Entry 038 - The West Wing 107 (The State Dinner)
In which looking good has its drawbacks
SERIES: The West Wing
EPISODE NUMBER: 107
TITLE: The State Dinner
PREMIERE: 10 Nov 1999
WRITING CREDITS: Aaron Sorkin and Paul Redford
DIRECTOR: Thomas Schlamme
DRAFT SCRIPT: PDF
One thing the pilot of The West Wing did well was to depict the necessarily multi-track chaos of your average day at the White House. Episodes since then, however, have up to this point largely avoided that depiction in favor of simpler one- or two-track focuses for the President’s staff. That all stops with this episode, however, where the chaos comes back in full force — and just in time for a character so far lurking in the background to arrive before the viewers’ eyes. And who better to preface that chaos than:
C.J.: (V.O.) Previously on The West Wing…
Let’s dive into it!
C.J.: The First Lady will be wearing a Carmen Marc Valvo silver and black gown with a matching bolero jacket.
SONDRA: Shoes?
C.J.: I believe she’ll be wearing shoes, yes.
REPORTER: C.J. —
C.J.: Black suede and velvet Manolo Blahnik slides with a rhinestone and mother of pearl toe buckle.
SONDRA: Accessories?
C.J.: Gabriel Sanchez freshwater pearl necklace with tourmaline beads.
The description of the First Lady’s attire changed almost completely between draft script and final product — a “Pamela Dennis silver panne velvet bias cut gown with a fish tail train” changed to the Carmen Marc Valvo gown with a bolero jacket; peach suede became black suede for the slides; and “South Sea pearl and 18-karat gold earrings” got omitted from the Gabriel Sanchez specification entirely. I don’t think we need to read too much more into it than that the costume department decided on something different during fittings and requested the changes.
REPORTER: And Mrs. Siguto?
C.J.: Mrs. Siguto will be wearing a traditional silk Kegaya [sic] in dark purple with an overlay of black silk lace.
“Cut! Allison, it’s ‘Kebaya’, not ‘Kegaya’! Let’s roll it back!”
C.J.: Anything else? (silence) Nothing on the nuclear test ban treaty?
Funnily enough, the initial drafts of the script for this episode were written before the Senate voted on 13 October 1999 not to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, with the latest date attached to the draft we have being 28 October. Shall we suppose the joke here might have rubbed some people the wrong way when it first aired?
C.J.: Mirabella needed to know what wine is being served with the fish course, so it’s a good thing I went to school for twenty-two years.
JOSH: What wine are we —
C.J.: It’s wine. You’ll drink it.
Just like he’ll eat the cake, right?foreshadowing detected
JOSH: Sara has picked up speed and power and has now been classified as a Class-4 system. You might want to talk about preparations and contingencies.
C.J.: Sure — what are we talking about?
JOSH: Hurricance Sara.
C.J.: Sara’s a hurricane.
Man, is C.J. really already fried enough not to get the context clue from “Class-4” on her own? This doesn’t bode well.
SAM: Just so you know, they voted to strike.
C.J.: The teamsters?
Okay, never mind, she’s locked back in.
SAM: Leo’s putting them in a room.
…
C.J.: How long is it going to last?
SAM: ‘Til midnight — Taft-Hartley expires, that’s when the truck drivers walk.
“Cut! Rob, if you could see to it that you get considerably closer to the line as written, that would be great. Roll it back.”
C.J.: There’s a State dinner tonight.
JOSH: We’ll make more food.
C.J.: Josh —
JOSH: Don’t worry about it.
“Cut! Brad, buddy, there’s a first half to that line, want to try that again?”
TOBY: Listen, I want you to start preparing for something. There’s a situation in McClane.
C.J.: Virginia?
Connecticut?
TOBY: Idaho.
Dang it.
C.J.: What’s in Idaho?
McClane.
RETURNING Dialogue Motif: Whole new ballgame
Previous instances: The American President; Sports Night 105
TOBY: The FBI decided it’s a hostage situation, so we have ourselves a whole new ballgame.
Cut after this moment is an amendment from Toby, “We’re gonna make some kind of move today so get yourself educated,” before C.J. shows just how educated she is:
C.J.: So, let me see if I have this — a hurricane has picked up speed and power and is heading for Georgia; management and labor are coming here to work out a settlement to avoid a crippling strike that will begin at midnight tonight; and the government’s planning a siege on eighteen to forty of its citizens, all the while we host a State dinner for the President of Indonesia.
Allison Janney is so damn good at landing her lines you can forgive her for trading ‘Atlanta’ for ‘Georgia’ in that line.
JOSH: (on phone) Low pressure system — it’s another low pressure system. Okay, I’m talking to the Red Cross, I’ll call you in an hour. (listens) Yeah, bye.
Why was this added in? This call intro adds quite literally no value to the proceedings.
JOSH: A senior Indonesian deputy is coming tonight. Toby and I want to talk to him alone for a few minutes. I need you to find out if he can speak English, and if he can’t, we need to get an interpreter from State.
DONNA: What’s his name?
JOSH: Ramahidi Sumahidjo Bambang.
DONNA: Can you spell that?
JOSH: (beat) Not correctly, no.
That’s probably because you’re saying his name incorrectly! Draft script has the man’s first name as “Rahmadi” rather than “Ramahidi” as spoken here. White people, am I right?
DONNA: I’ve been doing some reading on my own.
JOSH: I wish you wouldn’t do that.
DONNA: Why?
JOSH: Because you tend to cull some bizarre factoid from a less than reputable source and then you blow it all out of proportion.
That… doesn’t seem like something you want from an executive assistant. Part of the job involves being able to do research on behalf of your charge to help them make decisions more effectively, so the idea that Donna can fall for disreputable data does not exactly add up.
DONNA: … in certain parts of Indonesia, they summarily execute people they suspect of being sorcerers.
