Bartlet Grills Leo on Tanker Strike Catastrophe Risks
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Margaret enters Leo's office and hesitantly informs him of a phone call, hinting at her concern for his personal struggles.
Leo learns the call is from President Bartlet, shifting his focus abruptly from personal matters to urgent presidential business.
President Bartlet demands clarity on the mission objective regarding the oil tanker, pressing Leo for specifics.
Leo briefs Bartlet on the potential military actions against the tanker, including F-18s firing warning shots.
Bartlet expresses concern about the risks of striking a crude oil tanker, revealing the high stakes of the military operation.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Deep concern laced with hesitant devotion and quiet hurt
Margaret enters hesitantly by Leo's desk, voicing unsolicited empathy over his divorce papers and alcoholism before relaying Bartlet's call; she absorbs his glare, receives a whispered rebuke for her pitying look, and exits swiftly, her concern lingering as catalyst for Leo's vulnerability.
- • Convey urgent presidential call without delay
- • Offer genuine support for Leo's evident personal struggles
- • True loyalty demands addressing a superior's hidden suffering
- • Alcoholism and divorce warrant compassionate intervention, not silence
demanding
calls Leo (voice over phone), demands clarity on seizure goal, questions F-18 pilots' plan, warns sharply about explosion risks if propeller is missed on crude oil tanker
- • to interrogate Leo on operational goals and strike perils
- • to ensure awareness of catastrophe risks
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Leo crisply articulates the tanker's seizure as core operational goal—capture and Bahrain escort—central to Bartlet's demand for clarity, framing the high-stakes enforcement centerpiece that propels the airborne crisis rhythm and underscores presidential impatience with ambiguity.
Leo outlines F-18 pilots' contingency—warning shots and propeller disablement—to Bartlet, who interjects with dire crude oil explosion warning if they err, injecting lethal peril into the seizure plan and ratcheting tension over precision in sanctions enforcement.
Margaret explicitly invokes Leo's freshly arrived divorce papers in her empathetic plea about alcoholism and divorce recovery needs, triggering his glare and whisper; Leo later cites them to Bartlet as source of Margaret's 'look' and his distraction, piercing his stoic veneer to expose the emotional toll beneath crisis command.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Leo specifies Bahrain as the tanker's escorted endpoint post-seizure, invoked in his briefing to Bartlet as geopolitical anchor for sanctions triumph—defended harbors symbolizing enforcement closure amid swelling Gulf crisis, heightening stakes of flawless Navy ops.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Josh's clipped urgency about Bartlet's fatigue connects to Leo revealing his personal struggles with divorce papers, showing how personal and professional stresses are intertwined for the staff."
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET (VO): What's our goal?"
"LEO: We're trying to seize the ship and escort it to Bahrain."
"BARTLET: Leo, just so they know--it's a tanker full of crude oil. If they miss the propeller and hit something else---"
"LEO: My divorce papers came today. She thinks I'm going to drink"