In the tenth episode of the sixth season of The West Wing, the staff struggles with a polarizing bill tacked onto the last budget that Bartlet must pass, and Josh and Donna make strides in their own respective futures. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.
Trigger Warning: Talk of homophobia, outing.Â
Holy shit, I love this show, and I particularly love the stories in this season. “Faith Based Initiative” does feel like the show is preparing for the end, which already makes me sad, but a lot of this needs to happen. LET’S DISCUSS.
Donna
WORKING. FOR. RUSSELL. I don’t even like Russell as a candidate but I don’t care. I’ve spent at least the past two seasons asking for Donna to get more for her character, and it’s happening oh my god. It’s happening, and Will’s moment talking to Donna in this episode is SO IMPORTANT. It’s time for Donna to have her own career that doesn’t involve being an assistant to someone else, you know? God, just the image of her picking up the phone AT HER OWN DESK in HER OWN OFFICE up in New Hampshire is so incredible to me. I WANT SO MUCH MORE. PLEASE GIVE IT TO ME.
Josh
Of course, it’s heartbreaking to know that Josh and Donna have never been so far apart from one another, both figuratively and literally. But Josh also needed to understand that his reliance on Donna had become unfair to her. In this episode (penned by Bradley Whitford himself!!!), Josh is forced to deal with Marla, the temp replacement for Donna, who quickly proves to Josh that the way he treated Donna isn’t how… well, MOST PEOPLE WORK. I was a bit peeved that the writing for this episode had Marla as the angry black woman towards Josh, but I also recognized that it really does expose how comfortable he gotten with Donna as his assistant. He had settled into a routine that was chaotic for Donna, that involved a whole lot of yelling, and which frequently went against his own schedule. And while Donna tolerated it, that’s more of a testament to her patience and a dedication than of Josh’s style.
It’s not lost on me that as soon as Donna isn’t in his life, Josh also gets an offer that pulls him away from the White House: Santos accepts his offer to run for President, BUT ONLY IF JOSH RUNS HIS CAMPAIGN. SO OKAY I AM REALLY, REALLY EXCITED ABOUT THIS. I want to see so much more of Santos, I want to know his politics, I want more of his adorable family, I want to see Josh planning and executing this campaign, I WANT TO WATCH SANTOS OBLITERATE SOMEONE IN A DEBATE, I want Hoynes to be destroyed in the process and revealed to be a Cylon or something, I don’t know. Y’all, Josh isn’t Deputy Chief of Staff anymore. IS SOMEONE GOING TO REPLACE HIM? How does this work? Will Marla still be on the show? I can’t believe how much this season has upset things in terms of roles, and I love it. It’s refreshing, it feels realistic, and it’s a clever way to make The West Wing feel new and exciting.
I do wish I would have seen Josh’s scene with Bartlet at the end, though. I fully admit that it probably would have destroyed me.
Bartlet
I’m a huge fan of the dual nature of the title of this episode, since it refers not just to the bill that Wilkinson tacks on to the budget, but of Bartlet’s own struggle with the faith he once held in his own body. The show is directly (and sometimes intensely) addressing the experience that Bartlet’s going through with his own MS, and as sad as it can be at times, they don’t shy away from his own personal issues or the physical challenges with the disease. Curtis is back in this episode (!!!!), and it’s clear that Bartlet is going to need more help than ever just to get through his days. And I already suspected that Bartlet was going to be frustrated by the limitations his doctor was setting for him because of his prior claim that he believed he couldn’t do the job. As his memory fades and his sense of balance disappears for long periods of time, he’s forced to accept that his life is going to be different from here on out for a number of reasons.
But his life is still his, and I love that Whitford shows us definitively that while Bartlet struggles, he still gets shit done. It’s not patronizing because Bartlet’s experience is front and center during the scenes he is in, and it’s not done in a way that feels like an after-school special. It’s hard! It’s “disheartening,” as he says to Wilkinson at the end. And it’s definitely changed his life, which is what I assume is his reasoning for demonstrating to Wilkinson that he also changed his mind about gay marriage. As much as this season and the last one have addressed Bartlet’s legacy, it’s with episodes like this that you feel like a legacy is actually being made, and it’s a fulfilling feeling.
C.J. / Toby
God, Toby is absolutely on fire throughout this episode, and I truly adore how determined and angry he is about the complacency of the folks around him. I think this is a good example of looking at his characterization over the years and seeing how different writers have chosen to portray him. I generally think he’s one of the more liberal members of the staff, which is why some of the stuff in seasons four and five didn’t exactly sit well with me. And it’s really jarring to think about him pushing for the “big picture” previously and his actions here. Not that gay marriage isn’t a big picture item! But while most of the staff believes that “passing the buck” to the courts is the best option, Toby is the only one who seems willing to purposely fight a battle that might very well be un-winnable at that time. I admire it because it’s the right thing to do. It was infuriating to watch Russell / Will support the idea that this wasn’t the right, more so than Wilkinson’s own bigotry. It’s the moderates, the ones who want to play it safe, who get this shit passed way more than the loud, angry extremes. Also, straight people: DON’T USE YOUR QUEER FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS TO JUSTIFY YOUR COMPLACENCY. It’s awful. Symbols matter, as Toby said, and sometimes, those symbols are the people you love and care about. Don’t use us to make you feel better! (Pretty sure Russell’s nephew wouldn’t actually support you. Oh god, shut up.)
I’m also glad that ultimately, Whitford doesn’t write C.J. as if she truly lived through the experience of a possible outing, and her final message to the press is MY FAVORITE. Look, if you don’t know this already, I was outed just after high school ended, and I can tell y’all that the sort of rumor-mongering you see here is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how bad it can get. But yeah, it does hit you right in the self esteem, and I’m so happy that Whitford’s script touched on it. It causes you to question your own worth. It causes other people to question your worth, and unfortunately, in a homophobic society like the one I grew up in, that means a lot of people looked at me as less of a person because of their perception of me. Would I have preferred to have an actual queer/gay person dealing with an outing? Yes. Of course. But I’m happy that C.J.’s experience – which also touched on the tinges of misogyny that came with all the questions into her sexuality – was ultimately not about how she lived through an accurate depiction of being outed or being suspected of being gay. And even what she did experience was awful enough for her that she told the press the absolute right thing: it’s none of your fucking business.
Bless.
The video for “Faith Based Initiative” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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