In the twenty-second and final episode of the sixth season of The West Wing, lord, I just cried a lot. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
That was beyond satisfying.
Trigger Warning: For discussion of REALLY STRONG ableism, namely the public shaming of someone with a disability.
I don’t know where to start. I really don’t. That’s more of a commentary on the absolutely chaotic nature of “2162 Votes” than anything else, and y’all, I’m just so impressed. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this season has been my everything. I’m already prepared to state that this was my favorite season of the show because DID YOU SEE WHAT THEY DID. C.J.’S NEW JOB AND DONNA GETTING TO FOLLOW HER DREAM AND SANTOS’S ENTIRE EXISTENCE AND KATE HARPER and god. I can’t. I can’t deal with this. I’LL TRY, THOUGH.
The Leak
There’s a lot going on in this episode, and I was clearly overwhelmed watching this. I was either shouting in frustration or silent in awe or crying out of elation. There was nothing here in between, just one end of the spectrum or the other. And while the bulk of “2162 Votes” dealt with the (very important!) DNC plot, the show decided to be SUPER UNCOMFORTABLE in a continuation of the story from the previous episode. The leak? Right, IT’S A FELONY. And it’s such a huge deal that the goddamn FBI shows up to the White House. The whole thing is obviously added stress (initially, at least) to the convention, though it’s later swallowed up by the absolute circus that the DNC turns into. However, while there’s still no on-screen confirmation that C.J. was responsible for leaking the information, the writers sure do heavily hint that it was an internal job. I mean… why else would Kate come to Toby and shut the door like that? Oh god, it was C.J., wasn’t it? CAN THIS NOT BE THE CASE? I mean, I’d be upset with this because she just got this job, and having it taken away from her would be awful. But who else could it be??? I almost want to claim that because she seems so obviously the culprit, then maybe it’s not her, but let’s be real. That doesn’t seem like it’ll be the case.
I’M SO UPSET.
The DNC
Just bless so many things about this. I love that they filmed largely on location because it gives a sense of enormity to this episode. We get to see the arena, we get to see how ridiculous and overwhelming a convention actually is, and we get a feel for the environment. On top of that, Wells and the crew enable a lot more shaky close-ups throughout “2162 Votes” that lend a stark urgency to the episode. It almost felt like a documentary, you know? I expected a three-ring circus, and I got so much worse than that. I had seen Josh, Will, and Hoynes’s representative bicker, and yet, I still got so much worse than that. I knew that a Russell/Baker ticket would be a sureshot for the nomination, AND THEN FIFTY MILLION PLOT TWISTS HAPPEN ALONG THE WAY, AND IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO EVER BE PREPARED FOR ANY OF THIS.
The first big one, of course, is Eric Baker’s sudden and unannounced bid for the nomination. You know, I’m gonna come down as squarely against this man and what he did for a different reason than what the Santos or Russell camp ever said: This man did NONE OF THE WORK FOR THE NOMINATION. NONE. He didn’t visit anywhere he didn’t campaign anywhere, he did nothing but… ride on Russell’s coattails for like a week? And then all of a sudden, he’s upsetting the entire convention, forcing the other camps to freak the fuck out over delegate votes, and he’s just smugly telling reporters, “Well, if it’s what the people want, I guess I’ll do it,” as if he’s an unknowing party who was magically thrust into the narrative like a goddamn genre hero. No, dude, no. Talk all the shit you want about why Russell and Hoynes are not viable candidates – and trust me, Josh does JUST THAT later in the episode – but don’t come in at the last minute like some goddamn white knight. No NO NO.