JOSH: (stops) What?
DONNA: I read it.
JOSH: They summarily execute people they suspect of being sorcerers.
DONNA: They behead them.
JOSH: Sorcerers.
DONNA: Gangs of roving people, beheading those they suspect of being sorcerers with — you know, what’s that thing that Death carries?
JOSH: A scythe.
DONNA: They’re doing it with a scythe.
Better than a garrote, I suppose…foreshadowing detected
RETURNING Verbal Tic: You bet
Running count: 6
DONNA: I just thought you might like to know who’s coming over for dinner.
JOSH: You bet.
I just now remembered Sidney Poitier was once considered for the part of President Bartlet. Not sure what made me remember that…
TOBY: What’s the issue?
SAM: Two-tiered hiring.
LEO: A company divides its workforce into two bodies — long-term, full-time employees, who enjoy top market wages and benefits; and part-time, or newer full-time employees who are paid a lower wage scale and usually get no benefits.
C.J.: But they’re part-time employees.
MANDY: A lot of them aren’t. A lot of the workers that management designated as part-time are de facto full-time employees while working the same amount of hours under a different designation at lower wages with no health or pension.
Man, apparently I’m lucky I ended up working for a company that doesn’t do that bullshit. I basically had full benefits straight out of college. I’m absolutely sure I’m in the minority on that, though — I doubt this explanation from Leo and Mandy is as dated as it probably sounds to many people.
RETURNING Dialogue Motif: Imagine my surprise/shock
Previous instance: Sports Night 116
JOSH: I’m with management.
MANDY: Imagine my surprise.
TOBY: A younger workforce puts a premium on job flexibility and they’re unwilling to make long-term commitments to a single company.
That’s only because you don’t give them the opportunity! Show them the company they’re joining is worth it and they’ll invest themselves in a heartbeat! You think too little of upcoming generations, Toby.
Side note: somehow between draft script and shoot, the “I’m with management” line got traded from Toby to Josh. If I had to guess, the trade was probably made to ensure the target of Mandy’s sarcasm in response was more clear.
RETURNING Dialogue Motif: Took/Takes N people to write X
Previous instance: Sports Night 104
LEO: McLane, Idaho — I need someone to monitor and keep the President and me updated throughout the day.
SAM: I’ll do it.
LEO: You gotta work with Toby on the toast.
TOBY: Don’t need him.
LEO: Yes, you do.
SAM: Takes two people to write a toast?
LEO: The State Department’s very particular about these toasts.
Yeah, they do have a certain flair…foreshadowing detected
Side note: the “don’t need him” line? Not in the draft script! Did Mr. Schiff perhaps improvise that?
MANDY: I can do it.
JOSH: No, you can’t.
MANDY: Why not?
JOSH: Because you’re a political consultant and this is an actual, you know, thing.
Finally, someone explicitly verbalizes Mandy’s position in this White House — so far she’s been low-key treated as if she’s another White House staffer, but she’s not, as Josh states rather sloppily in this moment.
LEO: Establish a contact at the Justice Department and the FBI, and keep Josh informed throughout the day and night.
How well do you suppose she’ll be able to do that? Place your bets, folks. Certainly Mandy’s response to Leo here which got cut — “kind of like a faculty advisor” — might serve as a hint.
LEO: What else?
JOSH: The, uh… Redskins suck.
At the time this episode aired, the Redskins were 5-3 into the current season, with two of their losses being to the Dallas Cowboys. What are we counting as ‘sucking’, exactly? Come to think of it, why do you care at all, Josh?
TOBY: Did Josh talk to you about the —
DONNA: Ramahidi Sumahidjo Bambang?
Oh, Donna pronounced it differently from the draft as well — did it actually get explicitly changed, or did Ms. Moloney just roll with Brad’s botching the name?
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Harry
Previous instances: The American President; The West Wing 104
C.J.: No questions right now, Harry.
HARRY: A short one.
BARTLET: She’s not worried about the length of your question, she’s worried about the length of my response.
Oh, how well you know her, Mr. President…foreshadowing detected
BARTLET: We’re having salmon tonight.
SIGUTO: Yes.
BARTLET: They told you that?
SIGUTO: Yes.
…
BARTLET: Do you like salmon?
SIGUTO: No.
BARTLET: (beat) Well… our mistake.
SIGUTO: Yes.
SAM: “We praise President Siguto for leading his country through a period that promises profound change as Indonesia moves from an authoritarian dictatorship towards a real democracy.”
TOBY: “The beginnings of a real democracy” — let’s not get carried away.
Timely material: Indonesia had the year before this episode’s airing experienced a series of protests and riots which brought about the end of the 32-year presidency of the authoritarian Suharto, and in the month before this episode aired elected a new president who had only started bringing about democratic reforms.
SAM: “We have been friends for over fifty [years —”]
TOBY: [Don’t…] don’t say friends.
The Suharto regime of Indonesia was largely propped up by the United States, primarly because Suharto was largely responsible for the purging of Communism from Indonesia in the mid-‘60s — much like many authoritarian regimes the US supported during the Cold War.
TOBY: … I don’t think we should remind people how friendly we were with dictators who oppressed their people while stealing their money.
SAM: How else are you going to steal people’s money?
Read the room, man…
SAM: You got something going on tonight with Josh?
TOBY: We got to see a guy about a thing.
Stunning specificity, my guy…
LITTLE: Leo, the trucking industry faces intense competition from FedEx and UPS, the railroads, the airlines, freight operations…
You get competition from FedEx and UPS? What? In what universe are the single package-optimized delivery networks eating into your bulk-optimized niche? And wouldn’t FedEx and UPS be using your fleet when they need to optimize for bulk? What am I missing here? (Full disclosure: I work for DHL.)
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Bobbi/Bobby
Previous instances: Sports Night (recurring); The West Wing 102
RUSSO: You know, you’re full of crap, Seymour.
