The West Wing - Season 5 (2003)

A North Korean pianist announces his intention to defect in the Oval Office. While the staff passionately debate his request they also fight to get the President's choice of Vice President nominated by a new and hostile Speaker of the House.

Multiple members of the team start questioning the direction of the White House, including one member entertaining job offers. Those who aren't are starting to stumble, including Josh and Amy.

Leo is left manning the fort when the President goes AWOL whilst visiting tornado victims. Josh is not in the position to lend a hand as he deals with the fallout from a gross miscalculation and lack of judgment.

Deputy counsel Joe Quincy is quietly enlisted by Toby to approach the ailing Chief Justice about possible retirement. With Josh still incapable of lobbying effectively, Leo brings in help to hammer out the budget, but success looks a long way off with a hostile Speaker making negotiations tricky.

President Bartlet refuses to let Speaker of the House Haffley hold him hostage on the budget and allows the government to be shut down.

The entire Bartlet family tries to gather for an early Christmas dinner at the White House, but inevitable delays occur as the president must deal with an overseas crisis. Ellie is held up at her lab, and five-year-old grandson Gus is having tantrums. In addition, Doug Westin (Jed and Abby's son-in-law) approaches Josh about running for an open congressional seat in his home district. Josh, Leo and the New Hampshire Democratic Party have already chosen a viable local candidate, but Doug persists. Jed, who likes and respects Doug, still thinks it's should be Liz who ...

Bartlet travels with former presidents Newman and Walken aboard Air Force One to the funeral of another former president. Meanwhile, Leo sits in the situation room dealing with demonstrations that are wracking Saudi Arabia and threatening to topple the royal family and CJ tries to deal with rumors of military mind control experiments. On board the plane, Toby tries to write Bartlet's eulogy as the crisis in Saudi Arabia grows worse.

In inexplicably finishing the speech early Toby is left with nothing to do. However, the State of the Union speech needs testing, so Toby flies out to meet Joey Lucas to perform mall tests.

Toby awakens at 3 a.m. with an idea of how to save the social security program for future generations, leading him to meet in secret with the president and volunteer to "touch the third rail" of American politics. Toby meets with influential Republican senator Gaines about putting aside partisanship in the interest of preserving the critical safety net, and he gets a favorable response, but someone who saw them together leaks the meeting to the press. Toby also gets Dem. senator Brainerd on board with assurances that both sides need to compromise and that the ...

A nuclear device is tested in the Indian Ocean, but none of the known nuclear powers will claim responsibility, leading to the possibility of a terrorist group holding missile tests. Vice President Russell, heretofore dismissed by west wing staff as a joke, a four-term congressman alleged to be securely in the pocket of a large Colorado mining company, recalls a junket he'd taken early in his political career in which a drunken Israeli statesman confessed to secret missile tests. Russell visits the sit. room and puts the military and national security leaders at ease,...

A Navy Hawkeye AWACS crew is missing in North Korea, a Broadcaster has called CJ a chicken and a proposed tax break for stay at home moms causes Josh stress. Amidst the usual West Wing mêlée, Leo finds himself hearing things about the man who saved his life in Vietnam, that he doesn't believe.

Press leaks lead to the revelation that former VP John Hoynes is about to release a tell-all book about the administration.

A Republican Congresswoman targets Ellie in an attempt to discredit the President; C.J. urges Abby to appear on Sesame Street; Josh works to keep a judicial nominee from withdrawing.

A Supreme Court Justice dies, forcing the administration's hand on picking a desirable replacement who can be confirmed by a hostile Congress.

A documentary-style look at the day in the life of press secretary C.J. Cregg on a day that turns out to be anything but normal due to a FBI/terrorist standoff.

The president and staff are about to head for Brussels to sign an international free trade deal that Josh has just spent a lot of time and effort negotiating, to nearly everyone's satisfaction; at the 11th hour, the CEO of an IBM-like company tells Josh that the first effect of the new agreement, of which his company is a huge beneficiary, will be the immediate transfer of 17,000 programming jobs to India; the head of the communications workers' union, which is representing the affected programmers, brings one of the programmers to Josh's office, and they refuse to ...

When a bio-hazard alarm goes off in the White House, the staff are locked down where they are - forcing them to have conversations they would have otherwise avoided.

A fact finding codel to the Middle East is torn apart by an explosion. Key members of the administration and their loved ones are caught in the mess. The President is forced to consider retaliatory military action in the unstable area, with possible repercussions that could last decades.

The President finds himself at odds with Leo, and the entire country, on his position regarding retaliation for the bombing in Gaza.