Entry 039 - The West Wing 108 (Enemies)
In which the writer's room apparently can't be trusted
SERIES: The West Wing
EPISODE NUMBER: 108
TITLE: Enemies
PREMIERE: 17 Nov 1999
WRITING CREDITS: Ron Osborn & Jeff Reno (teleplay); Rick Cleveland & Lawrence O’Donnell Jr. & Patrick Caddell (story)
DIRECTOR: Alan Taylor
DRAFT SCRIPT: PDF
We now arrive at the second television episode for this project for which Mr. Sorkin is not in the writing credits. “Enemies”, the eighth episode for the first season of The West Wing, is one of three episodes during Mr. Sorkin’s tenure on the show for which he eschewed writing credit (which was only wholly accurate in one case). In place of his name is a veritable laundry list of writers present in the writers’ room for The West Wing, suggesting an actual group effort went into bringing this episode to life.
Here’s the thing, though: I’m, like, 95% confident the writing credits on this episode are incorrect.
I realize that’s a bold claim to make — and, believe me, I’m not just making it because Rick Cleveland is one of the writers credited. I feel confident saying as much because of the publicly available draft script with the name of this episode attached to it.
I can tell you with 100% confidence that Aaron Sorkin had nothing to do with this draft script. If you think I’m kidding, I invite you to try to read through this script in one sitting and not feel like you’ve been dropped into an alternate universe.
The script starts out familiarly enough: the cold open is much the same with some tweaks, then we also have coffee with Leo and Mallory as well as C.J.’s interaction with a cheerful President the following morning. After that, we get the top of the scene with the Vice President starting the Cabinet meeting. At this point, the draft script as available is missing some pages — after which, the episode is completely unrecognizable.
I’m not kidding: everything after the missing pages is nothing like the episode as aired. The draft and episode are so dissimilar that there really is no point in interleaving notes on the draft script into the episode runthrough like I usually do. I will instead have to summarize the draft at the top then get into the episode after that.
The events of the episode as drafted begin with a focus on a White House conference on child labor reform. The conference was the brain child of the Vice President, whose spat with the President in the fourth act centered on how combating child labor was originally the First Lady’s pet cause and how the VP was therefore stepping on the First Lady’s toes. At the conference is one Robert Turner, a corporate officer for a company which is later revealed to have child labor on their books, much to the embarrassment of the White House afterward.
Also present at the party is one Bill Franklin, a Democratic challenger for a seat in the Senate who much like Robert Turner is on Mandy’s advice directed away from a photo-op with the President due to potential skeletons in the closet, though Mandy is loathe to say exactly what to Josh when she gives the advice. When Josh later gets chewed out by Leo for preventing the photo-op, Josh confronts a still non-compliant Mandy then later finds out on his own that Mandy has been considering consulting for the Republican incumbent of said Senate seat, much to his ire — and later Leo’s ire when he learns. In the face of that ire, Mandy starts to consider quitting her White House job in favor of the new consulting gig, only for the President to show up out of nowhere and give her a big folksy speech on the virtues and downsides of the two-party system — which somehow changes her mind. (Okay, then.)
Josh’s focus is also dominated by one Julie Hyland, a twenty-something actress who attends the conference on child labor and immediately takes a shine to our deputy chief of staff. They have dinner together after the conference, after which Josh at one point literally brags about having gotten her number to his fellow White House senior staffers. Ms. Hyland ends up staying in town a few more days to testify on animal rights, which leads to their seeing each other a few more times — including an awkward moment where they make out in front of a Secret Service officer guarding the elevator in the Residence. The relationship makes for teasing fodder for Mandy, who uses it to misdirect the conversation away from her consulting sins on multiple occasions. The three of them end up in Josh’s office together toward the end in an awkwardly quiet situation, only for Donna to come in to ask for Ms. Hyland’s autograph to cut the tension. After Josh dismisses Donna and Mandy, Ms. Hyland straight up asks if all assistants are in love with their bosses. (Good fucking lord…)
That, of course, doesn’t not constitute the A-plot, which is a confused mix of Toby feeling attacked by the press and — wait for it — a land use rider attached to the President’s banking bill. Yes, something survived from the draft script… except the way the rider is treated is almost entirely different. Where in the episode as we get it Josh is the one to fight back against the rider, the draft has Toby — fresh from feeling personally attacked by a newspaper opinion piece on the President’s less-than-stellar speeches as of late — go full tilt on trying to get the rider off the bill. The Oval Office conversation on the rider is considerably more vicious in the draft than in the episode, with the President taking time to blame Toby for his verbal shortcomings in the middle of the discussion in which only Toby is urging to threaten to veto the bill with the rider. His full tilt goes as far as to threaten extortion against the lobbyist Crane, which he realizes very quickly was a mistake. That’s not the last of Toby’s arc in this draft, but I’ll have to come back to that.
For the resolution of the rider story specifically, however, we turn not to Josh… but to Sam. That’s right, Sam Seaborn was originally supposed to be the hero of the story. Starting out his arc, he sees Mallory bringing yet more things from home to Leo and offers to make up for his horrendous performance for her fourth grade class by giving another presentation of some sort to them. Mallory is too preoccupied in that moment to provide a coherent response to Sam’s offer, but she later leaves a message offering to have Sam as a presenter at her civics course for adult immigrants aiming to become US citizens, on the topic of what new citizens need to know about the President. The actual presentation goes about exactly as you expect: Sam is thoroughly uninformed and ends up learning more from the prospective citizens than they learn from him — including the powers the President has under the Antiquities Act. This point leads to a eureka moment where Sam stops the President before he announces to the press that he’s vetoing his own bill and gives him the clean way out instead.
It’s a Hollywood ending, as is explicitly lampshaded both by Toby and by Mandy in response. That’s not the end of the script, however, as we get three solo shots in quick succession to cap off the episode as drafted. The first is inoffensive enough, with Leo’s E plot of feeling alone in the wake of his separation from Jenny culminating in his dissociatively sitting in his hotel room alone. The second and third, however, will leave a sour taste in your mouth.
