Bad Moon Rising
President Bartlet enlists old ally Oliver Babish to probe if concealing his MS diagnosis during the campaign forged a criminal conspiracy, unraveling threads of perjury and loyalty as national crises erupt and a special prosecutor looms over his presidency.
Oliver Babish storms into the fray, gavel shattering a treacherous dictaphone as President Jed Bartlet lays bare his fear: did hiding relapsing-remitting MS from 16 insiders defraud America into electing a ticking time bomb? Bartlet dodges vacation bags, thrusts the confession at Babish amid Leo McGarry's steely gaze, igniting a probe that slices through depositions, lawsuits, and family secrets. Babish's questions hammer like federal land-use briefs—has Bartlet perjured on health forms? Lied under oath? The Oval's shadows deepen as Babish tallies the circle of knowing: doctors, family, Fitzwallace, Toby Ziegler, now clawing toward exposure.
Chaos erupts beyond the counsel's door. Mexico's peso craters, dragging $30 billion in loans into freefall; Josh Lyman bullies Senate committees in the Roosevelt Room, crooning Wells Fargo wagons while Donna Moss skewers the bailout as taxpayer betrayal, her textiles worker's plight clashing against Josh's Lend-Lease firehose logic. An oil tanker, the Kensington Indio—Sam Seaborn's old Gage Whitney albatross—rams Delaware shores, hemorrhaging 720,000 gallons across crab graves and tourism dreams. Sam corners Lieutenant Emily Lowenbrau, anchor snapping in 25-foot seas, then tempts disbarment confessing the ship's cheap steering to Ainsley Hayes, who slams privilege shut.
Toby Ziegler erupts over a voucher leak quote twisting Bartlet's veto threat into compromise bait; CJ Cregg hunts phantoms through 1,100 staffers, Jamie Hotchkiss bristling, Donna feigning guilt in Lindbergh baby farce. Toby's rage masks seismic tremors—he knows potatoes dwarf this leak, eyes darting from CJ's probe, throat clearing lies as MS's bad moon swells.
Charlie Young freezes over Georgetown forms: Zoey's underage signature demands parental medical history—Bartlet's blanked MS line, Abbey's pen sealing perjury. He bolts to Leo, who seizes records, pulse racing. Bartlet corners Charlie under portico lamps, loyalty's blade flashing: one lie severs them forever. Then, Oval showdown—Bartlet offers Babish escape, but Oliver demands total surrender: staff briefing, public blast, a Bartlet-hating special prosecutor unleashed with army staff, unlimited war chest. No privilege, no mercy—depositions in kitchens, Hague war crimes. Bartlet whispers, 'Bring it on,' hands pocketed, moon rising blood-red over a presidency teetering on truth's razor edge.
Crises collide in propulsive rhythm: Mexico yields to bailout signatures at dawn, oil slicks choke beaches, leaks fizzle under CJ's blanket denial. Yet beneath policy frenzy pulses the human fracture—loyalty's cost, deception's gravity. Bartlet, Nobel laureate turned confessor, stares down fraud's indictment, staff blind to the storm brewing in Babish's war room. Toby's evasion to CJ betrays the fracture lines; Charlie's brilliance vaults toward law school salvation. Power's corridors crackle with unspoken accusations, vicious circles of property taxes paling against MS's remorseless spin. Babish stays, chess unplayed, Chicago steel forging the fight. Fade to black as 'bring it on' echoes, stakes vaulting from election lie to constitutional Armageddon.
Events in This Episode
The narrative beats that drive the story
Oliver Babish, White House Counsel, fumes, his meticulously planned vacation to Sarawak derailed by a broken dictaphone stuck on record and the endless minutiae of his office. His irritation, a mere ripple in the grand scheme, explodes as President Bartlet and Leo McGarry storm his office, interrupting his departure. Bartlet, stripped bare of presidential decorum, lays bare his deepest fear: did concealing his relapsing-remitting MS diagnosis from sixteen key individuals during his campaign constitute a massive criminal conspiracy to defraud the American public? The question hangs heavy, a dark cloud eclipsing Babish’s travel plans and shattering any illusion of normalcy. As Bartlet articulates the terrifying premise, Babish’s gaze fixes on the malfunctioning dictaphone, a symbol of uncontrolled recording and compromised secrets. With a sudden, decisive strike, he smashes his ancestral gavel down, obliterating the device. This visceral act signals the brutal, no-holds-barred investigation that now looms over the presidency, shattering the fragile peace and marking the true beginning of the inquisition into the highest office. The destruction of the dictaphone is a raw, immediate statement: all prior pretenses of casual conversation or contained secrets are now violently shattered, replaced by an uncompromising pursuit of truth.
In his office, Oliver Babish unleashes sarcastic fury at his team's flawed HR 437 analysis, fixating on ignored Fourth Amendment issues while staff pleadingly urges him toward a 'forced vacation'—an …
In the White House Counsel's office, Oliver Babish—resisting his staff's push for a forced vacation—discovers his Dictaphone malfunctioning, stuck perpetually on record mode and refusing to stop capturing sensitive conversations. …
Workaholic White House Counsel Oliver Babish resists his staff's efforts to usher him toward a 'forced vacation' in Borneo, nitpicking recent staff work on HR 437, fondling his ancestral gavel …
In the Oval Office, President Bartlet passionately rails to advisor Cal against funding public schools via property taxes, labeling it a self-perpetuating 'vicious circle' that traps poor districts in underfunding …
As Cal exits the Oval Office following Bartlet's frustrated rant on school funding inequities, Leo enters to find the President trapped in an obsessive loop, repeating 'vicious circle' amid mounting …
Juggling urgent Senate coordination calls, Josh casually reveals to stunned Donna his indirect hand in Mexico's peso devaluation—advising Treasury as it triggered a catastrophic Monday collapse equivalent to a 2000-point …
Outside the Roosevelt Room, as Josh briefs Donna on Mexico's $30 billion debt crisis stemming from the peso devaluation he helped orchestrate, Toby interrupts with a newspaper, seething over a …
Fresh off a tense phone call coordinating the crisis response, Josh briefs Donna on Mexico's catastrophic Monday morning collapse—peso devaluation he influenced, historic Bolsa plunge, and $30 billion in unpaid …
In the packed White House briefing room, C.J. Cregg parries aggressive questions from Reporter 1st about a leaked quote from a 'senior official' implying President Bartlet's compromise on school vouchers. …
Amid persistent reporter badgering on President Bartlet's school voucher stance, C.J. deftly redirects the chaotic briefing to a breaking national crisis: a Coast Guard report of a single-hull VLCC tanker …
Chaos erupts as the White House grapples with a trifecta of crises. Josh Lyman, a whirlwind of political urgency, scrambles to secure a $30 billion bailout for Mexico, whose economy has cratered overnight. He navigates reluctant Senate committees, his "Wells Fargo wagon" analogy barely masking the desperation. Simultaneously, CJ Cregg battles a press corps hungry for answers about a leaked quote suggesting President Bartlet's compromise on school vouchers, a betrayal that sends Toby Ziegler into a furious, vocal tirade. Amidst this, CJ drops another bombshell: the Kensington Indio, a single-hull oil tanker, has run aground off Delaware, hemorrhaging 200,000 gallons of crude and threatening ecological disaster. Sam Seaborn, hearing the ship's name, visibly recoils, a past connection surfacing. Meanwhile, in the stark confines of Oliver Babish's office, the true storm gathers. Babish, with surgical precision, dismantles the illusion of attorney-client privilege, forcing Bartlet to confront the legal jeopardy of his MS concealment. He probes Bartlet's past depositions, searching for any instance of perjury regarding his health. The interrogation culminates in Babish listing the sixteen individuals privy to Bartlet's secret, including Toby Ziegler, expanding the conspiracy's chilling reach. Bartlet, besieged by national emergencies and personal betrayal, grimly accepts the relentless questioning, understanding the profound depth of the crisis now consuming his administration. This act propels the narrative forward by establishing the immediate, overwhelming external pressures while simultaneously deepening the insidious internal threat to Bartlet's presidency.
