Intelligent design is not a scientific theory, it's a religious belief. And our Constitution does not allow for the teaching of religion in our public schools."

His well-crafted (and extemporaneous!) comments earn respect and applause from both sides of the issue, and as he departs the school he exercises a bit more of that political jiu-jitsu that he jiu-jitsus so well, turning the spotlight of critical attention back on his opponent:

Matt: "Just because I'm talking about my faith doesn't mean I don't believe in the separation of church and state."

Reporter: "Congressman Santos, do you think Senator Vinick believes in intelligent design?"

Matt: "Well, I don't know, you'd have to ask him that."

Which reporters proceed to do, bogging Vinick down and getting him off-message. Josh is flabbergasted, but again - he really shouldn't be.

The Mr. Frost storyline is actually pretty weak - Charles Frost, the intelligence analyst who briefed Vinick in Message Of The Week but weirded Arnie out so much he asked for a different briefer - is desperate to reach CJ in order to get some time with the President. He finally barges into her office, frightening her just as she's waking up from a nap, and brings up a bizarre theory about a string of assassinations that he claims are coming in Central Asia, deliberately planned and linked to the killing of Palestinian chairman Farad. Once CJ kicks him out and chews out Kate for not keeping a leash on her analysts, we do end up with the surprising news that one of Frost's predictions - the assassination of the president of Kazakhstan - actually comes true, and that sends CJ into a frenzy of action to try to halt the third event he had predicted, while trying to get a handle on what it all means. 

(What does it all mean? We don't know, we aren't told.)

But that storyline does link us to a big one, the aforementioned killing of Farad. This goes all the way back to the beginning of Season 6 and the Camp David summit after a couple of congressmen and Admiral Fitzwallace were killed and Donna was injured in a trip to Gaza. President Bartlet took great pride in the agreement he was able to wrest out of the Palestinian leaders Farad and Makarat, as well as Israeli Prime Minister Zahavy, even at the cost of putting American troops in harm's way as peacekeepers. Now, two years later (remember we've skipped a year - the summit was summer of 2004, this is fall 2006), the ongoing tensions in the region from those who don't want peace explode into a suicide attack that kills Farad. 

I really appreciate the little scene of Bartlet leaving the Situation Room after word of Farad's death. He can't stand still, he can't stop, even for a moment, the disbelief and anger and despair is just too much. He sits down, only for a split-second, then immediately stands back up, looking for some direction, somewhere to turn. Then he slams his fist against the door on the way out.

President Bartlet feels more than a little guilty. He knew this agreement would put those Palestinian leaders in danger from Hamas and other radical Arab factions, and now it's resulted in Farad's death. He pulls together as many world leaders as he can to attend the funeral, insisting on a show of support for both the peace process and Farad himself, someone Bartlet considers a friend. This plotline takes up a lot of space in this episode, but to be honest ... it's not that important for the series. In fact, as I said earlier, it only puts more attention on that Season 5/6 plotline, which wasn't all that successful at the time, and only emphasizes the eventual seemingly pointless effort in the first place.

But what is important is the other story thread - the investigation into the leak about the secret military space shuttle, a breach of national security that's been tracked to someone inside the West Wing. It was in Things Fall Apart that we learned of an oxygen leak on the International Space Station, threatening the lives of the three astronauts onboard who were unable to fix it. The NASA administrator told CJ the two NASA space shuttles were undergoing repairs and would not be available in time for a rescue, but accidentally let slip the existence of a "non-civilian" shuttle. While CJ started asking questions about that - including of Toby, whose late brother had been an astronaut and shuttle crew member and may or may not have mentioned such a spacecraft to him - President Bartlet deliberated over whether or not to expose the existence of a military shuttle program in order to save the astronauts, and seemed to be leaning towards "not" and hoping the astronauts could save themselves. The decision was made for him when Greg Brock published a front-page story in the New York Times about the program, a story which was quickly traced to someone inside the West Wing. The President, of course, hit the roof, and demanded that Toby and Kate track down the leaker.

And, from what we were shown, all signs pointed to CJ. She had spent an inordinate amount of time on the phone with Brock over the past few months; she was the one who started asking questions about the existence of a military shuttle and pushing for its use in a rescue; and she was shown watching news coverage in a pensive, thoughtful manner, as if she was considering something. Even White House Counsel Oliver Babish had settled on CJ as the chief suspect, and as congressional intelligence committee hearings and depositions began, with subpoenas flying throughout the White House, the notion that the investigation was focusing on CJ became clear.

