In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II

Previously on The West Wing: Two little neo-Nazi slimebuckets opened fire on President Bartlet and his staff as they left a town hall meeting in Rosslyn, Virginia; Bartlet was shot; Toby discovered Josh, who'd been shot and was critically injured; as Josh was about to undergo fourteen hours of surgery to save his life, we flashed back to Leo attempting to recruit Josh for Bartlet's campaign three years earlier; Josh tried to see whether Sam might be interested in working on John Hoynes's campaign; back at the crime scene, Gina couldn't remember very much about the signal man.

We see a little diner called the Dixie Pig. I wondered if this was supposed to be some sort of comment on neo-Nazi crackers from the southern U.S. Then someone mentioned in the forums that the Dixie Pig's an actual restaurant that her husband goes to, and I thought, that's a hell of a job the location scout is doing, to find a place with a name like that for this scene. Also, I bet the owners are pretty happy about the product placement. Anyway, the news coverage on the television in the diner is all about the shooting, of course, and mentions that Josh is undergoing surgery to repair his collapsed lung and to remove a bullet lodged in his thoracic region. The skinhead signal man is sitting at the counter, smoking. On his left hand there's a crude swastika tattoo which we see as he extinguishes his cigarette in his fried egg. Pardon me while I empty the contents of my stomach. He looks subtly pleased with himself, and none too concerned about his fallen accomplices, as he picks up his cap and leaves the restaurant. He's in the midst of lighting another cigarette when he's caught in a helicopter's searchlights, and suddenly several police cars squeal up out of nowhere and surround him. Cops with automatic rifles jump out of every door, screaming at him to "hold it right there!" and "get down!" They do not mean it in the James Brown sense, either. The cracker panics, trying to figure out which way to run or what to do, but he's got no way out. Finally he gets down on the ground and they cuff him. You're Ron Butterfield's bitch now. Roll the credits.

C.J. announces at a press briefing that a suspect has been taken into custody, and that they're not currently releasing any information whatsoever about the suspect. Immediately, one reporter asks whether she can provide the name, place of origin, ethnicity or suspected motive of the guy. C.J. replies, "Yes, Steve, I can tell you all those things, because when I said we weren't releasing any information whatsoever, I meant except his name, his address, his ethnicity, and what we think his motive was." She goes on to release the name of Stephanie Abbott, who sustained an injury to her left femur, and announces that Jed's in stable condition in the recovery room, and is expected to be discharged from the hospital on Wednesday. C.J. adds that Josh Lyman is in his sixth hour of surgery to repair a collapsed lung and a ruptured pulmonary artery.

We fade from C.J. live to C.J. on the TV near the hospital waiting room. Gina arrives; there are quite a few other people there, including Sam, Abby, Toby, and Donna. (Where's Mrs. Landingham?) Sam asks Abby whether Jed knows that a suspect has been arrested; she says she told him. Somebody sticks his head in and tells Sam and Toby they have a call in the other room. They leave to take the call. Abby kindly asks Donna whether she wants to throw some water on her face. Donna doesn't really answer, but asks whether there's anything she's supposed to be doing, in terms of Josh's responsibilities, and whether she should be seeing that it's farmed out. Abby assures her that everything is probably covered.

Back at the White House, C.J. is on the phone to Sam and Toby. She says she needs Sam to come back to the office to speak to Nancy McNally about the letter POTUS was supposed to sign. C.J. tells Toby that the media are still asking about the lack of a tent or canopy to protect the President. She says she'd be more comfortable if the Secret Service would say, "no comment." Sam says he'll talk to somebody at Treasury, but Toby pulls rank and says he'll do it. C.J. just wants somebody to do it. Sam says, "Toby, we were all in the meeting together." Toby tells him to go back to the White House.

