3rd Season
2001-2002
Isaac and Ishmael
#1 Manchester, Part 1
#2 Manchester, Part 2
#3 Ways and Means
#4 On the Day Before
#5 War Crimes
#6 Gone Quiet
#7 The Indians in the Lobby
 		#8 The Women of Qumar
#9 Bartlet for America
#10 H.Con - 172
#11 100,000 Airplanes
#12 The Two Bartlets
#13 Night Five
#14 Hartsfield's Landing
#15 Dead Irish Writers
 		#16 The U.S. Poet Laureate
#17 Stirred
Documentary Special
#18 Enemies Foreign and Domestic
#19 The Black Vera Wang
#20 We Killed Yamamoto
#21 Posse Comitatus
Other Seasons
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Isaac and Ishmael: Aired Wednesday, October 3, 2001

In this special stand-alone episode dealing with some of the questions and issues currently facing the world in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks on the United States, a group of school kids gets an impromptu class on terrorism from the White House staff, and Leo McGarry gets his own lesson in prejudice when he questions an Arabic White House employee.

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#1 Manchester, Part 1: Aired Wednesday, October 10, 2001

Bartlet announces that not only does he have MS, he is going to run for re-election. Abbey is less than pleased with this decision. Immediately, the president has to be concerned with evacuating U.S. citizens from Haiti, while the staff desperately starts polling to find out public opinion. C.J. makes a major blunder when she tries to give a press conference on the situation in Haiti, and is hounded by reporters regarding the president's health. Charlie is informed by Oliver Babish that he may need an expensive lawyer in the coming weeks. Four weeks later, the staff considers postponing the president's official campaign-launching speech when they hear that the FDA is planning to announce the approval of RU-486 on the same day. There is some argument over whether the president should make an apology in his campaign speech.

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#2 Manchester, Part 2: Aired Wednesday, October 17, 2001

Campaign advisors Bruno Gianelli, Doug Wegland and Connie Tate labor with the White House staff over Bartlet's re-election speech. The campaign advisors illuminate the staff's anger at never getting an apology of their own from Bartlet regarding his hiding his MS. Bartlet finally poses a solution to the problem in Haiti, but it's Nat'l Security Advisor Nancy McNally who is sent to do the press conference, not C.J. Everyone snaps at C.J., and she considers resigning, but Bartlet assures her that she's still needed. With a hint from Bruno, Josh realizes he could have handled the tobacco situation differently to help the campaign. Josh takes his frustration out on RU-486. The president and the first lady's relationship suffers due to his decision to run for re-election, but she admits that she's leaning towards voting for him.

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#3 Ways and Means: Aired Wednesday, October 24, 2001

A friendly and fair special prosecutor begins handing down subpoenas to the White House staff, and C.J. realizes that the White House needs a more vicious enemy, so she starts dropping hints to tease the House of Representatives into starting their own investigation. In a time of apparent weakness, the president starts losing friends, including Victor Campos, without whom he never would have won California. Sam and Connie try get Campos back on their side. A forest fire rages in Yellowstone Park and the Wyoming governor is incensed when Bartlet backs the forestry experts who believe the fire should just burn itself out. Toby and Josh try to convince a leader from the Black Congressional Caucus not to try to repeal the estate tax, and the president goes so far as the threaten to veto any such motion. Ainsley sets up Donna with a cute Republican who not only is working to repeal the estate tax, but has just been assigned to the oversight committee that is investigating the president. Charlie urges the president to find a replacement for Mrs. Landingham.

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#4 On the Day Before: Aired Wednesday, October 31, 2001

The president vetoes the repeal of the estate tax and the White House realizes that the Republicans may actually have enough votes in the House of Representatives to override it when an emergency vote is called. Sam and Toby duke it out with various Republican Congressmen to sway their votes while Josh talks to Governor Jack Buckland of Indiana about not running against the president in the Democratic primary. Leo is frustrated with the White House's weak bargaining stance. Josh comes up with various ways to delay the Congressional vote while Toby and Sam bargain. Sam and Toby pull a bargaining coup and get the votes on their side. Josh has frank conversation with Buckland and ends up promising to put the governor up for Labor Secretary if he'll give up the fight. Two American students are killed in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, and the U.S. manages to keep Isreal from retaliating right away by getting the person responsible handed over. C.J. battles it out with a fresh young entertainment reporter sent to the White House to cover the State Department dinner and then left to cover a bombing in Jerusalem and a veto override vote. Donna tells Josh about her date with Cliff Calley and he tells her never to see the lawyer again. Everyone advises Charlie to take the legal immunity offered him regarding his upcoming testimony about the President's non-disclosure of his illness, but Charlie refuses to leave his team.

