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Hello all. Today we have the first season finale, "What Kind of Day Has It Been," not to be confused with the Sports Night episode of the same name. I'm assuming we'll get a Studio 60 episode with that title any day now. In any case...

All caps from screenmusings.net.

Bartlet is doing a town hall at the Newseum with a bunch of college kids. Decisions are made by those who show up, yadda yadda yadda.

Sam takes a highly-anticipated phone call.

After he does, he gives Toby "the signal." Because this episode is being told in that irritating flashback format, we do not yet know what this signifies. All you need to know is that it is good and it is dorky.

Toby then gives the signal to Josh, and this was the best cap I could find of that.

Josh gives the signal to Leo.

Leo doesn't know what the hell that means. I love Leo.
LEO: What’s that?
JOSH: It’s the signal.
LEO: I thought that was the signal for the other thing?
JOSH: It’s the signal for this thing, now.
LEO: When did that happen?
JOSH: It happened just...who cares, Leo? It’s the signal for this thing, now.

Meanwhile, CJ takes Danny aside to ~~make sweet love~~ give him a tip about the space shuttle Columbia. Aha, a clue about the signal.

Leo gives Jed the signal even though a minute ago he didn't even know what it meant. Have I mentioned that I love Leo? Because I do.

Bartlet embarrasses Zoey and her carefully multicultural friends.

Outside, "I Can't Believe It's Not" Butterfield briefs Sara Sidle, I mean Gina, about exit procedures. The president will not be working the rope line because he wants to get home to watch a softball game. Either that or he's just afraid that "working the rope line" sounds dirty.

CHARLIE: Did you hear that?
JOSH: Yeah.
CHARLIE: He used it.
JOSH: Yeah.
CHARLIE: He used the material I told him about.
JOSH: Yeah.
CHARLIE: You were right.
JOSH: About what?
CHARLIE: It doesn’t go away.
That's lovely, and would be even more lovely if we knew what they were talking about right now. In any case, yay for continuity, etc.

Everybody leaves the Newseum and Zoey prattles on to Gina. But Gina's Spidey sense is tingling.

OHNOES! Smash cut to credits.

Here we are 12 hours earlier. Fitz is letting Leo know that a soldier was shot down over Iraq and they're going to try to get him out. Well. This feels weird, doesn't it?

BARTLET: It seems to me that if this event is over by 10:00, then I can be back here by 11, and you know what that means.
CHARLIE: Yes, sir. It means that you can watch the girls’ softball game.
BARTLET: Did you just snicker when you said that?
CHARLIE: No, sir.
BARTLET: Yes, you did.
BARTLET: When you said girls' softball game, you snickered.
CHARLIE: No, sir.
BARTLET: Yes, you snickered. As if to indicate there was something wrong with my wanting to see a girls’ softball game live via satellite.
CHARLIE: Well, you seem pretty excited by it, sir.
BARTLET: I am excited about it! You come to the end of a long day, you sit back, you open a beer, you watch a sporting event. That’s what men do.
CHARLIE: Girls’ softball.
BARTLET: If that’s what’s on, then that’s what they watch. It’s either that, or a cricket match between Scotland and Bermuda. Now, I am an educated man, Charlie, but when someone tries to explain cricket to me, all I want to do is hit him in the head with a teapot.

CJ is making Bartlet practice for his event at the Newseum, but first Bartlet wants Sam to look into why the space shuttle Columbia didn't land when it was supposed to, because Toby's brother is on board. He is a payload specialist, which is yet another thing that sounds dirty but isn't.

Bartlet is not digging being treated like an idiot. "CJ, you say I have a pitcher of water and a drinking glass. Now the water gets into the glass how?" Hee.

Sam is all, ZOMG I didn't even know you have a brother! Toby is all, whatevs.

JOSH: Where’s my chair?
DONNA: What chair?
JOSH: The chair I sit in at my desk.
DONNA: It’s at the shop.
JOSH: At the shop?
DONNA: You said one of the wheels was wobbly.
JOSH: Yeah, you call up a guy in maintenance, he uses a screwdriver.
DONNA: Well, I sent it to the shop.
JOSH: I didn’t even know there was a shop.
DONNA: It’s not so much a shop as it is --
JOSH: What?
DONNA: My friend Curtis.
JOSH: Your friend Curtis.
DONNA: Yeah.
JOSH: Is fixing my chair?
DONNA: I’m throwing him some work.
JOSH: And how much is Curtis charging the Federal Government to fix the wobbly wheel on my chair?
DONNA: He said he’d have to take a look at the job.
JOSH: At his shop.
DONNA: Yeah.
JOSH: Okay.

Bartlet gets briefed about the soldier missing in Iraq.
BARTLET: Bill, if it ends up that Fitzwallace has to call this kid’s parents, I swear to God I’m invading Baghdad.
Hmm. Yeah. Told you this was weird. Hey, at least they actually KNOW the kid is there, ha ha ha. Ahem.

