Evidence of Things Not Seen- Part II
Now for Part II of the episode. From Jed's phone call with Chigorin, the episode shifts to their motif of actual poker away from international high-stakes foreign policy games. This scene has tons of close-ups on the actors as Big Concepts are discussed. I'll have to transcribe basically all it because it's one of the most underrated TWW scenes.
LARRY
You know, you're particularly upbeat for someone who's been shot at twice in four years.
C.J.
Am I?
TOBY
Yes.
C.J.
That's 'cause I've got faith there, mi compadre.
TOBY
Faith?
C.J.
The substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
TOBY
Yeah, but I think what he's asking... Bump ten... I think what he's asking is why most other nights do you think the world's going to hell in a hula hoop, but tonight...?
CJ is pretty optimistic. She has a healthy cynicism and an excellent bullshit detector but she does look at the world positively. Considering how much this ep emphasizes CJ/Toby as a friendship and IMO a romantic ship, I have to wonder if Toby is projecting his issues onto her to feel closer.
C.J.
We dipped twice and eat gefilte fish?
TOBY
Suzy Cream Cheese, do not attempt the hagaddah.
I'm so glad I'm recapping this just after Passover. This episode also originally aired around Passover.
C.J.
I know how to bless the soup too. I'll raise your raise.
ED
Out.
C.J.
Just the two of us.
TOBY
Faith in what?
C.J.
In us.
TOBY
The people in this room?
C.J.
And many, many, many others.
OK, *that* exchange is incredibly shippy. It's the stuff that ships are made out of. The way CJ says, "Just the two of us" in an incredibly intimate way to describe her and Toby left in the poker hand. The way that Toby has to clarify CJ's faith being the people in the room versus "Just the two of us". I gather that Aaron Sorkin was something of a Toby/CJ shipper although not necessarily, an uber-shipper/'stan like with Josh/Donna. I have to wonder if it's a coincidence that Sorkin wrote an over-drive CJ/Toby shippy ep two episodes before he basically sinks the Toby/Andi ship for good. Because no matter what fans say, I do think that Commencement killed the Toby/Andi ship for good and I'm normally very open-minded about accepting the viability of ships even ships that I don't personally like.
Charting the CJ/Toby ship, there wasn't an authorial attempt at shippy subtext in S1. There were some great close scenes between the two like Lord John Marbury or kind of sexy scenes like 20 Hours in LA but no planned shippiness. Then I gather that Allison Janney and Richard Schiff were shipping their characters and brought Sorkin on board sometime over the hiatus between S1-2. Hence, the uber-shipppiness of S2 where Toby went to hire CJ in In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen instead of Leo as originally planned and they have this incredibly loaded and ambiguous past and heavy shippy scenes like the "beautiful woman" scene in And It's Surely To Their Credit or the "you wanna make out with me" scene in Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail and a gazillion more. (Season 2 is heaven for CJ/Toby shippiness and almost every other aspect of television life!)
Then maybe it's at a lower volume but the romantic tunes are still playing in S3 between Toby's concern for her in Manchester, Toby's hand-gesture of love in The Women of Qumar, or the proposed dancing at the end of 100,000 Airplanes. Suddenly with the appearance of Simon Donovan, the subtext dies. CJ and Toby do not have on single one-on-one scene from Enemies, Foreign and Domestic to Posse Comitatus. This attempt to sink the ship becomes a pattern or clear-headed decision instead of a four-episode ploy for a short-term romantic interest for CJ when Toby spends the first two episodes of Season 4 trapped in the Flyover States and then the pregnancy storyline still commences. Mind you through that time, I still saw Richard Schiff and Allison Janney playing the subtext. However, it did seem like Sorkin wanted to separate them.
