West Wing 3/12: new episode and what did I miss?

Not a bad episode overall. A little sense of melancholy both in seeing John Spencer and in knowing the series is winding down. And a big heap of friskiness going on; Will and Kate, Josh and Donna, and presumedly CJ and Danny and Leo and Annabeth on still on the back burner.

But I’ve obviously missed at least one episode. The last one I watched was the wedding episode. What happened besides a reactor meltdown? Did Lou (Janeane Garafalo) explicitly leave the show or was she one of those characters who faded away?

I missed and forgot a lot myself, so I won’t try to answer your questions.

But I will add my own woo-hoo moment: Sam’s coming back! At least, according to the coming attraction clip they showed at the end of the show.

Lou is still around-- she was mentioned in passing by one of Santos’s staff members, i.e. “Lou told me that this happened.” Janeane Garafalo probably wasn’t contracted for enough episodes to feature her every week.

Besides the reactor meltdown, CJ made great progress towards getting a security council resolution passed (ostensibly coming from Germany, but the US is behind it) to sanction the Sudan’s oil revenues until the genocide ends. CJ used this deal, which the Chinese, needing Sudan’s oil, would have normally opposed, by saying that if the Chinese abstained and did not veto the resolution, they’d look good in the eyes of the world community, the US would relax their opposition to Germany selling arms to China (that’s how she got Germany to introduce the resolution), and the US would try and preserve China’s oil supply in Kazakhstan, thus enabling China to allow for the cutting off of Sudanese oil. Kazakhstan is in turmoil right now, and that conflict is spurring a military confrontation between China and Russia, so it’s good that the US now has brownie points with China.

Also, Doug Weston (Liz Bartlett Weston’s congressional-candidate husband) had an affair with the nanny and the president isn’t campaigning for him, so he’ll lose.

Also, Danny was about to propose when CJ was paged away for the nuclear reactor disaster in California, so it’s coming soon.

I really don’t think they’re going to have a serious follow-up on Leo and Annabeth.

I have a prediction. It’s just my own theory, but I’ll spoiler it anyway.

When Josh and Santos were looking for VP candidates, I was sure they’d pick Rob Lowe’s Sam Seaborn. His last two shows have failed, and it would be a ratings bump if he came back for the last season. (He just sort of fell off the face of the earth after he went for than unwinnable House seat.) Anyway, now that John Spencer has passed away and the writers have promised to deal with his death in the show, I predict that Sam will be the VP candidate replacement. (Not that out there as a plot twist, but I’d enjoy it.)

I wonder if Leo was CGI’d into that boardroom scene where he didn’t have any dialogue?

I don’t think so. I think I read that he had actually filmed one or two more episodes that we will see (one being tonight’s) and then they intend to deal with his real-life death by having his character die of a heart attack as well.

I was left wondering about Leo as well, I knew it wasn’t CGI but I kept waiting to see some creative filming or out of context dialogue to foreshadow something about his loss within the show.

I’m going to miss this show alot. This last season with the campaign has been very good and both candidates are pretty compelling to imagine in the role of President.

This was a surprisingly good episode, though it lost something having been such a long gap between episodes. The Josh and Donna thing was cool, I liked how it was done. We all knew it would probably happen eventually, but it didn’t feel too contrived or anything. I especially liked how everyone in the West Wing had her pegged, as if everyone was expecting it.

Vinnick’s team’s shake-up is going to be interesting to watch and the rest of the campaign is obviously not going to be smooth sailing for Santos. In the upcoming episode highlight they mention a big problem for one of the campaigns hinting at it being about Santos’ infidelity or something, but I’m instead left to wonder if that’s all misdirection. The death of Leo could be written to be a sumbling block for Santos and bring the race into question.

Still one of the best show’s going as far as I’m concerned.

Zahava, I remember all the stuff you mentioned in your post. Maybe I didn’t miss an episode. But the reactor thing I’ve forgotten.

My guess is that the original plan was for some scandal involving Santos’ brother. We’ve already seen he’s involved with some questionable characters.

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense than having Santos stray. I just don’t see that in his character.

Did anyone else think it was strange that, at the end of the show, when Vinick got out of the limo after the conversation when Sheila explained why she had to resign (“The letter is already in your briefcase.”) that he was standing all by himself in the middle of the street. Sure, it made for a very dramatic visual image, but this guy has got Secret Service coverage. And flunkies. But the whole idea of playing to the Evangelical base of the Republican party makes a lot of sense considering the big drop in Vinick’s numbers. It was something he never wanted to do (turn this into a family-values campaign), and it’s a wonder he was getting away with avoiding it for so long.

