By Deborah
Shout-out to Sandman.
Josh's office. A talking head on the TV conveys a story called "Hoynes: Goodbye to Politics." Josh has the unenviable task of trying to find a new Vice-President. He's got a board (on an easel) covered with pictures, and he's going through piles of thick files. He unrolls a big seating chart of the Senate and crosses off a name. Charlie comes in to tell Josh that POTUS wonders if they still have the VPOTUS vetting files from five years ago. Charlie notes some of the people Josh has eliminated and questions him about one named Ryan Lindell. Josh says they like Lindell, but that he's "too much of a moonshot" for the Speaker, and that they have to pick someone who can get confirmed. Apparently, this guy has an Asian garden in the back of his house where he meditates. Jeez, what a freak.
The Plot Device Truck suddenly sideswipes Charlie: the mention of an "Asian garden" jogs his memory about a mystifying note that fell out of his wallet yesterday: "5/7, 10 PM, Paeonia Japonica/Bamboo." Charlie explains that he wrote the note three and half years ago, when he and Zoey started dating. They were at the Arboretum and they buried a $14 bottle of champagne. And as good as a $14 bottle of champagne was then, you just know that, forty-two months later, it's going to be fabulous. Zoey and Charlie said they'd dig it up and drink right after she graduated. They were able to calculate then and there what day that would be? Maybe Charlie's some kind of savant. (Well, it's not like it could be Zoey. Get real.) ["With ESP like that, Charlie should be a university registrar." -- Wing Chun] Josh wonders, "How do you get away with digging up the National Arboretum?" Charlie: "Oh, well you gotta to do it at night." Josh tells him today is "5/7," and that Charlie's gotta do it -- he's gotta dig up the bottle and give it to Zoey. Charlie -- who's probably had enough advice from lovelorn losers such as Josh and Toby -- insists otherwise. He's done. He seems, finally, to have understood that Zoey clearly said "no," and that's that. Josh keeps pushing. Charlie: "She's going to France tomorrow with Tartuffe. I'm gonna eat the fourteen bucks." Hee! "Tartuffe." Think about the full name of that play. I'm just saying. Josh says he should just give it to Zoey as a friend, as a graduation gift, at one of the parties tonight. That way, Zoey won't think he's mad at her. Charlie: "I am mad at her." Josh thinks Charlie should make nice since Zoey's going away. He finally mutters that he doesn't know what he's talking about and changes the subject. As he rips something out of a newspaper, he asks Charlie, "Just between you and me -- and I'm not looking for this particular promotion, but -- just between you and me, what would you think about this choice?" He sticks the picture on the board, but the camera's behind the easel so we can't see who it is. Though if you've been paying attention, you know it's Leo. Charlie doesn't respond to the question, but asks for the vetting file, takes it, and leaves. Josh stares at the picture, which we finally see is a shot of Jed waving and Leo following behind him. You know, I wondered if this was where this might be going. But why would Leo want to be VPOTUS when he has so much more power and influence as Chief of Staff? And, um, Josh as Chief of Staff? He'll be good at it someday, but I don't think he's there yet. Leo's got something like fifteen or twenty years of experience over Josh, and you need it in that role. What ? Amy as Director of the NSA? Credits.
Speaking of the Director of the NSA, there she is! Finally. You can never have too much Anna Deavere Smith. She should have her own show. It should be called Anna Deavere Smith Tells You What the Hell is What. So, Sit Room, Leo is there, Fitz is there, POTUS is there, everybody's standing up for this meeting, and Nancy's apprising them of some potential terrorist threat involving an abandoned van the FBI found in Sacramento. She's recommending THREATCON Bravo. (I already went into the THREATCON/FPCON thing recently, so we'll just gloss over that. She thinks that, at the very least, airport and seaport security must be increased. Jed reads from a document: "Torrential downpour in the Pacific Northwest." Nancy confirms this. Jed looks at her and asks, "'Torrential downpour'?" Nancy gives him a very serious "yes." He's having trouble believing that "the five of them" are "just missing," but everyone confirms it. Jed declares: "THREATCON Bravo. Find them. THREATCON Bravo. Leo and I will be back."
Amy comes over to tell Donna that FLOTUS wants her to know Mary and Fred Wellington are back on the trip, and they need to deal with that. Donna agrees. Amy hangs around a bit, preparing her comment, leaving me time to wonder if I can actually see her bra through that thin red sleeveless top she's wearing. Why, yes, I believe I can. Yeesh. Amy also seems to be wearing jeans. Even if it is the weekend, she wears jeans and a see-through top to her job as Abby's right hand? Way to put a "professional face" on Abby's agenda. I suppose I should be impressed that she's wearing a bra. Whereas Donna's wearing a comparatively demure, light blue sweater. La MaDonna Moss and Amy Magdalene (tm Sandman), much? Anyway, Amy wants to ramble on about how Josh showed her a very good list that morning of six possible VPOTUS replacements, and she called the situation "a windfall." And apparently, Josh got very quiet. After he left, she wondered if he took her comment to mean, "Wow, it's great the Vice-President had to resign because now we get one of these guys." Amy wonders if Josh said anything to Donna about that. He didn't. Amy didn't mean it was good that Hoynes had to resign. Donna couldn't care less what Amy has to say, and as Amy walks away, she calls out that she'll tell Josh about the Wellingtons.
C.J. catches up with Toby (who's wearing casual clothes, too) and says that it's a big day. He agrees. C.J.: "Are you nervous?" Toby, suddenly suspicious, realizes that they're not talking about the same thing. He asks, "How do you know about this?" C.J.: "The house?" Toby: "Yeah." C.J.: "Not because you told me." A house? A house? People, can you imagine my excitement here? You Josh and Donna 'shippers can keep your angst. I'm all about Toby and Andi and the babies and now there's going to be a house? I'm a puddle of goo already. Just then, Will arrives and says he's glad that POTUS is finally asking for help with this speech. Will's probably tired of playing Darrin Stephens with the Robert Palmer Girls. Toby says it's not going to be about Commencement, because POTUS isn't going to call the four of them in at 8:00 AM on a Saturday to work on a commencement speech. "Call them in"? Where else would they be? C.J. and Will, I notice, are in business suits. Will wonders if Toby isn't nervous that he hasn't seen the commencement speech. Toby replies, "I'm choosing to be nervous about other things today." That reminds Will, and he says, "Hey, big day!" Toby asks C.J., "Is he talking about the house?" C.J. smiles. Will says it's romantic. Josh has just arrived and Toby turns to him, announcing, "They know about the house!" Josh softly asks: "Did you tell them?" Toby: "No! Did you?" Josh: "It's a bold, romantic gesture. I spread it around, got you some goodwill. I think I turned some people around on you." Toby looks unimpressed with this explanation. Charlie comes out of the Oval Office and says they can go in. Leo tells them to sit down, saying that POTUS will be a minute on the phone. Leo asks Toby how far off Andi's due date is. Toby says that in ten days they can pick a date and the doctor will induce. For a higher-risk pregnancy with twins, Andi sure is carrying to term. I think twins come early pretty often. Leo thinks that's great: "You can do it on a Friday, let the kids get their feet wet over the weekend." Leo advises him to check into the hospital today: "You can't do it too soon." He tells them that Mallory was almost born on the Long Island Expressway. It's great how people always have helpful, supportive stories for those about to become parents.
