In the second episode of the second season of The West Wing, I am absolutely in love with this show. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
Good lord, this two-part opener is masterful.
- Oh my god, this episode opens with such a disturbing scene. I’m still interested to know how they figured out that kid was the one who gave the signal to the shooters. Did Gina remember something?
- I’m still completely floored that this show tackled domestic terrorism, and it was about white supremacists targeting a black man, and not about nebulous brown people doing things because ~they hate our freedom.~ Which is not to suggest that this show won’t ever do that; there’s already been a mention of al-Qaeda before, and as this show catches up with a post-9/11 world, I’m sure it’ll be addressed in some form. The West Wing has been plenty topical in just a single season, so I won’t be surprised to see foreign terrorism pop up.
- So, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to have to go through such a horrifying and traumatic event, and then stand up in front of a room of reporters and act like you can just do your job and not have a nervous breakdown. Oh my god, C.J., I envy nothing about what you have to do in this episode. How? HOW DOES SHE DO IT? What a professional, y’all.
- THE FLASHBACKS ARE SO AMAZING. I LOVE THEM. I AM SO THANKFUL FOR THEM. The first one we get in this second part concerns Sam, who is doing exactly what he does best, but in front of the wrong people. The law firm he works for does not appreciate his honesty or pragmatism, something that later works in his favor when he’s part of Bartlet’s staff. This is intercut with the BRILLIANCE of Josh forgetting Sam’s firm’s name again. Oh my god, my friend Meg had just watched this episode and put up a post about it on Facebook, and she made the best point that I’d like to bring up here: THIS IS A WORLD WITHOUT SMARTPHONES. Remember that world? I’d like to never go back there.
- Hi, Meg, I miss you.
- Y’all, I don’t care how sappy it is. I love that Josh shows up to Sam’s office with the worst poker face of all time, and Sam quits on the spot. It’s lovely. It fits. It does! Everything I’ve seen regarding Bartlet’s campaign conveys the idea that his success was in part due to momentum. It was this movement, you know? One domino falling after another! As a door closes for one person, another opens, and in this case, Josh’s enthusiasm drags Sam into the beautiful mess that is Bartlet For America.
- C.J. C.J. There is an incredibly raw and heartwrenching moment right before her flashback, wherein we see her face droop as she must admit to Danny that she is trying as hard as she can to get the information regarding those three-and-a-half hours of Presidential anesthesia. It’s a brief flash of how tired and exhausted she is, something she tried so hard to hide while in her press briefing that morning. She is emotionally connected to this because of what it means to her. Her best friends are in the hospital, y’all! And that’s why it’s so perfect that her own flashback follows this intimate scene. We need to know how she came aboard the Bartlet team and why it means so much to her. First of all, C.J. WITH A PERM. OH MY GOD. Can I just say that the hair and makeup team did a FANTASTIC job making all these characters look younger? BRAVO.
- Anyway, we get to see C.J. out of her element in a Hollywood P.R. firm. She could not fit in less here, especially because the Hollywood media machine is so attached to the idea of mistruths. I worked in Hollywood for four-and-a-half years, y’all. I was steps away from a massive celebrity gossip machine, and that shit was toxic. I can sympathize with C.J., then, because I know how frustrating and demoralizing it is to have to work with and for people who must have their egos coddled instead of hearing the truth. A great deal of C.J.’s struggles in season one cover her issues with telling the truth, so it makes sense that she’d be miserable in a job where she’d constantly have to lie.
- How do C.J. and Toby know one another? I wasn’t sure if I plain forgot that information or if the writers simply hadn’t told me yet. Regardless, C.J.’s day goes from awful to worse when she slips and falls into her pool in front of Toby. I laughed. A lot. But Toby comes bearing good news! On the very day where she loses her job because of some bigshot Hollywood asshole, Toby has a job offer for her: work for the Bartlet campaign. I really like that multiple characters ask if Bartlet is a good man, not a good candidate. They don’t want to waste their time on someone who isn’t a good person at heart.
- I am so fucked up over the reveal that the gunmen were targeting Charlie, and you can tell that he is, too. The information is too much for him to handle, and I’m worried he’s going to blame himself for what happened to other people. It’s not lost on me that this scene ends with Bartlet saying that they don’t know who else “sustained injuries.” To me, that read as more than the literal meaning. Who else will be affected by this tragedy? How will they be hurt and traumatized? Charlie’s injury is just as meaningful as the others, and physical injury isn’t the only type here.
- It’s fascinating to me that the next flashback does not portray Bartlet in the charming, sympathetic way we normally see him. It’s for a reason, though, and it helps to highlight the fact that Bartlet was not ready for the presidential campaign when he started this. He’s an asshole to everyone, and, in a bit that shows us just how jerkish he was, he can’t remember people’s names. That’s his thing, y’all!
- I’m totally biased, though, because that specific flashback was more important to me because of Donna Moss. Donna. DONNA YOU ARE SO GREAT. We learn how she came to be Josh’s assistant, and it warms my heart. She’s such an endlessly fascinating person, and she basically just installed herself in that position and talked her way into a job. Which is why it hurts so much when the very next shot is of Donna looking absolutely heartbroken as she stares in on Josh’s surgery. Nope, nope.
- C.J. finally vocalizes why she’s been so reluctant and strange about her morning show appearances and the press briefings: She can’t remember events herself. Whether that’s because she hit her head when Sam pulled her to the ground or because of the trauma of the shooting is left unsaid, but it’s a scary situation for her. Her job is to relay the facts to the press, and she can’t even remember them herself. I’m glad that she was able to get her necklace back, and I was stoked to see her finally smile in this episode.
- Oh god, I’m so thankful for Toby’s scene with Ron because it spells out what needs to be said: This shooting is not his fault. Or Charlie’s. Or Bartlet’s. Or Zoey’s. Or the Secret Service’s. It is the fault of the gunmen who thought it prudent to shoot into a crowd to kill a black man for dating a white woman. Yes. YES.
- AND THEN C.J.’S PRESS BRIEFING WHERE SHE CASUALLY REMINDS THE WHOLE ROOM THAT MANY OTHER PEOPLE WERE KILLED OR ASSAULTED AT GUN POINT THE SAME NIGHT AS THE SHOOTING AND THEY AREN’T GETTING THE SAME ATTENTION IS SUCH AN AWESOME MOMENT. I love you, C.J. I LOVE YOU.
- The final flashback in “In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II” is such an important piece of character building for this show. We see more of Bartlet being an asshole, his wife admitting as much, and how the path to victory was carved out by Bartlet’s staff. In a moment of celebration, Donna delivers life-changing news: Josh’s father unexpectedly died during a chemo treatment. With this, the writers give us the scene we needed to see, the bridge between the Bartlet who we first saw in the previous episode’s flashbacks and the Bartlet of the present. When the Secret Service agents started to stand around Josh, I was confused. Why would he get that sort of attention? Jed Bartlet sits behind Josh, and that’s when he doles out that sympathetic charm that I’ve come to love from him. It’s an instance of vulnerability for both men. Josh is still in shock over his father’s death, and Bartlet has realized that he’s been utterly insufferable to the people who have sacrificed so much to give him a victory. Beautifully acted and written, it really feels like one of the most iconic scenes in the series. It’s a transformation. It’s that last domino falling down.
- “What’s next?” ABSOLUTELY FINISHED. DONE. DONE.
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