Mr. Willis of Ohio

"Mr. Willis of Ohio"
The West Wing episode
Episode no.	Season 1 Episode 6
Directed by	Christopher Misiano
Written by	Aaron Sorkin
Production code	225905
Original air date	November 3 1999
Guest stars
Janel Moloney Elisabeth Moss Suzy Nakamura Allison Smith Renee Estevez Michael O'Neill
Season 1 episodes
September 22, 1999 – May 17, 2000 Pilot Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc A Proportional Response Five Votes Down The Crackpots and These Women Mr. Willis of Ohio The State Dinner Enemies The Short List In Excelsis Deo Lord John Marbury He Shall, from Time to Time... Take out the Trash Day Take This Sabbath Day Celestial Navigation 20 Hours in L.A. The White House Pro-Am Six Meetings Before Lunch Let Bartlet Be Bartlet Mandatory Minimums Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics What Kind of Day Has It Been
List of The West Wing episodes

"Mr. Willis of Ohio" is the 6th episode of The West Wing. The title of the episode refers to the character of Mr. Willis, whose vote is essential if an amendment in census taking methodology is to pass.

Plot

The West Wing staffers, especially Toby, hope to defeat an amendment prohibiting population sampling as a means of taking the census, as opposed to a head count, which could be inaccurate. C.J. is confused about the difference, and asks Sam to teach her. The debate over the sampling amendment is also holding up the annual appropriations bill. Donna wants to know why the government doesn't return the surplus to the taxpayers, and Josh explains the Democratic Party's approach to extra money.

Toby meets with three Congressmen from the Republican Party; one vote from them would defeat the amendment and allow the appropriations bill to move through Congress. Among them is Mr. Willis, an African-American man from Ohio. His wife was a Congresswoman from the state, but her sudden death has placed him in the seat. The Republicans argue that the Constitution clearly defines that a head count is necessary for a census. Toby and Mandy read that particular portion out loud, but omit several words. Mr. Willis, an eighth-grade social studies teacher, provides the missing phrase—one that demands that all free men be counted, and others be counted as "three-fifths" of a person. Mr. Willis abruptly ends the meeting by announcing that he will vote against including the amendment, shocking his fellow Republicans. Toby asks him why, and Willis explains that it was Toby's intelligent argument that persuaded him. The amendment ends up remaining in committee, while the rest of the appropriations bill is sent for a full House vote.

Meanwhile, the President asks Josh to take Charlie out for a beer, as he fears his young aide does not have friends. Zoey and Mallory tag along, inviting Sam and C.J. At the bar, Charlie feels uncomfortable, as he is not a college student. When a group of troublemakers pays unnecessary attention to Zoey, Charlie goes to her aid, only to be met with racial and homophobic abuse. Josh and Sam join him, and use Zoey's panic button to summon Secret Service agents to arrest the youths.

When Bartlet hears about Zoey's encounter, he loses his temper and illustrates the nightmare scenario in which she goes

[...] out to a bar or a party in some club, and you get up to go to the restroom, somebody comes up from behind, puts their hand across your mouth, and whisks you out the back door. You're so petrified, you don't even notice the bodies of the two Secret Service agents lying on the ground with bullet holes in their heads, then you're whisked away in a car. It's a big party with lots of noise, and lots of people coming and going, and it's a half hour before someone says "hey, where's Zoey?" [...] this country no longer has a Commander in Chief, it has a father who's out of his mind because his little girl is in a shack somewhere in Uganda with a gun to her head!

Zoey is stunned and scared by her father's reaction, and he apologizes. Bartlet's anger is stemming from the news that Leo is breaking up with his wife. Bartlet makes amends with Leo, and tells him to "fix it." When Josh tells Bartlet about Charlie's willingness to defend Zoey, the President invites Charlie to join his infamous poker game. The episode ends with the other staffers preparing to play poker, while Toby watches the vote on the appropriations bill for "one vote": Mr. Willis's.

Notes

This is the first appearance of the occasional games of poker that the President plays with the senior staff, in which the President indulges in gamesmanship by asking trivia questions in an attempt to distract the other players from the game, and to display his encyclopedic general knowledge. One of these is to name the three words in the English language that begin with dw (dwarf, dwindle and dwell), and to identify the fourteen punctuation marks in common English grammar. Between them, C.J., Sam, Mandy, Josh and Leo identify seven, while Toby is able to reel off the remaining seven. The fourteen are period, comma, colon, semi-colon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parentheses, braces, and ellipsis. He omits the slash, as well as spacing between words, paragraph indentation, and capital letters.

The hypothetical kidnapping described by Bartlet is extremely similar to Zoey's actual kidnapping in the Season 4 episode "Commencement."

Inconsistencies

There are two points in this episode where the function of the US government as portrayed doesn't match reality. The first is the implied (but not overtly stated) appointment of Mr. Willis to his wife's seat in the House of Representatives after her death. In fact, no appointments are made to house seats. Instead, special elections are held to fill out the term. Second, at the end of the episode Toby doesn't join in for the poker game because he wants to hear the roll call of the House vote which is discussed in the episode. In fact, there are never voice votes in the House of Representatives; votes are normally conducted electronically.

External links

• The West Wing Episode Guide

This West Wing-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: The West Wing (season 1) episodes The West Wing stubs 1999 television episodes Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР Chronopost Helen Fouché Gaines Look at other dictionaries: El señor Willis de Ohio — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Mr. Willis of Ohio Episodio de El Ala Oeste Título El Señor Willis de Ohio Episodio nº Temporada 1 Episodio 6 Escrito por Aaron Sorkin …   Wikipedia Español Ohio State Buckeyes football — Current season …   Wikipedia Willis Augustus Lee — Willis A. Lee im Dienstrang eines Rear Admirals, circa 1942 Willis „Ching“ Augustus Lee Junior (* 11. Mai 1888 in Natlee Owen County, Kentucky; † 25. August 1945 in der Casco Bucht vor Portland, Maine) war ein …   Deutsch Wikipedia Willis Lee — Willis A. Lee im Dienstrang eines Rear Admirals, circa 1942 Willis „Ching“ Augustus Lee Junior (* 11. Mai 1888 in Natlee Owen County, Kentucky; † 25. August 1945 in der Casco Bucht vor Portland, Maine) war ein …   Deutsch Wikipedia Willis Barnstone — (born November 13, 1927) is an American poet, memoirist, translator, Hispanist, and comparatist. He has translated the Ancient Greek poets and the complete fragments of the pre Socratic philosopher Heraclitus (Ἡράκλειτος). He is also a New… …   Wikipedia Willis A. Lee — im Dienstrang eines Rear Admirals, circa 1942 Willis „Ching“ Augustus Lee Junior (* 11. Mai 1888 in Natlee Owen County, Kentucky; † 25. August 1945 in der Casco Bucht vor Portland, Maine) war ein Vizeadmiral der …   Deutsch Wikipedia Ohio Players — Also known as The Ohio Untouchables Origin Dayton, Ohio, United States Genres Funk R B Soul Years active 1959– …   Wikipedia Willis Ward — Willis F. Ward (born circa 1912) is a former track and field athlete and American football player who has been inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1981. Ward was the Michigan High School Athlete of the Year, after… …   Wikipedia Willis Avenue Station — U.S. National Register of Historic Places U.S. Historic district Contributing property …   Wikipedia Ohio Republican Party — Chairman Kevin DeWine Senate leader President of the Senate Tom Niehaus House leader Speaker of the House Bill Batchelder Founded …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”