LEO: This is the White House, Bobby, it’s not the Jersey turnpike. Watch your mouth.
If that’s the kind of language Bobby is using in Jersey, then he’s one of the tamer drivers.
By the way, this scene? It originally came after the next scene as drafted:
MANDY: It really bugs you that the President listens to me sometimes.
JOSH: Yes, but you shouldn’t take it personally. It bugs me when the President listens to anyone who isn’t me.
Please tell me you’re kidding, Josh.
MANDY: Do you know why the FBI had reason to believe there was an illegal weapon in this house?
JOSH: Why?
MANDY: Because we sold it to them.
Kinda like we armed the Afghans we fought?foreshadowing detected
MANDY: My point is, aside from everything else, this is a PR disaster waiting to happen, and it’s gonna happen today. This is why you hired me.
I will… begrudgingly agree. I’m not entirely sure what you can do to make the PR aftermath not a disaster, but let’s see how you do and I’ll talk then.
DANNY: President Bartlet — I was wondering if you noticed the protestors across the street this morning.
BARTLET: I try not to look out my window that much, Danny.
You don’t? Your office is all window on two sides and you make an effort not to look out? Color me skeptical.
BARTLET: What protestors?
DANNY: Vermeil.
BARTLET: (beat) Vermeil.
DANNY: Yes, sir.
C.J.: Danny, I’m gonna cover vermeil at the briefing. That’s all folks, I got to bring in the next group.
That’s… not exactly the best way to cut off the subject, C.J.
C.J.: My whole one o’clock briefing is gonna be about the vermeil protestors, isn’t it?
DANNY: Well, I just raised a question in front of twenty-four White House press reporters and you didn’t answer it, so I would assume that there would be some sort of follow-up, yes.
He’s been here a while, hasn’t he?
BARTLET: I can’t decide if that man is boring or rude, but he’s one or the other.
LEO: I’m sorry to hear that.
BARTLET: I’m sitting out there trying to figure out how this guy could campaign for something and win, then I remembered, we usually rig the election.
We’re learning a lot about the CIA this episode, aren’t we?
BARTLET: You think it’s important he sit at my table tonight?
LEO: He’s the guest of honor, so it is customary.
BARTLET: Where are you sitting?
LEO: At your table, sir.
BARTLET: Where’s Toby sitting?
LEO: With C.J. and Josh and Sam.
BARTLET: Ah, that’s the fun table.
Once again, we’re treated to the implication that the President and Toby have a deeper relationship than the President has with his other staffers outside of Leo, what with his question specifically about where Toby is sitting.
LEO: I just wanted to let you know that we’re going to clear out a battle carrier group from the Norfolk Naval Yard.
BARTLET: Because of the hurricane.
LEO: Yes, it’s standard procedure. They want to get the ships out of the way.
This action will have consequences.
SAM: “Indonesia’s constitution highlights democratic principles.” Toby —
TOBY: Read.
SAM: I know what you’re gearing up for.
So do we, he’s really telegraphing it.
SAM: Toby, do you really think it’s a good idea to invite people to dinner and then tell them exactly what they’re doing wrong with their lives?
TOBY: Absolutely, otherwise it’s just a waste of food.
(beep) Sarcasm Self Test complete! (beep)
SAM: Can we soften the top of this?
TOBY: No.
SAM: Something like, “As has often been said, a true friend tells another friend the truth, and on some issues, we must speak candidly, or we could not, in all honestly, hold the great honor of being known the world over as Indonesia’s friend.”
TOBY: (beat) Wow… that was just about the worst writing I have ever heard.
SAM: I know.
The scene continues from here in the draft script:
DRAFT TOBY: That was really somethin’ special, Sam.
DRAFT SAM: It was very bad.
DRAFT TOBY: You want a little break?
DRAFT SAM: Yeah, I need to shake it off.
DRAFT TOBY: Let’s take lunch.
DRAFT SAM: See you later.
DRAFT TOBY: You know I think it would’ve worked, Sam, if you’d used the word ‘friend’ three or four more times.
DRAFT SAM: Thanks.
DRAFT TOBY: Can you try a draft of that where you use the word ‘friend’ as many times as possible in one sentence?
The implications of the dynamic of this writing team aside, this exchange certainly does feel a bit extra, so I don’t mind its being cut.
C.J.: Vermeil is gilded silver — silver covered in gold. The White House has one of the largest collections in the world.
TOM: Why the protestors?
C.J.: Well, these are 18th and 19th century French objects, many designed by the noted European silversmith, Jean-Baptiste Claude Odiot. The Collection is kept in the Gold Room along with the ten-arm glass cut chandelier, which was made in England in 1785.
Dropped from this explanation is how most of the vermeil was donated by one Mrs. Margaret Thompson Biddle — which is a true statement: she bequeathed her collection of over 1500 vermeil pieces to the White House upon her death in 1956. The explanation here is already information overload, so I suppose no one misses it.
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Tom
Previous instances: A Few Good Men; Sports Night 103; The West Wing 103
C.J.: … in general, they’re seen in some circles as a symbol of a government’s bloody and tyrannical oppression of its own people. We use them as centerpieces with a seasonal floral arrangement.
TOM: Is the President concerned this might send the wrong message?
C.J.: (beat) I’ll be honest with you, Tom, I haven’t run this by the Preisdent yet…
You probably shouldn’t, to be honest…
C.J.: I won’t need a transcript of that.
“Cut! Allison, please, I needn’t remind you about our writer’s policy on ad-libbing!”
C.J.: You’re a rabble-rouser, you know that? You rouse rabbles.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves another line I could put on a ten-hour loop.
C.J.: I went and looked at your big vermeil demonstration — six people in Lafayette Park with oak tag and magic markers.
DANNY: I didn’t say it was Selma, Alabama or anything.
