In the fifteenth episode of the fifth season of The West Wing, Hoynes returns when it’s revealed that he gave a tell-all interview that paints Leo and Bartlet in a bad light. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
OH MY GOD SO MANY THINGS JUST BECAME CLEAR, NAMELY THE FACT THAT C.J. NEVER SEEMED TO LIKE HOYNES BEFORE THIS EPISODE. I hadn’t even thought about that, and GOOD GOD. NOW I KNOW WHY. Anyway, I’ll address her story at the end. Let’s talk about everything else here, most of which is pretty damn good, too. This was a solid episode and one of the stronger ones of John Wells’ era. LET’S DO THIS.
Toby
You know, I actually really enjoyed the quiet way that Toby acted as a friend to C.J. throughout this episode, and it was a subtle hint that he knew precisely why C.J. was so upset about being blindsided with Hoynes’s story. He spent most of “Full Disclosure” wrapped up in a meeting with the AFL-CIO, and aside from a few funny moments, I didn’t really see where his story was going. It wasn’t boring, though, and it was nice to see Rena working her magic again. Honestly, it didn’t bother me that most of the plots took a backseat to what was happening with C.J. and Hoynes, and unlike “The Warfare of Genghis Khan,” this truly felt like the right balance in terms of narrative weight. Hoynes’s tell-all was placed at the center of this, and the other stories didn’t seem distracting, you know? Josh and Toby were distracted, but that was intentional. They were eager to find out what Hoynes’s article said, though it was for entirely different reasons. Toby was ready to be a friend to C.J., but Josh knew Hoynes better than anyone else in the West Wing. His insight was necessary here, as damning as it was.
I also mentioned in the video that I do have to start considering the fact that this show might actually have to address the next election before it’s over. There are still two more seasons! So this episode firmly establishes that John Hoynes wants to replace Bartlet, but ugh. I mean, I’ll talk about Hoynes more at the end, but ugh no thank you. YOU CANNOT HOLD A CANDLE TO MY DEAR JED BARTLET.
Josh / Ryan
You know, I should have recognized that Ryan’s actions in the Base Closing meeting were deliberately intentional and manipulative because he’s done shit like this before. Still, I was terrified that he was doing something absolutely terrible! He’s such a strange character because he’s not around all the time and because he spent the first half of his episodes doing… not much of anything at all! So I do admit that it’s nice to see his growth, even if it’s in brief spurts. He’s proven to be a cunning political mind, and his decision to bring Senator Finn into the meeting is all for Josh’s benefit. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT? He doesn’t gain anything here, aside from (maybe) Josh’s respect. And that’s fascinating to watch because that’s not who I would have pegged him for in his initial appearances. But this is yet another example of how Ryan has helped Josh out for little to no credit. I like it!
Bartlet / Charlie / Vouchers
I admit that I’m torn on school vouchers; in theory and in terms of my politics, I hate them, and I despise the idea that we need to increasingly turn to the private sector to educate our children. Granted, the point of vouchers is to provide the opportunity for lower class kids to attend schools that have the money to give them the education they deserve. I do think it’s a slippery slope of awful, but I’m also hypocritical in this regard. I applied for a voucher to go to a private school in Riverside. Granted, I had complicated reasons for doing so. I wanted to escape the atmosphere of the school I was in, and I believed that I’d find peace or freedom in a private school. I was also terrified of not getting into college, and I wanted to improve my chances. I had a fantastic GPA, and I’d been taking AP classes for years, but I still knew that the odds were stacked against me. I was a poor Latino kid from a poor neighborhood who was estranged from his parents. That meant I got a double whammy of awful: I did not personally have the money to pay for college, but all colleges would use my parents earnings to determine how much I had to pay for my education. This was the case even after I was 18, and it was extremely frustrating.
It played into the reason why I ended up going to Cal State Long Beach, but the point stands: Like Charlie, I wanted to go to a better school, and the voucher was the carrot dangled in front of me. I didn’t get accepted, and even if I had, I probably would have had to turn it down because it required parental permission. I was 16 and my parents pretty much despised me for running away, so it mostly likely could not have happened regardless. This is largely why I found the story involving the D.C. mayor to be so fascinated and well-executed. This was an example of compromise on the part of Bartlet that wasn’t a terrible thing. With Charlie’s perspective in mind (I LOVE WHEN HE ASKS FOR CHARLIE’S THOUGHTS), Bartlet realized that in this case, the pilot program that the mayor wanted to support wasn’t the death omen they thought it was. In this case, it was a chance to possibly change the lives of a couple hundred kids, and Bartlet couldn’t turn that down.
