Mark Watches ‘The West Wing’: S03E06 – Gone Quiet

In the sixth episode of the third season of The West Wing, Bartlet deals with a missing submarine, while Abby learns she might be her husband’s weakness in the upcoming hearings. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.

Well, this was a neat episode! I didn’t feel like it was as action-packed or dramatic as everything else in season three so far, but it made me smile. And wince. That, too!

C.J.

I just realized that Right Said Fred is named after the infamous song my Bernard Cribbins. Damn. Anyway, I really appreciated the chance to see C.J. sing and dance as a form of gloating. It’s a loving update to the C.J. Dancing And Singing list. Yes, there’s a list. There has to be.

Toby

Okay, I don’t have much to say about C.J.’s plot. Often, one character will take a backseat for most of the episode, and that’s the case with her. Instead, we deal with three other plots for the majority of “Gone Quiet.” Toby, who I’ve always found as the most explicitly liberal member of the group, meets with a Congresswoman (whose name I didn’t hear spoken) about the NEA and the possible elimination of their federal budget. It is an exercise in frustration for a number of reasons, but mainly because the woman’s argument is flawed in its execution. She only uses the most radical or unlikable art as part of her case, stripping it of any and all context as if that makes her point more salient. I would be interested to see what art was created because of the NEA’s budget that wasn’t mentioned. Regardless, I found her whole argument to be absurd, especially when she revealed that it was all an attempt just to get the head of the NEA fired. Okay. Okay. This isn’t about the misappropriation of taxes. This is about you and your committee’s vendetta against the taste of one dude. Yeah, you’ve lost me completely. We’re never told if Toby agrees to her demands, but I did pick up on the fact that yet another organization had come after the White House in as many weeks. Will this ever stop? How many other folks in Congress or the House of Representatives will fuck with the White House?

Sam

I think that’s directly related to what Bruno and Connie discuss with Sam, though. Could the administration’s lack of focus be the cause of their apparent perception as being weak? I imagine that if you weren’t familiar with campaign finance reform, the talk about hard and soft money might have been ridiculously confusing. I get that. The only reason I know about it is because I was a Political Science major and I spent a lot of time on modern American politics. So, in short, the terms describe whether or not the money, which is a political donation, is regulated by the Federal Election Commission or not. Some of the loophole that Bruno wants to exploit is discussed here, but I urge you to research the terms and the laws surrounding this because I could spend way more time on this issue. (Also, I am really excited to see if redheadedgirl will write about the legality of both types of donations. YOU BETTER BELIEVE I READ ALL OF HER COMMENTS.)

So! Sam essentially wants to keep the Bartlet administration on the right side of the law. Well, no. On the right side of a law that does not exist yet. And I get why he feels this way, and I really respect that! The guy is being idealistic, but he really doesn’t want the Bartlet campaign to get tied down in using soft money. However, I completely did not expect Bruno’s passionate defense of creating the issue adds. Oh god, didn’t he sound just like Toby??? HE TOTALLY DID. But it’s a side of the man I hadn’t really seen. I guess I didn’t think of Bruno and Connie in terms of their political affiliations. If anything, I perceived them as being there just to help the Bartlet administration stay in office, not out of their own interest but because they were good at their job. However, Bruno’s words hit me hard: He was sick of the term “liberal” being demonized. He wanted to fight back against the pervasive and nasty associations that his beliefs had been tarred with. That is admirable to me, too, and it’s perfectly in character for Toby to agree with him. So is that going to appear in future episodes? Because I’d love to see it.

Abigail

UGH, IT’S JUST SO FRUSTRATING. You know, I have one slight bone to pick with this plot. I didn’t initially pick up on this when it was revealed what Abigail had done to keep her husband’s illness a secret, but did she really write prescriptions to herself for Jed? Look, if that’s the case, I really don’t see any doctor doing something like that and then not realizing that this violates AMA ethics. She’s not that foolish or naïve, and it’s the main thing that bothers me about this. She’s clearly knowledgable about the consequences, about how serious this is, so why would she act so innocently about this one detail?

Anyway, I saw a direct parallel between this plot and Sam’s. Like Bruno, Oliver is more interested in calling out this clear act of political revenge for what it is. This is not about an potential illegality in President Bartlet’s actions. It’s about taking the President down a notch through his wife. It’s gross! And I was thankful to see Babish express his willingness to stand up for the both of them. This is gonna get so good, isn’t it?

Bartlet

OKAY, SO BARTLET’S PLOT IN THIS EPISODE IS HILARIOUS. Which is saying a lot, given that it starts out so seriously. A submarine has disappeared off radar while just 4,000 yards from the North Korean coast. However, the story turns into a clever examination of one of the few things Bartlet isn’t knowledgable on. So the show brings in Hal Holbrook as Albie Duncan, who essentially acts exactly like Bartlet does with everyone else, spouting endless facts about military maneuvers and minutia regarding submarines. IT IS ENDLESSLY AMUSING TO ME, especially when Bartlet tries to do the same thing to Charlie and Charlie just ROLLS HIS EYES. Bless him. BLESS HIM FOREVER.

This wasn’t an amazing episode, but I really liked it!

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