You see, C.J. has a subplot of her own wherein, in the midst of Toby’s verbally mouthing off about how shit the press is, she has to deal with a particularly solicitous Danny, who asks her out to dinner to talk on the subject of child labor. (That connection has unfortunately become an ironic one.) He insists it’s not for a story, rather just for an intellectual conversation, but C.J. understandably swats away the ask. After Danny bails C.J. out of a viciously uncomfortable line of questioning from a group of other reporters in a briefing, however, C.J. inexplicably decides to take Danny up on the offer of dinner. The dinner is about as awkward as you expect, however, because C.J. constantly feels the need to censor herself in an effort to prevent a story from leaking — an effort she verbalizes by talking about how she has to serve both the President and the press in almost equal parts. That verbalization ends on how “everything’s a battle” and “half the time we don’t even know who the enemy is” — hence the name of the episode, one supposes. The subplot is capped with C.J. going to bed alone like Leo — though the stage direction in this case explicitly calls for her “looking like she wished it wasn’t the case”.
No way Mr. Sorkin wrote that — but that’s not even the worst of it!
Throughout the draft, it’s laid on thick that Toby is not in a pleasant mood or headspace. He’s even artlessly teased for it on one occasion by his fellow White House senior staffers in a moment that does none of those staffers any favors in the likability department. Toby’s verbal jihad against the press for their hackery over his writing also receives a (well-deserved) smack-down from C.J. on how they’re using the press as much as the press are using them, which compounds the President’s tone-deaf remarks on Toby’s speechwriting to leave Toby in a funk. We therefore likewise see Toby go to bed alone… but not before taking out a prescription bottle and popping a couple of antidepressants.
WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!
Forget Aaron Sorkin for a moment — whoever in the writers’ room was psychotic enough to show this draft script to Richard Schiff would have been stomped up and down on so fucking hard. This beat represents a completely egregious misunderstanding of the character of Toby Ziegler and would definitely not have flown with the rather particular actor portraying him. My sincere hope is that Mr. Sorkin got his hands on this draft first, saw how utterly horseshit it was, then rewrote it before any of the actors could see it. Whether that was actually the case is lost to time, unfortunately. For now:
DONNA: (V.O.) Previously on The West Wing…
Let’s get into the episode itself.
BARTLET: … I’m a national park buff, I bet you didn’t know that about me.
JOSH: Well, I-I-I didn’t know that about you, sir, but I’m certainly not surprised.
BARTLET: Why is that?
JOSH: (beat) You’re… quite a nerd, Mr. President.
BARTLET: Really?
JOSH: Yes, sir.
BARTLET: I assume that was said with all due respect.
Now, come on, Mr. President, you should know ‘nerd’ is a compliment in this White House!
BARTLET: There are 54 national parks in the country, Josh.
JOSH: Please tell me you haven’t been to all of them.
BARTLET: I have been to all of them — I should show you my slide collection.
For all you whippersnappers out there: slides were this printed photo format in which a two-by-two inch cardboard or plastic mount housed a positive film print for a photograph, allowing for straight optical projection where standard negative stock could not. Before you accuse me of looking all that up, I will let you know that I actually had a side-gig in high school converting people’s slide collections to digital photos — in addition to converting vinyl to MP3 and VHS to DVD. I have my experience.
BARTLET: Grand Canyon; Bryce Canyon; Badlands…
Somewhere in the distance, a jacket flips.
BARTLET: … Capitol Reef; Acadia, which is so often overlooked —
JOSH: You should certainly feel free to keep talking, but I need to go home so that I can be back in my office in four hours.
Hold up — the scene was prefaced with a post-title card indicating it was 1:30am. You mean to tell me Josh has to clock in to work at 5:30am? Does he ever get any proper sleep?
BARTLET: Dry Tortugas —
JOSH: See, the thing is, I can’t leave until you give me permission.
Okay, I’ll allow myself one inline note: Josh skipped a monosyllabic line after Bartlet’s citation of Acadia, which led the President to skip a line about how “the volcanos on the island of Hawaii are designated national parks, and the island represents eleven of the thirteen climates”. That line is actually slightly inaccurate, as one can infer from the wording that each of the five volcanos on the island of Hawai’i is its own park, but in reality there’s only one park on that island encompassing two volcanos — in addition to a second park on the neighboring Maui featuring yet another volcano.
BARTLET: We should organize a staff field trip to Shenandoah!
“I long to see her!”
BARTLET: What do you think?
JOSH: (under his breath) Good a place as any to dump your body.
BARTLET: What was that?
JOSH: (beat) Did I say that out loud?
Okay, one more: as originally written, Josh was supposed to deny that he said anything. I like how we get it instead better, personally, if for no other reason than it makes the President’s response make more sense:
BARTLET: See, and I was gonna let you go home.
JOSH: But instead?
BARTLET: We’re gonna talk about Yosemite.
“And how it makes America the greatest country in the world.”foreshadowing detected
Hey, listen to that, they rerecorded the main theme! We no longer hear that French horn having a stroke in the middle of the second bar. R.I.P. horn malfunction, WW 105-107
LEO: How much does a cup of coffee cost here, Tony?
TONY: Six dollars and fifty cents.
LEO: (to MALLORY) You want to pay the check?
MALLORY: (beat) No.
Nobody tell Mallory how much a cup of coffee costs at Starbucks.
SKINNER: Leo!
LEO: Congressman Skinner!
…
SKINNER: Congrats again, Leo.
LEO: To all of us.
Uhhhhhhh… does this count as a continuity error? It’s only halfway established two episodes ago, but in a later episode we’ll see it more firmly established that Congressman Skinner is a Republican. You tell me: do you expect to see a Republican sincerely congratulate a Democrat on a piece of financial regulation legislation, then have that Democrat share the congratulations back to said Republican? Color me skeptical.
LEO: You haven’t told me about your mother.
MALLORY: (beat) What do you want to know?
LEO: Is she… I don’t know. Tell me anything.
MALLORY: You could call her and ask her how she’s doing, you [know.]
LEO: [Yeah,] or I could just ask you.
MALLORY: You could, though clearly asking me wouldn’t do any good.
LEO: I’m beginning to get that impression.
Fathers and daughters, amirite?
LEO: Why can’t you say congratulations?
…
MALLORY: I just did.
LEO: Please, Mallory, you were — I don’t know, you were smirking —
MALLORY: Dad —
LEO: — or rolling your eyes.
MALLORY: I was doing neither.
LEO: You were doing it with your voice.
MALLORY: Father, you’ve gone ‘round the bend.
Nah, come on, Mal — rolling your eyes with your voice is totally something to expect from a Sorkin work. How dare you question your father’s mental faculties.
C.J.: They were talking about national parks ‘til two in the morning?
LANDINGHAM: I’d imagine the President was doing the lion’s share of the talking.
You think?
