In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I

Previously on The West Wing: Gina noticed neo-Nazi crackers glaring at Zoey in a crowd; Josh told Hoynes that, had Hoynes listened to Josh three years ago, he'd be President now; two gunmen opened fire on President Jed Bartlet and his staff as they left a meeting on Monday evening in Rosslyn, Virginia. Chaos ensued.

Monday, 9:37 PM. Amidst flashing lights and sirens, the President and his staff are being driven away from the shooting site. Jed is naturally shaken and upset, and is fretting about Zoey, demanding to know how she is and wanting to speak with her. Head Secret Service guy Ron Butterfield, who's trying to keep Jed calm, explains that Zoey can't talk right now because she's puking on the floor of the limo behind theirs. Jed's getting more distraught as Ron tries to reassure him that Zoey will be all right, and explains that Gina had to stay behind to help with the investigation. Jed is breathing extremely heavily and asks whether anyone is "dead back there." Ron says he doesn't think so, at which point Jed notices that Ron's right hand is bleeding profusely through a scrap of bandage. Ron explains that he got hit, and seems pretty calm about it. Jed yells to the driver to turn around, that they've got to go to the hospital. Ron and Jed argue vehemently about this. Ron insists, "I have to put you inside the White House, Mr. President! This isn't something we discuss." Jed blusters, "My daughter is throwing up on the floor of the car behind us, you're losing blood by the litre, not to mention God knows how many broken bones you've got in your hand, but let's make sure I'm tucked in bed before we do anything..." A little blood appears on Jed's lips. Ron leans over and starts patting Jed all over -- on the back of his head, around his neck, finally sticking his left hand under Jed's jacket and bringing it back up covered with blood. Ron screams at the driver, "G.W.! Blue! Blue! Blue!" The limousine hangs a squealing one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn and speeds off.

Cut to C.J., back at the crime scene, holding a cloth to her head and insisting to a paramedic that she's fine, that she just hit her head on the ground. The paramedic assesses her consciousness and tells her he doesn't think she'll need stitches but that she should find someplace to lie down. Desperately anxious, she asks him, "Is the President dead?" He says he wouldn't know about that and rushes off to help someone else. C.J. walks around the police car that she was sitting on and bends down to pick up her belongings, noticing the bullet-shattered window on the car's opposite side. Just then Sam walks up and asks if she's all right. He tells her that the President and Zoey are on their way back to the White House, and that they've just put Leo in a car. He asks her again if she's all right; C.J. says, "Somebody pulled me down." Just then Gina comes barrelling through on her way to speak to Tommy Cho, the ID agent. She tells him that there were two shooters and that they've got them, but that there was a third person signalling them from the ground. She tries to give Tommy as much detail as she can, but she can't remember much beyond "white male, twenty to twenty-five, maybe five ten." Tommy takes off ordering the agents around him, "Fix a perimeter! Close the airports, shut 'em down! I want the Harbour Patrol and the Coast Guard!" People are shouting and running all over the place; Gina looks miserable.

Cut to Toby looking for Josh. He runs into Charlie, who tells him that Josh got into the car with Leo. Toby says that it was Shanahan who got in the car with Leo, not Josh. Charlie's not sure what to do, but goes off in response to someone's call for help. Toby continues searching for Josh, finally noticing him sitting at the top of some stairs near a big concrete planter. As the camera follows Toby's legs up the stairs, and Toby comes face to face with Josh, we see Josh in shock, holding both hands to a bloody wound in his upper left abdomen. Toby's literally thrown off-kilter by what he sees, and it takes him a second to be able to call for a doctor loudly enough. C.J. and Sam hear Toby and come running. Just then Josh collapses and Toby manages to support Josh's head before it hits the ground.

Roll the new, improved credits, minus one Mandy "Amandaleine" Hampton and plus one Donna "Now with 35% less irritation factor" Moss. We get new footage of all the actors, and since this will probably be discussed in the forums, the order is: Rob Lowe, Dulé Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, Bradley Whitford, and Martin Sheen. Sheen gets the coveted "and" along with final billing.