Other than a few tiny moments in time like the "Sand in my shoes" song from Red Haven's on Fire, there were hardly any shippy moments through S4. CJ has no big opinions on Toby/Andi other than signing onto Team Toby with the rest of the group. Back in S1 when I don't even feel that there was a concerted effort to push CJ/Toby as a viable ship, Toby *still* had scenes where he mistrusted Danny and questioned CJ's relationship with him. Here in S4, Toby is not allowed to have any opinion on Danny coming back. It really looks like Aaron Sorkin was planning to sink that dogged, hyper-subtexty CJ/Toby ship and run to the safer, more conventional CJ/Danny and Toby/Andi.
But wait! Sorkin resuscitates CJ/Toby in a big way in this here episode, writes a very personal moment for them in 25 and then sinks Toby/Andi in Commencement IMO forever and makes Toby's celebration of his kids and love of them entirely single-parenty in 25 to the point that Andi doesn't appear in the episode and her "You're too sad for me" speech truly rankled with Toby, but not so much in the turning down of the proposal. What he was really focusing on was Andi's turn-down as a way of validating Toby's fears that his emotional problems could end up hurting his kids.
I don't know what Sorkin was driving at in these last four episodes and we'll never know what he would have down if he was the showrunner for the last three years. Still, the pattern from these last four episodes does indicate Sorkin would have gotten CJ and Toby together. The only thing that gives me pause is that the whole fourth season and all inside-baseball comments indicate that Sorkin was chomping at the bit to get Josh and Donna together sooner rather than later but the network was saying to delay for the "suspense" (necessary eye-roll). It does seem a little typical and pat workplace drama for someone as original as Sorkin to write *two* romances consecutively involving four core members of the ensemble. Then again, Sorkin was end-gaming Jeremy/Natalie and Casey/Dana on Sports Night and Matt/Harriet and Jordan/Danny on Studio 60. So I don't think he was "anti-double dating at work" by any means- it just wasn't ever a West Wing thing.
(Amended Correction: I know that Jeremy/Natalie, Matt/Harriet and Dana/Casey weren't technically together at the end of their series. Still, the show couldn't be clearer that these are couples that *should* be together and their dating and breaking up and issues characterized their series.)
I don't think I've ever meta'd so much on ships!
Anyway, they ask whether Will is missing his flight to Cheyenne. What's in Cheyenne, Lieutenant Bailey?
WILL
A number of us are being sent out there to investigate something that happened a few
days ago.
TOBY
What happened?
WILL
You know, it's one of those things that sounds worse when you say it out loud because it makes people kind of nervous.
TOBY
What happened?
WILL
Uh, two guys failed to follow through on an order to fire their rockets at what was thought to be an incoming ballistic missile from North Korea. Turns out it was a good thing they didn't, 'cause the missile was a meteor, and rather than being from North Korea, it was from, you know...
TOBY
Outer space.
WILL
Yeah.
TOBY
What the hell happened?
WILL
Two launch crew officers in Minuteman Three silos picked up a signal of an incoming projectile. The speed, arc, and trajectory of which suggested it was headed to New London, Connecticut.
TOBY
From North Korea.
WILL
Yes.
TOBY
Why do we think at this point that North Korea is attacking the East Coast of the United States?
WILL
There are transcripts from the silo that show that surprise was expressed at that.
TOBY
I would think.
WILL
The base was already at DEFCON Delta, so the launch crew initiated Response Code Orion, which calls for the first in a series of steps to arm their 50 Minutemen.
TOBY
What's in New London?
WILL
Trident.
TOBY
The gum?
WILL
The nuclear submarines.
TOBY
Fifty Minutemen they're arming, and is anyone saying this doesn't make sense?
WILL
Two guys in the silo. The launch sequence went on for two minutes before they had confirmation it was a meteor. But the two guys were debating with Airborne Launch Control and the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Centre and that gets sticky. This is missile defense. This stuff has to work.
TOBY
And they're sending in a team of lawyers to look into it.
WILL
Yeah, but we're scrappy.
LOL! Perhaps, my favorite Will Bailey line ever.
TOBY
A meteor fell from the sky the result being two guys are going to get court-marshaled. The only two guys who apparently thought it was strange that North Korea would attack submarines in Connecticut instead of say, San Diego or Hawaii. And if it had been a real attack? Would they still have been doing point/counterpoint with NORAD?
