West Wing TV Show - What Kind Of Day Has It Been? - West Wing Photos & Videos, West Wing Reviews & West Wing Recaps | TWoP

Recapped by Deborah · Aired 05-16-2000

Previously on The West Wing, India sent troops into the neutral zone in Kashmir; C.J.'s pissed that no one informed her of what was going on, causing her to lie to the press; Jed tells Zoey about threats of violence received by the White House; Gina thinks that it's two fifteen-year-old boys sending death threats against Charlie and Zoey.

The title card says we're at a town hall meeting at the Newseum in Rosslyn, Virginia. We see an outside shot of the hall where there is a small crowd of people, and several limos and security vehicles. We can hear Jed's voice telling amusing political anecdotes. The audience is laughing and Jed goes on to answer a question we haven't heard. We're switching back and forth between various shots of Jed, and Jed on a monitor. He says, "Suzanne, there is an answer to your question but I don't think you're going to like it. You ready? The current crop of eighteen-to-twenty-five-year-olds is the most politically apathetic generation in American history. In 1972, half of that age group voted. In the last election, it was thirty-two percent. Your generation is considerably less likely than any one to write or call public officials, attend rallies, or work on political campaigns. A man once said this, 'Decisions are made by those who show up.' So are we failing you or are you failing us? It's a little of both." Jed continues giving information gleaned from a report by the Center for Policy Alternatives while the camera drifts upwards. Up in the balcony area, Secret Service agents are stationed and Gina roams along, keeping a watchful eye.

The camera drifts outside to a small room off the auditorium, where several monitors are set up and some reporters are hanging around. Someone off-screen shouts, "What's that source?" and Josh calls out, "It's the Center for Policy Alternatives; C.J.'ll have copies for the bus ride back!"

Back onstage, where Jed's perched on a stool, he says, "I want to continue with this, but there was some debate among my staff earlier today as to whether or not I should take off my jacket. Some thought it would fit in nicely with the folksy atmosphere of a town hall meeting; others thought it wouldn't be presidential. Can I trust you all to read nothing into it, other than I've been talking for two hours and it's a little hot under these lights?" People laugh and applaud as he stands up and removes his jacket. That is some politicking, when you can get people to enthusiastically applaud that. ["People in Rosslyn are starved for entertainment." -- Strega] He continues rambling as the camera shot changes to the technicians' area, where Sam is watching the proceedings. Bonnie comes along and asks where Toby is, because there's a phone call for him from someone named Peter Jobson. Sam says he'll take the call and accepts the cell phone.

By Deborah

We then get a shot of Toby watching a monitor in another area of the building; Sam calls to him from a short distance away. When Toby turns around, Sam makes the following gesture: he slides his hand along in a smooth, up-up-and-away motion. Toby looks massively relieved, and looks down over a stairway where he can see Josh. He calls out to Josh and makes the same gesture. Josh then sees Leo and gives him the same signal. Leo, confused, asks, "What's that?" Josh says, "It's the signal." Leo says that he thought it was the signal for "the other thing." Josh explains, "It's the signal for this thing now." Leo asks, "We're totally out of the woods now?" Josh says eagerly, "Go tell the President!"

Another bank of monitors, and we can see Carol hustling around. C.J. has an armful of papers and is walking behind a row of journalists. As she comes to Danny, she cuffs him sharply on the right hand side of his head, and says, "Follow me." Danny looks irritated and says, "What?" He follows her as she stops by a pillar in the room, and whispers that she has a tip for him. He's a little surprised but not much. She continues, "I have a tip, and I'm going to give it to you before the others." Danny looks around and asks if they're being watched. C.J. looks around and says, "No." Danny asks, "Then why are we talking like this?" C.J. ignores that and goes on, "I have news." Danny: "What's the news?" C.J.: "I want you to acknowledge that I'm doing something nice for you." Danny: "What's the news?" C.J.: "A peace pipe of sorts, an offering, which in one sense..." Danny's lost patience. "What's the damn news?" C.J. finally tells him, "Call your science editor. It's about the space shuttle Columbia." She takes off quickly, leaving Danny standing there, probably wondering if this is some kind of trick to further punish him.

We then see Leo walking along behind the audience, trying to get Jed's eye. Jed's saying something about how fifty-three percent of eighteen-to-twenty-five-year-olds believe the soap opera General Hospital will outlast Medicare. When Jed looks his way, Leo gives him the big secret signal. Jed pauses as he takes it in and then says something about the younger generation thinking the older generation has ransomed its future. Leo zooms off. Jed goes on to drag Zoey into his talk, by mentioning that she's always mad at him for such things. We see Zoey up in one of the balcony seats, looking adorably uncomfortable as Jed continues teasing her, "This is the part where Zoey tries to crawl under her seat to hide. Don't worry about it, sweetie, I'm going to bring out the baby pictures any second now." The audience laughs.

Outside, there's a throng of people waving flags and signs from behind waist-high metal barricades. Secret Service agents and security people are racing around. Ron, the head Secret Service guy, tells Gina, "Straight to the car." Gina asks, "He's not working the rope line?" Ron tells her that there's a softball game the President wants to watch. Gina's surprised to hear that not only are softball games broadcast, but the President likes to watch them. Ron explains that POTUS likes to unwind watching sports on TV; whatever's on. Ron leaves and Gina surveys the crowd. The crowd is cheering and chanting and hooting. It seems to be entirely a pro-Bartlet mob.