That’s what C.J.’s folk would call a “sin of omission”, Danny.foreshadowing detected
Also! Season 1 briefing room location entry #3: far upstage left (relative to lobby entrance) — technically the same location as episode two, if you account for entering the front then and exiting the back now. If only episode four had been consistent…
DANNY: Say, what are you wearing tonight?
C.J.: What am I wearing tonight?
DANNY: Yeah.
C.J.: Your paper wants to know what I’m wearing?
DANNY: Not my paper, that was just for me.
C.J.: (stops) You want to know what I’m wearing?
DANNY: Yeah.
C.J.: (pause) Well… I’m wearing… an evening gown of… grey silk.
Another change from the costume department: we went from blue silk to grey silk. How Allison Janney looks in blue silk is left as an exercise to the reader’s imagination.
SAM: And the point I was trying to make to Toby was that this toast is coming at the end of two days of policy talks, and maybe at dinner we could lighten it up.
Astute readers may recall that this scene with Sam and Laurie is a repurpose of a previously written scene for episode 104 (“Five Votes Down”) which got cut. Where as previously written Sam expresses his misgivings with Josh’s strategy for getting Democratic holdouts in line, here Sam expresses his misgivings with Toby’s strategy for the State dinner toast. The scene’s placement here is considerably more apropos, as we’ll see later.
SAM: I’m having trouble deciding between the ham and cheese and the chicken salad.
LAURIE: This might help you — the chicken salad’s mine.
SAM: Yeah, but this kind of environment is basically community food, right?
What? What the hell kind of restaurants have you been going to, Sam?
LAURIE: You’re not afraid of being seen with me right now?
SAM: Because of the way you’re dressed?
LAURIE: No, not — why? What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed?
SAM: Nothing.
LAURIE: No, because of my night job, Sam — you’re not afraid of being seen with me?
SAM: No.
LAURIE: Okay.
SAM: Your night job’s crummy.
LAURIE: Yes, I know.
All largely the same as how it was originally written for three episodes prior, with the exception of a small addition of Laurie doing a double-take on Sam’s quip about how she’s dressed — indeed, in both instances, we even have a line that dropped where Sam says, “We won’t talk about it now.” Immediately after that cut, however, is where we start to deviate:
SAM: So, you got a thing tonight? A date?
LAURIE: A client?
SAM: Yeah.
LAURIE: Yeah.
…
SAM: Where’s he taking you?
LAURIE: I don’t know.
SAM: Okay.
LAURIE: No, I really don’t know, Sam. He calls me, he tells me what to wear, and the rest of it’s a big surprise.
Here we see how this scene is better placed in this episode than three episodes ago: it allows for a considerably better attachment to the events of the rest of the episode, whose payoff we’ll see in later scenes.
NEW Dialogue Motif: Then shut up
LAURIE: … I’d like to learn this myself so I can graduate from law school, practice law, and give up my night job.
SAM: And I’d like you to learn from my experience when I tell you that law school bears little relationship to the practice of law.
LAURIE: It bears some relationship to graduating, though, right?
SAM: Yes.
LAURIE: Then shut up.
Ever seen a more succinct summation of the problem with the American education system? Students are more concerned with graduating than actually learning, it’s the same with law school as it is with high school or college.
REESE: Certainly, I think we’re all agreed that militias impose an inherent threat.
Mercifully, the start of this scene got cut in which Josh and Mandy arrive at the front office to the Oval to some small talk with Mrs. Landingham before heading into the Oval, which Mandy caps off by quipping that Josh is the “Eddie Haskell of the White House”. Having Mandy indirectly insult Mrs. Landingham like that would have been unbearable, if you ask me, so I’m very glad that got cut.
MANDY: Kooks, nuts, extremists, the lunatic fringe element — this is the inevitable and unavoidable byproduct of a democracy, such [sic] as pornography is the unavoidable byproduct of free speech.
JOSH: Excuse me, Mr. President, these people aren’t thumbing through Hustler, they’re armed. They’re evading arrest and they’re holding hostages.
MANDY: We think they’re holding hostages — plus, we’re the ones who sold them the gun in the first place.
CHAFEY: Yes, it’s called a sting, Mandy.
MANDY: Yeah, but another word for it is entrapment.
Read the room, woman.
MANDY: I’m not talking about the courts, I’m talking about public opinion.
REESE: Then this is two different conversations.
You think?
RETURNING Verbal Tic: To say nothing of [the fact]
Running count: 8
MANDY: Why can’t we starve them out?
REESE: They’ve got, like, a five-year supply of food and water — to say nothing of ammunition.
LEO: Josh?
JOSH: (beat) There’s no way this’ll end good. All that’s left is to end it fast.
LEO: I agree.
MANDY: What about a negotiator?
CHAFEY: Negotiate what?
MANDY: A peaceful settlement.
Good luck with that.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Let me tell you something
Running count: 13
MANDY: Let me tell you something — ultimately, it is not the nuts that are the greatest threat to democracy. As history has shown us over and over and over again, the greatest threat to democracy is the unbridled power of the state over its citizens — which, by the way, that power is always unleashed in the name of preservation.
Airdate: 10 Nov 1999 — I’m writing this months ahead of time, so someone will have to let me know in the comments if Palestine still exists.
MANDY: … are you just pissed off because I got into the game?
Tempting fate, anyone?foreshadowing detected
LEO: Mandy, the President’s going to go with your plan. Chafey’s going to send in a negotiator.
MANDY: Good.
JOSH: (beat) Well, you’re in the game now.
Unfortunately for you, the game is soccer. Good luck keeping the audience awake.
NEW Dialogue Motif: Haul ass™
DONNA: If you can’t explain what you’re doing there, the assumption is that you’re a sorcerer. If you try to run, the assumption is that you’re a sorcerer, okay? So if anything happens, the prudent thing is to stand still and calmly explain your business.