Will shrugs.
Toby's pessimism is awesome because he articulately explains it. There's nothing wrong about what he just said. He'll just explain how fucked up things are when everyone is too scared to.
TOBY
We failed both on a mechanical and human level. So tell me again what you have faith in.
C.J.
Us.
TOBY
Why.
C.J.
Because with what little free time he has, Will is going to Wyoming to defend one of these guys and I don't think it is failing on a human level.
That does make sense although I do buy into Toby's analysis on what a grotesque failure this is more. CJ makes the tie between the theme of secrecy and suspicious of others and faith explicit here. Although there's also the undercurrent of the story that if the people at the top trusted the men in the cilo, they wouldn't have failed on a human level. To repeat Jed summing up the themes, "We've gotta trust each other!" This episodes also explores the differences and intersection between human and systemic trust/failure/etc. The image of CJ, Toby and Will being shot at by a crazy individual is clearly on the individual end of the spectrum. Jed coached by America's national security team trying to recover an *unmanned* spy plan to get its intelligence before it *self-detonates* is very systemic and it's Jed who with Chigorin brings the systemic issue back to a human level to find a solution. Will's case is the clearest instance of systemic failures and human failures overlapping. Will, as a person with a opinion and a JAG corps lawyer, bridges both the systemic and human solution.
With those connections, a reminder that poker is the linking motif for all of these themes.
TOBY
I've got ace high flush. Give me your money.
C.J.
I've got tens full of queens. Give me yours.
Charlie runs out to see Zoey. Elisabeth Moss looks very pretty with her hair long and straight, in a long skirt with a loser fitting peasant-like top. I don't think she'll have any trouble if Mad Men gets heavy into the late 1960s fashion! (Although her make-up is a little sallow.)
CHARLIE
Everything's fine.
ZOEY
I just wanted to check. I was just going to call you.
CHARLIE
Were you?
ZOEY
Yeah.
CHARLIE
To say you wanted to get back together again?
ZOEY
To make sure you were alive.
CHARLIE
Well that's a step in my direction. Do you want to come inside for a minute?
I've already ranted how obnoxiously pushy Charlie is through Season 4.
CHARLIE
Can you believe you're graduating in two weeks?
ZOEY
I can't.
CHARLIE
That went fast.
ZOEY
It really did.
CHARLIE
Is Chef Boyardee around?
ZOEY
Now, why do you have to do that?
You go, Zoey.
CHARLIE
I was asking after him.
ZOEY
And on tonight of all nights, when we should be thinking about...
CHARLIE
Why is tonight different from other nights?
More Four Questions/Passover imagery. I wonder why that is the case. I thought how the story of Passover ties into to the above discussed themes. I supposed like all religious holidays, it meshes with faith with a special nod to the entire story hinges on the Jewish community maintaining their faith in God and by extension, Moses to get them out of slavery. A holiday that is pretty big on faith. It's a classic case of the individual (Moses through God) triumphing over the system. What was more systemic in ancient world than the Egyptian empire with their enormous projects and symmetrical art carrying over into values of order?
That said even though this is *my* religion, I always feel out of my depth writing religious meta on television shows and I don't get the strong thematic connections between Passover and the themes of this episode as with the unorganized, spiritual concept of faith and the episode's storylines. That said, the repeated Passover mentions do indicate authorial intent to drag that into this contemplative, spiritual and deeply connected episode.
ZOEY
I'm going to France for three months.
Charlie is *not* happy to hear this.
ZOEY
He asked me a couple of days ago. His family has a farmhouse in the middle of a vineyard near Avignon. No press, no politics. It's what I want to do.
CHARLIE
I think it's a great thing to do. I just don't know why you're doing it with him.
ZOEY
Well, I don't know why you have to... you've been out with plenty of women since we broke up and each time...
CHARLIE
I have not.
ZOEY
You don't think I know when you go out? Every college student in this city wants to tell me something I don't know. And every time you've gone out, I've been supportive.
CHARLIE
Supportive how? I didn't even know you knew?
