The Great West Wing Rewatch: 4.21 "Commencement"
Joel: Watching this episode it’s a little stressful to watch people not trying to get somebody back in the office of the Vice President as fast as possible. I know that it’s important for the next few episodes that there be no Vice President, but still it feels like the search for a new VP would be the main storyline of the very next episode. Instead it’s all about Zoey’s graduation, with the VP search being the B, or maybe even C storyline of the episode when everyone feeling alarmingly nonchalant about the pace they're going at to get the second most powerful position in the country staffed again. It’s also interesting to note that the events that happen at the end of the episode mirror The President’s “nightmare scenario” bit from season one almost exactly, from the loud club, to the kidnapping happening in the bathroom, to the getting whisked out the backdoor, to the dead Secret Service member. You have to wonder if this storyline was already in Sorkin’s mind when he ...