BARTLET: I gotta take this call so I can gloat about the Banking Bill.
C.J.: Enjoy yourself, sir.
BARTLET: Be talking about this, C.J., this is the story!
Tempting fate, anyone?foreshadowing detected
HOYNES: I should begin by welcoming all of you to our third Cabinet meeting, our first in six months.
The implication that the Cabinet hadn’t met in six months felt off to me, so I tried looking up statistics on full Cabinet meetings and found… very little. The closest I could find was an incomplete number for the Obama administration which indicated he held a Cabinet meeting roughly once every four months, so while I can’t find a solid way to confirm that number’s veracity it would suggest Hoynes’s numbers here are not as unrealistic as I thought.
HOYNES: Surely, our first goal has to be finding a way to work with Congress.
“He a little confused, but he got the spirit…”
BARTLET: Are you taking minutes?
MILDRED: Yes, sir.
BARTLET: What’s your name?
MILDRED: Mildred, sir.
BARTLET: Mildred, I’m Josiah Bartlet, I’m the President of the United States.
So she’s new to this? Or did he just forget her name for the second time? Place your bets.
MILDRED: “I know that the President would want me to point out that these meetings are a unique opportunity for us [to come together —”]
BARTLET: [Actually, I] find these meetings to be a fairly mind-numbing experience, but Leo assures me that they are Constitutionally required, so let’s get it over with.
Actually, there’s nothing in the Constitution about the Cabinet, sir. I think Leo is just trying to get you to eat your vegetables.
BARTLET: Our first goal should be finding a way to work with Congress?
HOYNES: Yes, sir.
BARTLET: You don’t think our first goal should be finding a way to best serve the American people?
Well, Congress is supposed to be a more direct representation of the American people than the presidency, so the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, sir… at least in theory…
HOYNES: I didn’t say that, Mr. President.
BARTLET: Really? Let’s have a look. (takes out his glasses and reads the notes) Yeah, that’s what it says right here. Would you like Mildred to read it back again?
“I know what I said, I don’t have to have it read back to me like I’m a damn child.”
RETURNING Topical Signature: Writer’s block
Previous instance: Sports Night 107
TOBY: It’s a little flat.
SAM: I think so, too.
TOBY: My writing’s been flat lately.
SAM: It’s not you, it’s me.
TOBY: (beat) Nah, you did the best you could.
SAM: What do you mean?
TOBY: You reached your potential here.
SAM: No, I didn’t, I can do better than this.
TOBY: I can do better than this.
SAM: Are you saying I can’t do better than this?
TOBY: I’m saying you’re fine, and I’m flat.
So we went from Toby getting pissed off at someone criticizing his writing to Toby and Sam co-commiserating on their recent inabilities to write. Excellent upgrade, I’d say.
JOSH: You hearing anything about the banking bill?
TOBY: What do you mean?
JOSH: I don’t know, I’m hearing some stuff.
Stunning specificity, man…
TOBY: Alright… it couldn’t have gone far, right?
SAM: No.
TOBY: Somewhere in this building… is our talent.
SAM: Yes.
Oh no, don’t tell me Toby and Sam believe in that Elizabeth Gilbert-perpetuated B.S. about one’s creative genius’s being an outside entity.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: How ya doin’
Running count: 25
DANNY: How ya doin’?
C.J.: How is it that my staff just lets you walk in here?
DANNY: They like me.
C.J.: They’re supposed to like me.
DANNY: Go figure.
The subtext in this exchange is… really quite something. I think I’ll reserve my thoughts on the matter until that subtext becomes more relevant.
RETURNING Dialogue Motif: ‘Whom’ correction
Previous instance: _Malice
DANNY: I heard the President roughed up Hoynes in front of the Cabinet.
C.J.: From who?
DANNY: ‘Whom’.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Shut up => okay
Running count: 3
C.J.: Shut up.
DANNY: Okay.
Man, come on, C.J., you shouldn’t reject a free grammar lesson!
DANNY: Did it happen?
C.J.: (beat) On the record?
DANNY: Yes.
C.J.: Absolutely not.
DANNY: Off the record?
C.J.: What else is new?
DANNY: That’s what I thought.
Wow, okay — I guess the JFK-LBJ dynamic of the President and the Vice President is an open secret in this Washington. Also, once again, the Vice President is referred to as “Hoynes” rather than “the Vice President”, this time by a reporter. Does no one like this guy?
DANNY: I’m a very good looking guy, C.J. — I mention that because it’s not something people notice about me right away.
C.J.: Yes.
DANNY: I like seafood. I like all food.
C.J.: Danny —
DANNY: I should also mention I’m a lively conversationalist. I’m very good at kayaking, I can kayak.
C.J.: I can’t, Danny.
DANNY: My point is, I can teach you.
C.J.: No, you idiot, I mean I can’t have dinner.
Somehow, while C.J. doesn’t ever accept the invitation like in the questionable draft script, Danny’s solicitations are laid on considerably thicker in the episode than in the draft. I’m not entirely sure how to feel about it at this point, to be honest, but suffice it to say I’m not completely thrilled — but I think I’ll leave that for a more apropos moment as well.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Let me tell you something
Running count: 14
HOYNES: So let me tell you something — yesterday morning about ten o’clock, these, uh, these two guys as a joke posted some false information on a website about this tiny startup company and its stock started shooting up. By 2:30 in the afternoon, the hoax had been uncovered and the stock had adjusted itself — but by the end of the day, this company, which neither you nor I nor the Secretary of Commerce had ever heard of, closed out as the twelfth highest-traded issue on the Nasdaq index. This just in — the internet is not a fad.
Do you suppose Tim Matheson immediately feels incredibly old whenever he watches this scene?
RETURNING Verbal Tic: How ya doin’
Running count: 26
HOYNES: How ya doin’, Danny?
DANNY: Fine, thank you, sir.
HOYNES: What do you need?
DANNY: The Cabinet meeting.
HOYNES: What about it?
DANNY: Anything you want to talk about?
HOYNES: Anything I want to talk about?
DANNY: Yes, sir.
HOYNES: Well, you know, now that you mention it, I’ve been having this recurring dream about killing you.
DANNY: Sir —
HOYNES: What do you think that means?
Sir, you do realize he never said he was off the record, right?
RETURNING Verbal Tic: How ya doin’
Running count: 26
MALLORY: Hi.
SAM: How ya doin’?
…
MALLORY: Can I talk to you for a second?
SAM: Sure.
…
SAM: So what’s up?
