Inauguration Part I
President Bartlet rushes to finalize an inaugural address that proposes a new foreign-policy doctrine while staffers battle leaks, interagency friction, and a mounting genocide in the Republic of Equatorial Khundu, risking political fallout and thousands of lives.
On the day of his inauguration and in the week leading up to it, President Josiah Bartlet and his senior staff confront the collision of ceremonial detail, rhetorical ambition, and an escalating humanitarian catastrophe. The episode opens with last-minute logistical absurdities—the right Bible, the order of inaugural balls, and prompter cues—while a leak reveals a restatement of foreign objectives that already stirs curiosity on the Hill and in Washington press rooms. Bartlet jests about a missing Bible and tolerates staff nerves, but the mood shifts as intelligence arrives about mass killings in the Republic of Equatorial Khundu.
Six days before the inauguration the White House moves into emergency mode. A sketchy security cable reports violence in Bitanga; Leo McGarry, Bob Slattery, and the National Security team brief the President that government forces led by the Arkutu have slaughtered civilians, putting roughly 500 American missionaries at risk. Clerical figures at a White House prayer breakfast press Bartlet on intervention; Archbishop Zake Kintaka argues that thousands of Khundunese children face death if the U.S. does not act. C.J. delivers rising casualty estimates in the press briefing—15,000 and then 25,000—forcing a moral and policy dilemma onto an administration already occupied with the inauguration.
Behind the scenes, the administration fights over language and authority. Toby Ziegler, Will Bailey (a three-week contract speechwriter), and State Department Public Affairs (Bryce Lilly) spar over foreign-policy copy. The State text reads like established diplomacy; Will and Toby push for bolder rhetoric—language that would expand the definition of America’s “vital interests” and propose a new doctrine for use of force. Toby warns that drafting such a doctrine without full interagency consultation risks creating policy by speech. Will, energetic and provocative, presses for moral clarity, quoting an old Bartlet floor speech that asks why a Khundunese life should count for less than an American life. The exchanges highlight a core tension: the rhetorical desire to define American purpose versus the operational and congressional limits on using force.
Concurrently, Bartlet orders a forced-depletion study to estimate casualties if the U.S. commits a peacekeeping force to Khundu. Jack Reese, an aide at the Pentagon, produces a report indicating that engagement would cost U.S. lives—Leo and Bartlet use the report to gauge consequences, while press leaks and Pentagon politics complicate the public narrative. Miles Hutchinson at Defense bristles at how quickly numbers and reports have moved outside normal channels; the Wall Street Journal and other outlets inflate early casualty estimates, and interagency friction intensifies as State, the NSC, and the Pentagon jockey for control of both policy and messaging.
Personal and institutional details thread through the crisis. Bartlet wrestles with symbolic acts—what Bible to be sworn on, family history, and the ceremonial script—while trying to preserve moral urgency in his speech. Charlie and others scramble for a usable Bible, confronting archival restrictions and absurdly large historical volumes. Josh Lyman manages angry calls from Congressional aides and copes with the transfer and reassignment of people like Jack Reese, whose reassignment to Aviano Air Base raises questions among staff and loved ones. C.J. balances national press briefings with private hesitation; she deflects Danny’s personal advances and then returns to the podium to face hard questions about whether the administration will call Khundu a genocide.
The episode closes without resolution: staffers refine speech language, Will and Toby trade barbs and shared convictions, Leo wrestles with intelligence and politics, and Bartlet confronts the human meaning of the doctrine he might announce. Graphic footage of slaughter on television underscores the stakes. The inauguration’s theatrical demands—phrases, prompter cues, and ceremonial bibles—sit uneasily beside the possibility of committing U.S. forces to stop mass killings. The plot leaves the administration at a crossroads: deliver an inaugural doctrine that could redefine American intervention or hold to narrower language constrained by interagency checks and potential political blowback, all while thousands of Khundunese lives hang in the balance.
