Flapping flag.

When we return, it is "Monday Morning, Memorial Day" at the White House, according to the on-screen study guide. Carol is walking purposefully about the offices, distributing pages and meaningfully passing various monitors so that we can get a press update on the reaction to Jed's speech. On one monitor, a news wag is saying that she's surprised that, in Jed's speech, he didn't go further in proposing possible military retaliation for the bombing of the CODEL. On a separate monitor, a separate wag entirely is being puzzled by the "just end to the cycle of violence" remark, which doesn't seem all that puzzling to me. Just end...cycle of violence...I can follow that, I think. But then, I'm not a wag. On yet a third monitor, some sort of military type pontificates that, whether Jed is saying so or not, he has several possible targets for retaliation. And on one final monitor, we see Fitz's flag-draped coffin being transported for burial. Without his dirty hat, people. CRY FOR FITZ'S DIRTY HAT.

Carol walks into the press briefing, where C.J. is taking comments about Jed's wanderings from the circulated draft last night. C.J. blows them off as "part of the standard vetting process for a speech of this importance." A reporter persists, asking whether the changes reflect Jed's attitude about military retaliation. C.J.: "The cuts are reflective of the fact that Toby Ziegler's never written a five-minute speech in his life." She moves to another guy, who asks about the possibility of a Congressional resolution, but as C.J. answers this question, Carol slides the news onto her podium. C.J. reads it and somberly announces that a fourth person has died -- an aide to one of the congressmen. So that particular staff member has gone to the Great Beyond Of Previously Unfamiliar Semi-Characters Who Are Born And Destroyed In A Single Moment Mostly To Create A Dramatic Transition Between Scenes. Not a very satisfying way to go. ["But what of his hat? WHAT OF HIS HAT?!" -- Wing Chun]