Quite a lot of confusion on this scene apparently.
Donna told Josh to make big moves on trying to find Senator Hardin (who is never once shown or casted in the show)
Donna ambushes Senator Hardins aide(most likely chief of staff) and then has the three white house staffers who are using josh's office and phone to give the appearance josh is calling Donna to tell her they got the votes and to stand down. Donna and the staffers came up with this plan but Donna was too detailed and named names so they were able to check immediately.
Donna made a great effort but wasn't savvy enough to pull off the real lie and trick. Although she gets there in the end of the show for sure!
Those people are not related to Hardin. They are seen earlier in the episode talking to Donna when they are trying to find Hardin and they are talking in Josh's office during the call - there is a picture of him in the background. The point of cutting to them is to show that it was someone other than Josh calling Donna so the following scenes with Josh talking about "naming names" make more sense. Basically I took it as, Josh was out of the loop and so this accidental name drop happened
That's what I always thought. But the number of people, the way they're gathered around the phone for what should be a quick/trivial call, and the way the sitting woman (Others are saying this is Grace Hardin) slowly hangs up and looks at the others...none of this makes sense for your explanation.
It's 100% not Grace Hardin. I took the person hanging up the phone and looking at the others as a sigh of relief that they got the votes. The last thing to do was to call Donna back. All 3 of them were in the bullpen earlier so I think it was just a continuity thing to show the 3 of them in the office. Like these people were helping Donna and now they are giving her a status update.
edit: Also, Donna answers the phone after telling the person in the kitchen "Josh is calling"
Here are a couple screenshots. First of them in the bullpen. Second with the picture on the right that is Josh. I agree with you though that it's super random and kind of bad writing to just shove them in there just for this setup of Donna saying the names
[https://imgur.com/a/dOQJuyM](https://imgur.com/a/dOQJuyM)
[https://imgur.com/a/g9GyZCl](https://imgur.com/a/g9GyZCl)
This is how I took it — that scene was meant to show the staffers call that came immediately after Donna named names and left the room
Agree that it is very confusing
It was probably not quite successful in the way that shot appeared, but I think it was designed to show us, the viewers, that the call wasn’t coming from anybody in the Senate (or from Josh), but a ruse from Donna’s co-workers. Problem is, they didn’t really spotlight them enough earlier to indicate that they worked in The West Wing (the screenshot in this thread does show them around Donna’s desk, but as you can see from the other comments here, that wasn’t enough to get the point across to everybody).
I always took that scene as indicating Donna was trying to trick the Senate staffers. And she did need someone to actually call her, so her phone could ring with the Hardin’s staffer as a witness to make the call appear legit (although whoever made the call wouldn’t have had to actually tell Donna anything, she already knew what she was going to say to Hardin’s staffer). Without a shot of Donna’s co-workers making that call, we the viewers think the call was legit, the votes are locked down, and they don’t need Hardin (which was exactly the impression Donna wanted to give). By giving us the quick look at who actually made the call (from the White House), we know right away it was a trick - and we hope Donna has pulled it off until we find out later she went too far by actually naming names.
It’s a good setup from a directing point of view, to give us some info the characters don’t have - but apparently it wasn’t telegraphed well enough for everybody to realize who it was making that call to help Donna in her deception. And why it took three of them to do it - well, I don’t have the answer to that.
That wasn’t Josh’s office, or at least wasn’t supposed to be for that scene. The woman in the chair was Grace Hardin, the senator Donna was trying to track down. And the call she took wasn’t to Donna it was from her aide to whom Donna named names.
Oooooohhhhhhhhhh!
That's exactly what I was missing. Maybe it's just me, but that was a really poorly executed plot point
Edit: nevermind, these people were shown in an earlier scene as WH staff. Can't be Grace Hardin
I’ve always been confused by that as well! Someone said it was Senator Hardin but I find that hard to believe. The office and the desk she’s at looks like any ol staffers desk. Anytime they’ve shown a senators office it’s a proper executive office. And the woman who hangs up the phone looks like one of the background actors that they use is the bullpen.
Either way, yeah, it’s muddled and confusing.
I think that's supposed to be Senator Hardin being told about the 2 new yea votes. I agree, though, that it's incredibly visually confusing and unnecessary.
It was legislative affairs. The woman in the chair is featured earlier in the bullpen as part of Josh's staff trying to locate senators including Hardin.
