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shallownessI think I watched these episodes in 2024, and listened to the podcast in 2025.
7.18 Requiem
Such an impressive and touching opening scene of Leo’s funeral. No words other than those of the service, but it felt like almost everyone was there as well as the regulars, Mallory and her guy (or that’s who I presumed he was, even if they were slow on that uptake on the podcast) who got to be one of the pallbearers, the Bartlet daughters, Andi with Toby, the Veeps, Joey Lucas. Testament to the fact that this really was prestige television, and a tribute to the show and John Spencer that these actors, many of whom didn’t get a line, turned up to mourn Leo. (Maybe Leo’s sister should have been there, but maybe she was.)
The personal (the mourning and two romances) and the politicking entwined, as Santos and Josh had to hash out the transition team, without Leo with his experience, mainly focusing on who would be Speaker. The interview with the third man was brilliant – like Hrishi on the podcast, I was left thinking the man shouldn’t have been elected, let alone be up for such a serious post, and it was clear that Santos and Josh were thinking the same thing.
Other positions were not yet settled, particularly the lower ranks, affecting the characters we’d come to know on the campaign trail, but mainly represented by Donna. She was also in the awkward position of her and Josh trying to figure out what was next for them as a couple. He had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth, while she seemed slightly more wised up. Slightly. The problem that they weren’t public knowledge arose, especially when Amy appeared, campaigning for a woman to be VP. (I took Santos’s point, sadly, about him being the paradigm shift, but I totally felt Amy’s point that they should be going for the best person. But aside from all that, wasn’t Baker somewhat tainted goods?) Amy was also trying to set Josh up with someone else, to Donna’s face. There was no follow-up to Santos offering her Director of Legislative Affairs, although on the podcast, they took from her smile that she’d take it, even as they suggested that she should have stuck to her agenda on the VP pick.
Some of the Josh/Donna awkwardness was mirrored by the CJ/Danny, where, in the midst of a lot of grief and changing of the guard, CJ was enjoying the sex, even if the serious talking was on hold. But the plan to have some more sex was ridiculously compromised because Donna had asked if she could stay over. Like Danny, I thought CJ could have just said she was going over to someone else’s house. She didn’t even have to clarify whose, but CJ was as antsy about making their relationship public as Donna was about doing the same with Josh, because there was history, I presumed. Though I was convinced Donna would be able to infer that there was something going on between CJ and Danny if not deduce exactly what given that she could see their body language as CJ told him the date was off. Donna didn’t seem to have, she must have been distracted by worrying about what her position would be.
And then there was the grief, with Abbey worrying over Jed, who seemed to put on a performance, first at the thing in the White House and then later, in a more intimate setting (that seemed to be slightly more for regular cast members than who might actually be there.) There were lovely grace notes, like Jed giving space and time to Margaret, because of her relationship with Leo.
Before that too, we’d had Charlie saying he’d walk out of the cathedral with Toby, showing that he wasn’t persona non grata with him, and also proving his loyalty to Donna was lovely. Not shown: any interaction between Charlie and Zoey.
But Jed had a paternal hug or word for Charlie, CJ and Josh, who was particularly feeling the lack of Leo as he looked to take over his role and needed his advice as Santos started to make decisions. I liked that Santos had come to realise that Josh’s argument about staying out of the fight for Speaker was right, and that he spoke to his old friend as someone who was aware that he was going to become the leader of the Democratic Party (presumably in waiting.) But on the podcast, they noted Josh’s insecurity as incoming chief of staff and that this back and forth with Santos was something we’d seen repeatedly, which was true enough.
7.19 Transition
This was more about the politics and Josh’s spiralling. That he went to ask Sam to be his deputy was, as referenced, a nice callback. (They took issue with it being pointed out by the show on the podcast.) The banter between Sam and Josh was refreshingly excellent, and absent Toby and with CJ refusing to join the team, Josh needed someone who could and did stand up to him. As we saw play out. And he was offering Sam the job that he’d long coveted of being in the room… Also the contrast of handsome, well-polished Sam and Josh in his current state was evident.
I didn’t mind the commentary on their relationship as it was going on, but I will say before I forget that Bartlet having Santos act out what he was going to say to the Canadian PM and most of the spelling out that happened after the reveal that Bartlet and Santos had worked up the stuff about Kazakhstan between them was a bit much. I’d got it already, thanks! (But only when that scene started.) They critiqued their keeping this so close that their chiefs of staff didn’t know on the podcast, and raised the fair point that Kazakhstan was being used unfairly as a muddled shorthand for Central Asia.