ZOEY
That's how.
CHARLIE
Hey, you just told me. I'm not the one using the student bodies of GW, Georgetown, AU and Catholic University as intelligence gathering sources.
ZOEY
And UVA and Johns Hopkins pal, you're easy to spot.
CHARLIE
Look...
ZOEY
People like giving me information. What do you want me to do?
Even I agree with Zoey in a general sense, I don't get why she has to drag how plugged in and popular she is because she's the First Daughter in this conversation. If she wants an amicable friendship with Charlie, she shouldn't harp on how she keeps tabs on him through her network of...I don't know, the collegiate equivalent of a royal court with palace intrigue. Props to Elisabeth Moss to not holding back and delivering the lines with a certain amount of bratiness. It feels like intentionally generous acting to give Charlie's frustrations some context.
CHARLIE
I want you to not go to France with Jean-Paul.
ZOEY
[exasperated] Why don't you like him?
CHARLIE
Because...
ZOEY
It's been four years in the White House, another being the daughter of a candidate. Eight years as Governor. My grades get printed in the paper. My boyfriends are in the paper. I live and die by my parents' successes and failures. And so do you. Sometimes even more than me. And Jean-Paul doesn't. He's happy. He's... just... happy.
Here's where Zoey gets super-sympathetic. This storyline really required her articulating her feelings and everyone involved in this scene from Aaron Sorkin to Elisabeth Moss really did an incredible job. In a random thought, I don't even think that Jed gets that this is how Zoey feels. I bet that he sees her as the Happy Daughter, far removed from Ellie's open unhappiness and shyness and Elizabeth's resentment. It does make Zoey a more complicated character and indicates that her cheeriness and glamor-chasing with Jean Paul into perspective and it makes her fake cheery and brave front in the wake of being kidnapped very much in character.
CHARLIE
That's cause he's got five hundred million dollars and no conscience.
ZOEY
No, it isn't. He cares about things. And one of them is me. And none of them are this, and that's appealing to me right now.
Awww, I *identify* so much with the disappointment and anger that Zoey would feel with Jean Paul after he drugs her. Zoey clearly isn't blind to Jean Paul's shallowness. She just thinks that he may be shallow but he does have a conscience and he is capable of caring because he loves her. Zoey predicates her Season 4 relationship with Jean Paul on this feeling. It must have been soul-crushing when it turns out that Zoey was wrong and Jean Paul didn't care about her enough to refrain from slipping her date-rape drugs.
CHARLIE
Yeah, I can understand that.
ZOEY
I've got to go study. Sorry you got shot at again.
To the conclusion of the Saga of Chigorin and Bartlet.
CHIGORIN [through the translator]
Unless there was a typhoon.
BARTLET
I understand. I meant... [covering the mouthpiece] He's yelling at me pretty loud now. [into the phone] I wasn't referring to the change in weather, sir.
CHIGORIN [through the translator]
The national radar service does not find any UAV's in the area you discussed.
LEO
[on the phone] It's Leo again. The UAV's are designed to fly below military radar simply because the closer we get, the better the pictures.
CHIGORIN [through the translator]
I understand. Now what were you taking pictures of?
LEO
Coastal erosion in the Baltic...
CHIGORIN [through the translator]
There is simply no way an American UAV could have been in the Finnish part...
BARTLET [to the room in general]
He's yelling pretty loud at Leo now.
LOL. I love Jed Bartlet *so* much. I don't know whether I made that clear in my past recaps...;-) Still, he delivers that like a child to the national security team and it's *so* freakin' endearing.
CHIGORIN [through the translator]
...of the Baltic Sea and end up crashing in Kaliningrad unless there was a typhoon. Now are you telling me...?
LEO
Sir.
CHIGORIN [through the translator]
We have experts too. And an S&R team is looking for the UAV.
BARTLET
Don't do that Peter.
LEO
You shouldn't do that, sir. We weren't flying in your airspace.
CHIGORIN [through the translator]
Kaliningrad is in my airspace, Leo, and an S&R team has been sent ten kilometres west, to see if we can help you find it.
