Shenandoah National Park
Detailed Involvements
Events with rich location context
Shenandoah is singled out as both geographically proximate (in Virginia) and practically actionable—a place Bartlet suggests for a staff field trip, tying rhetoric to a concrete administrative gesture.
Conjured as restorative and domestic—ridge-top overlooks and pine-scented air.
Proposed destination that converts anecdote into potential staff bonding and future policy framing.
Represents immediate, local stewardship and accessible conservation.
Shenandoah National Park is explicitly named by Ed's laptop search ('Wildfire Week') and becomes the substantive detail the staff could hand reporters — an actual event that could explain ridgeline glows, lending the team's spin factual color.
Remote, natural, and seasonally active in a way that can be plausibly cited as cause for visible lights.
Source of a concrete cover story (controlled burns/Wildfire Week) that could be cited to rationalize what reporters might observe.
Functions as the benign, natural explanation standing in for unwanted military or technical truths.
Public national park, not controlled by the White House; the team can only reference it, not direct it.
Shenandoah National Park is the factual anchor Ed finds on his laptop — 'Wildfire Week' offers descriptive imagery staff can lift into a cover line, lending ecological legitimacy to the explanation for glowing ridgelines.
Evoked as colorful and seasonal (lilacs, ochre, crimson) — an oddly pastoral counterpoint to the stark political crisis aboard the plane.
Source of verifiable detail to support the improvised press narrative.
Represents the tension between natural spectacle and manufactured political narrative.
Events at This Location
Everything that happens here
At 1:30 A.M. in the Oval Office, President Bartlet sidesteps the night's crises to launch an exuberant, nerdy lecture on national parks while a weary Josh tries to escape. Bartlet …
While Air Force One is in the air, C.J., Will, Ed and Larry feverishly brainstorm any plausible visual — festivals, lights, even 'Wildfire Week' — to explain away something reporters …
Mid-air on Air Force One the staff improvises a visual diversion while the President confronts two harsh facts: five infantrymen killed in a friendly-fire incident and the legally required, in-person …