The West Wing: Enemies Rewatch

July 22, 2014 12:33 PM - Season 1, Episode 8

Word leaks out that Bartlet and the Vice President clashed at a cabinet meeting; Mallory invites Sam to the opera; Leo tries to prove a point to his daughter.

A crucial banking bill is at risk when political rivals of environmentally sensitive President Bartlet attach a land-use rider to it that would allow strip-mining some of the Montana wilderness. C.J. tries to stamp out rumors that the Chief Executive chastised the Vice President during a cabinet meeting. An overworked Leo isn't too keen on his independent daughter Mallory, dating the handsome Sam. C.J. continues to fend-off the romantic charms of a perceptive reporter with a knack for sniffing out juicy stories. Former lovers Mandy and Josh clash over the administration's attempt to jettison the land-use rider that might also ruin passage of the more important banking bill.

Director: Alan Taylor
Teleplay by: Ron Osborn & Jeff Reno
Story by: Rick Cleveland, Lawrence O'Donnell Jr & Patrick Caddell
If you listen very closely, you can hear Mandy's contract expiring in 14 episodes.

posted by ApathyGirl (17 comments total)

I really like episodes with Hoynes in them. He's interesting and not completely predictable and his little subplots are a little more complex than most of the other stuff going on.

(I'm talking about early in the series, not at the end with the crappy womanizing plot.)
posted by gerstle at 5:08 PM on July 22, 2014 [2 favorites]

The president is such a massive dick to Hoynes in this first scene, and never really apologises for it. This is a consistent character trend for him though, so fair play.

I don't know much about the business of law making in America, but is it really that easy to add junk amendments to bills?
posted by Cannon Fodder at 1:33 AM on July 23, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think it says a lot of good about the show that I keep seeing these synopses and thinking "really, that was just a few episodes into the first season?".

I think the lack of a traditional setup episode contributed to that; instead of starting with "hey, we just got elected! Lets roll up our sleeves, get to know our roles, and kick some stories into motion!", or doing self-contained "monster of the week" episodes for a couple of months, we're just dropped into a world where our characters and their relationships are fully established, and there are already half a dozen plotlines and minor crises going on in the background. Like the episodes that open with a hurried meeting in a corridor, it sends the message that there's a lot of fast-moving, complex stuff going on, and that you'd better pay attention.

I think this is a part of how the show gives the impression of being more intelligent and complex than it actually is. There's always the impression of having lots of moving parts in the background, even if we're never shown what they're connected to, and in the first few seasons it's quite rare that we're shown a neat beginning of something rather than just being dropped into the middle of a situation that's already moving fast. My impression is that the scripts are actually very forgiving to those who aren't paying close attention -- certainly more forgiving than, say, The Wire or Breaking Bad -- but the constant whirl of motion makes you feel smart for keeping up.

Also, I quite liked Mandy. She was occasionally funny and I like her accent, but more importantly she irritated Josh. Much as I love watching Josh, he absolutely needed someone around to challenge him and to puncture his ego from time to time.

(Maybe this all reads as being very critical, but it's not really intended as such. I've re-watched all of West Wing several times, and enjoyed the hell out of it. As much as anything else, I'm trying to pick apart why I like it so much.)
posted by metaBugs at 6:11 AM on July 23, 2014 [3 favorites]

I don't know much about the business of law making in America, but is it really that easy to add junk amendments to bills?

Depends on who's in charge, but procedurally, yeah, it's that easy.
posted by Etrigan at 8:30 AM on July 23, 2014

I love Bartlet's inane National Park trivia and especially the banter with Josh in the beginning. Resolution via the Antiquities Act and the creation of a National Park was just a little too tidy, though. Even for Sorkin.

Sam and Mallory have good chemistry, and while she annoys me on her own, I like her scenes with Sam. Luckily for me, that's most of her scenes. Also, I laugh at the correction to "A birthday message." Every time.

Hoynes really is an interesting character. He's angry, but never quite for exactly the reasons you'd expect, and despite how we're always in Bartlet's corner, you have to acknowledge that he basically screws John over at every opportunity.