LEO
Well, they're going to see it because in five minutes I'm going to tell the President to blow it up.
CHIGORNIN [through the translator]
Feel free.
BARTLET
We were taking pictures of Kaliningrad.
Everyone gives him shocked looks.
CHIGORIN [through the translator]
Say that again, please.
BARTLET
We were taking pictures of Kaliningrad. We take pictures of black market nuclear materials being moved out the back doors of suppositories and into trucks. The materials are being sold to non-governmental elements and, well, that's what we were doing. Rogue engineers, military scientists, and ex-KGB. It's just as big of a problem for you as it is for us, but you're not dealing with it, so we were taking pictures of Kaliningrad. We're going to have to trust each other a little Peter. So we're going to share the pictures we got. Not the technology we used to get them. Otherwise I'm detonating it and neither of us see the pictures. We're going to have to trust each other. Our two countries have stopped the world from annihilating itself for 60 years because of conversations like this one. Why don't you talk it over?
I think I've already analyzed this scene in the context of the other scenes so it would repetitive to harp on it. Still classic intersection of poker as Bartlet relies that the strategy of keeping his cards close to his vest isn't working and gives Chigorin a peek and urges Chigorin to trust him in the name of faith. Ideal way of bringing a systemic problem to the individual "person relating to person" as the solution. Love!
CHIGORIN [through the translator]
I will.
Bartlet hangs up the phone.
LEO
Good. I'd have said, "We weren't spying on you, we were spying for you," but...
Aw, Didactic!Leo. Is there any wonder why West Wing can also be called the Leo and Jed Buddy Movie.
BARTLET
If he calls back, we'll have a deal. In the mean time, one hand. Bring your wallet.
Now, to wrap up the Joe Quincy storyline. Donna knocks and Josh jealously asks if Donna came by to look at Joe. Josh, Josh, Joshie- why are you such a tool?!
JOSH
I didn't... I'm telling you, there's something. A guy this qualified, I'd know who he was.
Something's wrong. [long pause] I just figured out what. Come in and say hi.
Joe stands as they walk into the room.
JOSH
We've talked about his name, and New York City Department of Transportation. Then we talked about inner cities and jobs and minimum wage and public schools and foreign aid, hitting all the Democrat g-spots. And it wasn't until now that I realized that there was something I forgot to ask you. Are you a registered Democrat?
JOE
No.
JOSH
A registered Independent?
JOE
No.
JOSH
Are you registered?
JOE
Yes.
JOSH
You're a Republican.
JOE
Yes!
JOSH
Whoa.
DONNA
Joe, it's fine. Ainsley Hayes was a Republican.
JOSH
It is not fine.
DONNA
Why not?
JOSH
'Cause if you're a Republican, then you damned well better look like Ainsley Hayes.
DONNA
He does! [beat] He will to others.
LOL! Love! See, Josh. Republican sex kittens don't just have to come in women-shaped packages. That said, I think Matthew Perry is cute and all but he's not beautiful enough to be the male-version of Ainsley Hayes. Rob Lowe, Dule Hill- those are your male versions of Ainsley Hayes. That said, a picture of Mathew Perry looking very cute:
JOSH
You don't want to get a job with your own party?
JOE
I do, I just can't.
JOSH
Why?
JOE
I'm in the doghouse with a number of people at the National Committee.
JOSH
Why?
JOE
A memo that I wrote for the Solicitor General arguing that the Supreme Court should uphold regulations that limit soft money donations to political campaigns.
JOSH
Oh, no, that's the kind of thing that's got to wind you up in GOP jail for the same amount of time as...
JOE
As a Democrat who speaks out against abortion?
I don't know about that. John McCain railed against soft money donations (although we can certainly argue that McCain-Feingold ended up being crap) and he became the Republican nominee.
JOSH
Right. Why do you want to work here? Why not the private sector?
JOE
I'm on my way to New York.
JOSH
You have something lined up?
JOE
A final interview with Debevoise and Plimpton.
