I see a torrid love affair in CJ’s future. A first-class schtupping by a certain Secret Service Agent is in the works. Oh, she’ll resist it. She’ll think that he’s chauvenistic and overbearing and smothering and hot as hell and she can’t wait to have him come to her rescue. Mark my words.
Was last night a new episode? I taped it but haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. Just glimpsed long enough to know it was one I hadn’t seen, something with Sam speaking with the Russians (or someone with a Slavik accent). So I won’t peek in here again until late tonight.
I loved last night’s episode! Especially the mysterious letter to POTUS, and Charlie finally tracking down the sender. What a sweet storyline! It was a great contrast to the Iranian nukes and CJ’s stalker.
And the Russian PM sending coded messages through Sam? How great was that?!
And I agree, Mark Horman is a hotty. I don’t think I would mind having him protect me one little bit. 
Mark Harmon, of course. Mark Horman is a guy I work with - definitely not a hotty.
Yes, this one was brand new.
I’m a big sap, but I did love C.J.'s scene with Bartlet - “You’re part of my family, and I am not letting this happen.” I love it whenever those two have scenes together, really. Great characters, great actors.
Sam got an interesting storyline! He actually did something important! That whole plotline was very cleverly done, too. And Charlie actually did stuff!
I thought of the potential C.J. love interest angle on the Secret Service thing and I’m hoping it doesn’t happen. I have no desire to see my favorite show remake The Bodyguard. Of course, what I’m really hoping is that the C.J. stalker storyline isn’t a setup for the season finale…
plnnr, I think your description of what will happen is right on the mark. At least it matches what the scout household thinks is going to happen.
Lots of stuff going on in this episode.
I have to agree, very well done episode. It’s about time Sam had something important to do besides making the occassional quip. But I do have one question. I understand that Bartlet swiped Roosevelt’s mail code, but how did the kid get the code in the first place? Did the president give it to him in 1932?
FDR gave it to the kid when he met him giving a budget speech in PA.
Why should the press care so much what CJ says about that Saudi fire, though? Since when does she help form foreign policy?
They want to let her rant in the office, fine, but not the press conference. They want to know what Bartlett thinks. What the VP thinks (Hoines? Otter?). Maybe Leo, as advisor. Not the press secretary.
think next time Charlie looks for a date on the letter? I was expecting something from the McKinley admin - "Hey, it’s not 2002, it’s *1902 *
I really liked Charlie’s subplot. The rest was so-so, I thought. (Maybe my expectations are just sky-high after the last new episode, Stirred, was so awesome.)
Ok, I think I’m being a little thickheaded here. Can anyone explain to me the whole coded letter thing? I understand how Sam figured out the guy hadn’t written it. But I don’t get what the Russian PM was trying to say. I mean, they made it pretty clear the plant was bad. If all the PM was trying to get across was that it was, like Josh suggested, only a rebel-type thing, it seems a strange way to go about getting the message across.
And I agree with plnnr… I think CJ’s remark early in the show about her total lack of a love life makes it pretty obvious what’s gonna happen.
Well, the Russian PM hadn’t written it either, flyboy. The Americans had written it, way back when talk of the summit meeting began (a year, months, I’m not sure). Sam made mention of the fact that the reason he was so suprised was that they had attempted the exact same language, and the previous PM’s handlers didn’t allow it and didn’t believe in it. All the PM was trying to get across was that he was of the same mind, but that the freedom to openly discuss it (via the direct line) didn’t exist.
Oh, yes, there’s some hot lovin’ in CJ’s future – that writing’s on the wall. And I was thrilled for her – so thrilled, in fact, that I realized I definitely need to get out and date more, rather than be so excited by the love-lives of TV characters.
And I think Mark Harmon will be great in that role – I love the dialogue already:
“You just do your job. You’re the boss. . . . Wait, you can’t do that.”
“I thought you said I was the boss.”
“Yeah, well, that’s kind of an honorary title.”
I thought it was a good show, except that I thought it was totally unrealistic that the shit would not have hit the fan after CJ’s little diatrabe against the Saudis.
BTW, I know Saudi is oppressive and all, but little girls burned to death for not wearing abayyas? Was that at all based on an actual, factual incident, or was it poetic license (and arguably a slander against the Saudis)?
Nice episode, although personally I found it a bit disjointed. It was obviously Toby’s turn to be goofy, and I almost thought that the Russian reporter was going to be his new love interest. But why would Toby have absolutely nothing to do when Sam was off negotiating protocol. That felt contrived.
Sorkin loves to go off on the Saudis. Has he ever been there? It’s certainly not the most lovely place in the world, but nothing in life is that cut and dried and in this case it’s not, either. It’s not just an oppressive regime subjugating the women. This is done with the tacit approval of a majority of the population. Now perhaps the majority of the population feels this way because they are not largely exposed to western media, but thats the breaks. This is Saudi culture, for better or for worse. Sometimes horrific, true.
What did CJ mean by “Bonnie Lynn Scott” which she uttered at the end of her diatribe in the press conference?
I think she said “Bonnie, then Scott,” indicating that the next question would be from Bonnie, then Scott could ask the next one.
I took the language slid in by the Russian PM to be a left-handed way to say, “Yes, you can call us on the carpet for this and raise enough of a diplomatic stink to get the Iranian plant stopped. I won’t argue with you publicly about it any more than is necessary to safe face, and it will help me weed out those within my government that would oppose non-prolifteration.”
Then again, maybe I’m better at interpreting idiom than I am reading between lines. 
" It’s hard not to like a guy that doesn’t know ‘frumpy’ but knows ‘onomotopia’".
Great line.
Ian McShane - mmmmmm.
Were her comments portrayed in the next day’s headlines? Just hazarding a guess here - but CJ’s relationship with the members of the press corps is pretty friendly, maybe they just wanted to know what she thought about it, especially knowing her general leanings on such matters.