Before that, I was thinking that the incoming administration needed to decide on the VP and a foreign affairs adviser badly. But there were a lot of things to fix and Chief of Staff Josh was running ragged, as everybody observed. His return to his flat (which didn’t look like the UB40 regaling flat) just made me wonder how they, especially Josh, even lived their lives having spent the last year criss-crossing the country. I was impressed that he had so many dry cleaned shirts hanging about!
Donna turned up to not talk, though she’d also given him an ultimatum for how long they had to have a talk and figure things out, but he couldn’t even relax the morning after, and turned up early at work, unrested. I thought Josh was getting nasty towards Otto already, but they played the scene where he was completely unreasonable and humiliated him perfectly, and Sam was able to stand up to him. I hadn’t picked up the similarities to his meltdown ‘Noel’ consciously, I admit.
Before that, Josh had had to give Lou a much truncated job offer – I was almost surprised that she’d walk away. She’d pushed so hard to be Josh’s equal in the campaign, here it seemed as though she’d melted away to let him be Chief of Staff (if threatened by the head of transition and what he thought were his bad calls.) The stuff about money being vindication that she was the smartest felt true. Josh countered that she’d never do anything as interesting or important, and the sense that she could hold him to account and had enough savvy to do the job well…of course, the point of the scene was her line about not having a life landing hard with Josh, who’d already told Donna that he didn’t think he had it in him to work out what they had. (Oh, Josh, no. It’s been over eight years in the making. A better rested you would regret it.)
Josh needed a holiday! This got through his skull, thanks to Sam (and Lou, and Donna.) They got into Lou not seeming to have considered continuing doing the job she’d been doing in Government and caving awfully quickly on the podcast.
Helen offered Donna an important job that made use of her talents (and ha, a job that Amy had once had) and meant that Josh was no longer her boss. And they have built Helen and Donna’s dynamic, although some of that has been Donna telling Helen hard truths (kudos to Helen for appreciating that, as Santos does from the staff.) I’d love a scene between Abbey and Helen, actually, as Helen had to adjust to really being First Lady in waiting.
CJ was fabulous, most of all when she still had the authority to school Josh about Santos’s phone call to the Chinese (which was out of Josh’s control.) But the fact that she could pull on the authority of being the current President’s voice, and was doing what Josh’s job would be emphasised why she couldn’t work for him.
It was almost shocking to see Nancy back in the Sit Room, as it feels like it’s been so long.
And as said on the podcast, with Sam returning and Josh and Donna possibly, maybe looking as if they had a chance, we were transitioning towards happyish endings that we might not have got had the show continued.
7.18 Requiem
Such an impressive and touching opening scene of Leo’s funeral. No words other than those of the service, but it felt like almost everyone was there as well as the regulars, Mallory and her guy (or that’s who I presumed he was, even if they were slow on that uptake on the podcast) who got to be one of the pallbearers, the Bartlet daughters, Andi with Toby, the Veeps, Joey Lucas. Testament to the fact that this really was prestige television, and a tribute to the show and John Spencer that these actors, many of whom didn’t get a line, turned up to mourn Leo. (Maybe Leo’s sister should have been there, but maybe she was.)
The personal (the mourning and two romances) and the politicking entwined, as Santos and Josh had to hash out the transition team, without Leo with his experience, mainly focusing on who would be Speaker. The interview with the third man was brilliant – like Hrishi on the podcast, I was left thinking the man shouldn’t have been elected, let alone be up for such a serious post, and it was clear that Santos and Josh were thinking the same thing.
Other positions were not yet settled, particularly the lower ranks, affecting the characters we’d come to know on the campaign trail, but mainly represented by Donna. She was also in the awkward position of her and Josh trying to figure out what was next for them as a couple. He had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth, while she seemed slightly more wised up. Slightly. The problem that they weren’t public knowledge arose, especially when Amy appeared, campaigning for a woman to be VP. (I took Santos’s point, sadly, about him being the paradigm shift, but I totally felt Amy’s point that they should be going for the best person. But aside from all that, wasn’t Baker somewhat tainted goods?) Amy was also trying to set Josh up with someone else, to Donna’s face. There was no follow-up to Santos offering her Director of Legislative Affairs, although on the podcast, they took from her smile that she’d take it, even as they suggested that she should have stuck to her agenda on the VP pick.
Some of the Josh/Donna awkwardness was mirrored by the CJ/Danny, where, in the midst of a lot of grief and changing of the guard, CJ was enjoying the sex, even if the serious talking was on hold. But the plan to have some more sex was ridiculously compromised because Donna had asked if she could stay over. Like Danny, I thought CJ could have just said she was going over to someone else’s house. She didn’t even have to clarify whose, but CJ was as antsy about making their relationship public as Donna was about doing the same with Josh, because there was history, I presumed. Though I was convinced Donna would be able to infer that there was something going on between CJ and Danny if not deduce exactly what given that she could see their body language as CJ told him the date was off. Donna didn’t seem to have, she must have been distracted by worrying about what her position would be.
