Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
President Josiah Bartlet’s staff begins the season juggling policy work and the personal trouble that follows them into the West Wing. Josh Lyman risks his job after insulting a political opponent, while Sam Seaborn discovers that Laurie, the woman he hopes to help, works as a call girl. Bartlet’s forceful response to a Syrian attack on an American plane alarms Chief of Staff Leo McGarry, and the team later scrambles to recover votes for a gun-control bill. New aide Charlie Young joins Bartlet’s office; staffers also handle a Supreme Court vacancy, a state dinner, a stranded activist in Indonesia and the death of a homeless veteran that Toby Ziegler insists deserves a proper burial.
The crises keep shifting between Washington politics and private loyalties. After Bartlet collapses, Abbey privately tells Leo that the President has multiple sclerosis. Later, Toby worries about his brother aboard a troubled space shuttle. Near the end of the season, an American stealth fighter is shot down over Iraq, and Bartlet orders a rescue while C.J. Cregg struggles with what she can tell the press. At a town hall outside Washington, the President and his daughter Zoey leave amid a sudden burst of gunfire. Secret Service agents report people down, but the finale cuts away before it identifies who has been hit, leaving the attack unresolved.