Written by Aaron Sorkin and Paul Redford
Directed by Thomas Schlamme

On the surface, The State Dinner is an episode that doesn’t seem to have much to offer. There’s no great crisis or immediate peril to the country or any of the characters. Looking a bit deeper, the episode is indicative of what life is typically like for the President and his staff. There are so many things going on at once that it’s hard to know where to look, rather than one main point to the story. This is where the show shows its audience what makes it different than other television dramas, and does so remarkably well.

The State Dinner opens with a number of crises happening at the same time. There is Hurricane Sara headed towards the southeast coast. The Teamsters are threatening to strike. There is a standoff at a compound in Idaho. Press Secretary CJ Cregg (Allison Janney) is fielding questions about what the First Lady is wearing at a state dinner for the President of Indonesia and his wife.

Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) is tasked with writing a toast for the dinner. Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer) is working with the Teamsters and trucking company executives. He gives them until midnight to work out an agreement. Media Consultant Mandy Hampton (Moira Kelly) gets the information on the standoff in Idaho, and it’s something that doesn’t look good for the FBI.

The President of Indonesia is a man of few words. As the press and the President (Martin Sheen) try to engage him in conversation, he is giving one-word answers.

Mandy convinces the President to send in a negotiator in Idaho before the FBI goes in with guns blazing. Unfortunately, the standoff ends after the negotiator is shot. Mandy is rife with guilt.

The President’s Personal Aide, Charlie (Dulé Hill), asks Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) for help for his grandparents who live in the path of the hurricane, and he hasn’t been able to get hold of them. When the storm starts moving East, Leo realizes that the battle carrier group that evacuated from Norfolk as a precaution is now directly in the path of the storm.

The First Lady, Abbey Bartlet (Stockard Channing) is playing hostess at the State Dinner while they wait for the President(s) to arrive. Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff), Sam, and Josh are entertaining a donor from the Midwest. He introduces his date, and it’s Laurie (Lisa Edelstein), Sam’s friend who is a call girl. It becomes apparent that it’s not going to work between Sam and Laurie.

Toby and Josh meet with one of the Indonesian President’s staff to try to get a political protestor, who happens to be a friend of Toby’s, released from an Indonesian prison. It doesn’t go well. The aide reminds Josh and Toby that the United States has no business lecturing the rest of the world on human rights when it’s responsible for the genocide of Native Americans.

The President meets with the strikers and negotiators. He threatens to nationalize the trucking industry and draft the truckers. Abby reminds him that he can’t fix everything. They make contact with one of the ships off the East Coast. The President talks with the soldier in the radio room and finds out they are not in great shape.

The State Dinner introduces two recurring characters for the first time: The First Lady and Danny Concannon (Timothy Busfield). Stockard Channing’s casting in particular is a great win for the series. Abbey Bartlet is a doctor, something to keep in mind down the road. She’s not going to just sit around picking out china patterns. Her absence until now is explained by her having been on a long trip. It sounds like it was a diplomatic trip at the behest of the President, but it’s never made completely clear. At this point, they are a mere 11 months into the first Bartlet administration and still trying to find their feet a bit.

Abbey Bartlet: You know, one of the things that happens when I stay away too long is that you forget that you don’t have the power to fix everything. You have a big brain, and a good heart, and an ego the size of Montana. You do, Jed! You don’t have the power to fix everything. But I do like watching you try.

Danny, on the other hand, will be an ongoing foil for CJ. He’s a reporter in the White House press pool. CJ sometimes feeds him tips for things she wants to get out there, and he will, on occasion, give her a heads-up on stories that are about to break. They flirt with each other quite a bit as well.

The President can’t control everything and can’t fix everything. That is made abundantly clear in The State Dinner. The President can’t do anything about the hurricane, except stay on the phone with a young sailor on one of the ships at sea. He can’t fix the situation in Idaho, but has to let it play out. The one thing he can have some influence over is the impending Teamsters strike, so he goes in to meet with the negotiators for both sides with guns blazing.

Sam writing a toast for the dinner is no easy thing. There are some issues with Indonesia having been a brutal dictatorship until recently, and neither Sam nor Toby are fond of President Siguto. Is this why he gave very brief answers to the questions when he and the President met with the press? Does he already know how this White House feels about him and is just going through the motions for diplomacy’s sake? Toby encourages Sam to use tougher language in the toast than Sam initially wants to. This backfires when Toby schemes to have a private meeting with one of President Siguto’s aides to ask for a favor. The aide knows very well the toast was used to score political points and refuses Toby’s request.

Speaking of Sam, his ongoing “thing” with Laurie comes to a bit of a head here. Early on, he’s swearing to her that he’s perfectly comfortable with her now. Yet when she is the surprise guest of a big-time Democratic donor, he doesn’t handle it well. In fact, he comes off as a jerk. He’s convinced himself he’s “saving” her, but from what? Laurie knows what she is doing and why. She has made her peace with the situation. Sam is the one who is making it more difficult for her, and not because he cares. It seems more like he resents who she is and how it will reflect on him, almost like he knows he can’t be with her without there being controversy, and blames her for that.

Mandy’s situation here is interesting. She’s supposed to be a Media Consultant, trying to help the President and his staff with the optics of their administration. However, she is put in a position to advise him on the standoff in Idaho. Under the guise of optics, she tells the President that it should appear that they have tried everything instead of going in with guns blazing, but it also seems that Mandy’s opinion is that moving against these people is wrong. She seems to see them as harmless, and the government is wrong for moving against them. That image is dashed when the siege is over. No one was killed, but the FBI negotiator she advocated for was shot and is in critical condition. Mandy takes this to heart, feeling responsible for his being shot.

Aaron Sorkin has done a great job of setting up an administration that’s floundering a bit as it tries to live up to the campaign promises we can only imagine. The staff is making mistakes, but they don’t always realize it until it’s too late. The President is frustrated. He’s supposed to be the leader of the free world, but it feels like he can’t fix or solve anything. Everything seems to boil down to poll numbers, yet when Mandy advises what she thinks will look best, it ends up possibly costing the life of someone who was just doing their job – the job she advocated for that placed him in danger.

C.J. Cregg: I spoke to Peggy about the vermeil – you might get a few questions.
Abbey Bartlet: I’m not embarrassed by the vermeil. It’s not as if we spent new money on it.
C.J. Cregg: Yes, but its history…
Abbey Bartlet: It’s our history. Better or worse, it’s our history. We’re not going to lock it in the basement or brush it with a new coat of paint. It’s our history.
C.J. Cregg: Well, good answer.
Abbey Bartlet: Well, the truth’ll do it almost every time.

Who knew that the First Lady had her own staff before this show? I sure as heck didn’t. This is the one win of the night. Abbey advocates for acknowledging the true history, rather than worrying about what everyone will think. She is the best part of The State Dinner and sets the tone that she will be a force to be reckoned with on the show.

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