Wednesday. C.J.'s walking outside when a couple of characters (aides? politicians?) I don't think we've seen before call out to her. One's wearing a bowtie, the other a polka dot tie. Bowtie says that he had a meeting at OEOB, and that they were going to come see her. He tells her there's some concern on the Hill, about how soft the press has been about Rollins for the last couple of days. Polka Dot Tie says, "Particularly with regard to his relationship to the White House." C.J. feigns concern. Bowtie says that Democrats are worried that Republicans will use it as an excuse to start their own hearings earlier than expected. Polka Dot Tie suggests that the White House try to appear less eager to cooperate and tone done the trumpeting of Rollins's integrity. C.J. pretends to take their advice. Bowtie advises her to downplay Rollins's friendship with Babish. They bid her a good night and walk away. C.J. looks satisfied as she watches them leave.

C.J. encounters Sam as she returns to the White House. She asks how the call with the Governor went; apparently, not that well: "He's demanding we put the fire out." Sam says that POTUS tried to calm him down, but that they kept getting accused of espousing "fringe environmental policies." C.J. asks, "Are we?" Sam says it's not clear, but for the moment, her line is that the President and the Governor had a productive conversation, and he's monitoring the situation with the Secretary of the Interior. Ainsley comes up from behind, saying, "Excuse me." To Sam: "You need a haircut." Well, that is definitely a shout-out to a whole bunch of us, and I'm going to take it as a personal shout-out, because I first complained about his hair in the recap for "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I." The irony here, of course, is that his hair looks just fine in this episode. Sorkin's just toying with us. Sam asks, "Shouldn't you be someplace keeping me out of jail?" She breezes past him, saying she's taking a break.