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#5 War Crimes: Aired Wednesday, November 7, 2001

On a rainy Sunday at the White House, all the senior staffers are in on a football pool. Sam realizes that the only reason they can't eliminate the penny from currency is that Illinois, home to Lincoln, won't allow it. Donna testifies before a Congressional committee and lies that she doesn't own a diary. Cliff, who has been in her bedroom and seen her diary, calls her on it later in private, and she goes running to Josh for help. Josh orchestrates a private deal with Cliff so that Cliff can read the diary and be sure that there is nothing relevant in it. Leo meets with Adamley, an Air Force officer and old friend, regarding Adamley's objection to a war crimes tribunal. Adamley points out to Leo, using Leo's past military actions as example, that all wars are crimes, and you can't just single out a few criminal acts. C.J. welcomes back reporter Will Sawyer from Myanmar, but is quickly put on her toes when Will asks about a quote he has attributed to Toby in which Toby says that the president will win the election on the vice-president's coattails. Toby lectures the junior staffers that could possibly have overheard and spread this quote. C.J. is pleasantly surprised when Will doesn't even want to use the quote because he doesn't consider it newsworthy. A shooting in a church in Texas spurs a conversation between the president and vice-president not only about gun control, but about how Bartlet feels that Hoynes outed him and his diseas. The two men both agree that they can't win the upcoming race without each other.

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#6 Gone Quiet: Aired Wednesday, November 14, 2001

When an American spy submarine suddenly goes silent in hostile North Korean waters, the President is forced to turn to the Assistant Secretary of State for advice. Luckily, just when the President is ready to start a rescue mission, the submarine comes back in contact. Meanwhile, the crisis has kept Bartlet from doing his own filing to get on the ballot in New Hampshire, something he has proudly done himself for every other election he's ever participated in. Abbey realizes that she is the one under attack in the investigation since a criminal case can only be brought against her for treating her own husband with drugs in her name. C.J. is ecstatic when the majority leader is asked why he wants to be president and he doesn't have a good answer, but she becomes concerned that Bartlet might not have a good answer either. Toby meets with a representative from an appropriations committee who wants to take the National Endowment for the Arts and give it to National Park Security because of the crappy art that was funded last year. Sam argues with Bruno over running ads for the campaign using soft money, and they finally compromise on running issue ads which follows the letter of the law when it comes to soft money campaign financing.

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#7 The Indians in the Lobby: Aired Wednesday, November 21, 2001

Bartlet finds out that Abbey tricked him into having Thanksgiving at Camp David instead of in New Hampshire because Bruno's polling data said that the citizens of the U.S. would prefer it. Bartlet worries about cooking the Thanksgiving turkey and calls the Butterball hotline using a false name. C.J. is the only one who seems to care when two Indians camp out in the lobby of the White House when their meeting is cancelled. They demand satisfaction or they'll cause a scene in front of the press on Thanksgiving. Josh convinces the District Attorney in Atlanta to take the death penalty off the table so that a 13-year-old boy who shot his teacher can be extradited from Italy. Sam tries to manipulate a new poverty income index that could spell trouble for the President by classifying four-million more people as poor virtually overnight.

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#8 The Women of Qumar: Aired Wednesday, November 28, 2001

The President is being sued after a man dies in a car accident and the man's wife claims that Bartlet, during a speech, encouraged her husband not to wear a seat-belt. Sam thinks the President should come out for a national seat-belt law before the news hits major press. The U.S. goverment has just struck a new deal with the small country of Qumar to keep a military base there that includes giving Qumar a lot of guns and planes. C.J. is incensed that the U.S. is still dealing with Qumar when Qumar is known for beating and killing their women and giving them no rights whatsoever. The staff debates over whether or not release the news that Mad Cow disease may have hit the U.S. At the first lady's behest, Josh meets with Amy Gardner at the Women's Leadership Coalition regarding language about prostitution in a new treaty. Toby tries to smooth things over between the Smithsonian, which is launching a new exhibit on the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, and a small group of veterans who find the exhibit anit-American.

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#9 Bartlet for America: Aired Wednesday, December 12, 2001

On December 23rd it's Leo's turn to be questioned by the congressional committee about the President's MS cover-up, and through flashbacks of Bartlet's campaign we see many of Leo's answers illustrated. Josh tries to keep Congressman Gibson from being able to question Leo by figuring out a way to get Gibson out of the room when it's his turn to question, but Josh fails. Gibson starts his questioning and surprises everyone so much with the direction he's going in that Leo's lawyer, Jordan Kendall, calls a recess. Leo tells Jordan how on the same day that Bartlet collapsed during his campaign, Gibson witnessed Leo fall off the wagon and get drunk. Gibson tells the chairman and Cliff Calley the direction of his questioning, and Cliff Calley convinces the chairman to call a recess of the hearing for the holidays to consider not letting Gibson bring up these inappropriate things. The president, with help from Josh and a humble FBI agent, sends in the National Guard to Tennessee to help protect black churches on Christmas Eve that are in danger of arson.

