Sports Night/Louise Revisited

Louise Revisited
Season 2, Episode 4
Airdate	October 26, 1999
Production Number	N-326
Written by	teleplay Miriam Kazdin and Aaron Sorkin ---story Miriam Kazdin
Directed by	Marc Buckland
← 2x03 Cliff Gardner	2x05 → Kafelnikov
Sports Night — Season Two

Louise Revisited is the fourth episode of the second season of Sports Night, and the twenty-seventh episode overall.

Natalie is writing to Jeremy's sister, Jeremy helps Casey rig an internet poll, and Dana goes out to dinner and comes back without her panties.

Starring: Josh Charles (Dan Rydell), Peter Krause (Casey McCall), Felicity Huffman (Dana Whitaker), Joshua Malina (Jeremy Goodwin), Sabrina Lloyd (Natalie Hurley) and Robert Guillaume (Isaac Jaffe)

Guest Starring: William H. Macy (Sam), Kayla Blake (Kim), Greg Baker (Elliott), Ron Ostrow (Will), Timothy Davis-Reed (Chris), Jeff Mooring (Dave)

Plot Overview

Casey enters his office one morning to find Dan waiting for him. A new internet poll has been put on the CSC web page, asking viewers: "Who's cooler, Dan or Casey?" Dan tells Casey that 159 votes have been cast in the first day, more than would have been expected. More surprising is that 153 of these votes were for Casey, which Dan finds highly suspicious. Dan accuses Casey of staying up all night, voting for himself, which Casey denies.

As Casey leaves the office, he coaxes Jeremy to follow him into a secluded hallway, and reveals that he did exactly what Dan suspected. But now he wants to "bury" Dan in the poll. Jeremy is hesitant at first, but when Casey reminds him of the hazing he endured from Dan after he started working for the show, he agrees to use an automatic voting program which will vote 2000 times per minute for Casey.

Later, Natalie approaches her desk to find Jeremy reading her mail. Jeremy asks her why she's been writing to his sister, Louise. She asks whether this makes him uncomfortable, which he denies unconvincingly. At the rundown meeting, everyone is present including Sam, who appears to be paying no attention. Dan gripes that Casey has received 150,000 more votes in the poll. Dana announces that the 8 PM meeting will be held early, so she can have a "dinner engagement," which piques Casey's curiosity.

As the meeting begins, Dana notices that Sam appears to be totally engrossed in his reading and not paying attention. She stops the meeting to confront him about it, but Sam turns the tables and reveals he's been listening to everything. After the meeting, Casey pries more information about Dana's dinner engagement, a high school friend named Cab Calloway. Casey is hurt that while Dana is forcing him to date other women, she is going out with other men, but she assures him that the dinner is platonic.

Dan visits Sam in his office, and tries to encourage him to interact with the rest of the staff more. Sam feigns distance, but allows himself a smile when Dan leaves.

When Dana returns from dinner, she pulls Natalie aside to reveal that she surreptitiously slipped off her panties at the restaurant. She attributes this partially to the boring evening and partially to her loss of control since Sam arrived. Barely a minute after Dana leaves the room, Natalie has accidentally told Casey. She tries to smooth it over, but Casey is confused and angry that Dana's underwear adventure happened without him.

During the evening's broadcast, Casey is distracted by Dana, and Dan is furious that Casey's lead in the polls has jumped to 2.5 million to Dan's meager 232. In commercial, Casey ignores him, walks into the control room and pulls Dana aside. He demands an explanation. Dana tries to explain that she'd always accepted other people's definitions of proper and improper behavior, and for once she wanted to try for herself.

Casey surprises her by expressing his total support for her experimentation; he explains that he wishes he could be with her at the time. Touched by his words, she takes him to his office, where she has hidden the panties in his drawer. Casey happily puts them in his pocket and they walk back to the control room. Dana finds Sam and manages to display a little fearlessness over him, if only for a moment.

In the control room, Natalie is writing another letter to Louise. To get back at her, Jeremy sits down and begins a letter to Natalie's father, causing her to worry. When Casey and Dan return, they are all smiles. Dana tells Natalie where her panties are, to Natalie's happy disbelief. And Casey's poll numbers continue to climb...

Arc Advancement

Happenings

• Casey conspires with Jeremy to have Dan lose an internet popularity poll by a landslide.
• Natalie has been writing letters to Jeremy's sister Louise.
• Dana surreptitiously takes off her panties at a boring dinner date.

Characters

• Dana decides to experiment with slightly "dirty" behavior, possibly in response to a feeling of powerlessness at work. After some confusion, Casey gives his support.
• Jeremy and Natalie's relationship has reached a level of intimacy Jeremy finds uncomfortable.
• Dan tries to evoke a more friendly response from Sam.

Referbacks

• The music playing at the end of this episode is Neil Finn's "She Will Have Her Way", which was also used as the intro for 2x01.
• Jeremy's letters to his sister have been featured in 1x07 and 1x17.

Trivia

The Show

• Robert Guillaume (Isaac) does not appear in this episode.
• We learn that Dan pranked Jeremy several times when he joined the show. He glued Jeremy's items to his desk, and made him look for nonexistent "ignition keys" to the studio cameras.
• Natalie's father is named Hank.
• Jeremy appears to be using a tablet PC when he sits down to write a letter to Natalie's father.
• Look closely: At the end of the episode, when we see the poll results on the screen, Casey's number makes a sudden jump from 2,595,000 to 3,000,000.