Jed gets off the phone, and everyone stands up. With no greeting or preamble, he says, "Yeah, listen, I don't think this is going to come as a galloping shock to anyone here, but last May, I ordered a Special Ops Unit to kill Abdul Shareef, and that's what they did, and we made it look like what got reported." I kinda think C.J. didn't really believe it until just now. They all do an excellent job of controlling their expressions and reactions. Leo asks: "Anybody need him to stop?" Josh: "No, sir." Leo: "Anybody need a minute?" Toby and C.J. say no. Leo says that there was considerable evidence against Shareef presented to a large group of people, including Nancy, Fitz, Babish, Cashman, and Berryhill, and they gave it to the Gang of Eight. Leo tells them that they stopped him from blowing up the Golden Gate Bridge: "Were U.S. laws broken? No. International law? Possibly." C.J. wants to know why they're being told now. Jed says he just ordered THREATCON Bravo, and that they'll be seeing heightened security this weekend. Leo explains that it has to do with "increased chatter about torrential rain in the Pacific Northwest. It's...pouring rain in the Pacific Northwest." Will points out that the analysts have probably already thought of this, but it is actually raining in the Pacific Northwest. I guess Will's concerned that there could be some confusion with all the code talk. Leo just ignores that and says that, for a couple of years, they've been watching five possible Bahji sleeper cells in central New York, and that they disappeared last night. Josh: "And we're worried about retribution for Shareef?" Leo: "Yes." Josh: "Can I ask, how hard can it be to keep an eye on five Qumari religious fanatics in Schenectady?" Jed to Leo: "Tell him, sister." Leo: "I think you'd both be surprised. Anything else?" Will asks: "How'd you get Shareef's plane to land?" Leo: "Thank you."
The staffers all all start to walk out of the office; as Toby reaches the door, Jed mentions Toby's big day: "The house -- a master stroke: come on, give us a kiss!" Toby: "Thank you, sir, no." Jed gives a little chuckle and says okay. But you know he's bummed about it. Leo takes off. Jed looks up to see Will still standing there expectantly. He says he has time today and wonders if Jed would like him to look over the Georgetown speech. Jed says he doesn't need help. Then he quickly changes his mind. Will asks to read what he has. Jed: "What I have? Well, it's been said I have a pleasant speaking voice and oratorical style." Basically, Jed's got bubkes, at least on paper. Aw, paper's for wimps, anyway. Will points out that the speech is at 4 PM, and says he thinks they should get started right away. Jed agrees, but right now he has to go and meet the agents who are going to be on Zoey's detail in France. Jed's been thinking he would like to talk about creativity, and asks Will to get some thoughts together on that.
Out in the lobby, Josh runs into Taye Diggs, greeting him as "Wesley." Man, Taye Diggs? Yum. They really are trying to sex this show up. Not complaining, mind you. Diggs is somewhat shorter than I thought he was. He tells Josh he's going to France the morning; he's in charge of the paparazzi patrol for "Bookbag." He doesn't sound too jazzed about it. Josh: "It's a bit of a powder-puff detail there, isn't it, fella?" Wesley says he goes where he's told. Josh asks what he was trained to do if a stringer for Town and Country were to get in Zoey's face? Wesley: "You know I can kill you, and just make up the reason why I did, right?" Okay, I want a job like that. Josh says Wesley won't talk to him that way when Josh is Chief of Staff. No, he just laughs and walks away.
Jed walks into a room that has a bit of a funeral parlour look to it. I don't think I remember this room. Is it somewhere in the Residence? Actually, there are a lot of new and unfamiliar sets in this episode. There are three Gen-X types standing there chatting with each other quietly -- two women and a man. Jed greets them, asking if they're friends of Zoey's. The guy introduces himself as Special Agent Jamie Reed. The other two are Molly O'Connor and Randy Weathers. They all produce ID. I'd look closely at Molly's. I rather suspect her last name is Riley. Jed looks like a ninety-year-old rancher being presented with a soy burger. Ron Butterfield (yay! Ron!) arrives with Wesley. Jed thanks Wesley for accepting this assignment, saying he knows it's not the sort of thing he likes. Wesley says he was flattered to be asked. Ron explains that these four agents will be assigned to the current team of fourteen, which is supplemented by a rotating backup group from the Paris office. They're more familiar with the region (especially where to find all the good brioche). Jed turns to Wesley and says, "Well, here's my question: these guys look pretty young to me, and I'm looking for something very specific. This is a father-daughter situation, and so I think what I'm looking for in terms of protection would best be characterized as...well, overwhelming force. Do they have that? Do they have the ability to overwhelm any danger that might..." He turns to Ron, babbling: "Do you have overwh...do they have overwhelming force?" Ron says to Wesley: "Attack, Randy." I don't know about Randy, but Wesley moves forward and Molly comes at him, grabs him, flips him onto the floor, pulls her weapon, and puts it in his face. Jed's impressed. Yup, big old target on Molly O'Goner, there.
