I liked seeing Vinick wrestling with his conscience over the misplaced Santos briefcase. Not sure I believed Santos’s explanation about writing checks for his deadbeat brother’s kid… did you?
And Santa Paula was finally mentioned as Vinick’s hometown! According to Wikipedia, the town had been lobbying for that ever since Vinick said he’d grown up in California citrus country.
Good to see Jeanine Garafalo back.
The NBC promo last week clearly indicated that Sam Seaborne would be appearing this week. He didn’t. I hate that kind of bait-and-switch.
No Leo McGarry in this episode, after he appeared only for a few seconds at the end of last week’s. When will they address John Spencer’s death?
Agreed. Another solid one rounding out the season.
My favorite aspect was the deal with Toby calling in incognito in order to help advise Josh. I’m wondering if this was planned all along or if they shuffled it around in order quickly resolve the conflict between Josh and Toby to set up the happy reunion. Seemed like they were seriously on the outs and earlier West Wing storylines would have not resolved it so inauspiciously, seemed a little contrived but understandable considering the short time left.
I also liked the Santos briefcase bit. Bruno’s little speech about it being an obligation to expose Santos for the sake of the voters. I liked Vinnick’s take saying that he’d still vote for a person that had a affair because it had nothing to do with holding office and Bruno’s response that it wasn’t up to him to decide what was important.
I have no idea if I believe Santos’ explaination or not. It seems like it’s in character for him, but then again he expression when Vinnick called him on it almost looked guilty. Tough to know, but I’m wagering that it’ll never be addressed before the end of the show.
Yeah, the Mrs. and I also thought that Santos handled the meeting with Vinick as a bit of a jerk, too. I almost thought Vinick would bitterly say “You’re welcome” as Santos stomped out of the room.
Well, I’m not too concerned that he acted like a jerk. As far as he knew, Vinnick’s team stole the breifcase (intentionally delayed returning it at least) and was indirectly threatening him with what they discovered inside.
He didn’t know anything about Vinnick’s moral objections to using the info or the fact that he seemed to genuinely be interested in looking out for the office above simply wanting to win.
All things considered I think Santos’ slightly hostile attitude (especially off the heels of that big political victory with the nuclear plant speech) about the secret backroom meeting over a stolen breifcase was more than understandible.
I thought this was definitely one of the best post-Sorkin episodes. The dialog really FELT like the West Wing, particularly Vinick’s press conference, and his argument with Bruno.
Between this episode and the debate, I really think that Alan Alda deserves an Emmy award. I loved the way he worked the pain in his hand subtly throughout the whole episode.
I believe Santos’s explanation of the checks. There’s been speculation for a long time that Santos’s brother would cause a campaign scandal, so it doesn’t come out of the blue.
The promo last week which showed Rob Lowe returning was tagged with a line about what was coming up in the final episodes of The West Wing, not specifically what would happen next week.
I’m pretty sure that the Toby/Josh interaction was planned all along. I knew they wouldn’t just drop Richard Schiff from the show, and I was wondering how they would manage to keep him. The secret consultations seem like a good approach.
About John Spencer’s death: The April 1 and April 15 episodes will cover the election. Leo will die early on the morning of election day, leading to a crisis which has no precedent in U.S. history. I speculate that Sam will return “for the president” to be with him as he mourns Leo; he may or may not be asked to fill the Vice Presidential slot on the Santos ticket.
Add me to the group that think’s that Santos was not out of line in his meeting with Vinick. And I believe that Matt’s explanation rings true. I said last week that it was too obvious a teaser to have Santos stray from his wife.
Poor Arnie, he looked so out of his element at the end of the show, just standing there in that room. His hurting hand was part of it, but he also looked as if he never expected these kind of moral decisions he’d have to make just to get to be president. And this makes it two episodes in a row where he’s all by himself as the end credits roll. Symbolic or coincidence?
Sure, Josh and Toby were pissed at each other, but they’ve always had these types of disagreements, and still get back together. Probably because each knows that the other is one of the smartest and most-capable persons in this field. And since both need to be surrounded by competent and intelligent people that share the same ideology, they’re stuck with each other.
SpoilerVirgin thanks for the info on Leo’s character. I’m looking for ward to how they are going to resolve it. But they really don’t have to resolve it, do they? It’s not like next season’s opener is riding on setting up a plausible explanation.