MALLORY: So.
Uh oh.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Here’s the thing
Running count: 18
MALLORY: Here’s the thing.
SAM: Yes.
MALLORY: Do you by any chance like opera?
I think he’s more into musicals, Mal.
RETURNING Plot Bunny: The Ambiguous Date Ask™
Previous instances: A Few Good Men; Malice; The American President
SAM: Why do you ask?
MALLORY: Because, as it happens, I have two tickets to the Beijing Opera this evening at the Kennedy Center — my father’s seats.
…
SAM: You’re asking me out on a date.
MALLORY: No.
SAM: No.
MALLORY: No, I’m asking you if you’d like to go together with me to see an internationally renowned opera company perform a work indigenous to its culture.
SAM: Right — and in what will it distinguish itself from a date?
MALLORY: There will be, under no circumstances, sex for you at the end of the evening.
Woah, hold on — do you make a habit of having sex on first dates, Mallory? You probably don’t want to advertise that too openly, sister…
SAM: Well, uh… like most people, I am an absolute nut for Chinese opera — the Chinese being known the world over for their soaring and romantic melodies — and what with your guarantee that there won’t be sex, I don’t see how I could say no.
Way to flaunt your Western hemisphere supremacist attitudes, Sam…
SAM: Hey, you know what’s good about this? If you hadn’t come along with your offer of Chinese opera and no sex, all I’d be doing later is watching Monday night football, so this works out great for me.
Good lord, Sam, do you really have to lay your sarcasm on that thick? Just say ‘yes’.
C.J.: Danny Concannon said that he heard that the President and Hoynes had a —
LEO: At the Cabinet meeting?
C.J.: Yeah.
LEO: It’s nothing, C.J.
…
C.J.: What do you want me to do?
LEO: Deal with it.
C.J.: You’re a real details man, aren’t you, Leo?
You know he can fire you, right?
SAM: Mallory had an extra ticket to the opera for tonight and she asked me if I’d like to go.
LEO: Mallory, who?
Uh oh.
SAM: Mallory, your daughter.
(LEO finally looks up)
LEO: Mallory, my daughter —
SAM: Yes.
LEO: — has asked you —
SAM: Yes.
LEO: — to go to the opera using the tickets that used to belong to me and Mallory’s mother —
SAM: Yes.
LEO: — the woman who used to be my wife?
Technically, she’s still your wife, Leo — you’re not divorced, just separated. They’re two different words, you know!
SAM: Leo, for whatever it’s worth, she’s made it very clear we won’t be doing anything tonight you’d have a problem with.
LEO: Like what?
SAM: Why don’t we stay away from that?
LEO: Best that we do.
Leo’s mind, probably: “Should have built a dungeon…”
LEO: (rearranges some papers) I’m fine.
HOYNES: Dick Brenner says we send a Saturn V rocket with a liquid hydrogen payload or [sic] we can put a man on Mars for 25 billion dollars? That’s a steal at twice the price!
MAN: Once you’ve landed him, where are you gonna get the hydrogen to get him back?
HOYNES: Well, Mars is made out of nitrogen so the first thing we’ll do is build ourselves a gas station.
That’s… not accurate. The surface of Mars is largely composed of iron oxides, and the mostly carbon dioxide atmosphere only contains trace amounts of nitrogen. Someone didn’t do their homework.
CANDY: C.J. Cregg asked for a minute.
HOYNES: Yeah, I coulda seen that comin’…
No shit.
C.J.: What happened at the Cabinet meeting and how did Danny find out about it?
HOYNES: Nothing happened at the Cabinet meeting and I have no idea how Danny found out about it. Moreover, the implication that I leaked privileged information is as stupid as it is insulting.
WARNING: CONTINUITY ERROR DETECTED!!
Er… if by some Aristotelian confluence of events someone reading this hasn’t watched the series before, I won’t spoil things for you. Suffice it to say: yikes.
TOBY: I just got done with Crane.
JOSH: Well, Crane’s two hours behind.
TOBY: Oh, don’t tell me…
SAM: What’d they attach?
JOSH: A land-use rider.
SAM: Who?
JOSH: Broderick and Eaton.
TOBY: Broderick and Eaton?
And the name porn begins!
RETURING Verbal Tic: No kidding/shit
Running count: 5
SAM: Since when are you outdoorsy?
JOSH: Please, this isn’t about the environment, it’s about retribution.
TOBY: Yeah, no kidding.
SAM: (beat) We need to see the President.
JOSH: (beat) Yeah, we need to see the President.
TOBY: Broderick and Eaton.
JOSH: Yep.
It’s one of the more subtle cases, but we have ourselves another instance of Mr. Sorkin withholding information from the audience: Broderick and Eaton evidently have good reason to screw with the White House, but what reason exactly is left as a piece of inside knowledge for now.
TOM: … you’d say the White House is optimistic about the chances of passage through the House of the banking bill.
C.J.: Very optimistic.
TOM: You’re not concerned about the attachment of the land-use rider?
C.J.: I’m sorry?
TOM: I said the White House isn’t concerned about the attachment of the land-use rider?
C.J.: That’s being worked out, and I can go into more detail later.
As awkward as it may seem to the viewer considering what we already know, C.J.’s response to the unexpected question here is quite well done. We’re gonna save this moment as a piece of evidence for a thesis in a later episode.
C.J.: Bonnie, find Toby for me, would you?
Season 1 briefing room location entry #4: far upstage left (relative to lobby entrance) — seems like maybe production finally made up their minds?
DANNY: The land-use rider was a bit of a shock for you, huh?
…
C.J.: First of all, you’re wrong; second of all, shut up; third, I went to Hoynes with your thing and he said he wasn’t the one who talked to you and I believe him, and he’s really pissed at me, and he’s right; and fourth… shut up again.
Man, I said it before about Richard Schiff, but now I’m having to stop myself from using music engraving to notate Allison Janney. You go, sister.
DANNY: I enjoy movies. I enjoy music. I’m not wild about ice skating, but what the hell, I’ll do it.
Stealth inside joke here: Allison Janney grew up doing figure skating, with aspirations to become an Olympic skater. An accident in her teens sidelined that dream, but that would prove to be to the gain of the stage and screen — in fact, later she would use that past experience to prepare for her role in the 2017 film I, Tonya in which she played the mother of a figure skater.
BONNIE: Toby’s in his office.
C.J.: I’ll be right back.
BONNIE: Should I tell him you’re coming over?
