All I can say about Santos is that if put in his speeches all the comments he makes to Joshwhen they’re in a private conversation, the electorate would demand an early election just to elect him now. Case in point, his little “The uniform is why I’m here now” monologue at the end of this episode.
I like Janeane Garafalo’s character. Definitely someone to keep Josh on his toes.
I hope next week we get to actually see what’s going on in the Vinick campaign. Two weeks in a row we’ve seen only the Democrats side of the show.
And next week… we get to see who is taking the fall for the shuttle leak. It didn’t look like CJs shoulder to me.
I looooove Janeane Garafalo’s character. “When are you going to stop drinking the Kool Aid?” I’ve been wondering that about the whoooole show for a while now! West Wing is best when they have a smart opposition, rather than just depicting the Cult of Bartlett echo chamber.
In the far-future episode, don’t they show CJ still serving as the Press Secretary? That would be impossible if she was judged resposible for the leak, I’d think.
I think that little bit of continuity has gone by the wayside. In the series timeline, that documentary will have already aired on PBS. I think the writers have decided to treat that episode a lot like the “Isaac and Ishmael” episode of Season 3 - it’s in there, but not part of the continuity.
Did CJ officially resign as press secretary? she’s still occassionally doing the job of what should be a press secretary and they have not yet hired her replacement.
I’m not watching this season, but CJ stepped down as press secretary. Toby was filling on an interim basis. I think the theory was that they didn’t need a fulltime person with the brief time remaining in the Bartlet Administration.
Which is weird to me. So much time spent in so many episodes going over how important everyone’s job is, and how basically the White House just wouldn’t run without CJ and Sam and Will and Josh and Charlie doing their thing, but all of a sudden everyone gets switched around or leaves, the jobs don’t get filled, and it’s not really mentioned.
“Isaac and Ishmael” was the first episode of Season 3, and was one of the first new network shows that was aired after the events of September 11, 2001. At the beginning they said that it should not be considered a part of the West Wing canon.
As for the documentary, the voice-over guy said that CJ was the first woman to hold White House Press Secty for two whole terms.
And did any notice that CJ told that reporter, “Just name your source.” when he told her he was going to prison? Not “I authorize you to name your source.” So CJ’s not the leak, although everything is being presented as such.
Thanks for the clarification. The CJ problem from the documentary is pretty trivial IMHO, sorta got the impression that there was something more significant based on the commentary. Had me worried that my memory was shot since I’m watched the show pretty religiously, LOL.
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, especially Janine Garafalo’s new character. “Stop drinking the Kool-Aid” is the best line of the week!
I have my own opinion about who the leak is, partially based on something I noticed in the 3 years later opener & in current episode character behavior. However, I’m going to spoiler it so people who don’t want to see my guess don’t have to.
[spoiler]I think the leak is Toby. Bartlet was civil when greeting Toby at the library opening, but definately not friendly. I was initially considering that compared to all the problems they’ve had off & on, but now I think it’s the leak.
I think Toby leaked either: 1) To do something his brother wouldnt’ve done or 2) to do what he would have wanted the government to do if his brother was in the same situation.[/spoiler]
I feel pretty comfortable based on her behavior & reactions that CJ isn’t the leak. But I can’t wait to find out if I’m right.
Wait a minute. I’m confused now. I don’t remember the exact scenes, but I thought it was clear that CJ leaked the military shuttle after debating whether to respect the president’s decision. Was there some obfuscation so that it wasn’t really clear if she did???
I sure as hell thought she did and didn’t realize that there was any question about it.
The leaker will be shown next week. Or at least, someone is going to get fired because of the leak next week (see my last paragraph.)
As of the last episode, Oliver Babish (White House consul) thinks it’s CJ (based solely, it seems, on the fact that J had a lot of phone calls to the reporter in the week or so before he wrote the story about the military shuttle). Toby said something to the Super-NSA Agent (Mary McCormick’s character) along the lines of “And you handed them CJ on a platter for this?!?” But, as I said earlie in this thread, CJ didn’t tell the reporter (Brock? I can’t remember his name.) “It’s okay to name your source” (giving permission), but “Just name your source” saying in fact that the 1st Amendment be damned, save your butt and provide for your family.
Me, I think that the President directed the leak. And that Toby is going to take the fall for it at the direction of the President or CJ. I honestly believe he wouldn’t go against what he thought his brother (the dead astronaut) would want (as he related to CJ in a conversation at the end of last season.) Pres. Barlett, however, would place human life above ephemeral military secrets, especially in his last months as President. Just my guess. I have no inside information on this.
An interesting thought. Leaking the shuttle is the kind of thing Bartlett would do when he decided he was wrong. I can’t however see the guy who put his smoke out in the cathedral because he was angry with G-d need someone to take the fall.
I thought the dialogue was great. This is easily the best acting I’ve ever seen from Jeanine Garafolo. The broken headboard plot was very funny. I think they’re making it clear that C.J. was not the leak.
Are you talking about the Steve Miller “Jet Airliner” at the beginning? If so, that struck me as out of place too. I can’t imagine Sorkin ever doing something like that. Although it does let us quickly know just how busy Santos and Josh have been. And of course, now that song is stuck in my head.
But what if his staff insisted that he not be blamed? That’s something I could see Toby stepping up to do.
