The Lucky Tie and Leo's Send‑Off
Plot Beats
The narrative micro-steps within this event
The senior staff debates tie choices for the debate, settling on a charcoal and blue tie amidst concerns about digital broadcast quality.
President Bartlet insists on wearing his lucky tie instead of the chosen one, showing his superstition on debate day.
Leo reassures Bartlet with parting words of encouragement before the debate, emphasizing pride and readiness.
Who Was There
Characters present in this moment
Focused and upbeat; trying to inject confidence and keep momentum for the debate despite background pressures.
Josh is present in Leo's office portion of the event, practicing 'ten words' soundbites and trading lines with Leo; he provides campaign energy and reassurances about debate readiness before the crisis conversation takes over.
- • Hone concise debate lines that will land with voters.
- • Keep the team focused and confident before the debate.
- • Sharp, repeatable lines win debates and shape public perception.
- • Rehearsal and repetition can overcome nerves and uncertainty.
Concerned and alert; legal instincts sharpened by the disclosure of an international incident.
Jordan greets Charlie, observes Bartlet's exchange, then follows Leo into the office to be briefed; she presses legal and diplomatic constraints in the Mastico discussion, positioning herself as the cautious legal voice.
- • Make sure legal constraints (Boland, Geneva) shape any operational response.
- • Identify practical diplomatic options, including quietly bringing Ali Nassir to Washington.
- • Legal frameworks constrain military and diplomatic options.
- • Quiet diplomacy is preferable to public escalation when possible.
Casual professionalism; at ease guiding a small but important technical choice.
Bobby offers tailored, material-based options (herringbone, silk repp) and concurs on the charcoal-and-blue choice, lending practical sartorial authority to the group's decision.
- • Select a tie that flatters the President and reads well on camera.
- • Keep the wardrobe conversation efficient to not distract from policy prep.
- • Pattern and fabric materially affect on-camera presence.
- • Campaign prep must minimize avoidable visual mistakes.
Alert and businesslike; ready to mobilize colleagues on short notice.
Margaret answers Leo's call to convene the National Security Council crisply ('Yes sir'), performing the administrative relay that turns an urgent directive into institutional action.
- • Mobilize the NSC quickly and accurately as requested.
- • Enable senior staff to focus on strategy rather than logistics.
- • Clear, fast administrative action is critical during crises.
- • Following chain-of-command preserves order under pressure.
Eager to please, quietly unsettled by the President's superstition conflicting with staff choices; protective of the ritual.
Charlie accepts the tossed tie, transports it from the Mural Room to the Outer Oval Office, reports the staff choice to the President, and obediently fetches Bartlet's own tie when asked—physically embodying loyalty and ceremonial service.
- • Deliver the staff-selected tie to the President promptly.
- • Honor and facilitate the President's routines and wishes.
- • The President's rituals (like a lucky tie) matter to his performance.
- • My role is to anticipate and execute the President's needs without fuss.
Focused, mildly anxious about optics; professional concern for camera presentation masks underlying campaign pressure.
Carrie engineers the visual decision for the debate wardrobe, names the charcoal-and-blue winner, and physically tosses the chosen tie to Charlie, framing the team's on‑camera priorities.
- • Ensure the President looks optimal on HD broadcast.
- • Resolve wardrobe choices quickly to keep prep on schedule.
- • Visual detail matters to voter perception and campaign messaging.
- • Technical realities (HD/pixelation) override individual superstitions in a debate context.
Slightly superstitious but composed; seeking small anchors to steady confidence before a high-pressure public performance.
President Bartlet refuses the staff-selected tie in favor of his own lucky tie, offers to stay for a meeting, and accepts Leo's intervention—revealing a private superstition and a willingness to be steadied by trusted advisors.
- • Preserve personal ritual that helps his focus for the debate.
- • Reassure staff by remaining calm and cooperative about pre-game prep.
- • Small rituals have tangible psychological effects on performance.
- • Trusting Leo to handle operational issues frees him to perform on stage.
Matter-of-fact; professional concern about how patterns will translate in digital broadcast.
