West Wing 5/14

[ivylass]

*Originally posted by king of spain *
**I just want to say, I love The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn more than maybe any other work of prose in the English language, and I still can’t imagine what posessed Toby to do that to his own child. **

Toby didn’t. Andi named her son after her grandfather.

So, Andi’s the one that needs to be slapped repeatedly about the head and shoulders with a mackerel.

[Realhoops]

*Originally posted by Dr. Rieux *
**Did anyone else, during the cabinet vote, hear President Bartlett say, “The Secretary of Health and Education?” I distinctly heard this, and read it on the closed captioning.
Apparently in the WW universe the two departments were merged (or it’s happened in our universe and I missed it). **

Yeah, I caught that too. AFAIK they are still separate departments. Isn’t Tommy Thompson the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Paige or somebody like that the Secretary of Education?

… off to google for cabinet members names …

[brianmelendez]

*Originally posted by Realhoops *
**Yeah, I caught that too. AFAIK they are still separate departments. Isn’t Tommy Thompson the Secretary of Health and Human Services and Paige or somebody like that the Secretary of Education?

… off to google for cabinet members names … **

Right, they are still separate departments, resulting from breaking up the former Department of Health, Education & Welfare in 1980. The incumbent Secretary of Education is Rod Paige.

[bristlesage]

Okay, so Andi named her son after her grandfather, but who’s Molly? It’s driving me nuts, because I know there have been several Mollys mentioned on the show, but I just can’t place it. Help?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

Molly was the Secret Service agent who got shot in that episode.

[FallenAngel]

I found the “Oh yeah, Andi had the twins” scene very realistic and touching.

I really liked Josh. The slowly walking toward Toby with his arms outstretched read to me like: “I know this is a lousy time and you aren’t all that comfortable with physical displays in the first place, but I’m coming straight at you and if you’re going to tell me to stop do it now because otherwise you’re getting hugged you giant marmoset.” Or words to that effect.

I don’t know why, particularly since I’m not Jewish, but I was very moved by Josh’s “mozaltov (sp?)”. It was wholly appropriate and delivered with genuine feeling.

CJ’s stunned reaction was great too.

I was thinking for a moment in the “babies come with hats” scene, which was truly brilliant, that they were going to name the girl Zoey. Then I got a little scared about realism, since I think it’s a no-no for Jews to name a child after someone still living (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong), particularly after Toby’s “I’m a lot more Jewish than you are” speech to Josh after they missed the motorcade in the top of the season. When he said, “Molly” I thought: That’s very cool.

[scout1222]

I thought the name would be Zoey, as well.

[amarinth]

Anyone got a transcript of the “babies come with hats” speech?
(I taped over it already. I know. The DVDs need to come out soon.)

[ShibbOleth]

Toby’s monologue
Didn’t realise that babies come with hats. You guys crack me up. You don’t have jobs, you can’t walk or speak the language, you don’t have a dollar in your pockets but you’ve got yourselvesa hat, so everything’s fine. I don’t want to alarm you, but I’m Dad. And for you, son, this will be the last time that I pass the buck, but it should be clear from the get-go that it was Mom who named you Huckleberry. I think she was feeling like life doesn’t present enough challenges to overcome on it’s own.

And Honey, you’ve got a name now, too. Your Mom and I named you after an incredibly brave, uh… an incredibly brave woman. Really not that much older than you. Your name is Molly. Huck and Molly.

So what do I do? Well, you’re going to need food and clothes and doctors and dentists and there’s that. And should you have any questions along the way, hmm… I’m going to be doing stuff like this. Huck was… you’re leaking a bit out of your mouth there. You holding my finger, son? Hey Molly, your brother’s holding my hand. You want to hold my hand? This isn’t going to mean anything to you, but Leo was right. Leo was right.

I’m thinking that the part above, where Toby says “Huck was…” was where he said that Huck was Andi’s grandfather or something, but that’s all my tape had on it. Maybe the tape or my VCR is bad. But that’s pretty verbatim of what I recorded.

[king_of_spain]

*Originally posted by Kallessa *
And although they never identified exactly what happened, there was a major terrorist attack on the show

No there wasn’t. They did a special post-September 11 episode called “Isaac and Ishmael” in which that had happened, but the intro to the ep made it clear that it wasn’t part of the show’s main continuity. It was a sort of one-shot parallel universe.

[Kallessa]

Okay, I seem to remember that, king of spain. They have had scares though–I remember the Golden Gate was a target–so some level of heighten security is part of the story.

[MrVisible]

Just saw it, thanks to USCDiver, may his name be praised forever.

I was struck by the parallel between Bartlett’s and Sorkin’s situations. Being forced by circumstance to leave something important they loved, something of power, in the hands of people they don’t trust. I wonder if it was intentional?

Loved Toby’s speech. What an amazing moment.

[Rubystreak]

I read a spoiler about the new season in TV Guide:

John Goodman is only going to do one episode, the season premiere. This seems to mean the Zoe Situation will be resolved in one ep. Does anyone know if Elisabeth Moss has a contract for next year? Do you think they would kill off Zoe?