"The Long Goodbye" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of American serial political drama The West Wing. The episode aired on January 15, 2003 on NBC. In this episode, Claudia Jean "C. J." Cregg returns to her home of Dayton, Ohio, struggling with her father's Alzheimer's disease. "The Long Goodbye" is the only episode to not have been written by Aaron Sorkin in his tenure on the show, and it features Matthew Modine in his first appearance on an episodic television series. Reception for the episode was mixed. Plot The episode centers mostly around White House Press Secretary C. J. Cregg, who is portrayed by Allison Janney. C. J. is scheduled to give a speech at her high school's twentieth year reunion party, titled "The Promise of a Generation". Toby Ziegler urges a reluctant C. J. to go, booking her on a flight. At the airport in Dayton, C. J. reconnects with an old classmate named Marco Arlens, with whom she agrees to go to the reunion. However, she remains largely focused on doing her job at the White House from afar until she arrives at the house of her father, Talmidge Cregg. The house is cluttered and chaotic, and Talmidge Cregg is significantly affected by his case of Alzheimer's disease, shifting frequently between lucidity and forgetfulness. C. J. learns that her father's new wife, Molly, has left him, and goes to confront her the next morning. Molly, while apologetic and ashamed, calls her marriage to Talmidge Cregg a "mistake" and says that she does not want to be his caretaker. When C. J. and her father go fishing, he momentarily cannot recognize her in a rant, and when C. J. tells him that he needs care, he refuses. C. J. even offers to quit her job to take care of him, to which he replies that he would rather she keep her job than watch the "demolition derby going on in my brain". They visit Talmidge's friend, a neurologist, who recommends a nursing home and tells them they need to start making plans today, because the condition will only get worse. Marco Arlens comes to Talmidge's house to pick up C. J., and while Arlens is fixing a pocket watch Talmidge has been carrying around, Talmidge says that he cannot recognize a framed picture on his wall, which has C. J. in it. They go to the