We start right where we left off -- with Toby confessing to C.J. that he leaked the shuttle story to the New York Times. And then we get an hour of silences, pauses, tension, beautifully framed shots, and an object lesson on why this is still the best cast on network television. C.J. won't even speak with Toby, and immediately calls the White House Counsel's office. Toby is immediately isolated, and it isn't long before Babish arrives to interrogate him. Toby denies that Jed or any White House staffer was involved in the leak. Before long, Toby's bulldog of an attorney arrives and puts an end to the questioning. Meanwhile, Kate tries to explain Charles Frost's theory to bigwigs in the Situation Room. It's never clearly explained, but apparently it involves potential war between Russia and China over oil. So, same old same old. And Ellie drops by with her fiancé, who is meeting Jed and Abbey for the first time. It turns out that they need to get married a little more quickly than anybody might have liked. And on the campaign jet, Lou convinces Josh that he needs to replace a bunch of the staff, including Ned. Surprisingly, Santos goes along with this, and Josh has a very unpleasant run-in with Ned when Josh fires him. At the end of the episode, Jed fires Toby, and isn't especially nice about it. C.J. ends up hiring Will to work as White House Communications Director. And Jed goes on national television to announce Toby's confession and firing.
I want to start out by telling you that this recap will be wholly inadequate. There are long scenes in this episode with very few words and very little movement and almost no action that still, because of the genius of this cast, convey enormous amounts of information and pure emotion. I will do my best to describe these scenes, but it would be an insult to the art of Allison Janney, Richard Schiff, Martin Sheen, and Oliver Platt to think that any words could capture the tiniest part of what they do in this episode. If you saw the episode, I think you know what I mean. And if you didn't see it, I'm truly sorry that I can't capture for you the magic they created.
We start out with a repeat of the entire final seventy seconds of the last episode. Again, Toby tells C.J., "I did it." She looks at him. For once, there's no soundtrack -- you can hear them breathing, and hear the sounds of activity in other parts of the West Wing. We get a shot of Toby and C.J. from behind, both sitting in chairs that face C.J.'s desk. She puts down the bottle of champagne, stands up, and walks around to the other side of the desk. Immediately, the interaction between them is transformed. Still standing, she picks up her phone and asks Margaret to have the Counsel's office send someone to her immediately. After she hangs up, Toby says, "I just didn't want you to think...." She interrupts him, waving her hand in his direction and saying, "We really can't have any further conversation without counsel present." She turns her back to him and crosses her arms over her chest, just kind of hunching in on herself. She looks out the window, and then slowly sits down on the window ledge. She looks down at the ground, and then she looks over at him, and you just know she wants to say something and that it's taking every bit of her will power to stay silent. And Toby looks like a little boy whose puppy was just taken away. C.J. gets up and once again turns her back to him, pretending to study the bookshelves behind her desk. Again, she turns toward the window, and again she looks down and then looks up as though she wants to speak. Toby just sits there through all of this, trying, I think, not to look at C.J. and most of all not to make eye contact with her.
There's a knock at the door. It opens and someone enters. In the foreground, we have Toby's head in close-up. In the background, we can just see the out-of-focus legs of the person who has entered the room. He introduces himself as being Mike Wayne, from the Counsel's office. He says Toby's name, and Toby finally looks over at him. Still on the same shot, we hear C.J. say, "Toby, would you tell Mike what you just told me?" Toby pauses, clears his throat, and stands up, telling Mike, "I was the one who leaked the information about the classified military space shuttle to Greg Brock of the New York Times." Mike Wayne looks pretty shocked to be hearing this. C.J. asks Mike where Babish is, and he tells her that Babish is at dinner. Mike tells Toby, "I'll need the key to your office." Toby starts to walk out of the room, and Mike asks him where's he going. It turns out that the key to his office is in his desk. Toby still doesn't get how much everything has changed in the last few minutes. Mike tells him that he'll have to go with Mike to the Roosevelt Room, where Toby will wait while Mike retrieves the key to his office, locks it, and posts a Secret Service agent to guard it. Some deep tones have started to creep into the soundtrack, along with some martial drums. Mike: "That needs to happen right now."
Credits. I know some people thought the credits seemed shorter this week, but I clocked them in at forty-five seconds, just like every week. Stockard Channing and Josh Malina both appear in the credits this week, and Kristin Chenoweth is nowhere to be found.
We return to some shots of the West Wing lobby and the communications pool. Some people are still working, but others are headed home, and many lights are being turned off. Based on the clocks in the communications pool, I think it's around 9:35 Eastern Time. Mike leads Toby into the Roosevelt Room, where a group of very young staffers is having some kind of meeting. Mike tells them, "We're going to be needing the room." One of the staffers points out that the room wasn't booked for anything, and he just repeats himself more slowly. And then they all scuttle around to pick up their folders and easels. I guess when the big black lawyer says "Jump," White House staffers say "How high?" After they leave, Mike closes all the doors to the room and tells Toby that he'll return as soon as possible. While he's gone, Mike doesn't want Toby to speak with anyone about anything: "Every conversation you have from this point forward only increases the witness list." And then Mike leaves Toby standing alone in the Roosevelt Room.
