One of the dumber conversations I can imagine having with myself is about something like what is my favorite West Wing episode. I love just about all of them very deeply. (Okay, I didn’t like the Season Six episode when Toby and Josh got into a physical fight after Toby’s brother’s death. That missed the mark for me about as badly as it is possible to miss it.)
But tonight I am wondering if I didn’t have a favorite episode, after all.
Season 4, Episode 2, 20 hours in America: Part 2.
What a spectacular episode for the less celebrated characters of the show! Sam, yes, but Charlie and Debbie and Donna … whoa. (Tory Amos, too.)
To set the scene, after a campaign stop in rural Indiana, Toby, Josh and Donna (played by the magnificent Janel Maloney) got left by the presidential motorcade. They tried a variety of ways to get back to Washington, encountering problems at every step, traveling on a Monday, which Donna said reminded her of a song …
Meanwhile, an act of domestic terror killed 44 people at a midwestern collegiate swim meet. Charlie (played by the magnificent Dulé Hill) was working to see to the replacement of Mrs. Landingham after her fatal auto accident. The candidate he had in mind was Debbie Fiderer (played by the magnificent Lily Tomlin), who originally hired Charlie for the administration, rather than a nephew of a donor to the campaign of the brother of the Director of Presidential Personnel, for which she was fired. Bartlet, Leo and the generals were also dealing with fallout from the Sharif assassination. There was also potential for a catastrophic global market crash, which is where we begin.
Bartlet was meeting individually with a number of people I’m the oval office for photo opportunities. A gentleman came in for a picture. When he was nine, he had met with president Hoover for a photo. On October 23, 1939, the day before the infamous “Black Thursday” of the great stock market crash. Bartlet interrupted the photographer before the photo could be taken, and called Charlie over for a pow-wow about cancelling the photo op, calling the man ‘Hoover’s good-luck charm.’ So, Bartlet cancelled the photo op. The man asked why, and, in one of the best lines Charlie ever delivered on the show, Charlie replied: You’re spooking the hell out of the president. I still laugh about it! Well done, Charlie!
Next up, Debbie Fiderer’s second interview with Bartlet was very nearly as disastrous as her first, and saw her refusing to answer Bartlet’s question about why she was fired when she worked at the White House before. After dismissing her quite summarily, Bartlet had her stopped at the door, and he asked her about details someone about the market that an advisor shared when he briefly interrupted her interview. She knew the details with perfect accuracy. Well done, Debbie!
Then, CJ spontaneously extended a press conference due to a domestic terror event with 44 fatalities at a collegiate swim meet. After that, Bartlet gave a speech, one of my favorites of the entire series. (Transcript from westwingtranscripts.)
More than any time in recent history, America's destiny is not of our own choosing. We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom and our way of life. We did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil. Yet the true measure of a people's strength is how they rise to master that moment when it does arrive. 44 people were killed a couple of hours ago at Kennison State University. Three swimmers from the men's team were killed and two others are in critical condition. When, after having heard the explosion from their practice facility, they ran into the fire to help get people out. Ran into the fire. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels tonight. They're our students and our teachers and our parents and our friends. The streets of heaven are too crowded with angels, but every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars. God bless their memory, God bless you and God bless the United States of America. Thank you.
Man. To have intelligence in the White House. To have compassion. To have vision. To have INSPIRATION. What I wouldn’t give for it. What I won’t give for it, in fact.
Campaign manager Bruno Gianelli asked Sam when he wrote the last part of that speech, he answered ‘in the car,’ on the way there. Bruno called Sam a freak. Well done, Sam!
Next up is Charlie again! CJ was talking with Anthony (very well played by Andrew McFarlane), a young man whose ‘Big Brother’ was Secret Service agent, Simon Donovan (played by Mark Harmon in Season 3), who protected CJ after she received death threats. Donovan was killed after CJ’s would-be assassin was captured, freeing CJ to pursue a romantic relationship with him. The hunt for a replacement Big Brother wasn’t going well, so CJ was going to take him home. He wasn’t responsive, so CJ kneeled down before him, so as to not be taller than him, and spoke of her grief at Simon’s death. He declined her offer of a ride home, with Charlie in earshot, saying: I said I don’t need a babysitter, bitch. Are you deaf?
Charlie walked up and put him into a wall, showing his displeasure with the way Anthony expressed himself with CJ. Then he told him his morning schedule on Saturdays, and said Anthony could show up for that or not, as he wished. Well done, yet again, Charlie!
Finally, Donna was sitting in a cafe with Josh and Toby. They had spent the day in a series of misadventures with Josh and Toby deep into a tunnel vision funk about the campaign, that saw them working to win votes with every person they came into contact with. In the cafe, Josh and Toby were arguing about campaign bs, when Donna finally called enough. And she gave what was perhaps her best speech of the entire series, to free up space and her attention so she could write sympathy letters to the families of those lost in the terrorist attack. (Again, from westwingtranscripts.)
I am not kidding. I have such an impulse to knock your heads together. I can't remember the last time I heard you two talk about anything other than how a campaign was playing in Washington. Cathy needed to take a second job so her dad could be covered by her insurance. She tried to tell you how bad things were for family farmers. You told her we already lost Indiana. You made fun of the fair but you didn't see they have livestock exhibitions and give prizes for the biggest tomato and the best heirloom apple. They're proud of what they grow. Eight modes of transportation, the kindness of six strangers, random conversations with twelve more, and nobody brought up Bartlet versus Ritchie but you. I'm writing letters, on your behalf to the parents of the kids who were killed today. Can I have the table, please?
To their credit, Toby and Josh got up without saying anything, and gave her space she requested and deserved. They went into the adjacent bar, where a man next to Toby spontaneously spoke about the challenges he faced trying to make ends meet in today’s world, with a daughter about to go to college, with the attendant challenges. Toby listened to the man. For the first time all day, he listened. He listened to a real world problem, shared by a man who knew nothing of Toby’s job or influence. Then Josh came over and listened, too. All because Donna had made their failure to listen so brilliantly clear. To think about the problems of real people. Well done, Donna! Fucking well done! What a gift!
There’s a reason those fine people burrowed their way so deeply into my heart, and I’ll never forget them.
Oh, and … well, the title was not chosen as an editorial about how I feel about Mondays, since I normally do Top Comments on this night. :wink: But, rather, because of how much I like the Boomtown Rats song, as covered by Tori Amos.
On to tonight’s comments! Formatted by another excellent person who inspires me and wows me with her intelligence and focus! Well done, brillig!
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