JOSH: Well, prudent or not, once the scythe comes out, I’m probably going to haul ass.
Understandable, Josh, but consider the alternative: what if you challenged them to a limbo match instead?
CHARLIE: My grandparents own a little house off the Georgia coast.
JOSH: Are they evacuated?
CHARLIE: I don’t know where they are. I’ve been trying all day.
…
JOSH: Donna, call FEMA, use my name. When that doesn’t work, use Leo’s name.
Josh continues the work-family-is-family throughline by treating Charlie’s family as his own — and I suppose there’s also something be said about Charlie’s not making the call himself, even though he’s theoretically in a position to perform such an abuse of power on his own. Still early days for him, I guess…foreshadowing detected
MANDY: The FBI guy’s been in there a couple of hours.
JOSH: Yeah?
MANDY: You think it’s a good sign?
JOSH: I really don’t know.
MANDY: I’m asking you what you think.
JOSH: I-I don’t have any thoughts on it one way or the other.
MANDY: What’s happening with the teamsters?
JOSH: I don’t know.
MANDY: Any news on the hurricane?
JOSH: Not that I’m aware of.
MANDY: What is it you do here, exactly?
JOSH: It’s never really been made clear to me.
“But it’s the White House, so it’s probably not important.”
JOSH: Toby!
SAM: He’s not here.
“Cut! Rob, you’re supposed to say he’s in the Mural Room! Actually, hold on, that doesn’t make much sense… yeah, okay, never mind, let’s do it the way you did it.”
SAM: We look good!
JOSH: Don’t we? (starts adjusting SAM’s tie)
MANDY: You guys want to be alone?
Ayo?
TOBY: This is Mr. Minaldi, the interpreter for the State.
JOSH: You do speak Indonesian, don’t you?
MINALDI: There’s no such language as Indonesian. Indonesians speak 583 different languages. I speak Javanese. Mr. Bambang speaks Batak.
Strictly speaking, there actually is a language referred to as “Indonesian”, a variety of Malay which is the national language of Indonesia as of its post-World War II independence and spoken fluently by 97% of its population as of 2020. The idea that an Indonesian government official would not be fluent in a common language is therefore a little questionable.
DONNA: … Mr. Minaldi speaks Portuguese.
TOBY: Where does that get us?
DONNA: Well, there’s a guy who works in the kitchen who can translate Mr. Bomb-Bang Ba—
MINALDI: Bambang
DONNA: — Bambang’s Batak into Portuguese, then Mr. Minaldi will translate it into English.
TOBY: Wait a minute, uh, why can’t the kitchen guy translate Batak into English?
DONNA: The kitchen guy doesn’t speak English.
TOBY: You’re kidding me.
DONNA: Well, no, he speaks Batak and Portuguese so I wouldn’t look down your nose.
Tell him, sister!
DONNA: (adjusting JOSH’s tie) I’m sorry.
This line got added in exchange for the following sequence:
DRAFT JOSH: Donna —
DRAFT DONNA: I’ll set everything up. I’ll come get you.
DRAFT JOSH: Thank you.
DRAFT DONNA: Hey, Josh.
DRAFT JOSH: Yeah.
DRAFT DONNA: You ever just stop and say to yourself, “Wow, I can’t believe where I work?”
DRAFT JOSH: Yeah.
DRAFT DONNA: Good.
I suppose someone thought the conversation was too weak, but I honestly think it could have worked with some tweaks — giving Donna the opportunity to put Josh’s frustrations in context for him would have been a wonderful character beat which might have accelerated her deserved rise to the opening credits.
C.J.: Excuse me, have you seen the [First Lady?]
ABBEY: (O.S.) [C.J.!]
Ah, and the Yeti arrives! We’ve so far heard a number of (potentially conflicting) things about the First Lady in her absense, let’s see how much of it is true now!
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Would(n’t) kill you
Running count: 3
ABBEY: Nice threads, girl!
C.J.: Thank you, ma’‘am.
ABBEY: Showing a little décolletage wouldn’t kill you dead.
To be fair, it would probably kill the censors, ma’am.
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Harry
Previous instances: The American President; The West Wing 104, 107
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Nancy
Previous instance: The West Wing (recurring)
RETURNING Sorkin Name: O’Malley
Previous instance: A Few Good Men
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Doug(las)
Previous instances: The American President; Sports Night 108
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Steve(n)
Previous instance: Sports Night 115
ABBEY: C.J., this is Harry and Nancy O’Malley and Douglas and Barbara Coleson — and their son, Steven, who’s a cardiologist.
Holy shit, I need a moment to recover from that many returning Sorkin names… (breathes deeply)
C.J.: I spoke to Peggy about the vermeil. You might get a few questions.
ABBEY: I’m not embarrassed by the vermeil. It’s not as if we spent new money on it.
C.J.: Yes, but it’s history.
ABBEY: It’s our history. Better or worse, it’s our history, we’re not going to lock it in the basement or brush it with a new coat of paint. It’s our history.
C.J.: Okay, well… good answer.
Eh… mostly — if we truly wanted it to be about history, then the vermeil pieces would be put into a museum setting, not into active use. It’s sort of the same principle as why statues of Robert E. Lee should be placed in museums instead of town squares: outside the explicit context of education, you risk the appearance of glorification, intentional or not, which can at best alienate people and at worst make them feel disenfranchised.
ABBEY: Oh, I’m sorry, is that Leo McGarry, or is that Fred Astaire?
Hold on…
Hey, he maybe could have passed, actually!
ABBEY: (to LEO) Mingle.
Cut after this moment is a small continuation wherein Toby, Josh, and Sam enter and the First Lady, after complimenting how cute they look in their suits, cajoles them into having pictures taken of the four of them, much to Toby’s chagrin. I trust time was in short supply?