Will
Well, I was thankful that there was much more Will Bailey here than usual, but I’m still left craving more. I enjoyed that he was forceful about demanding time and attention, but again, he’s rudely dismissed by Toby and Leo this time, and I DON’T GET IT. It’s almost like the writers themselves are furious with Will’s fictional choice to work for a fictional vice president and IT’S FICTION AND YOU WROTE IT, WHY ARE YOU SO UPSET WITH THIS? Bah, I don’t get it.
C.J. / Hoynes
BREATHLESS. I AM BREATHLESS IN THE PRESENCE OF ALLISON JANNEY. This was a difficult episode to watch in terms of her character, both because of how flustered she was the whole time and because of the reason behind it. Like I said, I’ve come to realize that C.J. and Hoynes always had a bit of animosity between them over the years, and this episode finally reveals the source of that.
Initially, though, I assumed that C.J. merely hated the fact that she was blindsided on national television. That made sense! It has come up before, and I referred to the whole Shareef debacle and C.J.’s issues with being kept in the dark until the last moment. Her job as White House Press Secretary isn’t just to work for the President. I’ve always thought that she believed in the importance of reporting as well. So when Taylor Reid dropped that story in her lap, she felt like her hands were tied. She can’t comment on it because she doesn’t know what Bartlet and Leo actually said, and thus, Reid makes her look like a fool.
But there was something else at work here, and I completely missed all the signs. As the West Wing scrambled to come up with a possible solution to the Hoynes story, C.J. was still upset about the whole thing. This was more than just her being all determined like she usually is when she’s prepared to crush someone. She certainly got what she wanted from Brock (and more!), and clearly, her actions at the end of the episode show just how dedicated she is to her job and her own morals. She wanted to do what she could to not just deflect attention away from the White House, but to make this a one-time story, not some extended affair. So yeah, the reveal that Hoynes was writing a tell-all book? NOT GOOD NEWS. (But not for the reason I though oh god oh god OH GOD) I admit that I didn’t think the West Wing’s defense – threatening to “leak” all of Hoynes’s mistakes and missteps to the press – was all that strong. He was still going to write that book, and he was still going to run for President in the next election.
Which brings us to that scene in Hoynes’s new office. OKAY, I DIDN’T THINK SHE’D ACTUALLY GIVE THE LIST TO HIM PERSONALLY. WOW. SHE IS SO BOLD, I LOVE HER. And I feel very weird about the idea that C.J. had an affair with Hoynes, knowing he was married, and it’s even stranger when you see how she interacts with Ben. How is this the same woman? At the same time, this happened ten years prior, and C.J. may have been a different person then? I don’t know? So while my feelings on this reveal are extremely complicated (and, frankly, confusing), I fucking adore the fact that C.J. threatens to come out against Hoynes if he or his team ever tries to shame or destroy any of the women he seduced. I love that it’s such an implicit acknowledgement of the power dynamics at hand, and I love that C.J. thinks of other women over herself. That doesn’t mean I condone the relationship; it means I enjoy that C.J. won’t let anyone else be a victim to the potential misogynistic backlash that’ll come with Hoynes’s attempt to make himself look like the moral one in this dilemma.
As I said before, this episode relies on the friendship between C.J. and Toby, and I think that while I’m always going to have problems with the decision to give this story to C.J., I appreciate that we get to see more of Toby caring for C.J. Obviously, she trusted him enough at one point in the past to tell him what had happened. (I’m reading that scene right, aren’t I? Toby knew something, didn’t he?) And she still trusts him enough. I’m glad that Toby said he didn’t need an explanation from her because it’s that sort of unconditional support that makes them good friends. Still, C.J. is emotionally disturbed by the entire ordeal, so I understood her desire to call Ben and just listen to his voice. I’m curious if this was what Ben’s story was always leading to or if we’ll see more of him.
Anyway, I liked this episode a lot, flaws and all. Gosh, how are there only seven episodes left of this season? WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?
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