Landmark TV Episode Anniversaries: The West Wing 'In the Shadow of 2 Gunmen' 25TH Anniversary

 

The West Wing is the first true masterpiece in the history of television that I watched every episode of from the moment it debuted until the final episode. (All of the other shows I've talked about on my column from this era I came in during the early seasons or the middle.) There was not a single moment of the first twenty-one episodes of the show that I didn't think was a master class in acting, writing, and all the other technical marks that I now know make a masterpiece but couldn't define when I was only 21. Which is why when the first season ended I had issues with the season finale – or rather the last two minutes of it.

'What Kind of Day It Has Been' (Aaron Sorkin would use this title for the first season finale or series finales of every TV show he's ever written) spends roughly fifty-five minutes of its run seeming like its going to be no different from all the others we've seen. To be sure it opens in media res with the President and the staff at a televised town hall where we see things we don't fully understand the context of, most notably when Sam gets a call from a Peter Jobson at NASA and we see Josh make a gesture we don't understand. We also do quick cut away from Secret Service Agent Gina Toscano (Jorja Fox would leave this role to jump to CSI the following fall) but then we're back dealing with the traditional minutiae we've come to love about the series: in which nothing important seems to be going on.

There's a big debate about a pilot being captured and rescued in the Middle East; CJ is feuding with Danny; Zoey and Charlie are bickering. The two most meaningful discussions seem to be about Toby's brother who is a scientist at NASA who's on a shuttle mission where one of the door's is having issues closing. This is the first time we've learned Toby had a brother (Sam points that out to Toby) and while this is going on the President goes to talk to him and tells him everything's going to be okay. Toby dismisses it: "The shuttle flies itself," Bartlet says. "No, it doesn't." But then in the final minutes Sam gets the call from NASA makes the signal to Toby and he breathes a sigh of relief we didn't know he was holding.

We also get a sense of backstory when Josh is sent to go jogging with the Vice President. Josh then tells him that the President's numbers are going up. "You've been fighting against Jed Bartlet when he was right and you've been against him when he was popular," Josh says. "You really want to be against him when he says both at the same time?" It's then Hoynes says something that gives us a whole new context:

Hoynes: If I listened to you two years ago, would I be President right now? You ever wonder about that?

Josh: No sir, I know it for sure.

This is the first time Sorkin has told us that Josh worked with Hoynes – and it's the first indication he wasn't with Bartlet from day one. In hindsight this is Sorkin's set up for the Season 2 premiere.

The real tension we see seems to be Bartlet's health. Zoey says his color is off and during the town hall he takes off his jackets because he says the lights are making him hot. So when the episode ends with Bartlet walking out past the college campus with the rest of the staff, the most we think is that making the President – who even at this stage of the show we know has MS – is going to faint in front of the masses and that will be the issue. Instead in the final minute Gina yells out "Gun" and we start hearing bullets firing everywhere and the staff running and ducking for cover. The last words of the season finale, which we hear over the credits are: "Who's been hit?! Who's been hit?!"

The fans reacted immediately to this – and not positively. I should know, I was one of them and even though I didn't go to a chatroom I spent a lot of time debating it with my father who at that point was as devoted to the show as I was. Like me, he thought it was incredibly unrealistic and a cheap gimmick, one that went against everything both of us loved about the show.

Sorkin acknowledged in the aftermath the critics hammered him about the ending. He acknowledged to multiple reporters that it 'confirmed a lot of people's problems with TV. The cliché that there must be a cliffhanger'. My problem wasn't so much the cliffhanger aspect but that it seemed like something that really did seem like it was something out of a soap opera or a police procedural – though not even Steven Bocho or Dick Wolf was willing to go near those kinds of season finales with a bargepole.

Now considering the era we live in I thought it was unrealistic because even to someone who had very little experience watching television before the 1990s I knew 'the rules'. As I said in my previous article about The West Wing I was used to regulars being killed off even at this point in my viewing experience. But in May of 2000 network TV  - and for that matter cable –  had a hard and fast rule: you didn't kill of series regulars in the first season.

