History Recap / TheWestWingS02E16SomebodysGoingToEmergencySomebodysGoingToJail

* {{Foreshadowing}}: "Mr. President, is there anything we need to talk about?" "Not yet, okay?"

* SeriesContinuityError: Possibly. In "Celestial Navigation," the whole "secret plan to fight inflation" debacle causes CJ to ban Josh from being in her pressroom ever again. Despite this, Josh is allowed to sit in the background and enjoy CJ's meeting with Cartographers for Social Equality in said pressroom. Either CJ relaxed that ban in the intervening time or [[LoopholeAbuse Josh is allowed into the room but not behind the podium.]]

-->'''Leo:''' Little thing called team morale, Josh. You gotta make people feel good about themselves. (''walks into the Roosevelt Room'') All right, shut the hell up, everybody! I've fired more people than you before breakfast.

* NonSequitur: PlayedForDrama; when Donna comes across Sam disconsolately flinging packets of sugar into a wastepaper basket in the cafeteria after learning the truth about Daniel Gault, Sam remarks that he came down there to practice, "because if you don't we might as well give the clarinet to a kid who'll use it." He's pretty clearly channeling an old argument with his father there.

* NonSequitur: Played for drama; when Donna comes across Sam disconsolately flinging packets of sugar into a wastepaper basket in the cafeteria after learning the truth about Daniel Gault, Sam remarks that he came down there to practice, "because if you don't we might as well give the clarinet to a kid who'll use it." He's pretty clearly channeling an old argument with his father there.

* DiegeticSwitch: When "New York Minute" plays over the opening sequence, it starts out as just score music, but as Leo walks by Sam's office, it becomes the song that's playing on Sam's radio when his alarm goes off.

* SelfPlagiarism: On an episode of ''Series/SportsNight'', Jeremy also learned his father had been having an affair with another woman for over 20 years.

* ThisIsReality: When the cartographers suggest flipping maps upside down altogether to end north-south social inequality.
-->'''C.J.''': You can't do that!
-->'''Cartographer''': Why not?
-->'''C.J.''': Because it's freaking me out!

* WhatTheHellHero: When advising her on how best to persuade Sam to look into an appeal for Daniel Gault, Donna advises Stephanie to butter him up a bit by telling him she's heard he's the go-to guy for such matters, making him feel important and inclined to impress her. Later, after Sam's experienced the gut-punch of learning that Gault actually ''was'' a traitor and is feeling a bit morose and wounded, he chews her out a bit both for thinking he was the kind of guy who needed excessive flattery to do a favour for someone, and for actually saying that to someone else. Donna's taken aback and apologises.

* ClassifiedInformation: The truth about Daniel Gault is still highly classified, which leads Sam and Stephanie to believe the FBI are just too embarrased to admit he was innocent. Nancy [=McNally=] provides Sam with a redacted file that proves Gault was guilty while obscuring any information Sam doesn't need to see.

-->'''Toby:''' Make all the jokes you want but let me tell you something they claim to speak for the underprivileged but here in the blackest city in America, I’m looking at a room with no black faces. No Asians, No Hispanics. Where the hell’s the Third World they claim to represent?

* NonSequitur: Played for drama; when Donna comes across Sam disconsolately flinging packets of sugar into a wastepaper basket in the cafeteria after learnin the truth about Daniel Gault, Sam remarks that he came down there to practice, "because if you don't we might as well give the clarinet to a kid who'll use it." He's pretty clearly channeling an old argument with his father there.

* WhatTheHellHero: When advising her on how best to persuade Sam to look into an appeal for Daniel Gault, Donna advises Stephanie to butter him up a bit by telling him she's heard he's the go-to guy for such matters, making him feel important and inclined to impress her. Later, after Sam's experienced the gut-punch of learning that Gault actually ''was'' a traitor and is feeling a bit morose and wounded, he chews her out a bit for thinking he was the kind of guy who needed excessive flattery to do a favour for someone, and for saying that to someone else. Donna's taken aback and apologises.

-->'''Donna:''' I had the worst feeling you were going to ask.

-->'''President Bartlet:''' What plaid flannel-wearing, cheese-eating, yahoo of a milkman governor signed that idiot bill into state law? (''{{Beat}}'') It was me, wasn't it?

