The Lottery Number
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Toby enters Richardson's office and delivers the White House's position on the draft, offering a statement from C.J. in exchange for Black Caucus support.
Richardson challenges Toby on the draft's historical inequities, emphasizing how wealth has always influenced wartime service.
Toby reveals his personal connection to the draft, admitting his low lottery number and lack of funds to buy his way out.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Their anticipated grief looms, turning the negotiation into an ethical as well as political moment.
The parents of Gunnery Sergeant Harold Dokes are referenced specifically as the people Richardson intends to call; they function as the human endpoint of the policy consequences being debated.
- • Learn the circumstances of their son's death
- • Receive official acknowledgement and support
- • They deserve direct notification from elected officials
- • Personal loss should influence policy responses
Not present, but her role as spokeswoman embodies the administration's willingness to trade public posture for votes.
C.J. is cited as the planned speaker who would deliver the White House statement from the podium; she is the transactional asset Toby offers in the negotiation.
- • Deliver the White House's official messaging effectively
- • Protect the President's policy line while executing administration strategy
- • Public statements can be calibrated to achieve political outcomes
- • Her podium is a valuable commodity in negotiations
Guarded professionalism that fractures into candid vulnerability; remorse and a desire to be morally present override pure political calculation.
Toby arrives offering the White House's scripted trade, speaks in formal, defensive language, admits his draft lottery number without theatricality, requests to remain in the room while Richardson calls the family, and stands visibly exposed.
- • Secure Black Caucus votes for the Kuhndu peacekeeping appropriation
- • Protect the President's public position while preserving working relationships with Richardson
- • Be present during the notification to demonstrate personal accountability
- • The administration must protect its policy positions but can trade messaging to secure votes
- • Personal disclosure can humanize and defuse political confrontation
- • He personally bears some moral weight from having been subject to the draft system
Absent in person, his policy stance provides a calm institutional anchor; the weight of the presidency presses on those making trade-offs.
President Bartlet is referenced indirectly by Toby as the authority whose policy (not reinstating the draft) frames the offer; his position is the institutional constraint around which Toby negotiates.
- • Maintain administration policy against reinstating the draft
- • Secure necessary legislative support without altering core presidential commitments
- • Reinstating the draft is politically and morally unacceptable as policy
- • Public messaging can be used to make political compromises without changing core policy
Absent but present: their expected anguish casts a pall over the negotiation, converting abstract policy into human suffering.
The Dokes family are not on-screen but are explicitly invoked as the imminent recipients of Richardson's call; their impending grief shapes the tenor and stakes of the conversation.
- • Receive notification and information about their son
- • Seek accountability or explanation for the death
- • They will want clarity and compassion in the call
- • Their personal loss will have political consequences
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The White House press-room podium is invoked as the tangible bargaining chip: C.J.'s planned statement from that podium is the currency offered to secure Black Caucus votes. As a public platform it represents institutional voice and symbolic capitulation.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Kuhndu is the distant conflict zone being negotiated over; it is the substantive reason behind the legislative trade, and the site of the friendly-fire deaths that give the discussion moral urgency.
Mark Richardson's office is the private, late-night setting where the formal bargaining gives way to intimate moral accounting. Its domestic, lamplit atmosphere and silence allow personal disclosure and a phone call to a grieving family to unfold away from public scrutiny.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Congressional Black Caucus is the bargaining collective whose votes are being courted; its leverage forces the White House to consider trading public messaging for legislative support. The group functions as a cohesive political actor representing constituencies that connect racial and class grievances to policy demands.
The White House is the negotiating institution offering public messaging (via C.J.) as a resource. It frames policy (no draft reinstatement) while using strategic communications to secure legislative goals, balancing institutional policy against the political need for votes.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"TOBY: "The President does not think we shoud reinstate the draft nor does he intend to do so, but he respects Chairman Richardson as a leader in the Congress, and he's eager to hear what he has to say and to engage in thorough debate.""
"RICHARDSON: "If you have money, you have a greater life expectancy across the board. You're going to have better health care, better shelter, better lawyers, and if you've got whatever equivalent of today's $300 is, you get to be united behind the war effort without actually fighting the war.""
"RICHARDSON: "What was your lottery number?" TOBY: "125. It was the last six months of the draft. It went up to 90 that year... but I didn't have the 300 bucks.""