Santos campaign jet. As the camera slowly moves up the aisle toward the front of the plane, we hear Helen say, "Watch a movie." Santos points out that they'll be landing in just forty minutes. Helen: "Watch part of a movie." Santos begs off, but Helen thinks it will be something the two of them can do together. Santos points out that they'll just be sitting there staring and two screens and listening to the movie on two sets of headphones. Helen wants to have some kind of shared experience with him, but he tells her that he has to "scan this stump speech for racial code words." Wait, is that part of the new SAT? Apparently, someone has alleged that part of Santos's speech about immigration is actually an accusation that black people are lazy. Helen looks at him, starts snoring, and murmurs, "All work and no play." Well, Helen, when he's with Josh he's able to combine work and play. Helen tries to argue that it would be a plus for them both to wear headphones: "You hate it when I talk in the movies." But he thinks the headphones will just make her get louder. She makes big eyes at him and says, "I thought you liked it when I got loud?" Santos: "In this, as in all things, context is king." She says "fine," sticks her tongue out, and reclines in her seat. I really like the two of them together.
West Wing. Kate walks down a corridor, saying, "Charles? You're a hard man to find." Okay, you have to understand how this shot is framed. Kate has stopped in front of a small bench and is facing to the left where Charles Frost is sitting. We're looking at all of this through a door, so all we can see on Kate's left side is Frost's leg. But behind Kate, on her right, is a glass door, and we can see Frost's face in it. It's as if she's facing him but has her back to him at the same time. There are a lot of unusually framed shots in this episode, and I liked most of them. But this one feels like it's trying to make some symbolic statement about how Frost views himself as a spy while at the same time being incredibly distracting. The first time I watched it, I spent so long trying to figure out what I was looking at that I really couldn't focus on what was being said. Plus, it means we spend the entire scene looking at Kate's ass. And generally I suspect it's a pretty nice ass (for those who like that sort of thing), but the frumpy pantsuit she's wearing is not doing it any favors. Frost tells Kate, "You can't be too careful." She responds, "You can, actually." Heh. He asks her whom he'll be addressing in the Situation Room, and she tells him that there's no way he's briefing anybody in the Sit Room. He needs to brief her, and then she'll go in. But before that, she tells him that he can't stalk the Chief of Staff. Frost points out that C.J. wouldn't return his calls. Kate tells him that C.J. is pretty busy: "I doubt she calls her mother back." Frost: "Her mother's dead and her father's Alzheimer's is so bad he'd have no idea if she ever called or not." Kate joins me in wondering if Frost is deliberately trying to seem creepy. If he is, it's definitely working. Kate starts to bust his chops for bothering C.J., pointing out how much she would like to fire him. He ignores her, asking, "I was right, wasn't I?" The camera pushes in so that we can no longer see him off to the left at all. So we just see Kate speaking off to the left with Frost's face reflected behind her. She tells him that before she'll discuss his theory with him or let him know if events have confirmed it, she wants his "solemn vow that [he'll] never ambush a senior White House official again." He gives a deep sigh, and she tells him, "I'm waiting." Sullenly, like a little boy, Frost says, "Fine." With that, she sits down to him to discuss the assassination in Kazakhstan. By this time, all we can see is his face reflected in the glass.
Margaret walks from her office into C.J.'s office, where she tells C.J. that she's located Babish: "He says you owe him a raspberry pana cotta cheesecake." Once again, the scene is framed so that we can see Margaret standing in C.J.'s door speaking to C.J., but the doorframe blocks us from seeing C.J. It's like experimental German theater, with people standing in boxes and speaking to nobody. I keep expecting Margaret to shout out, "The Revolution is my boyfriend!" (And if you know where that's from, you are a filthy little pervert and I'm glad to know you.) Margaret reminds C.J. that it's morning in Jerusalem: "You wanted to call about the Farad funeral." There's palpable tension in Margaret's voice. C.J. crosses the frame behind her, walking to a table. Margaret, hesitantly, asks if C.J. wants her to place a call. C.J. walks by her into Margaret's office, and Margaret follows. Once we can see Margaret's face, she screws up her courage and says, "I didn't want to. I tried not to say anything that..." C.J. interrupts her: "Sorry?" Margaret: "The committee? I hope my testimony didn't do anything to make things more difficult for you." C.J. tells her she's sure Margaret hasn't caused her any problems. By this time, C.J. has walked back to her desk, and we're left with what looks like a shot of Margaret talking to a blank wall. She tells C.J., "I'll...I'll place that call." NiCole Robinson continues to rock.
Toby sits in the Roosevelt Room. Two people enter, and although we only see the hand of one and part of the jacket of the other, they are indeed Ed and Larry. They want to run some OMB numbers past Toby, but he just tells them, "Go away." They start to tell him that they'll leave the numbers on his desk, and he shouts at them, "Go!" They're a little mystified, but they dutifully file out.
Campaign jet. Josh and Lou are walking down the aisle debating whether to use the word "vigorous." Josh thinks it will sound like they're trying to make a contrast with President Bartlet, but Lou thinks it will help to distinguish Santos from Vinick, whom she describes as a "Methuselah Republican." Josh tells her, "'Vigorous' isn't the opposite of 'old.' It's the opposite of 'vigor-- less-- ness.'" As they take their seats, Josh points out that Vinick isn't exactly hunched over in arthritic pain. Lou describes him as "inconveniently spry." And then Josh decides that they should use "spry," since it's only ever used to describe old people and will send a message without pushing any buttons. Ned walks up to them and tells them that the new tracking numbers are in: Santos is still nine points down from Vinick. Lou is clearly unhappy, and Ned doesn't get it, since a few weeks ago they were thrilled to be just nine points down. Josh tells him, "That was a couple weeks ago." I wanted to say that I though they've been making Ned unnecessarily stupid in the last few episodes, but then I realized that I couldn't remember an episode where he seemed especially smart. Ned points out that with the margin of error, Santos might only be six points down. Lou is disgusted: "When the polls spit out the same number day in and day out, it's time to stop talking margins of error." Ned tells them that when they got the first numbers, he thought being nine points down was awful, but Lou seemed so happy with it. Lou: "So basically you've been wrong about this twice now." She's kind of mean. But I still like her. Ned, chastised, walks away.