(I would be remiss if I didn't mention that rule didn't survive the twentieth century. By the time Season 3 of The West Wing debuted another groundbreaking drama 24 would have premiered and Jack Bauer's first terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day came to a tragic end with him tearfully cradling the body of his wife in his arms. From that point on, it didn't matter if it was drama or comedy, cable, network or streaming, viewers like me knew that it was dangerous to get attached to characters because even in the first season violence and tragedy could intervene.)

Sorkin would later acknowledge in interviews that this was part of the plan. At this point Bartlet was in the middle of his administration. As he said in an interview "the assassination attempt was important to show how he got to the White House." He had planned that very scenario even while the first season was still going on and he intended to set it up for the season 2 premiere.

The incredible blowback of the season finale, I should point out, did nothing to diminish the love the Emmys lavished on it that summer. It was nominated for eighteen Emmys and that September made history when it won nine, breaking the record held for wins by a drama that Hill Street Blues and ER each held with eight apiece. (That record stood for fifteen years when Game Of Thrones broke it.) In addition to Outstanding Drama Series, the show also won Best Director, Best Writing, Best Supporting Actor for Richard Schiff and Best Supporting Actress for Alison Janney (the first of four she won). And one of the nominations it got was for Single Camera Picture Editing for a Series for the season 1 finale.

Still when Season 2 premiered on October 4, 2000 (the fall week was delayed because of the 2000 Olympics) could The West Wing make the viewers forgive Sorkin for what he put us through in the season finale? We know the answer to that question because the season premiere "In The Shadow of Two Gunmen' was nominated for Best Writing in a drama the following summer and Thomas Schlamme would win his second consecutive Emmy for directing that episode. This episode ranks on imdb.com as the second highest rated episode by fans of the entire series; only the season two finale 'Two Cathedrals' ranks above it, and that episode regularly makes the short list of the greatest episodes in TV history, period. (I'll be dealing with that episode in due time, trust me.)

The episode begins moments after the shooting. Bartlet has been hauled into his limousine by Ron Butterfield (Michael O'Neill) the head of secret service. Butterfield has broken fingers and Bartlet wants him to go a hospital. Butterfield says he's putting him in the White House. Bartlet starts to rant and he's just saying: "But let's make sure I'm tucked into bed" when Butterfield notices a spot of blood on the President's lip. Just as he collapses Butterfield shouts "GW! Blue!"

While this is going on everyone is back at site of the town hall, and the chaos hasn't remotely died down. Gina knows that there was someone on the ground who gave a signal before the guns starting blazing. He was wearing a cap but for the life of her she can't describe it. Toby finds himself going over to Josh who we last saw running to a gate. He starts talking to him but Josh doesn't answer. Then the camera pulls back – and we see the massive blood over his chest.

I need to be clear; even at this stage of The West Wing Josh was above and beyond my favorite character. I'd been pissed that Bradley Whitford hadn't even been nominated for an Emmy in Season 1. (They more than made up for it the following season.) Did I think Josh was going to die? I mean, his name was still listed in the opening credits so I knew they probably weren't going to kill him off that soon. But that didn't mean my heart didn't go to my throat when he fell over and Toby, who had been a rock for the entire first season, could barely get out: "I need…I need a gurney!" Crash to the opening credits.

The first part of the episode takes place mostly in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. What's interesting is that so much of the power comes in the quiet moments, many of which are deeply moving. The last thing Bartlet does before he goes into surgery is kiss Leo on the cheek. Mrs. Landingham and Margaret are in the White House when the shooting happens and Margaret's attention is drawn to what's happening first. She goes still. Back at the West Wing Toby is talking brusquely to Bonnie who doesn't immediately react and then Toby awkwardly but sincerely hugs her. And as I mentioned in my article on Janel Moloney she makes a powerful impression in her first scene in the present. First she goes to GW and she's frantic. She's relieved to hear the President is all right. And then Toby tells her gently what is happening with Josh. (This may be the first time the show acknowledges that Donna has deeper feelings for her boss that could beyond a devoted employee.)

