Written by John Wells
Directed by Alex Graves
“Ok…let’s go win this.”
The finale is crazy. The writing is crazy, the pace is crazy, and the end result might even be crazy. But it’s certainly The West Wing, no matter how you look at it.
The problem with the finale is that there are too many balls being juggled in the air, and John Wells is doing his damned best to keep them all going simultaneously. The convention’s entire 3-day journey, Baker suddenly throwing his hat into the ring, the FBI investigation of the shuttle leak, Bartlet trying to choose who he will endorse, Santos on the abyss…
This should have been a two parter. A lot of depth is sacrificed in order to keep the plot moving, and manuvering chess pieces to where they need to be for season seven…and some are literally cut off abruptly, after some decent build up (such as the innuendo as to whether CJ is the West Wing leak). It leaves the viewer staggered, and not in the most pleasant of ways.
Then again, the viewer might be too busy being staggered by the sheer breathlessness and style of the finale.
This is a story on warp drive — from its opening moments to the victory speech, it takes dozens of characters & situations and molds them into an artistic whole. It’s all down to director Alex Graves, who shoots the entire episode as if he were making a version of All the President’s Men on acid. The frames might pass by at light speed, but each one is carefully constructed…and (somehow!) he manages to insert moments of quiet poignancy and reflection throughout this artsy chaos.
Finally, there’s Leo. Rumours of Sam (Rob Lowe) Seaborn’s return notwithstanding, my very very very first hunch, way back when, was that Leo might be a candidate for the VP role…and it turns out I was RIGHT! This is going to put a wonderful new spin on next season’s campaign, and I’m glad Wells and Graves managed to convey the deep emotion and appreciation between Leo, the President, and Josh with simple sentences and deep moments of unspoken love and brotherhood.
As Mr. Vinick says at the end, “Let’s go win this”. It certainly isn’t perfect, but it may be the only way to end what was an exhilerating, experimental, nostalgic, renaissance of a sixth season. I fell in love with The West Wing once again, and it’s all because of last 22 plus weeks. Congratulations on a stunning season — I look forward to the autumn, and the end game it’s going to bring with it.
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