The episode interrogates leadership under pressure: it examines how rhetoric becomes policy, how bureaucracy shapes moral response, and how the private routines of governance—the right word on the prompter, the right Bible—intersect with decisions that cost lives. Characters reveal priorities and limits: Bartlet’s rhetorical impulse and moral unease, Toby’s process-driven caution, Will’s moral zeal, Leo’s management of interagency frictions, and C.J.’s balancing of the personal with the public. The narrative sets up a consequential dilemma for the administration to resolve at the inauguration and beyond.
Events in This Episode
The narrative beats that drive the story
On Inauguration Day, President Bartlet navigates last-minute ceremonial absurdities, including staff debates over inaugural ball order and a missing Bible. Simultaneously, a leak reveals his intention to propose a significant shift in foreign policy, sparking immediate concern from Josh Lyman and congressional leaders like Senator Beckwith and O'Donell. Leo McGarry informs Josh about a "Forced Depletion Report" on Khundu, hinting at an escalating crisis. Bartlet dismisses the political anxieties, focusing instead on the triviality of the missing Bible, which Charlie eventually procures from "Donnie's Motel." This segment juxtaposes the grand spectacle of the inauguration with the quiet anxieties of a looming foreign policy shift and a nascent humanitarian crisis, establishing the episode's core tension between ceremony and substance, rhetoric and reality. The teaser quickly introduces the central conflicts: the controversial new foreign policy doctrine, the emerging crisis in Khundu, and the bureaucratic and political resistance Bartlet faces. It sets a tone of controlled chaos, where the mundane and the monumental collide, leaving the audience with a sense of anticipation for the challenges ahead. The President's initial lightheartedness about the ceremonial details contrasts sharply with the underlying gravity of the leaked foreign policy intentions and the first whispers of the Khundu crisis, effectively setting up the dual narrative tracks that will define the episode.
On inauguration day Bartlet deflects staff arguments over the engineered order of the inaugural balls — insisting it be an unmanufactured, joyful evening — while C.J. steals a private, grounding …
On the morning of the inauguration the President's world narrows to two brutal facts: his bold foreign-policy restatement has leaked and a covert 'forced depletion' inquiry into mass atrocities in …
On Inauguration Day, amid a leaked foreign-policy doctrine and an escalating humanitarian catastrophe in Khundu, President Bartlet confronts a petty but pointed crisis: he has no Bible to swear on. …
In a brisk Oval Office morning, Bartlet toggles between the intimacy of inaugural ritual and the exigency of foreign policy. He asks for the foreign‑policy text on the prompter, derides …
President Bartlet rejects the State Department's cautious inaugural phrasing and pushes for a clear, morally freighted foreign‑policy doctrine while morning levity (a poetic Chief Justice, a missing Washington Bible) punctuates …
Toby discovers—and amuses himself by pointing out—that the Chief Justice's dissent is written in trochaic tetrameter, prompting a bemused Oval Office riff. The moment functions as comic relief but also …
Leo interrupts the Oval Office rehearsal with a terse security briefing: government forces in the Republic of Equatorial Khundu have massacred civilians in Bitanga and as many as 200 Induye, …
A small, domestic moment—Donna delivers inaugural ball tickets and playfully catalogs Jack Reese's ornate uniform—quickly pivots into a political beat when State Department callers surface about changes to foreign policy …
A light, humanizing moment — Donna delivers inaugural tickets and riffs on Jack Reese's ornate uniform — abruptly pivots into political triage. When Donna reports calls from the State Department, …
Six days before the inauguration, Bartlet, C.J., Toby, and new speechwriter Will Bailey rehearse the inaugural address, with Bartlet expressing dissatisfaction over the State Department's cautious foreign policy language. Toby assigns Will to revise the language, setting up a clash with State Department protocol. Leo briefs Bartlet on initial reports of escalating violence in the Republic of Equatorial Khundu, where Arkutu government forces have killed 200 Induye, endangering 500 American missionaries. Bartlet's attempts to secure a personal Bible for the ceremony are thwarted by archival restrictions, highlighting a recurring minor comedic thread against the backdrop of serious events. At a White House prayer breakfast, Archbishop Zake Kintaka directly challenges Bartlet, accusing the U.S. of racial bias in its intelligence gathering regarding Khundu and emphasizing the moral imperative to intervene as thousands of Khundunese children face slaughter. This emotional appeal elevates the Khundu situation from a distant conflict to an urgent moral dilemma, compelling Bartlet to acknowledge the disparity in response compared to a European crisis. The act concludes with the stark reality of mass violence, pushing the administration toward a more active consideration of the crisis and underscoring the moral weight of the decisions ahead, intertwining the personal and political stakes.
