The Great West Wing Rewatch: 6.2 "The Birnam Wood"

Joel: What works great in this episode is the discussions being had. The show does a great job at presenting the wishes and desires of both sides, of portraying their reasons behind those wishes and desires, and at the same time, keeping from making one side the clearly sympathetic party. So much information has been thrown at us for the past handful of episodes, that it’s perfectly reasonable to come into this one feeling a little lost. Names of characters and past situations are discussed without taking much time at all to make sure the viewer knows what’s going on. We’re just expected to keep up. And it’s hard. It’s hard for the main characters as well. You can feel the constant struggle and frustration coming from them and they offer this, and negotiate on that, all with the ever looming Jerusalem subject hanging over everything. A peace summit isn’t supposed to be an walk in the park. And the weight of the whole ordeal can be felt through each conversation here, juxtaposed by the summer camp feel of the Camp David setting. But it feels like we’re finally taking the subject that’s been flying every which way the past few episodes and really focusing on what needs to be done to address it. You get to leave the episode feeling like something good has happened, something real has been accomplished. (You know, except for the whole Leo thing, but we’ll get more into that during the next episode.

Chris: This and the next episode are some of the episodes I've dreaded the most because, as I stated in the previous episode, I hate to see Leo and Bartlet at odds and I especially hate to see Leo go through hardships. I like it better when Leo is light-hearted with the staff of putting the verbal beat down on those that oppose him, he's not suppose to be writhing in pain in the woods. I know it's only a tiny fraction of the episode but it's difficult not to talk about Leo's heart attack scene. It's rare to actually witness a scene like this. Typically shows will have a character clutch their chest suddenly and then fall to the ground. But not West Wing, we got the full dramatic, disturbing view of the event that is haunting to watch, especially with the knowledge that John Spencer actually died from a heart attack over a year later. Ultimately, this is a chore of an episode but that's what it's suppose to be as Joel said.

A good president causes his best friend to have a heart attack in the woods.