As Sam leaves, we flash back to his days at Gage Whitney Page in New York. As in the episode's flashbacks, the same bunch of suits are around the same conference table, having a meeting the day after Josh's impromptu visit to Sam. They're blathering about the deal to buy these substandard oil tankers, and how perfectly the deal has been structured to avoid all kinds of legal, ethical, and moral responsibility. That's not how they're phrasing it, mind you, I'm just giving you the Cliff Notes version. They're about to wrap up when Sam interjects: "Instead of buying these ships...don't buy these ships. Buy other ships. Buy better ships. That's my idea." All the soulless moneygrubbers want to know just what the hell Sam is on about. They're all excited about acquiring this fleet for so little money and can't imagine why Sam would advise them to pull out. Sam points out the various reasons the ships are so cheap: they're "twenty-year-old single-hulled VLCCs that nobody wants!" You tell 'em, Princeton. He mentions that they will hit things and they will break, because they have outdated navigation systems. One of the soulless moneygrubbers objects that he thought Sam had covered their liability. And Sam has, financially and legally. Sam is talking about ethics, though, and other nasty things like that. He reminds them about how people drove past Exxon stations after the Valdez disaster. The suits say they're got PR people for PR problems. Sam suggests going to get a tanker in Korea that Chevron just declined to buy. His boss -- who must be a HITG! but I can't place him -- demands to speak to Sam in the hallway. Sam continues reciting the ship's merits as he leaves. Naturally his boss wants to know what Sam is trying to do. Sam thinks that he's doing the oil company a favour, but his boss wonders if he's trying to get fired. His boss tells him to knock it off.

Out in the pouring rain, Josh is soaked to the skin and making some poor telephone operator's life miserable by trying to get the name of Sam's law firm out of her. He, of course, has once again forgotten the name, but babbles on about it for a bit. He finally gives up and hangs up, but seems to remember the name just as he's starting to go in the wrong direction.

Back at the conference table, the oil company and the GWP lawyers are going over the fine print of the contract. Sam is asked to provide some amortization information, but pauses and then launches into his bid to convince the suits to spend eleven million extra dollars to get a decent boat. He's almost frenzied in his bid to sway them, and cites the names of quite of few tankers that were involved in catastrophic oil spills around the world. Everybody's getting more and more annoyed with Sam, especially his boss. Sam says, "You don't want to pay for it? Pass it on to us!" Bwa! Just then, soaking wet Josh shows up outside the glass walls of the conference room. He knocks on the window and everyone looks. They all dismiss Josh pretty quickly and go back to explaining how they're not "indifferent to the concerns of the environmentalists, it's just that we don't give a tinker's dam," except they don't say that last part. Sam tries to pay attention but keeps looking at Josh. Josh points to his own face with both fingers, and his expression tells Sam that he has, indeed, seen the real thing in Nashua, where he went to hear Jed Bartlet speak. One of the suits says, "Excuse me, Sam...it doesn't quite feel like I have your attention." Sam says "Yeah," but he's looking at Josh, not the suit. Josh nods subtly and Sam smiles broadly. He starts to grab his notes as he stands up, and then lifts his hands away as if they were a dirty diaper and says to himself, "Not gonna need that." Without any explanation he gets up and walks out. His boss asks him to keep his seat and finally asks where he's going. As Josh opens the door for Sam and Sam strides out, Sam calls back, "New Hampshire!" Josh gives them all a jaunty little wave as he closes the door. ["Then Josh and Sam start making out. Just kidding. That would be cool, though, wouldn't it?" -- Wing Chun]

After a few words from our sponsors -- none of whom were oil companies, strangely enough -- we're at the White House. It's 3:55 AM on Tuesday. C.J. asks Sam if he's talked to Nancy McNally. He has, and starts blathering on about it, but C.J. interrupts to ask whether he noticed who pulled her to the ground at the shooting. Sam says he didn't. She says someone pulled her down and her necklace came off. Sam's got very little to say about it. Just then Carol comes up and tries to talk to C.J. about doing the morning shows, but C.J. is adamant about not doing them. She says she's not doing any interviews just yet. Carol says she'll take care of it. As she takes off, Danny comes up and tells C.J., "I really don't want to be this guy, but..." Then stop being him. Please. C.J. complains that somebody thought she should do the morning shows. Danny complains that he still doesn't have an answer about who was in charge while POTUS was under general anaesthetic. C.J. says it's a "little complicated." She mentions the National Security Act of 1947 and the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and that Nancy McNally and Bill Hutchinson are working on it with White House Counsel. Danny doesn't want to know who was supposed to be in charge, he wants to know who actually was in charge. C.J. says they're working on that information. Danny doesn't say anything but at least he leaves. C.J. sits down in her chair, fingering her neck where her necklace should be, when her phone rings. She leans over to pick it up and suddenly we are in...

