Bartlet Presses Reluctant Leo for Shareef's Coded Terror Threat
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Bartlet presses Leo for the urgent news, overriding Leo's initial reluctance to discuss it at the gravesite.
Leo reveals intercepted intelligence about Shareef's meeting with Muslim clerics, detailing a coded threat of future attacks.
Bartlet reads the translated threat aloud, absorbing the implications before decisively moving to the limousine.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Arrogant confidence in ultimate victory despite setbacks
Invoked through intercepted dialogue from his Bechar meeting with clerics; his coded words, translated in Leo's notepad, promise relentless attacks, taunting American security and escalating Oval tensions.
- • Rally clerics for subsequent terror operations
- • Psychologically undermine U.S. vigilance via coded boasts
- • Past failures prelude greater triumphs
- • Divine or ideological assurance against elevated foes
Somber loyalty tempered by crisis awareness
Stands loyally beside Bartlet at the grave during the flower's placement and the tense exchange with Leo, silently witnessing the pivot from grief confession to crisis absorption as they proceed to the motorcade.
- • Provide unwavering presence for Bartlet amid transition
- • Observe and internalize intel for aide duties
- • President's emotional needs integrate with duty
- • Threat intel reshapes White House priorities instantly
Grief-stricken vulnerability hardening into fierce presidential determination
Places flowers at the grave to conclude mourning, repeatedly presses Leo for intel despite protests, reads the notepad's ominous translation aloud with grave intensity, removes glasses as a ritual of resolve, then enters the limousine prompting motorcade departure.
- • Extract urgent intelligence immediately, overriding decorum
- • Internalize threat to fuel decisive action on Shareef
- • National security demands precedence over personal ritual
- • Intercepted vows signal imminent danger requiring swift response
N/A (deceased, but inspires mourning)
Evoked through her grave as Bartlet places flowers, symbolizing the personal loss that frames his abrupt shift to duty, her absence underscoring the emotional cost of command.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Leo opens the notepad mid-walk to the motorcade, displaying hurried scribbles of the triple-verified Arabic translation from Shareef's Bechar meeting; Bartlet seizes and reads it aloud, elevating the object from private note to pivotal catalyst igniting assassination deliberations.
Bartlet grips and deliberately places the flowers on Mrs. Landingham's grave, a tactile ritual sealing anniversary grief just before demanding intel, visually bridging intimate loss with encroaching terror.
The idling motorcade looms as destination during the walking briefing; Bartlet wrenches open the limo door, slides in post-glasses removal, and triggers its urgent departure from cemetery grounds, hurtling toward Oval confrontations.
Leo concludes a tense call on the phone—echoing Shareef's phrase 'I will do it again'—while leaning on the limo and noting details, hanging up to approach Bartlet, channeling raw intercepts into the unfolding briefing.
Bartlet wears the glasses to read the notepad's threat precisely, then removes them post-recitation—a signature gesture stripping intellectual buffer to bare-eyed command, signaling emotional pivot to action.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The grave anchors the event's emotional launchpad; Bartlet deposits flowers here, whispering finality before striding away, its stone witness to the instant grief surrenders to Shareef's distant menace.
Bechar materializes via Leo's briefing as Shareef's clandestine conclave site, IR-laser intercepted from afar; its invocation injects remote fanaticism into Arlington's sanctity, chaining terror's origin to immediate U.S. threat.
Arlington's vast rows of markers frame the event's core tension, transforming a sacred memorial into an ad-hoc security briefing ground where motorcade idles nearby, forcing collision of private grief with public peril.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Leo's early revelation of intercepted intelligence about Shareef's coded threats leads to the later bombshell that key evidence against Shareef is tainted by torture, invalidating legal options."
"Bartlet's grief over Mrs. Landingham's death mirrors Charlie's search for her successor, both highlighting the lingering absence of a beloved figure in the White House."
"Bartlet's graveside moment of personal vulnerability and therapy confession contrasts with his final, steely decision to authorize Shareef's assassination, underscoring his internal conflict between morality and pragmatism."
Themes This Exemplifies
Thematic resonance and meaning
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET: What is it? LEO: It can wait until we get back. BARTLET: What is it? LEO: This isn't the place. BARTLET: Leo."
"LEO: Shareef had a meeting with two Muslim clerics in Bechar. We picked up the meeting by aiming and IR laser beam at the windows from 400 feet. Three different Arabic experts worked on the translation."
"BARTLET: ([reads]) 'The enemy imagines he is secure. The bridge did not fall. He looks down from his high-- or elevated place or places-- but our great victory is still assured. There will be other moments.' LEO: Meaning times, places, or opportunities. BARTLET: I have brought him low, and I will do it again."