A Proportional Reponse, post-ep & meta

[eloriekam]

One of these days, I'll start using titles so raedbard doesn't have to keep typing out the whole darn ep title so she can include it in tww_full_lid.

But for now...



Josh clapped Charlie lightly on the shoulder as he exited the Oval Office with his fellow senior staff. "You'll be fine."

Charlie lifted uncertain eyebrows. "Yeah. Thanks." For all the President's changed attitude the second time, first impressions could stick. He wouldn't be sure just how to take Sam for a while, for example, although clearly something had been bothering him.

Josh punched his friend in the shoulder as they strode down the hallway.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"The way you acted like a total idiot earlier when you met him, Sam. Probably freaked out the poor guy even more."

"Do you mean to say, Josh, that Sam did something else stupid?" Toby asked.

"Yeah, he--ow! The hell, Sam?!"

"We're not talking about it," Sam responded firmly. "It was an unfortunate moment and I've moved on and so should you."

"Yeah, but..."

"I think," Sam interrupted Josh firmly, "that we should spend the next half hour telling CJ how great she is."

She shifted her briefing book to the other hand as they rounded a corner, looking down a little awkwardly. "I have to put the lid on, Sam."

"Come on, CJ, we're all extremely intelligent, attractive men, and some of us are eloquent. What more could a woman want?"

"Longer than half an hour," she returned dryly. But she was smiling a little.

"It's all we've got."

"I just want to know why it's Sam recommending this course of action," Toby remarked. "This wouldn't have anything to do with a story going around that you tried to punch in a wall earlier today, would it?"

"Well... yes."

"You punched a wall?" Josh asked, voice scaling up a little.

"Yes, I did, Josh, but I'm over it now."

"Really," Toby returned calmly, tapping his beard with one finger even as they all continued walking. "You're over it."

"Toby..." CJ started, worried that he'd noticed something and accurately marked Sam as the cause.

"Sam?"

"I already apologized, Toby."

"One of you needs to explain this to me or give me a whole lot of beer," Josh interjected.

"I'll pay for the beer," Sam responded.

"You're forgetting me," Toby reminded.

"And me," CJ continued. "Leave it alone, please. And leave Sam alone."

"Why?" Toby demanded.

"Because I asked you to, Toby!" She actually stepped a little toward Toby, one foot between him and his deputy.

Toby's dark eyes flicked from CJ to Sam, then back again. Sam held his breath. "Huh," Toby finally declared, focusing on Sam.

"Toby," CJ warned. "We're not going to do this."

"If two of my staff are having a problem that's going to affect their working relationship, then I need to know about it," he replied with perfect calm.

"It's not, and it won't."

"Evidence indicates otherwise."

"Danny Concannon knows about Sam." CJ's tone and gaze were perfectly level. Sam winced and Josh deflated a little. Toby just stared at Sam more intently.

"When is it going to break?" Sam finally asked in a pitiful near-whisper.

"It's not. I told him to leave it alone."

"You did?"

"I said you were friends with her and that there was actually something quite noble about it."

"I..." Sam dropped his eyes completely, gazing at the floor. His face turned a little red, then he seemed to notice he was in Toby's office and sat on the arm of the couch.

"It's not going to be a thing?" Josh inquired in disbelief.

CJ spared him a glance. "Not right now, it isn't."

"Sam, what was it you said to CJ?" Toby inquired in a low voice after a brief silence.

"I said-" Sam started, finally lifting his head. CJ actually stepped forward to physically put herself between him and Toby, hand on Toby's arm.

"I swear, Toby, if you don't drop this right now, you're gonna be buying me drinks the whole four years."

"That's a real big threat, there, CJ."

"It really is." She stood there, eyes blazing and daring him to cross her, face determined with something he'd seen only rarely, and then mostly for the President. Protectiveness. Whatever had gone on, whatever Sam had said to CJ, whatever CJ had said, she was going to protect Sam.

He relaxed under her hand, and she dropped it away, taking a step back. Slowly his eyes turned to Josh. "I've also heard things about you, Josh."

Josh shrugged lightly. "Nothing to it," he answered.

"I told CJ she was a wimp," Sam said abruptly.

There was a moment of dreadful silence. Josh turned to Toby. "I didn't take her seriously."

"Huh," Toby noted after a moment. "And?"

"CJ," Josh started. She turned and shook her head.

"It's okay, Josh. You don't need to apologize to me," she answered gently, smiling just a little. "Neither do you," she added, turning to Sam. "Don't even think about it. I'll be back after I put the lid on."

