Fabula
S1E14 · Take This Sabbath Day
S1E14
· Take This Sabbath Day

Bobby Pries Out Toby's Whereabouts

In a terse, urgent exchange in the courthouse, public defender Bobby Zane bulldozes Sam Seaborn's procedural hesitations and, by relentless questioning and moral moral certitude, exacts the location of Toby Ziegler's temple. Sam, who has been trying to preserve separation‑of‑powers cover and route his plea through Toby, is caught off guard when Bobby converts legal argument into immediate action. The moment functions as a turning point: Bobby's single‑mindedness turns private strategy into exposed vulnerability, sharply raising the personal and political stakes for Toby and the President's looming decision.

Plot Beats

The narrative micro-steps within this event

2

Sam's attempted escape plan collapses as Bobby extracts Toby's temple location information during a choreographed interrogation about presidential access.

evasion to tactical defeat ['Delaware Avenue temple']

Bobby's abrupt exit with critical intelligence leaves Sam stunned, establishing Bobby's relentless commitment and Sam's underestimation of his resolve.

strategic victory to dawning realization

Who Was There

Characters present in this moment

4
Bobby Zane
primary

Righteously urgent and edge-worn — conviction fuels impatience; desperation underlies the bluntness.

Bobby Zane drives the scene: he refuses procedural placation, reframes the debate morally, presses Sam with single-minded urgency, and, through relentless questioning, extracts the location 'Delaware' before walking away — his work tactical and instantaneous.

Goals in this moment
  • • Force immediate executive attention to his client's impending execution.
  • • Remove procedural excuses and convert legal argument into a practical route to the President.
Active beliefs
  • • The death penalty is morally and intellectually indefensible (Blackmun's reversal validates this).
  • • Executive power (Article II) can and must be used now to avert an imminent injustice.
Character traits
relentless moral absolutist urgency-driven tactically blunt
Follow Bobby Zane's journey
Josiah Edward 'Jed' Bartlet (President of the United States)

President Jed Bartlet is referenced as the ultimate decision-maker returning from Stockholm; his arrival time structures the urgency of Bobby's …

Toby Ziegler

Toby Ziegler is not physically present but is the subject of the extraction: Sam plans to route the plea through …

Harry A. Blackmun

Harry A. Blackmun functions as an off-screen moral authority: Bobby invokes Blackmun's reversal to transform procedural argument into moral imperative, …

Location Details

Places and their significance in this event

4
Delaware

Delaware functions as the sudden, specific geographic detail Sam blurts out under pressure — a pinpoint that converts strategy into vulnerability by revealing where Toby might be found, making a private channel overtly reachable.

Atmosphere A small, exposed notch in the city's fabric; the word 'Delaware' cuts through the generalities …
Function Rendezvous locator and tactical detail that turns advocacy into an operational possibility.
Symbolism Transforms abstract protocol into a street‑level reality; it symbolizes the moment when institutional cover is …
The single spoken street name carrying outsized consequence Urban implication: a reachable address in the city's morning routine
Courthouse (Public Corridor — Night Scene)

The courthouse corridor is the physical setting for the confrontation: a hollow, fluorescent‑lit institutional space where procedural norms and legal rhetoric collide with human urgency, allowing Bobby to press Sam in passage rather than in polite office confines.

Atmosphere Tension-filled, echoing, and claustrophobic in its institutional silence — footsteps and voices carry like accusations.
Function Meeting place and battleground for the moral versus procedural argument; it facilitates a brisk, unavoidable …
Symbolism Represents the law's public machinery and the limits of legal formalism; the space makes the …
Access Public but formal; courthouse corridors are technically accessible yet governed by judicial decorum.
Fluorescent hum Hollow click of shoes on institutional linoleum Wooden benches and closed doors framing a narrow corridor Nighttime quiet that amplifies the urgency of whispered argument
Stockholm, Sweden (offstage presidential origin — S01E14)

Stockholm is referenced as the source location of the President's trip, serving as the temporal anchor for the President's arrival time and the reason for stalled access to executive authority.

Atmosphere A distant, cool point on a timeline — its mention compresses diplomatic travel into urgent …
Function Timeline marker that sets the President's arrival (around 9:00 a.m.) and thus frames the window …
Symbolism Represents the foreign obligations that can complicate and delay domestic moral decisions.
Implied northern, ordered cityscape Used narratively as a time/distance device rather than a physical set
Air Force One — Staff Cabin

Air Force One's passenger cabin is invoked as the physical location of the President en route from Stockholm, explaining why direct access is delayed and why urgent alternatives (Toby, morning temple) must be considered now.

Atmosphere Constrained, intimate, and slightly surreal — a mobile private space that separates the President from …
Function Explains presidential unavailability and compresses time — it functions as the logistical obstacle that shapes …
Symbolism Embodies the distance between executive power and civic plea; compresses foreign travel into a domestic …
Access Highly restricted to senior staff and Secret Service; not directly accessible to outside advocates.
Low overhead lighting and seatbelts clicking Mechanical drone of the aircraft A sense of contained intimacy that isolates the President

Narrative Connections

How this event relates to others in the story

What led here 1
Escalation medium

"Bobby's initial deflection with legal precedent escalates to his outright moral condemnation of capital punishment."

Conscience vs. Constitution — A Plea for Life
S1E14 · Take This Sabbath Day
What this causes 3
Escalation medium

"Bobby's initial deflection with legal precedent escalates to his outright moral condemnation of capital punishment."

Conscience vs. Constitution — A Plea for Life
S1E14 · Take This Sabbath Day
Thematic Parallel medium

"Bobby Zane's invocation of Blackmun's moral condemnation of capital punishment echoes in Toby's later moral argument to Bartlet."

Toby Frames the Death Penalty as a Moral Impossibility
S1E14 · Take This Sabbath Day
Thematic Parallel medium

"Bobby Zane's invocation of Blackmun's moral condemnation of capital punishment echoes in Toby's later moral argument to Bartlet."

Let the Next Guy's Problem — Leo Pushes Pragmatism, Bartlet Defers
S1E14 · Take This Sabbath Day

Key Dialogue

"SAM: Is he guilty?"
"BOBBY: You are going to go to the President, and you're gonna tell him he can't run from this one. He's got to consider my client. You're gonna tell him that."
"SAM: I think it's on Delaware. BOBBY: Thank you."