In the fourteenth episode of the second season of The West Wing, Bartlet considers escalating a response to a hostage situation while also dealing with his upset wife. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
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This was seriously one of the best episodes of this show, relentless from beginning to end, and THERE IS SO MUCH LEFT FOR ME TO WATCH. Oh gods. And it was wonderful to get an episode that largely focused on Bartlet over everyone else!
Toby
Lord, “The War At Home” had so many angry scenes in it. This proved to be an unofficial sequel to the previous episode, since it picked up right where the last one left off. That meant that there’d be numerous responses to Bartlet’s State of the Union address, and one of those responses came from Senator Gillette. I found it fascinating to watch inter-party politics play out like this because… well, do you ever feel like the people who claim to support you don’t actually do? Like, as Senator Gillette is talking about Social Security and police brutality, he ends with the claim that he’s going to run in a third-party bid for President. That’s right around the time that I thought, “Well, you made this all about you, didn’t you?” I do understand the context here, so I know this was also about Gillette telling Toby that he thought Bartlet and his staff were becoming too moderate in the face of challenges. I don’t think that’s a terribly inaccurate reading of the situation, either, but in Toby’s mind, it’s a ridiculous threat. And I think Toby is the most outwardly liberal person in the the West Wing, you know? He’s often the one wishing for more radical change, so it’s striking to me that he’d so viciously go after Gillette. It’s not out of character, though, because Toby knows that Gillette could steal votes from Bartlet, pretty much guaranteeing that a Republican candidate would win. So I’m guessing we won’t see Gillette again after Toby smacked him down.
Donna/Josh/Joey
OH MY GOD ALL OF MY EMOTIONS!!! Here we’ve got Josh sitting around hoping for electricity. That’s all he does at the beginning of this episode, no exaggeration! BLESS HIS HEART. Meanwhile, Donna continues to push Josh towards asking Joey out. Because right? They would totally make a good couple. Except that both Donna and Josh are coming at this in a different state of mind than they’d like others to believe. I got the feeling from his talk with Sam that he was far more aware of the dynamic at hand. Why was Donna so insistent that he should ask Joey out? It speaks to the fact that Josh truly believes that Donna would be a jealous person. Which he is, by the way! He even admits to trying to sabotage Donna’s prospects!
But the most unexpected aspect of this story is the way that Joey Lucas very plainly lays out the reality of this situation. I honestly thought that once Donna went home after the numbers came in, Josh would take the chance to ask Joey out. Instead, she tells Josh the truth: Donna is clearly attracted to Josh and is trying to hide the fact from him by overcompensating with Joey. And you know what’s great about this? Joey doesn’t act jealous about this either. She says this like she’s doing a favor for Josh. It’s adorable. Oh, and she secretly ships Josh/Donna, right? Right???
IT’S TOO CUTE.
Ainsley
I love you, and I felt so much second-hand embarrassment for you, and you’re just my favorite. Bless her forever. That’s all I’ve got to say.
Bartlet/Abbey/The War At Home
And now I’ll move on to the more serious aspect of this episode. In the video for this episode, I mentioned that I had a very distinct thought while watching “The War at Home.” Y’all, this makes me never want to be President. It’s terrifying how stressful this all seems. That’s directly related to Abbey’s fury at her husband for running for a second term. She’s so scared that the stress of the job is going to trigger his MS, or – even worse – escalate it beyond relapse/remitting MS. That is the deal they made years ago and the one he broke with her. It’s the unknown nature of the disease that frightens her, and she doesn’t want to traipse into the future with this risk hanging over her husband’s head. Which scares me, y’all, because I really do think that eventually, Bartlet will have to tell the public about his disease. I don’t think he can keep it a secret for the entirety of the show, especially if more people find out about it.
Stockard Channing is in top form here, as is Martin Sheen, who portrays a furious and disappointed president with grace and power. The bulk of this episode deals with the frustrating reality of Bartlet inheriting a costly and hypocritical War on Drugs. I was shocked to see a mainstream show so openly criticizing what’s been a staple in American domestic and foreign policy since I was a kid. Granted, I would have liked to see a mention of the fact that the prison-industrial complex is racialized, but I’m nitpicking for my own sake. We absolutely fund the drug trade in multiple ways, and so many huge companies benefit from the penalization of drug use by poor people of color. Our ever-growing prison population is from mandatory minimums across the country, and Bartlet is pissed that he’s expected to keep this going. At the same time, he feels personally responsible for the disaster in Colombia.
And really, the scene where he finds out that they were trapped with the oldest trick in the book is one of the rawest bits of this whole show. So this is what the President is torn between. He hates what he’s inherited, and he hates the decision he feels he’s being forced to make. He wants revenge while simultaneously wishing to tear this whole system down. And that contradiction is what gives Martin Sheen the chance to portray such a complicated and difficult characterization in “The War at Home.”
I’m glad, then, that it’s Leo who steps in to give Bartlet the advice he needs. He uses his past in Vietnam to urge the president not to make the same mistake. He’s a rare voice of reason, and I’m so glad his character is here to give Bartlet some perspective. To commit hundreds of thousands of troops for a possible war with no real end in sight is to commit the nation to a disaster that will have devastating effects for decades to come. This was a difficult situation from every front, one fueled by personal guilt, political necessity, and endless frustration. But it was handled as best as possible given the parameters and challenges. Still, Sorkin chose to end this episode with a sober reminder of what these people lost. It’s a disturbing image for many of us who lived through the Gulf War and the wars post-9/11. How many of y’all were terrified of your friends or family coming back in one of those flag-draped coffins? I certainly was, and that is one of the realest ramifications of war. Lives are lost and destroyed because of the choices of people in our government, and this episode needed a visual manifestation of that reality.
Holy shit, y’all, this show is incredible.
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