I don't understand why Danny or ANYBODY thinks that Mildred the cabinet recorder shouldn't be fired. Surely the largest part of her job is discretion? Surely things get said in there that shouldn't be shared with the press until the appropriate time? She took advantage of her job to gossip about powerful people, to no good end. She should absolutely be fired!
posted by terilou at 9:18 PM on July 24, 2014 [3 favorites]

I don't understand why Danny or ANYBODY thinks that Mildred the cabinet recorder shouldn't be fired.

Especially given Charlie's speech in "Life on Mars" that touches off the Hoynes resignation:

There's a 73-year-old lady who works in the Residence, cleaning and winding all the clocks. She won't retire. She inherited it from her mother who inherited it from her mother. She earns $22,000 a year. She's trusted to walk in and out of rooms where there's personal correspondence, where she can hear if the President and First Lady are having a fight, where she can see people come for secret meetings, and she's been doing this for five decades worth of Presidents. Her name is Mrs. Wheely, and I said, "Mrs. Wheely, you really should write a book," and she said, "No, no, no, we don't do that." 22,000 a year.

posted by Etrigan at 4:36 AM on July 25, 2014 [2 favorites]

Also, I laugh at the correction to "A birthday message." Every time.

Yep, they're great together, and that exchange really captures the best of it. That line reliably cracks me up, after more re-watches than I'd care to admit.

Hoynes really is an interesting character. He's angry, but never quite for exactly the reasons you'd expect, and despite how we're always in Bartlet's corner, you have to acknowledge that he basically screws John over at every opportunity.

Yeah, I don't know if it's just my misinterpretation of the show, but I wonder sometimes whether we're into "unreliable narrator" territory with Hoynes. Bartlett and his team are our point of view into that world, and we're used to more or less believing what they tell us. So when they -- and therefore 90% of the show -- represent him as being consistently unreasonable and difficult to work with, it's really easy to get sucked into that. But, as you say, his reasons are generally more interesting and fair than you'd believe from watching any scene that he's not actually in, and especially when he's not being needled by them. Hoynes makes me drift back towards interpreting the series as the gang's memoirs, which helps to explain their consistently saintly intentions, impossible wit and knowledge, and cartoonishly evil opponents.
posted by metaBugs at 6:41 AM on July 25, 2014 [3 favorites]

I love the idea that it's all just reminiscence -- that does go a long way toward un-cartooning a lot of Sorkin's worst excesses.

Also, I see the Hoynes thing as an historical throwback -- for most of the history of the United States, the Vice President was significantly more marginalized than the last few have been. For instance, no VP attended a Cabinet meeting in the entire 19th Century. It wasn't regarded as a stepping stone to the Presidency, and in fact was seen by many as a way to get rid of people. Teddy Roosevelt was put on the McKinley ticket because the New York GOP wanted him the fuck out of New York but McKinley didn't want him as Secretary of War. Think about that -- VP was a demotion from Secretary of War.

The 20th Century didn't really see much of an improvement. Truman knew nothing about the Manhattan Project before becoming President. Eisenhower famously said when asked to name significant Nixon policy advice, "If you give me a week, I might think of one." (Ike insisted he was kidding, but he did say it.) The position was very much "Go to funerals and campaign events when the President can't be arsed, apply some muscle in Congress as needed."

Gore, Cheney and Biden have been different (though the jury's still out on Biden), but of course none of them existed in this universe. So Hoynes is trying to be that Deputy President that the position is now while still stuck in the era of the Vice Presidency not being "worth a bucket of warm spit."
posted by Etrigan at 8:20 AM on July 25, 2014 [1 favorite]

The Antiquities Act resolution is ... yes, overly tidy, and also a little silly. Nobody remembered that they had that power until Donna happened to say "antiquated"? Even while the president was spending the whole day lecturing people on random facts about the national parks?

