The Great West Wing Rewatch: 3.8 "The Women of Qumar"

Joel: The end of this episode is just a massive punch in the gut. This is an issue that is clearly close to CJ. And she’s in the right to feel the way she feels at the end. But just because she’s in the right, that doesn’t make the other side of the argument wrong. It’s the real world, and the real world is complicated. There is almost never a clearly marked line between right and wrong. Everyone on the show is smart enough to see both sides of the issue, and everyone knows that there is no perfect solution here. But that doesn’t make it any easier to watch CJ almost break down at the end of the show before clearing her face and doing her job like everything is completely fine with the news that she is having to deliver. The only acknowledge we get at the end in a brief moment where Toby locks eyes for a brief second with CJ across the room as she’s making the announcement. There are no words exchanged, and it’s not that Toby thinks CJ is right and everyone else is wrong. It’s just the tiniest brief moment, but it’s really the only bit of compfort that CJ gets. That if her thoughts and beliefs aren’t being acted upon, at the very least, they’re being acknowledged. And some days that’s all you get and you have to cling to that.

Chris: A couple episodes ago, I was talking about how it’s gross to take a detailed look at campaign finances and donation loopholes, what’s even more gross to think about is the countries we are linked and partnered up against regardless of the morally reprehensible activity those countries/organizations find themselves in. We like to believe America as “the good guys” that protect the weak as well as America’s interests, such as giving support to the Afghan resistance movement in the Soviet-Afghan War in the name of suppressing the Soviets and communism while that resistance we were supporting involved individuals who would later form the Taliban and provide a more menacing threat than the Soviets ever could’ve. In the last decade, we’ve seen people of certain countries rise up and demand their leaders be removed from office, most of which were kept in power in the past thanks to America and their interests. When it comes to geopolitics, it’s difficult to keep the hands of any country clean and the United States’ hands are just as filthy as the next country and that’s essentially what West Wing is getting at with this episode. The episode does so without condemning or condoning (aside from CJ), nobody is necessarily thrilled about it but most recognize the “necessary evil” aspect of it all but yes, CJ has every right to be upset and she should be.

On a much lighter note, we see the debut of Amy Gardner, a character created for the purpose of getting Josh laid finally. I’m serious, as the story goes, Mary-Louis Parker (the actress that portrays Amy Gardner) left a voice message for Aaron Sorkin that apparently went “Hi, this is Mary-Louise Parker. Josh Lyman badly needs to get laid, and I'm the one to do it.” And shortly thereafter, Amy Gardner was included in West Wing. And good for Josh, it seems like all the bad stuff happens to him so it’s about time he got a win.

A good president doesn’t introduced a more strict law on seat belts but would gladly support it if someone else did.