The Great West Wing Rewatch: 2.8 "Shibboleth"
Joel: Two of my three favorite Thanksgiving moments in the show, and they’re both from the same episode. The first is CJ asking the president to pardon a second turkey. This comes at the end of a storyline where CJ has to choose which of the two turkeys that have been brought to the White House is going to be pardoned, knowing that the other one is going to be eaten. The whole story is about how strangely difficult and bizarre making a choice like that is. It pretty much comes down to a coin flip but one of the turkeys is going to get a long happy life while the other one won’t live to see tomorrow and you have to decide which is which. Yes, they’re just birds and have no idea what’s going on, but still being the one to actually make that call can be harder than expected. And the whole thing ends with a great scene where, you know what? The President’s just going to pardon both of them this time around. There is some fantastic back and forth in this scene with the President...