Roosevelt Room. Toby stares at the phone sitting right in front of him. After a few seconds, he gets out his wallet, finds a number, and dials the phone. He proceeds to leave a message for his attorney to let her know that he's confessed to being the leak and is waiting to be questioned by the White House Counsel's office. I can't tell you how many of those calls I get in a week. Just then, Mike and Babish enter the room. Babish wonders why Mike left Toby in a room with a phone. And then in a cheerful voice, he asks Toby whom he was speaking with. Toby tells him it was his lawyer's voicemail. Mike reminds him, "My instructions were that you sit quietly." Ah, but did you tell him to put his head down on his desk and take a nap? Toby responds, "I'm pretty sure I used my indoor voice." Babish asks who else Toby spoke with since Mike left him alone, and Toby tells him that Ed and Larry stopped by. Babish wants to know if Toby discussed the leak with them. Toby responds that he did not: "We didn't discuss anything. I was curt and dismissive." And you know he's an expert at that. Babish tells Toby that he'll need Ed and Larry's full names. Toby clearly thinks this is ridiculous, but prepares to answer. As a nation holds its collective breath, he proceeds to write down their full names instead of saying them aloud. Curses! Foiled again! Toby hands the paper to Babish, who hands it to Mike. And then Babish gives Mike a look that basically tells him to beat it. Mike is clearly not happy that he won't be able to help question Toby, but he leaves. Because nobody says "no" to Oliver Babish. Babish sits down. Toby is back to clenching and unclenching his right fist. Which we also saw him do in "Drought Conditions," when he discussed his brother's death. Babish tells Toby that he's in a lot of trouble, and that while Babish is personally sorry to hear it, his main concern as White House Counsel is to figure out exactly how much Toby may have hurt the President. And then Babish starts interrogating Toby. Commercials.
We open with a shot of the Roosevelt Room from above. Toby and Babish are sitting on the same side of the long table, but facing each other. We can see a bit of the chandelier, and each man has a lamp at his end of the table. Babish asks Toby, "Were you the sole individual involved in leaking this?" Toby: "Yes." Babish asks a series of questions aimed at finding out whether anyone even hinted that Toby leak the story. Partway through, the shot switches to a close-up of the back of Toby's head, with Babish out of focus in the distance. Babish asks whether anyone gave Toby a "nudge" or a "wink" to indicate that he should leak the story. To each question, Toby responds, "No." Eventually, he tells Babish, "It was conceived and executed solely and completely on my own." Babish's fuzzy head moves on to a series of questions designed to determine whether Toby let anyone know that he was going to leak the story. Again, Toby's response to each question is "no." After a few of these questions, the shot switches so that Babish's out-of focus-head is in the foreground and Toby's in-focus face is in the background. Toby asks, "We're gonna be here for quite a while, aren't we?" Babish asks him to answer the question. Toby: "No, I didn't speak to anyone at any time of any scenario involving myself or someone else thinking, planning, dreaming, or having an out-of-body experience related to the making of this sort of leak." Babish thinks Toby's answer was cute, but he suggests that he avoid being cute when he's speaking with law-enforcement agents about the leak. I know there are at least a few posters who think it's impossible for Toby to be anything but cute.
Abbey and Jed are leaving the reception for new Kennedy Center board members. Abbey must have been in the bathroom when we saw the reception in the last episode. Yeah, that's the ticket. Jed tells Abbey that he has to call the Israeli PM, and Abbey points out that she doesn't blame him for not wanting to go to Farad's funeral: "I wish you didn't have to go. Isn't that what vice-presidents are for?" Jed: "No." Abbey: "Then what good are they?" Well, I hear they can be nice to look at. At least, that's been the case for Jed's two vice-presidents. Abbey reminds Jed that "Ellie and Vic are coming by." Isn't it kind of late for a visit? Jed calls Vic "the fruit fly guy," and reveals that Ellie is engaged to him. Abbey corrects Jed, noting that Vic is a research scientist. They walk outside, and Abbey starts telling Jed about the mating and reproductive habits of fruit flies. Apparently, they are quite fecund. And then Jed and Abbey move on to a fairly odd conversation. Abbey asks, "Are you...?" Jed is, a little. Abbey tells him that she's "astonished, actually." They each ask if the other ever discussed some unnamed subject with Ellie. I hope it's not the facts of life they're talking about. I suspect she learned about that pretty early on in med school. Although if she didn't, that might explain something we learn later in the episode. And then Abbey clues us in: "She is one's daughter, and one wants her to be happy in whatever..." Jed: "Of course, true to herself." Abbey: "But God Herself strike me dead, it is not to be denied that I am not unhappy that my daughter is straight, after all." Jed points out that Ellie's at least straight enough to marry the fruit fly guy. (I know some people found this to be homophobic, and I'm always happy to join the Queer Nation picket line, but this just didn't bother me.)