...Flashback Land. It's C.J. three years earlier, with just a bit more perm going on than is really flattering to her. ["Word." -- Wing Chun] Still, Allison Janney is so gorgeous that it doesn't much matter. ["I second that also." -- Wing Chun] Someone named Isabel has phoned her at 6:30 in the morning. She hangs up and gets out of bed. We see a shot of California and a title that says, "Triton-Day Public Relations, Beverly Hills, California."

C.J. enters Isabel's office, wearing a long pale blue-and-grey flowered wraparound skirt, a tight pale blue jersey tank top and long pale grey jacket over it, and her hair looks a little better. She looks pretty different from her White House self. C.J. greets some guy named Roger, whom forum posters inform me is Cutman from Sports Night (a show I've never seen). Her boss, Isabel, is played by Grace Zabriskie, the woman who played George's fiancée Susan's mother on Seinfeld. ["She also played Sarah Palmer, Laura Palmer's mother, on Twin Peaks." -- Wing Chun] Roger complains that he wanted her there forty-five minutes ago; C.J. protests that it was 6:30 in the morning and she wasn't quite ready for work, but she is now, and wonders what she can do for Roger. He asks if she's aware that the Golden Globe nominations came out that morning. She isn't, which strikes me as an odd thing for a PR person in the film industry not to know. Aren't the dates of nominations known in advance? Whatever. Anyway, Roger's plenty steamed because his studio only received two nominations (for best comedy score and supporting actor for some kid in the film), and he spent twenty thousand dollars a month on the campaign for Atlantis, the film that got the nominations. C.J. protests that she thinks they put together a very aggressive campaign. He then goes on to complain about having fallen from third position to ninth position on the new Premiere list of the "One Hundred Most Powerful People in Hollywood." Roger asks, "Do you know how that looks? Do you know how many other people were ahead of me?" C.J.: "Eight?" Nyuk. Roger starts to rip a strip off her but C.J. interjects, "The movies were bad, Roger! All of them! Even the little kid was bad, but he's a little kid. He had a couple of scenes, big eyeglasses, little lisp...he's going to the Golden Globes. You know why the New Coke marketing campaign failed? Because nobody liked New Coke! The movies were bad! If the movies were unknown I could help you, but they weren't. They were just bad." Isabel seizes Roger's lack of response as an opportunity to drag C.J. out into the hall and tell her that Roger is going to pull his business unless C.J. is fired. C.J. is incredulous. Isabel points out that C.J. never wanted to be doing this, and that C.J. always felt that it was beneath her. C.J. replies, "It is beneath me...so take me off film and television, I don't know anything about it anyway. We have plenty of accounts!" Isabel is unmoved and apologetically fires C.J. anyway. C.J. stops arguing about it and loudly demands that someone call her a cab. It turns out that she couldn't get her contacts in and broke her glasses when she was getting out of the car, and she can't see to drive herself home. Isabel asks a flunky to call C.J. a cab. As Isabel goes back into her office, C.J. says loudly enough for Roger to hear, "It was a bad movie, Isabel!"

