Leo Endorses Toby's UN Speech but Probes Strained Iowa Talk with Bartlet
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Leo interrupts Toby's pacing, highlighting the tension between them as they discuss the UN speech.
Toby defends the UN speech's bold rhetoric, revealing his unyielding stance on the administration's foreign policy.
Leo probes Toby about a personal conversation with President Bartlet after the Iowa Caucus, hinting at unresolved tension.
Toby evades Leo's questions about his conversation with Bartlet, deepening the mystery around their strained relationship.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Anticipated anger over Toby's provocative rhetoric.
Referenced teasingly by Leo as Toby's 'wife' (corrected to ex-wife) who will react strongly against the speech's boldness.
- • Challenge the speech's content ideologically
- • Highlight personal-professional tensions with Toby
- • Toby's bold language invites unnecessary backlash
- • Past personal ties amplify policy disagreements
professional but concerned
enters Leo's office, briefly praises UN speech to Toby before shutting door on him, sits and informs Leo about Leonard Wallace's report on Billy Price's disappearance in Congo, notes State travel advisory and upcoming Congolese attache visit, leaves
- • praise the UN speech draft
- • update Leo on missing reporter Billy Price and coordinate response
Upset by the personal fallout from Iowa talk with Toby.
Referenced repeatedly as having a tense post-Iowa Caucus conversation with Toby that 'didn't go well' and left him upset; noted to approve the UN speech highly.
- • Endorse the provocative UN speech
- • Resolve or process personal tensions with key advisor Toby
- • Bold UN rhetoric strengthens administration's global stance
- • Personal staff interactions influence presidential morale and decisions
Teasing and approving at first, shifting to surprised concern over Toby's evasion and the President's upset.
Sits at desk repeatedly reading UN speech draft from folder, slips off glasses to give Toby a pointed look, halts Toby's pacing and standing with commands, grins while praising the speech's boldness, teases about Toby's ex-wife, probes insistently and surprised about the post-Iowa conversation with Bartlet.
- • Validate and endorse the UN speech draft's alignment with directives
- • Uncover details of Toby's personal conflict with Bartlet to assess team impact
- • The speech's provocative rhetoric fulfills the need to project unified foreign policy strength
- • Personal rifts between staff and President must be addressed to maintain operational loyalty
Alarmed by reporter's peril.
Referenced by C.J. as having urgently approached her with news of Billy Price missing deadlines in Congo.
- • Alert White House to Billy Price's disappearance
- • Push for intervention despite State inaction
- • Congo crisis demands immediate high-level response
- • Protocol barriers must be overcome for rescue
Anticipated tension in crisis confrontation.
Referenced as the Congolese attaché en route to the White House in response to Billy Price's capture situation.
- • Address U.S. demands on reporter's behalf
- • Defend Congolese position amid abduction claims
- • Government rejects ransom to terrorists
- • Diplomatic channels control crisis response
Anxiously frustrated with heavy sighs, masking deeper strain from personal-professional rift.
Paces anxiously back and forth, stops pacing and standing on Leo's commands, sighs heavily multiple times, defends speech as matching directives against 'scattershot' critiques, corrects 'wife' to 'ex-wife,' evades Iowa Caucus conversation details as 'personal,' leaves office after tension peaks.
- • Secure Leo's approval for the UN speech draft
- • Protect privacy of strained post-Iowa exchange with Bartlet
- • The speech precisely delivers the bold rhetoric demanded to reshape policy perceptions
- • Personal disagreements with the President are off-limits in professional scrutiny
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Leo slips these glasses off his nose with precision mid-conversation, holding them idle as his unfiltered gaze pierces Toby during speech defense and Iowa probe; prop underscores shift from routine scrutiny to raw, vulnerable command presence, amplifying interpersonal intensity.
Leo repeatedly reads and flips through these torn folder pages under desk lamp, scrutinizing Toby's provocative UN speech draft; central to praise as embodying demanded bold rhetoric against scattershot policy image, narrative pivot from policy validation to personal probe, heightening tension as ideological stakes collide with loyalty strains.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Congo referenced as site of reporter Billy Price's assignment and Mai-Mai capture, fueling emerging crisis relayed via C.J.; functions as distant flashpoint injecting global peril into late-night West Wing tensions, contrasting office intimacy with lawless peril.
Kinshasa's U.S. embassy cited as confirming Price's capture via cables, anchoring crisis verification in diplomatic channels; heightens urgency as ignored advisories collide with rebel reports.
Goma referenced as perimeter where Belgian TV crew witnessed Mai-Mai rebels capturing Price; specific site crystallizes eyewitness peril, propelling crisis into immediate action debates.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Mai-Mai rebels identified as captors snatching Billy Price, per embassy and TV confirmations relayed by C.J.; antagonist force escalates crisis, contrasting office policy debates with primal jungle threat, straining diplomatic responses.
Belgian TV crew cited as eyewitnesses to Price's Mai-Mai capture outside Goma, their footage relayed through Kinshasa confirming crisis; provides irrefutable visual proof thrusting freelance peril into White House orbit.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Toby's defense of the UN speech's aggressive rhetoric parallels his later ideological clash with Andy, both highlighting themes of power, diplomacy, and moral authority."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"LEO: "Toby, the night of the Iowa Caucus when you got back, did you and the President have a... conversation that night?""
"TOBY: "Yeah. I... When he got back, for a minute." LEO: "What did you talk about?" TOBY: "Nothing.""
"TOBY: "It was personal." LEO: "It was personal?" TOBY: "Yeah." LEO: "Well, that always works well with him.""