The West Wing Episode Guide

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May May 17, 2000 An excellent 10 Flush episode closing up the season for the one of the best shows on TV. The episode begins with Sam getting some news for Toby and then a bunch of hand signals being sent back and forth while Jed is at a town hall meeting. Charlie is happy about something. Zoey is at the town hall meeting. The meeting ends, and everyone leaves. Gina, Zoey's bodyguard, is escorting everybody to the limousines. She says she sees something, and we suspect a gun in the crowd. She repeats that she sees something and appears ready to jump...cut to opening segment. We now return to a bright day at the White House. A pilot has been shot down in the no-fly zone over Iraq which isn't very good. Jed wants to save the pilot and get him home. He swears that if the Iraqis hurt this man that he will invade Baghdad. But in order to recover this man, the military sends in a secret squad. This secrecy means that CJ lies to the press corps about White House activity. As a matter of fact, Danny asks CJ during a press conference whether a military force has been sent into rescue the pilot. CJ says that the White House is still working out diplomatic solutions even though she knows this not to be true. In the meantime, Jed is preparing for a town-hall meeting that he is supposed to be having at a college the next day. Minor issues like whether or not he should wear a jacket during the meeting come up. When Zoey is at the White House, her father asks her if she will go to the town hall meeting. She doesn't want to, but she agrees since Charlie will be there. Zoey says that since Jed brought up Charlie that Charlie has something to share with him but he is too shy to bring it up. Jed asks Charlie about this, and he says that Zoey must have misunderstood him. Charlie then tells Zoey that she shouldn't have spoken with her father about him, because Jed has some of the smartest men in the world working for him, and Charlie knows nothing compared to them. Anyway, the town hall meeting approaches, and we still don't know whether or not the pilot has been rescued. As a result, Leo and Sam come up with a hand signal to indicate that the pilot has been rescued safely. They tell Jed that if the pilot is recovered during his meeting that they will give him this signal. Another tragedy takes place this week. Toby's brother, David, is on board the Columbia. The Columbia is a spaceship that is having problems landing as one of its doors is not working. Sam is the first to hear news of this, and he tells Toby who registers surprise at this announcement. Apparently, Toby had forgotten that his brother is in space. Sam, however, is more surprised to discover that Toby had a brother...Toby had never mentioned him before. As the day progresses and the spacecraft continues to malfunction, Toby becomes more upset. We're now a few hours from the town hall meeting when we learn that the pilot has been safely rescued, yeah!! Danny approaches CJ and says that she lied to him about a secret mission. She says that she did and that she would do it again. She explains that she had to lie to protect the safety of the secret recovery mission. Danny says that CJ didn't have to pick Danny to ask that question. She knew that any reporter would ask that question, and CJ let Danny ask the question so she could lie to him. CJ feels guilty about this so she tells Danny that his newspaper can get a leak on a story about problems aboard the Challenger. What is the future of this relationship, who knows? Also, Jed continues to prod Charlie about his news. Finally, Charlie shares that there has been a file sitting on Jed's desk for quite some time and that Charlie read it. Charlie thinks the file will be very interesting so Jed agrees to read it. In the midst of this town hall meeting, Josh goes to talk with the vice president, Haynes. Josh is trying to get Haynes commitment over some issue, and Josh does, but more importantly we discover that Josh worked on Haynes's campaign for president. Haynes tells Josh that he is a brilliant strategizer and that if he had listened to Josh during the campaigns that he might be president instead of vice president. Josh says that Haynes is right. Anyway, it's now the night of the town hall meeting, and Jed decides in the middle of the meeting to take off his jacket. He also says that his assistant Charlie made him aware of some startling statistics regarding college students and political apathy. Charlie is now very happy. In the background of the meeting, Sam gets a phone call. Sam then starts giving the signal. Leo gets confused and says that the pilot landed hours ago. Sam informs Leo that the signal now means something else (we assume the something else to be the safe landing of the Challenger and Toby's brother). The town hall meeting is now over and the entire cast is headed out to go back to the White House. Jed wants to watch some women's softball, and he is shaking some people's hands. Gina is watching Zoey and Charlie. She says she sees something and then says that same thing again. She then looks up and sees something in a tower. Gina shouts "Gun!" and starts jumping on people to protect them. Gunshots are heard. Everybody hits the floor. Who will live and who will die? What made this episode so great was that the gunshots did not come out of nowhere. We've know since November that people were angry with Charlie and Zoey for having their interracial relationship. In addition, the beginning of the episode started with this scene so the actual shooting was not just a gimmick and cliffhanger. Finally, the way the show rebuilt the opening sequence was so great, because we better understood the evolution of certain events. A brilliant ending to a brilliant series. QUOTED QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: Decisions are made by those who