In Sam's office, C.J.'s briefing plays on TV, where she reveals the crisis involves the Kensington Indio tanker off Delaware, spelling 'I-N-D-I-O' amid reporter questions on containment. Sam snaps to …
In his office, Sam watches C.J.'s TV briefing announcing the Kensington Indio oil tanker's spill off Delaware. He freezes in intense recognition at the ship's name, bolts out to urgently …
In a volatile hallway clash, Toby ambushes CJ, erupting in rage over a leaked quote from a 'senior White House official' that torpedoes their veto threat on a Republican education …
Fresh off Toby's explosive hallway tirade, Sam enters and swiftly reassures CJ that he wasn't the 'senior White House official' who leaked the damaging quote, easing her suspicions amid rampant …
The triple crises deepen, forcing the White House staff into increasingly desperate measures. Josh Lyman, a man possessed, continues his relentless campaign to push the $30 billion Mexico bailout through Congress, facing entrenched resistance and the ticking clock of market opening. He dismisses CJ's leak investigation as a futile exercise, his focus laser-sharp on the economic catastrophe. Donna Moss, however, challenges his policy, embodying the voice of the American taxpayer, questioning the wisdom of sending billions abroad. Their sharp exchange reveals the moral and economic fault lines within the administration. Meanwhile, Sam Seaborn delves into the oil spill, meeting Lieutenant Emily Lowenbrau. Her stark, technical description of the Kensington Indio's catastrophic failure—a steering malfunction, a broken anchor, and the sheer impossibility of stopping an 18-knot tanker in 25-foot seas—paints a grim picture of environmental devastation and corporate negligence. The lieutenant's account confirms the spill's severity, setting the stage for massive legal and ecological fallout. Back in the White House Counsel's office, Oliver Babish relentlessly continues his interrogation of President Bartlet. His questions now pivot to life and health insurance documents, meticulously searching for any instance where Bartlet might have signed under penalty of perjury without disclosing his MS. Bartlet, maintaining his composure, denies any such transgression. The act closes with Leo McGarry's steely resolve, asserting Babish's indispensable role in the unfolding investigation, despite Babish's own uncertainty. Leo's declaration solidifies the counsel's position at the heart of the impending storm, signaling that the internal probe will not be easily dismissed or abandoned.
In the Roosevelt Room, Josh aggressively presses congressional aides (including Larry and a staffer) to fast-track the $30 billion Mexico bailout bill straight to markup and vote, leveraging the President's …
In the Roosevelt Room, Josh presses congressional aides for an immediate Mexico bailout vote, detailing Treasury's rapid legislative drafting and the President's direct call. The aide resists, demanding review time, …
In the bustling Outer Oval Office amid White House crises, Sam Seaborn casually quizzes personal aide Charlie Young about his summer college registration. Stunned, Sam learns Charlie is taking Theology …
In the Outer Oval Office, Ginger interrupts Sam's conversation with Charlie to usher in Lieutenant Emily Lowenbrau, who delivers a grim, technical briefing on the Kensington Indio's mechanical catastrophe: steering …
In the White House Counsel's office, Oliver Babish methodically interrogates President Bartlet about his lack of life and health insurance, exposing vulnerabilities in his financial disclosures. Babish cuts sharply to …
As Oliver Babish presses President Bartlet on potential perjury in health disclosures, Leo McGarry knocks and interrupts, urging Bartlet to take an urgent call amid mounting crises. Bartlet quietly exits, …
C.J. lures Jamie Hotchkiss into her office with feigned casualness, probing his attendance at the Roosevelt Room voucher meeting and recent contact with Baltimore Sun reporter Terry Cashin. Jamie, already …
After Jamie Hotchkiss storms out denying the voucher leak, C.J. slumps in exhaustion and beckons Carol, asking how many more grueling staff interrogations await. Carol's deadpan '1,138' elicits C.J.'s wry …
The pressure mounts, exposing vulnerabilities and igniting personal crises across the White House. CJ Cregg, exasperated, embarks on a Sisyphean task, interrogating an endless parade of staffers—1,138, to be exact—in a futile hunt for the school voucher leak. Her comedic frustration underscores the impossibility of containing secrets within such a vast, interconnected ecosystem. Donna Moss, ever the moral compass, continues her principled stand against the Mexico bailout, confronting Josh with the poignant story of a struggling textile worker. Josh, however, counters with a powerful historical analogy, invoking the Lend-Lease Act, arguing for the moral imperative of international aid, subtly shifting Donna's perspective. The oil spill crisis escalates for Sam Seaborn, who seeks legal counsel from Ainsley Hayes. In a shocking confession, Sam reveals his past complicity: he was the lawyer at Gage Whitney who bought the Kensington Indio, aware of its cheap, faulty steering. Ainsley, horrified, warns him that any attempt to testify would violate attorney-client privilege and lead to his immediate disbarment, trapping Sam in a moral quagmire. The act's seismic shift occurs when Charlie Young, meticulously reviewing Zoey Bartlet's Georgetown admissions forms, unearths a devastating detail: the requirement for parental medical history and a parent's signature for minors. A chilling realization dawns – Abbey Bartlet, in signing the form, likely committed perjury by omitting the President's MS. Charlie, frozen by the discovery, immediately alerts a visibly shaken Leo McGarry, who, recognizing the profound legal jeopardy, instantly demands Zoey's admissions paperwork. This revelation transforms Bartlet's abstract confession into a concrete, prosecutable crime, propelling the internal investigation into an irreversible, perilous new phase.
