Two Cathedrals
Grieving the brutal death of his irreplaceable secretary Mrs. Landingham, President Jed Bartlet battles divine rage, party disloyalty, and his concealed MS diagnosis to defiantly reclaim his path toward reelection amid national crises and personal reckoning.
Lightning cracks the sky as President Jed Bartlet reels from the shattering news: his fiercely loyal secretary, Mrs. Landingham, lies crushed by a drunken driver mere days after buying her first new car. Democrats swarm Leo McGarry's office, throats tightening with panic over Bartlet's concealed multiple sclerosis—MS, the ticking bomb that could doom their House majority and trap the reelection campaign in the Rose Garden. 'The President has got to strongly consider not running,' Congressman Wade blurts, the 35th such gut-punch that morning. Bartlet presses forward, steeling for her funeral at Washington National Cathedral while White House gears grind: Toby Ziegler barks lighting cues for an impending press conference, C.J. Cregg dodges tobacco funding fights and embargoed leaks, Josh Lyman ignites firebrand releases, Sam Seaborn slams the door on defeatist strategists plotting a Hoynes handover.
Haitian embassy siege boils in the Situation Room—1,200 troops, howitzers aimed at the front door, a diabetic deputy chief rationing insulin. Bartlet dispatches Joint Chiefs Chairman Fitzwallace to fracture the enemy, his mind fracturing into vivid flashbacks: young Jed, teenage rebel at his father's New Hampshire prep school, clashes with spirited new secretary Dolores Landingham. She catches him with a cigarette butt in chapel, introduces equal pay crusades, demands he confront Dad the headmaster. 'You're a Boy King,' she prods, igniting his spine against injustice—women's salaries, banned books, Catholic doctrine clashing with Protestant services. Slaps sting from Dr. Bartlet's hand; resolve hardens in Jed's gut.
Motorcade sirens wail to the cathedral's soaring arches, rose window ablaze in spring light. Abbey Bartlet probes the void: party elders push Hoynes, girl driver faces manslaughter. Bartlet stares through silence, exhaling exhaustion into the pew. Reverend Monohan's words blur into memory—Mrs. Landingham hosing sculls, wielding numbers like weapons: Florence Chadwick underpaid versus Hopkins, choir mistresses shortchanged for crew coaches. 'You've known it since before that,' she insists, mirroring Bartlet's stalled car, stalled convictions. Casket lifts on pallbearers' shoulders—Toby, Sam, Josh, Charlie—staff tears carving paths as processional echoes.
Alone now, cathedral sealed, Bartlet erupts at the altar, fists clenched, Latin fury spilling: 'Cruciatus in crucem! You feckless thug!' Sins confessed—MS lies, tender ship sunk with 68 souls, Josh's shooting as 'warning shot.' Cigarette grinds under heel: 'You get Hoynes!' Betrayal chokes him down the aisle.
Back at the White House, storm rages. Staff fractures: Sam paces, demanding abort the press conference; Toby storms from Greg Summerhays' cable news lifeboat, Leo's secret parachute sparking rage. 'I'm gonna rip his arms off!' Bartlet drops the MS bomb in a taped interview—blurred vision, numb legs, relapsing-remitting diagnosis—Wall Street trembles, markets hemorrhage. C.J. drills podium cues: 'Altman, first row right.' Donna Moss fields tropical storm fixation—May anomaly, 34-knot winds defying seasons.
Flashback venom resurfaces: young Jed's slapped rebellion, door slammed on salary pleas. Thunder hurls veranda doors wide; hallucination summons Mrs. Landingham, small and unyielding: 'God doesn't make cars crash.' She counters his pity party with brutal stats—44 million uninsured, homicide claiming black men under 35, 13 million kids in poverty, crumbling schools begging $127 billion. 'If you don't run 'cause it's too hard... God, Jed, I don't even want to know you.' Empty chair echoes as Bartlet steps into rain, washing doubt from his face.
Limo slices night pours to State Department. C.J. fields frenzy—special prosecutor looms, subpoenas for staff. Bartlet strides soaked, towel dabbing resolve. Podium awaits; eyes lock on Altman. Instead, hands slide to pockets, gaze drifts away, sly smile cracks—callback to Landingham's victory read: hands pocketed, eyes averted, decision sealed. Sandy demands: 'Seeking a second term?' Bartlet feigns deafness, repeats the gauntlet. Staff holds breath; Leo whispers, 'Watch this.' Brothers in arms endure—Bartlet surges back, unbroken, reelection thunder rolling.
