Cease‑Fire and the Coming Scandal
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
The senior staff enters, and Leo updates Bartlet on Josh's problematic deposition and the impending public exposure of Leo's past substance issues.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Alert and calculating, mapping how the news will play publicly and what messages will be needed to protect the administration.
Enters with the senior staff and listens; as press secretary, she registers the political and diplomatic news and readies herself (silently) for managing the story and press logistics that will follow.
- • Anticipate and prepare briefing strategy for imminent press inquiries.
- • Contain leaks and manage narrative framing.
- • Protect the President's public standing while preserving operational secrecy.
- • The press will quickly seize upon deposition news and personal records.
- • Clear, disciplined messaging can blunt some political damage.
- • Timing and framing of releases will shape public reaction.
Flattered and grateful from Bartlet's permission, then quietly anxious and uncertain as he realizes publicity and political complications may follow.
Sits and listens after receiving Bartlet's permission to date Zoey; he remains present but becomes a bystander as the room's tone hardens when Leo and Marbury deliver bad political and diplomatic news.
- • Protect Zoey and maintain personal discretion.
- • Avoid actions that would embarrass the President or himself.
- • Absorb procedural advice about handling publicity (e.g., mail protocol).
- • He must follow presidential guidance to avoid trouble.
- • Publicity with the President's daughter will bring unwanted scrutiny.
- • Institutional authority (Bartlet, the 82nd Airborne) matters in real‑world consequences.
Warm and amused at first, then alert and pragmatic; beneath surface calm there is concern about how political exposure will complicate crisis management.
Shifts from a warm, paternal mode—granting Charlie permission to date Zoey and warning about publicity—to an executive stance: searching his desk for a lighter, tossing it to Marbury, absorbing Leo's bad‑news briefing, and soliciting Marbury's counsel about the cease‑fire.
- • Protect Zoey's wellbeing and shield Charlie from unnecessary harm.
- • Assess and contain the incoming political scandal to preserve crisis response capacity.
- • Gather reliable diplomatic intelligence to inform the administration's next steps.
- • Personal decisions and public optics are inseparable in the presidency.
- • Political scandal can sap the administration's ability to manage an international crisis.
- • A short diplomatic breathing space (two weeks) is better than none and must be exploited.
Concentrated and quietly uneasy — professional focus masks personal worry about competing crises.
Present and listening attentively; as communications director and principal speechwriter, he is mentally cataloging how the administration's voice should respond to both the legal/political story and the diplomatic window.
- • Craft controlled messaging that preserves presidential credibility.
- • Ensure rhetoric aligns with available facts and the two‑week diplomatic window.
- • Prevent the political scandal from drowning out crisis communications.
- • Language shapes public perception and can protect or harm operations.
- • Leaks and legal fallout will complicate any public statements about the international situation.
- • The President's voice must be used precisely in moments of combined personal and foreign‑policy risk.
Controlled, resigned, mildly alarmed; he feels the weight of incoming trouble but keeps his composure to prepare damage control.
Enters promptly and interrupts the lighter, delivering urgent political intelligence: Josh's deposition went poorly and the story will likely break; he frames the legal/political vulnerability as immanent and consequential to crisis management.
- • Warn the President to allow preemptive management of political fallout.
- • Limit operational harm from impending media exposure.
- • Preserve presidential focus for the international crisis.
- • Political scandals (including personal records) will be weaponized against the administration.
- • Early, candid warnings are necessary to mount an effective defense.
- • Containing the story's damage is preferable to surprise exposure.
Calm, sardonic, and oddly sanguine — he acknowledges the severity but treats the diplomatic respite as actionable and worth exploiting.
Enters theatrically, offers a bleak historical view of the subcontinent's sectarian fury, and delivers diplomatic news: a call from the British UN ambassador suggests a cease‑fire resolution may come within hours, albeit only a two‑week window.
- • Provide strategic counsel and a realistic appraisal of the diplomatic window.
- • Offer his services and stay as long as necessary to assist the President.
- • Temper panic with historical perspective and usable options.
- • Short diplomatic breathing space is valuable and must be used practically.
- • The subcontinent's conflicts are historically deep and emotionally driven.
- • A well‑placed envoy can shape urgent outcomes despite noisy politics.
Uneasy, ashamed, subdued — socially present but internally preoccupied by the knowledge his deposition harmed the administration.
Present in the room when Leo reports his deposition went poorly; he is the implied subject of the warning and listens as the political risk is raised but does not speak in this beat.
- • Minimize further political damage to himself and the administration.
- • Prepare (internally or with staff) for press and legal fallout.
- • Remain useful in the immediate international crisis despite personal trouble.
- • The deposition's outcome will be exploited by opponents and the press.
- • His political role obliges him to stay and support crisis response even if damaged.
- • Transparency about mistakes is often punished in public politics.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Bartlet rummages in his desk drawer and produces a single cigarette lighter, which he tosses to Marbury; Marbury uses it to light his cigarette, creating a small, intimate physical bond and a theatrical punctuation to his entrance and remarks.
An off-screen telephone call from the British ambassador to the United Nations is the vehicle for the cease‑fire intelligence Marbury reports; the phone functions as the narrative conduit linking the Oval to international diplomacy.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Oval Office moves from private refuge to crisis stage: a father-son style exchange plays out at the President's desk before senior staff flood in and transform the room into a compact Situation Room where political vulnerabilities and diplomatic reports collide.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Josh revealing that Leo's rehab records will become public leads directly to Leo updating Bartlet about the impending exposure and Josh's deposition fallout."
"Josh revealing that Leo's rehab records will become public leads directly to Leo updating Bartlet about the impending exposure and Josh's deposition fallout."
"Charlie's nervous request to date Zoey and Bartlet's initial deflection lead to the eventual paternal permission and warning about public scrutiny."
"Marbury's initial condescension towards Leo and his eventual bonding with Bartlet over shared historical knowledge symbolize his integration into the White House's crisis response."
"Marbury's initial condescension towards Leo and his eventual bonding with Bartlet over shared historical knowledge symbolize his integration into the White House's crisis response."
"Marbury's historical analysis of religious conflicts and his subsequent bonding with Bartlet over the pale horse of Death both underscore the theme of history's cyclical and often violent nature."
"Marbury's historical analysis of religious conflicts and his subsequent bonding with Bartlet over the pale horse of Death both underscore the theme of history's cyclical and often violent nature."
"Marbury's historical analysis of religious conflicts and his subsequent bonding with Bartlet over the pale horse of Death both underscore the theme of history's cyclical and often violent nature."
"Marbury's historical analysis of religious conflicts and his subsequent bonding with Bartlet over the pale horse of Death both underscore the theme of history's cyclical and often violent nature."
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET: Just remember these two things: She's nineteen years old, and the 82nd Airborne works for me."
"LEO: Mr. President, before Lord Fauntleroy... BARTLET: Lord Marbury. LEO: Whatever. Before he comes back in the room, I wanted to tell you that Josh's deposition did not go well, and that the story will probably break soon."
"MARBURY: And I looked, and I beheld a pale horse, and the name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."