The Great West Wing Rewatch: 2.2 "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen Pt.2"

Joel:  A lot of times where there is a two hour episode of a tv show it’s pretty easy to see how the episode has been prepared for its eventual split when it comes to syndication. There is a problem that gets pretty much solved in the first hour, just in time for a second problem to come along for the remainder of the show. In the Shadow of Two Gunmen is not like that. Parts I and II are clearly one two hour long episode. Both the emergency room story and the flashbacks go through both episodes. However, just like the last one, in the second half of the flashbacks we see that even at that point, Bartlett had the potential to be a truly great president. Bartlett is a deeply flawed man and the show doesn't shy away from that. He’s short tempered and can be moody and rude when he doesn’t like something. He’s also not very good at letting something go. But when it really comes down to it, he’s also the kind of person who will go to the airport to talk to you if you need that. Even when he’s just had a major political victory that he should be celebrating. By the time the show started Bartlett is the president already and while we get to see how he runs a country, but thanks to these flashbacks we get to see how he campaigned before he was president and understand a little bit about why people voted for him in the first place

Chris: First of all, Merry Christmas! What are doing reading this? I mean, I’m very grateful that you’re taking time on a holiday to read this little review but for real, don’t you have a family that wants to see you? Either way, we see the resolution of a lot of what was set up in the first part. We see the real reason Toby is pursuing the secret service to make a comment on the canopy so he can take the blame (also, really enjoyed that bit of acting by Butterfield, shows that he’s not just the cardboard cutout that he tends to be during the rest of the series). Still enjoyed the flashbacks that showed the group’s origin story and how exactly they came together even though Bartlet doesn’t give off the greatest first impression (further exemplifying the sheer miracle he was elected president).

A good president tries to blow off his primary acceptance speech to meet Josh at the airport.