The Great West Wing Rewatch: Election Day Parts 1&2

Joel: This is what it’s all been leading up to. For the past season and a half, we’ve been largely focused on the election, so when the election day is finally upon us, it’s a pretty big deal. On one hand, of course the election plot is going to be two episodes long, it’s the biggest storyline since Bartlet got elected for a second term. On the other hand, election day for the most part seems like it’s going to be people sitting and watching the news all day, and you have to wonder how that gets stretched into two hours worth of content. Well they successfully make that stretch.

Honestly I feel like there was a storyline that never fully developed here. For much of the first episode we have Josh and Bruno each talking about how the numbers aren’t adding up right while everyone else takes the numbers at face value. Josh and Bruno are supposed to be the smartest guys in their respective rooms, so it felt like this was all leading up to a big reveal, of something that had been missed by both sides, but instead it was just, “oh, I guess the election’s going to be closer than we originally thought.” Maybe that was the whole plan all along, but we left part one feeling like I missed something.

I love the cutting between the two parties as the election day goes on. We’ve spent a ton of time with both sides throughout the season, and I’ve grown quite attached to both campaigns. It’ really pays off here because each victory, state by state, at the same time feels like a defeat because you’re getting the emotions from each side. By this point in the series, you almost want a crazy convoluted storyline where there’s a tie and they end up being co-presidents for the next four years.

Of course we have to address the death of Leo that happens in this two parter as well. You knew that this was coming, and if it hadn’t happened yet you knew that it would have to happen here. After all, there would have to be that moment where Santos and Leo raised their arms in victory after winning the election, and you knew that couldn’t happen. So this is when it had to take place.

I do want to say, that it was dealt with rather well. Leo’s death was woven into the story in a way that it seemed to have a critical impact on the storyline, and wasn’t just a side thing mentioned out of necessity. I also really loved the moment where Josh and Donna were in Leo’s room. It’s a fast paced pair of episodes with a lot of high energy moments, and I’m glad we got this one point to really stop and mourn the loss of the character.

All in all, the whole two hours is chocked full of emotion. Emotion from Leo dying, emotion from Santos and company winning after eleven months of impossible odds, emotion from Vinick coming to terms with the loss and still conceding the race even when there was a possibility of contesting the outcome. At the end of it all you’re drained, but it’s not over yet. Even with the election part of the story over we still have a handful of episodes to go through with a few storylines to wrap up.

Chris: Before I dive into the more serous moments of these two episodes, I'd like to direct your attention to the intro to the first episode. It's almost a parallel to the moment a couple episodes ago where Donna left her hotel key for Josh but was blocked by another staffer that believe Donna had simply forgotten her key. However, in this instance, all the staffers are worn down by the campaign but eager to leave the lobby paired up like Noah's Ark which leads to Donna and Josh finally cutting to the chase. All of that majestically leads into Snuffy Walden's regal West Wing theme. The juxtaposition was found humorous by yours truly and my usual game of coming up with my own lyrics to the theme took a very X-rated turn that I won't repeat here. The first episode is framed around this cat and mouse game with Josh and his nerves. Donna keeps trying to wrangle him and get him to calm down but no one should be surprised by how high strung Josh is on this day and none of Donna's "walks" are gonna do much to fix it. And then ultimately, West Wing addresses the real life death of John Spencer by revealing Leo has died which inadvertently causes the California polls to shift towards Vinick. It's always a dirty feeling to see how quickly politicians return to politics following any sort of tragedy but it does raise a lot of problems that need to be instantly addressed. It doesn't matter how many times I watch this show, the moment when CJ walks into the Oval to tell the president that Leo has died is probably the most heartbreaking moment with barely any words spoken, I still well up a little during that scene. Ultimately, Santos is the new president and Vinick basically accepts it immediately. I'm glad this show didn't decide to end the entire series with this election, there's so many transition things that need to be addressed that a lot of people don't realize and the show now has an opportunity to put on display.

A good president is Matthew Santos