C.J.: No, I’d like to keep this a surprise.
Will it be, though? Toby just now heard the bad news and knows you were in the briefing room at the time, I think he’s fully expecting your presence.
LEO: Eaton and Broderick got a land-use rider into the conference report.
BARTLET: Eaton and Broderick?
LEO: Yes, sir.
BARTLET: Eaton and Broderick attached a land-use rider?
LEO: You’re surprised Eaton and Broderick have taken an interest in strip-mining?
BARTLET: I’m surprised Eaton and Broderick have taken an interest in anything.
Why on earth did the name porn get reversed? It started as Broderick and Eaton, why change the music partway through?
TOBY: It’s retaliatory, sir.
BARTLET: For what?
TOBY: The campaign.
BARTLET: What did I do to them during the campaign?
TOBY: You won, sir.
This right here represents what I would consider the one downgrade between the horrendous draft script and the episode: in the draft script, the retribution was in response to the President’s bad-mouthing a piece of deregulatory legislation Broderick and Eaton sponsored — excuse me, Eaton and Broderick. That got changed to a vague anger at his winning the election, which frankly doesn’t seem that believable to me — since, as I’ve stated over and over again, we are well over halfway into the first year of this administration, which would make the timing of this retribution a little questionable.
NEW Dialogue Motif: That’s the ballgame
SAM: Mr. President, it’s a banking reform bill, that’s the ballgame. Let’s not get into an intramural spitball contest over a couple of rocks that are uninhabitable eight months of the year, anyway.
LEO: They’re pretty good looking rocks.
JOSH: What Sam meant to say was that we can live without the environmental lobby.
SAM: I don’t believe that is what I meant to say, Josh. I believe what I meant to say is it’ll save real people real money.
JOSH: Tough.
Ah, the prepubescent vernacular returns…
JOSH: Veto it.
SAM: It’s our bill.
JOSH: Veto it anyway.
TOBY: He’s right.
LEO: Why?
TOBY: Send a signal to the banking committee that we will not be held hostage by Eaton and Broderick.
Even he swapped the names! What in the world…
SAM: Yes, Mr. President, tell them instead we’d much rather be held hostage by wildlife activists ‘cause that’s a position that always works well for us…
WARNING: CONTINUITY ERROR DETECTED!!
Sam, dissing an environmental movement? Are we sure we want to leave that in?
BARTLET: I don’t like these people, Toby. I don’t wanna lose.
What the hell? Who are you and what have you done with President Bartlet? This line feels to me like a piece of leftovers from the tone of the corresponding scene in the draft script more than anything else — it doesn’t seem befitting of the man with its expression of dead-serious hatred.
LEO: Did you need something?
BARTLET: Nah, I just came in to see what you were doing.
LEO: No appointments?
BARTLET: Nah, you know, we had most of the night blocked for that thing, and it got cancelled, so…
What thing? This is the first we’re hearing about it. The stunning specificity continues…
BARTLET: You had breakfast with Mal?
LEO: Yep.
BARTLET: How’s she doing?
LEO: She’s pissed at me.
BARTLET: What did you expect?
LEO: Well…
BARTLET: You ignored her mother.
LEO: Oh, come on, [I didn’t —]
BARTLET: [No, I’m saying] that’s what it looks like to her right now.
LEO: But she sees what the job is.
BARTLET: She doesn’t see what the job is, Leo, and anyone would have to see it to believe it — and even if they saw it, and even if they believed it, what would it matter? She’s her mother’s daughter, and you made her mother cry.
LEO: You really threw some sunshine down on that one, thank you, sir.
(beep) Sarcasm Self Test complete! (beep)
BARTLET: Well, I’m right next door all night.
Bring me the finest foreshadowing in all the land.
DONNA: Josh.
JOSH: Yeah.
DONNA: Mandy wants to see you.
Oh yeah, we have this other character! I almost forgot!
RETURNING Verbal Tic: How ya doin’
Running count: 27
JOSH: How ya doin’?
MANDY: Let me say this — it’s a good bill.
…
JOSH: It is a good bill.
MANDY: What’s more, it works for us.
Yeah, her role really feels tacked on for this episode, doesn’t it? Still better than what she got in the draft, of course…
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Don’t give a damn
Running count: 6
MANDY: You never climbed a tree in your life, Josh. You don’t give a damn about Big Sky.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Don’t give a damn
Running count: 7
JOSH: I don’t give a damn about Big Sky. I do give a damn about hanging a sign outside the White House that says, “Hey, Republicans in Congress, feel free to slap us around anytime you want to just to show us that you can.”
MANDY: You don’t like Broderick and Eaton.
JOSH: I don’t like Broderick and Eaton, but that’s not the point.
MANDY: I think it’s more the point than you think.
JOSH: How?
RETURNING Verbal Tic: And you know it
Running count: 5
MANDY: When you’re competitive, when you’re combative, you juice up the President and you know it.
Oh, you know what, that would explain that utter stinker of a line we got from the President earlier. Thank you for the insight, Mandy.
CHARLIE: Excuse me, Mr. McGarry?
LEO: Charlie, call me ‘Leo’, would you?
“You say ‘Mr. McGarry’, I turn around and look for my father.”
RETURNING Sorkin Name: Nancy
Previous instances: The West Wing recurring, 107
CHARLIE: I got a message from Nancy Becker’s office. Tomorrow’s the Deputy Transportation Secretary’s fiftieth birthday. They’re having a party, and the President usually likes to send a letter.
…
LEO: Nancy Becker needs it tonight.
CHARLIE: Yes, sir.
LEO: (beat) Give it to Sam.
Uh oh.
SAM: I’m going to the Beijing Opera tonight, which I imagine will be excruciating, but I’m gonna go ahead and do it anyway.
Man, fuck you, Sam, give Eastern music a break.
SAM: He wants me to write a birthday message for the President.
CHARLIE: Nancy Becker needs it tonight.
SAM: Are you sure he doesn’t want someone who, you know, isn’t staggeringly overqualified for the job?
Says the man who hasn’t been able to write a solid word all day…
MANDY: Are you listening to me?
TOBY: Yes.
MANDY: What was the last thing I said?
TOBY: The last thing you said was, “Are you listening to me?”
Got it in one! Good job, buddy!
TOBY: I’m not the one to talk to about the banking bill anymore, Mandy, I have hatred in my heart.
MANDY: Toward whom?
TOBY: You go ahead and pick ‘em. Today, it’s Broderick and Eaton.