show up. --Jed, quoting somebody. END OF SEASON May 10, 2000 A really fun 8 Flush episode. It's time to evaluate Jed's newest policy measures, and as a result, the White House is conducting a massive poll over the next few days. Most people predict that Jed's popularity will stay the same, Toby thinks it will decline within the margin, and CJ thinks it will go up 5 points. Because of the poll, Toby tells Sam that he cannot go to Laurie's graduation from GW Law School tomorrow. For those of you whodon't know, Laurie is Sam's friend (whom he once had sex with) who is a prostitute working her way through law school. Tomorrow is her graduation, and Toby suspects that Jed's enemies want to catch Sam with a prostitute, so to speak. Sam follows this order but does visit Laurie at the end of the day. He gives her a gift, and she hugs him. We see that some pictures are taken, and then Sam sees a car drive off. He suspects that the pictures have been taken. The pictures have been taken and news of her will be reported, but Jed promises that she will not be prevented from joining the bar because of those pictures. Also this week, Leo invites a man named Barry Haskel to the White House. Barry is on the Federal Election Committee, and Leo wants to get Barry to support banning soft money contributions. Leo hopes that with Jed's two new appointments and Barry that banning soft money is possible. Leo uses some White House intimidation techniques to get Barry to oppose soft money. In addition, Jed meets with Senator Lobell to make sure that his newest FEC appointees will be approved. Something is going on with the ambassador of the Federated States of Micronesia. The people of this island nation (actually, it is 607 small islands) in the South Pacific want a new ambassador. To solve this problem, the administration hopes to promote this ambassador to some random country and promote that ambassador to Bulgaria. The current ambassador of Bulgaria, Ken Cochran, is an ineffective leader who is having an affair with the daughter of the prime minister of Bulgaria. Jed calls Cochran to his office to fire him, but Jed will be careful because he is friends with Cochran's wife. Cochran arrives at the White House, and Jed tells Cochran that he expects him to resign. We learn that Cochran is an evil man when he talks in private with Charlie and Cochran does resign. Now that there is an empty slot for ambassadors, the president appoints a current member of the FEC to become ambassador of Micronesia. This means that Jed's two new appointees, Barry, and whoever else joins the FEC will in a 4-2 vote ban soft money. Joey Lucas and Josh fight over English as the national language. Josh wants Joey to come up with the Republican's arguments, but Joey says she doesn't need to, because the Republicans won't bring English as a national language to Congress due to the influence of Hispanic voters. Drugs also hit the court. A report has emerged as to whether or not the White House plans to legalize drugs. CJ tells the press that this report is the same report that has been generated for the past 30 years. Danny asks her a question about the White House drug policy and CJ snaps at him. The two continue their fight after the press conference and CJ tells Danny that she's still mad at him, because nobody in the White House fully trusts her because she didn't know about the report that Mandy had written (see April 26). She feels this way in part because Leo hasn't been sharing al of her ideas with Jed. The episode ends with the newest polling data. CJ is still upset about people not trusting her so when she reads the polling data, she is happy. Over the last three weeks, the White House press policy has been run completely by CJ, and Jed's approval rating has risen 9 points, yeah! NEXT WEEK: Season finale means war and death threats. May 3, 2000 After last week's episode, I knew that I would be disappointed this week. Nonetheless, this episode deserves 8 Flushes. The episode was simple, and I'm going to tell it in my own way to make the story more understandable. Due to Jed's (from now on, I'm calling the president Jed) newest agenda, he calls in some special consultants. He calls in pollster Al Riefer and consultant Joey Lucas (played by Marlee Matlin). Last time we saw these two, they were in California and were in the middle of a sexual relationship. Josh had a crush on Joey and was crushed by her being with Al. As a result, Josh is pretty harsh to Joey when she first arrives. However, she tells him that she is no longer with Al. Charlie tells Josh that he should hit on Joey, and while he doesn't follow that advice fully, Josh does become nicer to her in that he gives her a mug which is a very romantic gesture in the context of the show. In the meantime, Jed announces that he is going to nominate Bacon and Calhoun to the Federal Elections Committee. Some important senators are very upset about this, because the senators do not want to see campaign finance reform, and a staff member from a majority leader tells Sam that if Jed lets up on the FEC members then they will not protest Jed's new drug policy. The drug policy is to either legalize certain drugs or remove mandatory minimum sentences. The minimum sentence idea belongs to Toby's ex-wife, Congresswoman Andrea Wyatt. Andrea tells Toby that her friends want to support Jed if he removed mandatory minimums because they are racist in that crack sentences are almost always enforced and black people primarily get arrested for crack whereas white people who use cocaine rarely have sentences. Jed agrees and has Leo indirectly threaten a number of conservatives into agreeing with his policy by telling them that if these conservatives oppose the drug policy then drug histories that their relatives have will become front page news stories. Anyway, Sam likes the idea of trading FEC commissions for drug sentences until he learns that