Wooden Soldiers, Real Consequences
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet observes multiple TV screens showing contrasting imagery of military movements and mundane content, then focuses on a VCR playback of wooden soldiers.
Bartlet compares the footage of wooden soldiers to real soldiers on another screen, drawing a parallel before deciding to call Leo McGarry.
Bartlet contacts his secretary to connect him with Leo McGarry, signaling a move to decisive action.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Pensive and melancholic at first, the President's solemn reflection hardens into quiet resolution — a moral clarity that overcomes distraction.
Sits alone at the Resolute Desk, rubs his eyes, flips through multiple televisions, rewinds and replays a VCR tape of wooden soldiers, alternates his gaze between the toy soldiers and footage of real troops, then decisively picks up the phone and asks to speak to Leo McGarry.
- • To force himself to see the human consequences behind abstract military imagery.
- • To move from private moral reckoning to concrete executive action by summoning Leo McGarry.
- • Abstraction (maps, footage, numbers) can hide human cost and must be pierced for correct moral judgment.
- • The President must translate moral clarity into policy; reflection without action is insufficient.
Not directly shown; implicitly expected to be alert, concerned, and ready to mobilize advice and staff.
Named on the phone by the President — Leo is invoked as the next point of counsel and coordination. He is not physically present in the Oval Office scene but is the immediate administrative target of Bartlet's decision to act.
- • To be briefed and offer practical counsel once connected.
- • To coordinate the staff and operational response implied by the President's call.
- • As Chief of Staff, he must translate the President's intent into administrative reality.
- • Quick, sober counsel is necessary when a moral imperative becomes a policy moment.
Calm, focused, unobtrusive — professional composure under the weight of the call.
Answers the President's call promptly with 'Yes, Mr. President?' and immediately prepares to connect him to Leo McGarry, performing the small procedural act that converts the President's private decision into administrative motion.
- • To respond quickly and correctly to the President's request.
- • To preserve the confidentiality and speed of the President's communication chain.
- • White House staff exist to enable the President's work with discretion and speed.
- • Procedural correctness matters in moments of executive decision-making.
Not emotional in-scene — functions as tonal contrast rather than an emotional actor.
Appears indirectly as an infomercial playing on one of the televisions; his commercial is muted by Bartlet and provides an abrasive, banal counterpoint to the military images and the toy soldiers.
- • To sell products (inferred from infomercial context).
- • To heighten the scene's tonal contrast between everyday consumerism and the gravity of military imagery.
- • Late-night television relentlessly markets the ordinary even as extraordinary events unfold.
- • The media landscape mixes trivial and profound images without hierarchy.
Depicted solemnly and objectively; the footage conveys gravity rather than individualized sentiment.
Shown on a television feed as real soldiers marching; their disciplined movement anchors the President's mental contrast between simulation (wooden soldiers) and actual human troops on the ground.
- • To embody the reality and potential cost of military action in the President's mind.
- • To serve as a visual reminder that decisions will affect real people.
- • Military force is organized, disciplined, and bears human cost.
- • Images of troops should temper cavalier or abstract discussion of intervention.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Bartlet places a bulging briefing folder on the Resolute Desk at the scene's opening; it sits as a tactile reminder of duties and unanswered business, largely ignored as he gives himself over to the television wall and private reflection.
This object represents the military tank imagery on another TV feed; Bartlet glances from the playback of wooden toy soldiers to footage of real armored vehicles and marching troops, the tank imagery reinforcing the stakes of any decision about deploying force.
One television specifically carrying the Washington weather report is turned on and muted in sequence; its mundanity provides tonal contrast to the military images and toy soldiers, anchoring the scene in the capital's everyday life while the President prepares to act.
This TV feed shows a heavy armored tank rolling down a ramp from a ship; Bartlet turns this first screen on, watches it briefly, and then mutes it, using the image as part of the montage that frames his moral reckoning with force projection.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Washington, D.C. is referenced indirectly via the weather report on one television; it situates the scene's moral and political stakes in the nation's capital, reminding the viewer that the President's private decision will have national consequences.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Military appears indirectly through televised footage of tanks and marching soldiers; its imagery exerts pressure on the President by visualizing force and potential sacrifice, turning abstract policy questions into images of human mobilization.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Bartlet's comparison of wooden soldiers to real soldiers foreshadows his later decision to deploy actual military units, symbolizing the transition from theoretical to real-world action."
"Bartlet's comparison of wooden soldiers to real soldiers foreshadows his later decision to deploy actual military units, symbolizing the transition from theoretical to real-world action."
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET: "You know what?""
"BARTLET: "What?""
"BARTLET: "The wooden soldiers.""
"WOMAN: "Yes, Mr. President?""
"BARTLET: "Leo McGarry, please.""
"WOMAN: "Right away, sir.""