It’s here that one of the most viciously uncomfortable things happens: an anonymous fax comes into the Russell and Santos offices, sharing Mrs. Baker’s struggle with depression. It was clear that they were sent as a suggestion for both campaigns to leak it. Here, Will and Josh put forth very similar arguments in favor of leaking the information: the public needs to know. It’s just like Bartlet’s MS issue. If they don’t do it, someone else will. All of this is absolutely abominable, no doubt, so I was thankful that both Santos and Donna outright reject this. Not only do they both refuse to be a part of this, they EXPLAIN WHY IT’S A TERRIBLE IDEA. I love that Donna said that it fed into “18th century stereotypes” about mental illness because IT FUCKING DOES. Oh my god, how is Mrs. Baker’s depression any of your business? HOW COULD YOU EVER SUGGEST THAT SOMEONE WITH DEPRESSION SHOULDN’T KNOW STATE SECRETS? So yeah, Will, Josh? Fuck you both, that was HORRIBLE. I get it, they were desperate. So? You don’t dehumanize someone else in order to get ahead. And even the episode itself doesn’t address the fallout in terms of Mrs. Baker. She’s seen just once, and she never says anything, and the plot falls by the wayside. It’s absurd!
Anyway, even with Baker out of the running (due to the worst thing ever, I swear), the inevitable begins to happen: Santos has to seriously consider being Russell’s vice president or he’ll deal with a loss to him in the coming hours. Really, a driving force of season six (since introducing Santos) has been trying to figure out how Santos could ever, ever get the nomination over people like Hoynes or Russell. We were meant to like Santos over Russell, but Russell had the institutional support. Russell had the money, and tons of it. He was a safer bet, far more middle-of-the-road than anyone else. I wanted to see Santos accept the nomination, but then I’m staring at Leo McGarry urging Santos to hang it up, and I was CRUSHED. But this was nothing compared to the image of him standing on that stage, seconds before he’s about to give up. Santos represented an ideal I wanted in real life. And I was being forced to accept that it wasn’t going to happen.
I was so sad. I WAS SO SAD, and then Santos did what he wanted to. I was reminded of Vinick’s emotional speech at the end of “In God We Trust” here. John Wells was clearly setting up Santos as the perfect competitor for Vinick, one who was just as spellbinding as a speaker and as passionate as him. But it was also a way to highlight how both of these men chose dignity and respect over the easier route. Vinick could have gone to church; Santos could have given up. But they both believed in taking a more difficult path in order to do what was right.
I think that if I wasn’t already overwhelmed by Kate’s shocking scene with Toby, I would have just kept crying as I found out Santos won the nomination AND THEN JOSH ASKED LEO TO BE THE VICE PRESIDENT. Like, these were tears of utter joy. I wanted this, I got it, and then the show went ahead and made it even better.
Santos/McGarry 2006, y’all. I WANT THIS AS WELL. Oh shit, my predictions are going to be so much fun. I’m so excited for season seven, but I do want to take a moment and state that I am so thankful for this season. It’s so rare for a show to get so much better like this, but after the rocky journey of season five, this was a delight. BRING IT ON, SEASON SEVEN.
The video for “2162 Votes” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
Since this marks the point where we have just one season left of the show, I want to confirm what will be taking the place of The West Wing once I finish watching it in mid-June. On June 18th, I will be starting Star Trek for Mark Watches. And what I mean by that is that I will with all five shows and all the films in release order, starting with the original series. (There is a possibility that I might be able to pull off the animated series as a Double Feature once I finish the original series, but I don’t know what my schedule will be like at that time, so I’m not publicly committing to it yet.)
The movies will be watched wherever they fall in terms of airing; I do my best to replicate what it was like for first-time viewers to watch something. That means when Deep Space Nine and Voyager start to cross over, we will alternate those shows like we did for Buffy and Angel in 2012. Additionally, when I catch up with what’s aired through season 10 of Supernatural next year, no show will replace it, meaning that the regular feature for Mark Watches will be solely Star trek canon. This will at least cut down on the projected 5.5 years it would have taken me to get through all five shows GOOD LORD.Â
I am very excited to pull this off. You are welcome to commission any remaining episodes of the show that aren’t listed as claimed on this page. Just for the time being, I am NOT accepting commissions for the films only because I need to figure out logistics for how to film, upload, and share them. It is not particularly easy to sit and record one’s self for two hours, LOL. When we get closer to that, I will let you know what’s planned. Thank y’all, and I’m very appreciative that all your support over the years has led me to a point where I can finally watch Star Trek with all of you.
Mark <3
