Toby Fires the Speechwriters; Will Is Thrown to the Interns
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Will discovers the speechwriting staff is missing and questions Toby about their absence.
Toby reveals he fired the entire speechwriting staff, leaving Will to rely on interns.
Will confronts Toby about the real reason behind the staff's departure, suspecting it was due to him.
Will accepts the challenge and prepares to lead the interns, ending the conversation with Toby.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Neutral, attentive; evaluating the optics and fallout while deferring to Toby's decisiveness.
Sits beside Toby in the limousine as a quiet observer; she does not speak in this exchange but her presence frames the conversation as official and consequential.
- • Monitor the conversation for operational implications.
- • Be prepared to manage media or logistics consequences from the staffing shift.
- • Staffing decisions have immediate messaging and operational consequences.
- • Toby's judgment on communications matters carries weight and will shape next steps.
Curt, controlled; mildly irritated but purposeful — using bluntness to manufacture accountability and force a test on Will.
On the phone in the limousine, Toby delivers the dismissal bluntly, justifies it by citing attitude and incompetence, instructs Will to manage the interns, and ends the call promising to follow up.
- • Remove staff he judges as a liability to messaging and discipline.
- • Force Will into a leadership position to spur competence or expose weakness.
- • Reassert standards and control over speech output.
- • A workforce with a bad attitude undermines product and must be removed.
- • Will needs to be tested and cannot be coddled into leadership.
- • Immediate action (firing) is preferable to slow incremental fixes.
Off-stage consequence: removed, possibly resentful or validated in leaving, but not present to argue.
Absent from the scene — their collective quitting/firing is the catalytic absence that propels the exchange; they are discussed and judged but do not appear.
- • Exit an environment where they felt undervalued or constrained (inferred).
- • Avoid further conflict with senior communications leadership (inferred).
- • Their work or attitude was incompatible with leadership expectations (per Toby).
- • Departing was preferable to continuing under current conditions (inferred).
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
A phone call carries the decisive information: Toby uses the handset to convey the mass dismissal and to delegate responsibility to Will. The device functions as the vector of authority, transferring the personnel decision and its consequences instantly across distance.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The interns' cramped workroom becomes the immediate arena for Will's new responsibility. After the phone call, Will walks into this fluorescent-lit, crowded space where the interns (the Robert Palmer girls) await direction, converting it from an informal office into a sudden proving ground.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The speechwriting interns are left as the operational core after the professional staff depart. They are the practical stopgap — present, inexperienced, and directly tasked by Will to maintain output, making them the narrative vehicle through which Will's competence will be tested.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Toby's firing of the speechwriting staff forces Will to manage inexperienced interns, showcasing his struggle and growth in leadership."
"Toby's firing of the speechwriting staff forces Will to manage inexperienced interns, showcasing his struggle and growth in leadership."
Key Dialogue
"WILL: "I was just starting the staff meeting, and there's no staff.""
"TOBY: "I was thinking about what you said this morning, and I think they have a bad attitude. Also, they're pretty bad at their jobs.""
"WILL: "That isn't a staff, Toby. Those are the Robert Palmer girls.""