Leo Abruptly Halts Bartlet's NH Filing Trip with U.S.S. Portland Silence
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Leo interrupts Bartlet's departure with urgent news: the U.S.S. Portland, a nuclear submarine, has gone silent off North Korea, forcing Bartlet to cancel his trip.
Bartlet and Leo exchange terse words as the gravity of the submarine's disappearance sinks in, with Bartlet sarcastically agreeing to stay to assess the situation.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Stoic neutrality amid escalating tension
The Secret Service Agent stationed outside the Oval Office opens the glass door as Bartlet prepares to exit for the helicopter, then promptly closes it after Leo's crisis revelation—silent sentinel facilitating the pivot from departure to lockdown without intrusion.
- • Secure Oval Office perimeter during transition
- • Enable seamless access control for executive movements
- • Protocol preserves presidential focus in flux
- • Doors seal command sanctity from external eyes
Amused and relaxed, delighting in banter amid routine duty
Charlie readies Bartlet's departure items in the Oval Office, engaging in light-hearted banter about propeller safety and height jokes, deftly catching the tossed book, affirming the democracy statement, and assisting with the coat—his laughter and retorts punctuating the ritual before crisis erupts.
- • Prepare President for timely New Hampshire trip
- • Maintain playful rapport to ease pre-departure tension
- • Personal rituals like ballot filing embody democratic ideals
- • Humor defuses everyday White House pressures
playful then alarmed and decisive
Banters playfully with Charlie about Marine One propeller safety and height jokes, insists on personally filing the New Hampshire ballot as a profound statement about democracy, throws a book to Charlie, puts on coat preparing to leave, then upon Leo's news sheds coat, cancels trip, and snaps into command mode looking toward the helicopter.
- • Personally file for the New Hampshire ballot to make a profound democratic statement
- • Address the emerging submarine crisis by canceling travel and preparing for response
Grave apprehension veiled by professional steadiness
Leo enters from his office as Bartlet dons coat, queries departure with sarcastic echo of 'profound democracy,' then delivers urgent intel on U.S.S. Portland's radio silence off North Korea despite constant monitoring, advises canceling trip and convening meetings, and commits to staying—his measured tone masking crisis gravity.
- • Halt President's departure to address submarine blackout
- • Reframe personal ritual within military threat context
- • Commander-in-Chief must prioritize national security over campaign optics
- • Submarine silence demands immediate high-level response
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
U.S.S. Portland dominates as Leo's dire revelation—the Sea Wolf-class nuclear sub with 137 crew and classified gear has gone radio silent in North Korean waters despite radar, sonar, and satellite tracking—triggering instant command pivot, its ghostly absence launching the episode's geopolitical thriller spine.
Marine One idles visibly on the portico outside the Oval's glass door, its rotors still and propellers the subject of safety banter; Bartlet's final gaze toward it post-cancellation symbolizes aborted democratic outing, rotors' hush mirroring the sub's silence in narrative irony.
Bartlet removes his glasses at the scene's outset, pressing close to the glass door for an unfiltered crisis stare toward the portico and helicopter—shedding scholarly pretense for raw vigilance, the lenses glinting as a prop marking the shift from banter to peril awareness.
Bartlet hurls the leather-bound New Hampshire ballot filing book through the air to Charlie, who catches it mid-flight; it embodies the 'profound statement about democracy' ritual, transforming playful campaign sacrament into a harbinger tossed aside as submarine news derails the trip.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Viewed from the sunlit portico through Oval glass, it frames the waiting Marine One and chopper rotors central to safety jabs; Bartlet's post-news gaze outward underscores aborted departure, arches' shadows veiling vulnerability as crisis yanks ritual into geopolitical vertigo.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The North Korean Navy looms implicitly as the hostile context for U.S.S. Portland's blackout—Leo's intel pins the sub 'in the waters off North Korea' last heard, heightening peril of detection or pursuit, reframing Oval levity into brinkmanship calculus amid re-election shadows.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The urgent news of the missing submarine compels Albie Duncan to recount past submarine disasters to inform Bartlet's decision-making."
"The urgent news of the missing submarine compels Albie Duncan to recount past submarine disasters to inform Bartlet's decision-making."
"The urgent news of the missing submarine compels Albie Duncan to recount past submarine disasters to inform Bartlet's decision-making."
"Bartlet's humorous banter about traditions persists even amid crisis."
"Bartlet's humorous banter about traditions persists even amid crisis."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"LEO: "Yeah. You can't go.""
"BARTLET: "Why not?""
"LEO: "[pause] We don't have it right now.""
"BARTLET: "What does \"we don't have it\" mean?""
"LEO: "We do not.""
"BARTLET: "Yeah. I think I'll go ahead and cancel that trip, Leo. If only to stick around to see how this sounds worse than it really is.""