Zoey arrives at that moment, asking, "Oh God, Dad, what are you doing?" Zoey's wearing a dressy oyster suit. (Oyster-coloured. She's not dressed like a bivalve mollusk.) Jed happily explains, "This one here tossed Wesley like a bag of potato chips!" Zoey tells Molly to get off Wesley. He tells to Ron, "You like calling on me for that one, don't you?" A rare smile from Ron: "Yup." Jed is surprised that Zoey knows Molly. Zoey explains that Molly was on Ellie's detail for a while. I half-expected Jed to say that if Molly could guard Ellie, Zoey would be a piece of cake. Zoey greets Wes and says that she's "sorry about this." Wes says they'll be fine, and that they're doing wide perimeter protection. He says that Zoey will have to show him her panic button every day. ("Is that what the kids are calling it?" Oh come on, I had to throw in at least one more before the end of the season. Who knows if I'll have a chance week?) She shows it to him. He tells Jed he starts at 6:00 PM. Zoey starts to leave, and Jed asks, "Would you consider, instead of living in France with your boyfriend for three months, uh, staying here, living in your room, and being a candy striper? Or surfing?" Zoey laughs: "A candy striper?" Jed: "Or surfing! You could spend the summer working in a pet shop. We could play Yahtzee and watch movies at night." Zoey asks what fantasy it is that's going through his head. Jed: "What daughters would do their whole lives if I had my way." She smiles and says she'll see him later. Once she's gone, Jed turns to Ron and quietly says, "Before I forget: if something comes up, and you're faced with the choice of killing the boyfriend or not killing the boyfriend...kill the boyfriend." Okay, that had better be an anvil. I'm going to be pretty pissed if it's not. Leo and Fitz arrive, and they go into the room with Jed. As they're passing through, Fitz tells Wesley: "You take care of that new detail, now. They've got some mimes over there that can be pretty nasty." Wesley: "Yes, sir!"
The national security types are in another room now, with greyish-blue walls and dark wood panelling. Leo reports that a cargo ship (the Agile) that's been in a Portland port for fourteen hours is missing a container. There should be forty-six and there are only forty-five. The ship is flying a Nigerian flag but is Syrian-owned. Fitz says that the FBI has, for the last hour, been hunting down everyone who was on the ship. Jed checks his watch and tells them to give them another hour, and then have the Coast Guard close the port. He says that the Port of Portland is going to lose $700 million a day because these five guys are missing. He looks very disturbed and then adds, "And I just now got why we're having this meeting." Leo asks what he means. Jed: "Portland. Torrential rain in the Pacific Northwest." Leo: "Yeah." Jed: "Screw the hour. Let's close it down." Fitz thanks him and leaves. Leo asks Jed whether he knew that, in ten days, Toby and Andi can pick a day and induce labour: "They can decide what day the twins are gonna be born." Jed: "Well, it's about the last thing they're going to get to decide. So you choose Tuesday. Twenty years later, look what happens." Aw. He's really not taking this well.
How scary does Ewan McGregor look in these Down with Love ads? Why would you take someone that hot and make him look like Bob Dobbs without the pipe? That shit is just wrong, man. And I've seen drag queens that more closely approximate the Doris Day type than Renée Zellweger does.
C.J.'s desk. Man, that is some cloudy water in Gail's bowl. There's an orangey blob in there, but what happened to the rocks and other fishbowl tchotchkes? Wasn't there some stuff like that in there? Maybe Gail's going through a minimalist phase. Yeah, she's done with kitsch. Somebody look into changing the water. C.J. enters, sits at her desk, reads the paper, takes a gulp of coffee, and screams when she looks up and sees Danny sleeping on her sofa. She says he scared her; he says he was sleeping. She asks what he's doing there; he isn't sure. She yells for Carol, who comes in and says, "Sorry. Yes. Danny's here. Sorry." She leaves again. C.J. asks if she can help him. Danny rambles on about how much trouble he's having waking up. Given what she just got confirmation of, you can understand she'd be a little irritable about his being there. C.J. asks again, louder this time: "Can I help you?" Danny says, "You are." By yelling, I guess. He explains that he just flew back from Boston. No, not Boston. Augsburg, Germany. You can see how he'd mix those up. He finally says he has a link between the U.S. government and Shareef's plane crash: "And it's enough, and we're going to print it. So I'm here to ask the White House if you'd like to comment." C.J. says they'll comment as soon as Danny shows her the link. He says that the link is the pilot, Jamil Bari. She points out that Danny's been saying that all along. Danny says he's got it now. She tells him to show her, and then she'll comment. Well, this is going nowhere fast. Danny: "We don't need a White House comment to run it." C.J. stands up and says, "Well, you're not gonna run it like this! There are national-security issues involved!" Danny says that his paper's not going to hold off unless there are lives in immediate danger. C.J. claims that there are. Danny wants her to show him. C.J.: "Classified security information? I don't think I'm allowed to do that." You know, I know it's Saturday, and there aren't a ton of people around, but should they be having this conversation with C.J.'s office door open, and not talking all that quietly? Danny wants to know what C.J.expects him to do. She asks him not to run it, at least not this weekend. She's not lying to him about the security concerns. Danny complains that C.J.'s been faffing him around for months. C.J.: "Of course I have!" Danny says he'll give her a couple of hours to talk to Leo and figure out what they can tell Danny to convince him not to print the story: "Otherwise, comment on it, or don't comment on it, but it's the lead in tomorrow's paper. And by the way, that's the brand of courtesy that you have never extended to me." C.J. says she does that all that time: "You just slept on my couch." Danny mutters argumentatively. C.J.'s about to leave, and checks that Danny's going to give her a couple of hours. Danny: "You know I got it, so off the record: did we kill Shareef?" C.J. doesn't answer; she just walks away.
Scene of a lovely, tree-lined street full of large, traditional houses. Toby gets out of a car, and helps Andi -- who's blindfolded with a scarf -- out of the passenger seat. She's TV pregnant: big in the abdomen, normal everywhere else. Andi says, "If someone sees us, they're going to call the police." She gives a throaty giggle. Toby says he hadn't actually factored that into the plan. He brings her partway up the flagstone walk and says she can remove the blindfold. She pulls it off and looks at the house in front of her. The camera angle changes so that we can see it too: it's a large, white, two-storey house with black shutters and a red door. She looks around and says, "You brought me to Jefferson Wyler's house. Why?" Toby leads her up the walk as he explains, "Every time we drive past, you say it's your dream house." Andi: "It is." Toby: "And every time the Congressman's had us over, you've said it's your dream house." Andi: "I wasn't lying." Apparently, Andi told Wyler that if he ever put it on the market, she wanted to buy it. Toby: "Well, as it turns out, he was going to put it on the market, but he's not anymore, 'cause I bought it." Andi's stunned -- she doesn't look as happy as I would. She can't believe Toby bought this house: "How did you afford it?" That's a damn good question. Toby: "Well, I put together some money for the down payment by selling my soul." Could he be any more adorable? Toby offers his hand for Andi to take; after a moment's hesitation, she does.