* SeriousBusiness: Maps. Which is TruthInTelevision as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gall–Peters_projection#Controversy there's a big fight]] over which type of maps to teach our kids.

-->'''Dr. Fallow:''' Plain and simple, we’d like President Bartlet to aggressively support legislation that would make it mandatory for every public school in America to teach geography using the Peters Projection Map instead of the traditional Mercator.

-->'''Sam:''' It’s just there are certain things you’re sure of... like longitude and latitude.
-->'''Donna:''' Sam, I don’t know if this is the best time to tell you, but according to C.J., I wouldn't be so sure about longitude and latitude.

Sam, who's been reeling from the news his father had an affair with another woman for 28 years, is trying to get all the pardon recommendations done for President Bartlet. Stephanie Gault (Jolie Jenkins), a friend of Donna's from college, wants Sam to add one more name; her grandfather, Daniel Gault, a special economic assistant to [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]] and later a liaison to the State Department for Eastern European Affairs. Gault was accused of being a spy, jailed for perjury, and died in prison, and because Stephanie's father is dying, she wants to get her grandfather a pardon before that happens, especially since Sam used part of his senior thesis defending him. Sam agrees to do it, but finds out from Nancy [=McNally=] Gault really was a spy, and the secrets he passed led to people's deaths. Sam wants to go to Stephanie and [[BrutalHonesty tell her the real story]], but Donna pleads for him not to, because he's in a bad place. In the end, Sam agrees to tell Stephanie he wasn't able to talk to the people he needed to, but he'd try again in three months, and the White House was open to the possibility of a pardon.

* RealityEnsues: When the cartographers suggest flipping maps upside down altogether to end north-south social inequality.

Also, it's [[Recap/TheWestWingS01E05TheCrackpotsAndTheseWomen Big Block of Cheese Day again]], and Leo once again has assigned staffers to meet with various groups. Toby is bitter about the fact he's meeting with a group of people protesting the World Trade Organization meeting, though he's happy when he finds out C.J. has kept the TV media out. However, Rhonda Sachs (Roma Maffia), the police officer protecting him, goads him into engaging with the protesters. C.J. (and Josh), meanwhile, meets with a group called the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality, who claim the standard map of the world (the Mercator) is entirely wrong because, among other things, it makes Europe look larger than it really is, and Africa and South America look smaller than they really are. They recommend the Peters Projection Map, which fixes that problem (among others), be taught in U.S. schools instead.

* CriticalResearchFailure: While the Mercator Projection was once the standard map projection used in the United States, most schools have moved on to more accurately-drawn projections, and the Gall-Peters Projection is hardly better as it's a similar square projection, just with a different way of projecting the round globe onto the square map. Moreover, in some ways the Gall-Peters Projection is actually ''worse'' than the Mercator Projection, as it does a much poorer job of preserving the appearance of the landmasses.

Sam, who's been reeling from the news [[YourCheatingHeart his father had an affair with another woman for 28 years]], is trying to get all the pardon recommendations done for President Bartlet. Stephanie Gault (Jolie Jenkins), a friend of Donna's from college, wants Sam to add one more name; her grandfather, Daniel Gault, a special economic assistant to [[UsefulNotes/FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]] and later a liaison to the State Department for Eastern European Affairs. Gault was accused of being a spy, jailed for perjury, and died in prison, and because Stephanie's father is dying, she wants to get her grandfather a pardon before that happens, especially since Sam used part of his senior thesis defending him. Sam agrees to do it, but finds out from Nancy [=McNally=] Gault really was a spy, and the secrets he passed led to people's deaths. Sam wants to go to Stephanie and [[BrutalHonesty tell her the real story]], but Donna pleads for him not to, because he's in a bad place. In the end, Sam agrees to tell Stephanie he wasn't able to talk to the people he needed to, but he'd try again in three months, and the White House was open to the possibility of a pardon.

* WhatTheHellHero: When advising her on how best to persuade Sam to look into an appeal for Daniel Gault, Donna advises Stephanie to butter him up a bit by telling him she's heard he's the go-to guy for such matters, making him feel important and inclined to impress her. Later, after Sam's experienced the gut-punch of learning that Gault actually ''was'' a traitor and is feeling a bit morose and wounded, he chews her out a bit for thinking he was the kind of guy who needed excessive flattery to do a favour for someone. Donna's taken aback and apologises.