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#10 H.Con - 172: Aired Wednesday, January 9, 2002

Cliff suggests to Leo that he recommend that the President accept a Congressional censure so as to prevent Leo from having to testify further. Leo feels strongly that this would not be a good thing even though his lawyer recommends it. Cliff uses his connection to Donna to get a quick late-night meeting with Josh who then goes to Leo and also recommends it. Again, Leo refuses. Finally, Bartlet himself tells Leo that he's going to accept the censure – not to save Leo's embarassment, but for the simple reason this it was, in fact, wrong to hide his MS from the public. Sam becomes obsessed with refuting a stupid tell-all book written by photographer who worked at the White House for three weeks. Josh uses a flimsy excuse to see Amy Gardner again, and she blatantly calls him on it, but they do end up sharing a kiss. Charlie gives the President a gift of a hand-drawn map of Holy Land from 1709 that doesn't include Israel and everyone warns the President not to hang it where people will see it.

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#11 100,000 Airplanes: Aired Wednesday, January 16, 2002

On the night of the State of the Union, Sam is being covered by Vanity Fair, and the writer just happens to be his ex-fiance, Lisa Sherborne. Sam is uncomfortable with Lisa reporting on him, but he explains to her the process of how the State the Union is written and how things are culled out. In particular, Sam explains how the President, a bit depressed from his censure and having dinner with his wife's oncologist friends, got the idea to include in the State of the Union a committment to curing cancer within the next ten years... and how it wasn't included. Donna is frustrated by goverment manuals when trying to figure out if Josh can get reimbursed for a plane ticket. Toby tells Josh that Amy Gardner is dating Congressman Tandy, and how Toby suspects that Tandy is just using Gardner to be more popular with women now that he's being challenged for his seat by a female contender. Josh shares this view with Amy and pisses her off. She defends Tandy, but Josh might not be wrong. The State of the Union, according to Joey Lucas's polls, is a success.

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#12 The Two Bartlets: Aired Wednesday, January 30, 2002

When one of Josh's old friends, an actor named Billy Molina, heads up a protest against military testing in Vieques, Puerto Rico, Josh is put in the unfortunate position of having to talk him down. Josh gets Billy to back down, but promises him a meeting with heads of government. Amy tells Josh that John Tandy proposed marriage to her but she turned him down. Josh invites Amy to Tahiti for a few days, and she accepts, but he has to cancel the trip in order to attend the meeting with Billy. Josh turns his apartment into Tahiti instead and brings Amy over for the surprise. The President wins the Iowa Democratic Caucus running unopposed. Toby is upset when Bartlet doesn't come out strongly for affirmative action after his opponent, the winner of the Republican Caucus, comes out against it. C.J. is against affirmative action and argues with Toby about it, but it turns out that she's mainly worried about her father who is starting to forget things. Toby tries to psycho-analyze the President, and Bartlet doesn't appreciate it. Sam meets with a man who thinks an alien space ship is being stored at Fort Knox. Donna tries everything to get out of jury duty.

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#13 Night Five: Aired Wednesday, February 6, 2002

Bartlet consults Josh's shrink, Dr. Stanley Keyworth, when he can't sleep for five nights in a row, and finally admit that he has spent his whole life trying to get his father to like him. C.J. tries to help when a reporter goes missing in the Congo, but it turns out that she's too late. Donna gets a job offer from an old friend to work at a new startup company, CapitalScoop.com. Sam becomes concerned when a female temporary employee accuses him of demeaning Ainsley sexually when he compliments her appearance, but Ainsley assures Sam she's okay with it. The President plans to announce new foreign policy with a speech at the UN, and Toby's ex-wife, Congresswoman Andrea Wyatt, is furious about the bold statement that the U.S. will crush Islamic fanatacism.