Campaign jet. Josh is asleep in his seat. Lou is sitting to him. Ronna, Ned, and some young guy approach Lou and tell her that the Texas Attorney General's office has somehow managed to obtain the complete medical records of a whole bunch of women who had abortions in the state over the last three years. Ned tells Lou that the AG's pretext is to look for unreported cases of sexual abuse and statutory rape. According to closed captioning, the young guy's name is Zeke. We'll run with that. Zeke points out that it's an obvious smokescreen. But for what, is what I'm wondering? Even if the AG had some legal right to obtain these records, he would likely be in violation of state and federal law if he released any information contained in them. Ronna tells Lou that they drafted some comments, but Lou immediately tells them that the campaign won't comment on it at all. They argue back and forth quite a bit, but Lou's not budging. There's this great moment where Lou reminds them that "Texas is the whole B.O.W." The three of them pause, and then Ned slowly says, "Ball of wax." ["Which is fewer syllables to say than 'B.O.W.,' so what kind of abbreviation is that?" -- Wing Chun] Josh mumbles from his seat that the goal should be to get anti-choice voters to stay home because they see no difference between Vinick and Santos, and that if Santos speaks on this issue, it might motivate some of those voters to show up at the polls on Election Day. For purposes of the later plot, it's worthwhile to note that Ronna understands this argument immediately, while Ned continues to argue for a response. Lou asks Ned, "Ever had an abortion?" Ned, to his credit, responds, "Little personal, don't you think?" Lou dismisses the three of them, and they leave.
Lou tells Josh that she was thinking while Josh was sleeping. Josh alleges that he wasn't sleeping. Lou responds, "Really? With the drooling, the twitching, and the muttering to yourself, which might otherwise be described as a schizophrenic episode, I'd go with 'you were sleeping.'" Have I mentioned lately that I really like her? Lou points out that campaign is stagnating. Josh claims that they're still in the doldrums or the horse latitudes. (Don't ever say you didn't learn anything from these recaps.) Lou thinks that if they are in the doldrums, she and Josh "need to be a stiff wind that blows through the staff and carries a bunch away." Josh praises her for maintaining the meteorological metaphor, but thinks she's sounding hysterical. They get up and start walking to the back of the plane. Lou tells Josh that the current staff isn't cutting it: "Last week, the advance team went to Springfield, Illinois for an event in Springfield, Missouri." Hey, after Santos wins the election, he can give them all jobs with FEMA. ["And in fairness...what's with all the freaking Springfields, anyway?" -- Wing Chun] Lou wants some more experienced hands on board, but Josh thinks that having a young staff comes with being the Democratic candidate. Lou is not impressed: "Vinick's got grownups. We're running a children's crusade." Josh notes that the children's crusade was good enough to win the nomination for a virtual unknown, but Lou thinks the current staff has Santos consistently polling nine points down from Vinick. Josh thinks that letting people go will make it look like the campaign is in trouble. Lou: "The campaign is in trouble. It'll look like we noticed." She hands him a list of people she thinks they can let go. It's quite lengthy. She asks him if there's anybody he wants to fight for, and he notes that Ned's name is on the list. Josh doesn't think Santos will be willing to fire Ned. Lou thinks that's why it's essential that he be fired -- to make it clear to everybody who's staying that the firings were based on competence, not favoritism. Lou thinks that if they don't do something, they're headed to a "forty-nine-state wipeout." Which state does she think Santos would never lose?
Kate and Margaret are walking down the hall together. What an odd pairing. I'm assuming Kate just asked Margaret why she's still at work, because Margaret is telling Kate that she can't leave until the boss leaves. Kate's excuse for being there so late is that "time and assassinations wait for no one." She tells Margaret, "I'm thinking of putting out a line of twisted samplers." Margaret asks Kate when she's supposed to testify before the Congressional committee investigating the leak. Kate responds, "Supposedly Friday, but if they spent all day on you...." I would point out that, according to the last episode, today is Friday. So either Kate is testifying in a week or there are marshals out hunting for her right now. Margaret tells Kate, "I'm really looking forward to things getting back to normal around here." And at that moment, they pass Toby's office, where a herd of lawyers is packing up his computer and every scrap of paper in the place. As the two of them walk away, we see Toby through the glass door of the Roosevelt Room behind them. Nice transition.
In the Roosevelt Room, Babish is asking Toby whether he and Jed ever discussed the existence of the military shuttle. We get a shot that consists just of Toby's head in profile as he answers all of Babish's questions in the negative. And then Babish asks, "Did you have any internal White House conversations with anyone, at any time, about the United States possessing a classified military space shuttle?" Toby pauses, and we switch to a profile shot of Babish. After a few seconds, we cut back to Toby, and he says, "Yes." Our set of profile shots of the two men are even closer in. They both have very clean ears. Babish asks, "With whom?" Toby pauses, and Babish asks again. Toby: "C.J. Cregg."
Situation Room. Kate is presenting Frost's theories, but her unseen listener (who is actually Secretary of Defense Hutchinson) thinks Frost is paranoid: "If it rains on a picnic, Frost thinks Al Qaeda seeded the clouds." Slattery, who I think is some kind of deputy Secretary of State, asks why they employ Frost if he's so crazy. Someone else points out that even good analysts spend a lot of time being wrong. Hutchinson responds, "Funny, at Defense Intelligence, we like our guys to be right." Throughout all of this conversation, the camera remains entirely on Kate as she listens to these blowhards. The unseen dignitaries debunk Frost's theory. As near as I can determine, it has something to do with "Islamic extremists who dream of a new China-to-Spain Caliphate."
