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Storyline
Josh discovers that his insurance company is refusing to pay for his life-saving emergency surgery after being shot; newly-hired Republican strategist Ainsley Hayes is justifiably nervous about meeting her boss, the White House Chief Counsel with a reputation for volatility and partisanship; President Bartlett's attempts to record his weekly radio address are complicated by exciting news from Abby about his health; C.J. goes on the offensive after learning a retiring three-star general intends to publicly criticize the President. Written by
Murray Chapman
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Did You Know?
Trivia
Many of 'Aaron Sorkin''s scripts contain references to the operas of Gilbert & Sullivan. In this episode, Sam Seaborn (
Rob Lowe) says that he was recording secretary of the Princeton Gilbert & Sullivan society, and many of the regular characters welcome Ainsley Hayes ('Emily Procter') to her new office by decorating it with G&S posters and singing "He Is an Englishman", also from "Pinafore", to her (even the title of the episode is a paraphrase of a line from "Pinafore").
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Goofs
During the "Previously on the West Wing" segment at the beginning, when Ainsley Hayes tells her friends "And I'm their lawyer," she says the word "lawyer" rather sharply and then looks pointedly at Bruce. In the original scene in the previous episode ("In This White House"), it was clearly a different filming of the line, which was said less angrily, with a bit of a smile playing about her lips (as she knows she's going to surprise them), and without the look upward at Bruce afterward.
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Quotes
President Josiah Bartlet:
Take your clothes off.
Abbey Bartlet:
Whatever happened to romance? A couple of cocktails, Mel Torme...
President Josiah Bartlet:
Get 'em off.
Abbey Bartlet:
Okay, I'm going to the bathroom.
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Connections
References
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
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Soundtracks
"For He Is An Englishman"
(uncredited)
Written by
William S. Gilbert
Performed by Donald Adams
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Ainsley's second episode is startlingly sharp, compared to her debut. Two junior staffers greet her enthusiastic efficiency with disdain and outright harassment. Irrepressible White House Chief Counsel Lionel Tribby (John Laroquette, in the first of two wonderfully outsized episodes) goes ballistic when told of her hiring, but is firing her tormentors by the end. Bartlet gets medical clearance to have sex again...but carelessly dismisses the life of Nellie Bly in the presence of the First Lady, putting the kaibosh on his hopes. Brandishing a cricket bat, Tribby interrupts an Oval radio address. At the end, the senior staff throw a Pinafore party for Ainsley, in her steam pipe trunk distribution office.