The Great West Wing Rewatch: 4.16 "The California 47th"
Joel: For the most part, we get to see the people we love on the show acting brilliantly. Sometimes the things they have to do seem stupid or nonsensical, but when it comes to actually doing them, they are usually pretty remarkable in their ability to pull themselves together and get done whatever needs to get done. Which is why it’s nice to get an episode like this every now and then. Whatever could go wrong here went wrong and everybody at some point is getting egg on their face. And it’s not like everyone got mysteriously dumb for one episode. Everybody smart, creative and wanting to change the world for the better. But through just sheer dumb luck of circumstance, each and every situation in this episode ends with the worst possible result. Donna is doing her job. She asked Josh what she should look for and she got it in the interview, there’s no doubt about that. And Toby and Charlie were standing up for a cause they should stand up for. They weren’t the bad guys in th...