This episode begins with Margaret appearing before the committee, in what was supposed to be a quick round of testimony that turns into an all-day affair. As that's going on, Toby and CJ get their subpoenas, as well as Leo out on the campaign trail. In the midst of all that, there's lots of talk of lawyers, and who needs one and who doesn't.

After Leo tells CJ he's been subpoenaed, he tells her he doesn't need a lawyer if he hasn't done anything wrong. While CJ is fighting her way through the day expecting to be subpoenaed at any moment, Toby tells her to get a lawyer - her response is the same, she doesn't need a lawyer if she hasn't done anything wrong. She sticks with that even when Toby doubles down, insisting she get one.

It's the bit of news about Leo's subpoena, I think, that starts twisting the narrative. The Democratic vice presidential candidate appearing before Congress in an investigation of a national security breach by the current Democratic administration would be disastrous for the Santos campaign.

President Bartlet, Leo's old friend, is also concerned and distracted by the news. He asks Toby to sit down in the Oval Office just so he can talk it over a bit. When Bartlet tells Toby Leo has been subpoenaed, just look at how Toby's face reacts:

His eyes flicker back and forth; something is going on in that head. And while this remark just seems like typical bravado from the team, maybe there's more going on with this as well:

Toby: "Leo can't pull up to the Hart Building in a limo, the vice-presidential candidate can't testify, it would be the end of the Santos campaign."

President: "The investigation into the leak is focused on CJ."

Toby: "They've got it wrong."

"They've got it wrong." A flat out declarative statement.

And finally, with Monday bearing down only a couple of days away, the day that Leo will appear before Congress and likely doom the Santos campaign, as the weight of the national security breach nearly hits that final breaking point - something happens.

Toby gets a lawyer.

CJ (babbling): "The truth is I'm so strung out and wired on caffeine I can't even tell what room I'm in --"

Toby: "CJ --"

CJ: "Let's open that bottle of champagne you gave me for my birthday, maybe the alcohol will balance out the caffeine."

Toby: "CJ, the, uh, leak --"

CJ: "Let's have a toast. One, final toast before I leave the White House in a perp walk and leg irons. Here, you open it, I’ll take out your eye --"

Toby: "CJ --"

CJ: "Fine, I'll open it. But just, uh, listen to what I have to say. (takes a breath, starts to open champagne bottle) Leo's in trouble."

Toby: "I know."

CJ: "You do?"

(Toby walks to CJ and sits down)

Toby (sniffs, his hand shaking): "I got a lawyer."

CJ: "What?"

Toby: "I got a lawyer."

(Pause. CJ stops and stares ahead. Toby clears his throat)

Toby: "I did it."

 

You can just feel the emotion and the dread and the portent in that scene. (And probably the anger, too ... CJ just resigned herself to being dragged out of the White House in handcuffs while the Santos campaign crashes and burns on Leo's appearance, and now Toby tells her it was him all along? He dragged this all out and left her twisting in the wind to try to protect himself? And he's not confessing to protect CJ, he's doing it to keep Leo out of trouble? Man, I'd be pissed ...)

 

So that's how this one ends, after about two dozen different plot threads and a grumpy CJ trying to get through the day without sleep and a weird intelligence guy having his conspiracies come true and an assassination in the Middle East and Matt getting his education plan back front and center and Leo and Annabeth sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G ... now it ends, with Toby confessing to a felonious breach of national security secrets that he kept to himself even while one of his best friends was on the hook for it. Yeah.

 

Tales Of Interest!

- This episode was written by longtime director and executive producer Alex Graves, who had directed 27 episodes of the series by this time. He had previously written (and directed) the films The Crude Oasis (1993) and Casualties (1997).

 

- Let's talk a little about Toby and the leak. Richard Schiff was not pleased with the direction this storyline went in; he felt Toby's actions as written were completely out of character for the person Toby was over the previous six-plus years. 

 

And there's quite a debate among West Wing fans over whether or not it was fair for Toby to be the leaker; in fact, there's a good number of fans who staunchly maintain Toby didn't do it, that he was taking the fall to protect CJ; or even that President Bartlet actually leaked the military shuttle info in order to find an avenue for saving the ISS astronauts, and Toby (and perhaps CJ) were in on the conspiracy from the beginning.