LEO: Carl? I’d like you to meet —
CARL: Toby Ziegler, Sam Seaborn, and Joshua Lyman.
TOBY: Our reputations precede us.
CARL: They ought to — you three do fine work.
Hold on — how would he know that, exactly? White House staffers make a point of having their accomplishments credited to the office rather than to their individual selves, so outside parties’ being able to attribute work to their names shouldn’t be strictly possible.
CARL: This is Brittany. Brittany, this is —
TOBY: Toby Ziegler.
JOSH: Josh Lyman.
…
SAM: Sam Seaborn.
LAURIE: Nice to meet you.
CARL: Look, we’re going to head on over, but maybe I’ll get a chance to talk to you all later.
JOSH: Great.
Cut after this moment is the following exchange after Everett and Laurie leave:
DRAFT SAM: Toby — Everett’s date?
DRAFT TOBY: Yeah?
DRAFT SAM: No pictures with the President.
DRAFT TOBY: Why?
DRAFT SAM: Trust me.
DRAFT TOBY: Yeah, okay.
I suppose it would have been a little hard to justify that Toby would take Sam at his word without pressing further for explanation here, so that cut is probably appropriate — especially since Toby could have easily put two and two together afterward anyway, which definitely wouldn’t have helped Sam.
DONNA: Your grandparents are in a shelter in Granville.
CHARLIE: Oh, man, thank god — thank you, Donna. You know how long they’re going to have to stay there for?
DONNA: Well, people are being sent back to their houses right now. Get this — the hurricane shifted direction.
CHARLIE: You’re kidding.
DONNA: No, it’s heading back out to the Atlantic.
One man’s treasure is another man’s trash:
C.J.: It’s a whole new situation.
LEO: It’s moving east, it’s moving back out, what kind of situation?
C.J.: For some reason, there’s a fleet of ships out there.
LEO: (beat) Oh god…
“It was at this moment that he knew… he fucked up.”
C.J.: What do you want to do?
LEO: (beat) Let’s do this thing, and then get ready.
C.J.: I should start to work now.
LEO: Ah, I don’t want to tip the press. Let’s go to a party.
Really? You want to hide it from the press? I don’t think they’ll take too kindly to that.
MANDY: Josh, I’m not hearing anything from the FBI, and I’m not hearing anything from Justice. It’s been about a half an hour and I can’t get any information out of Idaho.
And yet it was your job to keep Josh informed! Some job you did…
JOSH: That was Chafey. They took the house — thirty-four occupants, they’re all in custody.
MANDY: What happened?
JOSH: They shot the FBI negotiator, he’s in critical condition.
See? The FBI’s calling Josh directly instead, and he’s informing you! You really dropped the ball, sister.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: I would think/imagine
Running count: 6
BARTLET: The hurricane just shifted direction without any warning?
LEO: It’s not an anomaly, but it’s unusual.
BARTLET: I would think.
Is it really that unusual? Seems to me like every season has at least one hurricane whose path is massively mispredicted. I may just be over-remembering the failures, though.
BARTLET: How many men, how many ships?
BRYCE: This battle group is made up of the aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy, which carries a crew of five thousand men; two guided missile cruisers; two destroyers; and two battleships. All tolled, it’s a little over twelve thousand men.
Each of the individual missile cruisers, destroyers, and battleships were given names as the line was originally written in the draft script. Audience attention spans were in the minds of those in charge of editing, I suppose.
BARTLET: What do I do now?
LEO: Go back to the party.
Gee, Leo is using the party as a salve for pretty much everything, I guess. Here’s hoping President Siguto doesn’t die soon so the White House doesn’t stop having State dinners.
At this point, the draft script has another scene which got cut from the final product: Mandy is sitting out in the covered terrace when Josh and Charlie arrive to attempt to comfort her. I assure you, you don’t miss the scene: Charlie ends up fucking up the attempt pretty badly, and Josh’s try simply ends with a “get up off the mat”.
TOBY: Mr. Gomez, you speak Batak, is that correct?
MINALDI: Senhor Gomez, o senhor fala Balak, correto?
GOMEZ: Sim.
MINALDI: Yes.
TOBY: And as you just did, you also speak Portuguese.
MINALDI: E como acabou de fazer, o senhor tambem fala português.
GOMEZ: Sim.
MINALDI: Yes.
TOBY: But not English?
MINALDI: Mas não fala inglês?
GOMEZ: Não.
MINALDI: No.
It should interest you to know that the entire above exchange is written out as spoken in the draft script in the appropriate languages — only difference being the typesetter used evidently did not support diacritics, so they were written in after-the-fact, with the circumflex in português placed incorrectly and the tilde in the first não incorrectly replaced with a circumflex. As for the Portuguese itself, I know enough Spanish to recognize that the Portuguese as translated is all correct.
TOBY: Mr. Bambang, thank you for agreeing to meet with me today.
MINALDI: Senhor Bambang, obrigado por ter concordado em vir me encontrar.
GOMEZ: Bapak Bambang, (utter jibberish)
I’m not even going to attempt to transcribe what our cook said here because it is nothing like what was written in the draft script, nor does it even come close to any of what Google Translate has to offer of the three different languages named Batak (Batak Karo, Batak Simalungun, and Batak Toba). None of them agree exactly with Gomez’s translation of Toby’s initial greeting as written in the draft script, which is almost certainly because Google is inaccurate, but in approximation the draft script appears to be dealing specifically with Batak Simalungun. Our dear cook dropped the ball here, unfortunately, so we may never know for sure.
JOSH: Are you enjoying the evening?
TOBY: (over the translations) Josh, this isn’t really the best context for chit-chat, you know what I mean?
JOSH: Mandy is pretty upset.
TOBY: Did you talk to her?
JOSH: I didn’t do a great job.
We don’t even need to see the scene that got cut to believe Josh’s self-awareness here.
