In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I

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“In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I”
The West Wing episode
Episode no. Season 2
Episode 23
Guest stars Stockard Channing
Timothy Busfield
Tim Matheson
Elisabeth Moss
Michael O'Neill
Jorja Fox
Anna Deavere Smith
Kathryn Joosten
NiCole Robinson
Daniel von Bargen
Michael Bryan French
Pamela Gordon
Andy Umberger
Jim Ortlieb
Peter White
Ernie Lively
Jody Wood
Written by Aaron Sorkin
Directed by Thomas Schlamme
Production no. 226201
Original airdate
Season 2 episodes
  1. In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I
  2. In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part II
  3. The Midterms
  4. In This White House
  5. And It's Surely To Their Credit
  6. The Lame Duck Congress
  7. The Portland Trip
  8. Shibboleth
  9. Galileo
  10. Noël
  11. The Leadership Breakfast
  12. The Drop-In
  13. Bartlet's Third State of the Union
  14. The War at Home
  15. Ellie
  16. Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail
  17. The Stackhouse Filibuster
  18. 17 People
  19. Bad Moon Rising
  20. The Fall's Gonna Kill You
  21. 18th and Potomac
  22. Two Cathedrals
List of The West Wing episodes

"In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I" is the 23rd episode of The West Wing.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

The Bartlet Administration is in chaos—an assassination attempt has left the White House (not to mention the country) reeling. Who was hit? Was anyone killed? Who did it? And why? As those questions are explored, the episode includes flashbacks detailing how the Administration came to be. To handle all the implications of the domestic and international crises, Vice President Hoynes takes the reins.

[edit] Plot

President Bartlet is rushed back towards the White House … but the limo has to turn around quickly when it's discovered he's been hit in the side. Back at the scene of the shooting, Toby discovers that Josh has been shot in the chest. He is rushed to GW along with the President. Mrs. Bartlet and most of the staff rush to the hospital. Abbey has to tell one of the doctors about the President's MS.

Meanwhile, Leo goes back to the West Wing and meets with the Vice President, the National Security Advisor Nancy McNally, and others in the Situation Room. Nancy warns Leo that she thinks the country may be under attack from foreign powers and that Iraq might be at the source. There is some confusion over who is in charge, since the President did not sign a letter transferring authority over to the Vice President before he went into surgery.

While Bartlet undergoes minor surgery (the bullet "seems to have gone out of its way not to hit anything"), Josh remains in critical condition and must undergo major surgery.

Through the course of flashbacks, we see how Josh first came to be a member of Bartlet's election campaign. He was working for John Hoynes when Leo came and convinced him to visit Bartlet in New Hampshire during an early speech (Josh believes it will be a waste of time). Along the way, he stops in New York to talk to Sam Seaborn, who is working at the law firm of Gage Whitney Pace helping an oil company purchase old tankers. Josh asks him to come work for Hoynes; Sam turns him down, but says that if Bartlet turns out to be "the real thing" he'll come with Josh.

Toby also remembers his early days with the campaign. On the night of the speech, Toby was drinking heavily, believing Leo was going to fire him that night. Instead, Leo fires the other senior members of the campaign staff but keeps Toby.

Governor Bartlet is unsure if running for president is a good idea, despite his track record of never losing an election (although Leo points out that being elected to the House and then governor of a state his family helped found is not all that impressive). Leo assures his old friend that he's the right man, and that "this is the time of Jed Bartlet."

Back in the hospital, Bartlet comes out of surgery all right and visits Josh, who is still undergoing his own operation.

[edit] Trivia

  • In her series debut in this epsisode, National Security Advisor Nancy McNally worries about not knowing where Osama bin Laden is in the midst of a discussion concerning Iraq. This episode aired almost a year before the real-life 9/11 terrorist attacks.
  • Mandy Hampton, a Season One regular who appeared in the episode directly preceding this one, here disappears from the series without any explanation whatsoever.

[edit] Quotes

Nurse: Do you have any medical conditions?
Bartlet: Well, I've been shot.

Josh: The Democrats aren't going to nominate another liberal, academic, former governor from New England. We're dumb but we're not that dumb.
Leo: Nah, I think we're exactly that dumb.

Leo: Because I'm tired of it. Year after year after year after year having to choose between the lesser of who cares. Of trying to get myself excited about a candidate who can speak in complete sentences. Of setting the bar so low, I can hardly bear to look at it. They say a good man can't get elected President. I don't believe that. Do you?

[edit] External links