No, seriously, why the swap of Broderick and Eaton for that one scene? I still need an explanation.
MANDY: Would you tell him that signing the bill, and thus swallowing the bitter pill of strip-mining would not foreclose a PR approach that would trumpet banking reforms while at the same time excoriating a special interest strip-mining scam — which, by the way, is what I’m happy to call it. Tell him that.
C.J.: (beat) Toby…
TOBY: Mmm hmm.
C.J.: Mandy wants you to recommend… to the President that we do it her way.
TOBY: Do you understand what she said?
C.J.: No, but she seemed pretty confident.
To be fair, Mandy did use some pretty interesting grammar…
MANDY: You people are so willing to cut your noses off to spite your faces.
“You people”, huh? It’s finally starting to sink in for her that she’s basically an outsider in this realm? That’ll bode well for her, I’m sure.sarcasm detected
C.J.: The President’s been messed with — he beat the banking lobby, and Broderick and Eaton came back at the eleventh hour and gave him a cheap clip in the knees. This is the kind of thing Josh and Toby get geared up for, you’re not gonna talk ‘em down.
MANDY: You guys are idiots, did you know that?
C.J.: In our own defense, we actually do know that.
All evidence to the contrary…
BARTLET: They had you write this?
SAM: Yes, sir.
BARTLET: You’re not a little overqualified for a birthday message?
SAM: I was happy to do it, sir.
…
BARTLET: Listen…
SAM: Yes, sir.
BARTLET: I mean as long as you’re on it, and you don’t mind… why don’t we take advantage of your being on it and, you know, really do a job?
SAM: Do a job?
BARTLET: It’s his fiftieth birthday. Let’s give it the Sam Seaborn quill. What do you think?
SAM: Of course, I’d be honored, sir.
For sure, Sam doesn’t know it, considering he’s completely missing how the President is clearly in on a joke.
C.J.: May I discuss your story for a moment?
DANNY: Cabinet meeting.
…
C.J.: ‘Cause I really have a hard time believing that one of the Cabinet officers —
DANNY: Cabinet officers weren’t the only people in the room.
Wow, okay — some reporter you are, underhandedly giving up your source on a dime. Should I be calling your editor, Danny boy?
C.J.: The President would appreciate it if you didn’t pursue this story, and to show his gratitude, he can give you thirty minutes on any subject or subjects you like.
DANNY: Wow, that sounds good — but it’s not enough.
C.J.: What else?
DANNY: I’d like you to sing a song for me.
Oh, good lord — stop horndogging for one moment, would you please?
DANNY: Anybody gets fired over this, I’m gonna write about why.
There we go — and saving a woman’s job in the process no less, that’s what we like to see.
MALLORY: During the campaign, you crafted a significant portion of the President’s stump speech, did you not?
SAM: Yes.
MALLORY: The acceptance speech at the convention.
SAM: Yes.
MALLORY: Inaugural.
SAM: Yes.
MALLORY: State of the Union.
SAM: Yes.
MALLORY: And now the President’s asking you to write a birthday card.
SAM: Birthday message.
MALLORY: For the… Secretary of Transportation.
SAM: Actually, it’s the Assistant Secretary of Transportation.
MALLORY: Oh, the Assistant Secretary of Transportation.
SAM: Yes — one of them.
Your pedantry isn’t doing you any favors, Sam.
SAM: This is something that came up, Mallory.
MALLORY: It’s his fiftieth birthday, Sam, they couldn’t have seen this coming for, like, the last fifty years?
SAM: Fair point.
And he still doesn’t get that he’s the butt of a joke! How badly does he want to get back into the writing groove?
SAM: Give me a half hour, I can come up with a new draft.
MALLORY: (beat) A new draft?
SAM: Yes.
MALLORY: You’ve already done a draft?
SAM: Yes.
MALLORY: You need to write more than one draft on a birthday card?
SAM: Birthday message, Mallory.
It was either that or just send them a ham.
JOSH: I think it wasn’t Broderick and Eaton. I just, I don’t think they have the muscle.
TOBY: Yeah.
JOSH: I think it was Crane.
TOBY: Yeah.
JOSH: Honest to god, I think it was Crane.
TOBY: Yeah.
JOSH: Your friend, Crane.
We don’t get to see Crane in the episode like we do in the draft script, but this line implies Crane’s role in the proceedings changed from being a mining industry lobbyist to being a friend in Toby’s orbit — a largely inconsequential change for that character, but still interesting nonetheless.
TOBY: Let’s tell him to sign it.
JOSH: Not yet.
TOBY: Round’s over, Josh, we did fine.
JOSH: We got screwed, Toby.
TOBY: Not so bad.
JOSH: Yeah, b-but Crane and Broderick and Eaton?
“And Eaton and Broderick and Crane and Broderick and Eaton and Crane and Eaton and Broderick and Eaton and Crane and Broderick and Crane and Eaton and…”
BARTLET: When are Josh and Toby gonna come up with a solution, huh?
C.J.: For the land-use rider?
BARTLET: I want the banking bill, and I don’t wanna give in.
C.J.: The classic conundrum.
BARTLET: Yeah.
C.J.: Speaking of classic conundrums…
A most ingenious classic conundrum!
BARTLET: Is Danny gonna make it a thing?
C.J.: No.
BARTLET: What did you have to give him?
C.J.: A half hour sit-down on the record.
BARTLET: (pause) Sold.
“Just make sure he doesn’t pass it off to some other reporter.”foreshadowing detected
C.J.: The Vice President wasn’t the one who talked.
BARTLET: Sure, he was.
C.J.: I don’t think so.
BARTLET: You’re wrong.
C.J.: I’m pretty sure it was the woman taking minutes.
BARTLET: (beat) Mildred?
Hmm… should we theoretically take it as a continuity error that the President remembered Mildred’s name? It’s a bit of a crapshoot how often the President remembers names, really.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Here we go
Running count: 4
SAM: Okay. (sigh) Okay, here we go… (sigh)
MALLORY: Would you come on?!
SAM: What are you, Ralph Kramden?
Huh? She’s a school teacher, not a bus driver! Speaking of which, why wasn’t she in class this morning when she asked Sam to the opera…
RETURNING Verbal Tic: “I don’t care if…” rebuff
Running count: 4
MALLORY: It’s a birthday card.
SAM: I don’t care if it was a cupcake recipe, Mallory, I was asked to do it by the President of the United States!
MALLORY: (beat) What did you that say?
