The Canon According To Me - The West Wing, In The Shadow Of Two Gunmen: Part 1

The West Wing - "In The Shadow of Two Gunmen: Part 1"
Season 2, Ep 1

This was the first episode of the second season and it picks up right where the season one finale left off, after president Bartlet, the senior staff, and Zoey were shot at while leaving a town hall meeting in Virginia.  In the first four minutes of the episode we account for everyone and find out that Jed and Josh were both shot. The earliest parts of the episode are chaotic as everyone is located and rushed to the hospital or other secure locations and then, just as the doctors get to work on Josh and he slips into unconsciousness, we follow him into a flashback that shows us how everyone came to work for President Bartlet's campaign. 

There are several standout moments in the episode.  Donna arriving at the hospital, breathless and worried about POTUS after hearing about the shooting on the news, and then Toby telling her "Josh was hit, shot in the chest."  She asks if it's serious and he tells her, in that matter-of-fact, flat way of his, "Yes, it's critical.  The bullet collapsed his lung and damaged a major artery." Something about the awfulness of the news delivered by Toby in that almost-but-not-quite-emotionless way while Donna takes it in, devestated.  It's heartbreaking.  Almost as heartbreaking as when POTUS turns to Leo at the end of the episode, after he's come out of surgery, and says "look what happened." 

As part of the flashbacks from the episode, we find out how and why Leo convinced Jed to run for president as he tells Jed "because I'm tired of it - year after year after year after year - having to choose between the lesser of who cares. Of trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low, I can hardly look at it.  They say a good man can't get elected president.  I don't believe that.  Do you?"

We also see the moment that Josh figured out that Jed was the real deal when, at a town hall meeting, Jed is asked why he cast a vote as a congressman that took money out of the pockets of his farming constituents and he answers very honestly: "Yeah, I screwed you on that one. I screwed you. You got hosed. And not just you, a lot of my constituents. I put the hammer to farms in Concord, Salem, Laconing, Pellam, Hudson...you guys got rogered but good. Today, for the first time in history, the largest group of Americans living in poverty are children. One in five children live in the most abject, dangerous, hopeless, back-breaking, gut-wrenching poverty any of us could imagine. One in five and they're children. If fidelity to freedom and democracy is the code of our civic religion than 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."


Aaron Sorkin is probably the tickiest writer I've ever encountered and because I so deeply loved Sports Night, the recycled bits of dialogue that made their way into all of his subsequent television shows (and even some movies) and all of his ticks are often very The West Wing, it is pure poetry. 

The second part of this two part season premiere is also very good but it's always been the first part that stuck with me.  I will say though that the second part includes an incredibly touching moment between Josh and Jed after Josh's father has died on the night of the Illinois primary.  There's also a terrific monologue from the head of the President's Secret Service detail, Ron Butterfield wherein he refuses to let anyone blame themselves for what's happened, telling Toby that it was simply an act of madmen.  And the episode ends with a callback moment between Josh and Jed when Josh is just coming out of his sedation after many hours of surgery and weakly whispers to the President, "what's next." 

The Canon According To Me - Felicity, Todd Mulchay Part 1

Felicity - "Todd Mulcahy, Part 1"
Season 1, Ep. 13

It was so easy to decide on my first Canon entry on account of this being maybe my favorite television episode ever.  I always thought Felicity was at its best when it was displaying its silly sense of humor and poking fun of itself while also embracing its college-girl melodrama.  This isn't the first episode to really do that - "Finally" (ep. 9) had some great scenes thanks to the smart cookies - but this is the first time that I found the humor and melodrama to be so beautifully woven through the entire episode in equal measure. 

The story revolves around this kid from Felicity's past who, after running into her at the supermarket back home over Christmas break, has decided that she may well have been the love of his life and the only way to know for sure is to kiss her.  He shows up in New York and, without really trying, insinuates himself into her life in this, like, really charming and funny way. 

He comes to her room asking for her and ends up helping Meghan pierce her nose.  He turns out to be an old skater buddy of Ben's.  He and Noel bond over graphic design and Mac nerdery.  He makes delicious chicken for Sean and Julie. 

First Noel freaks that someone is tryin' to move in on his woman, then Felicity freaks because Todd is exhibiting stalkery behavior.  She decides to seek advice from someone who knows a little something about being stalked which leads to possibly my favorite Felicity/Ben scene of all time.  It's the first scene in the video embedded above (sorry for the annoying subtitles, it's the only English version of this scene on YouTube, which is a tragedy for another time). 

