Object

AGM-84D Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile (S01E03 - 'A Proportional Response')

A concise technical weapons designation invoked aloud in the communications bullpen: 'AGM-84D.' The item is never physically shown; its naming is treated as precise, consequential jargon. Staffers halt and redline the President's address to correct the term, treating the AGM-84D as a specific military missile model whose exact label must survive public and technical scrutiny.

2 appearances

Purpose

A military anti-ship missile model — a weapons system used for maritime strike missions and referenced here as a specific technical identifier.

Significance

Functions as a hinge between rhetorical framing and technical truth: correcting the AGM-84D grounds the administration's public messaging in accuracy, preserves credibility under scrutiny, and tightens operational language amid crisis. Its mention catalyzes a tense editorial intervention and underscores the bullpen's competing demands.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S1E3 · A Proportional Response

Bullpen Triage: Missile Clarification and a Quiet Apology

The AGM-84D Harpoon missile exists here as precise jargon invoked to correct a misnamed weapons reference. Naming it correctly is necessary to distinguish weapon systems and avoid technical inaccuracy that could have operational and political consequences.

Before: Referenced verbally in staff discussion; not physically present.

After: Invoked and used to correct the President's draft language; serves to finalize the technical phrasing in the redline.

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S1E3 · A Proportional Response

Polishing the Address — Moral Language, Technical Truth, and a Quiet Apology

The missile designation (AGM-84D / 'Harpoon') is invoked verbally as a technical correction; the term anchors the scene’s tension between rhetorical moralizing and the need for precise, technical nomenclature that can withstand scrutiny.

Before: Present only as potentially imprecise terminology within the draft and in staffers' minds.

After: Explicitly referenced and clarified in the bullpen dialogue; the correct distinction is made and will be reflected in the redline.

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