What is the significance of the Mac Beth line in the title?
Could be because
that’s where both Macbeth and Leo fell. I cannot tell you how upset I was watching Leo have a heart attack, then get left behind! The phone ringing at the end was horrible. This is a worse cliffhanger for me than the one where the president and Josh got shot. Poor Leo! How awful!
My DVR failed to tape the previews for next week. Can anyone tell me what they were? I NEED TO KNOW! Thanks.
I didn’t see the episode, but if you’re wondering about the significance of Birnham Wood:
In MacBeth the witches prophesied that MacBeth would be defeated when Birnham Wood marched across the field to his castle. MacBeth took this to mean he was invincible.
However, the forces arrayed against him decided to sneak up on his castle under camouflage, so they cut branches off the trees in Birnham Wood and carried them in front of them. Too late, MacBeth realized the true meaning of the witches’ prophecy and he was defeated and killed.
Does that help, in the context of the episode?
Uh, oops. Is this a spoiler-free thread? I’ll ask a Mod to fix my coding. Sorry.
No, but thanks. Fr. DeBosier made us memorize the damn thing, and to this day:
I will not yield to kiss the ground before young Malcolm’s feet and be baited by the rabble’s curse.
Though Birnham wood be come to Dunsiane and thou opposed being of no woman born, yet I will try the last.
Lay on, MacDuff, and damned be he that first cries “Hold! Enough!”
Previews: Centered on who would replace Leo.
Word has it that Leo lives and becpmes a “special advisor” to the President.
Do they let important folks wander about Camp David in the wee hours without SS escort?
I’ve missed a couple episodes. Can anyone fill me in on what the heck happened to put Leo in the doghouse? I know they disagreed on policy issues, but Jed could barely be civil to him.
I would have thought possible peace in the middle east would be a happy moment. But this episode was a big old downer. I’d been spoiled that Leo was going to have a heart attack. I just never expected that he’d be let go like that. Sheesh, first he was cast aside by Jed and then left all alone to have a heart attack and lie dying in the dirt.
Rubystreak
The previews didn’t show much. They just had a voice over saying something about change coming as tragedy strikes and new faces appear. Shots of CJ in the press room and lots of Jimmy Smits. No real news.
What killed me about the whole thing was he was having chest pain, really bad chest pain radiating into his left arm, before he set off into the woods. There’s no way he didn’t know he was having symptoms of a heart attack, and yet he wandered off into the woods on his own in the middle of the night anyway. As I said to Dr.J, was the stubborn old fool trying to kill himself? Sheesh.
I had that thought myself…he was acting like a dying animal who wanders away from the pack to die alone so as not to attract predators to the remaining healthy pack. He’s got no family left other than the job, that he had just quit…suicide by heart attack? Heh. Anyhow, either that or he felt he was invincible…
I will not be happy if he somehow manages to survive all those hours alone in the woods after having a heart attack…
Bartlet was willing to commit 13,000 troops to Gaza and the West Bank. Leo found that incredibly irresponsible.
Does anyone know the signficance of the ashtray-looking-item that Leo dropped shortly before he wandered off? It was photographed quite deliberately, but I couldn’t figure out what it was or why we saw it…
A button came off his jacket and fell into the water.
And did I miss something about the negotiations? Why was the NSA assistant running the discussion instead of someone from State?
I also thought it was kind of a sucky way for John Spencer to go. And where is Nancy MacNally? Is she in mourning because of her old friend Fitz? I don’t like this kid Kate…she’s too far up in the organization too fast.
Leo is the White House Chief of Staff, for Christ’s sake. How can anyone say, “Oh, I haven’t seen him lately,” and not go nuts trying to find him. He’s POTUS’s best friend, and he can’t just disappear. They should have been more concerned.
The whole peace agreement…meh. I don’t like the magic of pulling a rabbit out of the hat to solve the problems in the Middle East. It trivializes decades of problems.
Pretty well sums it up for me.
IMHO, it looks like TPTB for The West Wing decided “hey, let’s try to improve ratings by getting another attractive young blonde woman on the cast”.
I’d rather they’d brought back Ainsely Hayes.
I heard she’s busy playing with guns down in Miami… 
Well, Kate is too vanilla. When the NSA advertiser comes in and starts calling Admiral Fitzwallace a yeoman and a scaredy cat…well, I think that’s when I officially fell in love with Nancy.
I don’t think Leo’s dead. I don’t think it for a few reasons.
First, the IMDB doesn’t list him as off the cast.
Second, if John Spencer really wanted off the show, a good time probably would have been at the end of last season. Why would he want to come back just to bite the dust two episodes into the new season?
Third, he “quits” his job and THEN dies of a heart attack? How many different ways can you write a man off the show? Why not just have his heliocopter get hit by a bazooka and finish him off in style like they did in the old days? Better yet, he could be fighting a wild cat in the chopper while succumbing to a flesh eating virus. Then we’d be sure he’s dead!
Oh, darn; now the producers are going to be worried about you suing them for plaigarism when those episodes air in a few weeks.