I believed Santos’s explanation. It makes sense with his character, and there’s been enough foreshadowing about his brother that we knew something was coming. I just wish they’d stop hinting in the promos that Santos had an affair.
I do think he was a little abrupt in the meeting with Vinnick, but not so much that it seemed out of line.
I think Vinnick is having second thoughts about whether or not he’s equipped to be president, but he doesn’t want it to be Santos and he can’t back down. He seems sort of conflicted about it. It was brilliant of him to hold the press conference, but he did it because he knows how to campaign, not out of a renewed sense of conviction about the presidency. I think he’s getting more and more unsure.
Doeas anyone have any doubt that Santos will win? I definitely don’t.
The reports on the remaining episodes are confusing, especially since the AP put out a story about returning cast members (including Rob Lowe) which said that there were only five episodes remaining.
However, most sources indicate that the show will run uninterrupted from last night through the final episode on May 14, which means that as of today there are eight episodes remaining. If you don’t mind the small spoilers you might get from the episode titles, Wiki has a list of dates and titles for the remaining episodes. You will also note that I screwed up the dates in my spoiler
I should have referred to April 2 and April 9.
I would love to see Vinnick win – I would definitely vote for him. But I think the odds favor Santos (although the cancellation of the show makes that a little less certain). I’m going to miss this show.
Omniscient, Vinnick did injure his hand shaking many hundreds of hands during the campaign. I was reading earlier today that this was based on actual incidents – most presidential candidates have sore hands from all the handshaking, and JFK was said to have had a particularly bad problem.
I just read on this site that Sam actually won his bid for Congress. Is there anything in the show that supports that, or is the site mistaken or making an assumption?
The site is wrong. Sam ran for Congress as he promised, but was beaten (the district was heavily Republican and it was only luck that allowed the dead Democrat to win in the first place).
But was that ever confirmed? It was assumed that he’d get trounced if he ran, but when he was asking his friends for advice on whether to run, Toby told him that he should win. Did we ever see the results of that special election?
The West Wing never revealed whether Sam won the election. The site linked by Zahava424 is assuming that because Wilde, the deceased Democratic candidate, won his election, Sam automatically became Congressman. That was not the case. After Wilde won, a special by-election was held in which Sam ran as the Democratic candidate. When we last saw Sam, the polls showed him losing the by-election, however, the official outcome was never shown.
Am I the only one who just thinks Santos is way too perfect? Of the “so perfect, he’s boring” variety? So much so, that when the thing with the woman and child came out, you just knew that it wouldn’t be Santos’s brother and not him, just because Matt Santos is too much of a saint to do that. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m finding Vinick’s a lot more interesting of a character.
I agree that Santos is too perfect; it seems like every mistake he makes turns out to be secretly genius, he’s honorable to a fault, etc. The only flaws we’ve seen about him are that he underestimates the toll this is taking on his family and he knuckled under about ethanol.
One thing I like about this campaign is that in order to make it interesting, oth had to be viable candidates, unlike the Bartlet vs. Ritchie campaign. Ritchie was too much of a caricature. Here, both candidates are solid.
I suppose I’ll be in the minority here, and say that I liked this episode the least of this season so far.
I found the whole hand injury thing to be a bit overdone. At first, when they established that Vinnick’s hand was rubbed raw from pressing the flesh, I thought it was a very nice detail. But to keep on emphasizing it to the point where it actually broke–I just thought it a bit over the top. I was going to say heavy-handed, but–oops, I guess I said it anyway.
Also, the business with the briefcase just rang false with me. The damning information it contained would have been digested immediately–photographed, even–and the briefcase could have been turned over to the Secret Service within the hour. A simple anonymous tip to reporters and bloggers and the deed would be done. I find it hard to believe that Bruno would risk the appearance of impropriety that would result if it became known that the Vinnick campaign was in possession of Santos’ briefcase for 24 hours.
That’s what I thought but this seemed pretty thin to me. When they showed it at the outset his hand was really black and blue, as if it were more than just sore from handshakes.
I noticed the big guy give the final crunch, but I wasn’t sure if there was a note about him previously hurting it with a fist pound or punched wall or anything. Just seemed too abused for me to buy the whole injured from lots of handshaking. Bones aren’t apt to break from one handshake, even if it’s be previously stressed from other handshakes. Bones don’t really work that way AFAIK. Had he gotten a hairline fracture some other way it’d have been more believable.
