Joshua Lyman's internal crisis of accountability and professional identity after his public missteps: shame, hubris, and the risk of losing staff confidence vs. the need to own mistakes and preserve the Presidency's agenda.
Joshua Lyman's internal crisis of accountability and professional identity after his public missteps: shame, hubris, and the risk of losing staff confidence vs. the need to own mistakes and preserve the Presidency's agenda.
Events in This Arc
Immediately after the disastrous briefing, Josh stumbles into the hallway and is met with a cascade of scorn: Donna's sarcastic, helpless support, C.J.'s brutal (and medicated) diagnosis of his on‑air …
Leo storms into the Roosevelt Room to confront the team about Mendoza's incendiary comments and the widening media firestorm. Josh tries to defuse with a flippant Nova Scotia quip but …
President Bartlet, exhausted and terse, assembles his senior staff to confront a spiraling news cycle. Josh admits, sheepish and culpable, that he provoked a story about a nonexistent "secret plan" …