"CJ," Toby tried, a look of odd concern on his face.

"You, my friend, are buying the first round tonight," she retorted.

He paused, apparently taken a little aback. "Okay."

And CJ turned and went out the door, to stand in front of the cameras and discuss the layers of response that had been seen today, to deflect that which they didn't want and to display that which was important to them.

Sam let out a breath. "I didn't think she was going to do it."

"She's a professional, Sam. Unlike some other people I could name, she does her job regardless of personal conflicts," Toby answered.

Josh was turned to face the door. "I really am sorry I got angry at her. If anything ever happens because she's busy protecting us and the President..." he stopped and shook his head.

"We'll be here to protect her," Sam answered. Toby just rolled his eyes a little and sat behind his desk, ever thinking.




I like how they start with music for Josh entering the building similar to what they used for Leo entering in the Pilot. Beautiful. It's so normal, and then... whoa. There's this bright determination all of a sudden.

See, Donna and the Danish cart is why the assistant spy network is repeatedly mentioned in fanfics.

Josh dimples when he's unhappy, too. Huh. Okay, I noticed that way before this, but I just thought I'd comment on it.

Writing CJ so much (well, along with everyone else, but especially CJ), I've had to think about her expressions a lot. I think this episode featured the debut of the expression that should, in theory, cause anyone with a sense of self-preservation to back slowly away, or possibly not so slowly, as well as the 'why are you explaining this to me like I'm an idiot' expression. Ouch. Do you think Josh hadn't seen those during the campaign, or was too wrapped up in defending Sam and a call girl to notice? In case no one's noticed by now, I like watching CJ yell at the guys. And I like writing it.

Toby's response to Bertram Coles could also be the 'proportional response', since his isn't really... well, it's kind of proportional. "It IS against the law!" Mmm, Toby-rant.

This show uses motion, and the lack of it, so very, very well. I'm referring here to when Charlie tells Josh about his mother. There was all this motion, and all of a sudden Josh just stops moving. It's even more effective with the bottle of water in midair.

Sam made a great impression on Charlie, didn't he? /sarcasm

Okay, I had to stop commenting on this as it was running, 'cause it was just disrupting the flow too much. One of the beautiful things in this episode that I noticed even the first time I watched it was right at the end. They've panned around the Oval and it's fading to black, but as they're doing that, the President is saying exactly what we heard Toby and Sam working on earlier with the cold-blooded thing, and Sam's kind of down in the corner. The President says that, and Sam lifts his head a little bit, kind of waiting, and then gives a definite nod, as if to say 'well-chosen, well-done, that worked'. It's the little things that make it art.

Okay, there are three proportional responses at issue here. The first is the response to the downing of the plane, and is up to the President, more or less. Then there's Toby's response to Coles' kind of threatening the President. Finally, CJ's response to the call girl. They're mostly settled by the end of the episode, though. The President works through his issues, his very human response, with regard to Americans being killed and is persuaded to do what they've always done, the proportional military response. That's one of the things I love about him. I love that he *cares*, and there's a point in the Sit Room where you can see him thinking about that, contemplating the different losses.

The thing with Coles is different, of course, because I think it's really mostly about Toby wanting something right, and he objects to people saying something like that, let alone a member of the Democratic Party. He immediately responds with several possible charges, determined to treat this seriously, while Leo's standing there basically saying 'ah, whatever'. I'm still not clear on why he brought it up, though. Toby does sort of sneakily use his position to give a quote to a reporter, which was pretty artful, and Ginger thought so too, since she was smiling when he came back. Toby was too, a little bit.

Oh, just thought of a fourth proportional response: Charlie. Take a look at his face when Josh turns around and beckons him further toward the Oval after he's stopped dead in the hallway. The poor kid's petrified, which I guess is the point. There's Charlie's response to suddenly being dropped into this situation of applying without applying for the job. That's actually a pretty good way to apply: if they can't handle the sudden shifts Charlie went through here, they probably shouldn't have the job.

