Toby Chooses the Swearing‑In — Rooker Named AG
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Toby reveals that Rooker is going to be the Attorney General, concluding the conversation.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Urgent but controlled; she prioritizes the medical timing while remaining willing to accept Toby's limits, revealing both determination and concession.
Andy arrives having tried to reach Toby, calmly but urgently requests an immediate sample because the incubator lost power, presses timing constraints, then concedes when Toby insists on a five-day delay.
- • Secure another viable sample quickly to preserve fertility timing
- • Communicate urgency without derailing the pre-inaugural workflow
- • Protect the couple's medical prospects while navigating political realities
- • Timing matters materially for fertility procedures
- • They can fit medical needs around political constraints if Toby cooperates
- • Toby's embarrassment is surmountable and shouldn't override clinical necessity
Neutral professional (as described by Toby); functions as a source of Toby's embarrassment rather than an active emotional actor in the scene.
Referenced in Toby's description as the clinic attendant who hands patients a brown paper bag with a specimen cup and an instructional video — part of the humiliating tableau Toby imagines, though she is not physically present in the corridor.
- • Perform routine clinical duties efficiently
- • Maintain patient discretion and procedure
- • Clinic procedures are standardized and neutral
- • Patients' discomfort is part of routine operations
Irritable and anxious, masking embarrassment with brusque pragmatism; anger briefly surfaces when private requests threaten public obligations.
Toby physically withdraws from the idea of returning to the fertility clinic, recounts humiliating procedural details, refuses immediate compliance, snaps about timing, then abruptly announces Rooker's appointment and walks back toward the offices.
- • Avoid the humiliating clinic visit right before inauguration
- • Preserve focus and political stability for the incoming presidency
- • De-escalate immediate personal pressure so he can return to professional duties
- • The inauguration and national/political obligations outrank personal scheduling
- • Public exposure of private acts would be humiliating and potentially harmful
- • Personnel clarity (naming AG) will stabilize the campaign/administration
Not present; invoked as a tool whose selection provides immediate narrative resolution.
Mentioned only — Toby names Cornell Rooker as his choice for Attorney General, using Rooker's selection as a rhetorical endpoint to the personal exchange and as a political move to reorient the conversation.
- • Serve as a decisively named candidate to quiet controversy
- • Absorb political pressure away from the administration
- • Naming personnel will restore focus and control
- • Personnel decisions can be used to end personal disputes by redirecting attention
Not present; imagined scrutiny that heightens Toby's embarrassment.
Referenced by Toby as 'other elevator passengers' whose potential to read signage amplifies his shame; they are not present but figure in Toby's imagined humiliation.
- • No explicit goals; function narratively as social witnesses
- • Serve as imagined catalysts for Toby's desire for privacy
- • Public perception matters
- • Being seen at a fertility clinic invites judgment
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Toby's biological sample is the implicit catalyst of the exchange: Andy needs a replacement because the stored sample was destroyed by a clinic incubator blackout. The loss creates the urgent medical demand that intrudes on political timing and personal privacy.
The incubator at Alexandria is described as having lost power for 45 minutes, thereby destroying stored samples. It functions narratively as the external mechanical failure that forces the private crisis into the political timeline.
The brown paper bag is invoked in Toby's humiliating inventory of the clinic ritual; it contains the specimen cup and video and symbolizes the mundane, demeaning choreography of the donation process.
The cab is referenced as the literal transport Andy suggests for the quick clinic run — narratively it represents the supposed simplicity Toby rejects and the real-world logistics that clash with his embarrassment.
The fertility clinic elevator is referenced as the public vector of embarrassment — signage on the doors marks the fourth floor and exposes riders to potential recognition, which Toby dramatizes to justify avoiding the trip.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The narrow corridor outside the interim office is the immediate, semi-private setting where Andy confronts Toby. It frames their intimate/political clash — close enough for hush but public enough that Toby redirects to professional business to end the argument.
The Alexandria Fertility Clinic fourth floor is evoked as the scene of the blackout and the social exposure Toby fears. It provides the concrete logistics — elevator signage, a donation room, and staff — that make the task objectionable to Toby.
The tenth floor is referenced to indicate where Andy was when she couldn't reach Toby and from where she learned of the clinic blackout; it situates her as coming from a more removed, administrative vantage.
The sperm donation room is mentioned as the humiliating destination Toby avoids; its name is withheld by Toby, making it a shame-laden space that anchors his reluctance to return.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Alexandria Fertility Clinic is the institutional cause of the scene's private emergency: its incubator blackout destroyed stored samples and forced Andy to seek an immediate replacement. It appears as an impersonal but consequential organization whose technical failure intrudes on the protagonists' lives.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
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Key Dialogue
"ANDY: Yeah. I couldn't get you on your phone and I was on the tenth floor. 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."