Drought Conditions (Episode 616)
First Aired: Wednesday, 23rd February, 2005
Writer: Debora Cahn
Director: Alex Graves














Good Flight?
Lobby of the West Wing. As Josh argues with Margaret on his mobile about gaining access to the building, Will and Donna enter without any problems whatsoever.

JOSH: (into his mobile) ... you know what? Let me in!
WILL: (breezes past him) Hi.
JOSH: Hey. (to Donna, who also breezes past him) How's it going?
DONNA: Good. Good flight?
JOSH: Yeah, it was great. (he watches them walk in, and then after a beat) Margaret, let me in the door.











Is Our ... Relationship About To Change?
Lobby of the West Wing / closet. Donna interrupts Josh's ranting to drag him away for a private--and revealing--conversation.

JOSH: (into his mobile)... No, no, no, no--call them back. Talk to Elyse Bane. Tell her they're not bumping us for Ricki Rafferty.
DONNA: Hang up.
JOSH: ... Tell her the Congressman is available tomorrow only. Rafferty can wait.
DONNA: Hang up, now.
JOSH: Keep your pants on. (into his mobile) Call me back. (he hangs up and Donna strongarms him out of the lobby and into the corridor) I'm going to put a hit out on Ricki Rafferty.
DONNA: I need to talk to you, not with a million people around.
(she leads him by the arm into a dark closet and shuts the door behind them)
JOSH: Is our ... relationship about to change?
DONNA: (flips on the light in the closet) Rafferty put out the full text of the health plan. Annabeth had a copy. Look at page three. JOSH: (reading) "Obliterate the money-laundering middleman between you and your doctor." Why didn't every article lead with this?
DONNA: It wasn't in the first speech. They released the whole plan today. It guarantees them another three days of coverage--look how it's structured.
JOSH: It's structured like Jed Bartlet structured it before we forced him to cut it out of his plan.
DONNA: Rafferty's got to have someone who worked on the President's first health care initiative. That was you, Toby, Sam, Melanie, Ken--
JOSH: You missed one.
DONNA: No, who'd I miss?
JOSH: The President.



Many thanks to The West Wing Collection for the wonderful screencaps!