Doug returns to Josh's office, mentioning Donna told him Josh was looking for him. Josh asks about how the tree-lighting went; Doug replies, "The lights are on, let's...let's leave it at that." Josh says he thinks he wasn't clear when he spoke to Doug earlier. Doug acknowledges the awkwardness of the situation for everyone. Josh interjects, "We're asking you not to run." Doug asks, "Who's 'we'?" Josh indicates that it's the DNC and the White House. Doug: "The President?" Josh: "If you want to go forward on your own, the White House can't endorse you." Doug smiles and says, "Wow." He sort of chuckles and repeats: "Wow." Josh again recommends the New Hampshire state legislature as a great place to build a network. Doug: "I have a network. I've been working R & D in the New England tech corridor for fifteen years. I got the CEO of Diginet and the CFO of Gansey-McGrath ready to join my finance committee. I've got the guy who ran your boss's New Hampshire primary finding me a campaign manager, and I just spent five hours last Sunday in a duck blind with the editor of the Manchester Union Leader." Sure, but you probably got all these guys on board on their assumption that your father-in-law would be supporting your bid. Let's see how jazzed they are now. He states that he's running for Congress. Josh: "Hal Collins is...you met with Hal?" Doug: "There's a lot of fun to be had with all the 'nobody's good enough for the President's daughter' stuff, but I'm not actually an idiot." Josh can't really come up with any more convincing a response than, "That's...." Doug's gotta go, but he shakes Josh's hand and says he appreciates his time.

Abby, Jed, Zoey, and Liz are at an elegant candlelit table under a large chandelier in a dining room decorated for Christmas. A steward is pouring wine, and Jed is telling Liz that Gus shouldn't be upset, that he can light the tree next year. Liz says he's just wound up. Jed asks, "He's not eating?" She points out that it's 8:00, and Gus eats at 5:00. Jed wonders why they didn't eat earlier. Abby: "You're a bright guy and that's a stupid question." Well, happy holidays to you, too, Miss Thing. There are times when I just wish these two would get divorced already. I want to like them as a couple, but there's always been so much snideness and animosity and so little real affection to offset it. I attribute this largely to Sorkin's apparent belief that the only dramatically interesting relationships are ones full of arguing and conflict, which means that we have a lot of lively, if testy, dialogue when people are disagreeing, but far less sense of what got people glued together in the first place, never mind what keeps them that way. Yeah, I know he's not writing the show anymore, but these two are actually still being written as a couple much as he did.