Events in This Episode
The narrative beats that drive the story
The White House reels from Mrs. Landingham's death and the leaked MS diagnosis. Democrats, gripped by panic, swarm Leo McGarry's office, their voices tight with fear that Bartlet's MS will doom their House majority and cripple the reelection campaign. Congressman Wade, echoing dozens before him, bluntly suggests Bartlet strongly consider not running, a gut-punch that Leo deflects with a cryptic command to 'watch the press conference.' Meanwhile, the White House gears grind forward, preparing for Mrs. Landingham's funeral and a critical press event. Toby Ziegler barks lighting cues for an impending press conference, C.J. Cregg navigates tobacco funding fights and embargoed leaks, Josh Lyman ignites firebrand press releases, and Sam Seaborn fiercely slams the door on defeatist strategists already plotting a Hoynes handover. Amidst this political maelstrom, a Haitian embassy siege boils in the Situation Room, demanding Bartlet's presidential resolve as he dispatches Joint Chiefs Chairman Fitzwallace to fracture the enemy. Yet, Bartlet's mind fractures too, into vivid flashbacks: young Jed, a teenage rebel at his New Hampshire prep school, clashes with the spirited new secretary, Dolores Landingham. She catches him with a forbidden cigarette in chapel, introduces him to equal pay crusades, and demands he confront his headmaster father. 'You're a Boy King,' she prods, igniting his nascent spine against injustice—women's salaries, banned books, the clash of Catholic doctrine with Protestant services. Slaps sting from Dr. Bartlet's hand, but resolve hardens in young Jed's gut, foreshadowing the profound influence Mrs. Landingham will have on his moral compass and his current struggle to lead. As Bartlet asks Charlie for pallbearers, the camera lingers on Mrs. Landingham's untouched desk, a silent, poignant testament to the void her death has left. This initial act establishes the profound political crisis, the personal grief, and the deep historical roots of Bartlet's relationship with Mrs. Landingham, setting the stage for his ultimate decision.
Toby obsessively directs Larry on Bartlet's press conference positioning—away from the overpowering fireplace, lit precisely from the window to project authority and avoid past amateurish errors like the 'Ed Wood'-lit …
In the White House hallway, as Toby exits the press room setup, Sam urgently questions if President Bartlet is emotionally equipped for the upcoming press conference amid Mrs. Landingham's death, …
In the hectic White House hallway, as Toby juggles press conference logistics and Sam's concerns over the President's readiness, Ginger apologetically informs him that Leo's office has reinstated the 4 …
C.J. strides into her office and approaches Carol's desk, briskly handing over a folder on seating arrangements for key outlets—AP, Reuters, Agence France—aboard Air Force One. This fleeting administrative beat …
Josh bursts into CJ's office to brief her on the Justice Department's tobacco lawsuit facing a massive funding shortfall and two Democratic defections on the appropriations subcommittee. He unveils a …
In the Situation Room, Leo leads a tense briefing with Nancy and an advisor as President Bartlet listens. Inside the embassy: power failing after 24 hours, no injuries but diabetic …
In the Situation Room amid the Haitian embassy crisis briefing, church bells ring softly, causing President Bartlet to zone out as Nancy's voice fades. He flashes back to his youth …
In the Situation Room, Leo assertively leads the briefing on the Haitian embassy standoff, demanding details on dire conditions: fading power, a diabetic hostage depleting insulin, and 1,200 hostile troops …
In the Situation Room, a grieving Bartlet—tapping an unlit cigarette—absorbs Nancy's bold strategy to leverage St. Jacques fracturing Bazan's army, reframing invasion as peacekeeping. He decisively greenlights Admiral Fitzwallace's deployment, …
Fresh from authorizing the Haiti intervention, Bartlet exits the Situation Room with Charlie, briefly empathizing with the besieged Haitian president's plight before fixating obsessively on an anomalous May tropical storm …
In a frantic hallway exchange, Sam intercepts the exasperated C.J., revealing that wiring work uncovered asbestos in the East Room, forcing immediate cancellation of the critical press conference and exposing …
Fresh from the asbestos derailment, C.J. strides into her office where reporters Steve, Carol, and others eagerly await. Steve awkwardly apologizes for past plane seating gripes, but C.J. tersely dismisses …