SAM: I said I was asked to do it by the [President of the United States!]
MALLORY: [No, you weren’t.] Sam, did you by any chance tell my father that you and I were going out tonight?
SAM: Yes, I did.
So the school teacher is able to put it together before a White House senior staffer. That puts great confidence in the executive branch for the viewer right there.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Here we go
Running count: 5
SAM: Okay, here we go. (beat) Nope! (throws pad on desk)
I suppose his writer’s block also manifests itself as a deductive reasoning block?
LEO: Hey, baby.
MALLORY: Don’t “hey, baby” me, you addle-minded Machiavellian jerk!
MARGARET: Should I step out?
LEO: Sounds like it.
You think?
LEO: You know what, Mal? Your mom’s got a genuine beef. I widowed her the day I took over the campaign, but I don’t think I’ve done anything to you. Working in the White House doesn’t allow any flexibility insofar [sic] as leisure time, as you’ve discovered this evening. I’m done being blamed by you for this.
MALLORY: So you make Sam write a birthday card?
LEO: A birthday message.
Cutie pie shit ain’t gonna win you a place in her heart, man.
BARTLET: You look a little glum, Mallory. Did you have plans to go out this evening with someone who had to cancel due to circumstances beyond their control ‘cause they had made a commitment to a common and higher purpose?
MALLORY: You’re a co-conspirator on this.
Like there was any chance he wasn’t, Mal.
BARTLET: These are just some of the things your father did today. He met with the director of the CIA and received an intelligence briefing regarding stores of plutonium in a country which, uh, shall we just say is not on our Christmas card list. He brokered a compromise among Senate Democrats for funding of something fairly trivial, but I can’t remember quite what this was — oh, yes, of course, the US Army! Yes. He met with my chief counsel to discuss the news that it’s possible I’ve broken some federal laws in the week and may have to serve from one to three years in prison after resigning my office in disgrace. How’d that go, by the way?
LEO: We’re fine.
BARTLET: Cool. Uh, he received a security briefing, a Central American briefing, and wrote a position paper, and he’s been counseling me throughout the day on a bad decision I have to make — oh, and by the way, this was a very light day.
Some of that information sounds like things you don’t want to be advertising to an outside party, related to you or not. It makes for good music, though, so I won’t keep a bull pup.
RETURNING Dialogue Motif: Perfectly fair question
Previous instances: Sports Night 105, 115, 204
MALLORY: Due respect, Mr. President, what’s your point?
BARTLET: Uh… that’s a perfectly fair question.
LEO: You know what, sir? I can take it from here.
…
BARTLET: Oh, uh, my point is… give your dad a break. He’s your father.
MALLORY: Thank you, sir.
BARTLET: Are you blowing me off?
MALLORY: Yes, sir.
BARTLET: Okay.
The cameraderie between the President and Mallory established here is really quite something — he treats her with much the avuncular silliness he used with Zoey in the scene cut from “The Crackpots and These Women”, which further contributes to the backstory of the President’s long-standing relationship with Leo.
MALLORY: Let’s say you and I, we take these tickets, we’ll go catch the second act.
LEO: Is there another way, any other way, we can fix this?
MALLORY: Dad!
LEO: Did you hear the President tell you about my day?
MALLORY: Yes.
LEO: And now Chinese opera?
What the hell is with all the slams against Chinese opera in this episode?! Did Mr. Sorkin date a Chinese opera singer in college or something?
(SAM writes on his pad, then tears off a page, crumples it, and bangs his fist on the desk thrice before throwing the paper off to the side)
SAM: This is getting serious.
It’s worth bringing up again: one throughline for all of Mr. Sorkin’s television shows is the presence of writers among the main characters for each show, which leads to scenes depicting the writing process for said writers that may or may not reflect the man’s real life process. We’re left to wonder, therefore, how often Mr. Sorkin gives his fist what-for in the middle of writing something like Sam does here. I trust he has a therapeutic wax bath for his hands, if so?
MALLORY: You’re off the hook for the opera, we would like for you to come and join us for coffee. Also, my father has something he’d like to say to you. Dad?
LEO: Wha— is this really necessary?
MALLORY: I believe it is.
LEO: Sam, I gave you the thing to do ‘cause I was pissed you were taking, you know, blah blah blah.
That was a truly spectacular sentence.
MALLORY: Well said, Dad.
Ope, sorry, didn’t mean to step on your line, Mal.
SAM: Yeah, I figured…
You did? All evidence to the contrary…
SAM: Say, you mind if I skip the coffee? I want to nail this thing.
LEO: Oh, forget it, your first draft was fine.
SAM: I wanna nail it, Leo.
MALLORY: Sam, the President was in on it, your first draft is fine.
SAM: Yeah, but still…
MALLORY: You want to nail it.
SAM: I do.
MALLORY: You’re so exactly like him.
SAM: (beat) Well, that is the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.
Did she actually mean that as a compliment? I’m on the fence. It’s a heartwarming moment either way, of course, as it’s one of a number of moments depicting the White House senior staff’s reverence for Leo McGarry — this despite the pettiness he exhibited in this episode.
RETURNING Verbal Tic: Here we go
Running count: 6
SAM: Alright, here we go. (starts writing)
Looks like maybe the pseudo-compliment did the trick?
HOYNES: I thought maybe we ought to straighten out this business from this morning before it got out of hand.
BARTLET: C.J.’s already talked to Danny Concannon, I think we’re fine.
HOYNES: Well, actually, I mean between us.
BARTLET: Well, that’s a different story.
HOYNES: (beat) I was not Concannon’s source. You can believe that or not, but it is true.
BARTLET: Okay. (beat)
Oh, come on, Mr. President! It should be on you to apologize to your Vice President for making fun of him earlier! Why aren’t you doing that, sir?
HOYNES: What did I ever do to you?
What he said!
HOYNES: Where in our past, what did I do to make you treat me this way?
BARTLET: John —
HOYNES: What did I ever do to you except deliver the South?
What? We heard six episodes ago that the President got “whomped” in Texas, and you’re telling me now the Vice President delivered him the South? What exactly are the chances that the rest of the South even warmed to a Democrat who received next-to-no support in Texas? Color me skeptical.
BARTLET: You shouldn’t have made me beg, John. I was asking you to be the Vice President.
HOYNES: Due respect, Mr. President, you had just kicked my ass in a primary. I’m fifteen years younger than you. I have my career to think of.
