Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
The season opens by showing who was caught in the shooting outside the town hall: President Bartlet is recovering, while Josh is seriously wounded and faces a fight over insurance coverage for his emergency surgery. Flashbacks trace the beginnings of the Bartlet campaign and the paths that brought Leo, Josh, Toby, C.J. and Donna into the White House. Ainsley Hayes, a Republican lawyer who bests Sam on television, is hired into the administration, and the staff keeps working through legislative fights, international crises and the demands of a midterm election year. Josh’s recovery and Donna’s concern run alongside Charlie and Zoey’s relationship and the team’s growing policy work.
The concealment of Bartlet’s multiple sclerosis becomes a public and legal crisis. Toby learns the diagnosis, and Leo and the President reckon with the consequences of concealing it; C.J. and First Lady Abbey are drawn into questions about who knew and when. As they prepare to disclose the illness, a car crash kills Mrs. Landingham, Bartlet’s longtime secretary. Her death deepens the President’s grief just as a military crisis unfolds in Haiti and he must decide whether to seek another term. Her funeral and memories of their first meeting help him choose to run again. The season ends as he enters a press conference and is asked if he will seek a second term; his answer is left unsaid.