Directed by Christopher Misiano
Written by Deborah Cahn
The episode opens with a Flash Forward to the opening of the President Josiah Bartlet Presidential Library. Bartlet meets with most of his former staff (conspicuously, Leo and Josh are absent): C.J. and Danny are married and have a baby (Bartlet asks for a photo that Abbey can stick on the fridge), Kate's written a book that Bartlet compliments her on, and Will is a freshman Congressman from Oregon. Charlie compliments Bartlet on his role in unspecified talks in Jakarta. Notably, Bartlet is somewhat frosty towards Toby though he's glad Toby came. Josh enters, and says "The President" has arrived. As the Presidential motorcade pulls up, Bartlet stands at the entrance to greet his successor.
We then jump back to the week after the Democratic National Convention, 105 days until election day. Santos and Leo are having difficulty working together as Santos is questioned about who will really be in charge if he wins the election. Josh is struggling to pull together a national campaign staff and has to deal with Democratic legislators who don't want to meet or campaign with Santos, and his stress is only exacerbated when Donna shows up asking for a job. Despite telling her he misses her every day, Josh is still smarting from some of the statements Donna made as Vice President Russell's campaign spokesperson and turns her down.
Back at the White House, the investigation into the leak of information regarding the military space shuttle continues. C.J. meets with White House Counsel Oliver Babish, who asks her about a specific reporter named Greg Brock who repeatedly shows up on her "call sheet" and who was the one who published the story about the shuttle. Eventually C.J. realizes she has become the target of the leak investigation. Babish tells Bartlet that the Administration can't really investigate itself and he should turn the matter over to the Justice Department and Congress. When Bartlet asks if Babish has a suspect in mind, he doesn't say anything.
Leo and Josh go back to Washington and are told by C.J. and Toby that Speaker Haffley is making overtures about pushing through an education reform bill before Bartlet leaves office. Josh is incensed, saying that Haffley is only doing it to undercut the Santos campaign and that any plan that they are pushing would pale in comparison to what a Santos Administration could do. Leo then makes a gaffe by revealing the White House and the Speaker are discussing education policy, which further annoys Santos. Eventually, the two of them have a sit-down discussion and Santos tells Leo he's on the ticket because he knows how to run the White House and Santos wants him to help build their transition plan now so that when they win they can spend the actual transition period hiring the people to make their plan happen.
This episode provides examples of:
- Both Sides Have a Point: Josh and Leo are right that Haffley is only willing to talk about education policy to damage the Santos campaign and give Vinick a boost, and that if Santos wins they could do something much more effective. But C.J. and Toby are also right that Santos is a major underdog, and that Bartlet would be stupid to torpedo progress on a major Democratic issue simply out of partisanship.C.J.: The President did not take an oath of party, he took an oath of office.
- Fish out of Water: Leo has spent a long time as a back-room political power-broker, so when he's asked to step out front and campaign as a candidate he struggles.Annabeth: Just because you've trained a Preakness jockey doesn't mean you know how to sit a horse.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: The identity of the President is not revealed during the Flash Forward, cutting away to the opening credits when the door to the Presidential limo opens.
- Honest Advisor: Santos wants Leo to be this because Leo's done the hard part of running a Presidential Administration. Leo starts by telling him to throw out almost everything except the first page of his plan, because a President is only really able to make policy for 18 months or so before politics gets in the way.
- Hypocrite: When Josh reads some of the things Donna said about Santos during the primary, she replies that she was doing her job and besides Josh said things that were as bad or worse about Vice President Russell. Josh concedes the point, then justifies it by saying "but I won".
- The Man Behind the Man: Santos is annoyed with the constant questions and speculation from the media that Leo will be the power behind the throne and Santos is just a pretty face. It doesn't help when Leo tells a reporter about Republican overtures on Santos's signature issue of education policy make it look like he's contradicting the campaign.
- Who Watches the Watchmen?: Babish tells Bartlet that they can't effectively investigate themselves over the classified information leak, and that he should turn the matter over to the Attorney General and Congress because they can subpoena witnesses and compel testimony.
