| Series: | The West Wing |
| Season: | 1 |
| Episode: | 15 |
| Director: | Christopher Misiano |
| Teleplay: | Aaron Sorkin |
| Story: | Dee Dee Myers Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. |
| Production: | 225914 |
| Guests: |
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| Prev: | Take this Sabbath Day |
| Next: | 20 Hours in L.A. |
| Episode List: | List of The West Wing episodes |
| Season Article: | The West Wing season 1 |
"Celestial Navigation" is the fifteenth episode of the first season of the American serial political drama The West Wing. The episode aired on February 16, 2000 on NBC. The episode depicts Josh Lyman narrating a story from the past few days to a collegiate audience, as well as the President's nominee to the Supreme Court being arrested for drunk driving. The episode was widely regarded as lighter and more humorous than other episodes of The West Wing.
President Bartlet's nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States, Roberto Mendoza, has been arrested in Connecticut for drunk driving and resisting arrest. Sam Seaborn and Toby Ziegler travel to where Mendoza is being held while Josh Lyman speaks at a lecture hall about his time working in the White House. Asked to describe a typical day at the White House, Josh narrates a story from two days before, which is interrupted throughout the episode by phone calls from Sam and Toby.
Two days prior, Deborah O'Leary, the secretary for Housing and Urban Development and an African American woman, accuses a prominent congressman of political racism while testifying before Congress. President Bartlet is asked by Washington Post reporter Danny Concannon to comment on the incident. The President initially sidesteps the question, then agrees that O'Leary should apologize. Leo McGarry then summons O'Leary and orders her to apologize despite her objections, reminding her that her primary role is to serve the President, and insists that she will be fired if she does not.
Sam, Toby, and C.J. Cregg are preparing for a press conference to promote President Bartlet's new initiatives for public education. However C.J. returns from a dentist appointment just before the conference with her speech impaired due to an emergency root canal. Instead of cancelling the briefing, Josh convinces C.J. to let him conduct it. Not taking the press room seriously, Josh makes several amateur blunders during the conference, culminating in a sarcastic assertion that the President has "a secret plan to fight inflation". Josh exits the press room bewildered and is derided by the rest of the staff, up to President Bartlet himself. Their mockery is cut short when Sam informs the staff that Mendoza has publicly rebuked the President for asking O'Leary to apologize. Mendoza is summoned to the White House from a vacation in Nova Scotia.
In the present, Sam and Toby become briefly lost in Connecticut after Sam attempts to use the North Star as a fixed point for guidance. Eventually reaching the police station where Mendoza is being held, Sam and Toby identify themselves and Mendoza to the officers on duty. The sergeant tells Sam that he suspected Mendoza had been drinking alcohol based on his driving and refusal to comply with a breathalyzer test. Sam informs the officers that Mendoza has a chronic illness that makes alcohol consumption potentially fatal. Mendoza, meanwhile, expresses to Toby his frustration at how he'd been treated by the police; having been searched and handcuffed by police in front of his wife and nine-year old son, he is now ashamed to face them. Mendoza intends to use the criminal justice system to be acquitted as an average citizen, but Toby tells Mendoza that he would make a bigger difference on the Supreme Court. Mendoza agrees to be released, and Toby tells the officers on duty that in exchange for Mendoza's release, and an apology to Mendoza and his family, the incident will remain off the record and no lawsuit will be filed against the county. Sam and Toby call Josh and inform him of Mendoza's release; Josh tells his audience to ask him sometime about a story involving a Supreme Court justice, then moves to take questions.
Steve Heisler, writing for The A.V. Club, describes the episode as "the flat-out funniest West Wing I've seen", complimenting Allison Janney's performance as C. J. when she has cotton in her mouth.[1] He also noted Donna's line to Josh after his press briefing, where she tells Josh to "go to your office, and come up with a secret plan to fight inflation". Heisler praises Edward James Olmos for his vigor and introspection in his scene with Toby, and said that he wanted to see more characters reveal what motivates them.
Liz Shannon Miller with IndieWire included the episode in a list of episodes "Binge View in Celebration of America".[2] Miller noted Josh's scene where he created a "secret plan to fight inflation", and noted that while the episode wasn't "plot heavy... it is a delight".
The Guardian included the episode in its list of the top ten episodes of The West Wing. They contrasted the episode to "In Excelsis Deo", an episode earlier in the season, noting that the tone of "Celestial Navigation" was much lighter. The Guardian praised Aaron Sorkin for his successful experimentation with the format of the show, incorporating flashbacks. They also highlighted a line from Josh—"It starts off as a nine-to-five job, but you can pretty much count on it being blown to hell by 9.30"—that they said encapsulated the show's narrative well.[3]
Writing for the Daily Bruin, Alex Driscoll briefly praised the episode's format of interwoven plotlines and the episode's combination of past in present in letting Josh narrating backstory to an ongoing plotline before focusing on Mendoza's being racially profiled. Driscoll writes that while Mendoza was released quietly and quickly, many cases of a victim being racially profiled do not have the same outcome. She praises Sorkin for providing attention to the point that race can matter more than guilt or innocence in determining how a suspect is treated by police. Driscoll notes in her October 2020 article that most suspects in this case will not have powerful members of the U.S. government to bail them out, and said that forms of protest similar to Mendoza's refusing of a breathalyzer test have spread across the United States.[4]
CCH Pounder, who guest starred as Debbie O'Leary in this episode, was initially considered for the role of C. J. Cregg.[5] Instead, Allison Janney was cast for the role.