Johnathan identifies the tie pattern, raises the technical broadcast concern (Navy Heraldic Club, digital readiness), and endorses the charcoal-and-blue selection, anchoring the choice in broadcast realities.
- • Confirm a tie that reads crisply on HD digital feeds.
- • Prevent on-air visual distractions that might undermine debate performance.
- • Technical broadcast constraints must inform wardrobe decisions.
- • Small details compound under the glare of television scrutiny.
Not present; represented as a pragmatic, potentially cooperative diplomat in others' assessments.
Ali Nassir is discussed as a potentially reasonable interlocutor at the U.N.; he is not present but his name catalyzes Jordan and Leo's diplomatic planning and remains an offstage actor in the response calculus.
- • (Implied) Serve as a quiet channel for Qumari-U.S. de-escalation.
- • Be discreetly brought into talks to avert public crisis.
- • Diplomats at the U.N. can be summoned discreetly to Washington for urgent talks.
- • Some foreign ministers remain pragmatic even amid their regimes' provocative acts.
Objects Involved
Significant items in this scene
The Mastico's 72 tons of weapons and explosives are invoked as hard evidence of provocation and immediate danger, justifying the Navy's interdiction and raising the stakes for diplomatic response.
The Qumari cargo ship Mastico is introduced as the geopolitical catalyst that abruptly shifts the room's focus from domestic optics to international crisis; its interception turns a wardrobe moment into national security business.
The staff-selected charcoal-and-blue tie functions as the tangible expression of campaign polish and TV-savvy; Carrie nominates it, tosses it to Charlie, and it becomes the small object around which ritual (and a refusal) crystallizes.
The USS Austin is mentioned as the LPD San Antonio-class warship that fired the warning shot to stop the Mastico; it embodies the military action that precipitated diplomatic flames.
THAAD missile technology is used rhetorically as an example of shifting Qumari demands—an object of negotiation that demonstrates how Qumar calibrates its asks to extract concessions.
Location Details
Places and their significance in this event
The Mural Room is the staging ground for debate preparation: staff gather, debate tie patterns, and perform last-minute technical and aesthetic triage. Its murals and hustle underscore the contrast between ritualized campaign work and the sudden intrusion of national-security decisions.
Organizations Involved
Institutional presence and influence
The National Security Council is invoked as the institutional vehicle Leo orders Margaret to convene in response to the Mastico interception; it transforms the Mastico issue from a report into a coordinated executive-level response.
The U.S. Navy is invoked via the USS Austin's action—its interdiction of the Mastico supplies the factual basis for White House alarm and compels diplomatic management of the fallout.
The Boland Amendment is invoked indirectly as a domestic legal constraint that complicates public U.S. actions and requires careful legal navigation before any overt response is undertaken.
The Geneva Conventions are cited by Jordan as an international legal standard that could be implicated by certain responses, adding a human-rights and treaty-compliance dimension to the policy debate.
The Sultanate of Qumar functions as the alleged originator of the Mastico shipment and as the diplomatic antagonist whose shifting demands and deniability create leverage and crisis for Washington.
The Bahji Cell appears as the intended recipient of the Mastico's arms and embodies the terror threat that elevates the incident from maritime interdiction to a crisis with potential attacks and regional destabilization.
Narrative Connections
How this event relates to others in the story
"Bartlet's insistence on wearing his lucky tie leads to Abbey cutting it off, breaking his superstition."
"Bartlet's insistence on wearing his lucky tie leads to Abbey cutting it off, breaking his superstition."
"Bartlet's insistence on wearing his lucky tie leads to Abbey cutting it off, breaking his superstition."
"Josh and Leo's focus on 'ten-word' soundbites contrasts with Bartlet's rejection of simplistic slogans during the debate."
Key Dialogue
"BARTLET: "No, I decided to go ahead and wear my lucky tie.""
"LEO: "There's no such thing as too smart. There's nothing you can do that's not going to make me proud of you. Eat 'em up. Game on.""
"LEO: "No! I don't have to do anything, Jordan. I'm right, they're wrong. They're strong... I'm much stronger.""