Leo briefs CJ about the soldier and how they have to mislead the press about it for the pilot's safety. CJ isn't crazy about the idea, but really she just wants to make sure Leo isn't lying to HER, again, too. Leo tells her to chill. Although he doesn't use that word. Although that would be funny.

Sam tells Toby that a payload bay door on the space shuttle won't close, whatever the hell that means. Basically it means Toby's brother could be in a lot of hoohaa, which is all you need to know.

Whatevs.

Josh takes a jogging meeting with Vice President Douchebag because Aaron Sorkin loves me. Mmmm, arms.

Mmmm, legs. And shoulders. Yes.

They're talking about campaign finance reform or something. Whatever. And Josh tells Hoynes that if they bring the soldier home safely Bartlet's approval rating will go up. Also:
HOYNES: You know something, Josh, sometimes I wonder if I’d listened to you two years ago, would I be President right now? Do you ever wonder that?
JOSH: No, sir. I know it for sure.
What I love most about that exchange is that it then gets replayed in the previouslies pretty much any time Hoynes is on.

The douchebag wants a piece of that. Me too, douchebag, me too.

CJ holds her fancy press conference complete with Pentagon officials. Oooooh. She also totally lies and tells Danny they are looking into diplomatic solutions. It's kind of like when Princess Leia told Darth Vader she was on a diplomatic mission, except completely different.

More prepping the President for his upcoming event. Actually I just wanted to give you a chance to say goodbye to Mandy. Bye, Mandy!

Zoey tells her dad that Charlie wants to talk to him about something. Hmm.

Sam comes up with the brilliant signal to indicate whether there has been success getting the soldier out of Iraq. Bartlet is less than impressed, but I can't say I blame him.

Leo berates Josh for saying that rescuing the soldier would improve Bartlet's approval rating.
LEO: I know the President’s been joking around all day. But he’s been living and dying with this every hour, and I know he’d be really offended if he knew that you were discussing a political upside. And I gotta tell you, Josh, as a guy who flew planes in the war, I was really offended, too.
JOSH: Yes, sir.
LEO: Okay.
JOSH: Okay.
LEO: Now, you did good today. I’m just saying that there’s a way to be a person.
JOSH: I apologize.
LEO: Your apology’s accepted.

...

LEO: What are you doing?
JOSH: It looked like you wanted to hug me.
LEO: Oh, man, did you read that wrong.
(Funniest. Scene. EVER.)

Josh demonstrates the signal for Leo. Really, I just want to show people doing this as much as possible.

Charlie yells at Zoey for telling the president that Charlie wants to talk to him. For reasons passing understanding they have chosen Josh's office as the venue for said argument.
ZOEY: I also don’t think it was out of line for me to stick up for you, since you were clearly chicken.
CHARLIE: Zoey, I work in a building with the smartest people in the world...

"DONNA!"

Toby admits to Sam that he's not really all "whatevs" about his brother. He's just embarrassed that he'd forgotten that his brother was up there because the mission launch got moved around a few times. Oh, Toby.

Charlie gets up the nerve to talk to Bartlet, telling him there's some research he did that Bartlet might want to look at before his event at the Newseum. Awww, Charlie.

FITZWALLACE: The eagle on the seal in the carpet. In one talon he’s holding arrows, and in the other an olive branch. Most of the time, the eagle’s facing the olive branch, but when Congress declares war, the eagle faces the talons. How do they do that? You think they’ve got a second carpet sitting around in the basement someplace?
BARTLET: I don’t know.
FITZWALLACE: Maybe this piece in the middle cuts out and they do it like a basketball court.
*giggle* Also, the soldier is totally okay. Yay. (So now we know the signal at the beginning refers to Toby's brother. That Sorkin is a clever guy.)

CJ: I have to congratulate you, Carol. I was afraid I was going to see Saudi Arabia spelled with a ‘y’.
CAROL: CJ, I’m a much better speller than you give me credit for.
CJ: Yes. One "l" in Tel Aviv.
CAROL: Okay.

Danny's pissed that CJ lied about how they were going to get the pilot out of Iraq. What he's really pissed about is that he's the one who asked the question that necessitated CJ's lying answer.
DANNY: CJ, I’m not staying in the penalty box forever. I’ve covered the White House for eight years, and I’ve done it for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, and the Dallas Morning News! And I’m telling you, you can’t mess me around like this.
CJ: Danny, I've got to tell you, that was, seriously, that was a turn-on when you said that, though I don’t know why you decided to be the most haughty on the Dallas Morning News.

Bartlet stops by Toby's office to give him a buck up little camper speech about his brother. Whatevs. Great Toby shot, though.

Why, this looks familiar. Oh, it's because we're back where we started, at the teaser. They they recap the entire frickin' teaser, so let's skip all that and get right to...