(Also while I am nitpicking it's probably a good time for me to say that I find it funny and strange how many of Bartlet's supposedly super smartypants lectures are just, like, common knowledge from your 8th grade history textbook.)

But yeah. Hoynes is great, so I'm happy.
posted by gerstle at 9:33 AM on July 25, 2014

Nobody remembered that they had that power until Donna happened to say "antiquated"? Even while the president was spending the whole day lecturing people on random facts about the national parks?

I don't know why I had the impression that Bartlet more or less told Josh "I was wondering how long it would take someone to get the hint" -- did he do that to Sam at some point that I'm mixing it up with?
posted by Etrigan at 10:08 AM on July 25, 2014

Also, I laugh at the correction to "A birthday message." Every time.

One of the things I like about Sorkin's characters in general is that they take their work seriously and strive to do a good job. It's played for laughs here, but you can bet that you don't get to be Deputy White House Communications Director by just letting the little things slide, even if they don't belong on your desk. You do everything that comes your way to the best of your ability, whether it's buying oil tankers with a maze of paperwork so spidery no one will ever be able to pierce the liability shield or writing a birthday camessage.

They don't always succeed at the things they try to do, but every member of that staff could have "I really want to nail this." as a motto.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:07 PM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

I don't know why I had the impression that Bartlet more or less told Josh "I was wondering how long it would take someone to get the hint" -- did he do that to Sam at some point that I'm mixing it up with?

I know this was ages ago, but did you ever work this out? It has been nagging at me. All I can think of is the episode in which, during an election campaign, Bartlett criticises Ritchie as "a .22-caliber mind in a .357 Magnum world", ostensibly believing that the interviewer had stopped recording. Much of the episode is spent watching the gang try to manage the PR fallout, but eventually CJ challenges Bartlett about it, and IIRC he gives that sort of answer.
posted by metaBugs at 8:07 AM on August 10, 2014

BARTLET
I've been meaning to tell you, you've done really well this week with the open-mike thing.

C.J.
Thank you.

He slips on his glasses and looks up at her.

BARTLET
Didn't turn out too bad.

C.J.
No sir, it didn't turn out too bad at all. In fact, the whole country's talking about whether Ritchie's smart enough to be President. And you didn't take hit, 'cause it was an accident. You know, it occurs to me that even your choice of language was interesting. "A .22 caliber mind, in a .357 magnum world." That's unusual for you, a gun metaphor.

Bartlet doesn't look up, seeming to be engrossed in whatever he's reading.

C.J. [cont]
Toby mentioned to me that when each interview was over, all the interviewers wanted to talk to you about was Ritchie, and you took a pass each time. Until Philadelphia.

Now Bartlet slowly looks up at her.

C.J. [cont]
Mr. President, is it possible you saw that the green light was on?

He slips the glasses off and gives her an unreadable look.

ANNOUNCER [VO]
Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.

C.J. smiles.

C.J.
That was Old School.

He turns back to look at her.

C.J.
Go knock 'em dead.

Bartlet walks away from her towards the microphones as cameras flash. He reaches the bank of microphones, and nods to his audience.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:37 AM on August 10, 2014 [2 favorites]

Hmmm, so that's probably not what Etrigan was thinking about. Really fun scene, though!
posted by metaBugs at 9:46 AM on August 10, 2014

No, that wasn't it. I'm almost bloody certain that it was a loophole in some law or whatever like that, and Bartlet either said or all-but-said "Took you long enough."
posted by Etrigan at 10:43 AM on August 10, 2014

The worst thing about this is that I can't decide whether I actually half-remember this interaction, or I just find you weirdly convincing.
posted by metaBugs at 6:08 AM on August 12, 2014 [1 favorite]

I might be conflating it with a scene from "Down Periscope," where Kelsey Grammer pretends to be screwing up steering the sub and Lauren Holly has to jump in and save him, and later she asks, "How much longer were you going to pretend?" and he says, "About one second."

But I have no idea why I might have crossed those two scenes in my head.
posted by Etrigan at 7:25 AM on August 12, 2014