The two shooters were killed within seconds of their attack but we quickly learn that they had no identification on them. Everyone knows that there was a man on the ground who gave the signal and they all know what they means. National Security Adviser Nancy McNally (Anna Deavere Smith) finally makes it clear halfway through the episode: "Somebody had to get them into the office. This was not a lonely guy who lived with his cats." Underneath everything in the first episode is the knowledge that this was a conspiracy and no one knows whether it was domestic or foreign.

This leads to Sorkin taking an opportunity to educate his audience in a way that the average viewer wasn't. McNally says the Vice President should take us to DefCon 4 and Leo says: "White House council isn't sure if he can." This is the first time most Americans most likely ever heard of the 25^th Amendment and how it works or how it's supposed to. In order to do this under the auspices of this he has to sign a letter giving the vice president power. Toby points out the obvious flaw in this: "He's hemorrhaging and he's supposed to draft a memo?"

Nancy then says it gets more complicated if you've read Section 202 of the National Securities Act of 1947. There's a pause and CJ says deadpan: "Let's assume I haven't."  According to it the Secretary of Defense will be the principal assistant to the President on all matters pertaining to National security. Leo asks under what circumstances this applies and Nancy it says its unclear. Toby's response: "Yes because with something of this magnitude of importance you'd want things to be as ambiguous as possible."

The meat of the first part is the flashback which begins when Josh is brought into GW barely conscious and trying to blink. We then flashback to him in a meeting with John Hoynes in which the two are arguing about talking about social security on the campaign.

Outside the meeting Josh says that Hoynes is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination by at least thirty points and "I don't know what were for. I don't know what we're against. Except we seem to be for winning and against someone else winning." Hoynes blows him off, saying that they're going to be in the White House in a year.

Josh is walking away and he runs into Leo. At that point Leo is Secretary of Labor and while the two know each other they're not friends. It's here we learn Josh's father is going through chemo and being a pain in the ass about the squirrels eating seeds in the bird feeder. Leo says he wants Josh to see Jed Bartlet speak in Nashua. Josh assumed this is a bid for a Cabinet position in the Hoynes administration because Hoynes is going to win. When Leo presses the two have another classic exchange:

Josh: Democrats aren't going to nominate another liberal academic former governor from New England. We're dumb, but we're not dumb.

Leo: Nah, I think we're exactly that dumb.

When Josh asks why Leo says: "Because that's what sons do for old friends of their father."

On his way to Nashua Josh stops in New York where Sam is working for Gage Whitney. The two are old friends to the point that Sam can talk about getting a hot dog at 9 AM and Josh goes along with it. Josh wants Sam to come speechwriting for Hoynes and Sam casually mentions he's engaged. Josh says he has to do something dumb in New Hampshire.

Sam then says: "Hoynes. He's not the real thing, is he?" Josh acknowledges as much but its clear he's committed to it. About to leave Josh says to Sam: "Hey if I see the real thing in New Hampshire, you want me to tell you?" Sam says dryly: "You won't have to tell me. You have a really bad poker face." By this point we know Josh well enough to know this is true.

The last person we meet from the old guard is Toby, who's part of the Bartlet campaign. He's been a political operative his whole life  - "there was a period I was in grade school' – but he's never been part of a winning campaign. He's getting drunk because he expects to be fired that night.

There's a very sparse attended town hall going on in Nashua which indicates at this point Bartlet can't even draw crowds in his native New Hampshire for President. There's debate going behind the scenes about what Bartlet should say about his voting for the New England Dairy Farming Compact which has clearly been a bone of contention.

One of the farmers gets up and says that by doing so he hurt him to the tune of ten cents a gallon. He voted for Bartlett both for Congress and governor and he wants him to explain.

Bartlet says: "Yeah. I screwed you. You got hosed."

(Script direction: All the aides look like they want to kill themselves.)

