Object

Mike Casper's C-4 Explosive

Mike Casper's tactical team proposes the C-4 explosive in the Situation Room to blast a hole through the house wall, combined with flashbangs for entry. The unresponsive boy, denied heart medication, drives the pitch. Bartlet authorizes without pause, Leo watches. No physical details surface; the name alone seals the high-risk shift from talk to breach.

2 appearances

Purpose

Breaching tool to create an explosive entry point in the hostage house wall

Significance

Bartlet's greenlight marks the pivot from negotiation to desperate rescue, bending procedure to save the boy's life and exposing fault lines in crisis response

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S4E4 · The Red Mass

Presidential Greenlight: Explosive Rescue for a Sick Boy

The C-4 explosive is described as the chosen breaching tool to make a hole in the house’s wall; its planned use is central to shifting from negotiation to kinetic entry and signals a willingness to accept high-risk tactics.

Before: Catalogued in the tactical team's plan as the breaching method to be deployed by the 12-man assault unit.

After: Authorization granted for its use; it will be brought to the site for execution of the breach.

View full event

S4E4 · The Red Mass

Yosef's Shadow

The C-4 explosive is proposed explicitly as the tool to make an entry point into the house; Bartlet's authorization converts it from a tactical proposal into an approved plan element, shifting the meeting from negotiation to imminent assault.

Before: Discussed as the proposed breaching tool sitting conceptually on the briefing table; in possession of tactical planners.

After: Approved for use in the planned breach; responsibility for deployment handed to the assault team.

View full event