The shot is C.J. arriving in a cab at her place, which is a pretty damn fabulous-looking place with a lovely pool. She notices an unfamiliar car in the driveway. She's carrying a box of her stuff and calls out as she goes through the gate to the pool area. "Hello?" Toby's voice says, "Hey, C.J." He's sitting on the far side of the pool and she can't see him because she isn't wearing her glasses or contacts. As she walks toward him, peering and guessing at his voice, she says, "Toby? What the hell are you..." Just then she walks too close to the edge of the pool and falls sideways into it. Okay, I saw that coming a mile away but it was still funny anyway. Toby states helpfully, "C.J., you fell into the pool, there." She yells that she can't see. He asks if she wants a hand. She tells him to shut up. As she flounders a bit, she says, "Avert your eyes." Toby's like, what? She explains that she's going to be get out of the pool in wet clingy clothes and repeats her request for Toby to avert his eyes. Toby finds this hugely amusing and chuckles heartily, "C.J., I really didn't come here..." She barks, "Avert your eyes!" Toby obligingly turns around. C.J. climbs out and tries to arrange herself but gives up and says, "Oh, turn around." As she slaps her drenched self up the steps to the pool house for a towel, Toby explains that he called her at work and was told she'd been fired. He asks, "Were you stealing things?" She glares and tells him about Roger dropping from third most powerful person in Hollywood to ninth. Toby says, "Does he still make the playoffs, or is the cutoff line..." C.J. says they (meaning Hollywood types) take it seriously. Toby tells her that Jed Bartlet is impressed with her for the work she did for "that girl's group with the stupid name." C.J. thinks and then and asks, "EMILY's List?" EMILY stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast ("it helps raise the dough"). It's an organization that helps raise money for pro-choice Democratic women candidates. C.J. seems annoyed with Toby's apparent ignorance or apathy and repeats the group's name, slogan and purpose a couple of time until Toby insists, "I really do get it." Toby tells her Bartlet is impressed and wants to bring her on as press secretary. C.J. looks at Toby carefully and asks, "He's never heard of me, has he?" Toby: "No." He admits that he was sent to get her by Leo McGarry. She seems impressed that McGarry wants her. She asks how much the position pays. Toby asks how much she was making before. She replies quickly, "Five hundred and fifty thousand a year." Toby: "This pays six hundred dollars a week." C.J.: "So this is less." Toby: "Yes." She asks whether Leo knows that she's never worked on a national campaign. Toby says, "Yes. It's graduation day." She wonders if Toby really thinks she can do this. He looks kind of embarrassed and says, "Yeah." I will cry big huge bitter tears if these two never get together. They have a ton of chemistry. C.J.: "Is Jed Bartlet a good man?" Toby averts his eyes (hee!) and says "yeah" quietly. C.J., reproachfully: "Toby..." He looks her right in the eye and says, "Yes." She suggests, as she starts walking toward the pool again, that they go in the house so she can change her clothes and they can talk about it. (Or you guys could just start planning your wedding. I'm just saying.) Toby warns her that she's walking in the wrong direction.

In Jed's recovery room, he's being briefed by Ron Butterfield about some of the details of the shooting. Abby and Zoey are there. One was using a 9mm Berretta; the other was using a .357 Desert Eagle. Abby tells Jed that Ron had said that these are absolutely the wrong kinds of weapons to use for this kind of shooting and that's why the injury count was so low. Jed says, "We don't know what the injury count was yet." Abby starts to argue but just then Charlie knocks and comes in saying that he was told POTUS wanted to see him. Jed tells him that the guy in the custody of the Secret Service is named Carl Leroy, and that he's given a statement saying that he and the two shooters are members of an organization called West Virginia White Pride. Charlie asks, "They tried to kill the President because Zoey and I are together?" (I thought Charlie would have said "tried to kill you" rather than "tried to kill the President" here, but whatever.) Abby says, "No." Charlie's still not quite getting it, and Ron steps in. "Charlie, the President wasn't the target. According to the statement, the President wasn't the target." Zoey looks down. Charlie Gets It. He says simply, "Okay..okay...well...okay. Thank you, Mr. President." He leaves without a word. Zoey looks at him and says, "Dad, I'm..." Jed says, "Go." She chases after Charlie.

It's Tuesday at 6:15 AM. Margaret is in Leo's office asking about the letter Jed was supposed to sign. Leo explains that if the President is undergoing general anaesthesia, he usually signs a letter handing over executive powers to the VPOTUS. Margaret asks if there's going to be trouble. Leo says, "We'll see. To be honest with you I don't really care right now." Margaret tells Leo that she can sign the President's name, and that she has his signature down pretty good. You can probably imagine the look on Leo's face.