Tobyhelps Andi up the stairs into the darkened, empty house. Toby pushes opens the drapes in the living room, which allows the polished wood floor to gleam. I immediately start decorating the house in my head. It's quite lovely. Andi wanders into the dining room and says, "This is your house now?" Toby follows her, saying, "Well, as a matter of fact..." He bangs into the bottom of the dining-room chandelier. (I know some viewers thought the chandelier was ridiculously low; in fact, it's hung at the correct height to be over a table, where no one would ever be walking. Most people have the lights over their tables way too high.) Not loving the wallpaper in the dining room. Toby continues (over the tinkling of crystals) as he leads Andi down a couple of stairs into a gorgeous sunroom, through which you can see the beautifully landscaped back yard: "It'll be your house...if...if...if you say yes to this: um...will you marry me?" Andi looks sad and a little scared as she says, "Oh, Toby, you gotta tell me you didn't buy the house to..." She thought Toby was just moving out of the apartment. Andi, do you really think Toby would buy this huge, expensive place just for himself? Toby asks if they could get back to the original question. She looks pained, gently asking, "Can you get the down payment back?" A mixture of smiling and disbelieving expressions flashes across Toby's face as he shifts uncomfortably and softly asks, "You're saying 'no?'" Andi: "Yeah, Toby. I said 'no' many times. I mean, this...is an incredible gesture, but..." Dude, if she doesn't want it...I'm just saying. I can deal with your sadness if you can deal with mine, and hey, you can eat all the steak you want. I'm all about the steak.
Toby says he doesn't think Andi's noticed the things he's done to alter the behaviour that's troubled her in the past: "Giving up what you felt was a bachelor apartment is only the most recent of gestures which include eating salads." Bowls of weeds, he's eating, woman! Andi says she has no problem with where he lived or what he ate: "I do...but I don't care that much." Toby wants to know why she won't remarry him, then. Andi: "You don't really want to talk about this, do you?" He does: "I thought you were just being cute. I just thought you were making me chase you, as a punishment for the first marriage, and that was okay with me." Andi walks closer to the windows and he follows. She says she wasn't being cute. Toby: "Why?" Andi: "You're just too sad for me, Toby." Aw. My heart is breaking already. This seems to be a bit of a surprise to Toby. Andi continues, "You're too sad for me. You're just sad. You bring the sadness home with you, and you're...sad." Toby softly objects that he's not sad. Andi: "You are. I don't know if anything can change that, but I can't." Toby snorts a bit and says, "I'm not sad! I take things seriously." Sure, Toby. That's what I tell myself, too. Andi says that she, too, takes things seriously. She looks like she can't believe Toby's really arguing this point with her. Can he really not know how he is -- how people see him?
Toby replies that he's not comparing himself to anyone. Andi interjects: "You're sad! And you're angry and you're not warm." Well, that definitely hurt him. "You take forever to trust someone," Andi adds. Toby looks sad now, and he says, "Well...my father used to kill people for a living, so generationally the Zieglers are making lots of progress. I wouldn't worry about the kids." Andi doesn't appreciate the flip answer and says, "I do worry about the kids!" Toby: "Don't." Andi: "Because instead of showing them that the world is for them, you're going to be...telling them that they have to work hard in school so they can bone up for a life of hopelessness and despair!" Toby -- unable to keep up the kinder, gentler Toby act for too much longer -- replies, "Wouldn't it be ironic if our kids were the only ones who were properly prepared?" Hee. Andi says that she's as serious a person as he, and that she can see the glass as half full. Toby, losing patience: "Great! Half full, half empty. Can we at least agree it's not full yet?" Andi says that this is what she's talking about. Toby says it was a joke. Andi: "You indicated that you wanted to talk about this seriously." She puts her hand on her hip and looks around, exasperated.
Toby looks chastised and asks, "Did you feel this way when we were married?" Andi, almost inaudible: "Come on, I..." Toby: "I mean, it's not just now?" Andi: "Come on, I'm...I'm sorry about...all that. I'm really pregnant. Please, I take it all back." She's maybe getting a little more teary. Toby: "Really?" She doesn't answer; it's as though she doesn't really take it back but doesn't want to talk about it anymore either way. He asks again: "Hmm. Did you feel this way when we were married, that I was...s-s-sad?" Andi unconvincingly says, "No." I think I believe her. Things were different for them then. She adds, "I'm gonna go sit in the car; my ankles are starting to..." Toby: "Did my friends feel like that?" Andi kinds of shakes her head to herself as she walks away. Okay, now my heart is good and broken. I feel horrible for both of them. I'm more like Toby than any other character on the show, so I know exactly how he feels. And I also know what it's like to love someone with that kind of persistent sadness and anger, so I feel great empathy for Andi, too. Toby stands there alone, fiddling with his gloves, opening one of the doors to the patio...then he hears Andi call his name. He hurries through the house and out the front door, where Andi is leaning against the car: "My water broke." He hustles over to help her into the car. That was the best work ever between Kathleen York and Richard Schiff, who for the most part have had nothing but great scenes together.
On the freshly-squeezed/frozen debate: There's no way this conception was intentional or deliberate. There's way too much unresolved baggage between them, and there's too much conflict in their approaches to the world. I think they were fooling around together, and the fairly improbable happened. I simply can't believe someone who feels the way Andi feels about all of this would deliberately choose to make Toby the father of her children at this point. I can see her choosing single motherhood with an anonymous sperm donor or something like that, but not this. And as for Toby's grand gesture: well, his heart was in the right place, even if his head wasn't. Then again, it seems that Andi has never been completely straightforward with him about why she didn't want to remarry him; maybe she didn't want to hurt him, but when someone keeps proposing remarriage, maybe it's time to have a serious, honest discussion.
After the commercials, Will is pedeconferencing with some woman who's wearing a fluffy hornet's nest on her head. It's Abby! What in tarnation has happened to her hair? This is the worst yet. Did someone slip the hairstylist some X, or what's the deal? That must be a wig. Stockard Channing must have her hair dyed blonde or something for a movie role, so she's forced to wear this wig that the most broken, wretched Liz Taylor impersonator would sooner spit on than wear. (Because in all of Hollywood, there weren't any better wigs than this? William Shatner's hairpiece would have been an improvement on this dead-muskrat 'do.) Criminy and buggeration. It's sort of "Rizzo at fifty-five." She's wearing a well-fitting but rather mundane brown suit. Anyway, Will is bragging about having written 3900 words in five hours. Abby, totally uninterested, says that's terrific. She asks, "It's about creativity?" Will says that's what POTUS wanted to talk about: "The trick is, now he's gotta not change his mind." Good luck with that.