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#14 Hartsfield's Landing: Aired Wednesday, February 27, 2002

Bartlet gets some antique chess sets from the prime minister of India and gives them to staff members as gifts. Over a game of chess, Bartlet educates Sam about the chess game he is playing with military in the Taiwan straight, trying to keep the peace between China and Taiwan while still supporting Taiwan's first free election. Toby and Bartlet make their peace over a game of chess and Toby urges the president not to try to be an everyman, because he's actually so much more than that. C.J. tries to play a prank on Charlie, but soon learns that she's met her match when Charlie gets her back three-fold. The White House monitors the voting in Hartfield's Landing, N.H., a small town that votes at 12:01am on election day and has accurately predicted the presidential primary results since Taft was elected. Donna finds herself outside in the cole on a cell phone trying to wrangle two more votes from Hartsfield's Landing.

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#15 Dead Irish Writers: Aired Wednesday, March 6, 2002

During Abbey's formal gala birthday party, Leo and C.J. find out that it's likely she will lose her medical license for a year due to a personal friend recusing himself from the board that is judging her. Abbey gets drunks with Donna, C.J. and Amy Gardner and realizes that her medical license isn't everything, and she still has a lot without it. Abbey decides to voluntarily give up her license for the duration of the Bartlets' time in the White House. Donna finds out that she wasn't born in Minnesota as she thought, but was born in Canada due to a small border dispute. Due to her lack of citizenship, she has a hard time getting into Abbey's birthday party. Lord John Marbury and Toby spend the night drinking Lagavulin and talking about how England doesn't want a certain Irish leader, that they call a terrorist, to be invited to the White House for St. Patrick's Day. Sam helps an old teacher get funding for a superconducting supercollider and works out a grudge against a certain Senator at the same time. Amy Gardner gets Abbey's help to convince Josh to hire more women in the White House.

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#16 The U.S. Poet Laureate: Aired Wednesday, March 27, 2002

The President is overheard making a disparaging comment on an open-mike about the potential Republican nominee. Although C.J. originally finds it hard to spin, it turns out to reflect well upon the White House, particularly when Bartlet approves Leo's idea of not arguing the point in Congress. C.J. realizes that Bartlet's accidental slip may not have been an accident. To show bi-partisan support, Ainsley is given a promotion and does a number of TV appearances when she would prefer to be on vacation. Josh becomes obsessed with a fan web site that Donna finds called LemonLyman.com, but doesn't understand that posting on the message board is bad idea. The newly minted U.S. Poet Laureate, Tabatha Fortis, is prepared to attend a dinner at the White House in her honor and use the opportunity to try to convince the President to sign an international land mine treaty. Toby, who has a bit of a crush on Tabatha, talks her out of it, promising her a little alone-time with the President so that she can tell him about her personal experience with land-mines. The President prepares to give a press conference on alternative fuel sources, and C.J. convinces Charlie that drilling for oil in Alaska would be a bad idea.

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#17 Stirred: Aired Wednesday, April 3, 2002

The Vice-President takes his name off a bill he's been working on in order to help it pass even though then the President can't use it in the campaign. Leo, who is still attending Hoynes's AA meetings, tells Hoynes he needs to tell the President that he's an alcoholic. The staff has a meeting to discuss replacing Hoynes as Vice-President on the ticket, but the President reminds everyone that Hoynes may not win them the race, but he's the best choice to take over the presidency should anything happen to Bartlet. Toby scolds the Secretary of Energy for trying to make a new policy announcement on his own. Everyone gets a scare when a truck filled with waste uranium crashes into another truck in the mountains of Idaho, but the radioactive cargo stays contained. When one of Donna's favorite teachers announces her retirement, Bartlet honors her with a phone call. Charlie is upset when he realizes he owes money on his taxes instead of getting a return due to the "rebate" from last year that was really an advance. Bartlet tries to make it up to his personal assistant by buying him the DVD player and James Bond movie that Charlie had planned to buy with his return.

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Documentary Special: Aired Wednesday, April 24, 2002

A documentary special celebrating the real players inside the White House. Included are interviews with Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, and many others. The show also featured highlights of the past three seasons.

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#18 Enemies Foreign and Domestic: Aired Wednesday, May 1, 2002

Sam works out the President's final maddening details of an important upcoming summit with the Russian president. Intelligence informs Bartlet that the Russians are giving Iran the bomb, and he decides to find an excuse to not attend the summit. One of the diplomats Sam is meeting with gives him language to add to the Joint Statement for the summit. Bartlet interprets the language, which references ending nuclear proliferation, as a message from Chigorin and decides to attend the summit after all. Toby helps a Russian reporter get access to the summit since she was banned by Chigorin not just for supporting his opponent, but for being a lousy reporter. C.J. makes some personal mean comments about Saudi Arabia after 17 girls are left to burn to death in a school fire because they could not come outside dressed improperly. In the wake of her comments, C.J. receives a death threat that the Secret Service takes seriously and thinks is personal, not political. C.J. gets her own Secret Service detail headed by Agent Simon Donovan. A huge computer chip company, Anteras, is about to recall 80,000 chips because of a manufacturing mistake, and therefore will probably go under, taking a large chunk of the technology industry with it. Leo encourages Bartlet to back a loan for the company, but Bartlet worries that it will looks bad since the CEO of Anteras backed his campaign. Bartlet tells the CEO to announce that Anteras is keeping all its government contracts. Charlie received a mysterious letter for the president that turns out to have been written to FDR by a young kid who is now an old man. Charlie invites the man to visit with Bartlet since it took so long for his letter to reach the White House.

