Raggedy Ann Doll with Knife

A child-sized Raggedy Ann cloth doll: matted red yarn hair, a faded gingham dress with threadbare seams, stuffing peeking through worn cloth, and a small kitchen knife crudely lodged through the doll's throat. Dark stains rim the wound as if dried blood stained the fabric. The doll arrives packaged as a message; White House aides handle it gingerly, recoil at its brutality, and present it to the President as physical evidence and a confrontational token.

2 appearances

Purpose

To serve as a delivered threatening artifact and piece of physical evidence intended to intimidate and communicate menace.

Significance

Functions as the narrative catalyst that transforms a PR dispute into a personal moral and political crisis: the doll provokes President Bartlet's fury, demands a public denunciation of the extremist group (the Lambs of God), and precipitates the ejection of visiting Christian leaders, making the toy both evidentiary and rhetorical leverage.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S1E1 · Pilot

Apology, Accusation, and Bartlet's Reckoning

Referenced by President Bartlet as physical evidence and a threatening token sent to his granddaughter: the Raggedy Ann doll with a knife crystallizes the moral stakes, transforms abstract outrage into a personal attack, and is invoked to demand public denunciation of The Lambs of God.

Before: In the narrative record/White House awareness as a received threat; physically in evidence files or with protective staff prior to this meeting.

After: Remains part of the incident record and symbolic basis for demanding a denunciation; ownership/veneration by security and executive staff for further investigation.

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S1E1 · Pilot

Bartlet Forces Christian Leaders to Denounce the Lambs of God

The Raggedy Ann doll with a knife is the violent token Bartlet describes that was sent to his twelve‑year‑old granddaughter by the Lambs of God; it functions as the concrete evidence and emotional pivot that transforms political tit‑for‑tat into a moral outrage demanding denunciation.

Before: In unknown possession of the Lambs of God; mentioned in a distressing phone call to the President's family but not physically present in the room.

After: Remains an offstage threat and a public accusation used by the President to force a denunciation; its existence escalates the confrontation.

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