BartlettNet - The West Wing Appreciation Society - May Contain Spoilers!

[CaveMum]

A thread for the discussion of West Wing - the best tv show ever made!

If you haven't seen all 7 Seasons be aware that this thread may contain spoilers!

Fab!

I can't do YouTube links from my iPhone, but search for "Josh tries to hug Leo". It's short but very funny!

Am resurrecting this thread as I'm hoping someone can explain 'No Exit' (s5 ep 20 - just before Donna goes off to get blown up in Gaza) to me...

It's the one where the Biohazard alarms go off in the WW when they're all returning from the Correspondent's Dinner. Bartlett, Charlie and Fiderer are quarantined in the bunker and everyone else gets little Satre-esque set pieces as they're all in their offices (Josh/Kate, Donna/CJ, Toby/Will, Leo/Abby). I rewatched it the other day and am utterly confused as to what actually happened:

• the official line to Josh, Leo etc was that it was a false alarm (they don't seem to believe that though)

• Ron tells Charlie and Fiderer it was a 'live drill' and no-one except him and Bartlett knew it was taking place

• once Charlie and Fiderer have gone off Ron seems to tell Bartlett that it was in fact actual contamination, they've got a chemist under surveillance and 'Tulerimia won't get through again' and they talk about how Charlie and Fiderer seemed to believe the 'live drill' line.

So....what the bloody hell happened? Was there plague in the WW, if so why the hell do they just drop that plot (I really can't remember it coming back again at any point) - I'm utterly confused (and this is probably the 4th or 5th time I've watched the whole show through...)

I watched S5 ep19 last night so will watch ep20 tonight. Remember finding it all very confusing, was there/wasn't there?
Think I concluded that it wasn't a drill, there was a threat and that TSS (who DNCOP) release that information on a very strict "need to know" basis.

I hope I can watch it again without the urge to take a pair of scissors to Kate Harper's ridiculous fringe. I warmed to her (slightly) later but found her a right pain in her first episodes.
Debbie: "On second thoughts feel free to call me Ma'am."

Thank you ma'am , I'll await your verdict! I think on balance it was a real threat but I'm still not entirely sure if the tulerimia was actually there and it irritates me immensely that the storyline never went anywhere as they were normally so good with the whole 'arc plot' thing...

Totally agree with you on Kate's fringe, they did make her less abrasive as it went on, I think I only ended up warming back to Will once they got together as their whole flirtation was really sweet. I always resented her a bit though as I felt that we got less of the awesome Nancy McNally once Kate was on the scene.

On reflection, Kate's fringe never irritated me quite as much as some of Zoey Bartlett's haircuts, she had some truly terrible ones - actually I think bad fringes were involved there too...

To chuck my tuppence in, I think that the threat was real. They didn't want it to get out that a substance had evaded their sensors, so span the "live drill" line.

I finished series 7 on Wednesday night [sob] so will have a short break before restarting series 1

Yeah - I tend to think it was real, but then I don't understand why they weren't all on prophylactic antibiotics afterwards... I think it rankles me because they were normally so good at tying up odd plot ends (unless they involved writing out female cast members - am looking at you Mandy and Ainsley!)

I watched it again and still have questions. I had thought the threat was real and the "live drill" was their SOP in such cases, i.e. pretend so as not to cause panic.

But then there's the exchange between Bartlet and Ron Butterfield where it appears that Bartlet knew there would be a live drill but didn't know when. "You didn't know it would be tonight, sir."
"I knew it when you showed up.

That seems to suggest the SS had anticipated or intercepted contamination by Tularemia and the live drill was a response to that. "T won't get through again" said Ron.

If it were a drill in response to an attack why were they still decontaminating the car when Debbie left? The tularemia was supposed to come from Charlie's recycling bin so why decontaminate the car when there was nothing to find there?

Well that's as clear as mud

Hmmm - I'm liking the theory that maybe they had previously intercepted some and so they did a live drill....but yes the fact they were still working on the car when they'd foudn the source seems very odd.

It is just frustrating isn't it - other episodes would make you think but they eventually made sense/resolved, this one just feels like a muddle . Oh well, on with season 6!

Ace kicker, I was delighted when Mandy was quietly dispatched. Never liked her character to the extent of cringing at her scenes. Loved Josh with Amy, now that was a hot relationship, Aaron!

I was on an air Canada flight recently, and one of the films they had was The Help, with Allison Janney. I watched it as all the other passengers were settling in for the night.... when I saw Allison I shouted to my OH " CJ!!!!!!!IT'S CJ!!!!!!!". Woke up quite a few people :)

With the No Exit episode, I have been back and forth a few times on this myself, but I came to the conclusion that there was a known threat, someone had attempted to get it into the White House, but wasn't successful, and only got it a very short way (like to some kind of initial mailroom/scanning type of place), and so they decided to do a live drill to check everything was working in case it did get through.

I know that sounds like I made a load up in my head, but it absoutely doesn't make sense that it really was tuleremia, as they would be on some kind of treatment after that, and probably not just Charlie, Debbie and Bartlett, but the whole staff. It also doesn't make sense for it to be 'just a drill' as the conversation between Bartlett & Ron doesn't fit. I now think that Ron had come to the President some days/weeks/months earlier and said 'look this substance has been found in the mailroom/a mailbag/by one of our scanners, so we're going to do a live drill sometime soon to check we're ready for it if it gets in, whilst also investigating where it came from'. ...ish...kind of.....

It's the only thing I can come up with that fits with everything in the episode.

D

Sharkie I also love spotting WW alumni, and particularly if more than one appears together in the same show or movie, and figuring out if they ever actually would have worked together i.e. in the same timeframe in the show, main characters or minor roles extras, etc.

Yep, bit of a geek here.

I watched S6 "2162 votes" again last night. One of my favourite episodes. Even when you know the outcome it's still exciting.

I also like that Leo is back "in charge". And Hoynes' face when he looks at Josh, having only got 102 votes on the second ballot.

I got totally hooked on this show and finished the very last episode today. I got way too attached and was feeling quite upset today when the credits rolled.

What am I to do now?

Wait a week and start again with Season 1

Oh I might have to!
Unfortunately i borrowed the DVDs so have to return them soon. Definitely need my own box set though!