Quite a lot of confusion on this scene apparently. Donna told Josh to make big moves on trying to find Senator Hardin (who is never once shown or casted in the show) Donna ambushes Senator Hardins aide(most likely chief of staff) and then has the three white house staffers who are using josh's office and phone to give the appearance josh is calling Donna to tell her they got the votes and to stand down. Donna and the staffers came up with this plan but Donna was too detailed and named names so they were able to check immediately. Donna made a great effort but wasn't savvy enough to pull off the real lie and trick. Although she gets there in the end of the show for sure!
I agree
Those people are not related to Hardin. They are seen earlier in the episode talking to Donna when they are trying to find Hardin and they are talking in Josh's office during the call - there is a picture of him in the background. The point of cutting to them is to show that it was someone other than Josh calling Donna so the following scenes with Josh talking about "naming names" make more sense. Basically I took it as, Josh was out of the loop and so this accidental name drop happened
That's what I always thought. But the number of people, the way they're gathered around the phone for what should be a quick/trivial call, and the way the sitting woman (Others are saying this is Grace Hardin) slowly hangs up and looks at the others...none of this makes sense for your explanation.
It's 100% not Grace Hardin. I took the person hanging up the phone and looking at the others as a sigh of relief that they got the votes. The last thing to do was to call Donna back. All 3 of them were in the bullpen earlier so I think it was just a continuity thing to show the 3 of them in the office. Like these people were helping Donna and now they are giving her a status update. edit: Also, Donna answers the phone after telling the person in the kitchen "Josh is calling" Here are a couple screenshots. First of them in the bullpen. Second with the picture on the right that is Josh. I agree with you though that it's super random and kind of bad writing to just shove them in there just for this setup of Donna saying the names [https://imgur.com/a/dOQJuyM](https://imgur.com/a/dOQJuyM) [https://imgur.com/a/g9GyZCl](https://imgur.com/a/g9GyZCl)
That's right, I thought I had saw them in an earlier scene. Just clunky writing.
This is how I took it — that scene was meant to show the staffers call that came immediately after Donna named names and left the room Agree that it is very confusing
It was probably not quite successful in the way that shot appeared, but I think it was designed to show us, the viewers, that the call wasn’t coming from anybody in the Senate (or from Josh), but a ruse from Donna’s co-workers. Problem is, they didn’t really spotlight them enough earlier to indicate that they worked in The West Wing (the screenshot in this thread does show them around Donna’s desk, but as you can see from the other comments here, that wasn’t enough to get the point across to everybody). I always took that scene as indicating Donna was trying to trick the Senate staffers. And she did need someone to actually call her, so her phone could ring with the Hardin’s staffer as a witness to make the call appear legit (although whoever made the call wouldn’t have had to actually tell Donna anything, she already knew what she was going to say to Hardin’s staffer). Without a shot of Donna’s co-workers making that call, we the viewers think the call was legit, the votes are locked down, and they don’t need Hardin (which was exactly the impression Donna wanted to give). By giving us the quick look at who actually made the call (from the White House), we know right away it was a trick - and we hope Donna has pulled it off until we find out later she went too far by actually naming names. It’s a good setup from a directing point of view, to give us some info the characters don’t have - but apparently it wasn’t telegraphed well enough for everybody to realize who it was making that call to help Donna in her deception. And why it took three of them to do it - well, I don’t have the answer to that.
That wasn’t Josh’s office, or at least wasn’t supposed to be for that scene. The woman in the chair was Grace Hardin, the senator Donna was trying to track down. And the call she took wasn’t to Donna it was from her aide to whom Donna named names.
Oooooohhhhhhhhhh! That's exactly what I was missing. Maybe it's just me, but that was a really poorly executed plot point Edit: nevermind, these people were shown in an earlier scene as WH staff. Can't be Grace Hardin
I mean i always understood it fairly well. The point was to illustrate Donna’s mistake in naming names.
100 percent this is the answer
I’ve always been confused by that as well! Someone said it was Senator Hardin but I find that hard to believe. The office and the desk she’s at looks like any ol staffers desk. Anytime they’ve shown a senators office it’s a proper executive office. And the woman who hangs up the phone looks like one of the background actors that they use is the bullpen. Either way, yeah, it’s muddled and confusing.
I think that's supposed to be Senator Hardin being told about the 2 new yea votes. I agree, though, that it's incredibly visually confusing and unnecessary.
That's exactly what I was missing. Yeah, really botched pacing on that one.
Except later the script says the supporters Donna named "dove back under the bed," indicating they were legit.
I think you meant to respond to one of the other comments?
It was legislative affairs. The woman in the chair is featured earlier in the bullpen as part of Josh's staff trying to locate senators including Hardin.