Written by Josh Singer
Directed by Matia Karrell
“Do you think we’re going to win?”
“Yes…I do.”
Not much to say this week, as Welcome to Wherever You Are is, by far, the weakest episode of the season. It’s pretty much one giant metaphor for the internal chaos, doubt, and emotional turmoil running through Matt Santos, as he comes down to being five days away from possibly being elected Leader of the Free World.
And, in that respect, it IS a good episode: the constant demands for attention from aides & from the media…trying to keep an eye on his children and be a proper dad in the midst of photo ops…not getting a single moment to have an intelligence briefing…and finally snapping and slamming the door on everyone. Josh taking charge and pulling Santos out of his mini-abyss was fun to watch, and his certainty about upcoming victory was breathtaking…but, in the end, the episode is too much about visuals, mood, and chaos, and not enough about simple storytelling.
And Bon Jovi is in the episode because…well…simply, because he’s Bon Jovi…and I’m guessing they couldn’t afford Bono and U2.
Even the best bits of the episode — Toby trying to make a deal with the U.S. Attorney — don’t offer any decent sense of closure, though (as usual) we could all watch Richard Schiff sit down and read the Washington D.C. phone book and we’d be entranced for hours.
So, it’s a time waster, and doesn’t fall anywhere comfortably on the usual West Wing scale between epic and sumblime. Still, since we’re in the end game, and next week sees the floodgates opening…I’m not terribly upset.
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