Toby eventually comes to the conclusion that Hoynes thinks that President Bartlet is not going to run for re-election, which is true—Bartlet had made a deal with his wife Abbey, restricting him to one term due to his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis that they had kept from the public.
The two address a number of topics, but Ainsley wins the debate when she argues that she does not need a constitutional amendment to declare her equal to a man, saying that "I am mortified to discover there's reason to believe that I wasn't before".
The episode ends with Toby finally joining the others to work on the speech, but he is brooding and distracted due to what he has learned.
Club, gave the episode a grade of "A−" below the text of his review and a "B" in the sidebar of the article, commenting that the show highlights how The West Wing is "about people who love each other but have issues with one another, and the drama is heightened because it's POTUS.
He comments that when the plots intertwine with Toby walking into the Roosevelt room, where the other members of the group are testing jokes on him, while his mind is on the news he has just learned, it "broke my heart".
[1] The article ended by criticizing Josh and Donna's storyline in the episode, with Heisler quipping that "I thought Sorkin learned his lesson.
"[2] The Ringer called the script's lines from Aaron Sorkin "classic", and ended the article by commenting that the episode "captures the complexities of the bonds between exhausted, impassioned, and stressed-out characters who more or less live at the office.
[3] One "superfan" of The West Wing, named Jon White, made a website laying out the plot and intricacies of the episode, and how the various plotlines intertwine.