Object
Imagined Helicopter Megaphone (Father Cavanaugh's Parable)
A handheld bullhorn — cone‑shaped with a mouthpiece and carrying strap — evoked within Father Cavanaugh's river parable. Characters do not physically handle it; its imagined crackling call projects across the scene as an external voice. The megaphone’s amplified summons interrupts Bartlet's chain of justifications, reframing the moral choice at the heart of the midnight confession.
2 appearances
Purpose
To amplify a human voice for long‑distance communication, enabling an announcer to call to someone in peril (used here as the communication device in a parable).
Significance
Functions as the parable's literal mechanism for ‘help arriving’ — its shouted plea embodies the aid Bartlet refuses by seeking procedural escape. Symbolically transforms a procedural crisis into a spiritual test, catalyzing Bartlet's moral reckoning at midnight.
Appearances in the Narrative
When this object appears and how it's used