A small, domestic quarrel over the Bartlet family Bible exposes Bartlet's private need for ritual even as the world burns. Charlie informs the President that the New Hampshire Historical Society …
While fending off a petty but personal obstacle—New Hampshire's refusal to loan the Bartlet family Bible for the inauguration—President Bartlet's private ritual is abruptly overshadowed by news of a mass …
C.J. stages a deliberately light press briefing — deflecting a pointed question with a Smothers Brothers quip and turning an oath question into a joke to control optics and ease …
After a lighthearted press exchange, C.J. is intercepted by Carol and confronted—unexpectedly—by Danny, who has been shadowing her. He reveals a troubling new lead: his "signal agent," nicknamed the "cricket," …
Will Bailey, a three-week contract speechwriter, engages in a tense confrontation with Bryce Lilly, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs. Will challenges State's cautious foreign policy language, advocating for a "broader definition of vital interests" that extends beyond traditional diplomacy, much to Lilly's condescending amusement and frustration. Will and Toby decide to abandon State's draft, committing to write their own, bolder language. Meanwhile, Bartlet's ongoing quest for a suitable Bible continues to be complicated, as his family Bible is deemed too fragile for public use. The Khundu crisis escalates significantly as C.J. announces revised casualty estimates, rising from 3,000-7,000 to 15,000 dead. Donna's observations hint at Jack Reese's secret work on a military report, connecting the Pentagon to the unfolding crisis. Bartlet, responding to the growing humanitarian catastrophe and the Archbishop's earlier challenge, orders a "forced depletion report" from Jack Reese, bypassing Secretary Hutchinson, to assess potential U.S. casualties in a peacekeeping mission in Khundu. Leo and Bartlet review the initial findings, confirming that U.S. lives would be lost in an intervention, solidifying the personal and political stakes. This act intensifies the policy debate and the humanitarian crisis, moving the administration closer to a decision on military intervention while revealing the internal power struggles.
At a tense White House press briefing C.J. attempts to control the public frame — even opening with the pronunciation of "Khundu" — as reporters force the administration to confront …
During a terse White House press briefing, Danny breaks the room open with a grisly eyewitness report: an Arkutu-directed mob butchered roughly 800 Induye who had been given refuge in …
In the Oval, a small domestic moment — Bartlet changing his mind about an inaugural Bible — is abruptly overshadowed by harsh policy reality. Leo brings up an oddly poetic …
In the Oval Office Bartlet abruptly changes his mind about which Bible to use for the inauguration, asking Charlie to fetch the Jonathan Edwards Bible from Northampton, Massachusetts — a …
Will consults his sister Elsie to map President Bartlet's unconventional legal instincts and rhetorical tendencies so he can capture the President's voice for an urgent inaugural address. Toby barges in …
An intern delivers a previously stricken Bartlet foreign-policy speech to Will, who has been obsessively studying the President's voice. The document—removed from the Congressional Record at the President's request—constitutes a …
Will Bailey presents Toby Ziegler with a powerful, previously stricken Bartlet floor speech from 16 years prior, advocating for a new doctrine of force based on American values, not just interests, and explicitly including military intervention when necessary. Toby vehemently resists, warning that Will is attempting to "create foreign policy by ourselves" without interagency consultation, likening the proposed doctrine to "Mother Theresa with first-strike capabilities." Bartlet's search for an inaugural Bible continues to be a comedic, yet persistent, subplot, as he rejects an impossibly large historical volume. In the Situation Room, Leo McGarry confronts Miles Hutchinson, Secretary of Defense, over the leaked and inflated casualty estimates from the "forced depletion report." Leo reveals the true estimate of 150 U.S. casualties, accusing Hutchinson of deliberate obstruction and political maneuvering, highlighting the intense interagency friction and the Pentagon's resistance to Bartlet's proactive stance on Khundu. Bartlet later discusses Will's "ballsy" use of his old speech, acknowledging the moral weight of the question, "Why is a Khundunese life worth less to me than an American life?" This act sharply delineates the ideological battle within the administration over the scope of American power and the moral imperative to intervene, setting the stage for a critical decision and revealing the deep divisions within the government.