 

Here's where I stand:

 

- First, this final scene makes it clear that the Bartlet-leak-coverup-conspiracy is a bunch of hooey. No one was in the office but CJ and Toby, there's no one to cover up from. That idea is just silly.

- Second, again, that final scene makes the idea that Toby is covering for CJ ridiculous. If CJ was the leaker, and Toby knew it, what is the purpose of Toby admitting to CJ that he actually did it? With nobody else there to witness his false confession? (Some people still try to make the claim that Toby's admission to CJ was his way of telling her he was willing to take the fall - I mean, seriously? Plus the way the very next episode starts out kinda blows that nutty theory out of the water.)

- Third: I do think it makes sense that Toby would have been the one to make the military shuttle public. His deceased brother was an astronaut, he had a personal connection to the ISS crew slowly suffocating, he would have gone that extra mile to use the rescue opportunity that existed with the DOD to save them, even if it was a top-secret spacecraft. I have no problem logically or storywise with Toby being the one to make sure they were saved ...

BUT: I do agree with Schiff that it makes zero sense for Toby to do it in the way it was done. I don't think Toby would have secretly leaked to Greg Brock, and I definitely think there's no way he would have left CJ twisting in the wind as the chief suspect for this long. Toby would have gotten the military shuttle information out there openly, perhaps by telling President Bartlet if the President didn't make the shuttle public he would, and damn the consequences, because the lives of those three astronauts were more important. Secretly slipping word of this project to a reporter, then heading up the internal investigation to find out who did it, all the while keeping your involvement under wraps while the FBI and the White House Counsel and Congress were all dragging CJ through the mud? CJ, the person Toby personally asked to join the first campaign in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen Part II, Toby, the guy who's had an intensely close personal relationship with CJ, Toby, the guy who can both flirt with CJ and feel open enough to break down in front of her after his brother dies (Drought Conditions)? This is the guy you think would let CJ take the fall, and only confess now that Leo is in trouble?

 

Yeah, I can believe Toby did it. But I can't believe Toby did it that way. (In the DVD commentary for 2162 Votes we discovered that by the end of Season 6 the writers had not decided on who the leaker actually was yet; it was over the summer between seasons that the decision was made to make it Toby, even after suspicion was cast on CJ in 2162 Votes. Obviously the writers went with the dramatic decision to point that finger at CJ even stronger in the first part of Season 7, to emphasize the surprise effect of Toby's confession here, but that's just really cheap considering what we know about CJ and Toby from the beginning.)

 

It just makes it more galling that one of the reasons the writers chose Toby as the leaker was so they could write him out of more episodes in Season 7, and thereby save money.

 

- This is the first time we are told Margaret's last name (Hooper). And let me just say how awesome Margaret is in her testimony before a hostile congressional subcommittee, particularly when she was so nervous about the prospect in The Mommy Problem. She has no problem staring down Senator Dresden when he's trying to poke holes in her story!

Sen. Dresden: "At 7:23 on the morning of June 20, Ms. Cregg called Mr. Brock on his cell phone."

Margaret: "Yes, sir."

Sen. Dresden: "Were you on that call?"

Margaret: "I don't believe I was."

Sen. Dresden: "You don't believe you were?"

Margaret: "No, because my first recollection of learning of this call was from Ms. Cregg."

Sen. Dresden: "So you're saying you connected the call but you did not monitor its content?"

Margaret: "I don't believe I connected that call."

Sen. Dresden: "Categorically, can you say that --"

Margaret: "That is my best recollection."

Sen. Dresden: "So what you're saying is your best recollection is that you don't remember whether you connected that call or not."

Margaret (shaking her head): "My best recollection is that I did not connect that particular call."

- If we go by the Labor-Day-week stipulated Marine Reserve training from The Mommy Problem, the "Friday" caption would indicate this the end of the week after that, the week which we saw begin in Message Of The Week (which was over a Monday and Tuesday). That means this episode covers Friday and Saturday, September 15 and 16. While Message Of The Week had Matt's "message" be momentum and national security, and this week's message being "education week," that seems perhaps a bit dicey (since it's all the same week), but it's plausible to start with one message and go into the weekend with another, I suppose. 

