Red Haven's on Fire
Encyclopedia
Plot
The hostage crisis in AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
has cut short The President
Josiah Bartlet
Josiah Edward "Jed" Bartlet is a fictional character played by Martin Sheen on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is President of the United States for the entire series until the last episode, when his successor is inaugurated...
's California trip, though Toby
Toby Ziegler
Tobias Zachary 'Toby' Ziegler is played by Richard Schiff on the television serial drama The West Wing. For most of the series' duration he is White House Communications Director.-Creation and development:...
remains in Orange County
Orange County, California
Orange County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Santa Ana. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,010,232, up from 2,846,293 at the 2000 census, making it the third most populous county in California, behind Los Angeles County and San Diego County...
to manage Sam
Sam Seaborn
Samuel Norman "Sam" Seaborn is a fictional character portrayed by Rob Lowe on the television serial drama The West Wing. He is best known for being Deputy White House Communications Director in the Josiah Bartlet administration throughout the first four seasons of the series.-Creation and...
's faltering congressional campaign. Sam is unable to find momentum and it becomes clear that he's going to lose and lose badly, but Toby's comments that he wanted to be there with Sam as he did the right things lift Sam's spirits.
Meanwhile, Josh
Josh Lyman
Joshua "Josh" Lyman is a fictional character played by Bradley Whitford on the television drama The West Wing. For the majority of the series, he was White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Josiah Bartlet administration...
stiffs the First Lady
Abbey Bartlet
Dr. Abigail Anne "Abbey" Barrington Bartlet, MD, is a fictional character played by Stockard Channing on the television serial drama, The West Wing. In the show, she is the First Lady of the United States, the wife of President Josiah Bartlet.-Overview:...
on a budget request involving immunization education. When she confronts him about it, he tells her that her Chief of Staff, who's also her nephew, is an idiot who can't play at their level and that if she wants to have her agenda respected, she needs to put a professional face on it. To Josh's chagrin, she takes his advice and hires a "professional" chief of staff: Amy Gardner. And Will Bailey
Will Bailey
William "Will" Bailey, is a fictional character played by Joshua Malina on the television serial drama The West Wing, holding various posts in the White House Office of Communications, Office of the Vice President and a backbencher Congressman .-Character biography:Will grew up in Belgium, as his...
, under the gun to produce speeches fast on the White House tax proposal, is terrorizing the interns assigned to him. They gradually begin to impress him and stay on to work on a new matter that stems from the Kundunese intervention.
As a plan is developed to have the military rescue the three U.S. soldiers who were kidnapped in Kundu, the hostages' families wait anxiously in the White House for news with Leo by their side. One of the soldiers' mothers is critical of the Bartlet family's history of non-military service, but seems chastened when Leo talks of his own service in Vietnam. Eventually the hostages are rescued, but at a terrible cost.