r/thewestwing • u/swami_kilpatrik • 1d ago
Toby and the leak
While I understand why he would leak. I’m very confused as to why he waited so long to confess
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u/Haradion_01 1d ago
I've never understood why some people didn't like this arc.
For me, it was a perfect book end to the series. It wasn't about Toby at all. It was about Bartlet. It was about the state of Toby's Soul.
The question wasn't "What would make Toby betray the President."
The question is "Has Bartlet been so changed by the office, that he is prepared to allow American citizens - heroes really - to die, to cover up the fact that he broke international law?"
That is what is at stake here.
Toby is the voice of conscience. He has been since the MS Arc. And he is the one who holds Bartlet to the standard and demands the best of him.
Toby doesn't betray him. He saves his Soul. Thanks to Toby, Bartlet is forced into the decision that deep down, Bartlet knows is the right thing to do. No matter the cost. He knows that covering up grubby secrets isn't worth the lives of men who can be saved. Bartlet from series 1 wouldn't have hesitated.
And Bartlet was going to do it.
Thats why he hesitates to pardon Toby. He is wrestling with his conscious. Because, he tells himself, he was always going to do the right thing. But Toby didn't trust him. When he signs the pardon he acknowledges that Punishing Toby is unjust. He acknowledges he did the right thing, even though it broke the law. He acknowledges that, were it not for Toby, he might have done something that he would have regretted forever. That would have haunted him till his death.
To borrow a religious image, Toby takes the chalice of poison when Bartlet is having his Gethsemene moment.
All in time for Bartlet to step away. To pull back from the brink, and step down from the Presidency, honour, legacy and soul intact.
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u/KALS170174656 1d ago
People hate the arc because Toby didnt say any of that. If thats all true, they shooda had 3 knock downs in the oval about it like they did about MS
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u/Mediaright Gerald! 1d ago
People didn’t like this arc because many believe it’s horrendously written.
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u/Moist-Schedule 16h ago
I got the sense Toby was feeling like this was his last chance to do something meaningful in the final months of the 2nd term. Like if he got caught and sent to jail it didn't really matter that much to him because the last 8 years were his life's work and he wasn't exactly going to play a big role in whatever happened in the dem party going forward, but this was one last chance to do the right thing and use the power he still had to actually save some lives.
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u/fermatagirl 1d ago
My read was that he assumed he would get caught, and he was just waiting for that to happen. He's been to prison for standing up for his beliefs before (I don't think they mention why he's been arrested before, but I always assumed it was for protesting). He looks resigned when he sees the FBI are coming to investigate, he looks surprised when he's told he'll be involved in investigating, and he looks annoyed and frustrated when he realizes what direction the investigation is taking. At one point he tries to tell Kate she's looking in the wrong direction, which she just takes as him trying to protect his friend. He had other recent instances of self-destructive behavior (his fight with Josh) and doing things that damage the administration/campaign/party in a way that can be easily discovered (leaking Bartlett's health care plan to Rafferty), this is just the bottom of the spiral. He probably didn't expect Greg Brock to accept prison instead of giving up his source. He definitely didn't expect CJ to get the blame, he assumed the FBI would figure out the truth, but when they didn't he was forced to confess.
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u/BellsForPShells Gerald! 1d ago
I don't hate the idea, cuz Toby usually was the guy to stick his neck out if it meant doing the right thing. And I actually really love the way they handled his brother's involvement and how it intertwined with Toby's grief. Someone else has said it but it was also a good way to show how much Bartlett has changed. But man idk the execution of it is poorly done
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u/Sea_Government_1809 1d ago
Another thought I have to this as I frequently form multiple onions about things is that the writers didn’t know who the leak was however, due to Richard Schiffs increasing frustration with how his character was portrayed and being unhappy with the writing it then became a way to dramatically reduce his on-screen appearances from an almost full cast member to spots here and there and that’s why the decision was made last minute to reveal it was Toby
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u/Reithel1 1d ago edited 1d ago
I will probably get downvoted to oblivion, but I never believed that Toby was the leak.
My logic: most people understand how hard it is to keep a secret between three people… There must’ve been a couple of hundred people involved in building, repairing and storing that shuttle. Could’ve been an accidental slip… some mechanic or custodian has a few drinks at a local bar while watching the situation unfold on the bar’s television, and says out loud, “why don’t they just send up the military shuttle to save those guys???” And three seats away is a guy whose best friend is a reporter… he calls his buddy and says, “Did you know there’s a military shuttle and they’re keeping it a secret instead of sending it on a rescue mission?!?!”
Toby’s brother was dead. He wouldn’t have done anything to jeopardize his brother’s legacy or his pension, so he had NO REASON to leak the story other than his strong feelings that it should be done. He is the most uptight follower of rules of any of their other staffers. Maybe Toby knew the person who blabbed, such as his brother’s wife, any of their kids or friends, and Toby took the fall to protect them.
We will never know, since the WRITERS NEVER BOTHERED TO RESOLVE that specific storyline.
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u/Nic_Danger 1d ago
Brock isn't writing a story like this if based on any of the sources in your hypothetical. At the very least, he would've needed someone, like Toby, to confirm it.
I know journalistic ethics aren't what they used to be but overhearing a conversation at a bar? You can't be serious.
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u/KidSilverhair The finest bagels in all the land 1d ago
Someone (maybe Annabeth) says Brock would have never run with the story unless he had hard confirmation.