 

HOWEVER ... the writers also insist on continuing with their device of literally counting down the days left before the election, putting up a caption that reads "82 Days Until Election Day." That would be Thursday, August 17 - or else election day has now been moved to January 26.

- Something else we're explicitly told is that Greg Brock's story on the secret military space shuttle was published on July 14 - so that places Things Fall Apart on the day before, July 13 (remember Annabeth coming to Toby at the end of that episode telling him the story would be in the next morning's paper). Trouble is, that episode featured the ongoing Republican National Convention and the revelation of the oxygen leak on the International Space Station leaving the crew with three weeks of air to breathe - not to mention the "178" on Leo's white board telling us that with 178 days before January 20, Things Fall Apart had to be July 26 (making Brock's story running on July 27). It continues to baffle me that these writers, who can use any date they want and put any number of days remaining in the campaign up there onscreen, can't actually make the dates line up in any logical way. You're doing this to yourselves! You literally can't reconcile the different timelines of Things Fall Apart, The Ticket, and The Mommy Problem, and it's all because you writers mixed things up!

- There's also a moment of Margaret's testimony where Sen. Dresden is grilling her over a call between CJ and Brock on June 20. He goes on to talk about a call from Leo to CJ on "the 29th" (no month mentioned) where he was calling about the leak. The context of this comment leads us to June 29 (why would Dresden leap from June to July without giving Margaret that information?) ... which is TWO WEEKS BEFORE we are told the story was published.

Sorry ... this is just such sloppy writing, and there's literally no excuse for not making the dates align.

- There's a literal blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot of MSNBC reporting that this is the 14th day of the congressional hearings on the leak about the military shuttle. If this is September 15, those hearings began around August 28 (and about six weeks after Brock's story was published) ... of course, if this is August 17, then those hearings started around July 31, the same time as the Democratic National Convention kicked off according to the Things Fall Apart timeline.

 

- There's no sign of President Bartlet's cane in this episode. Since he recovered from the MS attack he suffered on the way to China in In The Room, he's been using a cane in pretty much every episode since. But it now appears he's improved enough to move around like his old self.

- Gail's fishbowl appears to be full of ice and frost ... "Mr. Frost," get it?

- CJ's coffee order sounds terrible, not to mention nonsensical. She wants a "cinnamon chai mochaccino?" I mean, I guess, that's kind of like a dirty chai (tea with a shot of espresso) with a bunch of extra stuff, but still ... And then she wants "no whip" (no whipped cream), but she does want sprinkles? What the hell would the sprinkles do, sink into the drink?

- Why'd They Come Up With Mr. Frost?

The mysterious and enigmatic Charles Frost, CIA and NSC intelligence briefer, plays a key role in bringing an international crisis to light that will be a factor through the rest of the series.

Quotes   

Kate: "Only world leaders with a death wish would go to this funeral."

President: "Fine, then we'll send Congress."

----- 

Josh: "ACLU and the Anti-Defamation League have called for clarification on your God gaffe."

Matt: "My what?"

Josh: "The Center for American Innovation and the Advancement of the American Way are basically going bananas."

Lou: "So don't let anybody bait you into using any kind of ..."

(she gestures, searching for the right term)

Josh: "Words."

Matt: "Words?"

Josh: "Yeah, words like --"

Lou: "Evolution."

Josh: "Genesis."

Lou: "Monkey trial."

Josh: "Creationism."

Lou: "School."

Josh: "Prayer."

Lou: "Church."

Josh: "State."

Matt: "Amen."

-----

CJ: "I'm going out to get coffee. I'm learning to freebase this stuff, but that's what it takes to keep this life livable: peace and quiet and an IV of caffeine. Can I get you anything?"

Toby: "I'm good."

CJ:  "Charlie?"

Charlie: "Let me get it. You take your nap."

CJ: "Really?"

Charlie: "It's either that or we pad the walls of your office. What do you have?"

CJ: "I want a double shot, light on the soy, cinnamon chai mochaccino, no whip, sprinkles, and another shot on top."

(Charlie looks at her. CJ hands him money)

CJ: "I'll write it down."

-----

President: "Has the Speaker called back?"

Debbie: "No, sir, I, I think he's on to the fact that you're inviting him to a funeral where there's a fifty-fifty chance he'll wind up dead."

