The Great West Wing Rewatch: 1.22 "What Kind of Day Has it Been"

Joel: The season one finale of The West Wing start off on such a high note. We get a “town hall” meeting with the president that seems to be running very smoothly. Charlie is happy about something that Bartlett said because it came from information that Charlie provided. There is a signal being passed around by the staff and everyone seems to be happy or relieved to be seeing the signal. It looks like it’s been a long day, but a good day in the end. And we’ve seen this type of setup before back in an earlier episode where Josh was a guest lecturer. We know that this is the end of the story and most of the episode is going to be told in flashback. So whatever problems we learn about over the episode, they’re going to be solved in the next 40 minutes or so. And that’s pretty much what happens. We learn about the downed pilot who is found and rescued by the end of the episode. Toby’s brother is safe. Everything is all wrapped up in a nice little package to close out the season, but we can’t leave it there. So what we actually close out the season on is a shooting and utter panic. Way to end the season. I would have hated waiting all summer long for the next episode.

Alexa: “What Kind of Day Has It Been” is a quintessential season finale of the pre-binge watching age, a heart-pounding cliffhanger that hits you with a sickening thud then dangles unanswered questions in front of you for several months until the show returns. But thankfully, with the power of Netflix we don’t have to wait to learn what happens next. This episode employs the same technique as “Celestial Navigation,” beginning with the main event (in this case, a town hall meeting at the Newseum in Rosslyn) and relaying the bulk of the storylines in flashback. There are plenty of instances in The West Wing when the negatives pile on but the episode ends with a glimmer of hope or optimism. “What Kind of Day Has It Been” is the opposite. Two major crises are resolved as the final act of the episode approaches – the pilot of an American military plane that went down in Iraq is rescued and transported to safety, and a space shuttle carrying Toby’s brother heads for a successful landing after experiencing technical problems. But as the staff revels in this good news and the positive reaction to the town hall meeting, the show delivers a swift blow and brings the plotline about a white supremacist group threatening Charlie and Zoe to a head. The conclusion of this episode always raises my anxiety level every time I watch it even though I know the outcome. Aaron Sorkin makes you care about these characters in a profound way even from the earliest episodes, and by this point watching them endure this violent attack is all the more devastating.

Chris: Conflict, resolution and then chaos. That’s essentially this episode in a nutshell and I would’ve hated to have been watching this show when it originally aired and be forced to wait an entire summer to find out what happened. However, in this episode, you don’t even see exactly who gets shot. I think it would’ve been worse if you saw exactly which characters did get shot and then be forced to wait.

A good president watches women’s softball games