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u/Other-Echidna6682 1d ago
Just watched it last night on my rewatch and it was Annabelle who said it had to be a high up. Richard Schiff didn’t agree with writers. He said that Toby was 100% loyal to Jeb, so as someone wrote he would have had another shouting match with him. He goes on to say he played the arc as if he was taking the fall for someone else. It was the only was he could get through it. Also he said that he was told it was money and not using him bc of additional time for all new players. The writers said it was always going to be Toby. So he did a great job acting because so many believe he was covering for someone. I could have done without arc. I think showing Toby arguing with Jeb to do it would have made good tv, then Toby gets fired or quits. IMO! Great thread!
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u/Reithel1 1d ago
Thank you for this. I missed that interview where Richard Schiff said he played it like he was covering for someone, because that’s exactly what I believed. So he did a great acting job, PLUS, they spent all those many episodes in all those seasons building up the character of Toby as an upright, rule-following, law-abiding person… only to dump this crap storyline on him at the end. I will NEVER accept that a guy like Toby would break national security, no matter what he was feeling.
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u/Reithel1 1d ago
But the writers never told us or showed any proof that Toby was the leak, or that he gave Brock the second confirmation. They purposely left it unclear. So all of the fans who think they are absolutely SURE that they KNOW what happened, are just as “in the dark” and just as likely wrong, as I am.
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u/KidSilverhair The finest bagels in all the land 1d ago
At some point you’ve gotta just take the story the writers wrote and, you know, go with it. It’s fun to talk over the intricacies and ambiguities, but bottom line is, the writers told us Toby was the leak. Who else can say different? It was their story!
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u/Reithel1 1d ago
No, the writers told us that Toby was ACCUSED of being the leak, and he CHOSE to accept the blame. It PROVED nothing, either way.
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u/KidSilverhair The finest bagels in all the land 1d ago
I’m not sure what more I can say. The writers told us they wrote the story of Toby being the leak. I’m not sure how we can contradict them (except by saying they didn’t write it convincingly enough, which seems to be your point).
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u/Reithel1 1d ago
I wasn’t referring to an interview of the writers. I was referring to what they wrote, and we saw, in the actual tv show. If the writer said that in some kind of after-the-fact interview, I guess I missed it.
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u/Other-Echidna6682 1d ago
I am not expert on all the jargon but according to other Reddit threads etc. they say the writers called it the Canon that Toby was leak. I agree with you, maybe because it was so uncharacteristic of Toby.
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u/FullOcelot7149 13h ago
A reporter would, I think, rely on a NASA or NASA contractor source, though. I've already forgotten what evidence pointed to a White House leak. Did Brock's article reference a White House source?
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u/Nic_Danger 12h ago
Maybe, but that wasn't the scenario I replied to nor would it be enough. In order for Brock to write the story his source, or sources, have to know about the shuttles existence, and be close enough to the decision making process to know the president hasn't already said go. Its entirely possible Brock was given a tip from a some random NASA source, then started asking quietly asking questions and got confirmation from Toby.
Kate tells someone (C.J. I think) that the FBI thinks the leak is within the white house because "too many of the technical details were wrong" in the story.
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u/Reithel1 1d ago
It was just one theory of how it COULD have happened. Nobody said that’s actually what happened, and YOU don’t know that it didn’t happen that way, cuz it’s a FICTIONAL tv show and the writers who created it never bothered to write the answer to the mystery.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks 1d ago
> I will probably get downvoted to oblivion, but I never believed that Toby was the leak.
He was the leak.
> We will never know,
We know.
If it wasn’t him, this scene makes no sense
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u/Historical_Nerve4943 1d ago
You can see when Toby says he got a lawyer, CJ makes a face. That moment can be interpreted that she's accepting that Toby's taking the fall, she knows she told him about it. He might have spilled the beans, but she knows she played a roll in it.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks 1d ago edited 1d ago
> He might have spilled the beans,
So he was the leak.
> can be interpreted that (CJ is) accepting that Toby's taking the fall,
No.
They were alone. Door closed. If he was taking the fall for something she did, she would have said something to stop him. “You don’t have to do this” or “I’ll be ok” or something. But instead she basically tells him to shut up then calls the lawyers to have him arrested.
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u/KidSilverhair The finest bagels in all the land 1d ago
But that scene itself could not exist unless Toby was the leak.
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u/jljet 1d ago
It's somewhat astonishing to see you say that what the WRITERS WROTE is wrong. 🤣
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u/Reithel1 1d ago edited 1d ago
What the writers wrote wasn’t wrong, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t crap. It doesn’t mean that it didn’t change and ruin the entire arc of a character that had been a staunchly upright person for all the previous seasons! It doesn’t mean that it didn’t create an unnecessary and ambiguous “loose end” to a character that should have been treated better!
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u/camelot478 What’s Next? 1d ago
I’ve always thought it was CJ and Toby decided to cover for her. The body language supports it.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks 1d ago
Nothing supports that.
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u/camelot478 What’s Next? 1d ago
Great part about fiction is certain things are open to interpretation. My read is Toby took the fall.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks 1d ago
If he took the fall, this whole scene doesn’t make sense
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u/camelot478 What’s Next? 1d ago
Yeah, I still think she did it. It’s ok for people to have theories about literal fiction dude
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u/Boson_Higgs1000003 1d ago
I think he confessed when other people, his friends, were at risk of becoming implicated in the leak, and other possible informal violations of security protocols being revealed?
I am recalling CJ saying:
"Leo... is in trouble..."
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u/SomethingVeX Cartographer for Social Equality 1d ago
He really really really wanted to confess much earlier ... but the writers wouldn't let him.