JOSH
That's my father's firm. He was a partner there.
JOE
I know.
JOSH
They're going to offer you $225,000 a year. Is this your fallback?
JOE
They're my fallback.
JOSH
Why do you want to work here?
JOE
I like public service. I want to serve. And you guys are the only ones left.
JOSH
Why haven't you signed the questionnaire?
JOE
Because I can't.
JOSH
You lied on it?
JOE
Yeah.
JOSH
Which question?
JOE
Number 75, "Have you ever done anything that would reflect poorly on the President?"
JOSH
What'd you do?
JOE
I didn't vote for him.
DONNA
That's really very sweet.
Josh gives her a look.
DONNA
Not to me.
Bwahahaha! Donna just finds it sweet because she didn't vote for Jed either. Now, she knows that there's at least two of them in the building.
Anyway, Josh is recommending Joe to Leo. In the Joe as Ainsley's male equivalent theme, we missed the scene where Leo offers Joe a drink and Joe rants about how many family members he has in the Republican party and stands up to speak in opposition. I suppose this is by way of saying that Ainsley was a much more fun Republican sex kitten than Joe Quincy with a more hilarious and engaging interview. Also even though Joe impressively solves the "Who is John Hoynes Banging?" mystery in the next ep, I also got the vibe that Ainsley was smarter than Joe. Perhaps because we heard Ainsley argue policy more or because her bizarre, iambic pentameter speech really indicated a colorful and clever inner life.
Jed and Leo watch the poker game go on like proud parents. Look at the cuteness above.
BARTLET
Hurry it up. They're going to call us back in a second. Debbie, do something.
DEBBIE
Fifty dollars.
They all groan as Bartlet smiles.
LARRY
I'm out.
TOBY
Fold.
BARTLET
Thank you. Is the pastrami from Krupins?
LEO
Yes.
BARTLET
Tissue paper thin?
Nancy calls Jed out and Leo gives him an "Attaboy!" Meanwhile, Will is busy researching at the computer.
WILL
Okay, I've searched "equinox" and "egg," and the news isn't good for the believers.
C.J.
What sites did they send you to?
WILL
ThingsThatAreWrong.com.
C.J.
There's no such site.
WILL
Read it!
C.J.
"This has to be one of the silliest misconceptions around and it never seems to die."
WILL
They also send you to the Apocryphal Zone and Project Astro Utah.
C.J.
There are no web sites supporting it?
WILL
No.
TOBY
And you've got to ask yourself, if no one on the internet wants a piece of this, just how far from the pack have you strayed?
OMG, OMG, OMG!!! LOLOLOLOLOL!!! This, right here, isn't just the line of the episode. It's like the line of my life. It's like the story of me and Internet.
C.J.
I could have sworn I saw it.
Everyone's all, "Ooooooh, now you *think* you saw it" and CJ adorably repeats herself defensively. Hee!
Ron comes to end the lockdown and report on the shooter.
RON
He was by himself.
TOBY
[in disbelief] He's not connected to anything?
RON
No. Just a very troubled guy who was attempting what's called "suicide by cop." He wanted the first agents at the scene to shoot him. Anyway, thank you for your cooperation.
Everyone leaves but the camera makes a point of showing Debbie eagerly counting her giant stack of money. Hee! Never change, Debbie Fiderer!
CJ and Toby are left alone and even though their "goodbyes" are written simply, there's something very charged about them in the actors' delivery and the direction.
TOBY
You headed home?
C.J.
In just a minute. [begins straightening the cards] I'm going to let them know outside that they lifted the crash.
TOBY
See you in the morning.
Toby exits. C.J. looks at the clock that reads midnight. She sits at the table and C.J. tries to make an egg stand. She gets it into the right position and... it stands on end.
C.J.
Guys. Hey, you guys?
But to no avail, everyone left. I want to see the scenes of CJ telling everyone about the egg standing on end at work the next day and everyone laughing at her. Terrific episode but I think that the egg, defying gravity, and standing on end was just a little too corny for my tastes.