In the twenty-first and penultimate episode of the fifth episode of The West Wing, YOU ARE A RUDE SHOW AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
GOOD GOD, HOW IS THERE ANOTHER EPISODE??? I don’t like it when shows do this because it’s rude. Anyway, I have complicated feelings about this episode. Let’s start about some of the more negative ones before I spend a lot of time talking about Josh Lyman’s face, which is about the most rude thing in “Gaza.”
There are a lot of ideas at work here in this episode, and I think the execution of many of them made me feel weird. It’s not lost on me that in the first episode where we might get any sort of focus on Fitzwallace being a main character, he’s killed. It’s not lost on me that after spending a whole season hinting at Donna getting an exciting chance to expand outside of her role as Josh’s assistance, she finally gets to do something incredible and meaningful and IS BLOWN UP IN THE FIRST FOUR MINUTES OF IT. That doesn’t mean I hate what this episode does with Josh and Donna’s relationship, and I recognize that the terrorist attack spawns this beautiful thing where Josh literally drops what he’s doing to get on a plane to Donna. I mean, I promise I’ll talk about his face later because it is an important thing. It bothers me, however, that in the very first scene where we get to witness Donna pursuing a change in her career, she’s grievously injured, and I’m really worried that the whole point of this story is that Donna belongs back in her old job. Romantically? The story works. It has the unfortunate implication that Donna shouldn’t have ever tried to do more, though, even if that implication is entirely unintended.
Granted, character growth is my thing, so I get why I would be worried about this. Plus, the writers could totally take this in a different direction in the next episode and next season, and I must acknowledge that I know I’m working with only part of the puzzle here. But I didn’t want to ignore my irritation with this choice, and I think it’s important to talk about!
I also knew just a few minutes into this episode that the writers had a nightmare ahead of them no matter what they did. Choosing to focus an entire episode on the political and cultural climate of Gaza? Yeah, it’s going to be a hot mess any way you look at it because there’s no way to distill the historical context and political ramifications of a decades-old conflict down to forty-two minutes and still have room to explore things like the beauty of Josh/Donna or Toby’s face when he runs into the room after the explosion happens (WHAT IS WITH THIS SHOW AND RUDE FACES) or…well, all of the other things that we see in “Gaza.” By the nature of what this focuses on, “Gaza” is a dense episode, but when it comes to covering the issues and desires of the two sides at war, the writing is largely reductive of both sides.
But I get that this is sort of the point. Sort of. Through Colin, Donna gets a chance to speak with people from a number of backgrounds and nationalities in Gaza, many of whom feel very strongly about whether or not they have a moral imperative to live there. In one sense, what we (and Donna) witness here is precisely what Bartlet complains about: the most vocal and violent minority. We hear the worst. We see the worst. That’s not to suggest that Palestinian terror doesn’t exist, or that Zionist violence isn’t real. But I think we should examine why the most heinous acts are the focus here, and there’s almost no discussion of the ongoing political forces that have shaped policy, oppression, and terrorism in the region. There’s no talk of the United States’ economic and military support of Israel here, and there’s nothing to explain the discrepancies of violence between Palestine and Israel.
Yet I recognize that this is a fictional show. It’s not a history documentary. It’s not meant to serve as a comprehensive lesson about this struggle. But in a show that has, historically speaking, not dealt with the Arab world all that sympathetically, I feel more inclined to point out the fact that this isn’t that fair of story, you know? And ultimately, the whole thing is designed to focus around a white American’s sadness, which is a problem in and of itself, you know?
There’s a strength to “Gaza,” however, and it comes from the emotional power of these characters. Christopher Misiano pulls off an incredible feat, which is keeping all the scenes in the West Wing engaging and unnerving. If you watch the commission for this episode, I spent the first fifteen minutes decrying the fact that I COULD NOT PAY ATTENTION TO ANYTHING BECAUSE I NEEDED TO KNOW DONNA WAS ALIVE. And yet, Misiano and the writers are able to shift the emotional intensity from the events in Gaza to the West Wing by contrasting Donna’s flashbacks with the unsettling terror in the West Wing. The silence as these characters wait around to find out who died, who survived, and what Donna’s condition is was NOT AT ALL OKAY. Josh’s face when he’s screaming about Donna? NOT OKAY. Toby’s face when he walked into the hallway with tears in his eyes because he didn’t know if Andy was alive? NOT OKAY. Bartlet’s face when Leo tells him that Fitzwallace died? 100% RUDE. And then there’s Gail’s face at the end of “Gaza” when she says, “I know the world,” which is about the most heartbreaking thing in the entire fucking universe. THIS EPISODE IS SO RELENTLESSLY RUDE, I SWEAR.
Just… Joshua Lyman. There are a few moments here that call back to “Nöel,” both in referencing Josh’s lingering PTSD and in showing us his emotional state in the wake of trauma. His outbreak to the rest of the staff while they discussed response options with Kate Harper was clearly indicative of how upset he was. But then that fucker booked a flight to Frankfurt and flew to Donna. Oh my god, how surreal and beautiful and scary was Josh’s scene with the doctor at the hospital? We see him react to the thought of the physical trauma Donna went to; the doctor has to speak with Josh almost as if he were a child; and then there’s that haunting image of him staring at Donna as he patiently waits for her to wake up. Oh my god, how can he not admit that he loves her at this point? IT’S RIGHT THERE. IT’S RIGHT THERE.
I also adored the further use of Kate Harper, who is deeply integrated into the fabric of “Gaza” in a way that not only reminded me of Nancy, but gave us a much-needed new woman on the cast. I have no idea if she’s here to stay beyond this season, but it was so satisfying to have a voice of reason, moderation, and fairness in the discussions about Gaza. This episode addressed the shoes she had to fill; it featured that great scene about gendered language and Kate’s acceptance of masculine colloquialism; and we witnessed just how gracious Bartlet was that she was around to do her job so beautifully. More Kate? MORE KATE FOREVER PLEASE.
So yeah. This is a complicated episode, one that was certainly entertaining and thrilling. But it was also a challenge to watch, not just because it was so difficult to experience so much fear and sadness, but because the topic at hand isn’t an easy one to address. Obviously, the next episode is going to have to address Bartlet’s desire for a military retaliation against Palestine. We still don’t know who’s responsible for the attack on the US delegation, and Bartlet was already prepared to blame the Palestinians. And now, Israel has fired first, and it’s not a stretch to suggest that this has ignited one hell of a problem in the region. SHIT IS GETTING REAL.
Seriously, there’s another episode in this season. HOW? I’M FRIGHTENED. Ugh, can the next episode also be a 42-minute apology session between Toby and Will? THANKS.
The video commission for “Gaza” can be downloaded right here for just $0.99.
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