Out of Diesel — Stranded and Exposed
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Donna and Cathy engage in small talk that reveals Cathy works as a claims adjuster for health insurance benefits, highlighting her practical concerns.
The pick-up truck sputters and stops, revealing it has run out of diesel, stranding the group on the rural road.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Frustrated but trying to appear upbeat — masking worry about deadlines with forced levity.
Sits on the truck bed, attempts to defuse tension with jokes about 'roughing it,' directs Donna to call the State Office, and repeatedly registers anxiety about making the plane as the breakdown unfolds.
- • Keep morale from collapsing and maintain a sense of control
- • Ensure the team makes the plane on schedule
- • Delegate logistical recovery to Donna/State Office so he can continue managing campaign flow
- • Image and momentum matter — even minor delays must be managed quickly
- • Maintaining upbeat appearance helps the team and the campaign
- • Campaign infrastructure (State Office volunteers) can be counted on to fix local problems
Practically helpful but politically indifferent — polite in action, frank about political preference.
Local driver who pulls up, offers a ride back to the farm, and plainly states his political intention not to vote for Bartlet — converting a practical gesture into a political signal.
- • Help neighbors get where they need to go
- • Be honest about his political stance
- • Avoid being pulled into campaign drama
- • Helping someone doesn't imply political endorsement
- • Local voters have distinct priorities that may not align with the President
- • Civic courtesy exists alongside political disagreement
Irritated and world-weary — distancing himself from forced cheer and registering political reality beneath the banter.
Perched on the truck bed, he reacts with sarcastic detachment ('Nobody cares'), expresses cynicism about the moment and the campaign's reach, and resists Josh's cheerleading.
- • Maintain intellectual honesty about campaign disconnection
- • Avoid participating in false cheer
- • Assess messaging implications of rural voters' attitudes
- • Campaign theatrics often miss underlying voter concerns
- • Local indifference or hostility is a real political threat
- • Logistical problems can expose larger messaging failures
Not present; functions as off-stage political weight that refracts local responses and staff anxieties.
Referenced by Cathy as the employer of the stranded aides, Bartlet is not present but his candidacy and administration hang over the exchange as a political referent.
- • (Implied) Maintain campaign momentum
- • (Implied) Project connection with rural voters
- • The President's campaign deserves logistical protection
- • Local perceptions of Bartlet matter to staff operations
Anxious but professional — focused on solutions and aware of escalating time pressure.
In the cab on her cellphone, she immediately implements contingency planning — calling the State Office to request a volunteer, proposing pickup at the gas station, and coordinating tow options while keeping the timeline in focus.
- • Arrange prompt transport so staff rejoin the motorcade or catch the plane
- • Minimize campaign disruption through quick logistical coordination
- • Prevent a small breakdown from becoming a public embarrassment
- • Campaign operations require rapid, pragmatic solutions
- • Local party infrastructure (State Office volunteers) can and should be leveraged
- • Time is the critical constraint and must be managed tightly
Apologetic and slightly embarrassed about causing delay, yet pragmatic and focused on fixing the immediate problem for everyone's sake.
Driver who reports the problem, explains the truck is headed to her job, and volunteers to hitch back to the farm for diesel — embarrassed but practical and cooperative in front of campaign staff.
- • Get fuel quickly so the group can continue
- • Be helpful and honest about the situation
- • Protect her father (health benefits) by assuring Donna earlier
- • Small-town solutions (hitching/farm resources) are the quickest fix
- • Honesty about limitations (truck range) is better than excuses
- • These campaign staffers, while outsiders, should be treated straightforwardly
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Donna's campaign-site cellphone is the operational lifeline: she places the critical call to the State Office to request a volunteer pickup, coordinates timing, and transmits the urgency that shapes the group's contingency plan.
Cap and Cathy's red pickup is the vehicle carrying the staff; its soy-diesel engine sputters and stops, turning transport into obstacle. The truck's failure forces improvisation, creates the roadside mise-en-scène for political exchange, and precipitates the decision to split the group.
Sy's black pick-up arrives as the practical rescue vehicle; it provides immediate transport for Cathy and Cap back to the farm, enabling a quick retrieval of diesel and underscoring local self-reliance.
The soy-diesel fuel is the proximate cause of the breakdown: the truck exhausts its supply, exposing local fuel infrastructure limits (nearby station lacks diesel) and creating the logistical gap the staff must bridge.
A local tow truck is invoked as a possible mechanical remedy but is dismissed as unnecessary; its mention frames available options and the group's preference for faster, low-key fixes over formal recovery.
The campaign plane functions as an off-screen time constraint: its scheduled departure creates the ticking clock that forces rapid logistical triage and elevates the stakes of the roadside breakdown.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
Unionville functions as the missed waypoint and time-marker in the scene: having been missed, it concretely measures how the breakdown compresses the schedule and raises the risk that staff will be separated from the motorcade and plane.
Cathy and Cap's nearby farm is the source of diesel and a local fallback; it functions as a logistical anchor and a symbol of self-sufficiency that the campaign staff must rely on when formal infrastructure fails.
A straight rural Indiana road provides the physical stage for the breakdown: isolated, practical, and emblematic of campaign distance from urban centers. The roadside setting forces improvisation, creates a small public theatre for political admission, and shapes timing constraints.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The State Office appears through Donna's phone call as the campaign's local logistical arm: tasked with dispatching a volunteer driver to retrieve stranded staff, it is the institutional stopgap that connects centralized campaign operations to on-the-ground fixes.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
No narrative connections mapped yet
This event is currently isolated in the narrative graph
Key Dialogue
"CATHY: We're out of gas."
"DONNA: All right, can I suggest this: we've missed Unionville. We've got a little over an hour till the plane leaves and we can make it if we call a volunteer and have them pick us up at the gas station. You guys can have the tow truck meet you there."
"SY: Didn't vote for him the first time. Don't plan to the second time."