this trade is only an attempt to increase Sam's public image so that the Republican senator can slander Sam's image by exposing a relationship that Sam had with a prostitute (Laurie) earlier in the season. Jed will nonetheless propose both measures. Finally this week, CJ announces Jed's FEC plan and says that the plan is fair in that Jed has chosen a democrat and a republican for the posts when he is legally not required to. However, the president IS under such an obligation. CJ feels horrible that she made such an amateur mistake at a time when the White House needs to seem credible. In addition, CJ is still angry with Mandy for writing the memo which attacked the Bartlett administration. CJ is also mad with Danny for writing a news story about the memo. However, the president tells CJ to forgive them both. OK, this is all of the action from the episode. I enjoyed the show. I also want to clarify some things. Jed has not actually proposed his drug plan because he is still debating whether or not the plan will be politically acceptable; however, if he does propose a plan, it will be to remove mandatory minimums. Also, due to the FEC fiasco, some conservative legislators are threatening to propose a bill for English as the official language. NEXT WEEK: Joey and Josh clash. Jed awaits new poll results. April April 26, 2000 This phenomenal and brilliant 10 FLUSH episode of The West Wing entitled "Let Bartlet Be Bartlet" reminded me why I love television. The show was perfectly paced, and performances were perfectly pitched. The show began slow, brought us down, made us uncomfortable, and then hit us hard with drama and excitement. There is no way that I can do justice to the power of this episode with my words, but I will still inform you of what happened. I'm going to get to the serious issue at the bottom of the description just so that you can understand all of the murkiness that surrounds it. Josh has a meeting with the assistants of the majority and minority leaders of the Senate. The president wants to place John Bacon and Patty Calhoun on the board for the FEC (Federal Elections Committee). However, tradition mandates that the party leaders decide who the president will nominate to the Senate and then the Senate confirms these people. Tradition states that the republicans choose one candidate and democrats choose the other, but the president wants to choose Bacon and Calhoun (one is a democrat and the other is a republican), because they both support radical campaign finance reform. Josh's meeting with these guys goes pretty poorly, because Josh knows that he is just supposed to test the waters with nominating Bacon and Calhoun. Nonetheless, the people Josh meets with tell him that if the president nominates Bacon and Calhoun, then they will push through a conservative agenda including English as the national language. Josh leaves this meeting in defeat. He returns to his office and asks Donna to do some research on English as a national language. She does the research and says that James Madison has some excellent points on free speech. But Josh knows he will never be allowed to use this research, because the president is going to do what every president always does and nominate the Senators' choices. Sam is in a meeting with some military representatives and a congressman. They are discussing gays in the military. Sam says that the "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy does not work, because soldiers are being coerced and forced into confessing their sexuality. Sam cites statistics that 1145 people were dismissed from the military in 1998 for being gay and that there has been a 92% increase in dismissals since the "don't ask" policy was implemented. The joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Pertzy Fitzwallace, enters the meeting and says that gays should be in the military. He says that they will disrupt the status quo, but fifty years ago men like Fitzwallace (black men) entered the army, and they disrupted the army, but the army got over blacks, and now it will get over gays in the military. Fitzwallace leaves the meeting and Sam tries to reach some kind of conclusion, but the congressman at the meeting says that only congress can change the military's uniform code regarding gays in the military, and that unless the president wants to take action and get some sponsors to a bill that this meeting is a waste of time. The meeting is dismissed. As you can tell everyone in the White House is very depressed, and the depression is highlighted by a rain storm in the background as well as a collapse of the e-mail system in the White House (note that e-mail means broken down communication). Donna asks Josh, "Why is everyone walking around like they've already lost?" Somebody wants to fight for a policy, but is told that he may not. He asks why not and is told " 'cause that's not what we do." Toby tells Leo that the president's popularity has decreased by five points in one week to 42%. Leo responds that the president was not elected with a popular mandate (only 48%) and that these things happen. He says that the president had a victory in his first year of office by getting Mendoza elected. Toby responds, "One victory in a year. It's not the ones we lose that bother me. It's the ones we don't suit up for." Everyone in the White House wants to be more policy-oriented. The big story this week revolves around CJ and Mandy. When Mandy worked on the Russell campaign before returning to DC, she wrote an opposition research memo in which she outlined the weaknesses of the Bartlet administration and discussed a strategy for defeating him. CJ discovers that someone has obtained this paper. She asks Mandy for a copy of the paper and learns that the paper says that the president wants to be radical, but that Leo grounds the president into normal politics. This paper is making the entire upper staff upset. CJ goes to Danny to find out who has this paper and learns that Danny has it. She asks Danny why he is reporting this story, and he responds that it is news that someone in the Bartlet administration has written a paper on how to defeat him. He says that CJ should have known about this paper and should have asked Mandy if she had done something like this before hiring her. This scene between CJ and Danny was especially powerful. Leo finds out about the paper. The president reads the paper and calls Leo in to discuss the paper. The president says that he has been weakening lately: "I really did wake up energized this morning. I'm not going to bed that way." Leo says that the president needs to fight for what he believes in. Leo says that the paper is completely wrong and that the president prevents the White House from acting out policies like gays in the military or campaign finance reform; Leo only "serves at the pleasure of the president." The president decides to no longer act like a politically insecure leader. "This [my agenda] is more important than reelection. I want to speak now." Leo tells the staff about the president's decision to change the country. Leo concedes that they will not win all of their battles, but they will try. Everyone is excited at this thought, and I got a patriotic chill through my body. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: We're going to raise the level of public debate in this country, and that's going to be our legacy. --Leo NEXT WEEK: FEC nominations are made. Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin) returns. April 19, 2000 Rerun. April 12, 2000 Rerun. April 5, 2000 A fun 7 Flush episode of West Wing that probably deserves an 8, but I'm not feeling generous right now. The episode opens with Mendoza being confirmed for the Supreme Court. We are all very happy. Then the episode really begins. Danny asks to speak with CJ in private (this is after CJ did what was supposed to be a phenomenal lip-synch of "The Jackal" although I found CJ's later performance with the president to be much more entertaining...and I do not mean this in a sexual way). Danny tells CJ that a powerful political contributor's son was just arrested at a frat party for drug possession. As it turns out, Zoey (the president's daughter) was at the party. CJ does not want this story to become big news, but one random reporter from some random conservative, right wing newspaper sneaks onto the Georgetown Campus and asks Zoey what she was doing at the party. Zoey says that she left the party before the drug guy came to the party. However, CJ speaks with Charlie later on and learns that Zoey went to the party to see the drug guy, because she had his car keys (apparently the previous week, she took his keys when he was drunk and did not want him to drive home under the influence). CJ asks Zoey why she lied, but Zoey denies lying. CJ then goes to Gina Toscano, the secret service agent who guards Zoey, and asks Gina what really happened. Gina says that she cannot tells CJ, because if Gina told Zoey's secrets then she would not be able to protect Zoey. CJ realizes that nothing will come of this newstory so she lets it drop, but she does tell the president. The president wants to punish at the press for attacking Zoey, but CJ yells at the president and tells him that if he goes to talk to the press then the story about Zoey will become a national story instead of a conservative issue. The president agrees. Also, remember that Zoey and Charlie are still being hounded for being an interracial couple. Hate mail continues to pour in and people constantly threaten Zoey and Charlie's lives. Mallory (Leo's daughter) finds a paper that Sam wrote about school vouchers. In the paper, Sam defends them, but Mallory is a public teacher and opposes school vouchers. Sam asks how she found out about the paper and he realizes that Leo is interfering with Sam and Mallory's relationship. Sam and Mallory have not yet gone on a date, but they have an implied relationship. Mallory is very upset with Sam until she learns that Sam was only writing the paper as a position paper so that the White House would understand the most poignant criticisms of school vouchers. Mallory and Sam are now on their way to a relationship. Having just gotten a supreme court justice nominated, the White House now needs to appoint an assistant attorney general for civil rights. Their candidate is a guy named Breckenridge, but Breckenridge faces confirmation problems, because he believes that the US government should pay reparations in the amount of $1.7 trillion to black people for slavery. Josh has to meet with Breckenridge and get him to stop believing this, but after Josh realizes that his grandfather was mistreated as a Jew by the nazis that maybe people should get reparations for mistreatment. The issue seems unresolved as of now, but then again, maybe the episode was only about Josh coming to grips with his religion. Finally, there was this issue with Mandy trying to get a panda bear for the national zoo now that Hsing-Hsing the panda is dead. (By the way, the real US government is trying to rent a new pair of pandas!) She asks Toby for help. The issue is moot, but I think that Mandy and Toby are plotting to get back at Josh, because Josh should have dealt with the panda issue. We'll see if the panda revenge occurs in a future episode. One complaint about this episode: all of the secretaries have begun to talk and act like Donna. True enough that Donna and Josh have a great chemistry, but the believability of their relationship declines when Carole and CJ or Cathy and Sam have the exact same dynamic. QUOTE OF THE EPISODE: No honestly. I am dumb. Most of the time I just act smart. --Sam BEST COMMENT ABOUT GEORGE WASHINGTON EVER: What a tight-assed little priss he must have been. --The President on George Washington's many rules of behavior. NEXT WEEK: Rerun.