The Great West Wing Rewatch: 4.23 "Twenty-Five"

Joel: This will be the final episode where Aaron Sorkin has a writing credit. Knowing that you have to wonder a little bit exactly when that decision was made. Was it well after this episode was done? Or was it before, and it was decided to leave this episode as a cliffhanger anyway? Did Sorkin already have plans or an outline of some kind of how the story would be continued at the beginning of season five? If those plans existed, were they still used to form the show? Or was the beginning of the next season something that ended up being entirely different than what we would have gotten had Sorkin stayed on the show. I wonder what the alternate universe version of the show would be and how much it would differ from what we're going to see next.

Speaking of alternate universes, this is our first introduction to John Goodman as Speaker of the house, and I would love to see an alternate version of The West Wing where Goodman plays the republican president and his staff. Or even just a West Wing spin off where Goodman is still speaker of the house but we get to see the republican side of this world with a central republican character instead of one that comes on once every eight episodes or so just to remind us that not all republicans are bad.

Chris: There's a great, in-depth interview on Hollywood Reporter (don't read too far into the article after the talk about Sorkin's departure, many spoilers ahead) from a couple years ago with just about everybody involved in West Wing at one point and Sorkin offered up some insight about his departure from the show. And it answers the questions Joel asked in his review above and it turns out it truly wasn't a long-planned departure. Sure, it was something Sorkin had considered for some time, especially when they felt odd that the characters were living in an alternate fictional universe where 9/11 didn't happen while the audience were directly influenced by a post-9/11 society and that does some damage as far as they show's relatability. According to the interview, the cast weren't aware of Sorkin's departure until right before they shot the scene in which John Goodman's character takes the oath of office. So that look of uncertainty and concern on the faces of the entire cast in that scene? I'd be willing to be those are genuine reactions. So some would say Sorkin left the show with the world in turmoil unsure of what will come tomorrow but I would argue that he left the table full of things for new show runner, John Wells, to dig into.

A good president steps aside and lets John Goodman to be president.