The White House hums with a frantic, controlled chaos as the MS leak's political fallout looms large. C.J. Cregg, a whirlwind of controlled urgency, fields press inquiries on the escalating Haitian crisis, her voice a steel-edged shield against probing questions. A sudden, exasperating discovery of asbestos in the East Room forces a last-minute scramble for a new press conference venue, a logistical nightmare adding to the mounting pressure. In the Oval Office, Leo McGarry and his advisors grimly discuss the impending market hemorrhage; Wall Street, they predict, will tremble within hours of the MS story breaking. Bartlet, though physically present, drifts through these discussions, his gaze distant, observing a trivial 'wind tunnel' in the Oval Office, a small detail that betrays his profound internal distraction and melancholy. His mind repeatedly pulls him back to the past, to the formative clashes with Mrs. Landingham. In a flashback, young Jed debates the true meaning of a 'non-denominational' service with her, a subtle yet potent challenge to his ingrained deference to his father's rigid, Protestant-centric world. The presidential motorcade then slices through Washington's streets, a somber procession to the National Cathedral. Inside the limousine, Abbey Bartlet gently probes the void, revealing that party elders are already pushing Hoynes as a potential successor. Bartlet's silent, weary nod speaks volumes, hinting at a profound resignation. As the funeral service begins, Bartlet's mind again retreats, witnessing young Mrs. Landingham on the school grounds, relentlessly prodding him about the blatant injustice of unequal pay for women. These recurring memories deepen the emotional chasm within Bartlet, highlighting the persistent moral challenges Mrs. Landingham always presented, forcing him to confront not just his grief, but his very convictions.
In the soaring Washington National Cathedral, Abbey guides the weary President Bartlet to their front pew as Reverend Monohan ascends the pulpit to intone the Resurrection prayer for Mrs. Landingham. …
As Reverend Monohan delivers the Resurrection prayer amid the cathedral's solemn glow, a grief-stricken President Bartlet stares vacantly ahead, emotionally detaching from the collective mourning of Abbey, Leo, and the …
In the solemn expanse of Washington National Cathedral during Mrs. Landingham's funeral, President Bartlet sits transfixed, his thousand-yard stare piercing the void as the service unfolds. Physically present amid collective …
As President Bartlet remains lost in his detached stare amid the ongoing memorial service, Reverend Monohan solemnly announces the first reading from the Book of Wisdom, Chapter III, to be …
The narrative hurtles towards a devastating emotional and political climax, fueled by Bartlet's raw grief and the relentless echoes of Mrs. Landingham's influence. In a pivotal flashback, young Jed, his car stalled, is confronted by Mrs. Landingham, who wields 'numbers' like weapons, exposing the stark reality of unequal pay. She challenges his passivity, calling him a 'Boy King' and delivering an ultimatum: confront his father about injustice, or she 'doesn't even want to know you.' Jed's subtle, tell-tale gesture—hands in pockets, a fleeting smile—signals his reluctant but firm resolve. In the present, the National Cathedral funeral unfolds with a heavy solemnity. Toby, Sam, Josh, and Charlie bear Mrs. Landingham's casket, their faces etched with grief, as Bartlet remains lost in a profound, internal struggle. Once the cathedral empties, Bartlet unleashes a furious, Latin-laced tirade at the altar, his fists clenched, his voice raw with betrayal. He accuses God of vindictiveness, citing Mrs. Landingham's death, Josh's shooting, and the sinking of his tender ship as cruel 'warning shots.' Grinding a cigarette under his heel, he defiantly declares, 'You get Hoynes!', a shattering pronouncement that he will not seek reelection. Back at the White House, the staff grapples with this devastating news. Sam, his anger barely contained, demands they explore calling off the press conference. Toby, meanwhile, is blindsided by an offer from Greg Summerhays to become news director for a new cable channel—Leo's 'lifeboat,' a stark confirmation of Bartlet's perceived political demise. Toby's fury erupts, but Josh, his voice quiet with resignation, delivers the final gut-punch: Leo's call confirms 'Answer B'—Bartlet is out. The weight of this decision hangs heavy, a shroud over the White House, signaling the apparent end of an era.