President: "Coward."

-----

Matt: "To be a person of faith is to have the world challenge that faith. Was the universe designed by God? That's up for everyone in this country to decide for themselves, because the framers of our Constitution believed that if the people were to be sovereign and belong to different religions at the same time then our official religion would have to be no religion at all. It was a bold experiment then, as it is now. It wasn't meant to make us comfortable. It was meant to make us free."

 

 

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

• Senator Dresden, leading the questioning of Margaret at the intelligence committee hearing, is played by Mitch Pileggi (The X-Files, Basic Instinct, Sons Of Anarchy, Stargate: Atlantis).
  

• There's Defense Secretary Miles Hutchinson (Steve Ryan), back in the Situation Room again.
  

• And look! We haven't seen Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Bob Slattery (Thomas Kopache) for a while (and that may not be his official title any more, maybe). Bob was first seen in On The Day Before, but hasn't shown up since The Warfare Of Genghis Khan.
  

• The (former) White House reporter Gordon, famously pranked by CJ about helping her start her own family in Slow News Day, is continuing his coverage of the Santos campaign. He's actually been following the Santos campaign since at least La Palabra.
  

• Presidential secretary Nancy, played by Martin Sheen's daughter Renée Estevez, pops up again.
  

• I ACTUALLY KNOW THIS GUY! David Combs plays the history teacher questioning Matt about bringing religious faith into public school classrooms. David lives near me, I've worked with his wife on several theatre productions in the area, and we've hung out a few times. David has appeared on a bunch of TV series, including JAG, NYPD Blue, and Star Trek: The Next Generation - but I definitely remember him as Frankenstein in a couple of TV commercials for Osteo Bi-Flex in the early 2000s.
  

• The guy known as Barry, the Democratic bigwig whom Leo trusts to get legal advice from, is  played by John Aylward (part of the ER/West Wing pipeline, Armageddon, North Country, Northern Exposure). We'll eventually learn his name is Barry Goodwin, and he might be the head of the DNC at this point.
  

• Mr. Frost returns (Tom Everett, seen in Dances With Wolves, Air Force One, Picket Fences) - he showed up in Message Of The Week briefing Arnie Vinick about intelligence matters, including "a situation in Kazakhstan" - he weirded Vinick out so much Kate was forced to switch Vinick's intelligence briefers, but now he's stalking CJ to tell her his bizarre predictions of more assassinations.
  

• The talk of the Santos staffers saying Vinick is "still hammering us on border issues" means this comes immediately after the events we saw in Message Of The Week, when Vinick swerved to the border/immigration to throw Matt off his campaign message.
  

• When CJ is telling Leo about Vinick being upset about his intelligence briefer bringing up Kazakhstan for no reason, he says, "Have you asked Kate or Nancy about it?" That's a mention of National Security Advisor Nancy McNally, who hasn't actually appeared on the show since Liftoff.
  

• There's lots of talk about getting lawyers, and how you don't need a lawyer if you haven't done anything wrong. While this is all setup for Toby's confession, it also brings to mind Josh's deposition for Freedom Watch in Lord John Marbury, when Sam asked him if he was going to bring a lawyer and Josh insisted he didn't need one (Sam invited himself along anyway, then threatened to bust Claypool "like a pinata").
  

• Palestinian Chairman Farad, Palestinian Prime Minister Mukarat, and Israeli Prime Minister Zahavy all play major roles in the discussions over the fallout from Farad's assassination. This reminds us of the arc from Gaza to The Birnam Wood/Third-Day Story and the Middle East peace talks at Camp David, when President Bartlet brought all three of those figures together to try to work out a deal. The President's later scene with Toby shows Bartlet feeling some guilt for pushing Farad into the peace agreement, which contributed in some degree to his death. We also should not forget that part of that agreement resulted in American troops acting as peacekeepers over some holy sites in the region, putting them directly in the middle of an increasingly hostile situation after Farad's killing (and Kate mentions some of those troops being used to help protect Farad's funeral).
  

• President Bartlet includes Prime Minister Graty as one of the world leaders he wants to have join him at Farad's funeral. British Prime Minister Graty was seen on TV in the midst of the crisis over Iran shooting down an British jetliner in The Wake Up Call.
  