Bartlet: Today for the first time in history the largest group of Americans living in poverty are children…If fidelity to freedom of democracy is the code of our civic religion then surely the code of our humanity is faithful service to that unwritten commandment that says we shall give our children better than we ourselves received. Let me put it this way. I voted against the bill because I didn't want to make it harder for people to buy milk. I stopped some money from flowing into your pocket. If that angers you, if you resent me, I completely respect that. But if you expect anything different from the President of the United States, you should vote for somebody else.

Here are the stage directions from Sorkin. "Bartlet gets half-hearted applause at best. It wasn't his night, it wasn't his crowd, but mainly that last response wasn't what they wanted to hear. Except one man."

Josh sits their stunned, his crossword unfinished, his coat not fully off. He's found the real thing.

Something significant is going on. After a campaign meeting where Bartlet is ill-tempered towards his advisors to the point of arrogance, he walks off. Leo then proceeds to fire everyone who isn't Toby, which stuns even Toby. Bartlet is annoyed with Leo about this, saying that he fired everyone he knew and that team helped him win all of his previous elections. Leo laughs at this:

"No seriously that's a real political accomplishment considering your family founded this state. Were you even opposed in any of those elections?"

Jed and Leo have a conversation where its clear that Jed doesn't think he has a chance in hell and that Leo is bigger in the party then him. (This is the first time the show implies that Leo could have been President himself had he wanted, a story that will play out after Sorkin departs the show.) It's then Leo explains why Bartlet must run:

"Because I'm tired of it year after year, having to choose between the lesser of 'who cares'. Of trying to get excited about a candidate who can talk in complete sentences. They say a good man can't get elected President. I don't believe that."

It should be stated that this is the first time Sorkin has stated directly so much of the liberal frustration with politics in the era of the 24 hour news network and spin doctors. I'm reminded of Elaine May's line of "devoting one's life to an era that perished before you were even born" when this argument has come up in my lifetime. But in fiction – and in particular when we were about to approach an era in television where idealism would be smashed at the political level as well as everywhere else – I still find it something refreshing and something to strive for, even if never can match reality. The first part of the episode ends with Bartlet in a hospital gown, looking at Josh still in surgery. He says simply to Leo: "Look what happened."

Part II of the episode opens with a spectacular scene in which the signal man is apprehended by the FBI in a convenience store. It's worth noting that when we learn the man's identity and why everything happened the viewer can forgive almost entirely the way Season 1 ended.

One of the subplots of Season 1 was how Charlie (Dule Hill) had not long after he had been hired had begun to date Zoey Bartlet (Elisabeth Moss) who had just begun attended classes at Georgetown. Not long after this Charlie began to get death threats from white supremacists groups and neo-Nazis. Charlie had refused to stop dating Zoey and Bartlet had to persuade her to stop him from being seen with her. Leo had actually held this over the President's head as a sign of his squishiness at one point: "That guys gets death threats, because he's black and he dates your daughter. He was warned: "Do not show up. Your life will be in danger.' He said: 'To hell with that, I'm going anyway. You said no.'"

Now in the aftermath of Bartlet's shooting he tells both his daughter and Charlie who the shooters were. Members of West Virginia  White Pride. Charlie asks the obvious question: "They tried to kill you because I was dating Zoey?'" Bartlet says simply. "They weren't trying to kill me.' Charlie takes this in. He says okay three times and then leaves the room. Bartlet says to Leo: "We don't know what the collateral damage will be.'  I should mention that not long after this Charlie and Zoey end up breaking up, though it has never been clear to me this was a flaw in Sorkin's writing or something to do with Moss's schedule. After the third episode of the series Zoey doesn't appear again until halfway through Season 4. Charlie and Zoey will begin seeing each other by the end of the series but by that point Sorkin had long since left the show.

It's during Toby's discussion with Ron Butterfield about a problem he has that we get the official word on why what happened what happened:

"It wasn't your fault. It wasn't Gina's fault. It wasn't Charlie's fault. It wasn't anybody's fault. It was an act of madmen…We got the President in the car. We got Zoey in the car. And at 150 years and five stories up the shooters were down 9.2 seconds after the first shot was fired. I  would never let you not let me protect the President. You tell us you don't like something; we figure out something else. It was an act of madmen."