Inside again, Jed is still talking (and probably will be for another four hours unless someone intervenes; good old POTUS). Josh is now watching from the back of the auditorium, when Charlie walks up to him and asks, "Did you hear that?" Josh: "Yeah." Charlie: "He used it." Josh: "Yeah." Charlie: "He used the material I told him about." Josh: "Yeah." Charlie tells Josh, "You were right." Josh doesn't know what he means. Charlie replies, "It doesn't go away," a reference to a scene in episode three, A Proportional Response, on the day Charlie was hired. After POTUS personally invited Charlie to join the staff as his body man, Charlie told Josh, "I've never felt this way before." Josh told him, "It doesn't go away." I liked this little scene a lot. It's hard to reconcile the shy, insecure young man Charlie was when he came to the White House with the confident, wisecracking guy who's dating the President's daughter. Josh claps Charlie on the shoulder. Between them, we can see Jed down on stage ending his talk, saying, "Thank you, everyone. God bless you, and God bless America." Everyone prepares to leave.

Outside, Gina's talking on her walkie-talkie to Mike, confirming that Jed's not working the rope line but going straight to the car. She says, "I've got Bookbag." Bookbag is Zoey, of course. Gina runs up to meet the group and walks with Zoey. Zoey's prattling on about her father embarrassing her. We can hear a helicopter roaring overhead. Zoey points out that now her father's working the rope line, and that he's unable to walk past a crowd of people. As she and Gina round the limo, Zoey calls out to Charlie. Zoey and Charlie are chatting by the front of the car, while Gina is distracted by her sense that she saw something, even muttering to herself under her breath about it. She whirls around, trying to figure out what's not right. Zoey drags Charlie back to where Gina is; she's prattling on about Charlie having made a full apology to her. Gina can't pay attention to Zoey, because her Spidey-sense is going wild. Gina says again, "I saw something!" Her gaze fastens on a young man in the crowd wearing a grey baseball hat. She sees him look up slightly and turns to see what he's looking at. The music becomes more dramatic and menacing as Gina's eyes light up with alarm and she opens her mouth to cry out. Then bam! Credits. The familiar theme music leaves us gasping as we realize we are just going to have to wait to find out what happened. That's a hell of an opening.

After the commercials, the title card indicates that it's twelve hours earlier. Military guys are buzzing around the Situation Room. Admiral Fitzwallace is on the phone as Leo comes in and asks what's going on. When Fitzwallace gets off the phone, he tells Leo, "Al-Jabbar Air Base in Kuwait says a Nighthawk didn't come back." Leo asks, "Didn't come back from where?" Fitzwallace says, "Three-hour patrol of the no-fly with the five-and-dime." Leo says, "Iraq. We've got an F-117 down in Iraq?" Fitzwallace adds, "Along with a pilot." The Admiral indicates that none of this is confirmed, and he needs ten more minutes. Leo says, "Ten more minutes and then I'm bringing in the President." As the credits roll by, we can see that everybody and their dog is in the episode, except for perhaps Joey Lucas and Al Kiefer.

In the colonnade outside his office, Jed's walking along with Charlie and saying that it seems to him that if the event is over by 10:00 p.m., that he can be back at the White House by 11:00 p.m. Charlie agrees and indicates that means that he can watch the girls' softball game. Jed asks, "Did you just snicker when you said that?" Charlie says, "No, sir." Jed says he did. As they enter the Oval Office, someone hands Jed some documents and Jed keeps accusing Charlie of snickering when he said "girls' softball game" and Charlie keeps denying it. POTUS continues, "As if to indicate there was something wrong with my wanting to see a girls' softball game live via satellite." Charlie says, "Well, you seem pretty excited about it, sir." Somebody sticks his head in a door and tells POTUS that "they're" ready for him. As they leave the Oval Office, Jed goes on telling Charlie about how great it is, at the end of a long day, to sit back and relax with a beer while watching a sporting event. "That's what men do." Charlie asks, "They watch girls' softball, sir?" Jed explains, "When that's what's on, that's what they watch. It's that, or a cricket match between Scotland and Bermuda. Now, I am an educated man, Charlie, but when somebody tries to explain cricket to me, all I want to do is hit 'em in the head with a teapot." Jed says that it's Sacramento State versus the University of the Pacific. Charlie says, "A clash of the titans, sir." Jed insists that Charlie is not going to spoil his fun. A couple more staffers greet the President, and Jed says hi to "Steve" and "Mikey."