Leo: You can sign the President's name?
Margaret: Yes.
Leo: On a document removing him from power and handing it to someone else?
Margaret [excitedly]: Yeah! [Leo glares incredulously.] Or...do you think the White House Counsel would say that's a bad idea?
Leo: I think the White House Counsel'd say that's a coup d'tat!
Margaret: I'd probably end up doing some time for that.
Leo: I would think! And what the hell are you doing practicing the President's signature?
Margaret: It was just for fun!
Leo: We've got separation of powers, checks and balances, and Margaret, vetoing things and sending them back to the Hill!

Hee hee. C.J. arrived partway through this and Margaret leaves. C.J. wants to know who thought she should do the morning shows. Leo says it was he, and explains that obviously POTUS isn't ready for cameras, and if VPOTUS does it, it's going to look like they don't have a President. He adds, "I'd like the White House to start climbing out from behind the bushes." C.J. tells Leo that she doesn't think it's a good idea and kind of incoherently babbles about it being inappropriate while Josh is still in surgery, but Leo interrupts and asks her what's wrong. She denies that anything is wrong. Leo doesn't really buy it. She says she doesn't want to do it, but starts to offer anyway, when Leo says, "Have Sam do it." She quickly accepts. As Leo leaves his office, she asks him about the letter. He stops in the doorway, and Toby walks up behind him. She explains that she doesn't know how much longer she can put Danny off, and that she thinks the attention on that issue will grow a hundredfold by lunch. Leo tells her to have Danny come see him. He and Toby walk down the hall together as Leo tells Toby that C.J. doesn't want to do the morning shows. Toby says that she's been getting questions about why POTUS exited in open air, and that he's going to talk to the Secret Service. Leo says they're just going to say that they don't comment on procedure. Toby says he wants to try to talk him out of that. Leo says, "You don't have to, Toby." Toby thinks he should. Leo lets it go.

We're at the Bartlet campaign headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire. The office is bustling with activity; a television news report informs us that Jed Bartlet has picked up nineteen percent of the vote, finishing third out of the Democratic candidates. The reporter says they're going to go live to Governor Bartlet, and then in response to information received on his earpiece, says that they don't have the governor after all. At this point C.J. pauses the tape and asks the crowd assembled around the television, "Who can tell me what we did wrong there?" Jed says simply, "I blew it. What's ?" C.J. belabours the point a bit but Jed asks firmly, "What's ?" Josh says that Toby wants to say something. Jed asks which one is Toby. Toby indicates himself. (Come on, surely by this point in the campaign he knows Toby's name? Although Bartlet's never been shown for being real great with names.) Jed asks Josh, "And which one are you?" Without a trace of peevishness, Josh tells him. Toby wants to get out of New Hampshire, because he thinks there's nothing to win there. Sam agrees. Jed doesn't. They insist that he can't win the New Hampshire primary because he's incredibly popular, he was elected with an unheard-of sixty-nine percent of the vote, and there's no way he can exceed expectations. I'm not sure I follow this logic, but then I'm not a professional political operative. ["I think when they said he can't win, that they meant he doesn't need to campaign in order to win it -- that it's already his, and it wouldn't be a meaningful win. I think." -- Wing Chun] Toby adds, "All you can hope for is an 'as expected,' and there's the possibility that you can embarrass yourself." Without looking at Toby, Jed says, "Appreciate that, thanks." Josh explains that Toby meant "in the polls." Toby suggests letting Hoynes battle it out with Wiley for second place, while they go to South Carolina. ["The bit about second place fuelled my theory, as set out above." -- Wing Chun] Jed says they're not going to beat Hoynes in South Carolina. C.J. says he just has to beat Wiley. Turns out Wiley's going to drop out after South Carolina if he doesn't finish higher than third. Jed asks whether they'll get Wiley's endorsement. Leo says they'll get his money, and adds that Josh thinks so too. Jed asks, "Which one's Josh?" A tad more peevish this time, Josh says, "I am." Toby, Sam, C.J., and Josh all start talking quickly about strategy, plotting out the few weeks, leading up to them winning in Illinois. C.J. says that the Illinois primary will be High Noon. Leo asks whether, if they win in Illinois, they have a shot at California and New York. Sam says, "If we win Illinois, we're going to run the table." Jed says, "Well, that's it then! We've saved people the trouble of voting. What's ?" Pretty sarcastic for someone who's only paying his people six hundred dollars a week, I'd say. Josh starts to interject but Jed says, "I understood the point. We're going to South Carolina to set up Illinois. When I ask 'what's ,' it means I'm ready to move on to other things. So...what's ?" Leo says that they're done. Jed bombs off to other things, probably his "How to Win Friends and Influence People" refresher seminar. Josh snipes, "Well, I feel bathed in the warm embrace of the candidate, Leo." Leo claims that Jed's "very easy to like once you get to know him." Josh asks quite seriously, "How many people get that far?" Leo admits there aren't many.

