In the eleventh episode of the fifth season of The West Wing, the State of the Union address brings out the best in the staff, despite that it unearths some horribly uncomfortable truths. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
Well, that was certainly one of the best episodes in this whole series and I am crushed. Let’s talk about the various plots that snake through “The Benign Prerogative.”
Will
Okay, what is with this season sticking Will in the background? It’s getting more egregious and grating with each episode in season five because Sorkin built up Will Bailey as a brilliant “replacement” for Sam Seaborn, and then John Wells and his staff either force him to fight with Toby, or he wanders in the halls, popping in to provide a line or two, and then POOF. Gone. What gives, The West Wing? This is perhaps the only thing in “The Benign Prerogative” that I felt like criticizing, and it mars an otherwise fantastic episode.
Charlie
Oh, y’all, I love Gabrielle Union so much. Let’s start there.
Okay, what if I just ended this section with only that sentence? One day, I’ll commit to all the ideas I have for trolling y’all. Today is not that day. I love that we get to see Charlie date again, and through him, we get a SUPER COMPLICATED exploration of what Charlie’s job really means to him. It’s not lost on me that Charlie almost asked C.J. about the appropriateness of his (possible) relationship with Michelle. DUDE, GO BACK TO HER AND TALK. She knows exactly how difficult this could be. Regardless, the in media res framing of this episode (which appears often on The West Wing) lets us know that whatever happens between Charlie and Michelle ends with her slapping him. Which is frustrating! They’re so cute with one another, they’re clearly compatible, and LOOK HOW CUTE THEY ARE. So what the hell did Charlie do that would make Michelle slap him? I DON’T GET IT.
I do wish that Charlie could have a relationship that isn’t wrought with moral and career complications. First Zoey, now Michelle? Admittedly, I think I shipped these two as soon as they were seen together, so upon learning that Michelle would be working for the White House Press Corps, I just wanted to shriek at the writers. NO, DON’T DO THIS TO MY BEAUTIFUL THING. IT’S BEAUTIFUL. But I do understand why Charlie is so reluctant to be in a relationship with Michelle. It’s kind of sad, but he has to inherently mistrust the press, you know? He can’t let his guard down around them, so how is he supposed to be with Michelle if she’s working for a news organization covering the President? It’s about the impossibility of vulnerability; how can Charlie even talk about his day with Michelle without getting her to constantly agree to being off the record? At the same time, Michelle’s anger is rooted in Charlie’s behavior. She’s furious that Charlie won’t even consider trusting her. Well, he also ignored her for a week. There’s that, too! But you can tell by her behavior when she’s admitting the truth about her future that she knows there’s a conflict of interest, so… yeah. It’s a mess. All around. Damn it, can a good thing happen to Charlie? Can Gabrielle Union stick around forever because SHE IS GREAT.
Toby
I don’t get what’s going on with Rena??? Is there a point that the writers are trying to make with her? I got this weird sense of an undercurrent of misogyny with her, as if we’re supposed to laugh at her for being kind of girly and excited, and I don’t get it. Anyway, Toby’s story wasn’t anywhere near as confusing for me, and it was nice to see his desire for the White House to focus on the Big Picture message come to fruition the way it does here. We get more of Joey Lucas, WHO IS PREGNANT OH MY GOD. She’s hired to help test the tone and content of the State of the Union, and I know this is going to sound like I’m making fun, but Toby basically sulks around the whole time. Which is really strange? I mean, he knows that Joey Lucas’s techniques and polling works. It’s worked for them countless times in the past! So why does he act like this is the most horrific thing he’s ever been asked to do?
This does end up segueing into Toby’s moment of inspiration, though: He realizes that the State of the Union cannot just be promises. It has to contain action, something substantial and real, and it’s through this realization that he’s able to provide an answer to the pardon dilemma that the White House is facing. His plan is bold and risky, but it feels so very Bartlet in execution, doesn’t it?
Bartlet
Speaking of Bartlet, I love the way that he’s portrayed in recent episodes. With his wife at his side, he’s less likely to compromise. He’s willing to take huge risks that not only benefit the White House, but are more in line with his own personal politics and morality. And it’s also clear that he and Abbey have been working on their relationship, too. How adorable are they when they’re discussing a weekend in New Hampshire with Leo? Can I also remind y’all that it was C.J. who begged Bartlet to be the President again and NOW HE’S DOING IT and Abbey is there AND SHIT YEAH, SO MUCH IS GETTING DONE.
Well, not everything, and with that, I need to talk about my eternal heartbreak:
Donna Moss
I wanted to see her get more responsibility, and now it’s happening, and everything hurts more than I could ever imagine. This episode portrays one of the most nuanced and effective stories about mandatory minimums that I have ever seen. It’s not the first time The West Wing has addressed it (hey, season one!), but it’s here that we’re shown the true emotional and psychological toll of mandatory minimums, on those sentenced to absurd lengths of time in jail, on prosecutors and lawyers who must contend with the existence of a set of laws that essentially makes them sentencers, and on Donna Moss.
Janel Maloney is absolutely incredible here because she acts as the empathetic, emotional core of the entire cast of characters. It’s completely within her characterization in the past, and it’s necessary because it’s how the show is able to convey the unfair, ridiculous, and downright malicious nature of these laws. We’ve had many of them here in the United States since 1986, made law through the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, a truly racist piece of garbage. If you didn’t know, mandatory minimums required a 5-year sentence without parole for possession of 5 grams of crack cocaine; the same mandatory minimum applied to powder cocaine – but only in the amount of 500 grams.
Guess which minority group more frequently was caught/arrested with crack cocaine? I guarantee it’s not a hard one. (The Fair Sentencing Act was a step in the right direction, but still. Good lord, my country is awful.)
Donna – brilliant, loving Donna – is the one given the task of sifting through all 36 possible pardon recommendations for Josh, all so that they can come up with the best examples that will play well in the State of the Union. Except as Donna delves deeper and deeper into these cases, she finds that every single one is brutally unfair. They’re all depressing. They’re all offensive. And they all happened to people. I love that she makes that distinction, that she stops categorizing them as cases and sees them as real human beings. She’s the first person to do so in this episode, y’all. She’s the first one. These people are examples or justifications or stories to everyone else, and it’s Donna Moss who finds the humanity here.
Which is why it’s so devastating to watch her deal with the Kaehlers, to know that she only has limited power over this family’s son, to know that it’s all complicated by the fact that the Kaehlers were major donators in the past, and to know that in the end, Bartlet chose not to commute or pardon Donovan. It’s compounded – horribly so – when Donovan kills himself, just an hour before the State of the Union, where the other 35 pardons attended. It’s not surprising that Donna takes it all so personally, though she’s able to find comfort in the end, at least knowing that Bartlet’s desire to pardon the prisoners he did was entirely sincere.
It’s a tough episode to watch regardless, but Donna Moss, y’all. What a treat to watch this character get a story like this.
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