Okay, CJ's response. She is... so pissed that they hid from her and didn't let her do her job, and that they left her on the outside (which occurs repeatedly the first season). I don't feel there's a great deal of response to the scene between her and Josh except for her thinking that Josh is thinking she's overreacting. Is it that Josh doesn't trust her, or what? Is he defending Sam? It's hard for me to think about that scene because I get too wrapped up in 'feminista' and 'Yankee jackass'. The real parts of her response are later, such as the conversation with Sam, who apparently doesn't trust her either or is feeling really defensive, or something. She's trying, so hard and perhaps too hard, to get him to take this seriously and to see the possible repercussions, and this is one time when Sam's idealism serves to make the situation much worse, because he wants to 'spend more time being good'. Then CJ drags in the issue of protecting him and the President, and I think that's maybe what sets Sam off; whether it's the implication that he needs protecting or that CJ somehow gets to do it more than he does, I'm not sure. And he yells at her, which is potentially counterproductive. Sure, she kind of kicked Sam's butt earlier, but she's standing up and trying to do the right thing, and Sam just slaps her, basically. Yet later Sam does really apologize to her, after they've both calmed down, and when she says 'go back to work', she's really telling him that it's okay and she's taking care of it. And then she tells Danny to leave it alone and he does, so even though Sam yelled at her, CJ still protects him.

Okay, that's all I have for now. There might be another proportional response in there somewhere, and there's the gorgeous scene between Leo and the President about conquering the world, but I'm firmly convinced those have already been metaed to death, and I'm not so sure the other responses have been.

Oh, and the President gave CJ's glasses back to her twice. Oops. Should have watched the editing more there, guys. ;)

Comments

[vegawriters.livejournal.com]

It was a nice little post-ep blurb. I liked it a lot, you do well with character banter. It took a minute for me to recall everything they were referring to, but it worked.

Writing CJ so much (well, along with everyone else, but especially CJ), I've had to think about her expressions a lot.

I pick up on that a lot. And I definately watch an ep based not only on the fic I'm working on but eps definately have more pull for each fic. Anything with John Hoynes, for example, feeds right into Fireflies. But CJ's expressions tell so much of the story, without her ever saying a word. Writing those expressions can be quite a task at times.

The President says that, and Sam lifts his head a little bit, kind of waiting, and then gives a definite nod, as if to say 'well-chosen, well-done, that worked'. It's the little things that make it art.

I missed that with Sam. I remember CJ's expressions, and Charlie of course, but that I missed.

I don't feel there's a great deal of response to the scene between her and Josh except for her thinking that Josh is thinking she's overreacting. Is it that Josh doesn't trust her, or what? Is he defending Sam? It's hard for me to think about that scene because I get too wrapped up in 'feminista' and 'Yankee jackass'.

I always felt there was something not quite ... complete about that scene. It's obvious that Josh and CJ have this fight a lot, but I kind of wonder where the sudden emotion comes from.

so even though Sam yelled at her, CJ still protects him.
It's her job. :-)

[eloriekam.livejournal.com]

It was a nice little post-ep blurb. I liked it a lot, you do well with character banter. It took a minute for me to recall everything they were referring to, but it worked.

Thanks. :) And I kept wanting to bring up 'Manchester' while I was writing that... never realized how hard it is to only refer to what's actually happened so far!

But CJ's expressions tell so much of the story, without her ever saying a word. Writing those expressions can be quite a task at times.

Yep. Which is why I sometimes randomly digress into said expressions for a paragraph and a half before going back to the story. The things these people--all of them--can do with their eyes and face are just astounding to me.

I missed that with Sam. I remember CJ's expressions, and Charlie of course, but that I missed.

Go watch it. :)

I always felt there was something not quite ... complete about that scene. It's obvious that Josh and CJ have this fight a lot, but I kind of wonder where the sudden emotion comes from.

Do you think something was cut from the scene or somewhere else in the episode, or that the two were told to play it with more background than was really needed? (I would be more inclined to think it's the first one, or that there was even something cut from 'Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc' that they didn't know was cut when they shot that scene.)

It's her job. :-)

Exactly--but part of the guys' reactions seems to be based on the concept that CJ won't necessarily protect them. Maybe that's why Sam punched the wall--he knew he'd upset CJ a lot, and given her attitude when he left her office, it's not totally out of the realm of possibility that Sam would be thinking 'oh, shit, I'm on my own'. Or something to that effect, probably better discussed when I'm actually fully conscious.

much better discussed when fully conscious

[vegawriters.livejournal.com]

poke me tomorrow and i'll comment on this more. but you have to poke me or i'll forget.

want to go to bed. mom, for the love of god, go to bed.....

[highfantastical.livejournal.com]

I'[d completely forgotten about the callgirl, so I read this as Sam/Josh by mistake! But it was a good kind of mistake. Ah, so good...

Lovely post-ep discussion, too.