As they keep walking, POTUS asks Charlie, of the people he's been greeting all along the way, if he's gotten any of the names right so far. Charlie: "No sir, but you came damn close on a couple of them." They arrive at the press briefing room where most of the usual suspects are waiting for him. Mandy's there, too. C.J. takes charge and tells POTUS that this is a rehearsal for a town hall meeting that will be broadcast live on (Product Placement Alert!) MSNBC, and that Carol's going to act as the moderator, and that Carol will be sitting to his right, which is camera left. She adds that he'll have a pitcher of water and a drinking glass. Before she can go any further, POTUS says, "And when I speak I should stand facing the audience, right? You know how I know this, C.J.? Because I've done it two or three hundred thousand times before." He walks past her, using a file folder to tap her on the shoulder in a friendly way. He asks Sam, "Hey Sam, why didn't Columbia land last night?" Sam doesn't know; Jed suggests that he go ask Toby. Sam inquires, "Why would Toby know?" Jed replies, "His brother's on that flight." Sam is surprised to learn that Toby's brother is a payload specialist. Jed gleefully explains, "He's up there with four red-bellied Japanese newts. He wants to see how a newt's inner ears, which are remarkably similar to human's, are influenced by the absence of gravity. You know what he calls them, C.J.?" C.J., who's sitting close by, says, "Astronewts." Jed continues, "One hundred percent correct." Sam runs off to find Toby and Jed gets back to the rehearsal. Mandy starts to ask Jed a question but he interrupts and says seriously to C.J., "You say I have a pitcher of water and a drinking glass. And the water gets into the glass how?" She just gives him a weary look and walks away.

In the secretarial area outside his office, Toby is pacing around bouncing material off of Bonnie and Ginger. He's rambling about some questions that may be asked of the administration regarding the apparent double standard in its treatment of China and Cuba. Sam comes up behind Toby and Toby says to him, "We need an answer on Cuba. We need an answer on Cuba and we need an answer on farm loans." Sam claims college students aren't going to ask a question about Cuba. They're not? Toby says there'll be faculty there. Sam says, "You know, not only did I not know that you had a brother on the space shuttle right now, I didn't even know you had a brother." Add that to the long list of things you don't know, Sam, my friend, such as not giving gifts to sex trade workers on a public sidewalk. Toby's completely uninterested in Sam's amazement about it all. Sam tries to find out what Toby knows about the space shuttle's intended landing but Toby doesn't seem to be apprised of the situation and is getting impatient with Sam. Sam offers to find out if there's something going on with the shuttle. As Toby leaves he tells Sam to write him an answer on Cuba.

As Josh pours himself some coffee, Donna informs Josh that his meeting with VPOTUS involves them going jogging, much to Josh's annoyance. Apparently the Vice-President's two o'clock jogging slot was the only place he could fit Josh in. Josh sighs and says, "Okay, order me some boiled chicken and some pasta. Nothing like a meeting you have to carb-up for." As he goes in to his office, Donna reminds him he was supposed to be at the town hall prep meeting ten minutes ago. He says he's on his way. He notices something amiss in his office, however, and comes back out to ask Donna what happened to his chair. Donna "plays" dumb for some reason I don't quite understand (I mean, come on, it's not like he's not going to notice the chair is gone, and since you're the one who took it, why act like you don't know where it is?) [Maybe she isn't "playing" dumb at all. -- Strega]; there's some Josh-and-Donna blather about the chair until it comes out that she's sent it to "the shop" for repairs. The "shop" turns out to be her friend Curtis, whom she's trying to throw some work. Josh wants to know just how much Curtis is charging the federal government to fix his wobbly wheel. Donna and Josh enter the press briefing room where Mandy is firing a sample question at Jed. Her question is about the (in my opinion) stupefying number of Americans who have no health insurance, and whether they can expect real action in the future, or whether his administration will continue to "nibble around the edges." Jed responds, "I wouldn't say my administration's 'nibbled around the edges.'" Josh instructs him, "Don't repeat the phrase, sir. That'll be the sound bite. If we don't have a solution, the very least we can do is acknowledge there's a problem." Jed composes a much more politically viable response. Just then Leo enters and tries to get Jed's attention. Jed tells him to hang on and asks Josh, "Now can I blame Congress?" Josh smiles and says, "Knock yourself out." Leo then tells Jed he's needed in the Situation Room.