Michael O'Neill, like so many other first season characters, essentially disappears for the rest of the season, returning again in Season 3 but like so many other characters he does so much with his little screen time. In the world of Sorkin there are no small parts, certainly none that don't deserve the best dialogue

While this is going on we watch as the rest of the Bartlet team is assembled. I've written about how Donna ended up there and Sam arrives when he 'looks at Josh's face'. But CJ's arrival is the most interesting because she's in the last place we expect her to be  - working in Hollywood for a public relations firm.

The scenes involves CJ being fired from her job and ending up working for Bartlet are both broadly farcical and contain satire about how Democrats may truly feel about Hollywood. C.J.'s worked in political campaigns and fundraising for the organization Emily's List. In a way it makes sense she's working in California, considering she grew up there and went to Berkeley but ending up working for an LA PR firm reveals how bad she is at it. There's an argument that there's a certain overlap – massaging egos of studio heads is not that different from politicians – but you get the feel that CJ is unhappy because in her mind, the stakes are so small.

She's fired after Roger Becker, the head of Atlantis shows up and is unhappy because of the Golden Globe nominations which CJ didn't know about. (Her response: "Am I up for something?" is another great in-joke because The West Wing was nominated the previous winter – and Janney would be a fixture at the Globes ever since.) Becker is also upset because the list of most powerful people in Hollywood has been released which leads to one of the greatest exchanges Sorkin ever wrote:

Becker: I dropped from third to ninth. Do you know how many people were ahead of me?

(Pause)

CJ: Eight?

When CJ relates this to Toby later on as the cause of her getting fired their exchange is equally brilliant:

Toby: Does he still make the playoffs or is there a cut-off…

CJ: They take it seriously around here.

During this exchange CJ losing her contacts and breaks her glasses getting out of a taxi. She goes back to her home where Toby is waiting. CJ can't see where she's going so naturally she falls into her pool. Toby is unconcerned:

Toby: Could you maybe make your way to dry land?

They clearly know each other quite well, though I don't recall how exactly. Toby tells CJ that he's here on instruction from Leo McGarey to work for Jed Bartlet. This leads to another classic exchange:

CJ: How much does it pay?

Toby: How much were you making before?

CJ: $550,000 a year.

Toby: "This pays $600 a week.

CJ: So this would be less?"

CJ then asks if McGarey knows she's only worked local campaigns, never national. Toby says yes. "It's graduation day."

CJ then asks the important question: "Is Jed Bartlet a good man?"

Toby says: "Yes" though he has to say it twice. Perhaps he's not sure

We then see the campaign basically together in Iowa where Bartlet has finished a strong third. Josh and the rest explain the plan, which is to bypass New Hampshire and go straight to South Carolina. Bartlet knows they won't win there and Josh says they just have to finish second. They then discuss how the next few primaries will go leading to Super Tuesday where Hoynes will win the South and they'll win the North and the industrial mid-west. High noon will be at the Illinois primary.

Bartlet listens to this with an air of almost arrogance finishing with: "All that and we've saved the public the trouble of having to vote. What's next." When they try to explain Bartlet says: "Yes I know. When I say, 'what's next I mean I want to move on." He then walks away. Josh then says: "Well I feel bathed in the warm embrace of the candidate." Leo: "He's really very easy to like, once you get to know him?." "How many people get that far?" "Not that many," Leo admits.

If you've paid attention to the show so far you know that Josh's father died the night they won the Illinois primary. But by this point we're paying attention to everything else that's going on including another wonderful exchange between Leo and Margaret.

Margaret tells Leo that's she gotten pretty good at forging the signature of the President.

Leo: "On a document removing him from power and handing it to somebody else?"

Margaret, in her naïve fashion: "You think the White House Counsel would say that was a bad idea?"

Leo: "I think White House Counsel would say it was a coup d'etat!

 As Margaret is leaving the office:

"And what you are doing practicing forging the President's signature?"

Margaret: "It's just for fun.

Leo: We've got checks and balances, separation of powers and Margaret, vetoing things and sending them back to the Hill!"

