Banana Banter and the Drawer: Bartlet Shelves the Sex‑Ed Report
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet playfully confronts Mrs. Landingham about being denied a banana, revealing their familiar, slightly contentious dynamic.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Torn and frustrated: professionally dutiful but morally aggrieved; she masks anger with civility as she negotiates the President's order.
C.J. enters assertively, presses the ethical obligation to publish the commissioned report, lays out its scientific findings, and reluctantly accepts the President's directive while registering private disappointment and moral unease.
- • Advance the administration's commitment to truth and the report's publication
- • Use the White House pulpit to educate and influence public behavior
- • Preserve her professional integrity while maintaining access and influence
- • The public deserves the factual findings the administration commissioned
- • Withholding scientific information for political reasons is ethically problematic
- • The White House has both a platform and responsibility to lead on public health
Calm, pragmatic exterior with an undercurrent of regret — resolute in the political choice but aware of its moral cost.
President Bartlet moves from a light, domestic exchange into solemn executive calculation: he crosses into the Oval, sits at his desk, weighs C.J.'s moral argument, and orders the report be put away to protect personnel and political viability.
- • Protect Leo McGarry and the administration from political damage
- • Preserve presidential and party standing through the midterms
- • Control the timing and tone of sensitive disclosures
- • Immediate disclosure of the report will cause political harm that outweighs short‑term transparency
- • Personnel and institutional stability are worth tactical compromises
- • The White House must manage facts for strategic advantage
Matter‑of‑fact and slightly amused; she is neither sentimental nor indulgent, exercising household authority with plainness rather than malice.
Mrs. Landingham performs a brisk, domestic corrective: she withholds a banana as a small sanction for the President's earlier snippiness, delivering a maternal rebuke that punctures formality and sets a surprisingly moralized tone for the ensuing political decision.
- • Correct the President's behavior when he is 'snippy'
- • Maintain household/orderly decorum around the President
- • Signal consequences for temperament even within intimate staff relationships
- • Small domestic discipline can check the President's behavior
- • Staff have a duty to call out the President when necessary
- • Personal behavior matters and should be met with practical consequence
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
President Bartlet's metal‑rim reading glasses serve as a small but meaningful beat: he removes them at the end of the exchange, a tactile punctuation that signals reflection, the emotional weight of the decision, and a shift from conversational banter to somber resolve.
The printed sex‑education report functions as the catalytic object of the scene: its findings force a moral-versus-political decision. Bartlet labels it 'incendiary,' C.J. pleads for its publication, and Bartlet orders it effectively mothballed (put in a drawer and rhetorically 'thrown out with the trash'), turning paper into a pawn in personnel protection.
C.J.'s Desk Salad is a quiet domestic prop that frames the late-hour, human quality of the staff's work life; it underscores that ordinary, petty moments (like a withheld banana) coexist with grave policy choices, adding texture and normalcy to the Oval's drama.
The 'Metaphorical Trash' is invoked when Bartlet instructs staff to 'throw it out with the trash.' It operates as a rhetorical object: a verbal container for discarding the story publicly while retaining it privately, signaling an administrative choice to minimize attention rather than fully transparent disclosure.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Oval Office is the decision battleground: lamplight and desk produce a concentrated, ceremonial space where the President converts staff arguments and political constraints into an executive communication choice. The room's gravitas turns an ethical argument into an institutional decision with national consequence.
The Outer Oval Office acts as the domestic threshold where Landingham exerts maternal authority and the President receives small personal corrections. It stages the switch from private household dynamics to formal presidential business, compressing banter and reprimand before the policy confrontation.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The sex-ed report's controversial findings lead directly to the decision to shelve it for political expediency."
"The sex-ed report's controversial findings lead directly to the decision to shelve it for political expediency."
"Bruno's political threat directly results in the report being shelved to protect Leo."
"Bartlet's protective loyalty to Leo remains consistent across both moments."
"Bartlet's protective loyalty to Leo remains consistent across both moments."
"Bartlet's protective loyalty to Leo remains consistent across both moments."
"The 'Take Out The Trash' strategy becomes literally enacted with the sex-ed report."
"The 'Take Out The Trash' strategy becomes literally enacted with the sex-ed report."
"Both moments force C.J. to choose between morality and political necessity."
"Both moments force C.J. to choose between morality and political necessity."
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET: You're not going to believe this but I think I'd actually like a banana."
"C.J.: We commissioned this report, Mr. President. These people are doctors; we asked them a question. How can we put it in a drawer just cause we don't think people are going to like the answer?"
"BARTLET: I needed to get Leo off the hook, C.J."
"C.J.: Mr. President? We could all be better teachers."