Could be. Hopefully someone has it taped and will be able to clear it up. That, or we can wait for TWoP’s recap.
I think these writers would have accepted that as a sufficient explanation.
I have it taped. I just played it back. It’s very quiet, but yes, in the heliocopter, as mentioned above, was an explanation of sorts. As MaxTheVool said, it was a domestic disturbance call. Guy dropped her off on the road in the middle of nowhere and she dialed 911 to get help. Then she wandered off to get out of the rain…
That’s about where the explanatory voice trails off and the scene cuts to the chopper landing.
I find it strange that the writer’s explanation is that the woman wanted to get out of the rain but in the scene where the chopper landed it wasn’t raining. Also, there was no mention of rifles, or strange men, or how this random woman happened to know Zoey was even in there. I’m voting for x-ray vision.
This has nothing to do with this week’s episode per se, but I just saw another repeat (Galileo?) in which Mallory, Leo’s daughter appears. She is just an incredibly attractive woman. Whatever became of her character?
I think the abrupt resolution of the abduction was on the money. After all, this is West Wing not Law & Order - the point of the show isn’t a police procedural about how a major crime case was solved, it’s a show about the political impact of the President’s daughter being kidnapped and the personal impact of that abduction on the principal characters. Going off on a subplot to show how the case was cracked wouldn’t have added anything to either of those elements. The writers wisely realized that and simply said “It happened. Moving on.”
I’ve been hoping and praying that what happened to Picket Fences after David Kelly left won’t happen to The West Wing, but it isn’t looking good based on these two episodes.