In Toby's office, exhausted senior staff—C.J., Sam, Toby, and Josh—debate press conference responses to Bartlet's reelection amid grief over Landingham's death and MS fallout. C.J. pitches bold 'Answer A' affirming …
In the tense atmosphere of Toby's office, drained by grief over Mrs. Landingham and the MS crisis, Sam erupts in frustration, pacing and yelling that they must explore canceling the …
As the senior staff meeting dissolves in tension, Ginger announces Toby's meeting with Greg Summerhays, who enters offering brief condolences for Mrs. Landingham's death. Cutting to the chase, Summerhays pitches …
In the tense Communications Office, multiple TVs broadcast a live report on President Bartlet's press conference, relocated to the State Department due to East Room repairs. Ominous roaring thunder amplifies …
As the Communications Office TVs blare the fumbled, thunderous broadcast hyping Bartlet's State Department press conference, the scene executes a stark 'CUT TO:', violently severing the moment without resolution. This …
In Leo's office amid pounding rain, a grieving President Bartlet summons Donna to dissect the freak tropical storm battering Washington in May, which she confirms via NOAA has never struck …
In Leo's office amid raging thunder, C.J. urgently preps a grieving, scoffing President Bartlet for his high-stakes press conference, insisting he call first on Lawrence Altman—front row, first seat on …
Amid thunderous storm chaos mirroring his turmoil, President Bartlet calls desperately for his late secretary Mrs. Landingham as wind blasts open the veranda door. Her resolute apparition enters, gently chiding …
In the storm-lashed Oval Office, a hallucinated Mrs. Landingham materializes, confronting Bartlet's grief-stricken self-pity over his concealed MS diagnosis and party disloyalty. Dismissing excuses with biting wit, she refuses to …
As night falls, a storm rages outside, mirroring the tempest within the White House. News reports blare Bartlet's startling MS admission, setting the stage for the imminent press conference. Leo McGarry, ever the loyal chief, attempts to offer solace, revealing he secured Toby a 'lifeboat'—a job offer—a grim contingency for Bartlet's expected withdrawal. Donna Moss, meanwhile, presents Bartlet with anomalous weather statistics, a May tropical storm defying all historical precedent, a detail that resonates with Bartlet's sense of cosmic injustice. C.J. Cregg, ever the pragmatist, meticulously preps Bartlet for the press conference, drilling him on calling Lawrence Altman first to control the narrative, to buy him time before the inevitable reelection question. But Bartlet's mind again retreats, this time to a painful flashback: young Jed, challenging his father about banned books and non-denominational services, receives a stinging slap, a brutal lesson in the cost of defiance. Back in the present, thunder hurls the veranda doors wide in the Oval Office. Bartlet, in a moment of profound vulnerability, calls out for Mrs. Landingham. She appears, a small, resolute hallucination, brutally dismissing his self-pity. She counters his grief with a torrent of devastating statistics—44 million uninsured, homicide as the leading cause of death for young black men, 13 million children in poverty, crumbling schools—and delivers her final, searing challenge: 'If you don't run 'cause it's too hard... God, Jed, I don't even want to know you.' Her empty chair echoes her words as Bartlet steps into the pouring rain, washing doubt from his face, a baptism of renewed resolve. The stirring chords of 'Brothers in Arms' swell as Bartlet, Leo, Josh, Sam, Toby, and Charlie move with grim determination to the State Department. C.J. fields a frenzy of questions, confirming a looming Special Prosecutor and subpoenas for staff, but Bartlet, soaked and resolute, strides to the podium. He locks eyes on Altman, then, with a sly smile, points to Sandy in the center, a callback to Mrs. Landingham's victory signal. When Sandy asks if he's seeking a second term, Bartlet feigns deafness, then, echoing Mrs. Landingham's gesture—hands in pockets, looking away, a quiet smile—he signals his defiant decision to run, an unbroken leader reclaiming his path amidst the storm.
In a hallucinatory confrontation, President Bartlet passionately pitches school construction funding to the empty chair once occupied by Mrs. Landingham, only for her spectral presence to interrupt, prioritizing the embassy …
Shaken by Mrs. Landingham's departing ultimatum, President Bartlet steps onto the Oval Office veranda, letting the pouring rain symbolically cleanse his grief, doubt, and rage over her death. Charlie interrupts …
C.J. asserts ironclad control over the volatile press room, deftly deflecting probes on congressional hearings by redirecting to Congress itself, her poise a bulwark against chaos. Nodding from Carol cues …
As Bartlet approaches the podium, C.J. whispers a reminder to call on front-row reporter Lawrence Altman, but the President deliberately bypasses him, pointing to Sandy in the center—a calculated snub …
As the press room holds its breath after Sandy repeats her pivotal question on Bartlet's reelection bid, the White House staff—Charlie, C.J., Josh, Sam, Donna, Margaret, Toby, and Leo—watches tensely …