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The West Wing: The Cold
by Bob Sassone, posted Mar 12th 2006 9:13PM
It seems like such a long time ago that we had a new episode
of The West Wing. We had John Spencer's death, then the Olympics. Seems like
it's been forever. So when they showed the "previously on The West
Wing..." recap, I was actually interested in it. Where exactly did we leave off? Oh yeah, the nuclear
accident in California, Santos starting to creep up on Vinick in the polls, the aftermath of the live debate. And now
we see that Santos isn't just creeping up on Vinick, he has tied him in several states (including Vinick's California),
and surpassed him in others. Donna and the gang is so happy by the polls that they go crazy and start waking up everyone
in the hotel. Donna goes into Josh's room, and they are so ecstatic about the numbers that they...Oh, for God's sake, they kiss, alright? You "Shippers" happy now? Actually, I am. It seems like the way
the Josh and Donna story has to end. Though later they seem a little uncomfortable about the whole thing. Josh says
it's inappropriate, and Donna tells him "don't worry about it."Meanwhile, President Bartlett wants a plan as to how U.S. troops are going to invade Kazakhstan, if it comes to that. A good scene between Debbie and Bartlett, as she tries to talk to him about picking the Presidential portrait he wants. Bartlett wants to meet with Santos and Vinick about the Khazekstan situation, so C.J. talks to Josh about it. Josh isn't too happy about taking his surging candidate off the campaign trail, but he also doesn't want Vinick at the White House alone. Vinick has a cold and Josh thinks he can get out of having Santos go, but after a call from Bartlett himself, Josh knows he has to go.
Oh, and Kate left her bra at Will's house. They're hiding their relationship. Donna visits and asks Will if she and him had been seeing each other when they worked together, would that be appropriate? Will guesses she's talking about Josh, but she denies it. He won't say who he's saying, but he tells Donna that if that were to happen, it would be weird, but not inappropriate. Donna goes to visit C.J., and C.J. guesses IMMEDIATELY that something happened between Josh and Donna. Ha! Later, Donna quietly slips her room key to Josh (that minx!), but one of the other staffers thinks she just forgot it and runs to give it back to her. Josh and Donna look at each other from across the patio.
The Republican party members want Vinick to start talking about the usual Republican issues: family, morals, gay marriage. Bruno isn't happy about it, and suspects they want to get rid of him. But he might not be the scapegoat that Vinick needs...
Barlett meets with Santos and Vinick in the Oval Office to talk about Kazakhstan. If they go to war, you can kiss Vinick's tax cut goodbye, along with Santos' education plans. At least $70 billion for the first 6 months of the war.
I like when this show goes back to the White House for several scenes. And it's a neat idea to have all the new and old characters there in the White House: Santos, Vinick, Leo, Debbie, Josh, Donna, Bruno, C.J., Tim Allen's wife from Home Improvement (who offers herself as the scapegoat) and Stephen Root from Newsradio (sorry, I can never remember their character names on this show). Oh, and there's Carol! Cool. And there just aren't enough scenes between Martin Sheen and John Spencer like we had tonight.
This show is going to get a little sad in a few weeks. There are only a few more episodes that will feature Spencer, and then they'll get into his death and how that will affect his friends and the election itself. But that's also leading up to the return of Rob Lowe, Mary-Louise Parker, Marlee Matlin and other characters from the past (hopefully Richard Schiff and Dule' Hill too). At least that's something we can look forward to.
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