And I’m excited too that Sam is coming back. I thought the show took a big hit when he left (contract disputes really suck when they affect the good shows.) But I don’t buy Zahava’s guess. He’s too far from the public eye to be a plausible choice. In the teaser, he said, “I’m here for the President.” Maybe Bartlet needs a really good speech about the war in Central Asia?

Yeah, that was strange. I noticed that.

I see your point, though I’m sticking by my guess as a legit possibility. After all, the show has always been a bit idealistic about unlikely candidacies. Bartlett and Santos were both dark horses, and come on, would today’s Republican party go for someone like Vinnick?
If I’m wrong, then maybe

Sam wants the President’s endorsement for a different Congressional run? But probably not. If they’re bringing him back, it has to be for a reason related to the current main plot. That’s why I made my original guess.

Remember when Sam was contemplating the Senate run in the election night episode of 2002? He said that one of the downsides of getting publicly trounced was that is would make it harder for him to actually run for office someday. I’m convinced that was something of a set-up.

They’ve already done this once, after the episode before it came out that Tim Matheson’s character had been unfaithful and would have to drop out. The previews made it seem that it was Santos who was involved in the sex scandal. It’s not in keeping with the character, and I’m hoping they don’t actually do it this time.

What was the conversation between Vinick and his female aide (Sheila?)? Was it implied that they’d been having an affair, or was she just resigning from the campaign?

As for Josh and Donna, perhaps they’re going to end the series by seeing them get married? Their relationship seemed to be at the center of it all and that might be a nice way to see it end.

I don’t think they were trying to imply that. I didn’t see it that way anyway. But I think they were trying to show how close the two were; their relationship is the equivalent of Jed and Leo’s, so Vinnick’s decision to accept Sheila’s resignation in order to get elected was a big deal.

I don’t know. We’ve already seen that CJ and Danny are going to get together and Will and Kate are already together. We don’t want to go overboard in the last minute “shipping”.

That’s exactly what I hope doesn’t happen. Josh is an effete intellectual spineless snob and doesn’t deserve Donna. After years of humiliation, enduring his condescension and dismissiveness, this storyline makes her look like a Chihauhua.

I totally disagree. I’ve always loved Josh (as has Donna). Yes, he’s a sonb, but she’s always been good for him, bringing him down to earth and making him care about little things. Josh has learned to respect Donna, first as a political ally (finally trusting her enough to send her to Israel and Gaza with Fitz and Andy) and then as a rival with the Bingo Bob campaign. On the other hand, Donna has gotten annoying recently; she’s being written suddenly as a senior member of the campaign staff, a savant, and I hate her bangs. (Okay, that has nothing to do with anything, but seriously, they’re ugly.)

He’s been condescending to Donna, but he’s always been tender and respectful when it counted. (The way he hired her was a perfect example of this condescension/respect system.) They belong together. I honestly think they’ve waited too long. I don’t want to see the wedding, but I want to see them together and understand that there eventually will be a wedding.

That’s funny.

I agree with all of this except for one nitpick. Josh did not hire Donna. In fact, he told her exactly why she couldn’t work for the Santos campaign. (That was when Josh said something like, “…and if you don’t think I don’t miss you every day…”). Louise ended up hiring Donna, and JJosh just never got around to firing her.

As for Sam, his write-out had to leave the door open for an possible return of his character. Rob Lowe left because of a contract dispute. Sam Seaborn was originally to be the focus of the entire show, and even though by the time TWW aired the focus had shifted, there was still a lot of him in the show. At the time, (almost) everyone involved with the show was hoping for some kind of amiable resolution.

You also had to love the look on Josh’s face when Donna said, “Don’t worry about it. It was bound to happen sooner or later.”

(Or words to that effect.)

In smiley form, this was Josh: :eek:

Priceless.

I meant when Josh originally hired Donna. We saw that in a flashback episode about the first Bartlett campaign. She was dumped by her boyfriend, dropped out of college, and showed up as a volunteer, pretending that Josh had hired her. Josh called her on the scheme, made him tell her when she’d been dumped, and teased her about it, but ultimately, he gave her his ID tag and welcomed her to the team

My guess for the reason that Sam Seaborn returns is to help write the president’s farewell address.

“Sam Seaborn, what the hell are YOU doing here?”

“Well, I sure as shooting didn’t come back to see you, you two-faced shitweasel. I didn’t come back to see ANY of the scene-stealing, upstaging, minor bit players who insinuated themselves into my role or my salary or my perks. I came back for one reason only: I’m here, for the President of NBC offered me a carload of moolah to speak this one unifying line, and now I’m out of here. Goodbye shitweasels.”

Sweeeeeeet.

Yeah, he’s obviously going to be on because he could use the money and some airime in a show where people will actually want to watch him, but I’ll still be glad to see Sam. He was one of my favorite characters.

Does anyone know if any progress has been made in getting Aaron Sorkin to write the finale?