C.J. opens the door to her office. On the other side of the corridor, through the glass door of the Roosevelt Room, we can see the back of Toby's head. About three-quarters of the screen is filled up with an out-of-focus lampshade. C.J. asks Margaret to call Leo, and then sits behind her desk. The camera pans across the lampshade to capture C.J. as she sits.
Back in the Roosevelt Room, Babish asks Toby whether he understood that he was on the record when he spoke with Brock. Toby is clearly becoming impatient and a bit testy: "I am the White House Communications Director. I have a rough understanding of the protocol involved when speaking with journalists." Babish asks whether Toby intended the information he gave to Brock to be published in the Times. Again, the answer is yes. During all of this conversation, the camera is slowly panning across the backs of a bunch of empty chairs at one end of the table. It's not until three or four sentences in that we see either man. Babish asks if Toby knew the information was classified. And this is the point where I think Toby should really shut up if he doesn't want to go to jail, because his only real defense is that he knew about the shuttle but did not know it was classified, or at least did not possess the requisite knowledge to make discussion of the information a crime. But Toby gives a long speech telling Babish that he knew exactly how secret the information was. Babish asks whether Toby had clearance to possess the information about the shuttle. And just then, Toby's lawyer enters. Her name is Alana Waterman, and she previously appeared on the show as the author of an op-ed that embarrassed Abbey. (Thanks to the eagle-eyed forum posters, without whom I would never have known that.) We have switched over to the patented Alex Graves shakycam. Alana informs Babish that the questioning must end, but Toby tells her that he wants to continue. She basically tells Toby to shut up. Toby: "You know, I'm really fed up to here with lawyers ordering me around." Babish thinks that Toby "should've considered that before passing State secrets to New York Times reporters." I think that Babish's rudeness there was just a natural reaction to being confronted by another lawyer. Babish asks Toby whether he leaked to anyone besides Greg Brock, and Alana tells Toby, "Do not answer that." But Toby does answer that (and the answer is "no"), and Alana tells Babish that she wants a word in private with Toby. Babish leaves.
Toby tells Alana that he appreciates her concern, but that he doesn't really need her, since he's prepared to face the consequences of what he did. She tells him that he's "very noble and very stupid." She makes it clear to him that she wants to try to get some kind of deal for him, and that will become harder the more he talks. He tells her that he doesn't want a deal, and she tells him that he's facing a sentence of "sixty-three to seventy-eight months' jail time." Toby wonders where those odd numbers came from. She starts to tell him that he has an obligation to others beside himself. He tells her, "Please don't bring up my kids." I'm so glad he didn't forget them. I was starting to think that their birth was just a hallucination. Alana, of course, is not at all concerned with Toby's kids -- she's concerned about her own reputation, and what it will look like for her if she lets Toby go down without a fight. She accuses him of wanting "to go down in some kind of quasi-orgasmic blaze of self-pitying, self-destructive, self-aggrandizing attempt at glory." And then she gives him an ultimatum: either he refuses to answer any more questions or she walks. And without waiting for an answer, she signals to Babish that he can come in. Babish enters, sits down, and asks, "Who was it who first informed you of the existence of a classified military space shuttle." And I'm certain we would have learned that it was Toby's brother, but Toby decides to accept Alana's advice and refuses to answer. Babish tells him, "Please wait here," and then he leaves. Toby tells Alana, "Well, you certainly earned your fee today." She tells him that she appreciates the fact that he listened to her. Toby: "No, I just meant it was the first time tonight he used the word 'please.'" Heh. Commercials.
West Wing. C.J. walks by Ed and Larry, who are dumbfoundedly watching the dismantling of Toby's office. She tells them that they should probably go home.
Toby enters the Sit Room and asks to be caught up. Hutchinson tells her that Kate has been "entertaining [them]...with her theory on this assassination in Kazakhstan." C.J. hits him with both barrels: "Mr. Secretary, through no fault of your own, your customary default acerbity -- which some might characterize as 'snide,' but which I never fail to find delightful -- is perhaps not the right tone for my particular mood this particular evening. Now, would you catch me up?" I actually feel a little bit sorry for Hutchinson after that. Poor bastard never knew what hit him. Kate's theory is that the Russians might have done it to disrupt Kazakhstan's increasing closeness with China, which has included a strategic partnership and the building of an oil pipeline to China. Apparently, the guy who will replace the assassinated Kazakh president is much more pro-Russia. Of course, Kate's theory doesn't tell us anything about Farad or the regional V.P. of Unocal. If all of this is true, the big question is how China will respond. C.J. summarizes the problem thus: "Russia and China, eyeball to eyeball in Central Asia." That's a good way to get pinkeye. ["Or red eye." -- Wing Chun] Hutchinson refers to "nine hundred U.S. Marines stuck right in the middle." Presumably, these are marines serving at some small U.S. base in Kazakhstan.
