Mandy Returns — Drawing the Lines
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
The team pressures Leo to approve a media consultant, pivoting from economic concerns to crisis management needs.
Leo ambushes Josh by proposing Mandy as the consultant, provoking Josh's panicked protests about personal history.
Josh ultimately concedes but insists on drawing power charts asserting authority over Mandy, revealing deep personal discomfort.
Josh dramatically reappears to reassert his Mandy ultimatum, revealing obsessive fixation on the issue.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Amused and professionally detached — enjoying the interpersonal theater while staying ready to execute messaging implications.
C.J. is present and adds a wry aside about Mandy's unemployment and Josh's credit; she stands inside the doorway, observes the negotiation, and then moves to her office as the meeting ends.
- • Signal support for practical staffing choices
- • Maintain press operations unaffected by internal disputes
- • Staffing decisions are often personal yet must be treated as functional
- • A degree of levity helps defuse internal tension without sacrificing effectiveness
Controlled and procedural — privately aware of the potential for mess but outwardly cooperative and solution‑oriented.
Toby supports the hire once it is framed as operationally necessary; he accepts Josh's chain‑of‑command demand and helps close the agreement, demonstrating message discipline over personal entanglement.
- • Ensure the communications function has a clear chain of responsibility
- • Avoid future public messaging clashes triggered by interpersonal rivalry
- • Clear lines of authority prevent mixed signals from leaking to the press
- • Professionalism can be enforced through defined reporting structures
Calmly impatient — focused on the operational solution and mildly amused by staff theatrics, but unwilling to be derailed.
Leo initiates the tactical hire, frames it as necessary and pragmatic, sidelines Josh's personal objection with blunt managerial authority, and pushes the team to accept the consultant to solve the communications problem.
- • Fill an urgent communications gap quickly
- • Keep the staff united behind a single, practical fix
- • Minimize drama while maximizing tactical outcomes
- • Institutional needs trump personal discomfort
- • Hiring competent help is preferable to internal hand‑wringing
Irritated and exposed; surface team-player posture masking personal discomfort and a fear of losing control over workplace dynamics.
Josh is verbally ambushed by Leo's decision to rehire Mandy; he objects on personal grounds, insists on formal reporting lines, threatens to draw a chart to enforce authority, and departs still agitated.
- • Prevent Mandy from operating without clear reporting lines
- • Avoid public or Oval Office confrontations with Mandy
- • Protect his professional authority and managerial jurisdiction
- • Personal history with staffers affects workplace effectiveness and must be contained
- • Clear hierarchical lines reduce conflict and preserve the administration's focus
Mandy is invoked as the consultant to be rehired; she does not speak or appear physically in the scene, but …
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Sam's 'Hilton Head' draft is present as tangible proof of the team's ongoing work. Mentioned and complimented in Leo's office, it functions as a legitimizing artifact that reminds the group of substantive policy work even as they triage PR problems.
An organizational chart is invoked by Josh as the immediate remedy for potential confusion: he promises to 'draw a chart' with lines and arrows to codify that Mandy answers to him and Toby. The chart is a narrative instrument — a future physicalization of authority to prevent Oval confrontations.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Leo's office (the Outer Oval threshold) is the authoritative forum where the hire is proposed and ratified. Its proximity to the President and senior staff makes it the place to settle strategy and personnel decisions, and it is where personal history collides with institutional needs.
The Communications Office functions as the operational staging ground where Sam's phone call, his completed draft, and the initial confessions occur. It serves as the nervous, transitional space from which staff travel to Leo's office to escalate the problem.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Mandy's earlier lament about the White House celebrating her defeat foreshadows the tension when Leo proposes hiring her as a media consultant, which Josh reacts to with personal discomfort."
Key Dialogue
"LEO: Can you think of a single reason not to use Mandy that isn't personal?"
"JOSH: She used to be my girlfriend!"
"JOSH: As long as she understands that she answers to me and she answers to Toby. I don't want to have to go 15 rounds with her in the Oval Office."