As Will and Abby cross another hallway, Jed hollers, "Good! You're here. I wanna make some changes." Abby starts to say something, but Jed barrels over her: "Look at you! There is no way you have three adult children." Abby: "You like the suit." He does: "But the neck...it seems empty to me. Attention should be drawn to it." He whips a jewellery box out of his breast pocket. Abby smiles and says, "Ohhhh...." Jed: "Nice job with the, you know, raising of the kid." I can't imagine how Abby managed to raise Zoey when they've almost never been in the same room together, so I guess that really does merit a gift of pricey baubles. He holds open the box, proffering a necklace that is definitely a monument to bourgeois taste. It's a string of big fat pearls. Don't care for big fat pearls. Abby says they're beautiful. Jed says, "They're real, too. They can cut glass." Abby points out that it's diamonds that can cut glass. Quite the lovely presentation ceremony, too, with the flip comment in a hallway full of staff, Secret Service guys, and assorted flunkies. Whatever. I don't get the relationship between these two most of the time. Jed doesn't even offer to put the necklace on Abby. They walk out to the limo as Will asks about the changes Jed wanted. Jed tells him to get in the car and they'll do it on the fly. He wants to make some "small changes": instead of talking about "the internal muse," he wants to talk about the limits of reason, and about passion and intuition in American life. Shut up, Jed. As Jed and Will climb into the limo, Abby's put on the pearls and says they're beautiful. Jed: "You can eat them, too; they're gumballs."
Leo's at his desk looking at a page with four pictures on it; a fifth box is just a blue rectangle. I guess these are the sleeper cell guys. How have they been watching the fifth guy if they don't even know what he looks like? Surely after a couple of years, they would have managed a picture. Margaret comes in with a small gift-wrapped box, and says, "Here...is the pen." Leo, annoyed already: "Look..." Margaret: "I've gift-wrapped the pen." Leo: "It's a good pen." Margaret: "You're giving Zoey a pen." He counters that it's not just a pen. Margaret: "Does it do other things?" It doesn't. He just meant it's a really good pen. Margaret looks unconvinced. C.J. -- who's changed from one pink suit into another (for the graduation, I guess) -- arrives to say, "He's meeting us in the upper Press Room." Leo and C.J. pedewhisper their way there. Leo: "He said his link was the pilot?" C.J. asks if Leo knows what Danny has. Leo replies, "Well, Shareef's pilot who died in the crash was Jamil Bari who had a Qumari passport, and is alive and American and not named Jamil Bari, so he could have any number of things." C.J. sighs: "Man, the things we can do." Leo: "Yeah." Just before they go in, she asks, "You're giving Zoey a pen? Does it do anything?" Leo doesn't respond.
Leo and C.J. enter the room where Danny's sitting in front of his laptop, chin propped on his hand, wearing sunglasses. Leo starts to talk to him, but C.J. points out that he's asleep. C.J. explains that he hasn't slept because he was in Augsburg. She picks up a pile of files and whams them on the table. Danny jumps and says, "I heard every word you said. My covert skills are honed." Leo: "Good for you. Follow me." They go into a smaller room or hallway nearby, and C.J. closes the doors behind them. She tells Danny that they're at THREATCON Bravo right now. Leo tells him about the disappearing Bahji sleepers, and that it coincides with the increased chatter they're hearing: "You print we did this right now and I'm worried [about] what the five guys are going to do." Danny thinks, glances at C.J., and then says: "Three days. And I get an exclusive on the sleepers." Leo: "Done." C.J.: "Thank you." Leo: "So you found the pilot?" Danny: "Special Ops in Florida. He had an American passport when he went to flight school." Leo: "In Augsburg." Danny confirms it. Leo tells C.J., with a small smirk, "The things we can do."
Amy catches up with Donna as Amy walks through the hall near her office. Donna says she was just coming to see her. Amy says she loves what Donna's wearing. Donna returns the compliment. That was sort of Kelly and Brenda. Since they brought it up: Donna's wearing black pants, a beige printed top, and a simple knee-length beige jacket. Amy's wearing a black pants suit with a white blouse. Amy tells Donna that the Wellingtons are off the list. Amy's still fixated on Josh's reacion to her comment: "Josh was offended because I called the list a windfall, isn't he?" Donna's sure he's not. They walk outside. Amy keeps on, saying that she just thought the list was good: "Why does he take these things so seriously?" Donna: "If it bothered him, he's forgotten it by now. Like the car that was supposed to be here." Amy invites Donna to come in hers, as her driver pulls up.
A doctor in scrubs and a baseball cap comes into Andi's hospital room, chiding her, "What are you doing to me? We got schedules, we got bookkeepers." He checks her chart. He doesn't notice Toby in the corner of the room. Andi wonders what's happening. Toby that explains Andi's having her babies; she objects that it was supposed to be ten days. Doc: "Yeah, well, whaddya know?" Andi asks when she's going into labour. Doc replies, "Andi: your water broke. You're having the babies now." Andi seems terrified but not in pain. Doc says it isn't going to happen the way they talked about, but that it's going to happen, and right now. He looks at another printout and says Andi's 10 centimetres dilated. She looks at Toby in horror. He says the babies' heads are down, so there's no reason to do a C-section. Doc suddenly notices Toby, lurking in the shadows. He apologizes for not seeing him. Toby walks over slowly, asking if Andi can have the epidural. Doc says, "We're going to tough it out." What's this "we" crap? Talk to me after you've passed a kiwi through your urethra, buddy. Andi's pretty collected for someone with no anaesthetic. On the other hand, for someone about to deliver, she doesn't seem to be having much in the way of labour pains, so hey, no need for painkillers. Doc tells Toby that he's going to see at least one of his kids in about fifteen minutes. Doc takes off. Shouldn't she be hooked up to more stuff -- monitors and whatnot? This certainly has been an atypical pregnancy, labour, and delivery. But it can happen. There's always someone whose pregnancy happened in whatever unusual way you care to dream up, so there's little point getting worked up about it. Andi is gasping; she looks like it never occurred to her that these kids might decide to come along at their own sweet time. Toby walks over and sits to her. Andi says, "I can't believe...if I would have [sic] known this was gonna happen today, I never...would have..." Toby pretends not to know what she's talking about and tells her not to worry about it. Andi, getting more emotional: "No, I know I hurt you back at the house. I can't believe you bought that house...I can't...." She starts crying. She finally has a contraction and starts doing the breathing thing. Toby wraps a clean washcloth around his hand and tells her, "Bite my hand when it hurts."
