Written by John Wells
Directed by Alex Graves
“Tell me where this ends!”
“WE DON’T ALWAYS KNOW WHERE IT ENDS!”
This is about as raw as network television gets. NSF Thurmont kicks off the sixth season of The West Wing with a game of chess that alternates between gut-wrenching and blood-boiling.
Why is it so raw? Why does it touch so many nerves? Because, in the span of 45 minutes, John Wells once and for all states that The West Wing — the metaphor for what American should do, as opposed to what it could do — is against the actions of the current administration. It deconstructs each and every argument brought to President Bartlet…each and every reason why America should bomb, invade, ravage destruction, and take vengeance…and then throws them into the dust bin, for all to see. This episode, more than any other, marks the definitive political statement that, in Sorkinland’s version of the U.S.A., America strives for peace, for co-operation, and for the better side of its nature. That is what it should export to the world, and not the quagmire of hatred, fear, inconsistency, and terror that has taken root in Iraq. By using Gaza as the substitute, The West Wing magnifies itself as a metaphor of titanic proportions.
The anti-Bush: in every scene, in every bit of dialogue, in every charged confrontation.
The most blunt statement of this message comes when the Joint Chiefs present the President with vague intelligence concerning terrorist camps in Iran…but argue it is a perfectly good pretext to bomb a country they simply do not like! All the things that the mainstream media refuses to say, summed up in the outrage and determination of a President who refuses any and all counsel that will not lead him to peace. “He hates chaos”, Leo tells newly-minted cast member Mary McCormack. Bartlet, as magnificently played by Martin Sheen, will not relinquish the struggle against chaos, will not let the world go to hell, will not allow the complete destruction of every ideal the United States stands for, in its most pure, unadulterated form.
To watch this episode is to behold the breathtaking triumph of idealism…and to hell with cynicism.
But for all its heady idealism, NSF Thurmont is also heartbreaking. Donna, the very heart of what The West Wing stands for, at the mercy of human frailty, is the more obvious counterpoint to the meat of the episode. But the true shadow to the light of this story is the relationship between Bartlet and Leo, and the parting of the ways to which they have finally arrived. After six years of being the flip-side to each other’s coins, the moment of decision finally comes. Josiah Bartlet IS the President, not Leo McGarry, and for the first time in the entire series, Bartlet asserts his complete & total independence. He sets out on a road that few have travelled — even less have reached the end — but it’s a journey he takes with his eyes wide open and shining. Leo cannot follow, weighted down with the practicalities of the world…practicalities Bartlet refuses to anchor himself with. It could still explode disastrously in his face, but peace and idealism require risk and self-sacrifice that few men and women can aspire to achieving. Bartlet is such a man…Leo is not. The realization brings hope and heartache, and results in magnificent drama.
If last season’s The Stormy Present was the philosophical statement against the Bush Administration, then NSF Thurmont is where The West Wing puts its money where its mouth is. Will it succeed? Will it become a disaster of horrific proportions?
Well…if you don’t tune in next week, after this glorious episode, then what the hell ARE you watching on TV these days…?
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