The Great West Wing Rewatch: 1.11 "Lord John Marbury"

Joel: I want to talk for a brief minute about the idea of filler episodes. For those who don’t know a filler episode more or less comes from the idea that a season of television has to have around 22 episodes even if there is only 13 episodes worth of story to tell. While The West Wing does have filler episodes in its run, it is far more difficult to tell if an episode could be considered a filler episodes than on some other shows. That being said, this might be the first episode of the run that I really felt like it could be considered a filler episode. Not that that’s a bad thing. Filler episodes can be some of the highest quality episodes on a show, and in this case, I feel like we needed something of a breather after watching “In Excelsis Deo” last. While we do get some heavy topics addressed, like the furthering of the examination into Leo’s addiction, we also get far more lighter scenes than we did last episode. The scene between Charlie and Zoey is adorable, and is only topped by the scene later, where Charlie has to confront his boss, the president, Zoey’s father about the possibility of going on a date with her. Bartlett plays that moment perfectly, with just enough of a Dad who would use his position as President to be intimidating, while simultaneously letting Charlie know that he does in fact think very highly of him. We also get Lord John Marbury who may be the most over the top just there for comic relief character that Sorkin has written up to this point. I like to see it as an attempt to make us laugh after tearing out everyone’s heart with the last episode.

Chris: Joel pretty much covers it with this episode. This isn’t exactly a light episode by any stretch but it is sort of a rebound from the gut punch that was the last episode with a bit of comic relief from Lord Marbury, who will pop up from time to time and purposely continue to call Leo “Gerald.” Also, this episode shows the kind of person Charlie is because it takes some serious testicular fortitude to go up to your boss/president and express your interest in dating his youngest daughter. Don’t get me wrong, it’s the correct and gentlemanly thing to do but dear baby Moses, I would take any sort of short-cut I could possibly find to get around that moment if I were in his shoes. I’m also a terrible person so I guess that’s where our differences lie. Not that Charlie would be all the successful in keeping their relationship a secret from the man that has every federal agency at his fingertips. Either way, good move Charlie.

A good president builds a dungeon to keep his younger daughter in before she grows up.