The camera moves to a woman answering the phone in Josh's office. It's Donna. She's telling the person on the phone about his calendar for that afternoon when Josh zooms in to grab something and starts to zoom back out, when he realizes that somebody he's never seen before is answering his phone. He greets her; she says "hi" back. He asks her who she is; she replies, "Donna Moss." He then tells her that he's Josh Lyman. She says she's his new assistant. Josh asks, "Did I have an old assistant?" Donna admits, "Maybe not." He asks again who she is; she tells him again. This goes back and forth for a while. She claims that she came in to volunteer and was assigned to him. Josh decides to go check this out and she stops him, confessing that she may have overstated things a little when she said she was assigned to him. He asks her again who she is as he starts walking away. She follows and explains she drove there from Madison, Wisconsin. Josh asks when her boyfriend broke up with her. Donna wonders what makes him think that happened; Josh says she's too old for her parents to have kicked her out of the house. She asserts that she wants to work for Bartlet, and that she graduated with a degree in political science and government. Josh asks where she graduated. Donna admits that she may have overstated things a little, and that she was a couple of credits short, and that she went to the University of Wisconsin, and that she majored in political science and government, and sociology and psychology, and biology for a while, with a minor in French, and uh, drama. They've covered almost the entire office now and are on the way back to Josh's office. Josh asks, "You had five majors and two minors in four years?" Donna explains that it was three years, and insists that she had to drop out. Josh, in a fairly stunning display of perceptiveness or ESP or both, says, "Your boyfriend was older than you?" Donna objects that she thinks that's personal information. Josh says, "Donna, you were just at my desk, reading my calendar, answering my phone and hoping I wouldn't notice that I never hired you. Your boyfriend was older." Josh pulls it out of her that he was a medical student who got her to drop out and pay the bills until he was done with his residency. Josh inquires, "And why did Dr. Free Ride break up with you?" Donna wonders what makes Josh think that's how things went down. He doesn't say anything and neither does Donna. She sits down in the chair in front of his desk. Josh says that this is a campaign for the presidency and that there's nothing he takes more seriously. "This can't be a place for people to come to find their confidence and start over." Donna asks, "Why not? Why can't it be those things? Is it going to interfere with my typing?" He doesn't address this but says that they're on their way to South Carolina, and that if she wants to stay in the Manchester office, that's okay, but he can't carry her. She says that she'll pay her own way, sell her car if she has to: "Eventually you're going to put me on salary." Josh isn't convinced. Donna pleads, "Look, I think I can be good at this. I think you might find me valuable." The phone rings. Josh quietly tells her to go ahead and answer it. While she's dealing with the person on the phone, Josh takes off his ID badge and hands it Donna, who smiles a pretty cute smile. We fade out to surgeons rooting around in Josh's abdomen as Donna watches from the observation area.