• Leo is still wearing his wedding ring. Remember, his wife walked out in Five Votes Down and their divorce became final in The Portland Trip.

• Russian President Chigorin is another world leader mentioned by President Bartlet. Chigorin was referred to as the newly elected President in Enemies Foreign And Domestic, and has since been a part of language-idiom-based negotiations over a secret heavy-water reactor in Iran, took part in a summit in Helsinki (The Black Vera Wang), and had to be talked off a ledge over an American surveillance drone crashing inside Russia as it was gaining intelligence on illegal transfers of nuclear material (Evidence Of Things Not Seen).
  

• We haven't seen White House Secret Service chief Ron Butterfield for a while (since No Exit), but his name comes up in the course of preparations for the trip to Farad's funeral.
  

• Leo's history of alcoholism and heart disease is a topic. We first learned he was a recovering alcoholic in Five Votes Down, and of course he suffered a near-fatal heart attack in the woods of Camp David in The Birnam Wood.
  

• Here's something kind of fun: Annabeth tells Leo she graduated cum laude with a degree in art history. If you remember, we actually saw Annabeth's resume in Liftoff, when Toby was going through applications for the Press Secretary job; while you had to freeze-frame the screen to see it, that resume told us Annabeth had a BA in business administration from the University of Maryland and an Associates Degree in political science from Georgetown (does Georgetown even give out Associates Degrees?). That resume also said Annabeth graduated from college in 1974, which would make her in her mid-fifties at this point, which is obviously not the case (some of the information in that resume, including the dates, was from the life experience of props master Blanche Sindelar).

 

DC location shots    

• None. Matt's appearance at the University of Pennsylvania must have been filmed on the UCLA campus (see the shot of the UCLA building below and how it matches with the building seen behind Josh and Lou as they cross the street). Interestingly, there's also a banner over the stage with "Calverson College," which is not a part of the University of Pennsylvania or any other higher learning institution I've been able to find.

 

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

• Newspapers mentioned include the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, and the (St. Louis) Post-Dispatch.
  

• CJ quotes the song "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man.

CJ: "How many people around here have subpoenas?"

Charlie: "Lots."

CJ: "Lots."

Charlie: "We got trouble."

CJ: "Trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for ... pool."

• Leo tells CJ they're handing out congressional subpoenas at the Dairy Queen.
  

• Kate's reference to the Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives is to a real place. She later refers to Al-Quds University, also a real Palestinian university in Jerusalem.
  

• Matt quotes a poem making his statement to the press on Farad's death. The poem exists, but the author is apparently anonymous.

"Those souls are great who, dying, gave a gift of greater life to man. Death stands abashed before the brave. They own a life death cannot ban."

• Josh calls intelligent design "creationism in a Groucho mask."
  

• Lou brings up Presidents Abe Lincoln and George Washington as two who stated their belief in God.
  

• The (Scopes) "monkey trial" gets thrown out in a list of things the staff doesn't want Matt to use in an answer about intelligent design. (Fun fact, this past February I played the part of Matthew Harrison Brady in a production of Inherit The Wind, a fictionalized version of the actual 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial.)
  

• President Bartlet is preparing to meet the new board members of the Kennedy Center, an event which features a performance by Mozart [we later see the titled sheet music and hear Serenade No. 10 in B flat Major being played; while Debbie tells us it's the (apparently fictional) Vlasenko Septet, Shazam tells me the recording we hear is by the Linos Ensemble]. 

• The TV news programs Meet The Press and Nightline want to feature Matt's take on religion and education; the host of Meet The Press at the time, Tim Russert, is also brought up, as well as Face The Nation.  
  

• Mr. Frost tells CJ the regional vice president of Unocal will be the third figure to be assassinated, after Farad and the President of Kazakhstan. Unocal was a major petroleum marketer before being acquired by Chevron in August, 2005 (a couple of months before this episode aired), and did have major investments and operations in Central Asia.

• Barry mentions the "press-infested Hart Building" as the site of the Senate intelligence subcommittee hearings that Leo (and others) have been subpoenaed for. The Hart Senate Office Building would be a potential site for such an interview, I suppose.
  

• Winston Churchill is indeed credited with the saying, "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
  

End credits freeze frame: Matt and Leo waving to the crowd after the speech at the University of Virginia.

Previous episode: Message Of The Week

Next episode: Here Today