Santos campaign jet. Helen is watching a movie on a small DVD player. She's wearing headphones, but you can still hear a lot of the gory sounds coming from what is presumably a horror movie. There are identifiable screams and stabby noises. Watching the movie, Helen flinches and loudly says, "Oh, God." She turns to Santos and says (loudly), "This is so scary." Wing Chun, how much do you hate Helen right now? ["When she's alone on a plane? Not much. If she were sitting within ten feet of me at a cinema? There would be other stabby noises to compete with the ones on the film soundtrack." -- Wing Chun] Josh enters to speak to Santos, and sits down in the seat facing Santos and Helen. He asks what Helen is watching, and Santos tells him it's "the latest Rob Zombie film." (Mr. Zombie seems to primarily be a musician, but he has also written three movies: House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects, and The Haunted World of El Superbeasto.) Josh laughs as Helen screams and covers her eyes while watching the movie.
Josh tells Santos that he and Lou have been discussing making some changes to the staff. Helen: "You're kidding me?" Josh looks at her, and Santos tells him that she's talking to the movie, not commenting on Josh's statement. Josh lays out the case for some staff turnover, and Santos asks how many people he's talking about. Josh tells him it's about forty-five. Helen: "You can't be serious?" But then she looks away from the movie and straight at Josh, so this time she is making a comment on his statement. Helen thinks it will look like panic, but Josh tells them that it will make it possible to "bring in more operatives with experience and savvy." Helen asks, "Have we been turning them away? 'I'm sorry, you can't work for us, you have too much experience and savvy'?" Josh reassures Santos that they're not doing this because they're panicked. Santos tells Josh, "Well, you're running this thing. It is a big layoff, and it's gonna get noted in the press, but if you think it's needed...." And then Josh tells them that Ned's name is on the list. Helen immediately says that they can't fire Ned, but Josh tells Santos that Ned is just not cut out for the work they are doing. After just a second, Santos tells Josh to send Ned back to the Congressional office: "And we will get him something in the administration, once we're in." Good to see that cronyism is bipartisan. Santos stands up and tells Josh, "Anyone not getting the job done has got to go." Santos starts to walk away, and Josh asks him if he would like to break the news to Ned. Santos tells Josh to do it. Santos walks into...the bathroom, I think? Helen gives Josh the big stinkeye as he says goodbye and leaves the room.
Babish is filling C.J. in his interrogation of Toby. He tells her that Toby mentioned discussing the shuttle with C.J. She tells him that's true (and it matches her statement to Babish at the beginning of the season). Babish asks her if she in any way told Toby that it would be neato for him to leak the shuttle story to the press. She denies it three ways from Sunday and asks if Toby said that she had. Babish: "No. His account matches yours." C.J. thinks that's because they're both telling the truth. Oliver asks C.J. whether she spoke with anyone about Toby's confession since it was made, and she tells him she hasn't. He asks her if she spoke about it with anyone outside the White House, and she again says "no." But when he asks her if the White House phone logs will back that story up, she tells him that she did place a call to Leo, but that she didn't get through to him. Babish really wants to know what C.J. planned to say to Leo if she had gotten him on the phone, but she just keeps telling him that she didn't reach Leo. Babish asks what kind of message she left for Leo, and she tells him that she told Margaret not to leave any message. Babish tells C.J. that before there are any other questions about this phone call, she might want to think of what other reason she had to call Leo that had nothing to do with the leak, since calling him about the leak might look like evidence of a cover-up. Of course, thinking of an excuse for why you might have called somebody after the fact actually is a cover-up. And then Babish tells C.J. that it's time to meet with Jed and let him know what's going on. She asks him, "What will be the recommendation of the Counsel's office?" He tells her, "The same as yours." So either (a) they already discussed her recommendation, (b) he is offering his unwavering support of whatever she recommends, or (c) he is assuming that she's smart enough to come to the same conclusion he's already reached.
The Residence. Wow, it's been a while since we've been up here. Jed, Abbey, Ellie, and Vic the Fruit Fly Guy are standing around a coffee table holding glasses of champagne. Abbey is ogling Ellie's engagement ring. Ellie wonders if it's not too big, and Abbey tells her, "Oh, there's no such thing, dear." They sit down on facing sofas. Vic is an übergeek -- receding hairline, curly hair, oversized glasses, weak chin, brown corduroy jacket. Abbey tells them she wants to hear "all about the proposal." He apparently popped the question while they were on a bike ride on Rock Creek Park: "We did it there. Er, I did it there." Abbey is clearly being polite when she says that it must have been romantic. Ellie: "Very. The two of us, and my Secret Service detail." Jed asks when they'd like to have the wedding, and Ellie tells him, "As soon as possible." Jed thinks they should wait until after the election, and suggests a White House wedding at Christmas. Abbey jumps right in and suggests that Ellie probably doesn't want to have the wedding at the White House, and she and Jed have a lovely little argument about what Ellie might want, all while Ellie watches them argue. They go on for a bit, and then Ellie interrupts them: "Where, at the moment, is the less pressing concern. There's another consideration that may need to take precedence. As far as scheduling goes. And why we might not want to wait." She starts off that little speech all cute and perky, and slowly trails off at the end. Abbey catches on to Ellie's meaning about ten seconds before Jed does. And just to be clear, are we watching a thirty-something doctor tell her parents that she has to get married because she's knocked up? Did I suddenly switch over to a rerun of American Dreams? What decade is it? You can tell that Jed just wants to smack Vic about the ears, but he just slowly says, "Well, we should probably get right on to scheduling that, then." Heh. At that moment, Not-Debbie (a.k.a. Nancy) interrupts. Abbey introduces Vic, calling him their "son-in-law-to-be." Nancy congratulates them, and Vic just looks mortified, but Ellie is just as excited as any newly engaged person would be. Nancy is there to tell Jed that Babish needs to speak with him. As Jed leaves, Abbey slowly reaches over to take Ellie's champagne away from her. Heh.