After some commercials, we're at the White House at 8:46 on Tuesday morning. C.J. knocks on Sam's door and says, "Hey, Spanky." Spanky? Sam says, "Oh God, what'd I do?" She asks him to take a walk with her. She mentions that they're taking Josh off bypass now, and Sam says he's going to head to the hospital soon. C.J. tells him he did well on the morning shows. C.J. confesses that her real reason for not wanting to do them herself is that she can't remember what happened. She remembers walking out of the building, someone pushing her down, her necklace coming off, and a police car window exploding over her head. About this necklace thing: I think if I were in a crowd and someone opened fire on me, I probably wouldn't notice losing a necklace at the time even if it were the size of Mr. T's and Flavor Flav's combined. And I'm pretty sure whatever C.J. was wearing was considerably more delicate. So why all the fuss about the necklace? She says she's been doing her press briefings using notes from other people's accounts. C.J. says she knows what happened now from listening to him on the morning shows. Sam seems to be playing dumb and acts like he doesn't know what she's talking about. She tells him she thinks he has her necklace. Sam finally admits that he didn't want her to feel beholden to him. "I didn't want it to be like an episode of I Dream of Jeannie where now you've gotta save my life, and the time-space continuum with you following me around with coconut oil and hot towels." C.J.: "Coconut oil?" C.J. says she doesn't feel beholden to him, and wants her necklace. Sam objects, "Why not? I saved your life!" Sam gives her the necklace and she smiles gratefully. Sam says he'll be in his office. As he's walking away, C.J. asks if he was scared. Sam admits he was; C.J. says she was too. She says, "Thanks," again. You know, I hate to rag on Aaron Sorkin for such a great episode and God knows he doesn't give us much to complain about, but I really think I would have done this differently. I think it would have been better just to have Sam leave the necklace on her desk when she was out and for her just to wonder who pushed her down and who picked up her necklace, and just have this warm feeling knowing that the people around her are looking out for her. I just don't feel like the whole thing with Sam pushing her down and her eventually figuring it out has advanced the storyline or the characters in any significant way. Since the show is typically so excellent, I'm going to assume that there was stuff lost in editing the show down. I can't help feeling like Sorkin meant for there to be more to this subplot. Anyway, C.J. enters the press briefing room with its clamour and cameras flashing and begins to give an update.

Out on the street, Toby finds Ron Butterfield and asks if they can talk. Ron's hand is pretty well-bandaged, but blood is still leaking through the gauze. Poor guy. Toby explains that C.J.'s getting questions about the open-air exit. Ron recites, "The Secret Service doesn't comment on procedure." Toby recounts that a few weeks after POTUS was sworn in, Ron received a memo stating that the President didn't like the feeling of travelling around in an armoured tank and would no longer use the tents or canopies, and would enter and exit public buildings in the open air. Ron confirms this. Toby explains that he wrote that memo, and urged the President to sign it, which he did. Ron says he knows that. Toby doesn't think it's right for Ron to take the flak for what happened. Toby wants to have the Treasury Department hand over his memo to the press. Ron says they can't do that. Toby argues that there are going to be a lot of questions; Ron insists there are always a lot of questions. Toby wants to take the blame; Ron absolutely refuses to let him. He doesn't believe that it was anybody's fault: "It was an act of madmen. You think a tent was going to stop them? We got the President in the car. We got Zoey in the car. And at a hundred and fifty yards and five storeys up, the shooters were down nine point two seconds after the first shot was fired. I would never let you not let me protect the President. You tell us you don't like something, we figure out something else. It was an act of madmen. Anyway, the Secret Service doesn't comment on procedure." Toby relents. As Ron walks away, Toby says they did a good job last night. Toby sits down on the bench nearby and sighs.