NEW Plot Bunny: The No-English Gag™
TOBY: Mr. Bambang —
BAMBANG: Why don’t we just speak in English?
JOSH: (pause) Donna…
DONNA: I was told that he —
JOSH: Yes.
DONNA: You should keep in mind all the things I do right.
JOSH: Yes.
DONNA: Should I go?
JOSH: Yes.
TOBY: Mr. Gomez, Mr. Minaldi, thank you for your trouble.
MINALDI: (to GOMEZ) Ele fala inglês.
This last aside between Minaldi and Gomez appears to have been thrown in, in exchange for an embarrassed Minaldi verbalizing how Bambang spoke English the whole time before leaving. I’m all for more language porn, so thumbs up on the switch for me.
BAMBANG: What can I do for you, gentlemen?
TOBY: A friend of mine is in one of your jails. I want you to let him out.
Interestingly, the scene is split in two at this point as originally written, with the next two scenes inserted in the middle. I don’t see anything gained from having the scene split apart personally, so I’d say it was a wise decision to recombine.
BAMBANG: But your friend isn’t an American.
The only downside is that there’s no context as to how Bambang could possibly know that without any time’s passing, but I suppose he could have sussed out ahead of time what the conversation was going to be about, which is supported by how the conversation goes later.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Don’t give a damn
Running count: 5
TOBY: He’s French.
BAMBANG: Well, then why not let the French take care of this one?
TOBY: Because he’s my friend and the French don’t give a damn.
“I’d ask them to try, but they’d probably just surrender.”foreshadowing detected
JOSH: We’re not talking about the extradition process.
TOBY: What we’re talking about is that you unlock the cell, you put him in a car, and you drive him to the border.
These two lines were originally one long line given to Josh. I suppose Mr. Sorkin wanted to hear Richard Schiff talk more?
BAMBANG: I think you have a lot of nerve. That was a despicable and humiliating toast your President made — and I know you were the one who wrote it.
Okay, you know what, it just occurred to me how little direction Toby and Sam received from the President, given they were in disagreement as to the tone for the toast. Sam could easily have escalated their disagreement to the President for clarification on his expectations, at which point if the President sided with Toby, he would have had a better answer to Bambang’s charge than he ended up giving:
TOBY: Please understand that with so may people watching… with so much media coverage, it was important for us to make clear that the United States, with its commitment to human rights, [has an obligation —]
BAMBANG: [Mr. Ziegler,] does it strike you at all hypocritical that a people who systematically wiped out a century’s worth of Native Americans should lecture the world so earnestly on human rights?
TOBY: (beat) Yes, it does.
It doesn’t strike me as hypocritical! It strikes me as a nation with a dark history earnestly trying to prevent other countries from making the same horrendous mistakes they did. It’s much the same as when Germany cautions its neighbors against electing fascists — should we be calling Germany hypocritical in that scenario? I think not!
Also, put this moment as another in the bucket of “what the hell is this background music doing”, good lord…
DANNY: KDHN in Boise is reporting an FBI agent went down on a raid on a house in McClane.
C.J.: We’ll have a statement in fifteen minutes.
DANNY: What happened?
C.J.: Now, did you hear me say we’ll have a statement in fifteen minutes? God, Danny…
The censors were awake for a Sorkin script again, it seems — C.J. was originally slated to go “Jesus” instead of “God”, just like with three episodes prior for Leo. If only Jesus were the head of Standards & Practices…foreshadowing detected
C.J.: You know what? You’re the one who goes around town saying that I’m too friendly with the press corps and that that makes me a weak press secretary.
DANNY: I never said you’re a weak press secretary.
C.J.: Yeah, but you’ve been thinking it.
A cut continuance:
DRAFT DANNY: C.J., I gotta say, you’re a bit of a lunatic.
DRAFT C.J.: You said I was too friendly with the press.
DRAFT DANNY: You are.
DRAFT C.J.: I have work to do.
Danny’s agreement feels out of place, frankly, so I don’t miss this quartet’s removal — and the ‘lunatic’ comment would serve to clash tonally with what follows:
C.J.: You really like the dress?
DANNY: (beat) Yes.
C.J.: (beat) Alright, whatever.
(sigh) I take it back, I want what was cut back in favor of dropping that.
Also, small note: this scene and the next were originally swapped in the draft script. I have… nothing to add on that, it’s just another completely useless fact. Sometimes I have to throw one out on occasion, I guess.
RETURING Verbal Tic: No kidding/shit
Running count: 4
RUSSO: To accept these policies means that the Teamsters Union will be significantly weakened in its ability to represent or retain the loyalty of younger workers and we’re not going to let that happen!
LITTLE: I disagree.
RUSSO: No kidding!
(BARTLET walks in and slams the door, all stand)
BARTLET: How are we doing?
“Cut! Martin, please, it’s another how ya doin’, you know how important that is!”
CARL: Can I cut to the last page?
SAM: Sure.
CARL: I think you’re someone that [sic] I could have a relationship with.
A couple of lines dropped before Everett’s declaration:
DRAFT CARL: You get a lot of face time with the President, right?
DRAFT SAM: Usually a little more than I’m comfortable with.
Why, oh why, did that couplet have to be cut? If nothing else, it would have partially explained why Sam was loathe to have the President mediate his disagreement with Toby earlier.
SAM: You want to have a relationship with me?
Get your mind out of the gutter, Sam…
SAM: I cost five hundred an hour.
Damnit.
SAM: In the private sector — I billed out at $500 an hour.
You know you’re being subtweeted, right, Carl?
Side note: the line continues in the draft script with Sam noting how the White House is “pretty rigid about my taking on private clients”, which… actually would have made an interesting parallel with something we’ll get in a later episode, but I’ll save that for then.