Zoey's graduation ceremony. It's a glorious, sunny day. In a gorgeous old building, Jed debates with Will about whether they should change the Gandhi quotation ("You must be the change you wish to see in the world" -- one of my favourite quotations ever) to an unspecified quotation from Eudora Welty. I'm hoping they stick with the Gandhi. Will thinks both work but is desperately trying to prevent Jed from making any more changes. Jed thinks the Gandhi sounds too much like Eastern philosophy. What is with the anti-Eastern attitude in this episode? Will thinks it was bound to, given that Gandhi was from India and all. He says that it's a speech about creativity, and in his opinion, it's a home run; he adds, "But what it isn't is a speech that will convince Zoey not to go to France tomorrow." Jed: "Well, let's write that one!" A woman comes along to add a little more pomp to Jed's circumstance: he's already wearing a long blue robe, and she carefully puts a matching collar thing over his head. The President of the university (hereafter known as POGU to avoid confusion, since we never get his name) asks if Jed's ready and they go off together. As they descend the stairs, past a beautiful set of stained-glass windows, Will says, "Use the Eudora Welty. It's better."
POTUS and POGU approach the stage through a large pair of doors, as all the students and guests applaud energetically. As the applause continues, POGU tells POTUS, "I understand you're not using the TelePrompter." Jed says he's got it all in the folder he's carrying, and on some napkins in his pocket. They keep waving and smiling to the crowd as POGU asks if POTUS is going to be all right with that. Jed assures him that he'll be fine: "You know, unless something comes up." POGU: "Uh...like what?" Jed: "Well, for instance, I just realized I don't have access to my pockets anymore. But, you know, what are you gonna do?" He smiles in a goofy way and waves to Zoey, who's taking his picture.
Later that night at the White House, Amy comes over to Donna's desk to tell her the Wellingtons are back on. I'm beginning to wonder if there really are any Wellingtons, or if they're just an excuse for Amy to keep dropping by Donna's desk. The energy in this scene in particular is such that I'm starting to think Amy's more interested in Donna than she is in Josh. (And a whole flotilla of readers thank me, many of them non-sarcastically, for loading them up with that image.) Each woman is surprised the other is there. They're the only ones around. Donna says, "I had a thing cancel, so I'm catching up." So Donna says that the Wellingtons are going to be a problem. They talk about how to work them into some side meeting at APEC, or whatever. I doubt it will ever come up again, so I'm really not applying too much grey matter to the problem. Amy asks if Donna has a few minutes to work with her. Donna says she does. Frink's all, "Just kiss her already."
Charlie and Josh are wandering through a garden in near-darkness. Josh wants reassurance that Charlie knows where they're going. Frink: "Just kiss him, already." Charlie says it was Josh's idea to dig up the champagne and give it to Zoey. Josh asks, "Yeah, but didn't I almost immediately take it back?" Charlie liked the idea: "Send her off knowing we're cool." Josh: "You sure?" Charlie: "No." Josh comments that it's pretty dark as they both take a step forward and down into a stream. Nice. Charlie says he thinks it was near a brook. Josh: "It's like I'm in 'Nam, basically. I'm in a rice paddy." Or, in a far less overblown way, it's like you stepped in a deep puddle. Where are those hip-waders when you need them? Charlie: "Yeah, you'd have done well there." What I would like to know is: why do they just keep standing there in the water? Why don't they walk the one step forward it would take to get out? A male voice asks, "Someone there?" Charlie says hello. The voice identifies itself as belonging to a federal officer. Charlie says, "Jamie?" Jamie turns his flashlight onto Charlie and Josh and says, "Charlie?" Jamie tells his wrist, "P3: Charlie Young's coming." Charlie says, "You're kidding me," and steps out of the brook. Josh says his name, and that he's with Charlie. But he's going to stay where he is: "Because...you know." Actually, I don't, but I guess I said that already.
Charlie makes his way through the garden to a gorgeous open spot to a pond, with a little bridge over it, and beautiful trees and shrubs surrounding it. Zoey's sitting on the grass and she says, "You're late." Charlie: "You're here." She says it's 10:07, and that she's been there seven minutes. Charlie: "Well, you drove in a sedan. I had to climb over the wall." Zoey: "Shouldn't you have allowed for that?" He sits down to her, saying he didn't think she was going to be there. She's wearing some colourful printed kimono-looking thing in pinks and reds and golds, over a black tank. He explains that he was going to dig up the bottle and give it to her as a graduation gift: "Why'd you come?" Zoey: "To drink it." She says she's joking, and that she came because she thought he might, too: "Though I have been drinking it." Shouldn't she have waited? I mean, how romantic is it to get there and find she's already drunk half the bottle? Also, she's been here seven minutes and she already found it, dug it up, and drank some? Charlie says: "You know there are people at a party that a radio station's throwing, at that techno place that looks like the end of the world? I think they went 'cause you said you'd be winding up there. I didn't come 'cause I thought you'd be here. I wasn't trying to..." Zoey: "You don't want to have champagne with me?" Charlie does, but he just wonders if he should call people and tell them -- that she's not going to be there, I guess. He doesn't finish his thought.
Zoey says that Charlie's such a good guy: "You were raised in horror. What is it along the way that made you a good guy?" He says he tries to eat right. Roast beef sandwiches with ketchup? I think Toby'd tell you that you should be looking into a nice bowl of weeds. He starts to talk about finding the note when she suddenly leans over and kisses him. Charlie looks surprised and says, "We shouldn't do that." Zoey gives him a seductive look and says, "I know." He asks what's going on. She says, "Nothing." He persists. She tells him, "Don't ask me that now." Charlie: "I am asking you." Zoey: "Nothing. You know, a lot of things. Dumb stuff. Jean-Paul wants me to take a hit of Ecstasy with him tonight. Charlie: "Okay, but your kids are gonna have gills." Zoey's not worried about that. Well, that was an expensive education down the tubes, I guess. Zoey's worried about leaving her father for three months: "[It] isn't exactly going to do him any favours." She adds that she's confused about Charlie. He says he can't advise her on that. Zoey: "Why not?" Charlie replies, "Because I think this is tonight and tomorrow you're on the Concorde." He gives her a look. She says, "I deserved that." She pauses, and then asks, "Do you think we could just sit here, and enjoy the night for a while?" Charlie: "Actually...I think it's a bad time in a person's life to stop showing up...at places they say they're going to show up." Boy, the guilt trip he's going to be on in the episode. Zoey agrees and says she should go to the party. She kisses him again, and then hands him the bottle before walking away. Charlie looks like he wishes he wasn't such a good guy. This was kind of sweet, but they don't have a lot of chemistry anymore.
