The Great West Wing Rewatch: 6.20 "In God We Trust"

Joel: And just like that we’re back on the right track. Part of what makes the previous episode, Ninety Miles Away, feel so out of place is that with the very next episode, we’re right back on track. This episode is just one of the example of what an incredible job this show does of shaping the Republican campaign alongside the Democratic one for the upcoming election. We know that we’re supposed to cheer for Santos, it’s the campaign we’ve followed since the very beginning, and is being spearheaded by a character that we’ve followed since the very first episode of the show. At the same time though, even though you want Santos to win the election, you don’t really want Vinick to lose. Vinick getting in trouble in this episode doesn’t have the “Aha!” feeling that usually comes with seeing the antagonist of a story have to deal with something. Instead Vinick is portrayed as the reasonable character that is being irrationally attacked. It’s very similar to the way that we’ve seen Bartlet portrayed for the past six years.
I want to make special note of the scene between Vinick and Bartlet toward the end of this episode. We have a setup where we are very possibly seeing the President of the United States and his heir apparent. We get to see a lot of Vinick facing off against Santos over the upcoming episodes, but I love that we get a moment to see him face to face with the sitting commander in chief. Because we’ve been with the Bartlet team for six years now and are only going to get a little over a year with the Santos team, it’s easy to see this new guard as less important, or perhaps less impactful, than the one we’ve been following all this time. But that’s not the case to these characters. Their lives will continue onward after the story of the show is over, and so I’m glad to see the candidate in a real back and forth with the current guy, even if it’s only for a scene or two.

Chris: I want this show to be real, I want Senator Vinick to be a real person so I can vote for him. Let's make Alan Alda give up his acting career and personal life so he can change his name to Arnie Vinick and have John Wells write out the rest of his life. If we could somehow get Aaron Sorkin in on this too, that would be amazing. But then again, that's why this is a television show and not reality, hence the phrase "living in a fantasy." The statement Vinick makes at the end is one of my favorites from the entire show and this episode is a further example of how masterful Vinick is at campaigning without compromising his identity. It's something that Santos seems to be in a moral dilemma over almost every episode but it makes sense the senior senator has it a little bit more figured out.

A good president sneaks out with a candidate from the the opposing party for ice cream.