LAURIE: You know, I’m sorry, Sam, but this isn’t exactly your business. I’m not here because of you, I’m just here because I’m here, I would be here whether you were here or not, you’re just some guy who happens to know me.
SAM: (angrily) Thank you.
LAURIE: I didn’t — you know what I mean.
SAM: No. Could you keep talking about being here and not being here until blood starts pouring out of my ears?
I’d pay to see that.
ABBEY: Sam?
SAM: Yes?
ABBEY: Wouldn’t you like to introduce me to your friend?
SAM: Okay.
(awkward beat)
LAURIE: Mrs. Bartlet, I’m Brittany Rollins.
What do you suppose the First Lady made of this moment? At the very least, she should be able to suss out that Sam probably didn’t know the name of his “friend” — which is halfway true. Thankfully for him, though, she doesn’t seem to care:
ABBEY: Actually, I was looking for the President.
SAM: He had to step out to the West Wing.
ABBEY: Oh.
SAM: I’m not sure why, but I could [go —]
ABBEY: [Oh,] to pistol-whip the trucking industry.
SAM: Why would he —
ABBEY: Because he can’t save a gunshot victim and he can’t stop a hurricane.
Hoo, boy, she knows her husband too well…
LAURIE: Sam…
SAM: I’ll give you $10,000 not to go home with that guy tonight.
What in the absolute fuck?! #SamSeabornIsAnAsshole once again…
BARTLET: I have a Nobel Prize in Economics and I’m here to tell you that none of you know what the hell you’re talking about.
Neither do you, if you insist there’s a Nobel Prize in Economics.
BARTLET: At 12:01am, I’m using my excecutive power to nationalize the trucking industry.
LITTLE: You can’t do that, Mr. President.
BARTLET: Fourteen White House lawyers disagree.
FOURTEEN!
BARTLET: Truman did it in ‘52 with the coal mines.
LITTLE: And it was struck down by the Supreme [Court.]
BARTLET: [It’s been] fifty years, there’s a new bench and I’ll take my chances.
Nah, come on, Mr. President, you really think the Supreme Court would purposefully go against established precedent to favor your executive agenda?
… Fuck.
ABBEY: You know, one of the things that happens when I stay away too long is that you forget that you don’t have the power to fix everything. (beat) You have a big brain, and a good heart, and an ego the size of Montana.
Montana? You sure you don’t mean Texas? Or Alaska? You’re aiming low on the big state list there, ma’am…
ABBEY: You don’t have the power to fix everything… but I do like watching you try.
For as little screen time as we’ve gotten for the First Lady so far, you definitely get the impression of a well-established relationship between her and the President with the lines we do get from her. The relationship feels lived-in in a way we haven’t yet gotten from a marriage in a Sorkin work — which is worth pointing out, in my opinion, because Mr. Sorkin could just as easily have made this President a bachelor to shake things up, but didn’t. That relationship feels further established by the following scene:
BARTLET: We got the fleet commander?
…
LEO: The kid in the radio shack.
BARTLET: You’re kidding.
BRYCE: No, sir.
ABBEY: Jed? Talk to the boy.
“Better half”, indeed…
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Harold
Previous instance: A Few Good Men
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Lewis
Previous instances: The American President; The West Wing 101
BARTLET: Hickory, this is the White House. Who [sic] am I speaking to?
HAROLD: (over radio) This is Signalman Third Class Harold Lewis.
…
BARTLET: Are you alright, Harold?
HAROLD: (over radio) I hit my head on… I-I-I… I hit my head.
BARTLET: Are you bleeding?
HAROLD: (over radio) Yes, sir.
BARTLET: Can you put something on it?
HAROLD: (over radio) Well, I need to get to the other… I-I can’t reach it and…
BARTLET: You go over and get it. I’ll stay right here. (long pause) Harold?
You’ll note as a background event for this scene, Josh puts his arms around Mandy from behind and starts slowly rocking her back and forth. This action was originally coupled with a set of lines at this point:
DRAFT MANDY: What are you doing?
DRAFT JOSH: I’m dancing with you.
DRAFT MANDY: Why?
DRAFT JOSH: I was ordered to.
I’m at a loss as to how Mr. Sorkin didn’t find that exchange to be tonally clashing before writing it down, to be perfectly honest — good riddance.
BARTLET: Can you tell us what’s going on?
HAROLD: (over radio) Well… we’re looking at I guess 80-foot seas with winds up to 120 knots. (beat) We’re shipping solid green water over the bow, and we’ve got a fire in the engine room. We lost our running lights and may get run over by an aircraft carrier that can’t see in the dark.
(shocked silence)
BARTLET: Well, I don’t know, man… sounds pretty bad, Harold, I think I’d ask for my money back.
Levity attempt status: FAIL
BARTLET: I’m gonna stay right here, as long as the radio works, okay?
HAROLD: (over radio) Yes, sir.
And with his wife holding his shoulder, the President transitions himself seamlessly into the role of Comforter-in-Chief — a true president, right there.
Now let us evaluate the episode: the return of the White House Chaos™ serves to provide the show with a healthy dose of truth-in-television that has since the pilot gone largely sidelined. The trade-off, of course, is that most of the threads of that chaos likely would not survive the scrutiny of being presented as the A-plot for a more focused episode — particuarly the subplot given to C.J. and Danny, which feels the most tacked on of all the threads. By and large, however, the strategy still serves to have much the same impact as a more monofocused episode, so how thin the threads may be can be forgiven. The introduction of the First Lady to the screen also makes for a breath of fresh air that promises to provide more fruit in future episodes as well — though arguably at the expense of potentially invalidating what we’ve heard of the woman before this episode, but as we all know ‘canon’ is a dirty word in the Sorkin television universe.
If you managed to get this far into the series without doing so yet, you have yourself another golden opportunity to hit the subscribe button like it insulted your sister. Coming up next: … oh, boy…
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