In the twenty-first episode of the second season of The West Wing, FUCK EVERYTHING. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
Fuck y’all.
- I can’t even care about this whole episode – which is brilliantly written and acted – because of the thing at the end. It got worse.
- AARON SORKIN FOUND A WAY TO MAKE THE AWFUL THING EVEN MORE WORSE.
- Just so you know, I just sat for five minutes straight staring blankly at the computer without doing anything at all. I don’t know what to write.
- I mean, I have to imagine that the season two finale will address Mrs. Landingham’s death at length, and I’m sure it’s going to massively disrupt every single thing set up in this episode. How? How do they continue with anything at this point? How do you hold a live interview and press conference about the disease you hid from the public after you just found out that your close friend and staff member was killed by a drunk driver? How is Bartlet going to do this? How is he going to even think about pursuing a second term? HOW WILL MY HEART SURVIVE?
- Seriously, this is a relentless episode, one that was already stressful and upsetting enough without a major character death tacked on the ending of it. There’s the crisis in Haiti, the impending revelation about Bartlet’s MS, the need to acquire funding for the Justice Department’s lawsuit against Big Tobacco… lord, it’s so much. I made a comment early on in the video commission for “18th and Potomac” that I was going to need this episode to stop giving me plot twists. I am but one man. How much do you think I can handle?
- The result of Joey’s poll is awful enough. The numbers are best described as being UTTERLY BRUTAL. There’s no hope in them. Bartlet would lose most of his Democratic supporters without a second thought. The worst part about this is that they can’t just go back to ignoring the issue or hiding it from the public. They all know they have to go forward with this anyway.
- THIS ALL SUCKS.
- AND THEN THERE’S THE MILITARY COUP D’ETAT IN HAITI. For real, I have never more strongly felt that I would never want to be President than in this episode. Again, this all feels so real! You don’t get to pick what happens in the world, and that’s why multiple issues fall on the President’s lap all at once.
- Plus, it’s not like the coup d’etat has any simple solution to it. The US supported Dessalin, but risks angering the Bazan camp if they allow him into the embassy. It’s a mess, y’all. A goddamn mess!
- Did anyone else get a seriously bizarre vibe about everyone meeting in the basement? Like, if anyone caught them doing this, it would look horrible. No one would believe that Bartlet wasn’t conspiring to commit fraud at all. But I understand why it needs to happen, especially since the press corps is always around.
- I just had a thought. Where did Danny go? We haven’t seen him in a while.
- Anyway, all the planning and strategizing in the basement is a complicated nightmare, too. I think C.J.’s idea of the Dateline live interview, with a ten-hour headstart, is probably the best idea. But can they keep a lid on everything? I mean, once C.J. lets the Dateline folks know what’s happening, there’s a high possibility it’ll leak. And when will they let the whole staff know, if ever? How is that going to work?
- AAAAARRRGGGGHHH, THIS EPISODE AND THIS SITUATION IS SO DIFFICULT! I’m getting secondhand stress just thinking about it.
- I have a bit of a personal stake in hating Big Tobacco, since my mother was one of those “stupid” people who was told smoking was cool and good for your health many, many years ago, and she became addicted to nicotine by the time she had her first child. While she didn’t smoke during her pregnancies, she did develop lung cancer over a decade ago. She fought it and survived (HELL YEAH, YOU GO MOM), and it also helped her go cold turkey. But I grew up in a smoking household and I hated it.
- For real, when that one guy said that people were too “stupid” to be protected, I wanted to punch out of Earth’s orbit.
- CAN WE TALK ABOUT DONNA. CAN WE TALK ABOUT HER HEARING INCREDIBLY UPSETTING NEWS AND THEN INTERNALIZING IT AND GOING ABOUT HER DAY AND DOING HER JOB AND BEING A GODDAMN PROFESSIONAL ABOUT IT. She is the best. THE LITERAL BEST. I am so proud of her.
- We also need to talk about Abigail’s nightmare of a future considering medical ethics. I AM SCARED. If Babish is correct (and I assume he is), then she has a totally uncomfortable future ahead of her. She violated the state medical boards in three states! She clearly violated medical ethics as set forth by the AMA! How??? HOW IS SHE GOING TO GET OUT OF THIS?
- Actually, I’m completely invested in that plot alone. I don’t see any way that this can be resolved without someone losing their job, or Bartlet not seeking re-election, or everyone being subjected to a horrific, drawn-out circus in front of the grand jury. (Which is not to suggest that they shouldn’t be held accountable for what they did!)
- So I guess I need to talk about the thing. Now I understand why the 9:00 pm meeting was delayed in terms of storytelling. I kept wondering why we weren’t seeing this meeting when there was so little time left in the episode. I didn’t suspect that something was going to happen. I just assumed that things would be saved for the finale. Plus, with all of Mrs. Landingham’s scenes, I just assumed it was one of those quirky plots we get from this show all the time. Hell, the previous episode had an entire plot where Donna believed the world was going to end because of a satellite. It’s not until Charlie tells Leo about Mrs. Landingham’s death that the episode’s title even makes sense, either.
- And when it hits, it’s so much more horrible because it came out of nowhere. There was no real foreshadowing, at least not of the variety that suggests a predictable outcome. That’s the tragedy here. Mrs. Landingham went out to get her first new car, and she died in it. She was on her way back to the White House, as Bartlet requested of her, and she died.
- She’s gone. Oh my god, it’s so unfair.
- There is no way Bartlet takes this well. Not that this is a thing you take well, I should say, but given everything else that’s happened, I am worried a breakdown is imminent.
- Oh god, it’s all so awful. 🙁
- Bring her back. 🙁
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