Hi friends, and welcome to TV Tuesday! Today I’m going to be talking about season two of The West Wing. Man this show just keeps better!

The season starts right where we left off; with the shooting. We find out everyone is okay, the president is fine, he has to go to surgery to fix some wounds, but otherwise fine, yet everyone is good, except for Josh. Gosh I was so mad that it was him who got shot. We almost don’t think he’ll pull through, but his wise ass does.

This affects him throughout the season, as he recovers, it takes him a long time to full mentally recover. Around Christmastime he really loses it. He yells at the president, actually he really goes at it at the president, that’s where Leo steps in to give him advice to see a therapist. We find out it was Donna who saw the signs and thought he should seek help. Oh those two.

We see a lot more Donna this season, a lot more Josh being over protective of her, it’s cute.

With the shooting, we get a lot of flashback, two episodes full of how everyone met each other. It’s all very cute. It’s funny how they all seemed to not care too much for each other, but soon come together on their own to help Jed run for president.

We also find out that they can blame the KKK for the shooting because they were after Charlie, because of his relationship with Zoey, and because he’s black. Are Charlie and Zoey even together anymore? We haven’t seen much of Zoey, and obviously we see Charlie, but only to fulfill his duties.

I find the show just likes to drop plot lines, so if they aren’t dating anymore, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Ainsley Hayes is a new character this season, she starts off by beating Sam on national television, and the president sees this and thinks they should hire her, even though she has opposing views. This really makes, not only Sam mad, but CJ as well. I do like how it takes time for them to warm to her.

Sam is floating around, helping write speeches and thinking his writing is no good. They bring up the call girl again, I’m really ready to throw this plot out the window. We also find out that Leo’s daughter is now dating someone, and Sam wants nothing to do with her… I’m sure that won’t last long. If those two end up together I won’t be surprised. But then again the way he acts around Ainsley I wouldn’t be surprised with that either.

Leo has gotten cheekier this season. All his dialogue is witty and less dry. I love his banter with his secretary Margaret, it’s hilarious! Margaret is a bit of a nut, but she works well with Leo.

CJ is having one crazy season, from dealing with the press, to dealing with the president, boy does she have a tough job. She makes fun of Notre Dame and that leads to her wearing an ugly hat to show her support of the school, ha! She is also asked to choose a turkey so that the president can pardon it. The time it takes for CJ to pick one, she gets attached to both, and makes the president pardon both of them.

She also tells Danny off, and my heart, just no. He has no problem dating her, it’s CJ who has the problem. She doesn’t want to date him while either of them have their current job, which I can relate to. It just sucks to watch it.

So Mandy has just been dropped from the show, even from the main title, no explanation, she’s just gone. I’m not too sad about it since I didn’t care for her character, she didn’t do anything for the show, and she only showed up every once in a while so her being gone for good doesn’t change much.

Just when you think they aren’t going to bring back Joey or Ainsley, they both appear in an episode.

It’s the State of the Union, and Jed is preparing himself for re-election, or so it seems. He has never agreed to run again, so when he had to make his speech shorter so certain things needed to be cut Abbey is not happy about that. At first it looks like it’s because they had a deal he would talk about women’s rights, instead he didn’t mention it at all, but chose to talk about school uniforms. We later find out to her it looks like re-election, and well to anyone it does, and they never agreed to that. She can’t stand by him and watch him fall apart with Multiple Sclerosis, MS.

This becomes a very, very big plot for the rest of the season. One by one they start to tell the staff about it because they have a right to know.

Jed and Leo sit down to dinner and that’s where Jed tells Leo that he only promised Abbey one term, and that is why the vice president is going against things he once stood for, he’s getting ready to become president. I have a feeling Jed will be president for another term. This is the dinner that turns the crank for everyone to find out about his condition.

They have to hire a lawyer because it has never been disclosed to anyone but a select handful of people that the president has MS, so it could look like Jed was omitting it on purpose.

Now I didn’t know much about MS before watching this, and to be honest I didn’t think it was that bad, but it actually really is. It’s constant pain.

On a lighter note, we find out that Ainsley has never met the president and when she does, oh man I laughed out loud it was so funny. I have to say the worst way to meet the president.

She gets a do-over, and well that isn’t any better. She hides in a closet, thinking it’s the bathroom.

Donna also spends a lot of time telling Josh to ask Joey out, and Josh thinks Donna is acting funny, this better not turn into some weird love triangle.

We finally meet another daughter of the president, his middle daughter Eleanor, only we meet her under not so great circumstances. As the president is in the process of firing the surgeon general because of some things she said about marijuana. That’s when Ellie comes in and states he would never do something like that. He’s obviously pissed that she interfered, but Ellie stands by her statement. We also learn that those two don’t have a very good relationship, it’s strained, like nothing she does is good enough for him. I’m a sucker for a father, daughter storyline. Obviously it all turned out well in the end and no one was fired.

Toby is hanging around, still putting out fires. Now he must ask his ex-wife for help and well that’s no easy feat. Only she manipulates him, which gives him the idea to do it right back, and yet they are both okay with this, they are a strange pairing.

There’s this episode near the end where all our main characters, well most of them (Josh, Sam & CJ) are writing letters to their parents and it’s narrated. It’s not the best, but I like that it gives us the viewer more into these character’s lives.

An episode goes into advocating for autistic kids, now it’s not a major plot and is only mentioned once, but I thought it was worth the mention. Man does the guy (who may be a senator I’m not 100% sure), who’s trying so hard is damn well taking a stand. His motivation is for his grandson who is autistic. He stands for hours without food or water, or going to the bathroom; he’s not allowed to lean, and he just reads from whatever he can find, one of those being a cookbook. I’m glad that it’s a positive outcome in the end, for all that it really should be.

As the season comes to a close, we couldn’t obviously let it be boring, it’s rather dramatic. They’ve roped in Joey to make a poll to see how the public would react to a governor having MS, and that will be helpful in telling the public because the results don’t come back positive at all. In fact they will probably lose a lot of the votes, and Jed’s presidency is at risk.
They plan to go public with the news at a specific time and place, with specific questions, because that’s not a recipe for disaster.

Also Mrs. Landingham is killed, WTF?!?! She just bought herself a brand new car, and she’s never had one before, and a drunk driver takes her life.

The season ends with Mrs. Landingham’s funeral, and I’m glad that they gave her the time because she deserved it. We also find out that Jed has known her for a very long time, since he was a kid (now I say kid, but I mean a 20-year-old). 
It’s her spirit that helps Jed pull himself together and face what’s to come. She’s always been the one to push him until the breaking point, and that’s what he has always needed. I think he’s going to be a little lost without her, but I also believe that there will always be a little part of her in him.

Jed has to face the United States of America and tell them he has MS, then he goes to a conference where there will be questions. He skips the advice CJ gives him and goes straight for the hard questions, which is, will he be planning on running for election next term…

And that’s where we leave it folks. I know the answer, the whole audience knows the answer, it just needs to be verbalized. I guess we’ll find out next season.

Until next time,