And then there was the grief, with Abbey worrying over Jed, who seemed to put on a performance, first at the thing in the White House and then later, in a more intimate setting (that seemed to be slightly more for regular cast members than who might actually be there.) There were lovely grace notes, like Jed giving space and time to Margaret, because of her relationship with Leo.
Before that too, we’d had Charlie saying he’d walk out of the cathedral with Toby, showing that he wasn’t persona non grata with him, and also proving his loyalty to Donna was lovely. Not shown: any interaction between Charlie and Zoey.
But Jed had a paternal hug or word for Charlie, CJ and Josh, who was particularly feeling the lack of Leo as he looked to take over his role and needed his advice as Santos started to make decisions. I liked that Santos had come to realise that Josh’s argument about staying out of the fight for Speaker was right, and that he spoke to his old friend as someone who was aware that he was going to become the leader of the Democratic Party (presumably in waiting.) But on the podcast, they noted Josh’s insecurity as incoming chief of staff and that this back and forth with Santos was something we’d seen repeatedly, which was true enough.
7.19 Transition
This was more about the politics and Josh’s spiralling. That he went to ask Sam to be his deputy was, as referenced, a nice callback. (They took issue with it being pointed out by the show on the podcast.) The banter between Sam and Josh was refreshingly excellent, and absent Toby and with CJ refusing to join the team, Josh needed someone who could and did stand up to him. As we saw play out. And he was offering Sam the job that he’d long coveted of being in the room… Also the contrast of handsome, well-polished Sam and Josh in his current state was evident.
I didn’t mind the commentary on their relationship as it was going on, but I will say before I forget that Bartlet having Santos act out what he was going to say to the Canadian PM and most of the spelling out that happened after the reveal that Bartlet and Santos had worked up the stuff about Kazakhstan between them was a bit much. I’d got it already, thanks! (But only when that scene started.) They critiqued their keeping this so close that their chiefs of staff didn’t know on the podcast, and raised the fair point that Kazakhstan was being used unfairly as a muddled shorthand for Central Asia.
Before that, I was thinking that the incoming administration needed to decide on the VP and a foreign affairs adviser badly. But there were a lot of things to fix and Chief of Staff Josh was running ragged, as everybody observed. His return to his flat (which didn’t look like the UB40 regaling flat) just made me wonder how they, especially Josh, even lived their lives having spent the last year criss-crossing the country. I was impressed that he had so many dry cleaned shirts hanging about!
Donna turned up to not talk, though she’d also given him an ultimatum for how long they had to have a talk and figure things out, but he couldn’t even relax the morning after, and turned up early at work, unrested. I thought Josh was getting nasty towards Otto already, but they played the scene where he was completely unreasonable and humiliated him perfectly, and Sam was able to stand up to him. I hadn’t picked up the similarities to his meltdown ‘Noel’ consciously, I admit.
Before that, Josh had had to give Lou a much truncated job offer – I was almost surprised that she’d walk away. She’d pushed so hard to be Josh’s equal in the campaign, here it seemed as though she’d melted away to let him be Chief of Staff (if threatened by the head of transition and what he thought were his bad calls.) The stuff about money being vindication that she was the smartest felt true. Josh countered that she’d never do anything as interesting or important, and the sense that she could hold him to account and had enough savvy to do the job well…of course, the point of the scene was her line about not having a life landing hard with Josh, who’d already told Donna that he didn’t think he had it in him to work out what they had. (Oh, Josh, no. It’s been over eight years in the making. A better rested you would regret it.)
Josh needed a holiday! This got through his skull, thanks to Sam (and Lou, and Donna.) They got into Lou not seeming to have considered continuing doing the job she’d been doing in Government and caving awfully quickly on the podcast.
Helen offered Donna an important job that made use of her talents (and ha, a job that Amy had once had) and meant that Josh was no longer her boss. And they have built Helen and Donna’s dynamic, although some of that has been Donna telling Helen hard truths (kudos to Helen for appreciating that, as Santos does from the staff.) I’d love a scene between Abbey and Helen, actually, as Helen had to adjust to really being First Lady in waiting.
CJ was fabulous, most of all when she still had the authority to school Josh about Santos’s phone call to the Chinese (which was out of Josh’s control.) But the fact that she could pull on the authority of being the current President’s voice, and was doing what Josh’s job would be emphasised why she couldn’t work for him.
It was almost shocking to see Nancy back in the Sit Room, as it feels like it’s been so long.
And as said on the podcast, with Sam returning and Josh and Donna possibly, maybe looking as if they had a chance, we were transitioning towards happyish endings that we might not have got had the show continued.