But as anyone who loves this absolute masterpiece of an episode the highlight comes in the final flashback. They've just won the Illinois primary and Bartlet is still in a bad mood. Abby is around and looks at Josh. "You can say it."

Josh gets it off his chest: "Your husband's a real son-of-a-bitch, Mrs. Bartlet."

Abby, who is keeping more secrets than Josh knows, tells him her husband isn't ready.

After the announcement of victory is played and Celebrate by Kool and the Gang comes on Josh is an ebullient mood. Then Donna comes in looking sad and tells him: "Your fathers dead.

We then see Josh in an airport trying to catch a flight back to Connecticut. First we see Secret Service agents show up and then Bartlet sits next to Josh telling him how sad he is his father died. Much of what happens is Josh's trying to convince Jed to go back and Jed is there to comfort him. But for the first time in the flashbacks we see the Bartlet we know and love as he says the comforting, fatherly things.

Josh says: "I'd be saved a lot of bragging. Your name wouldn't have come up by the way. My son won the Illinois primary."

Its in this Bartlet says that he appreciates everything that the new people have done – Toby Ziegler, Sam Seaborn, CJ Cregg." To this point he's never properly identified them in any scene we've seen so we expect this has been going for months. Bartlet says: "And you have to be impressed I got the names right."

Then Bartlet offers to go with Josh to his father's funeral. The stage directions Sorkin provides are wonderful as Josh 'doesn't know whether to kiss this man or hit him with a two-by-four'.

"Governor California," he says. You have to go on stage and accept and then fly to California. Honestly if you don't win this nomination it's not gonna to be our fault."

But he appreciates it. As he walks down the runway we see Leo nearby. Jed says: "I'm ready."

As Bartlet and Leo head off we then hear Bartlet's voice at a convention.

Tonight, what began at the Commons in Concord, Massachusetts as an alliance of farmers and workers, of cobblers and tinsmiths, of statesmen and students, of mothers and wives, of men and boys, lives two centuries later as America! My name is Josiah Bartlet, and I accept your nomination for the Presidency of the United States!"

We then fade up to hear a doctor talking to Josh who seems to have regained consciousness. Bartlet is standing nearby. Josh indicates him and whispers in his ear. The question: "What did he say?" Bartlet's response is simple: 'He said: 'What's next.'

I should add that we now live in an era where so many extraordinary TV shows begin with an incredible first season and in their sophomore season often decline and never gain what made them sensational in the first place, particularly on network television. This would be true in the 2000s, with shows like Desperate Housewives and Heroes being the most infamous examples. Other shows like 24 and Lost would be judged harshly by their second seasons even though they would regain their energy in later ones.

This was not the case with the second season of The West Wing, which while it didn't quite surpass the first had by far some of the greatest episodes in the Sorkin era in it. These include the two brilliant holiday episodes 'Shibboleth' and 'Noel',  the extraordinary '15 People' in which Toby confronts Bartlet on hiding his MS in what is essentially a play for television and the season finale Two Cathedrals. The West Wing would sweep The Golden Globes and the SAG Awards in January of 2001 and end up winning eight Emmys the following fall.

And from my perspective in my years of watching television there have been very few television dramas in history on any form, network, streaming or otherwise, that have had as magnificent a second premiere as The West Wing did. Only a handful occur to me: Lost 'Man of Science, Man of Faith' which opens with a spectacular teaser and shows us the world we'll be inhabiting all year,  Breaking Bad's '737' with its disorienting black and white opening and seeing how Walter and Jesse have to try outsmart the dangerous Tuco Salamanca and the second season premiere of House of Cards where Frank Underwood coldly and matter-of-factly pushes reporter Zoey Barko in front of an oncoming subway just before he is about to become Vice President.  To be certain there have been other dramas that began to enter the pantheon of classics in their second season after merely very good ones -  The Americans and Better Call Saul are just the most recent examples of this  - but very few came out with guns blazing as 'Shadow of Two Gunmen ' did and fewer still with the sense of understanding of where the characters had been and where they could go.