The Great West Wing Rewatch: 2.14 "The War at Home"

Joel: While there is a small side story of Ed Begley Jr. threatening to run as a third party candidate in the next election, the bulk of this episode is dealing with the hostages in Colombia that we learned about in the previous episode. What’s interesting to watch is how several different political issues are brought up here. The events of this episode address the ongoing war with drugs,military involvement, proper response to terrorist threats (which is even more eerie now, knowing that this episode aired just seven months before 9/11), deciding when a war is worth fighting, and foreign relations. All of these political situations have to be considered before taking any kind of action, and at the same time, there are hostages being held, and the clock is unquestionably ticking. It’s a stressful episode and one where there isn’t really a chance for an ending where everything goes our way. The West Wing liked making things difficult for the main characters, and the phrase “we lost this one” is a phrase that is frequently said on the show. But it was still incredibly powerful when Leo had to say it again to the President. It’s a good thing we had Ainsley because we needed some lighthearted moments badly.

Chris: A continuation of the previous episode so while we get the loose ends tied from that, it’s not without new wrinkles such as the bad intel on the hostage situation that forces the president into a hard decision about whether to not give into demands, basically starting war or negotiate with terrorist. That leads to an interesting discussion behind the mentality of the US mantra “we don’t not negotiate with terrorist” and it goes into the whole “give the devil an inch and he’ll take a mile” thought process. And it joins into the missile defense system that Leo was so stuck on advancing a few weeks ago, there’s always some sort of escalation when either side makes a move on either side so it’s a tricky situation in dealing with these matters, a situation that I’m definitely not envious of.

A good president allows sex kitten staffers pee in Leo’s office.