Incubator Blackout — Delay for Inauguration
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Andy informs Toby that he needs to provide another sample due to a blackout affecting the incubator at the fertility clinic.
Toby reluctantly agrees to discuss the matter further away from the office, expressing his discomfort with the clinic's procedures.
Andy presses Toby for urgency, emphasizing the timing of the procedure, while Toby insists on waiting until after the inauguration.
Andy concedes to Toby's request to delay the procedure, shifting the conversation to the Rooker nomination.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Pressured and pragmatic; moves from urgency to reluctant concession when sensing Toby's emotional boundary and political reality.
Andy initiates the contact, delivers the urgent news about the incubator blackout, urges immediate compliance because of timing, briefly pushes for today then pragmatically concedes to Toby's request to wait five days.
- • Secure a replacement sperm sample as soon as clinic timing requires
- • Protect the fertility plan from the blackout's consequences
- • Balance personal reproductive needs with Toby's political responsibilities
- • Timing is critical for fertility procedures
- • Toby will comply if she makes the logistical case and presses him
Irritable and embarrassed on the surface; anxious and conflicted beneath — prioritizes career duty to mask vulnerability about fertility.
Toby physically withdraws from the office door to gain privacy, listens to Andy's news, launches into a vivid, mortified description of the clinic experience, refuses immediate compliance, asserts the inauguration's priority, then ends the personal exchange with a terse political announcement.
- • Avoid the humiliating clinic visit now
- • Preserve focus on the imminent inauguration
- • Keep the private fertility struggle from interrupting professional obligations
- • Public duty (the inauguration) must come before personal matters
- • The clinic visit is undignified and can be postponed without fatal consequence
Not present physically in scene; represented as neutral and professional in Toby's story.
The Welsh nurse is invoked in Toby's recollection as the matter-of-fact clinic professional who hands the brown paper bag, instructs him, and neutrally comments 'Very nice,' functioning as the embodiment of clinical routine and Toby's humiliation.
- • Execute clinic procedures efficiently (implied)
- • Maintain patient privacy while performing routine tasks (implied)
- • Procedural consistency is primary in clinic work
- • Patients' discomfort is secondary to clinical process
Not applicable—mentioned as political fact used to reassert priorities.
Cornell Rooker is referenced by Toby as the incoming Attorney General nomination; he is not present but his nomination is used by Toby to pivot the conversation from private crisis back to political business.
- • Serve as a political appointment that secures the administration's law-and-order messaging (implied)
- • Anchor Toby's decision-making by providing political cover (implied)
- • Political appointments are urgent and consequential
- • Personal matters may be subordinated to staffing decisions
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Toby's biological sample is the implicit reason for the emergency: the incubator blackout destroyed the stored specimen, creating the need for an immediate replacement sample and triggering the private-versus-public conflict in the scene.
The Alexandria Clinic incubator is named as the device that lost power for 45 minutes, directly causing the sample's compromise and serving narratively as the technical trigger that forces the personal crisis into the political timeline.
The brown paper bag is invoked in Toby's mortified description: a clinic prop that contained the specimen cup and instructional video and symbolizes the small, humiliating rituals of fertility treatment that Toby wants to avoid during the inauguration week.
The cab to Alexandria is referenced by Andy as the straightforward logistical solution: a short trip to the clinic that would allow Toby to 'be in, be out.' It functions as the practical counterpoint to Toby's emotional objections.
The fertility clinic elevator is cited by Toby as a setting marker that amplifies embarrassment—its signage publicly announces the clinic on the fourth floor, making any rider's trip conspicuous and emotionally fraught, and thus part of his argument to postpone the visit.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Outside the interim office is the immediate setting where Andy corners Toby for a private exchange. The corridor creates a small, semi-public container for intimacy to collide with duty; it frames the argument and Toby's attempt at controlling exposure.
The Alexandria Fertility Clinic's fourth floor is evoked as the public, signposted space that heightens Toby's humiliation — the place you 'get off on the 4th floor' and cannot hide your purpose from other passengers.
The tenth floor is referenced as Andy's location when she first tried contacting Toby; it establishes her initial perspective and the practical chain of events (she was on the tenth floor when she learned of the clinic issue).
The sperm donation room is referenced indirectly as the private, clinical space Toby is directed to; it's the locus of the humiliating act he describes and therefore central to his refusal.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Alexandria Fertility Clinic provides the institutional context for the crisis: its incubator failure triggers the need for another sample, and its routine procedures (nurse, bag, room) become a storytelling device that exposes personal shame and timing conflicts for political life.
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
"ANDY: They need another sample."
"TOBY: It's January 15th, Andy. I can't have a baby today. He's getting sworn in five days. I'm not saying never. I'm saying, can we wait five days?"
"TOBY: Rooker's going to be the AG."