The Fall's Gonna Kill You

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The West Wing episode
"The Fall's Gonna Kill You"
Episode no.	42
Prod. code	226220
Orig. airdate	May 2, 2001
Writer(s)	Aaron Sorkin (teleplay) Patrick H. Caddell (story)
Director	Christopher Misiano
Guest star(s)	Stockard Channing Oliver Platt Marlee Matlin Lee Wilkof NiCole Robinson Rosalind Chao Spencer Garrett Douglas Roberts Lucia Vincent
Season 2 October 4 2000 – May 16 2001
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II The Midterms In This White House And It's Surely To Their Credit The Lame Duck Congress The Portland Trip Shibboleth Galileo Noël The Leadership Breakfast The Drop-In Bartlet's Third State of the Union The War at Home Ellie Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail The Stackhouse Filibuster 17 People Bad Moon Rising The Fall's Gonna Kill You 18th and Potomac Two Cathedrals
List of all West Wing episodes...

"The Fall's Gonna Kill You" is the 42nd episode of The West Wing.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Plot

White House Counsel Oliver Babish menacingly questions C.J. and Abbey about the President's MS cover-up. And Josh enlists Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin) to take a hush-hush poll on it. Meanwhile, new estimates project a smaller-than-expected budget surplus—and that cheers staffers; and a Chinese satellite has fallen out of its orbit and is hurtling to earth at 2000 mph, and no one's concerned but Donna.

[edit] Title

The title, as referenced by CJ in the episode, is from the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. She tells Josh at the end "You guys are like Butch and Sundance peering over the edge of a cliff to the boulder-filled rapids 300 feet below, thinking you better not jump 'cause there's a chance you might drown. The President has this disease and has been lying about it, and you guys are worried that the polling might make us look bad? It's the fall that's gonna kill ya."