Bartlet's Crisis: Fear, Memory, and the Transfer of Power
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
President Bartlet exits the Situation Room, expressing his uncertainty about military options and his fear for Zoey's life.
Bartlet confesses his vulnerability to Leo, questioning his ability to make rational decisions and hinting at invoking the 25th Amendment.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Urgent and forceful—calmly convinced of military necessity but impatient with deliberation.
Pressed for immediate aerial action, argued for surprise and preemption against Qumari bases, and framed the intercept as a time-sensitive military decision.
- • Protect U.S. lives and infrastructure through decisive military action
- • Preserve tactical advantage by acting quickly
- • That speed and surprise are critical to successful strikes
- • That allies' sovereignty doesn't absolve them of responsibility for violence emanating from their territory
Concerned and focused, with an undercurrent of urgency to prevent escalation borne of limited intelligence.
Argued for diplomacy, urged a pre-dawn meeting with the Qumari ambassador, and pushed analytic restraint against a rush to military action.
- • Avoid precipitate military reprisals against an ally
- • Gain more information through diplomatic channels before acting
- • That Qumar remains an ally and diplomacy must be attempted
- • That low-tech incidents can be mistaken for terrorism and require verification
Calmly professional under pressure, prioritizing mission clarity and timing.
Reported that two F-15s were airborne with clear shots, answered the President's tactical questions, and provided engagement-distance framing to inform a shoot/no-shoot decision.
- • Convey accurate tactical options to the President
- • Ensure rules of engagement are understood and executable
- • That timely, precise military information reduces decision latency
- • That operational readiness can be decisive in crisis outcomes
Raw, panicked paternal fear briefly overriding institutional restraint; candid self-doubt and shame beneath a veneer of command.
Slammed his fist, demanded to know when to give a shoot-down order, then stepped out, sat on the stairs and broke down: confessing terror for his daughter, uncertainty about prior target advice, and a readiness to cede power.
- • Avoid issuing an impulsive military order driven by personal grief
- • Ensure the nation will be led soberly if he cannot be trusted to do so
- • That proof of Zoey's peril could make him do something catastrophic
- • That legal/institutional checks may not physically stop a President acting from personal fury
Professional detachment with crisp focus on relaying clear aeronautical information.
Read into the room Air Route Traffic Control transmissions and attempted to contact Beech 0827, supplying procedural radio calls and controller identification to the Situation Room.
- • Provide accurate controller communications to guide the Presidents' decision
- • Clarify whether the aircraft is an emergency or a hostile threat
- • That accurate communications are essential to avoid an unnecessary shoot-down
- • That protocol exists to manage accidental incursions
Controlled and resolute with urgent concern—projecting calm to absorb the President's panic.
Activated the speaker phone, relayed technical info to the President, reassured him, and quietly accepted Bartlet's instruction to assemble the Cabinet and call the Speaker, while emotionally anchoring the President.
- • Prevent impulsive presidential action that could cause escalation
- • Execute constitutional continuity measures discreetly and efficiently
- • That institutional safeguards can and should prevent a catastrophic personal response
- • That his role includes shielding the President and the nation from emotional decisions
Tense, professional readiness; constrained by procedure and clear about immediate tactical posture.
Via speaker informed the Situation Room he had missile lock on Beech 0827, instructed the pilot to switch frequency and prepare for slow flight—a terse, high-authority cockpit report.
- • Maintain control of the intercept and follow engagement protocol
- • Prevent the rogue aircraft from reaching populated or sensitive targets
- • That clear, immediate orders reduce the chance of a catastrophic incident
- • That cockpit protocol and radio compliance will resolve many perceived threats
Embarrassed and relieved; anxious at realizing his incursion precipitated high-level military and presidential alarm.
Responded over the air apologetically, explaining a mechanical problem—transforming the intercept from potential敌 threat to false alarm.
- • Avoid further escalation by complying with pilot instructions
- • Explain and de-escalate the situation to controllers and interceptors
- • That the incursion was accidental and resolvable via standard radio procedures
- • That cooperation will prevent a shoot-down
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Beech Baron 58 is the tracked, unresponsive aircraft that catalyzes the Situation Room's tension—its lack of transponder signal and proximity to a nuclear reactor force military and presidential decisions until the pilot radios an apology.
Two F-15 fighters scrambled from Portland are the immediate military response, positioned to intercept the Beech Baron and reported by the General as having 'clear shots'—their presence raises the stakes and forces the President into a shoot/no-shoot choice.
U.S. cruise missiles function as an imagined instrument: Bartlet invokes them as a hypothetical retaliatory option (and cites Tel Aviv as a target) to illustrate how his personal grief could translate into catastrophic policy, making a moral weapon out of paternal rage.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Tel Aviv is invoked by the President as an imagined target for cruise-missile retaliation in his worst-case, emotion-driven scenario; it functions narratively as a distant, dramatic foil for the moral hazard of a father-president.
Richland, Washington is the geographic area over which the Beech Baron is flying; its mention establishes the concrete, regional locus of the perceived threat and grounds the Situation Room's tactical anxiety.
The Saw Mill River Nuclear Reactor is the critical infrastructure ninety miles ahead of the Beech Baron and functions as the primary potential target whose presence escalates the intercept to a national security emergency in the Situation Room.
Portland Air National Guard Base is the launch point for the F-15s; its inclusion demonstrates the operational readiness of regional air defenses and the speed of military response during the incident.
Saudi Arabia is referenced in Bartlet's imagined coercion scenario—hostage imagery and forced withdrawals—illustrating the kinds of demands that could be leveraged against the President and thereby push him to irrational military choices.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Sultanate of Qumar is invoked as the allied state whose cooperation (or failure of control) is under debate—Nancy urges diplomacy with Qumari officials while Fitzwallace questions their reliability, making Qumar the focal point of the restraint-versus-retaliation argument.
The Full Cabinet is invoked as the constitutional body the President instructs Leo to assemble—this organizational invocation signals Bartlet's move to formalize a transfer of authority and to create collective institutional cover for continuity of government.
The Air Route Traffic Control Center, Seattle is the institutional source of the controller transmissions being piped into the Situation Room; its repeated attempts to contact Beech 0827 and reports on transponder status provide essential technical context for the presidential decision.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"PRESIDENT BARTLET: "I don't think so. I need you to tell me now. Do you think she's already dead?" LEO: "I absolutely do not.""
"PRESIDENT BARTLET: "If they show me a picture of her alive and tell me to aim cruise missiles at Tel Aviv, they're counting on the fact that a father" LEO: "But you wouldn't." PRESIDENT BARTLET: "I might.""
"PRESIDENT BARTLET: "Very quietly, I want you to assemble the Cabinet. I want you to call the Speaker of the House.""