Intern Orientation Goes Off Script
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Will Bailey enters the office and hands out numbered jerseys to the interns, attempting to establish a team dynamic.
Will explains the need to integrate the Democratic tax plan into all public remarks, including seemingly unrelated topics like 'canning catfish'.
Will quizzes the interns on political concepts like capital gains, revealing their lack of government or political science backgrounds.
Cassie bluntly states the Republican versus Democratic tax positions, forcing Will to backtrack and refine his messaging strategy.
Will discovers Cassie's background is in ballet, not political science, highlighting the interns' inexperience and his leadership challenge.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Restrained urgency — trying to contain crisis while projecting control and minimizing panic to subordinates.
Appears via telephone with a terse, controlling tone — downplays campaign problems, tells Will not to worry, and queries about the remarks, pressuring Will to present confidence.
- • Limit escalation of the campaign crisis and prevent premature alarm.
- • Ensure White House messaging stays disciplined and coordinated.
- • Centralized control and calm will prevent political damage.
- • Campains can and should be managed without White House-wide panic.
Calm, quietly corrective; doing small acts of repair to preserve the team's dignity and the believability of the remarks.
Standing over intern #60, discreetly erasing the absurd phrase 'canning of catfish' from the notes — quietly doing the dirty work of damage control while Will oscillates between instruction and phone calls.
- • Prevent obvious errors from reaching public circulation by silently sanitizing intern notes.
- • Support Will's effort by tidying up rookie mistakes to preserve institutional credibility.
- • Small, invisible fixes avert larger public embarrassments.
- • Practical work is more useful than rhetorical posturing in a crisis of competence.
Confident front cracking into thin panic—projecting command while anxious about campaign fallout and losing control of the room.
Leading the room with performative authority, handing out numbered jerseys, directing interns to reframe all public remarks toward the Democratic tax plan, answering a tense call from Toby while trying to insist the interns are 'pros'.
- • Establish a single, repeatable message line that all White House remarks will use to defend the tax plan.
- • Contain and neutralize any campaign problems by controlling messaging and reassuring superiors.
- • Maintain his credibility as a manager in front of inexperienced staff.
- • Unified messaging can blunt political attacks and shore up the White House position.
- • Presenting calm competence will prevent escalation with campaign staff and superiors.
- • Interns can be coached into usable copy if guided firmly.
Forthright and slightly defiant; unwilling to play the performative game and comfortable exposing its emptiness.
Breaks the drill's rhetorical pretension with blunt clarity — frames the policy contrast plainly and then surprises Will by admitting a ballet background, which punctures his line of questioning.
- • Expose the simplicity or falseness of political messaging when it's divorced from understanding.
- • Assert personal authenticity (admit non‑policy background) rather than fake expertise.
- • Honesty about limits is better than pretending competence.
- • Messaging drills can be hollow if the speakers lack real understanding.
Cautiously confident in this narrow factual domain, relieved to give a correct answer amid general confusion.
As one of the identified interns, answers Will's factual prompt about Republican capital gains policy succinctly, demonstrating a moment of competence among the group.
- • Contribute a clear, correct fact to support the messaging exercise.
- • Demonstrate usefulness to superiors.
- • Knowing a single fact well helps in a room full of uncertainty.
- • Small competence can earn credibility.
Anxious but willing—they look to authority for cues and flinch when exposed; their uncertainty undermines the drill's credibility.
A group of nervous, inexperienced interns respond politely, wear jerseys, answer Will's questions haltingly, and provide a mix of plausible and absurd answers that reveal the team's fragility.
- • Follow directions and produce usable lines for public remarks.
- • Make a good impression on senior staff while avoiding embarrassment.
- • If they follow instructions, their work will be acceptable.
- • Senior staff will correct obvious mistakes without public exposure.
Not directly observable; referenced as a locus of Will's concerns and desire for contact.
Mentioned by Will as the person he wants to speak with about campaign handling; not present but functions as the off‑stage campaign authority whose actions are under scrutiny.
- • (Inferred) Run the campaign effectively and coordinate messaging with the White House.
- • (Inferred) Protect the candidate's electoral viability.
- • (Inferred) Campaign decisions should be made pragmatically and defended publicly.
- • (Inferred) The White House's involvement complicates local strategy.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The West Wing office telephone rings during the drill, becomes the conduit for Toby's terse phone call. It interrupts the training, forces Will into split focus, and functions narratively as the vector that transfers outside campaign pressure into the room.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The communications office serves as the cramped training ground where political messaging is rehearsed and exposed. It contains senior aides, interns, jerseys, and a telephone; its proximity to power makes every rehearsal consequential and every mistake potentially public.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Republican Leadership's recently unveiled tax plan is the catalyst for this messaging drill; its existence forces the White House to craft a tight counter-message and pressures communications staff into rapid standardization.
The White House is the institutional backdrop whose need for disciplined public rhetoric drives the event; its authority demands cohesive messaging and makes any lapse in communications a political liability.
The London School of Ballet appears as Cassie's revealed origin story, undercutting assumptions about interns' policy credentials and serving as a small human detail that punctures the constructed seriousness of the messaging drill.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"CASSIE: They want to lower taxes and we want to raise them."
"WILL: Well, I wouldn't put it quite like that. CASSIE: You just did."
"CASSIE: The London School of Ballet. WILL: What the hell are you doing here?"