In the Outer Oval Office, Charlie juggles endless college application forms amid lighthearted banter with Mrs. Landingham and Margaret, who tease him about majors like glee club and fencing, highlighting …
Amid playful banter with Mrs. Landingham and Margaret about his overwhelming college forms and absurd majors like glee club or fencing, Charlie abruptly freezes mid-complaint, his face betraying horror at …
In the White House Counsel's office, Oliver Babish vents his fury at President Bartlet's technically legal but ethically suspect actions in hiding his MS diagnosis, accusing him of behaving exactly …
Amid Oliver Babish's mounting frustration with President Bartlet's technically legal but fraud-suggesting MS concealment, an aide interrupts their tense standoff in the Counsel's office. Delivering Margaret's message that Charlie Young …
The narrative hurtles towards a dramatic confrontation, as secrets unravel and loyalties are tested. Donna Moss, in a moment of levity, playfully "confesses" to the school voucher leak, her Lindbergh baby joke momentarily deflecting the relentless pressure on CJ Cregg. Josh Lyman, meanwhile, finally wins Donna over on the Mexico bailout, employing a compelling historical parallel to the Lend-Lease Act, asserting the moral necessity of international intervention. The conversation highlights their evolving dynamic and Josh's persuasive prowess. Sam Seaborn presents Toby Ziegler with the grim, devastating statistics of the oil spill's ecological and economic fallout, but Toby's distracted, evasive responses signal a deeper, unspoken concern. This foreshadowing culminates in CJ’s sharp confrontation with Toby, as she realizes his "big potatoes" comment and his earlier rage mask a profound, unrevealed truth about the President's health, creating a palpable rift between them. The heart of the act beats in two intense, personal encounters. First, President Bartlet confronts Charlie Young, acknowledging Charlie's discovery about Zoey's form. Bartlet, with a gravitas born of impending doom, warns Charlie of the inevitable subpoenas and demands absolute, unwavering honesty, threatening to sever their bond if Charlie lies to protect him. This moment is a powerful lesson in integrity and loyalty's true cost. Then, in the Oval Office, Bartlet lays bare Abbey's perjury to Oliver Babish, offering him an honorable exit from the impending scandal. But Babish, now fully committed, refuses. Instead, he delivers his uncompromising terms: Bartlet must publicly confess, brief his entire staff, appoint a "blood-spitting, Bartlet-hating Republican" as Special Prosecutor with an unlimited budget and an army of staff, and surrender all executive privilege. Every document, every testimony, no matter how humiliating or inconvenient, must be given. When Babish demands Bartlet's response to potential war crime charges, Bartlet, with quiet defiance, whispers, "Bring it on." This defiant acceptance marks the true beginning of the constitutional Armageddon, cementing Bartlet's resolve to face the storm head-on, regardless of the personal or political cost.
In a seamless blend of workplace banter and persuasion, Josh lightly probes Donna about her grilling by C.J., asking if she confessed to the voucher leak; she deflects with a …
Picking up from leak interrogation, Josh pivots to persuade skeptical Donna on the Mexico bailout, invoking a 1939 'phone call' from war-torn Europe and handing her an eighth-grade textbook on …
Sam urgently briefs a profoundly distracted Toby on the Kensington Indio oil spill's devastation—720,000 gallons despoiling 100 square miles, killing marine life, and crippling tourism economies—but Toby admits he wasn't …
After dismissing Sam, C.J. confronts a weary, distracted Toby about his overreaction to a minor school voucher leak, insisting it's handled and no big deal. Toby dismisses it as 'small …