After multiple attempts to convince him to leave her alone, Felicity finally meets him at a restaurant to let him down hard.  She tells him to go away and leave her alone.  He amiably agrees, walking away from her into the street.  He turns to her and continues slowly backing up, "Just know this - I am down," he says "but I am not, in any way," Felicity tries to stop him because he's about to be hit with the greatest "to be continued..." episode-ender of all time (pun intended, obviously) "out!"  And then he gets hit by a bus. 

I'll be honest with you, if all this episode had going for it were the Felicity/Ben scene and Todd getting hit by a bus, it might still be among my favorites.  I laughed so hard at that final moment the first time I saw it.  It was what you thought was going to happen but at the same time it was so horrific and insane that you were sure this show would never do such a thing so when they did, it took my breath away. 

But the episode actually has all these other things to recommend it.  All of the Felicity elements are here.  We have our "Dear Sally," voice overs, and two classic Meghan scenes ("if someone named Bridget calls, tell her she can have 'em back when she pries them off my cold, dead feet!  She'll know what it means.").  Sean is trying to invent milk-less cereal he's calling Lact-Os.  Elena breaks up with Blair who she caught cheating the previous episode and we all know that was the moment that cemented her friendship with Felicity.  Julie gets a job working at Carol's office without mentioning that Carol is actually her bio-mom.  Ben does not approve but tries to be supportive.  He also gets cut off by his dad, drops his favorite word (dick) on us, and gets a job at Dean & Deluca.  Noel gets blackmailed by Richard who wants to install a satelite dish in his dorm room and uses Noel's "fraternization" with Felicity to get his way. Even Javier gets a couple of scenes. 

There's also a scene where Julie, Ben and Elena hang out and another with Julie, Noel and Felicity which brings up one of my biggest pet peeves with TV dramas in general which is that whenever the cast contains more than 3 people, they very rarely have scenes containing more than two of them at a time.  Whole groups of friends rarely hang out together and so often they fall into these patters where, say, Ben will only ever have scenes with Felicity or Sean, Matt will only have scenes with Landry or Julie, Joey will only have scenes with Dawson or Pacey.  In life, when whole groups of people know each other, they will, on occasion, gather in random groups larger than two and hang out.  I like to see that happen on television too.  And we get some of that here. 

I love how they sort-of acknowledge how insane the entire premise of the show is by having Felicity yell at Todd in exasperation, "This is very rude - you coming here and making assumptions about me!" even after she's just admitted to Ben that everything Todd is doing now is exactly what she did to Ben a few months ago. 

And there are several throw-away moments that tickle my funny bone - when Ben tries the Lact-Os for the first time the conversation goes like this:

Ben: What the hell is that?
Sean: Needs a little work, huh?
Ben: Whatever that is, don't pursue it.
Sean: Alright, I'm gonna go get some powdered sugar.  Do you need anything from the market?
Ben: Mouthwash.

Anyway, the second part of this two parter introduces Eli (Simon Rex) and gibes us Taraji P. Henson as a hippy art student, and Maggie Lawson as Todd's fiance.  It's a fine episode but it leans much more heavily on the drama, which is understandable given that it's a lot about Todd almost dying and all, but it just makes it less perfect than Part 1 for me. 

This isn't the only Felicity ep that'll be making The Canon, just the first, but you'll have to stick around for a while to find out what my other favorites are.  Although, now that you know some of my favorite things about the show, maybe you could guess.

So, what do you think?  Is this your favorite episode too?  Do you hate it the most and wonder if I've lost my mind?  I'd genuinely like to know what your thoughts are on the subject so if you have any, let me know. 

The Canon According To Me

Have you been listening to the Extra Hot Great podcast?  Well you should be but just in case you're not, I'll tell you that one of the features on the podcast is called The Canon.  That's where Tara, Joe, Dave, occasional guests, and sometimes listeners put up an episode of a beloved show to be considered as "The Best" and be inducted into The Canon. 

Listening to the podcast has had me thinking a lot about which episodes of what shows I think are the best and, when I had a raging case of insomnia last night, I used the hours I should have been sleeping to begin compiling my official list. 

So, starting tonight, I shall commence periodically presenting you with my favorite episodes of various television shows that collectively make up The Canon According To Me. 

Exciting, no?