Fabula
Object
Object

Page 17 — Classified Intelligence Brief on Abida Kahn (Oval Office, read by Bartlet)

A single, letter‑sized classified briefing page explicitly identified as "page 17," printed with tight typed text and standing as one discrete leaf from a larger intelligence book. Bartlet holds and reads the page aloud in the Oval Office; its phrasing arrests the room until Leo's arrival shatters the moment and redirects attention.
2 appearances

Purpose

To deliver a specific intelligence excerpt about Abida Kahn and under‑representation to the President and senior advisors during an Oval Office briefing.

Significance

Serves as the narrative trigger whose reading is violently interrupted by news of Federal Reserve Chairman Bernie Dahl's death, pivoting the scene from foreign analysis to an urgent domestic crisis and exposing tension between presidential deliberation and staff expediency.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments
S1E17 · The White House Pro-Am
Page 17 Interrupted — Fed Chairman Dies

Page 17 from the classified briefing is the immediate narrative trigger: Bartlet reads aloud from it, advisors reference its contents about Abida Kahn and under‑representation, and the page anchors the pre‑crisis intelligence context that is suddenly displaced by domestic emergency.

Before: In the President's classified briefing book on the Oval Office desk; being read aloud.
After: Replaced in the book or left on the desk as attention shifts to the Fed crisis; remains the source of the interrupted intelligence thread.
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S1E17 · The White House Pro-Am
The President Refuses to Rush: Dahl's Death and the Fed Standoff

The single classified page ('page 17') had been the focus of the Oval Office briefing immediately before Leo's entrance; it frames the conversation and contrasts the measured pace of intelligence work with the sudden, messy demands of a domestic financial shock.

Before: In Bartlet's classified book and being read aloud by the advisors; physically in the Oval Office briefing context.
After: Remains in the briefing material but is temporarily overshadowed by the breaking domestic news; still in advisors' possession as the President returns to the briefing.
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