Sit Room. Nancy says that the crew of the container ship has been accounted for. Leo asks about the rules for questioning foreign nationals. Nancy: "I think we can keep them for up to seven days, isolation, well-lit room." Fitz explains that the well-lit room is for sleep deprivation. Leo says, "All right, let's go around the table one last time. Where are we with this? What kind of day has it been?"
The screen goes black as techno music starts playing and the scene shifts to the nightclub. There's lots of blue lighting and strobe flashes. Zoey arrives at The End of the World and quickly greets some of her friends. Pierre EscargoAway rudely pulls her away from her friend mid-hug. I keep thinking I can't like him any less and he keeps proving me wrong. He says she's late; she says she was at the National Arboretum. He doesn't seem to care where she was so long as she's there now. He leads her to a table as she asks if they can talk for a minute. We see agents Randy and Jamie keeping an eye on her and talking to their wrists. Wouldn't it be more subtle if they had radios or walkie-talkies or whatever that looked like cell phones (but weren't really)? Nobody thinks anything these days of people with phones permanently attached to their ears, but I think it's a little obvious when you're talking into your wrist that maybe you're not just another schmoe. Randy's on the front door.
Outside, Wesley and Molly are patrolling. He checks in with her; she's counted 183 cars. Wesley laughs about that.
Donna and Amy are having some beers while they try to figure out where to wedge in the Wellingtons. They find something they can agree on. Amy: "I'm not going to get an answer about what I said to Josh, am I? It's just eating at me." Donna: "I don't know why." Amy: "'Cause it's eating at him...and I don't know why." Donna looks at her with concern: "Really?" Donna's hair looks fantastic in this scene. Interestingly, they've switched colours again: Amy's taken her jacket off, so she's just wearing her white shirt (which is also pulled up to expose her midriff). Donna seems to have put on a black cardigan or something.
C.J.'s in the Briefing Room, and calls out to Danny, who's in the Press Room. She asks what he's doing here and why he isn't asleep. He doesn't know. C.J.: "Well, what are you writing?" Danny: "A volume of springtime haiku." ("Tall smart funny kind/ A beautiful flamingo/ C.J. I love you." Don't quit your day job, Daniel.) She reminds him that he gave them three days. He points out that he's filing in three days, but he still has to write it. She comes into the room where he's working, asking if he thinks the President's speech was good. Danny: "You want to comment on a wire report that says the President lifted his gown and groped himself during the Invocation?" C.J.: "Yeah, that was a troubling moment, but he had to get his napkins." Then he wonders, "Then do you wanna comment on a Gulfstream jet flown by..." She interrupts to say they'll be calling it the Madras Research Project for the few days. He goes back to typing, the keyclicks blending seamlessly with the strains of Massive Attack's "Angel," which started playing a few moments ago and keeps playing right through to the end of the episode.
Back to the nightclub, where people are dancing in electric blue slow motion. "You are my angel/ Come from way above/ To bring me love..." Nice use of colour in this episode. The camera drifts to Zoey and Frenchy, sitting fairly far apart at a table. He's telling her that three months is a long time, and that maybe she should just come for a few weeks, go to some parties, and then decide. Obviously, she's shared her reservations about leaving her father, which I think are really reservations about Le Vicomte Eurotrash here, but it's easier to pin it on good old overprotective Dad. Zoey gives that plan a "maybe." She's drinking some trendy-looking cocktail. Zoey struggles to hold up her end of the conversation; she seems fuzzy and slightly drunk. Frenchy seems relatively lucid -- as much as he ever does. Zoey says she's feeling a little light-headed: "I had champagne before; now I'm mixing it with this." Frenchy: "Well, light-headed is good. It's better than the opposite." Yeah, you would feel that way.
Amy just. Can't. Let. Go. "I understand why Josh may have been offended by what I said, even though it was misinterpreted. What I don't understand is that both times we've spoken about it, it seemed like you were, too." Donna tries to be blasé, saying she understood what Amy was saying: "Josh worked for Hoynes for a long time. There was a reason." Amy says that Josh left Hoynes. Donna, defensively: "And if you think that was easy, you're crazy. Josh doesn't leave people." Amy replies, "I get that he was close to Hoynes. What I don't get..." Donna interrupts, a little too forcefully: "You have to get Josh." Four beers: $4. Skanky shirt: $37. The look on Amy's face: priceless. "Her eyes/ She's on the dark side/ Neutralize/ Every man in sight."
Josh and Charlie are outside The End of the World, shooting the shit with Wesley. Josh is bragging about scaling the thirty-foot wall into the Arboretum: "It was like a castle gate. We took it. Buzzards, wilderness life everywhere." Wesley tells to his wrist: "Someone give me a SitRep, anyone."
Inside the club, Randy says something to her wrist in the background. Zoey's telling Frenchy that she doesn't want to lie to him. She's having more trouble forming a coherent thought, and says, "I'm sorry, I meant, I don't want to hurt you, but I can't lie to you either." Frenchy grabs a drink off a passing tray and puts it in front of her. The camera work is all blurry for that shot. He leans back into his preferred posture, which is somehow both relaxed and intimidating. Zoey keeps trying to talk but gives a little sigh of frustration. She smiles at Frenchy and says she feels very strange. Frenchy: "You're drunk. Enjoy it." He smiles but then settles back into a watchful stare that can only be described as amphibian. And malevolent.
