In the twelfth episode of the fourth season of The West Wing<\/i>, the team races against the clock in an attempt to pass a seemingly impossible foreign aid bill. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch The West Wing<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Goddamn, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this season is 12\/12. I have enjoyed every<\/i> single episode, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Guns Not Butter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is no exception. This episode manages to mix some of the funniest gags and long-running jokes with the brutal reality that Bartlet, despite winning his re-election, is about to face a long uphill battle. Danny knows the truth, even if he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the evidence. The Republican-controlled Congress is clearly going to wage every battle imaginable. And the White House is going to have to balance all of this while attempting to stay relevant. Oh god, this really feels like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s building up to something huge<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Anyway, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s get to it!<\/p>\n
Will<\/b><\/p>\n
So, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely taking Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s place, right? Rob Lowe is out of the credits, his character is only mentioned in conjunction, and Will\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being rather ruthlessly hazed. Well, most of it is harmless! Just bikes and posters and a goat<\/i>. I want to be best friends with Ron! For the most part, Will\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s placed in the background of this episode, only popping up to be called the wrong name by literally everyone<\/i>. However, as much as I want MORE WILL BAILEY ALL THE TIME, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make sense for him to get a prominent storyline in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Guns Not Butter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still working on the Inaugural speech with Toby, and we still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if Sam is coming back after three months. (I honestly don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think he will.) So, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the butt of about twenty jokes, and for the time being, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m okay with that.<\/p>\n
Also, he offered to feed the goat! Bless your heart, Will.<\/p>\n
Charlie<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost like Sorkin and company realized that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just dropped Zoey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new boyfriend in our laps without a single bit of explanation, and then, in this episode, they go, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh shit, we should explain this.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the neatest plot in this season \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I found it a bit tacky that an issue as important as military folk on welfare was sidelined as a story about jealousy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy that we got some time with Charlie. Plus, his story acts as a reminder that these people live and breathe the White House. Nothing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting easier for any of them, and Charlie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s potential relationship with Zoey suffered for that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fitting, then, that he pursues this letter further once Zoey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new boyfriend tries to take Charlie down a notch by implying that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s powerless. Of course, this horribly backfires once Charlie tries to call in a favor and ends up using his position to draw the attention of the Department of Defense. Whoops<\/i>. Thankfully, Bartlet isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t too hard on him after the DoD sends the most passive-aggressive memo I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen on this show. Good lord, that was brutal.<\/p>\n
I admit that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a little bothered that Zoey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really a part of all of this, though. All these men talk about her, and she has like five lines the whole time. Since when was it acceptable to just ruthlessly make fun of French people, by the way??? So yeah, this was a weird story, but I did like that Charlie was onscreen more than usual.<\/p>\n
C.J.<\/b><\/p>\n
I really don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a way to stop Danny at this point. Sure, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely buying time by investigating all of the flight schools for the fictional pilot of Shareef\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plane. But I also don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think C.J. has any power<\/i> to stop him, either. At best, she can dance around the subject. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m worried that this is going to take a toll on C.J., but not just because of the pressure that Danny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s putting on her. She suspects that Danny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hunch is fact, and I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll eat at her conscience. Oh god, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that Bartlet and Leo are going to be able to keep this a secret much longer.<\/p>\n
Other than this, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help but think of C.J. and her lovely turkeys from the first season while watching \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Guns Not Butter.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Except this time, she places the animal in question \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Ron the goat \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office instead of her own. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so beautiful<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Bartlet\/Donna\/Josh<\/b><\/p>\n
Oh, HOLY FEELINGS. SO MANY FEELINGS<\/i>. The central plot in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Guns Not Butter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d concerns the impossible feat that is set before Josh: He must ensure that a vital foreign aid bill is passed or there won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be any<\/i> foreign aid for the coming year. In theory, this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a new story for The West Wing<\/i>. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen the staff chase after votes, but Sorkin and the writers inject a whole lot more tension and dread into this<\/i> vote than any of the others. The foreign aid bill is incredibly important, and while Danny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right that the team doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spend much time defending it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s necessity, I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because this was more a warning of what was to come.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important the main person that Josh pursues \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with Donna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s help \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is actually a Democrat<\/i>. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look good for the President that a freshman Senator is refusing to take a call from the President to avoid telling him no. Which\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 wow. Wow<\/i>. Senator Hardin uses her assistant Ellen to completely refuse to take responsibility for her vote, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brutal<\/i>. Because of Josh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fear that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll fail the President, though, we get to see him do something that he would otherwise NEVER DO EVER<\/i>. I mean, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, Senator Hoebuck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s idea goes through Toby first, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important because we get to watch his face while a person actually asks him for money from the government to fund a study on remote prayer. This literally happened<\/i>. And you know, I feel like this is another one of those strange things that shows up on The West Wing<\/i> but is actually based in reality. I would not put it past people in Congress to try to introduce a bill or ask for funding for something like this. (And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to suggest that prayer is worthless, but that we clearly cannot have our government paying for studies on remote prayer for people who may not even want it<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
Josh should have known that this was a silly idea to bring before the President, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a manifestation of his desperation, and Bartlet realizes why<\/i> he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so desperate: Josh doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to disappoint Leo. Oh. Oh<\/i>. Hello, feelings. How are you doing<\/i>?<\/p>\n
No, wait, the feelings really<\/i> come out when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Donna to be FUCKING AMAZING. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so disappointing that everything she did was for naught because she was so good<\/i> at tracking down Senator Hardin. And it ignites all these feelings I have for her as a character because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, I want more<\/i> from her! I want to see her do something else besides be Josh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assistant because I bet she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be great at it. And yet, I also can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deny that I love seeing Donna earn Josh\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s respect like she does here. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s proud<\/i> of what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done, even if they lost in the end.<\/p>\n
They lost. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so thankful that as fantastical as this show can be at times, Sorkin keeps the team grounded. They can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t win everything, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no shame in losing a battle. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just motivation to keep going. And I love that.<\/p>\n
Bless this season so far. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love a photo of the team with Ron the goat, by the way.<\/p>\n
The video commission for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Guns Not Butter\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<\/a> In the twelfth episode of the fourth season of The West Wing, the team races against the clock in an attempt to pass a seemingly impossible foreign aid bill. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch The West Wing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[460],"tags":[462],"class_list":["post-2991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-west-wing","tag-mark-watches-the-west-wing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2991\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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