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#19 The Black Vera Wang: Aired Wednesday, May 8, 2002

The President and his staff return from Helsinki, Finland, with stories of moose and moose gifts for those that remained at home. Donna re-gifts her smoked moose from Josh to an intern who stupidly puts it up for auction on eBay. Sam bungles the handling of a tape of an anti-Bartlet ad that is anonymously delivered to him. Bruno makes peace with Margaret. Toby finds out that four different network news directors have decided only to broadcast the acceptance speech, not the actual Democratic National Convention. Toby threatens them with an anti-trust investigation by the Justice Department if they don't change their minds. C.J. finds herself flirting with Secret Service Agent Simon Donovan even though he annoys her. Simon accompanies C.J. while she helps her niece, Hogan, shop for a junior prom dress. Simon admits to Hogan that he was at Rosslyn when the president was shot while C.J. is distracted trying on a stunning black Vera Wang dress. Simon is frustrated when he later realizes that C.J. was definitely being watched by the enemy while she was shopping. Fitzwallace reports to Leo and the President that there is a terrorist threat, and it's either aimed at a U.S. military base or the White House. Bartlet refuses to head to the underground bunker, even if the White House is a target. Fitzwallace reports that the threat, which was actually to the Golden Gate Bridge, has been contained, but that it is suspected that the threat originated with Abdul Shareef, the Qumari Defense Minister who is due to visit the White House in ten days. The President looks forward to seeing a particular Shakespeare production called The War of the Roses.

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#20 We Killed Yamamoto: Aired Wednesday, May 15, 2002

Josh sends Donna to Bismarck, North Dakota, to participate in a discussion about whether or not the state should drop the word "North" from its name so as to encourage tourism. Josh finds out he can get a welfare reform bill passed by adding in a few marriage incentives, but as soon as Amy Gardner finds out she tries to sabotage him, despite their romantic relationship. The White House staff finds out that Governor Ritchie will also be attending the Shakespeare benefit that the President is planning to attend, and think that the President should find an excuse to back out, but Bartlet doesn't want to. Bartlet visits Mrs. Landingham's grave on the first anniversary of her death, and tells Charlie to start the search for a new executive secretary. C.J. starts to get to know Simon better, and they almost share a kiss as they're walking home from a party, but he backs away at the last minute with his job on his mind. Sam is still wallowing in his bad handling of the anti-Bartlet ad, but he's also picking up his bootstraps and getting back to work, working on a proposal to help preserve the Everglades. Bartlet and Leo look for a way to prosecute Abdul Shareef, the Qumari Defense Minister, who turns out to be a terror king-pin, but they quickly realize that none of the strong evidence they have against him will stand up in a U.S. court because it was acquired due to the torturing of a Russian prisoner. Bartlet decides to tell Shareef to stay home, but Leo, after talking to Fitzwallace, encourages him to keep his options open. Bartlet doesn't like the idea of an assassination, but agrees not to cancel Shareef's visit.

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#21 Posse Comitatus: Aired Wednesday, May 22, 2002

Josh continues to push the passing of the welfare bill, and ends up putting Amy's job in danger by doing so. The bill passes and Amy tells him she's going to resign on Monday. Charlie finds what he thinks is the perfect candidate for the President's new executive secretary, a woman named Deborah Fiderer who was fired from her last job at the White House for hiring Charlie. Deborah Fiderer shows up for her interview a little stoned because she took some pills to quell her nerves, and she makes a particularly bad impression on the President. Charlie is not ready to give up on her. Governor Ritchie, who is supposed to show up at the Shakespeare benefit in New York, goes to the Yankees game instead, and Toby and Sam thwart his grand intermission arrival by causing a traffic jam in the Bronx. Bartlet reluctantly authorizes the assassination of the Minister of Defense of Qumar. Bartlet and Ritchie have a short private meeting in which they openly express their dislike for one another. The man threatening C.J. is caught, and she and Simon celebrate by sharing a kiss. They make romantic plans to meet later, but Simon is gunned down during an armed robbery in a grocery store.

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