The Great West Wing Rewatch: 2.13 "Bartlet's Third State of the Union"
Joel: A lot of the big things in this episode are undercut by the buildup for the next episode. We learn about an issue with five captured DEA agents that will really blow up in the next episode, but for now that storyline is all buildup. What we do learn, is that at some point, probably before any campaigning really started, there was a deal made between the Bartlet’s that should Jeb Bartlet win the election, he would only be serving one term. That is a big turn from where the series seemed to be headed up until this point. Of course, watching the show today, you know that he had to run for a second term because there’s seven seasons and only four years in one presidential term, but even before the reveal in this episode, it seemed clear that Bartlett was planning to be an eight year president. The Bartlet administration spent a lot of time in the first season getting kicked around, because they were trying to play nice, knowing that they still had one more election to wi...