Behind the Scenes

• An earlier draft of this script leaned more heavily on Natalie's letter to Louise. The chronology of events was out of order, tied together by Natalie narrating her letter (in the same style as Jeremy's narration in 1x07 and 1x17). This would have been the only episode to use a non-Jeremy voice-over narration.

Allusions and References

• Jeremy's use of a Perl script to automatically vote in a web poll over and over is a reference to an incident where a programmer in real life used Perl to vote in the 1999 Major League Baseball All-Star Game's online balloting. He voted for Nomar Garciaparra -- and all the Red Sox players -- about 40,000 times. (Jeremy's program in the show was far more prolific, at 2,000 times a minute.) The story went national after it was published in the Boston Globe. [1]

• Cab Calloway (the real one) was a famous African-American jazz musician. "Minnie the Moocher," one of his most well-known songs, is the source of the "Hi De Ho" line Natalie and Casey sing. The Cotton Club was a famous jazz nightclub in New York City where Calloway and his band would play frequently.

Memorable Moments

• Sam threatens to put a motherboard someplace sensitive.
• Natalie spills to Casey, then totally fails to recover.
• Casey voices his support for Dana's new outlook on life.
• Dan gets very close to the camera, and Jeremy's response.
• Casey finds a present from Dana in his drawer.
• Sam knows where the panties are.

Quotes

• Dan: Did you stay up all night voting for yourself?
  Casey: Like I don't have better things to do than beat your ass in an internet poll.
  Dan: Here's the thing about you: It isn't that you want to win so bad, it's that you won't admit you want to win.
• Casey: This is what men do, Jeremy.
• (Natalie finds Jeremy reading her mail.)
  Natalie: Hello.
  Jeremy: Aaah!
  Natalie: Did I scare you?
  Jeremy: No.
  Natalie: Why did you yell?
  Jeremy: I meant to say "hi."
  Natalie: What happened?
  Jeremy: I mis-spoke.
• Dana: Is our meeting disturbing you?
  Sam: I'm sorry?
  Dana: I was wondering if our meeting was disturbing you?
  Sam: A little bit, but I've been through worse.
• Sam: I've noticed you people have an ability to chatter at someone with energy and enthusiasm regardless of whether they appear interested or not.
• Dan: If you want to do your thing and live in a cave, that's cool too. I won't bother you anymore. (walks out the door, then stops) At least I won't bother you anymore tonight. Tomorrow, who knows?
  Sam: Who knows.
• Natalie: You took off your panties at dinner?
  Dana: Yes.
  Natalie: At the table?
  Dana: Under the table.
  Natalie: Could people see you?
  Dana: Not unless they were under the table.
• Casey: Dana came back from dinner without her panties?
  Natalie: No.
  Casey: Why'd you say she did?
  Natalie: It's just an expression.
• Casey: (looking at Dana) I can't take it.
  Dan: What happened?
  Casey: I can't tell you.
  Dan: (hurt) Okay.
  Casey: But suffice it to say, it has something to do with underwear.
  Dan: But you can't tell me what it is.
  Casey: No.
  Dan: Does it have anything to do with you being a conniving, scheming, stop-at-nothing, claw-your-way-to-the-top, cheats-at-solitaire, y'know, guy?
• Dan: There are rules prohibiting cheating, you know what they're called?
  Casey: They're called "rules."
  Dan: They're called rules!
• Jeremy: You're gonna write another letter to my sister?
  Natalie: Yes.
  Jeremy: I have absolutely no problem with that.
  Natalie: I'm glad, sweetie.
  Jeremy: No problem, no way, no how.
  Natalie: Good.
  Jeremy: Crossing that sacred territory into family members.
  Natalie: I cross it with gusto.
  Jeremy: Cross away! For I have no problem with this, as you are my girlfriend and she is my sister.
  Natalie: Then why are you talking like Theodorick of York?
• Jeremy: I'll just stand over there for five minutes and forty seconds and think about what my life was like before I met any of you.
• Casey: (to Dana) You and I are about to have an abrupt conversation.
• Casey: Do you think I think you taking your panties off is a bad idea?
  Dana: Yeah, but--
  Casey: I support the idea! I'm in favor of it, believe me.
  Dana: Casey--
  Casey: I am the president of "Dana Should Get Undressed."
  Dana: Thank you.
  Casey: I don't think you should do it in a restaurant, but wh-what am I talking about? Go ahead, do it in a restaurant! I'm just saying I wish you were doing it with me, instead of Guillermo from your Spanish Club. I wish I didn't have to wait through this heart-stoppingly frustrating six-month waiting period before I even get to smell what perfume you wear on our first date. I wish... it was me you were having dinner with tonight. That's all.
• Jeremy: Today I take care of all family business.
• Casey: Sam, everything's cool, I got her panties right here in my side pocket.
  Sam: Okay. (Dana follows a few seconds later.) Hi, Dana.
  Dana: And as for you, you see you don't control my world. I happen to not be wearing any panties right now, and if you had a thousand guesses you couldn't tell me where they were.
  Sam: Casey's side pocket.
  Dana: (walking away) Damn it!