The Fall's Gonna Kill You

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“The Fall's Gonna Kill You”
The West Wing episode
Episode no.	Season 2 Episode 42
Written by	Aaron Sorkin (teleplay) Patrick H. Caddell (story)
Directed by	Christopher Misiano
Guest stars	Stockard Channing Oliver Platt Marlee Matlin Lee Wilkof NiCole Robinson Rosalind Chao Spencer Garrett Douglas Roberts Lucia Vincent
Production no.	226220
Original airdate	May 2, 2001
Season 2 episodes
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 The West Wing episodes

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

[edit] Plot

The episode begins with CJ being summoned to the office of the White House Counsel Oliver Babish, who menacingly questions CJ about the President's MS cover-up, despite the fact she had only been informed the night before. Josh enlists Joey Lucas 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."