By Deborah

After the commercials, C.J. is called to Leo's office so he can apprise her of the situation with the pilot. He tells her that a Pentagon team is coming over to brief her. C.J. asks, "Is there a rescue mission?" Leo looks hesitant but then says that the President gave the order an hour earlier. C.J. says that the Iraqis are going to be providing footage of a burning airplane, and that will be all over CNN within two hours, and that the press will have the news before they're even done with whatever's going on in the Situation Room. Leo says, "Which is the problem with conducting a covert rescue mission in this age of instant news." He pauses and gives her a look, and inquires, "You understand what I'm telling you?" C.J. says she does. Leo's not sure, because of the problem a few months ago during the India/Pakistan mess, and asserts that she was uncomfortable with lying to the press about that. C.J. stands her ground and says, "I wasn't lying to the press about India/Pakistan. I was lied to by you, which made me look like an idiot." Leo looks like he wasn't expecting that response but doesn't react too much; he just stares at her for a moment before saying, "Well, I'm not lying to you now." He proceeds to give her the basic details of the mission. C.J. says, "We're going to pay a price for misleading the press." Leo doesn't care. C.J. says she understands. Just then Josh sticks his head in, and asks, "An F-117?" Leo tells C.J. she should go do her briefing. She departs and Leo confirms for Josh that it was indeed an F-117 that was shot down. Josh replies, "An F-117's a stealth fighter, right? At some point we're going to be talking about how they shot down a stealth fighter?" Leo: "You can take that to the bank." Josh lets Leo know he's got a meeting with Hoynes. Leo says, "Listen to me. Don't tell him why it's bad for us. Tell him why it's bad for him." Josh claims he's not worried about the meeting. Leo orders Josh to come see him after the meeting. In the hallways Toby catches up with Josh and they discuss the shooting down of the stealth plane. Toby says, "It's a stealth fighter. It should have stealth capability, right? 'Cause if it doesn't, we should call it something else." Josh agrees as he disappears down a hallway and Toby enters his office, where Sam is waiting for him. Sam begins, "One of the payload bay doors would not close." Toby's not sure what Sam's talking about. Sam continues, "Specifically, the starboard payload bay door." Say that three times fast. Toby's folded his arms and says, "Sam, if your ass isn't off my desk, and I mean stat..." Sam's still spouting facts, "This is not his first shuttle mission. It is his fourth shuttle mission. Dr. David Ziegler, holding postgraduate degrees in both physiology and biology. Now I know more about your brother than I do about you, since I didn't know you had a brother." Toby asks about the bay door. Sam explains that he spoke to Peter Jobson, who is Mission Commander at NASA, and spouts some techno-jargon about the problem with the door, and how they wanted to wait until morning to fix it. Toby says, "It's morning every forty-five minutes on the shuttle." Sam explains that he meant morning at Edwards Air Force Base. Toby points out that it's morning right now. Sam says it's taking a bit of time. Toby: "Well, it's a red-letter day for U.S. aviation, isn't it?" ["He must be upset, because I think the word he meant to use was 'aeronautics.'" -- Strega] Sam tries to reassure Toby a bit. Toby says C.J. will need the press briefing room and asks Sam to move the prep meeting to the Roosevelt Room. Sam says he's working on answers about Cuba and teachers. As Sam leaves, Toby quietly asks him to keep in touch with Peter Jobson and let him know when the shuttle lands. Sam says he will. Bonnie then pops in to tell Toby that CNN's got the Nighthawk.

Out alongside what I'm going to guess is the Tidal Pool, or maybe it's a river (Strega?), Josh and VPOTUS are jogging. ["I can't check the tape right now, but my impression was that it was the Potomac River this time." -- Strega] Josh is wearing a tank top and shorts and showing plenty of skin. I don't know about anyone else around here, but I'm going to take that as a great big shout-out to the legions of Josh fans here on MBTV. Don't even try to stop me. Sadly, though, he doesn't do anything for me. Josh is explaining to Hoynes what he sees as the problems with soft money contributions to political parties. Josh says, "I don't know how we've done it, but we've legalized bribery." Hoynes agrees. Josh says, "So what we've got are two corporate parties: one pro-life, one pro-choice." Hoynes says, "Josh, when I said, 'What's your point,' I meant, what's your point?" Josh says they've noticed a sudden increase in the amount of racquetball sessions and late-night poker games with Democratic opponents of campaign finance reform. Hoynes objects that you can't "swing a dead cat" (hate that expression) without hitting such Democrats in Washington. Josh asks if they can stop running. Hoynes agrees and they slow to a stop. Josh tells VPOTUS that he's backing the wrong horse, and cites the rapid improvement of the President's approval rating, and claims that if they bring the pilot back alive, they'll gain another ten points and be off to the races with a job approval rating in the high sixties. Josh claims that Hoynes will be looking around the racquetball court wondering where everybody went. He concludes, "You've had some experience battling Jed Bartlet when he's right, and you've have some experience battling him when he's popular. Why in the world would you want to try it when he's both at the same time?" Hoynes says, "You know something, Josh? Sometimes I wonder if I'd listened to you two years ago, would I be President right now? You ever wonder that?" Josh hesitates a moment and then says, "No, sir, I know it for sure." They kind of smile knowingly at each other. Wonder what that's all about? Josh says, "I'm done. Thank you for your time, sir." Josh wanders away as VPOTUS continues jogging in the opposite direction.

In the press briefing room, C.J., flanked by a few military dudes, addresses the group regarding the pilot situation. She gives them the basic details and indicates that General Richmond and General Clancy will discuss the details with them in a moment. Everyone calls out C.J.'s name; she takes a question from Danny, who asks if there's a rescue mission underway. Smoothly, she lies, "Obviously there are a number of scenarios being contemplated but I wouldn't want to speculate. We have been in touch with the Iraqi government and the President is looking for a diplomatic solution." In answer to another question, she claims there have been no military moves. Leo watches her in stone-faced silence.