After some commercials so we can catch our breath, we're at the hospital emergency room as the show goes all ER on our asses for a little bit. Suddenly I am seized with additional compassion for Wing Chun and Sars, who must recap this sort of medicalized frenzy every week, only with bad scripts. ["Well, Sars is off that particular hook, but James Van Der Beek's nostrils are a special kind of hell all on their own." -- Wing Chun] It's a relatively calm, quiet night at the hospital so far. Nurses are bantering pleasantly when the phone rings. One nurse answers the phone on the desk, only it's not the one that's ringing. She picks up the red wall phone and Ron Butterfield (on the other end) simply says, "We're coming in!" She starts asking about whether it's a drill, because while they're not that busy, she does have a couple of kids with alcohol poisoning...but while she's blathering on about delaying things if it's a drill, limousines with sirens blaring have pulled up in view of the window. Seeing this, she hangs up and picks up the announcement microphone and says, "Trauma one! Blue! Blue!" Everyone starts running around. Secret Service guys are swarming the place already, moving low-priority patients out to another hospital. I'm guessing nobody in the entire building rates as higher priority than POTUS with a gunshot wound. One Secret Service guy is barking orders as he hustles through some swinging doors, at the same time as a doctor bursts through the same doors hollering for a crash cart and ultrasound. The camera closes in tightly on the face of another Secret Service guy who announces, "Eagle is two minutes away."

Back at the White House, the news hasn't hit yet. Vice-President Hoynes is working a photo op and congratulating a women's basketball team and their coach on some great season or other (sorry, I just tune out the minute the talk turns to sports), and he's in the middle of a sentence when a door bursts open and several agents come straight for Hoynes, asking him to come with them. Hoynes looks completely stunned, as about six or seven guys hustle him out the door.

In the White House residence, Abby Bartlet, First Lady of the United States, is hurrying to a car. She looks scared but has her wits about her. She races down the hall, finding out from one of the agents that her husband is conscious, they're moving him to pre-op, and that he was hit in the side; the bullet exited the wound. As far as I know, that's generally good news. She asks about Zoey and is assured that she's okay, and on her way to G.W., which I take to be George Washington Hospital. The car squeals off.

Back at the hospital, the President's being brought in on a gurney. Nurses and doctors are all accompanying him as the gurney sails through the halls, calling out his vital signs. The trauma surgeon introduces himself to POTUS as Dr. Keller. I know I recognize the guy playing this doctor, and I could swear I've seen him on ER, but I can't place him. Anyway, Dr. Keller tries to say some reassuring things about Jed's condition, but Jed isn't interested. "Swear to God, if I don't speak to my daughter in the five minutes, I'm going to attack something." Ron Butterfield, still holding his bloody hand, tells Jed that she's on her way. Jed tells the doctors about Ron, "This guy's got about seven broken bones in his hand, by the way, if somebody wants to give him an aspirin or something!" Even a bullet cannot quell Jed's sarcasm. Jed's in the pre-op room now and tells the staff that he wants them to wait as long as possible before anaesthetizing him, because he needs to speak to Leo McGarry before going under. Ron says that Leo's on his way. A nurse leans over and says quietly to Jed that she needs to ask him some questions, and inquires as to whether he has any medical conditions. Jed: "Well, I've been shot..."

Back at the White House, Mrs. Landingham and Margaret seem to be working late, and are quite unaware of the hubbub. They are bantering about how the President can never resist working a rope line, when Margaret notices that there's a special news report starting on the television. She turns up the sound and they watch in silent horror as the anchorman announces that multiple gun shots were fired at the President. Mrs. Landingham bolts out the door without a word.

