Missed Call, Mounting Pressure
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
Josh checks with Donna about confirming their plane's departure but learns communication proves unreliable.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Anxious and frustrated beneath a layer of bravado; uses humor and contests to control the mood and hide uncertainty.
Acts as the de facto field leader: explains their connection to the President to the manager, presses Donna to confirm the plane, and then stages a rock-throwing contest with Toby to puncture tension and project confidence despite obvious worry.
- • Confirm that the campaign plane will be there to pick them up.
- • Keep the staff calm and maintain morale.
- • Avoid public confrontation that could damage the campaign's image.
- • If he can control the immediate optics, the administrative problem can be contained.
- • Communications will be restored if they persist.
- • Personal composure can buy time for a logistical fix.
Short, hostile, and matter-of-fact — he is politically dismissive and uninterested in being accomodating.
Greets the group with curt civility, questions how they became stranded, and bluntly refuses to allow loitering while asserting his political opposition to the President, shifting the aides from welcomed guests to unwelcome customers.
- • Keep his store free of loiterers and potential trouble.
- • Signal personal political stance and refuse to be courted by the campaign.
- • Avoid entanglement in campaign logistics or delay of his business.
- • Campaigns don't matter to him and won't change his vote.
- • Loitering by political staffers invites problems for his shop.
- • Local, everyday concerns trump national politics in his space.
Annoyed and resigned but deliberately lightening the mood; masks concern with ironic disengagement.
Perches on the front stoop, engages in cynical banter with Josh, joins the rock-throwing bet and deliberately misses to signal exasperation, using humor and competition to deflect stress.
- • Avoid being drawn into a high-stress emotional reaction.
- • Maintain camaraderie with Josh while asserting personal boundaries.
- • Use humor to diffuse rising tension among the staff.
- • Emotional detachment reduces the personal cost of campaign chaos.
- • Small rituals (bets, jokes) help keep group cohesion.
- • The party will survive one missed connection; others will bear the consequences.
Not present; his absence creates pressure and urgency felt by staff.
Referenced as the principal the aides serve and as the reason for the travel; his presence is the object of their logistical concern though he is offstage.
- • (Implied) Continue scheduled campaign events and messaging.
- • Remain on schedule to minimize political damage from delays.
- • Campaign visibility is crucial to re-election efforts.
- • Staff should manage logistics so appearances proceed smoothly.
Concerned and purposeful: pragmatic anxiety focused on solving the communication breakdown rather than dramatizing it.
Thumbs through papers and repeatedly calls campaign contacts, reporting that she cannot reach the motorcade because they're 'in a bad calling area,' grounding the scene in an objective technical failure.
- • Reach the motorcade or advance team to confirm the plane and schedule.
- • Provide Josh with accurate status so he can make decisions.
- • Find a practical next step to reunite the team with the President.
- • Communications and logistics are solvable problems if methodically addressed.
- • Time-sensitive operations must be confirmed, not assumed.
- • Reporting accurate information is more valuable than false reassurance.
Not present; referenced neutrally as a field contact who anchors Josh's confidence about the morning's outreach.
Mentioned by Josh as someone he was speaking with earlier (he was 'out there talking with Cathy'), invoked as evidence of having done the hard work of engagement outside the bubble.
- • (As inferred by reference) Represent local voter concerns in the interaction with campaign staff.
- • Provide a practical counterpoint to rhetorical campaign messaging.
- • Local engagement matters more than scripted appearances.
- • Practical policies (e.g., farm subsidies) impact voters.
- • Campaign staff sometimes misunderstand rural reality.
Not an emotional agent here; serves as a rhetorical shield and reminder of duties.
Invoked indirectly by remark in the bet ('I work at the White House') and by the aides' identity — the institution is the staff's anchor and raison d'etre even while absent from the scene.
- • Maintain institutional continuity and reputational protection.
- • Use staff presence to project authority and competence.
- • The White House's reputation must be defended even in small encounters.
- • Staff must improvise to protect institutional interests.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
Cap's red pickup is referenced indirectly: its earlier diesel failure is given as the cause of the group's current stranding, making the truck a proximate cause of the present scene's logistical problem.
Donna's campaign-site phone is the concrete instrument of the scene's central failure: she repeatedly calls the motorcade/advance and reports she cannot reach them because 'they're in a bad calling area,' turning a social inconvenience into a technical, consequential breakdown.
Soy diesel is invoked as the mechanical reason their ride failed; mentioned to justify the aides' plea for shelter and to highlight rural constraints that complicate campaign logistics.
The campaign plane functions as the absent objective anchoring urgency: Josh seeks confirmation it will be there to collect them. The plane's promised arrival is a hinge of the aides' plans and its uncertainty escalates stakes.
The metal barrel across the parking lot serves as the target for the rock-throwing contest and a focal point for the aides' ritualized anxiety — it soaks up the rocks and the group's nervous energy without reacting.
Loosely gathered rocks become a ritual prop: Josh and Toby pick them up to throw at the metal barrel, turning anxiety into a childish bet. The rocks function as displacement activity, allowing them to perform competence through a small contest.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The gas station parking lot and its front stoop act as a small public arena where local opinion and campaign logistics collide: it is where the aides seek temporary refuge, where the store manager asserts local control, and where the rock-throwing ritual plays out as a tension valve.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The Presidential Motorcade is the immediate institutional mechanism whose movement and schedule left the aides behind; its absence from the immediate area is the proximate cause of the staff's predicament and the downstream anxiety.
Bartlet for America is the organizing force behind the trip: its plane, motorcade, and scheduling create both the aides' mission and their present predicament. The campaign's systems are invoked but not immediately available, exposing logistical brittleness.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"The unreliable communication about the plane's departure sets up the later reveal of the time zone error."
"The unreliable communication about the plane's departure sets up the later reveal of the time zone error."
Key Dialogue
"JOSH: "Can we just call ahead and make sure the plane's going to be there when we fet there?""
"DONNA: "I've been calling. I can't get anyone on their cell. They're in a bad calling area.""
"JOSH: "First guy to miss." / TOBY: "What's the bet?" / JOSH: "First guy to miss has to shave his beard.""