After some more commercials, we're in the Roosevelt room, rehearsing for the town hall meeting. Mandy's advising him on how to respond to questions about health care. Jed remarks, "You know what's hard about this, C.J.? I'm rehearsing here without the pitcher and the glass, and it's totally weird for me." C.J. doesn't rise to the bait (though I wish she would). Mandy muses, "How do you feel about him taking his jacket off?" Sam says no. Mandy says, "I like it." Then it's probably a bad idea, isn't it? Sam argues, "It'll look staged." Mandy replies, "Not if he does it at the right moment." Sam asks, "What's he gonna do, throw it over his shoulder?" Mandy says, "Maybe." Um, sure. Sam adds, "I'm also not wild about that handheld mike. Can we get him wired?" I'm guessing you could get the President pretty wired indeed with the right libations. Jed says, "No. Because with the mike and the stool and the jacket over my shoulder, I can do the town hall meeting and then do a couple of sets at the Copa." We'd all need to be wired for that. Zoey knocks on the door; she's got Charlie in tow. He gets up to chat with her; she asks how it's going. He says they're down to whether or not he should take off his jacket. Zoey asks, "Wanna know what I think?" Dad answers, "I honestly could not care less." He says he wants her to come with them tonight. She starts to answer but then mentions that he's sweating and asks if he's all right. He insists he is; she asks if he's taken his pills. He growls "Zoey," in a fatherly tone as he wipes his forehead. She says, "Fine, go ahead and collapse." Jed asks, "Are you channeling Mom now?" He asks her to come to Virginia with them tonight but she objects, saying he'll talk about her and then she'll be on camera, blushing and embarrassed. Jed states, "Bonus! Then it's settled." As he starts to return to the rehearsal, Zoey tells him that Charlie had something he wanted to say during prep. She agrees that she'll be there tonight and says that's she's going to go see Mom. Jed returns to the meeting and announces they're done. He's still mopping his forehead somewhat. Jed takes Charlie aside and tells him Zoey said he wanted to say something. Charlie acts like he doesn't know what Jed's talking about and apologizes, saying there'd been a misunderstanding. Jed accepts this. Sam comes up and says that he thinks it might be a good idea to have a signal worked out, in case there's good news about the pilot that comes in while Jed's on television. Jed asks what Sam had in mind. Sam makes a gesture with his hand drifting along an upward incline of about forty-five degrees. Jed looks distinctly unimpressed as Sam says, "Very subtle. Very simple." POTUS asks, "What was that?" Sam explains that it means "departure," but asks if POTUS would like a different signal. Jed says, "No, that one's good." As Jed slowly backs away from Sam, Sam asks if he should "spread it around." POTUS says, "Well, I think it's going to get around all by itself, but if you want to help it along a little, there's nothing wrong with that." Sam thanks him. As Jed backs into the doorway of his office, he gives Sam the signal, which Sam returns.

Josh enters Leo's office for the post-Hoynes meeting. Leo tells him that Hoynes is on board, and that he did a good job. Then Leo asks, "Josh, did you happen to say to him that if Scott Hotchkiss comes back alive, there'll be a ten-point bump?" Josh admits he did. Better bend over, Josh, because your boss is about to tear you a new one. Leo's pretty angry. "I gotta tell you, if the President ever heard about that, he'd be out of his skin." Over Josh's feeble objections, Leo says, "Don't do that! Not even in private! The guy's been blown out of the sky! He could be seriously injured. For sure he's in an Iraqi desert with no water. He's got to keep radio silence, 'cause we're not the only ones looking for him, and if they get to him first, and all he gives them is name, rank and serial number, they're going to beat him, Josh. They're gonna torture him. This is to say nothing of eighty guys in a helicopter who are gonna get shot if they're picked up underneath the radar." Josh has become increasingly ashen as Leo keeps talking. Josh says, "You're right." Leo acknowledges that the President's been joking around all day, but adds, "He's been living and dying with every hour of this and he'd be really offended if he knew you were discussing a political upside. And I gotta tell you, Josh, as a guy who flew planes in a war, I was really offended, too." Josh is as pale as I think we've ever seen him on this show. Josh says, "Yes, sir." Leo then tells him he did good today, but there's a way to "be a person." Josh apologizes very sincerely, and Leo tells him his apology's accepted, and makes a gesture by spreading his hands out as if to say, "There ya go, everything's great again." Josh leans forward to hug Leo, and Leo intercepts that by saying, "What are you doing?" Josh looks slightly stunned and says that it looked like Leo wanted to hug him. With his trademark subtle smirk, Leo says, "Oh man, did you read that wrong." Josh takes this in and says, "Okay." He starts to leave and then Leo mentions Sam's signal. Leo thinks it will be days before they know anything about the pilot, but Josh thinks it might not be. Leo asks what the signal is; Josh demonstrates. Leo looks mystified and says it looks like a hip-hop gesture. Josh claims it looks like a plane taking off; Leo disagrees. Josh says it means something good has happened; he then demonstrates the opposite gesture, indicating that something bad has happened. Leo, tired of it already, wanders back to his desk and remarks that he's got it. Josh says, "It's not like you have to be a cryptographer..." Leo says, "I've got it." Josh then pauses and says, "I really do apologize." Leo thanks him.