Back in the Roosevelt Room, Toby is mocking Alana's speech to him from a couple of scenes ago. He finds the words "quasi-orgasmic" particularly amusing. She's clearly a bit embarrassed, but she tells him that she was trying to make a point. And it's a point he clearly got. And then she asks why he "did it." He tells her, "To save lives." She thinks it's related to the fact that his brother was an astronaut. He says that he was saving astronauts' lives in the short term, but that he wanted to "start a discussion about whether we want to extend mankind's capacity for warfare into the heavens." Basically, he thinks it was wrong for the government to develop what was essentially a space-based weapon in secret: "I believe in an open society. You debate these things in the light of day. That's what's supposed to happen in a democracy." Alana thinks they can build what is essentially a political campaign around those issues, but Toby thinks that won't really help him to avoid jail. Alana tells him that there's a different criminal statute that makes it a misdemeanor "to disobey a regulation set forth by the NASA administrator." The code section Alana cites, by the way, does not exist. And if it did exist, it would be somewhere in the patent laws. (And, as I've said before, real lawyers aren't able to just throw around minor U.S. Code provisions like that, because the damn thing is dozens of books long.) Violating this mythical lesser statute is punished by a fine or a year in prison. Toby doesn't look impressed, and she acknowledges that "it's a little pie in the sky around the edges." Suddenly I want a Moon Pie. Through the glass doors of the Roosevelt Room, Toby sees Jed walking towards the Oval Office. Toby tells Alana, "Keep thinking, counselor. It's what you're good at."
Jed enters the Oval Office, where the camera slowly moves in to C.J. and Babish waiting to speak to him. C.J. speaks to Jed, but we can't hear her over the loud rumbling on the soundtrack. Commercials.
We return to a close-up profile of Jed. We can hear a clock ticking loudly in the background. Jed: "Toby. Is it possible to be astonished and at the same time not surprised?" Jed slowly sits down as Babish tells him that, as far as he can determine, nobody else was involved. C.J. points out that the Republicans will try to use this to embarrass the White House and the Santos campaign. Jed tells her, "The political fallout is not my first concern." C.J. tells Jed that they need to move quickly so that it does not appear that they even contemplated any kind of cover-up. Jed thinks he should make a statement. C.J. offers to "take care" of Toby, but Jed won't let her: "Bring him here." Babish thinks it's a mistake for Jed even to be in the same room with Toby, but Jed responds, "Thank you for your counsel, but I have to do this myself." In that case, Babish insists on being in the room when Jed speaks to Toby. Jed asks C.J. to give him a moment before bringing Toby in. C.J. and Babish leave.
And now a little spy break. Okay, on a security monitor, we see Kate walk out of the Sit Room. On another security monitor, we see her open the door of the antechamber and then jump as she's startled. In some piece of glass to the security monitor, we see two different reflections of Charles Frost. One is in three-quarters profile -- I think it's a reflection of another security monitor. In the other, we see him out-of-focus and facing Kate, whose back is towards the camera (or at least, towards the glass in which all of this is reflected). Again, it's a very complicated shot and very distracting. Kate tells Frost, "See, this is what puts people off. Lurking. No one likes a lurker." That might be true in real life, but lurkers are always welcome in the forums. The door closes behind her, cutting off one of the reflections. So now we have a reflection of Frost in three-quarters profile, with Kate standing in front of him. He asks her how things went in the Sit Room, and she tells him, "With your theory? Not well. I think there's a better one." He tells her, "It can't be better if it's wrong." Kate: "Good night, Charles." She walks away, and he starts yelling about how obvious the pattern is. And now we're back in real television-land, where directors point cameras at actors. Frost keeps yelling, and Kate keeps walking. Just before she turns the corner, he yells out, "What? All right, your theory, what is it. Tell me." She turns around and tells him it's all about China and Russia, with a little Pakistan and India thrown in for good measure: "It's your basic horror show, World War III nightmare." Frost: "Very cool. Do you want to grab coffee?" I think I kind of like him. She just looks at him.
Campaign jet. People are filing up the aisle toward the exit. As Ned walks by, Josh calls out his name and asks him to wait up. Josh waits for the last few people to file out between himself and Ned, and sits down on the arm of one of the seats. Ned asks, "What's up? Am I in trouble?" Josh gives him a pretty typical "this is never easy, we've decided to make a change, and you're it" kind of speech. He eventually cuts to the chase: "You're one of the people we're going to let go. I'm sorry." He also says that Ned's not being fired -- just moved back to the Congressional office. Ned is not having any of this, telling Josh, "No, um, you don't fire me. Does the Congressman know about this?" Ned really wants to hear it from Santos, and Josh tells him that's really not going to happen: "Talking to the Congressman isn't going to change anything. I want to thank you for all your hard work." Ned: "Screw you. You know, you can fire as many of us grunts as you want. But if you want to know why this campaign is floundering, look in the mirror."