BARTLET: Then don’t stand there and ask the question, John. It weakened me right out of the gate. You shouldn’t have made me beg.
Um… what? This is one of those thoroughly vague moments that receives no further explanation at any point, so I’m left to wonder what exactly the question was and why it would weaken the President — and, for that matter, why they would have been in a position for the question to weaken him. The mixing of verb tenses also doesn’t help the matter, to be perfectly honest, so it’s just a truly spectacular exchange all around. Mr. Sorkin had to replace the child labor point of dispute between the two with something else, and he kind of… swung and missed here, in my opinion.
MANDY: I’m saying there’s a political gain to beating the banking lobby.
JOSH: And there’s a political cost to letting it go with the rider attached.
Floating opposites, anyone?foreshadowing detected
MANDY: I know you want to win, Josh, but I’ve got news for you — you won.
JOSH: No, we’re tied.
MANDY: And when that’s the best you can do, you depart the field and you call it a win.
JOSH: It’s not a win.
He cares what it is, Mandy, not what it looks like. Get with the program.
RETURNING Dialogue Motif: Let’s assume not
Previous instance: Sports Night 102
DONNA: Do you have a solution for the President?
JOSH: Does it look like I have a solution for the President?
DONNA: No.
JOSH: Then let’s assume that I don’t.
MANDY: I can put a best face on it, Josh, it’s what I do.
JOSH: You can put a best face on a turnpike collision, Mandy, I’m not moved.
MANDY: You’re fighting the wrong fights, and you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.
Uh… are we supposed to take her seriously in this moment? Jury’s out for me.
JOSH: Where’s the Madison stuff?
DONNA: We’re getting it.
JOSH: Donna, it’s twenty minutes, I need it faster.
DONNA: We’re working, Josh, but honestly, the computer files are pretty antiquated.
JOSH: Yeah, alright. Wait, what?
DONNA: I said that the [computer —]
JOSH: [They’re antiquated.]
DONNA: (beat) Yeah.
JOSH: They’re antiquated.
DONNA: (beat) What’s wrong with you?
JOSH: (beat) Would you have them tell the President that I’m ready to see him at his convenience?
I don’t think I need to explain how much more sense it makes to have Josh have the eureka moment here rather than Sam, considering how the episode started out. It just works, silly setup aside.
TOBY: Hmm… hmm… hmm…
SAM: You know, I gotta tell you, Toby —
TOBY: Am I bothering you?
SAM: Well, I’m not feeling relaxed.
TOBY: Well, maybe you need a glass of wine.
SAM: Maybe you need to stop standing over my shoulder.
If this is supposed to be another Sorkin expy moment, then who is Toby representing here?
JOSH: The Antiquities Act.
TOBY: The Antiquities Act.
JOSH: Yeah.
TOBY: That’s creative.
SAM: The Antiquities Act!
Okay, so they’re not total idiots when they’re suffering from writer’s block! Sam just has a blind spot where family dynamics are concerned, I guess.
BARTLET: Both black and grizzly bears inhabit Glacier Park, Charlie — and hikers are told to talk or sing along the trails to keep them at bay.
CHARLIE: If I see a grizzly bear, I’m supposed to sing to it, sir?
I think you misunderstood what he just said, Charlie — what the President said was that you’re supposed to sing or talk as you hike to ward the bears off from crossing paths with you in the first place. That is actual National Park Service advice, for what it’s worth — and its effectiveness appears to be somewhat mixed if web searches on the matter are any indication. I think I’ll make sure to bring my banjo on my next hike to guarantee that bears will steer clear.
CHARLIE: Was there anything else?
BARTLET: Yes. Glacier Park was the tenth, we have forty-four to go.
JOSH: Forty-five.
CHARLIE: I quit.
JOSH: I hear ya.
You know the President is still in the room, right?
JOSH: The Antiquities Act — you’re gonna establish Big Sky National Park.
BARTLET: (laughs)
JOSH: Yeah.
BARTLET: I can do this?
JOSH: Yeah!
BARTLET: You understand it’s a bunch of rocks, right?
JOSH: I’m sure someone with your encyclopedic knowledge of the ridiculous and dork-like will be able to find a tree or a ferret that the public has a right to visit.
BARTLET: More than a right, Josh.
JOSH: Sir.
BARTLET: It’s a treat.
The President is in a remarkably good mood to let that backhanded insult slide off of him, considering he just had a spat with his Vice President in the Oval Office a few moments ago.
JOSH: Good night, Mr. President.
BARTLET: Good night.
Mr. Sorkin, probably: “Wait, shit! I need to re-justify the name of the episode!”
JOSH: Mr. President?
BARTLET: Yeah?
JOSH: We talk about enemies more than we used to.
BARTLET: What?
JOSH: (beat) We talk about enemies more than we used to. (beat) I wanted to mention that.
BARTLET: (beat) Yeah.
… Okay, you know what, I came into this moment fully ready to say it feels incredibly tacked-on, but as I’m writing this my mind is now starting to see the wisdom in the moment, as last-minute as it may seem on the surface. Mandy, with her airtime considerably shortened from the draft script, spent a good deal of that airtime telling Josh how he’s entrenching himself in an unnecessarily harsh us-versus-them mentality and dragging the President into that mindset along with him. Now that Josh has found a solution to the immediate problem, in this moment he feels compelled (however awkwardly) to address his capacity to rile up the President by warning the President of said capacity. Could this moment have been executed better? Absolutely! On further review, though, it’s not nearly as vapid a moment as it’s been made out to be.
Overall, Mr. Sorkin did a good job polishing a turd and making it into a solid episode of television here. It’s not a great episode, by any means, but it’s not nearly as terrible as its initial draft script would have made it. The closer interweaving of the Leo-Mallory and Sam-Mallory plotlines in particular makes for a satisfying combination, particularly with the shared case of writer’s block for Toby and Sam added into the mix. The land-use rider plot has its rough edges here and there, but the progression of beats for the story nonetheless works together into a similarly satisfying moment in the limelight for Josh Lyman. My biggest gripe with the episode as aired would have to be how the subplot with the Vice President wasn’t fleshed out as well as it probably could have been, but there’s only so much one can fit into an hour of television — all in all, a well done episode given its constraints.
Side note: the total count on the Broderick and Eaton name porn is 15. You’re welcome.
If you’ve somehow been ignoring my entreaties on the matter up to now, let me once again ask you to subscribe to this blog so that my regular rantings aren’t going completely into the void. Coming up next: time to start tipping the believability scales…
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