Zoey's arrived at the hospital. She bursts through the doors of pre-op, where her father is already reassuring her practically before she's in the room. Zoey asks if he's in a lot of pain, which he says he's not. Zoey: "Are you lying?" Jed, drolly: "Yeah, 'cause I want these guys to tell reporters that I was brave and joking around." Zoey tells him, "You are brave. You were so good tonight, Dad." He says he's fine and that he's just happy to see her. Zoey tells him that Mom's on her way. "Mom's gonna be pretty pissed," Jed replies. Just then Leo arrives, looking white as a sheet. He asks Zoey how she is; she claims to be fine. POTUS pipes up, "She booted all over the back of her car. You know they're gonna bill me for that." Jed gets Zoey to leave; she says she'll wait for her mother. Jed calls out after her, "Tell her not to frighten the doctors!" Jed asks if anybody was killed. Leo tells him they got the two shooters through the window, but that there seem to have only been injuries in the crowd, and those people are coming in now. Jed asks about the staff, and Leo reports that C.J. hit her head on the ground. He believes that's all, since he left before Josh was found. Jed tells Leo to get the cabinet and the security council together, and to have trading on the stock market suspended. He asks Leo whether they know who the shooters were. Leo says no. Jed tells him he'll be under anaesthesia for a while, and asks if Leo knows what he means by mentioning that. Leo says that he'll talk to Abby. The doctor advises that it's time to operate. Jed gestures to Leo and says, "Hey...come here." He puts his hand on the back of Leo's neck gently, and pulls his head down as if he's going to whisper a state secret. Instead, he kisses Leo gently on the cheek. Leo looks surprised as Jed says, "It's okay." Leo says he'll see him in a few hours. Jed rests his head on his pillow and sighs.

Out in the hall, Abby arrives and rushes to hug Zoey as soon as she sees her. Zoey says, "Dad's making jokes." Abby asks, "Good ones?" Zoey: "No." Abby: "Okay." The surgeon comes up along with Leo. Abby asks what Jed's PO2 is, and whether they're going to do a laparoscopy. Dr. Keller says they will, in order to make sure the peritoneum is intact. She asks for the name of the anaesthesiologist. She goes off in search of Dr. Lee, finding him alone in a room. She says, "There are fourteen people in the world who know this, including the Vice-President, the Chief of Staff, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. You're going to be the fifteenth. Seven years ago, my husband was diagnosed with a relapsing/remitting course of MS. When all this is over, tell the press, don't tell the press...it's entirely up to you." Then she leaves. So, let's see: the fourteen must be: Jed, Abby, Zoey, their other two daughters, Leo, Hoynes, Fitz, probably an MS specialist, possibly a pharmacist...who else? Maybe their sons-in-law? Charlie probably knows, since he personally takes care of the President, probably has to remind him about medication or carry it around for him or something. Ron Butterfield probably knows. Who else? I wonder. Talk amongst yourselves.

Anyway, it's Josh that Leo wants to see. They go for a walk outside. Leo asks about Josh's father, who seems to be someone Leo knows, and who also seems to be battling cancer. Josh talks about how his father won't take it easy, insists on working long hours and spends his weekends cleaning gutters and yelling at squirrels. (Like father, like son: didn't Donna accuse Josh of yelling at her cats?) Anyway, to get on with the story, Leo wants Josh to come to Nashua, New Hampshire to hear Governor Jed Bartlet speak. Josh seems a little surprised and tells Leo that he works for Senator Hoynes. Leo does seem to be aware of that. He also tells Josh to stop calling him Mr. Secretary, since he's not in the Cabinet anymore, and asks to be called Leo. Josh claims that Hoynes has the nomination sewn up, and doesn't seem to understand why Leo wants him to do this. Leo repeats his request for Josh to come to Nashua. Josh asks why. "'Cause that's what sons do for old friends of their fathers. I'll see you then." As Leo confidently walks away, Josh says, "The Democrats aren't gonna nominate another liberal academic former governor from New England. I mean, we're dumb, but we're not that dumb." Leo pauses for a moment, and then says, "Nah. I think we're exactly that dumb." Leo leaves, and as Josh walks up the stairs, he pulls out his cell phone and asks someone named Janet to get him train tickets to Nashua.