Donna's giving Amy chapter and verse on the psychology of Josh: "His sister died in a fire while she was babysitting him. She tried to put it out; he ran outside. He went off campaigning; his father died. He wakes up at the hospital and discovers the President's been shot. He goes through every day worried that somebody he likes is going to die and it's going to be his fault. What do you think makes him walk so fast?" She gets up and takes some stuff to her desk while the gears grind in Amy's head. Donna continues, "Anyway, when you looked at the list of replacements and said, 'That's a windfall,' what he heard was, 'Thank you, Josh, you did it again. More for us.'" Amy gently pushes a beer bottle around on the table and replies, "You said, 'you have to get Josh.'" Donna, looking madly through a little red book, says, "Yeah...that was..." She hesitates, wondering how to crawl out of this: "I didn't mean to say that you don't...get him..." Amy casually asks, just before taking a sip of beer, "You in love with Josh?" Even though Amy can't see her face, Donna manages to control it. Cornered. She smacks the book shut and the camera cuts away as the lyrics to the song continue: "To love you love you love you love you love you love you..." Damn, I want to hear her answer to that. They were both great in that scene, Mary-Louise Parker particularly so. I'm so glad someone finally buttonholed Donna on this, and I can't help finding it delicious that it was Amy. Donna's known for a long time that she's in love with Josh; I think she's been in deep denial about how incredibly obvious it is to everyone around her.
Back to the nightclub; Zoey's put it together. "Did you...put Ecstasy in my drink?" Frenchy says he put a little bit. What an ass. What a dick. What a lowlife. I knew I was right, hating this creep on sight. He clarifies: "I put a half." Zoey kind of laughs, kind of rolls her eyes, and says, "Wow. I kinda wish you hadn't done that." They're going to have to change her code name from "Bookbag" to "French-Fried." Le Vicomte Fuckhead: "You're not sick. This is how you're supposed to be feeling. Listen to the music." Zoey decides she's okay: "I'm going to go to the rest room and put some water on my face." The bastard gives her an indulgent look, which I want to smack right off his smarmy puss and into year. How freaking stupid do you have to be to drug the President's daughter? Also, I'm still not convinced that he's not somehow involved with the terrorists.
Danny and C.J. are in the Briefing Room. He has a bunch of questions for her: was the action retaliatory or preemptive? Were any allies in the Arab world or Israel notified before or after? How involved were Congressional leaders, and how involved will they be over the few days? C.J. says: "I don't know, but the answer to the last two questions will be the same." Danny: "Especially in the absence of Executive Orders rendering them legal..." She points out that there was an NSC Decision Directive. His question is whether this creates a precedent for future "Madras Research Projects." His final question is about whether POTUS or his NSA advisors fear attempts at retribution. C.J. just gazes at him.
Josh and Charlie are sitting outside on a car hood, drinking and watching Wesley watch the club. I'm just dying for one of them to say, "Bitches, man," and do the whole Gas N' Sip routine. Maybe Sorkin's not a fan of Cameron Crowe. Instead, Josh is yammering: "It's true that you adapt to the terrain. Of course, after a while, I just said, the hell with it. I took my pants off." Wesley asks Randy if it looks like Zoey's thinking about leaving. Randy says she's still in the restroom. Randy looks around. Jamie spots a woman with long reddish-brown hair and a printed top similar to Zoey's. He says he's got her right here. Randy asks, "You have her?" Jamie keeps walking in pace with the woman he's watching; she suddenly turns and we can see it's not Zoey at all. Randy corrects himself and announces that he's wrong. Wesley moves toward the club as he tells them, "Oh come on, people, let's get past the first-day kinks." Randy thinks Zoey's still in the john. Wesley wants a "20" on Bookbag right now. He starts running toward the club. Randy says she'll go into the bathroom. Why isn't she in there already? Isn't that part of the point of the reason for having female agents? Wesley, inside the club now, says: "No, no, keep your distance. Let her get pissed at me." He catches up with a waiter, and tells her that he's with the Secret Service. Randy is standing nearby. He asks her to go into the bathroom and see if anyone's in there. He sends a civilian in to check on this situation? If he has any concerns at all, isn't it time to worry less about whether Zoey gets pissed off and more about finding her as quickly as possible? If something happens to that woman, picture the lawsuit her family's going to bring. The waiter goes in to check. Meanwhile, Wesley asks his wrist: "P2, Molly, did she come out back? Are there people back there?" He notices an exit to the washroom. The waiter comes out and tells him that no one's in there. He rushes in and checks every stall for himself as he keeps asking Molly whether she came out back and if there are people out there. He can't get an answer out of Molly. He comes out of the washroom and asks the waiter about the exit: "This is the fire alley?" She says it is.
Wesley walks down the stairway, drawing his weapon as he goes. He reaches the alley, continuing to call Molly for her position. The alley's empty, except for Zoey's panic button. He runs through the alley, past a little jog in the space between the buildings, and comes upon Molly's body, her head in a pool of blood. There's a tidy hole in her forehead. Man, this show just goes through Secret Service agents like Kleenex. Tip to all aspiring and current agents: take your vacation in May. I repeat: take your vacation in May. Molly O'Goner, we hardly knew ye. Say hi to Simon for us. Wesley tells his wrist: "Bookbag's been taken. She's been taken, and I have an agent down. We're black. Go to black." He keeps his cool remarkably well. I'd be freaking right out. I sort of am anyway, even though I was totally spoiled for this episode.
Sit Room. Nancy puts down the phone and tells Leo and Fitz and some other guy that the FBI field office has all ninety-eight members of the Agile crew in custody for interrogation. Fitz laughs inappropriately, I guess because Jed isn't there to do it. Nancy: "It's not funny. Apparently, the captain is scared to death. His manifest only says forty-five containers. He swears it's a typo." Leo: "Well, if it turns out we closed the Port of Portland because of a typo, it's only going to fuel Margaret's insanity. I'm going to go home for a few hours. Call me if something happens." Two uniforms guarding the doors open them for Leo.
Just then, Ron appears at the door looking grim -- even for Ron. His voice is a little emotional and he's panting a bit as he tells Leo: "We have a situation. We're up at black, and procedurally, Chief of Staff is told before..." Leo: "What happened?" Ron: "Zoey Bartlet...is missing...and there's a dead agent at the scene." John Spencer gets a silent, ten-second reaction shot, and he makes the most of it. The map of the world that's on his face just etched itself even deeper. He starts up the stairs, and the shots are intercut with trippy, black and white, close-up images of Zoey's eyes looking alternately fearful and stoned. At first, Leo's just walking quickly, but as the implications sink into him, he starts running. I don't think I've ever seen Leo really run, and for some reason, it's scarier than the looks Frenchy was giving Zoey. He runs past the Roosevelt Room. We get an overhead shot of him running through the Oval Office, where a flash of Zoey's pupil lines up with the Seal in the carpet. He's onto the portico. As he races toward the Residence, in slow motion, the screen goes blinding white and the credits are black.