Toby Calls; Will Papers Over the Intern Crisis
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Toby calls Will, who expresses concern about Scott Holcomb's handling of the campaign, but Toby dismisses his worries and asks about the progress on the remarks.
Will lies to Toby about the interns' progress, masking his mounting stress about the situation.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Businesslike and slightly terse—trying to triage bigger problems and enforce calm, authoritarian messaging from afar.
Calls Will from off‑scene about last night's troubles and the campaign; brusque and controlling, he downplays Will's concerns ('Don't worry about the campaign') and asks about the remarks, prompting Will to lie about intern competence.
- • Manage the campaign damage remotely and prevent escalation.
- • Maintain message discipline and reassure subordinates to avoid panic.
- • Micromanaging the narrative will limit political fallout.
- • Operational details should not distract from larger strategy; present calm is necessary.
Calm, pragmatic; her steady behavior contrasts with Will's visible strain and subtly underwrites the operation.
Stands with the interns, assists Will by policing the draft notes, and quietly erases the invented phrase 'canning of catfish' on #60's page—an efficient, matter‑of‑fact corrective action that stabilizes the exercise.
- • Keep the exercise usable by removing nonsense and factual errors.
- • Support Will's effort to produce usable messaging despite limited staff.
- • Small editorial fixes keep the White House voice credible.
- • The interns need practical guidance more than pep talks.
Feigning control while anxious and cornered—confident in rhetoric but brittle underneath; resorts to a small lie to conceal pressure.
Leads the session: enters, distributes numbered jerseys, runs a rapid pop‑quiz about capital gains and Republicans' position, attempts to coach interns to fold the tax message into any local remark, and takes a tense call from Toby, during which he falsely praises the interns as "pros.
- • Rapidly impose a consistent White House tax message across junior staff remarks.
- • Contain panic and preserve the appearance of discipline to superiors (notably Toby).
- • If the White House can standardize every public remark, they can blunt the Republican rollout.
- • Perception of competence (to Toby and others) matters as much as actual competence right now.
Defensive but honest—she's both amused and exasperated by the mismatch between her background and the task.
Pushes back candidly when asked to write tax speeches, bluntly reveals she trained at the 'London School of Ballet,' and questions Will's expectation—her candor punctures the scene's attempted authority and underlines staff mismatch.
- • Be truthful about her qualifications and avoid being set up to fail.
- • Signal her desire to pivot careers while asserting boundaries.
- • Being miscast for a task is not helped by pretending otherwise.
- • Honesty will serve better than flattery when expectations are unreasonable.
Calm and quietly competent—her knowledge highlights disparities among the interns and eases Will's coaching briefly.
Answers Will's policy question crisply (identifying Republicans' position on capital gains), showing relative competence among the interns and offering a brief anchor of policy literacy in the room.
- • Contribute useful, accurate content to the exercise.
- • Demonstrate competence to superiors for future responsibility.
- • Understanding policy basics is expected and beneficial.
- • Clear, factual contributions will be noticed positively.
Awkward and exposed; trying to appear competent but frequently revealing gaps in knowledge and suitability.
Arrayed in the office, wearing numbered jerseys, answering Will's questions haltingly, taking notes, and visibly out of their depth when asked to translate policy into local remarks—their inexperience becomes the event's central friction.
- • Perform sufficiently to avoid immediate embarrassment or reprimand.
- • Learn enough on the fly to contribute usable lines for remarks.
- • Participation will help their careers and they should follow instructions.
- • They can fake competence if given clear, simple tasks.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The West Wing office telephone rings and becomes the conduit for off‑scene power dynamics: Toby calls Will, the device transfers terse orders and reassurances, and its ringing punctuates the exercise—forcing Will to split attention between coaching and damage control.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Communications Office functions as the cramped training ground: a West Wing room where interns, a senior aide (Elsie), and the acting speech team leader gather to rehearse message discipline. It serves practically as an impromptu boot‑camp and symbolically as the frontline where institutional messaging is manufactured under pressure.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Republican Leadership's recent unveiling of a $1.2 trillion tax plan is the external catalyst for the exercise: their public move compresses the White House timetable and forces staff to rehearse defensive messaging at the local level.
The White House is the institutional force organizing this quick lesson: its communications needs drive the recruitment of interns into message drills, the distribution of directives, and the telephone chain linking field campaigns to central staff.
The London School of Ballet appears indirectly as Cassie's cited alma mater; its name functions narratively to signal a mismatch between the intern corps' backgrounds and the White House's technical demands.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
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Key Dialogue
"TOBY: "Don't worry about the campaign.""
"WILL: "I'd really like a chance to talk to Scott Holcomb.""
"WILL: "Uh, great. These guys are pros.""