Rowboat Man (Father Cavanaugh parable, S1E14)

An anonymous, practical rescuer who appears only within Father Cavanaugh's drowning‑man parable, the Rowboat Man physically hauls a drowning figure from the water and thereby crystallizes the parable's ethical point. He functions as an embodied moral solution: blunt, compassionate, and unglamorous. The figure reframes political and theological argument into an immediate duty of care, sharpening President Bartlet's private spiritual reckoning by personifying direct, active mercy rather than abstract counsel or providential certainty.