In the seventh episode of the third season of The West Wing, Thanksgiving brings lectures, an extradition, a turkey hotline, poverty, math, and some indigenous Americans in the lobby. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
Well, this was a neat episode! I feel like we haven’t gotten a super intense, depressing episode in a while, but that’s okay. This was, for the most part, a fun episode!
- Oh my god, all I could think of during the cold open was Adamley lecturing Bartlet about submarines. NOW YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE, BARTLET. And yet, he still forces his staff to sit there and listen to him drone on. I think this might be my favorite reoccurring joke on the show.
- You know, I don’t actually know what Camp David looks like. I’m gonna go Google that.
- Oh my god, that’s not what I expected.
- So, this is an episode that sort of addresses what it’s like for the native population of my country to live here after what this government did to their people. I’d say that, for the most part, this is a respectful take on a very serious issue, especially since C.J. treats their complaint very seriously. There are a few too many jokes made at their expense for my taste, but that’s contained to the first half of “The Indians in the Lobby.” Once C.J. has a better understanding of why Jack Lone Feather and Maggie Morningstar-Charles are willing to wait in the lobby, she stops making jokes herself.
- Meanwhile, Josh is tasked with dealing with a unique and disturbing case of a minor who murdered his teacher, only to be shipped to Italy by his parents. First of all, what the hell. Like, the more I thought about those parents, the more I wished they showed up just so someone could ask them, “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?” Anyway, this is an issue of international politics, though, since Italy refuses to extradite the kid back to a state that allows the death penalty.
- Sam has his own mini-crisis to deal with, and it’s one that feels so strange to experience as someone who has lived most of his life in poverty and the lower class. Which includes right now. Not that things were cheap in the Bay Area when I moved up here in 2010, but virtually everything has skyrocketed in the last year. It is now 100% impossible for me to afford rent in San Francisco, which is why I’m staying in Oakland for now. And what I mean by that is that based on how much I make in a year, there is not a single room or studio or one-bedroom apartment anywhere within the city limits that I can afford. I am not exaggerating at all. Groceries are more expensive here. Eating out is more expensive. So while I listened to these people talk about how inconvenient it was that there were more “poor people” than they thought, I just couldn’t care. Trust me, it’s much more inconvenient to live in poverty! It really is!
- Yeah, I don’t have much to say about Sam’s plot. You should be more concerned with how to alleviate the problem. In that sense, I’m a much bigger fan of what Bruno comes up with. Granted, the man is able to find an opportunity in anything, but at least he seems marginally interested in turning the tide away from demonizing the poor.
- On that note, it’s been interesting to see how Bruno’s advice has slowly had more and more of an effect on the team. Note how quickly Bartlet changes his mind about the cell phone project for neighborhood watch groups once he hears about the polling data.
- The Butterball Hotline. The Butterball Hotline. Okay, we’ll talk about that in a second. I swear!
- 15 years. 15 years. Here’s the thing: That does not feel like fiction. I’m damn sure that our modern government has done things quite similar this to the Native populations in this country. People like to say that racism and genocide like this is a thing of the past, that we’ve either moved on as a country, or – even worse – that most of the indigenous population aren’t around. I have met real people before who truly believe there aren’t any Native Americans left. ?????????
- 15 years, y’all. That’s how long this tribe had to wade through a bureaucratic nightmare. So why wouldn’t they risk standing in the lobby of the White House until they were kicked out and forcibly removed?
- I was fascinated by the choice to have the tone change between Bruno’s meeting with the President and the President calling the Butterball Hotline. It’s such a jarring transition from something so deeply serious into something that’s over-the-top silly. But you know what? It works. It works because of what it says about Bartlet. He’s so sure that he’s right about everything because that’s the nature of his stubbornness. He tried to scold Bruno, and Bruno ruthlessly scolded him back. He was so certain he knew everything about cooking stuffing, and then Toby put doubts in his head. He was wrong. Colossally wrong.
- AND THEN THE CALL ITSELF. IT IS A WORK OF ART. OH MY GOD, WATCHING TOBY SUPPRESS A GIGGLE WHILE THE PRESIDENT STUMBLES THROUGH A FAKE ADDRESS WILL FOREVER BE ONE OF THE BEST THINGS THIS SHOW HAS EVER DONE.
- Hey! Another instance of behind-the-scenes politics, this one involving a DeKalb County DA. Smooth, Josh. Very smooth. Also, that airport is FUCKING GIGANTIC. I was there in March and was awed by the size of the place.
- That reminds me! When I was on tour and stayed in Atlanta, it was in hotel that, in the course of the weeks between when I booked the room and then actually showed up, shut down and changed owners. So when I tried to find it, it literally DID NOT EXIST. It was… weird. It was one of the cheapest hotels I’ve ever stayed in, but it was like living in a ghost town for 12 hours. I swear, there were like maybe 5 other people in this massive building that used to be a Days Inn.
- That’s all. I just wanted to tell that brief story.
- I know that C.J. wanted to help, but was left without any options. So she opted to invite these people back to her office and pay their expenses as long as they were willing to wait. And I think that Jack and Maggie saw that she was the one person in the place who was trying to help them, and that meant more to them than anything else they’d seen in the last 15 years.
- This episode ends with a scene between Abigail and Jed, and I’ve noticed that they don’t ever seem to be on the same page anymore. It’s frustrating to watch because it’s like they have this giant unresolved issue sitting between them. Well, wait, they do. Has Bartlet ever apologized to his wife for agreeing to run again despite their agreement? I don’t think so. Oh gosh, it’s so awkward, and mostly I feel bad for Abigail. 🙁
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