Out in the lobby area, Charlie catches up to Zoey. He tells her that he wishes she hadn't "done that," to which Zoey replies that he needed prompting and that she can't believe he chickened out. Charlie's kind of upset. "I didn't chicken out and I didn't need prompting. It's just inappropriate. I don't have the same relationship with your father that you have. I don't have the same relationship that the staff has." They wander into Josh's empty office to continue arguing. Zoey didn't think it was out of line for him to put his two cents in. Josh shows up and walks between them to get into his office; Charlie apologizes for using his office. Josh says that they can keep fighting in a second, he just needs to find something. They keep sniping and Charlie says, "Zoey, I work in a building with the smartest people in the world." Highly debatable. Naturally, at that moment, Josh absentmindedly sits down on his non-existent chair and falls on his ass with a grunt. Sure, we could all see it coming but it was still amusing. Zoey and Charlie stop arguing as Josh yells, "Donna!" She comes over and says, "Hi." Josh replies, "How you doing?" She astutely says, "We should get something temporary so that doesn't happen." Hey, there's an idea. Zoe and Charlie take it back out into the hallway, where he tells her that he wishes she wouldn't do that anymore. She responds, "Okay, but you're wrong." She tells him that she'll see him later and departs with Gina.

Sam comes to Toby's office to give him an update. He tells Toby that Cathy's getting Peter Jobson on the phone for him to explain things to him. Toby wants more details from Sam, who explains that there was a screw-up when they closed the door, and the upshot is that the two Orbital Maneuvering Systems engines are failing. Toby asks, "Do you know if they have primary RCS?" Whatever that is. Sam indicates that they're trying that now. Toby looks dubious and Sam tries to reassure him. Just as Sam's leaving, Toby says somewhat sheepishly, "Before, when you first asked me...the reason I reacted the way I did...I was just embarrassed, 'cause honestly I... forgot he was up there. They'd switched his mission order around a couple of times and I just lost track." Cathy interrupts to let Toby know that Jobson's on the phone. Toby thanks Sam and Cathy and takes the call privately, braced for bad news.

After the final set of commercials, the suspense is building because we are acutely aware that there are not that many minutes left to get us to the point at which Sorkin left us dangling when the credits rolled. Jed's in his office relaxing on his couch, when Charlie comes in to let him know that Admiral Fitzwallace is on his way over. As Jed gets up and takes a pill, he asks Charlie again what Zoey was talking about. Charlie tries to brush it off, but Jed pushes. Charlie finally relents and mentions that there's a report that had been sitting on his own desk for POTUS to eventually read, and he happened to read it. It was from the Center for Policy Alternatives and Charlie says that there were some things in there that hit home with him, and thought of the report when POTUS was doing prep on the issue of youth participation in politics. He doesn't get to explain much more than that because at that point Mrs. Landingham enters to tell them Fitz is there. Jed says, "Charlie, whatever it is, stick it in my briefcase, would you?" Charlie leaves and Fitzwallace comes in, explaining that he's expecting a call with news any minute and asked them to put the call through to him in the Oval Office. Jed sits down to wait with him. Fitz seems slightly uncomfortable and asks Jed a couple of times how he's feeling. POTUS says he feels fine. Fitz's attention wanders to the rug, into which is incorporated the design of the Presidential seal. Fitz mentions that the eagle in the seal is holding arrows in one talon and an olive branch, and that most of the time, the eagle faces the olive branch, but when Congress declares war, the eagle faces the arrows. This is just the sort of trivia that usually gets Jed going, but today he seems kind of bored by it. What Fitz wants to know is, "How do they do that? Do you think they got a second carpet sitting around in the basement someplace?" (That's what I think.) Jed doesn't know. I can't tell you how hard I find that to believe. Fitz then surmises that perhaps the piece in the middle "cuts out, and they do it like a basketball court." Jed states, "I honestly don't know, Fitz." Mrs. Landingham comes in to tell the Chairman that his caller is on the line. Before taking it, Fitz says, "I'll stop bugging you in just a minute, Mr. President." He's only on the phone for a moment before putting the caller on hold and saying, "Mr. President, I have Captain Scott Hotchkiss on the phone. He's cleared Iraqi airspace and he's on his way to Tel Aviv." Jed looks very taken aback and says, "Fitz..." The Admiral says, "Congratulations, sir." Jed asks if the pilot's okay; Fitz indicates that he has a sprained ankle. Jed shakes Fitzwallace's hand and looking genuinely surprised and says, "Well, that's...that's a job awfully well done, Mr. Chairman." Fitz thanks him and Jed says he owes him one. Fitz protests that that's not how it works, but Jed insists. He promises to check out the "thing with the carpet" and get an answer for him. Fitz leaves and Jed picks up the phone to talk to Captain Hotchkiss. Jed asks him how he is, and then says, "Before you say another word, give me your parents' phone number. I never get to make this call."

