Donna Asks to Do More; Josh Tests Her
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Donna enters Josh's office and expresses frustration about feeling useless, highlighting her desire to contribute more.
Josh deflects Donna's concerns by pointing out her dating habits with Republicans, shifting the conversation.
Donna defends her dating choices and reiterates her desire to learn and do more, emphasizing her frustration with her current role.
Josh tests Donna's knowledge by asking if she knows how to lock the landing gear, highlighting her lack of specific skills.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Not present; invoked as an emblem of institutional exposure.
Referenced indirectly in Donna's mock headline (Senior Bartlet advisor Joshua Lyman...) as the office and person around whom risk and consequence orbit; not present in the room.
- • As referenced authority, anchors Donna's dramatization of stakes.
- • Serves as shorthand for the administration's public profile and risks.
- • Donna believes proximity to Bartlet's office increases both peril and importance.
- • Bartlet's name operates as a symbol of institutional consequence in staff talk.
Mildly amused and defensive on the surface; masking a need to maintain control and to assess competence; protective of office dynamics.
Sitting at his desk with a water bottle, Josh chokes mid-drink as Donna bursts in. He uses teasing banter about her dating life to deflect and then sharply pivots to a practical test — asking if she can lock the landing gear — while walking with her through the bullpen and into the lobby.
- • Diffuse Donna's emotional complaint with humor to reset the conversation.
- • Quickly evaluate Donna's actual operational competence before granting more responsibility.
- • Maintain hierarchical control over who gets substantive tasks.
- • Practical competence matters more than rhetoric when it comes to responsibility.
- • Humor can disarm and reveal truth in staff interactions.
- • Donna is ambitious but likely inexperienced in technical tasks.
Frustrated and exposed; earnest desire for meaningful work complicated by insecurity about practical skills and fear of being sidelined.
Storms into Josh's office angry and exposed, voices that she feels useless, demands to learn and do substantive work, and candidly admits she does not know how to lock landing gear when challenged — revealing vulnerability beneath her tough exterior.
- • Gain access to real, meaningful responsibilities at work.
- • Prove she is capable and not merely decorative or idle.
- • Force Josh to acknowledge and act on her ambition.
- • Being given more substantive tasks requires demonstrable capability.
- • She is currently underutilized and should be trusted with more.
- • Josh is the person who can open the door to those opportunities.
Not present; functionally a rhetorical device in Donna's complaint.
Referenced only as part of Donna's hyperbolic mock headline — 'Also dead, Diane Moss' — serving as a comic and intimate shorthand for the social circle around Josh and Donna.
- • As a referenced figure, serves Donna's rhetorical goal of dramatizing risk and closeness.
- • Anchors Donna's complaint in a shared social context.
- • Donna believes peers (like Diane) are part of her orbit and could be similarly affected by events.
- • Donna uses shared names to amplify her point about proximity to high-profile danger.
Not present; appears only as a rhetorical foil.
Named by Josh in a teasing list of 'Republican' suitors Donna supposedly dates; no physical presence — functioning as a comic exemplar in Josh's deflection.
- • Serve Josh's goal of derailing Donna's complaint with levity.
- • Signal social life as a site of harmless mockery between colleagues.
- • Josh believes teasing about Donna's dating life will lighten the exchange.
- • Donna's private life is fair game for workplace banter.
Not present; functions as a conversational device.
Invoked by Josh as 'Commander Wonderful' in a rapid-fire, joking list of Donna's Republican dates; exists here only to supply comic relief and to illustrate Josh's tactic of teasing to test Donna.
- • Provide Josh with material to deflect Donna's plea.
- • Imply Donna has an active social life to undercut claims of being sidelined.
- • Josh believes personal jibes can quickly destabilize an emotional appeal.
- • Colleagues' personal lives are fodder for informal hierarchy-establishing banter.
Not present; rhetorical usage only.
Mentioned by Josh as part of an offhand list (Dr. Freeride) — present only as a name to supply rhythm and teasing tone to the exchange.
- • Support Josh's goal of making Donna laugh or lose composure.
- • Frame Donna's social life as abundant, countering her claim of being idle.
- • Josh believes light mockery clarifies real issues without direct confrontation.
- • Naming bipartisan-sounding dates reveals a playful power imbalance.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Josh's clear plastic water bottle is an active prop: Josh is mid-drink when Donna bursts in, causing him to choke slightly. The bottle punctuates the interruption, grounds the exchange in quotidian realism, and accentuates Josh's surprise and quick shift from private moment to managerial tester.
Although Air Force One itself does not appear in this office scene, Josh's question about 'locking the landing gear' invokes the plane and its technical procedures as a conceptual object. The reference acts as a stand-in for the episode's larger operational crisis, transforming a domestic staff argument into a test tied to real-world presidential logistics.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Josh's bullpen area functions as the transitional corridor where the private confrontation in Josh's office spills into the communal workspace. They walk through it while Josh continues his teasing and testing, making the space a site where private grievance becomes a public workplace dynamic.
The Northwest Lobby is the connective public face of the West Wing where Josh and Donna's exchange continues. As they move into the lobby, the private plea gains a more exposed, echoing quality — footsteps and passing aides amplify Donna's vulnerability and the public stakes of her request.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Republican party appears only as a conversational foil — Josh jibes that Donna dates Republicans, listing invented or jokey names. Here the organization functions as social shorthand and ideological contrast, used to undercut Donna's complaint and to situate personal life within partisan identity.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"DONNA: "I'm not feeling useful right now. I think I should know how to do more things here.""
"JOSH: "How come you go out with so many Republicans?""
"JOSH: "Do you know how to lock the landing gear?""
"DONNA: "No.""