Kate enters C.J.'s office. I guess she decided not to go for that coffee. Kate asks whether something has happened with the leak investigation: "Since I'm supposed to be heading it." Once again, the speaker is in profile and the person she's speaking with is nowhere in the shot. C.J. tells her that she can't discuss it. C.J. crosses behind Kate, and Kate turns to her and says, "I feel like I owe you an apology." C.J. tells her, "You don't. And I really can't discuss this right now."
C.J. walks into the Roosevelt Room. We see the following scene through a pane of glass in the door. C.J. tells Toby that Jed wants to see him. Alana stands up, and C.J. tells her, "Just Toby." Alana tells C.J. that she has a problem with that. C.J.: "I'm sure I didn't just hear you invite yourself into the Oval Office." Alana tells her that she didn't so much invite herself as ask for the honor of an invitation. From herself. She tries to tell C.J. that if she can't go in with him, Toby's not going either. Her bargaining position is undercut somewhat by the fact that Toby is already walking with C.J. toward the door. He tells her, "It's all right. Go home."
C.J. knocks on the door of the Office of O and lets Toby in. She does not stick around herself. Jed is still in his tux, although he's taken the jacket off. Jed's standing just in front of his desk, and Babish is a few feet in front of him, between Jed and Toby. For the first few lines of this confrontation, the camera is positioned squarely behind Jed's head, with Toby quite a distance away and not quite in focus. Toby and Jed greet each other, and Toby says, "I was hoping we would be able to speak in private, sir." The camera cuts to a shot of Jed from the front. He's on the right side of the frame, speaking toward his left. But Babish is in the foreground of the shot, effectively acting as a visual wall between Jed and Toby. Jed tells Toby that his actions have made it impossible for the two of them to speak alone. Jed continues speaking as the camera cuts to a new shot. Now about three-quarters of the screen is taken up by the dark shadow Babish's suit. Toby can be seen standing in a small portion of the screen way to the left. Jed tells Toby that he hasn't had much time to think: "But the one thought that hits the hardest is that this was somehow inevitable. That you've always been heading for this sort of crash and burn." Jed accuses Toby of having a sense of moral superiority. Toby disagrees: "I don't think I'm morally superior to everyone." Jed: "No. Just to me." Toby reaches into his suit pocket and pulls out a piece of paper -- it's his letter of resignation. Jed asks, "What is that, the third one?" Jed tells him to rip it up. Toby's confused, and Jed tells him, with an aching sadness in his voice, "I can't accept your resignation. I have to fire you. For cause." Babish tells Toby that he'll have to turn in his credentials and will be escorted out of the building immediately: "All personal effects will be sent to your home after Counsel staff has catalogued the contents of your office." We can still hear the clock ticking. Toby turns to leave and, with a catch in his voice, says, "Thank you, Mr. President." Jed, who has walked over to the window and loosened his tie, turns back to him: "Toby? When you walk out of here, there'll be people out there, perhaps a great many, who'll think of you as a hero. I just don't want you for a moment thinking I'll be one of them." Ouch. Toby, suddenly seeming much less sad and much more angry, walks out of the Oval Office.
C.J. walks through a door labeled "Office of the Vice President -- Chief of Staff." She asks the secretary if "he" is in. The secretary lets her in to Will's office. She gives him an almost cheery greeting, and he asks what's up. She says, "I'm offering..." and then she has to stop to clamp down on the tears that are starting to come. She starts again: "Well, not so much offering you as dragooning you to be the new White House Communications Director, starting immediately." Will looks stunned. She tells him that she'll smooth things over with the VP, "but first, you should know the President's making a statement in, uh, three or so minutes in which he'll announce that Toby Ziegler has been fired for an egregious national security violation." Again, Allison Janney is amazing. She'll pause, and you can see the effort she's making, and then she'll rush through the few words because she has to say them before she feels tears coming on, and then she'll pause again before those tears have a chance to reach the surface. On hearing Toby's name, Will just repeats it, almost as a sigh. He asks if Jed needs help with the comments, and C.J. tells him that he has a pretty good idea of what he's going to say. Because Toby's office has been sealed by the Counsel's office, she tells Will to use Annabeth's old office: "Which, come to think of it, used to be yours. Funny how things work out." Will tells her, "Not so funny, really." C.J.'s on the way out the door, and she stops for just a second, and you can hear that she's crying, and she agrees, "No, not so much."
In Debbie's office, Babish waits with Toby for a security guard to come take him out of the building. We see tech guys setting up equipment for the President's remarks in the Oval. Babish tells Toby, "Rough in there." Toby thinks it was only to be expected. Babish tells Toby, "I thought he'd thank you for your service." Toby knows that Jed is angry, and it seems pretty clear to me that Toby's feeling angry himself. Babish tells Toby, "Someone should thank you for your service." And then an agent comes, asks Toby for his White House pass, and escorts him from the building. As Toby is being led down the corridors, Jed's remarks informing the nation of Toby's termination begin running on televisions. At one point, we see Toby and his escort walking down a hallway in the background while the foreground is dominated by the lower half of a television on which we can see Jed twisting and wringing his hands while he speaks. We're back to the deep tone and the military-sounding drums as Toby continues his long trip out of the West Wing. Once he's out the doors, we cut to credits.
This episode wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination. I loved most of the camera work, but some of it was needlessly complicated. And some of the dialogue was a bit clunky. And the whole Kazakhstan plot could have been dropped. But I can't watch all of the scenes between Richard Schiff, Allison Janney, Oliver Platt, and Martin Sheen without giving this an A-plus. There is simply no finer group of actors on network television today.