C.J. is briefing the press about the rescue of Captain Hotchkiss. One reporter asks if they used Saudi airspace and if so, whether it was with the permission of the Saudis. C.J. explains that they flew in secretly but informed the Saudis of the mission on their way out. The reporters have more questions but C.J. points out that it's a few minutes after seven and most of them need to get into the buses for the trip to Arlington. (I thought the meeting was in Rosslyn...Strega?) ["Rosslyn is effectively a part of the city of Arlington. Actually, the entire D.C. metro area is effectively one big city, but that's a separate problem." -- Strega] She informs them that the technicalities of the mission will be covered in much greater detail at a Pentagon briefing beginning thirty minutes after they return. Danny goes chasing after C.J. Carol is telling C.J. she did a nice job; C.J. razzes Carol about her spelling. Danny catches up with them, loaded for bear and yelling C.J.'s name. C.J. points and says, "In the office." Before he can say anything, she says, "Danny, I don't even want to hear it. I did exactly the right thing. Your nose is bent out of joint and I don't give a damn." He complains that she looked right at him and lied about the diplomatic solution. Come on, dumbass, what'd you expect her to do? She bursts out, "What'd you think I was gonna do, Danny, give you longitude and latitude? Do you want me to fork over the radio frequency that we're transmitting on?" Danny suggests an answer that she could have given that would have completely equivocated. C.J. says, "Danny, if by standing up and lying, I misdirected the Iraqi counterintelligence for even half a beat then it was absolutely worth it! That's a no-brainer! And if I didn't, then it was certainly worth trying. There are only fifty people in the world who can't understand why I lied this morning, and they all work in the White House press room. I'm sleeping fine tonight!" He then complains that she didn't have to call on him; everybody had their hand up to ask the same question and she could have called on someone else. She doesn't really have an answer for that, as she stuffs things into her briefcase. Danny asks, "And you wouldn't have rather done that to a journalist who's been less supportive of this administration than I have?" She says, "No, I chose you." Danny's on his bloody high horse again, "C.J., I'm not staying in the penalty box forever! I've covered the White House for eight years and I've done it with The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time magazine and The Dallas Morning News! And I'm telling ya, you can't mess me around like this!" He's pretty screechy at this point. C.J. looks at him and says, "Danny, I gotta tell you, that was-seriously-that was a turn-on when you said that, though I don't know why you decided to be your most haughty on the Dallas morning news in that sentence." Carol calls out that the buses are leaving. Danny says, "C.J...." She's halfway out of the office though, but leans back to say to Danny, "The buses are leaving." God help us if screechy is what turns C.J. on.

Leo and Jed are rushing off to the meeting. On his way out Jed announces to Mrs. Landingham that he's watching a sporting event from start to finish tonight. Mrs. Landingham replies, "And when Sacramento State and the University of the Pacific get together, it's usually a barn-burner, sir." Jed tells her that she's not going to spoil his good time. She says, "Oh, sir, I think we both know from experience, that's not true." Jed concedes her point; she reminds him he needed to be in his car ten minutes ago. He asks, "Do you see me walking out the door?" She responds, "No, I see you standing and arguing with a senior citizen." Mrs. L is certainly one of the more entertaining senior citizens on television. As they walk out, Leo tells Jed that on the way to the meeting, he'd like him to look over some notes Sam made about Cuba and about farm loans. POTUS has one more stop to make and hands Leo his briefcase, promising to meet him at the car in one second. Jed goes over to Toby's office, where Toby is staring out the window, lost in thought. He doesn't even hear Jed calling his name at the door at first. Toby apologizes, and Jed says, "You can't see them. They're over Australia now." Jed says he'd just been speaking with the Mission Commander and tells Toby about the various remedial actions they're taking to fix the problems on the shuttle. Toby looks even more hang-dog than usual, if that's possible. Jed advises Toby, "When we're done tonight, you should take the flight out to Edwards Air Force Base, meet the thing when it lands, stop being a horse's ass and talk to your brother." It must be a real joy to be called a horse's ass by the President, particularly when you're already depressed. As Jed leaves, Toby says carefully, "Mr. President, I appreciate your trying to be a comfort, and I appreciate that you have some... understanding of the situation with my brother, but the thing was supposed to land nineteen hours ago. Obviously, there's a problem. It's space travel and I don't believe any problem is minor." Jed says casually, "The shuttle flies itself, Toby." Toby replies, "No, it doesn't." Jed finally relents, saying, "No. It doesn't." Hey, that would probably be why shuttle crew need years of education and training. He leaves, as Toby begins packing up to go to the town hall meeting.

Finally we're back in either Rosslyn or Arlington at the town hall meeting. (For the record, there's absolutely no sign that Donna or Mandy were in attendance, although it doesn't mean they can't show up as being there in the fall season opener. Since Mandy helped prep POTUS for the meeting, it's certainly plausible that she might have been there. And Bonnie and Carol were both there, so it's not impossible that Donna might also have come along. Sorkin's left that door open for himself by not specifying their whereabouts.) The entire scene from the beginning is more or less replayed with some small variations, up until the point where Gina sees the shooters, so you can just go back and read my second paragraph now if you want to relive it. The best part of this is that we get to see C.J. cuff Danny upside the head twice. Can't get enough of that. One of the changes is that this time, much earlier on, we see the kid in the grey baseball cap looking up at a window on the second floor of the Newseum. There's at least one person in the room, back-lit by a red exit sign. That doesn't seem like the most inconspicuous place for would-be assassins.

