Roosevelt Room Overhead Projector (acetate transparencies)

A boxy, lamp-driven overhead projector with a glass platen, projecting lens housing, cooling vents, and a metal-and-plastic chassis with a long power cord. Presenters set acetate transparencies of high-contrast photos—Pluie the wolf and a grizzly—on the platen; the machine throws sharp images onto the Roosevelt Room screen as characters lean in, point, and step back while the room’s tone flips between theatrical idealism and blunt political questioning.

2 appearances

Purpose

To display acetate transparencies and project photographic images onto a meeting-room screen as a visual aid for a conservation presentation.

Significance

Serves as the theatrical device that stages the conservation pitch and triggers the scene’s emotional pivot: the projected image of Pluie humanizes the issue, then the revelation about Pluie’s death collides with C.J.’s fiscal reframing, using the projector’s images to dramatize idealism versus political pragmatism.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S1E5 · The Crackpots and These Women

Pluie Pitch — Wolves-Only Roadway vs. Political Reality

The overhead projector physically delivers the wolf and grizzly images and the $900 million slide; its hum and looped visuals create the performative structure of the pitch and enable the presenters' rhetorical timing.

Before: Positioned on the table, plugged in and loaded with acetate transparencies.

After: Remains operational and continues projecting as the presentation moves to the grizzly; unchanged but narratively charged.

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S1E5 · The Crackpots and These Women

Pluie's Death and C.J.'s Political Reframe

The overhead projector is actively operated by the woman to cast high-contrast images of Pluie and later a grizzly onto the white screen; it serves as the literal machine of persuasion, converting slides into emotional evidence for the pitch.

Before: Plugged in, set on the Roosevelt Room table with acetate transparencies ready.

After: Still in use as presenters cycle images; remains the primary visual aid at the end of the beat.

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