In the fifteenth episode of the second season of The West Wing, the White House deals with a disaster of a PR move when the Surgeon General makes controversial statements about marijuana and a surprising person backs them up. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
OH MY GOD. This show has been so relentlessly intense these past few episodes. Everyone’s shouting! Everybody’s mad! When will they find happiness? Actually, I find this particularly appropriate, given that Bartlet is now pushing for his own re-election. Secretly, of course. That means everything is going to get much, much harder for this team. Oh god.
Sam
I am definitely content knowing that I’ll never have to face a scolding from Sam Seaborn. Damn, that dude can lay somewhat flat with their words. It’s impressive! Anyway, Sam’s story is a very fascinating example of how the First Amendment should work, elaborating on the idea that we should have the freedom to say what we want, but that we’re not exempt from people using their right to free speech to react as they wish as well. There’s also the inherent absurdity in that “family” values group using the President in their ad, despite that he had nothing to do with condemning Prince of New York. It was nice to see Sam shut down Morgan Ross! But you know, this episode just got me thinking about that movie, This Film Is Not Yet Rated. I’d like to see an episode address how messed up our movie rating system is. The MPAA is awful. Well, not just for that, but for a whole host of reasons. BOOO TO THEM.
Toby
I swear, this man’s blood must be nothing but platelets and anger. I’m convinced of it. Richard Schiff is Toby, and I can’t imagine a better actor for the role. His frustration is palpable throughout his meeting with his ex-wife, and I think it’s representative of his frustrations with the government in general. I mentioned in the previous episode’s review that Toby is often the person who wants the most radical change in policy and standards, and I think this is a great example of that in one context. His desire to come up with a solution to the future of Social Security is radical when you consider that no one is coming up with the idea he has. Still, he wants to hold a secret meeting between party members in order to get something done about Social Security. I would have expected him to want something more transparent, but that’s how desperate he is. He knows that this is the only solution.
Well, and then Andy inspires him to come up with another solution, which is just to name Senator Gillette to the Blue Ribbon Commission without telling him this was the case. Oh my god, this is so evil. He’s not going to react well to this! At all! But I must admit I’m interested in this purely from the awkward comedy that’s going to result from it.
Bartlet/Ellie/Dr. Griffith
Okay, so, when I first heard Eleanor’s name, my brain instantly went to Zoey because I’d not met Bartlet’s other children. (Oh god, when do we get to meet Elizabeth???) But nope, this episode introduces us to both Ellie Bartlet and Dr. Millicent Griffith. We’ve seen infuriating depictions of the unfair way that American politics operate in the sphere of our pervasive media circus, but this one seriously takes the cake. Dr. Griffith gives medically sound advice regarding marijuana during an online interview, and in mere hours, people are calling for her resignation/firing. It doesn’t matter that what she said was true, and that’s why this is so hard to watch. She’s not wrong. But because our nation is full of pundits and fools who can’t deal with people disagreeing with them or living a life that isn’t like theirs, she has to quit. Isn’t that what this really comes down to? Now, I don’t think marijuana use should come without regulations, because people are inherently not-that-bright when it comes to substances that alter perception or their motor skills. I have plenty of pot-smoking friends who are responsible adults, and quite a few more who really shouldn’t be smoking weed. Ultimately, I’m concerned about who gets penalized and locked up for drug offenses that should happen in the first place. (Spoiler alert: it’s people of color, mostly men.) So, despite that I have no interest in pot myself, I want the decriminalization of marijuana. Tax it, raise some money for our government, and stop with this bullshit.
It’s not even like Dr. Griffith said anything that bad, but Leo, Josh, and the rest of the team are well aware that the media is going to hang on to this admission for two months and that they’ll harass and distract the White House the whole time for it. (Which isn’t to demonize reporters or media outlets for doing their job; it’s more of a commentary on the overwhelming nature of how media stories are cyclical and overstated when other things deserve more attention.) I was pleasantly surprised, then, that Dr. Griffith rejected Josh’s offer on the spot. GOOD FOR YOU.
AND THEN ELLIE. AND THEN ELLIE. Oh my god, who could have expected this? Aaron Sorkin took a controversial political issue, and he found a way to ground it in a daughter’s fear of her father. What sorcery do you wield, Aaron Sorkin? I got a feeling near the end of Bartlet’s rant at his daughter that he was being too cruel, that he was relentless ripping into her just because he was so upset about the whole situation. So when Dr. Griffith revealed that Ellie was scared of her father, all I could think was, “GEE, I WONDER WHY? COULD IT BE THAT YOU JUST YELLED AT HER IN THE OVAL OFFICE?”
Can we also talk about the way in which Sorkin revealed that Dr. Griffith was Ellie’s godmother??? At first, I was so confused when Bartlet insinuated that Ellie had a relationship with Dr. Griffith because why? Why would she call her? Did they even know one another? Holy shit, they did. And that’s why it’s important that Dr. Griffith is honest with her boss and friend. It means something when it comes from her, and it sticks with Bartlet. It’s the only reason he tries to open up to Ellie at the end of the episode, and I think it’s a big reason why he chooses to further support Dr. Griffith as the Surgeon General. Not that he was giving her undue support because she was a friend, but because he learned an important lesson about how he treats the people he cares about. He does care and love his daughter, but he acknowledges that he may not appear that way to her. So he tries to fix that. I like that we’re not given some pie-in-the-sky solution that solves everything. What we see at the end is just a start, and that matters.
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