Leo Hesitantly Pitches Bahrain Tanker Hold and Oil Test
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Leo hesitates to respond to Bartlet's initial call, signaling his distraction or reluctance.
Bartlet presses for an answer, growing impatient with Leo's delay.
Leo outlines a strategy to enforce sanctions by holding the ship in Bahrain and testing the oil's origin.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
impatient
speaks over speakerphone, impatiently repeats prompting and immediately challenges the effectiveness of holding the ship in Bahrain
- • prompt Leo for a crisis response plan
- • challenge the impact and viability of Leo's proposed action
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Leo explicitly proposes extracting and dispatching a sample of this dark oil from the Bahrain-detained tanker to the U.S. Customs Lab, framing it as pivotal forensic evidence whose molecular analysis will confirm sanctions-violating origins, shifting narrative momentum from vague pursuit to concrete legal leverage.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Leo designates Bahrain as the tactical harbor for detaining the tanker, enabling secure seizure and oil sampling under naval oversight, transforming this Gulf chokepoint into the fulcrum of U.S. enforcement strategy amid rising geopolitical tensions.
Leo identifies San Francisco as the endpoint for the oil sample's journey, site of the U.S. Customs Lab where impartial testing will dissect origins and validate violations, bridging distant crisis to domestic scientific authority.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
Leo positions the U.S. Customs Lab in San Francisco as the decisive arbiter, tasked with origin-testing the tanker oil sample to expose sanctions breaches, injecting federal forensic rigor into the administration's high-stakes strategy against evasion.
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
"BARTLET: "Yeah?""
"LEO: "We hold the ship in Bahrain.""
"BARTLET: "It doesn't do anything to hold the ship in Bahrain""
"LEO: "Sir, we hold the ship in Bahrain and then send a sample of the oil to the U.S. customs lab in San Francisco. If the point of origin violates sanctions...""