Will reads aloud a long-stricken Bartlet passage that reframes U.S. action around values rather than narrow interests. Toby recognizes the language as a 16-year-old Bartlet draft and warns there was …
In Toby's office Will reads a values-driven foreign policy—language drawn from a struck Bartlet speech—and a charged argument erupts over authorship, authority, and consequences. Toby reacts like a guardian of …
A rapid situation briefing gives way to a private, explosive confrontation over Khundu. After quick updates — Predator testing in Korea, Basque plots in Spain, a Lithuania/Belarus border spat — …
In the Situation Room's quiet after a global briefing, Leo pulls Secretary Miles Hutchinson aside and forces a raw truth into the open: the Pentagon's internal 'forced depletion' shows roughly …
President Bartlet bursts into Will's office with a teasing, disarming tone that briefly undercuts the day's gravity. When Will deflects with wit, Bartlet presses until Will admits, quietly and unexpectedly, …
President Bartlet bursts into Will's office with conversational levity that quickly collapses into moral seriousness as he reads Will's draft inaugural. Confronting the speech's interventionist language, Bartlet reframes policy as …
In Will's office, Bartlet reads the draft of a newly aggressive inaugural doctrine and transforms a policy debate into a moral provocation: "Why is a Khundunese life worth less to …
President Bartlet drops into Will's office to read the fledgling inaugural draft, interrogates the moral logic behind a proposed foreign‑policy doctrine, and then abruptly leaves the exchange unresolved. The beat …
C.J. Cregg navigates her complex personal relationship with Danny Concannon, playfully rebuffing his romantic advances while maintaining her professional boundaries, a brief moment of levity before the escalating crisis. She then returns to the press briefing, announcing a horrifying new estimate of 25,000 dead in Khundu and facing direct questions about whether the administration will label the situation a "genocide." In the Oval Office, Bartlet learns of the increasingly dire situation in Khundu, with reports of "neighbors swapping family members," a euphemism for forced rape. Josh Lyman, grappling with the political fallout, informs Bartlet of the State Department's concerns about the foreign policy rewrite, emphasizing the need for interagency vetting. The consequences of Bartlet's bypass of the Pentagon become clear when Donna reveals that Jack Reese has been abruptly reassigned to Aviano Air Base, a direct punishment for his role in the secret forced depletion report. This transfer underscores the severe internal political cost of the President's attempts to gather independent intelligence and consider military options. The act culminates in Josh's visceral reaction to graphic television footage of slain children and piled bodies in Khundu, forcing him to confront the brutal reality of the atrocities. He explains the horrific meaning of "swapping family members" to Charlie, cementing the moral urgency of intervention. The episode concludes with the administration at a critical juncture, facing immense pressure to act against a backdrop of escalating horror and internal political strife, with the inauguration and its defining speech just days away, leaving the central dilemma unresolved.
A PA announcement from Carol snaps the West Wing from informal chatter into official business, underscoring the day's high stakes. In the hallway C.J. and Danny drift into a charged, …
In the narrow privacy of a copier room, C.J. and Danny move from professional banter to a charged, almost-sexual confession. C.J. turns out the lights, names a three-year ache, teases …
What begins as a perfunctory run-through of global niceties — a child-king in Bhutan, a detained ship — detonates when intelligence officers report systematic atrocities in the Republic of Equatorial …
During a Roosevelt Room briefing and its immediate fallout, intelligence officer Clark uses the euphemism "swapping family members," a phrase that President Bartlet repeats and forces into plain English for …
A rapid-fire pivot from routine foreign-update to political crisis: Bartlet receives bleak intelligence (the euphemism “swapping family members”) and then moves to contain bureaucratic blowback. Josh tells the President that …