We also hear Jed talking about how at this meeting he was called a liberal, a populist, and a socialist. He says that he's an economics professor, and that his great-grandfather's great-grandfather was Josiah Bartlet, who was the New Hampshire delegate representative to the second Continental Congress, which sat in session during 1776 and announced that they were no longer English subjects. He quotes, "'We hold these truths to be self-evident,' they said, 'That all men are created equal.' Strange as it may seem, that was the first time in history that anyone had ever bothered to write that down." (Actually, I'm pretty sure there are some scriptures that say essentially that, and which predate 1776 by centuries, if not millennia, but whatever.) He reminds the audience that, "Decisions are made by those who show up." He ends the talk and we're back to the point just before everyone comes out of the building. The applause of the audience inside is combined with the cheering of the crowd outside to complement the increasingly dramatic music. From inside that back-lit window we see two people loading bullets into guns. (Professor Frink, my resident gun expert, guesses that the guns were semi-automatic 9mm weapons; possibly .45s; maybe Berettas. You know, in case you care.) I'm really wondering what both the assassins-to-be and Aaron Sorkin are thinking with this back-lighting thing. There's just no way on God's green earth that none of the SS agents swarming around this place would not notice this. I also think it would have been cool if they'd concealed the identities of the assassins more, to give us something else to wonder about.

Everybody's coming out of the building now; we hear Zoey taunting Charlie about the fact that her father used Charlie's suggestion. POTUS calls out to Toby and they discuss the safe landing of the shuttle. Then there's another shot of the guns being loaded (again, back-lit, and in full view of the window). We're back to the part where Gina's whirling around beside the limo as Zoey's nattering on. Gina's looking at Grey Baseball Cap; this time he looks up briefly just before he turns away fast, and his cap is knocked off by the raised arm of the person behind him, revealing his shaved head. He bolts out of the crowd. She turns and looks up at what he was looking at; Charlie, to her, looks too, but not in quite the right direction I don't think. She screams, "Gun!" as she sees a couple of teenagers aim their guns to fire the first shots. The shots start coming thick and fast, and she pushes Charlie down. The crowd runs in all directions, as do the Secret Service agents, trying to protect everybody. Some agents start firing back. Gina pulls Zoey down and pushes her into a car. Josh lunges to the ground behind one of the metal barriers with a terrified look on his face. From the top of another building, sharpshooters seem to be firing at the teenagers but missing them by a mile. The President is fed into the back of a limo by two or three guys at once, and another agent tackles C.J. to get her down. She grabs Sam's arm and they both go flying to the ground between two vehicles. The flashing red lights on a police car are blasted apart. Glass is breaking; people are screaming, running and climbing over the barricades; and then we see Toby on his back near a barricade, tumbling from side to side trying to avoid being trampled. The shot is Leo face down on the ground, with someone's hand on his back keeping him down. Agents are screaming for everyone to stay down as the volley of gunfire continues. We get an aerial shot of the chaos, and the shooting finally stops; maybe one of the sharpshooters finally hit the assassins. From the first shot to the last, less than thirty seconds elapsed. Over the sound of arriving sirens, we can hear a man's voice saying, "Oh God, we've got people down! Who's been hit? Who's been hit?" Aaron Sorkin has about four months to decide.

By Deborah

Danny goes chasing after C.J. Carol is telling C.J. she did a nice job; C.J. razzes Carol about her spelling. Danny catches up with them, loaded for bear and yelling C.J.'s name. C.J. points and says, "In the office." Before he can say anything, she says, "Danny, I don't even want to hear it. I did exactly the right thing. Your nose is bent out of joint and I don't give a damn." He complains that she looked right at him and lied about the diplomatic solution. Come on, dumbass, what'd you expect her to do? She bursts out, "What'd you think I was gonna do, Danny, give you longitude and latitude? Do you want me to fork over the radio frequency that we're transmitting on?" Danny suggests an answer that she could have given that would have completely equivocated. C.J. says, "Danny, if by standing up and lying, I misdirected the Iraqi counterintelligence for even half a beat then it was absolutely worth it! That's a no-brainer! And if I didn't, then it was certainly worth trying. There are only fifty people in the world who can't understand why I lied this morning, and they all work in the White House press room. I'm sleeping fine tonight!" He then complains that she didn't have to call on him; everybody had their hand up to ask the same question and she could have called on someone else. She doesn't really have an answer for that, as she stuffs things into her briefcase. Danny asks, "And you wouldn't have rather done that to a journalist who's been less supportive of this administration than I have?" She says, "No, I chose you." Danny's on his bloody high horse again, "C.J., I'm not staying in the penalty box forever! I've covered the White House for eight years and I've done it with The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time magazine and The Dallas Morning News! And I'm telling ya, you can't mess me around like this!" He's pretty screechy at this point. C.J. looks at him and says, "Danny, I gotta tell you, that was-seriously-that was a turn-on when you said that, though I don't know why you decided to be your most haughty on the Dallas morning news in that sentence." Carol calls out that the buses are leaving. Danny says, "C.J...." She's halfway out of the office though, but leans back to say to Danny, "The buses are leaving." God help us if screechy is what turns C.J. on.

By Deborah

West Wing TV Show - What Kind Of Day Has It Been? - West Wing Photos &amp; Videos, West Wing Reviews &amp; West Wing Recaps | TWoP

West Wing TV Show - What Kind Of Day Has It Been? - West Wing Photos & Videos, West Wing Reviews & West Wing Recaps | TWoP