The Wooden Soldiers Decision
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
The scene fades out, marking the end of Act One and setting up the transition to Act Two.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Quietly moved and exhausted; a grief-tinged clarity that hardens into resolve.
Bartlet sits alone at the Resolute Desk, rubs his eyes, cycles through TVs, studies the juxtaposition of wooden and real soldiers, then deliberately picks up the phone and requests Leo McGarry—the physical act that converts private reflection into governmental motion.
- • to understand the human reality behind abstract military imagery
- • to convert private moral conviction into an actionable chain of command
- • images can collapse abstraction into moral obligation
- • leadership requires translating private conscience into public action
Not present; implied readiness and duty by virtue of being summoned.
Mentioned by name by President Bartlet as the person to be contacted; Leo is not on-screen but is invoked as the necessary next connective tissue to turn decision into coordinated action.
- • to be informed and mobilize staff once contacted (inferred)
- • to translate presidential intent into operational steps (inferred)
- • a chief of staff must be the engine that converts presidential will into execution (inferred)
- • crises require centralized, experienced coordination (inferred)
Calm, professional focus; operating as an unobtrusive conduit for presidential intent.
The Oval Office Operator answers Bartlet's line with professional brevity—'Yes, Mr. President?'—and immediately routes his request for Leo, facilitating the administrative step that follows his private decision.
- • to correctly and quickly route the President's call
- • to maintain smooth communication protocol under pressure
- • clear, timely communication is crucial in the Oval Office
- • the President's requests must be honored without delay
Not an emotional actor—serves as a dissonant, almost absurd background presence.
Ron Popeil appears on one muted television as an infomercial—brief, distracting, and emblematic of late-night triviality that Bartlet toggles past. His presence heightens the contrast between banal consumerism and grave military images.
- • to sell and entertain (within his on-screen role)
- • to provide tonal contrast for the President's reflection (narrative role)
- • television content is a mix of the trivial and the consequential
- • late-night media intrudes on private moments (implied)
Not individually emotional on-screen; collectively represent seriousness and human cost.
Real soldiers are shown marching on a separate television feed; their disciplined, human movement provides the moral counterpoint to the toy soldiers and is the image that prompts Bartlet's emotional and ethical reaction.
- • to convey the gravity of military mobilization via footage
- • to remind the viewer (and President) that policy decisions affect real people
- • military imagery carries moral weight
- • where there are troops, there are lives at stake
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Bartlet places his bulging briefing folder on the desk and then ignores it as he searches television feeds; the folder is a silent token of duty and unread business while he processes the moral image-work on the screens.
A television feed displays a military tank and real troop imagery that Bartlet glances at repeatedly; its hulking presence and movement contrast the toy soldiers' mechanical march and registers the human stakes for Bartlet.
One television displays the Washington weather report which Bartlet cycles through and mutes—it functions as mundane backdrop, heightening the emotional dissonance between trivial domestic programming and overseas military images.
The first television Bartlet turns on shows a heavy armored tank rolling down a ramp from a transport ship; this clip anchors the news context and provides an initial military reality that Bartlet mutes, then returns to as part of the contrasting imagery.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Washington, D.C. is invoked via a local weather report on one of the televisions; it anchors the Oval's visual field in home-front normalcy, contrasting domestic routine with overseas military deployment.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Military is present indirectly through televised footage of tanks and marching soldiers; it supplies the concrete reality—force, movement, potential casualties—that collapses abstract policy into human terms and motivates presidential action.
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? What? The wooden soldiers.""
"WOMAN: "Yes, Mr. President?""
"BARTLET: "Leo McGarry, please.""