C.J. is briefing the press on the weapons used by the Secret Service to kill the shooters. Leo, watching from the back, gestures to Margaret to get Danny out of the audience for him. Danny goes back to where Leo is standing, but Leo shushes him for a second. C.J. continues: "I wanted to mention something. This is our fifth press briefing since midnight, and obviously there's one story that's going to be dominating the news around the world for the few days, and it would be easy to think that President Bartlet, Joshua Lyman, and Stephanie Abbott were the only people who were victims of a gun crime last night. They weren't. Mark Davis and Sheila Evans of Philadelphia were killed by a gun last night. He was a biology teacher and she was a nursing student. Tina Bishop and Belinda Larkin were killed with a gun last night. They were twelve. There were thirty-six homicides last night, four hundred and eighty sexual assaults, three thousand four hundred and eleven robberies, three thousand six hundred and eighty-five aggravated assaults, all at gunpoint. And if anyone thinks those crimes could have been prevented if the victims themselves had been carrying guns, I'd only remind you that the President of the United States was shot last night while surrounded by the best-trained armed guards in the history of the world." Danny says to Leo, "She's good." Leo says, "Yes, she is." He tells Danny to ride with him to the hospital.

Back in Flashback Land, it's the night of the Illinois primary. The Bartlet campaign staff are busy in what looks like a hotel suite, doing all their various tasks. Josh is on the phone; Leo asks who he's talking to. Josh says he's talking to nobody, there's nobody home at his house. Leo asks what's up, and Josh said that his dad has his chemo treatment today and that the exit polls are going to cheer him up. Abby comes up and asks Leo if there's any food in the room that isn't fried. Leo: "Well if there is, let's get rid of it." Jed comes in loaded for bear; he's mad because his speech refers again to "my opponent" instead of using Hoynes's name: "Are we back to this crap again?" He wants to confer with Leo about it. As Leo follows him into another room, Jed carps, "It's the exact same crap all over again! It's amateur hour!" Josh walks up to Abby. She says, "You can say it, you know. It's not like I haven't heard it before." Josh says, "Your husband's a real son of a bitch, Mrs. Bartlet." She says that he doesn't like being handled. Josh argues that nobody's "handling" him. For some reason this really ticks her off and her expression changes. "He's not ready yet, Josh. He's terrified." Josh asks if he's going to be ready. Abby replies firmly, "You bet your ass he will." Then she adds sweetly, "In the meantime, you wanna kick something...kick me." Suddenly the news is turned up. The anchorman announces that they are ready to call the Illinois primary for Bartlet. Everyone cheers and claps and hugs each other. As the strains of "Celebration" start to play, Josh looks at Sam a few feet away and Sam mouths the words, "Thank you." Josh and Leo hug. Donna, looking extremely serious, comes up to Josh as he's gleefully yelling that they need to replace the music with some Doobie Brothers. Um, I'd say Kool and the Gang are the lesser of those two evils. Josh, seeing Donna's expression, tells her she's gotta get happy. She blurts out that his father died. (Hello? Did you ever hear of warning someone that you're going to give them really bad news?) Josh, of course, is shocked.

At the airport, the news coverage of the Illinois victory continues as Josh waits alone for his flight. Preceded by a couple of bodyguards, POTUS comes up behind Josh. He says, "Your father died, Josh. I can't believe that." Josh explains that he unexpectedly developed a pulmonary embolism (blood clot) during his chemotherapy and died. Josh tells Jed he really needs to be getting his plane to California. Jed asks if Josh's father was a lawyer. Josh says he was a litigator.

Jed: Did he like that you were in politics?
Josh: I think he would have liked grandchildren more.
Jed [kindly]: He would've.
Josh: He liked that I was working for you. He liked that we were starting to do well. He would have liked tonight. At least his friends and neighbours will be spared all the...you know...
Jed: He'd have been doing some bragging right now?
Josh: Yeah, and your name wouldn't have come up, by the way. "My son won the Illinois primary tonight." A few more hours and he would've been able to say that. He'd have been proud.
Jed: He was already. Trust me, Josh, I'm a father. He was already.

At the hospital, doctors are trying to wake Josh up. He slowly comes to, incredibly groggy. He's surrounded by Jed and Leo and some medical staff. His lips move but nothing audible comes out. Jed leans over him, saying, "I couldn't hear you, Josh." Josh whispers feebly to POTUS. Jed stands up again and Leo asks, "What'd he say?" Jed says, "He said, 'What's ?'" Sniff. How am I supposed to be snarky about this?