After some commercials, we see a shot of some skyscrapers and then cut to a bunch of suits sitting around a conference table with their laptops. They're blathering about some million-dollar deal, and as they do so, the camera pans around to land on Sam, who's slightly distracted and seems to be doodling on his pad. When called upon, he explains that this deal, which is apparently to purchase some oil tankers, is a good deal because it's structured to limit their liability. A title informs us that this is Gage Whitney Page, Midtown Manhattan. One of the suits complains about Sam calling the oil tankers boats instead of ships. Sam says, "Mr. Cameron, you want me to buy the boats, you're not asking me to be the first mate, right?" Immediately I'm thinking how Rob Lowe's hair might be up for an Emmy year, because simply by virtue of being about an inch longer than it was all last year, suddenly it's conveying the image of the wayward, arrogant, blow-dried preppy boy who was embarrassed by sleazy videos he made. Whereas last year, with his shorter, spiky little haircut and trendy glasses, he looked the very image of the earnest, caring, slightly geeky politico, bristling with good intentions. I hope he's planning to cut his hair after all this flashback filming is done, because for some reason, his hair at this length is like, hair at its smuggest. (It's a word. Don't make me come over there.) Anyway, Sam goes on explaining how the deal is structured to protect the corporation and make it judgment-proof. He excuses himself to go back to his office to get some papers. Someone in the hall tells him Josh Lyman is waiting for him in his office. Sam seems surprised and excited, and embraces Josh warmly. ["Very warmly. Okay, I saw chemistry there. I'm just saying." -- Wing Chun] Josh says, "You made partner?" Sam says, "month." Sam's hungry, and suggests they go get a hot dog. Josh points out that it's 9:30 in the morning. Sam thinks they'll be fresh. If you say so, Sam.

Out on the street, Josh confesses that he forgot the name of Sam's firm. Sam's a little surprised, since it's the second-biggest law firm in New York. He ribs Josh about this until Josh blames it on a "brain problem." Josh explains that he's in New York on his way to New Hampshire. Okay, I freely admit that I suck at geography. I wouldn't have thought that New York City was necessarily between D.C. and Nashua. I could just look it up on a map, I suppose, but by mentioning it here I give everybody in the forums a chance to tell me everything they know about the relationship between all three places. I wouldn't want to take that away from y'all. Anyway, Josh doesn't tell Sam why he's going to Nashua. Sam knows Josh is there to try to lure him away to write speeches for Hoynes. Josh assures Sam that Hoynes is going to win. Sam then tells Josh that he and Lisa are getting married in September. Josh seems surprised, and somewhat less than thrilled, and doesn't hide it well. He says, "Ah." Pause. "'Kay." Sam doesn't seem entirely shocked by Josh's lack of enthusiasm for either Lisa, marriage, or both. They both have to get back to what they're doing, and say their goodbyes. They both say they miss each other. As Josh walks away, he congratulates Sam on the partnership. Sam calls out after him: "Josh! Hoynes...he's not the real thing, is he?" Josh pauses and starts to make excuses for Hoynes, but can't really come up with anything and kind of stares off behind Sam's head. Sam asks him, "Josh...what are you doing?" Josh confesses that he doesn't know. He asks Sam the same question. Sam replies, "Protecting oil companies from litigation." Josh looks dubious. "They're our client. They don't lose legal protection because they make a lot of money." Josh says, "I can't believe no one ever wrote a folk song about that." Sam laughs. Josh asks, "If I see the real thing in Nashua, should I tell you about it?" Sam says he won't have to, because Josh has a pretty bad poker face. Josh smiles and walks away. Blow-dried Sam then turns and bumps into a woman on the street, and then in a quick jump cut back to the present day, he turns and bumps into a nurse at the hospital.

An unnamed hospital administrator-type saunters up to Abby and tells her that Jed is going to be all right and that she can see him in about two hours. She's relieved, but seems to be holding back the full force of her emotions about that. She and the administrator, whom I am going to call Harvey since he looks like a Harvey to me, walk along as he tells her that there was no organ damage, and minimal blood loss. He also tells her that the bullet that hit Josh lacerated his pulmonary artery; Abby asks whether a Gore-Tex� graft can be done, but Harvey says that they can't, and will have to try to repair the artery primarily. Abby thanks him and goes into the room where the staff members are waiting, and gives them the news about Jed and Josh.