简介：（这集特别篇摄制及播放于911事件后的2001年10月初，独立于《白宫风云》正篇的时间顺序之外。马丁-辛（饰巴特勒）、罗布-洛（饰山姆）和阿丽森-詹尼（饰茜洁）等几位主要演员号召人们尽快从悲伤中走出来，并希望能为911事件的遇难者捐款。）联邦调查局突然查出一个使用多个化名的可疑阿拉伯人在白宫工作，整个白宫立刻进入一级防范状态，限制所有人出入白宫。一群参观白宫的学生也被困在白宫里，乔希带他们在一间休息室里聊天，谈话内容吸引了山姆、托比、茜洁和总统夫妇的参与，人们对恐怖活动、宗教歧视、政治偏见对美国乃至整个世界所造成伤害发表了各自的看法。里奥在审讯室面对着阿拉伯人阿里，虽然最终证明只是虚惊一场，但是与阿里的谈话，却让里奥感触颇多。
英文简介：
Season 3: 20012002
Cast: Rob Lowe, Stockard Channing, Dul Hill, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney, Richard Schiff, John Spencer, Bradley Whitford and Martin Sheen
The third season, which covers the administration"s third and fourth years in office, starts off with Bartlet announcing his intention to run for reelection and is heavily devoted to the upcoming presidential election. Other prominent plotlines include Congressional investigations into whether Bartlet committed electoral fraud by concealing his MS, a death threat against C.J. and the ensuing relationship she develops with a Secret Service agent assigned to her, the Qumari defense minister Abdul Shareef plotting terrorist attacks against the US, and a troubling meeting between Toby and the President that leaves Bartlet with a bout of insomnia in "Night Five." The season finale, "Posse Comitatus" closes several of these storylines as Bartlet meets his opponent in the elections and reaffirms his commitment to beat him. The episode ends with the president finally deciding to order Shareef"s assassination (a legally questionable act) and C.J."s agent"s murder, just after the man threatening C.J. was caught.
From a critical perspective, series creator Aaron Sorkin acknowledged in October 2002 that the terrorism-related plots designed to keep the series relevant after the real-life 9/11 attacks were awkward at times, saying "from week to week, you felt like you were writing the show handcuffed, a little bit. I didn"t know how to write it anymore. It was a constant search for what I wasn"t doing that used to make the show work. [...] Maybe there was a way to make it work; there probably was. I wasn"t able to find it in twenty-two episodes." [1] Nonetheless, the show went on to win its third "Outstanding Drama" Emmy in a row.
