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 se...