Leo Confronts Fitzwallace Over Deliberate Shareef Meeting
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Leo confronts Fitzwallace about the Pentagon's scheduling of Bartlet's meeting with Shareef, revealing the deliberate decision to keep the meeting uncancelled.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Calmly resolute, exuding pragmatic detachment amid ethical friction
Firmly positioned amid the assembled brass, Fitzwallace parries Leo's accusations with unyielding precision, revealing the deliberate non-cancellation as anti-paranoia strategy, methodically defending the plot's necessities without flinching from human costs.
- • Justify Pentagon's scheduling to maintain Leo's buy-in
- • Reinforce operational secrecy and target complacency
- • Preventing target suspicion is essential for mission success
- • President's meeting serves the larger assassination imperative
uneasy
enters the room greeted by 'Ten-hut', questions the legal rules for covert actions and assassination, learns plan details, receives and examines a pen-recorder intended as a gift for Shareef, drops it on the table, instructs it be boxed, and exits
- • assess the legality and feasibility of the assassination operation
Deep unease and frustration bubbling beneath a veneer of controlled indignation
Settled tensely among Joint Chiefs and intel personnel, Leo launches a fierce interrogation of Fitzwallace on the uncancelled Shareef meeting, escalating with protective pleas, culminating in a vulnerable personal anecdote about his daughter's lobster-naming to underscore emotional peril to the President.
- • Probe and challenge the operational decision to expose risks
- • Safeguard President Bartlet's emotional detachment from the target
- • Humanizing a terrorist endangers moral resolve and personal well-being
- • White House security supersedes rigid military protocols
informs that the gang of eight must be notified if the order is given, suggests exchanging gifts with Shareef and nods to aide to hand over the pen-recorder
- • inform about congressional notification requirements
- • equip the President with intelligence-gathering tool
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The White House emerges as hypothetical canceller of the Shareef meeting in Fitzwallace's calculus—last-minute axing would spike paranoia—positioning it as unwitting risk vector in Pentagon's scheme, with Leo embodying its protective instincts against self-inflicted exposure.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff form a silent, imposing backdrop in the Situation Room, settled alongside Leo and intel personnel awaiting Bartlet, their presence underscoring military hierarchy and collective weight behind Fitzwallace's defense of the uncancelled meeting amid assassination deliberations.
The Pentagon stands accused by Leo as the scheduler of Bartlet's perilously timed Shareef meeting, with Fitzwallace mounting its defense—non-cancellation averts paranoia, preserving the Gulfstream trap—casting the organization as ruthless architect of presidential vulnerability for kill-chain success.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The pen recorder Bartlet drops in discomfort is later retrieved as evidence after Shareef's assassination."
"The pen recorder Bartlet drops in discomfort is later retrieved as evidence after Shareef's assassination."
"The pen recorder Bartlet drops in discomfort is later retrieved as evidence after Shareef's assassination."
"Bartlet's initial discomfort with Fitzwallace's assassination plan contrasts with his eventual decision to authorize it, showcasing his moral conflict."
Part of Larger Arcs
Key Dialogue
"LEO: "Where'd we get the wires crossed? How'd the Pentagon put it on the schedule?" FITZWALLACE: "We didn't get the wires crossed.""
"FITZWALLACE: "The White House cancels a meeting at the last minute, he's gonna have somebody tasting his food for a month. I don't want him thinking.""
"LEO: "I don't want the President... All right. I was gonna say I don't want him putting a voice to the guy. I take my daughter to a seafood place, the first thing she does is name all the lobsters in the tank, so I can't eat them.""