Fertility Clinic Elevator

Steel doors bear clear signage naming the 4th floor as the fertility clinic, visible to every passenger during ascent. Toby describes the ride's humiliation to Andy—patients exposed to strangers' stares amid the clinical ascent. The Welsh nurse rides with him once, while Rooker and others witness the markings that brand the destination. Other passengers glance at the signs, heightening Toby's mortification over repeated visits.

2 appearances

Purpose

Transports patients and staff to the 4th-floor fertility clinic while displaying destination signage.

Significance

Triggers Toby's acute embarrassment, fueling his refusal to provide another sample before the inauguration; underscores clash between personal fertility struggles and political duties.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

2 moments

S4E5 · Debate Camp

Incubator Blackout — Delay for Inauguration

The fertility clinic elevator is cited by Toby as a setting marker that amplifies embarrassment—its signage publicly announces the clinic on the fourth floor, making any rider's trip conspicuous and emotionally fraught, and thus part of his argument to postpone the visit.

Before: Operational and marked with clear signage indicating the fertility clinic's fourth-floor location (as Toby remembers).

After: Remains a remembered spatial humiliation used rhetorically by Toby; not physically interacting with it in the current scene.

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S4E5 · Debate Camp

Toby Chooses the Swearing‑In — Rooker Named AG

The fertility clinic elevator is referenced as the public vector of embarrassment — signage on the doors marks the fourth floor and exposes riders to potential recognition, which Toby dramatizes to justify avoiding the trip.

Before: Operating as the public elevator serving the clinic's floors; marked with signage indicating the 4th-floor clinic.

After: Remains in service; its social exposure function continues to exist but is not directly used in the scene.

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