The Great West Wing Rewatch: 4.11 "Holy Night"

Joel: Most of Sorkin’s characters tend to have issues with their fathers. In each of his shows, at least one person seems to be estranged from their father, had issues as a child, or something that will cause a problem when their father shows up. In The West Wing we already have Bartlet’s father issues that we’ve explored in great detail, and Sam’s issue with his father which took up an episode in an earlier season. Charlie’s father abandoned his family. Now, Toby’s father is showing up, and what do you know? There is a strained relationship between the two and Toby wants nothing to do with his father. Not that Toby’s issues with his father aren’t valid, but you have to notice the recurring theme of sons disappointed in their fathers that seems to ring true through this whole show.

In other news, Danny’s back! I’m honestly quite thrilled to have Danny back, but we only get fun Danny for maybe one scene before it’s all business, and Danny is going to uncover the secret events of the end of last season. I really love the roundabout way Danny took to discover the new information about the Shareef’s plane. It’s not that somebody was sloppy, or someone in the know had a crisis of conscious and spoke to the press. No, Danny is just a good reporter, and was able to make the connections and figure out what threads needed to be followed to tell the story. So much of what we see is the White House figuring out how to manipulate the press, so it’s nice to see that at least some people in the press box are smart as well.

Chris: Nothing is quite as embarrassingly white as a bunch of Ivy League bros in an acapella choir singing scat but nevertheless, but Carol and her gigantic teeth were really feeling their scat so who am I to judge? I've missed Danny, I believe we all have and there wasn't any really reason given as to why he was going from his White House beat but clearly, he was chasing leads on the disappearance of Abdul Shareef and his suspicions that it was due to US involvement. With everything settling down from the re-election, it makes sense that the Shareef incident comes back into focus because, especially in the world of geo-politics, nothing stays hidden forever. Plus, it makes sense that someone of such religious fervor as the president begin to have this secret weigh in so heavily on his conscience to the point of almost revealing it to his daughter. You get the feeling that after the MS scandal, Bartlet is almost looking forward for the truth to come out just so he doesn't have to hide from it anymore even with the possible repercussions that comes with assassinating a foreign leader.

A good president conspires with his/her youngest daughter in all matters relating to assassinating foreign leaders.