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The West Wing, Season 2, Episode 19 (Patreon)

Published:
2023-07-04 20:58:04
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Bad Moon Rising

Files

Previews only

The West Wing, Season 2, Episode 19

Bad Moon Rising

Comments

MarkyO

Welp. Back to my hotel room.

Max F.

In my opinion, this is probably the best cold opening of the series. The writing in the entire episode is a master class, with major and minor call backs (Sam and the tanker, 2nd Lieutenant Emily Lowenbrow, and 'an old friend from home'), exposition that doubles and masquades as a character introduction and is a microcosm of every character and why we love them. I am glad you are enjoying this series as much as you are, as I look forward to your reactions (especially to this season) every time.

Martin Nicholls

Ballers is one of my all-time favourite TV shows, and I absolutely hate American Football - It was like 3 episodes in I predicted that John David Washington would have a bigger acting career than his father in years to come (which is a huge claim but I still believe it), and he isn't disappointing so far. I put it on the same page as Succession rather than Entourage - though they absolutely did sell it as that. There is actually a bunch of cast crossover with West WIng.

Zachary Loeser

Lol this entire reaction I had to keep from yelling “TOBY WAS THE LEAK!” Also, this episode solidifies Bartlet as the ideal leader: “don’t you ever lie to protect me.”

Zachary Loeser
>>112191700

The West Wing is chock full of incredible cold opens, and you could point to almost any episode at random in the second season and find one that ends up being someone's favorite. I have a hard time picking between "Galileo", "Noël," and "17 People" - with "Bad Moon Rising" and "18th and Potomac" probably rounding out my top 5.

Luca Siracusa (Bob)

"I'm confident in your loyalty to me. I'm confident in your love for me. If you lie to protect me, if you lie just once, if you lie just a little, if you lie 'cause you can't stand what's happening to me and the people making it happen, if you ever, ever lie...you're finished with me, you understand?" This is what a real man does. This is how you handle it: how you protect all the world as much as you can and take it all yourself. This is how you treat the one that loves you, the one who'd stand by your side but don't need the bullet towards you. Just three episode from the Season finale and here we are: we've always said as much as you thought The West Wing was on the accelerator, this show just continue to gain speed and force EVERY episode and you're feeling it. Bartlet is in the quiet before the storm and he's ready to face it. His eyes don't light up like some time ago; he knows what's happening, he knows what's coming and he's building himself a wall around his own body. To protect himself and to shield the others from what's coming for him. At this point of the show you can't stop, you can't block the running, you just have to face it, you just have to look at it right in the eye and say one single thing: BRING IT ON

Jack

Oh yay! I can finally recount an anecdote about the precision of Aaron’s writing now. It’s an extract from The West Wing Weekly, but it’s strictly about this episode, no spoilers; and it’s a story told by Oliver Platt (who plays Oliver Babbage): “This particular rehearsal and the experience of being the first episode, … [Aaron] said “Just make it your own. I really want you to make it your own.” I was coming a little bit more from the movie world where scripts are a lot more fluid. You know what I mean? So then I’m flying in on the plane, I was sort of crossing stuff out and going “You know what, I’ll probably say this instead.” And we get to the rehearsal, ok, and everyone’s arrayed around this table, and you know Aaron’s just very kindly introducing me and then he’s reading logistical notes. Marty, who I’m sitting next to, raises his hand, just stops everybody out of the blue, and he said - he very clearly had a question about the script - and Aaron walks slowly back around, looks over his shoulder, and Martin literally says “you know, I really think that this is-“ and I’m not exaggerating here, “-I really think this is a ‘but’, not an ‘and’.” And Aaron looked down at the page and it seemed like- it was probably only about 15 seconds but it felt like an hour, and then he finally said “Let me think about that” and then he slowly walked out. You can imagine my flippin’ blood froze because I had eleven pages of dialogue the next day that I had sort of like very loosely committed to memory. You know, it’s sort of poetic justice that that character was supposed to be incredibly tired in that first scene, having stayed up all night because in fact, I had.”

Mithroch

Richard Schiff has a sort of background part in the first season or two of House of Lies (Don Cheadle, Kristen Bell)... a show I think you guys would dig.

Mallorie

This is one of my favorite episodes, probably because of my love of Oliver Platt and the incredibly humorous introduction we get of his character, juxtaposed with the ending of Bartlett talking to Charlie and the Oliver talking to Bartlett. Joe- Three Musketeers is my favorite Platt movie ever! “This sash was a gift to me from the Queen of America!” Flatliners is another great movie Platt is in. Also- if you like “B” movies, check out the podcast “How Did This Get Made?” With regard to the conversation you two had before the episode, the MS would not have changed who was or was not in charge while Bartlett was under anesthesia from a gunshot. However, I completely agree about the example diabetes vs MS. One of them can be treated medically and with diet and does not have such an effect on cognitive and executive functions; decision making.

Joy M

Check out a movie called The Contender starring Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges. It’s about a VP dying and the hearings around the president wanting to have a female replace him by appointment.

Jack

The problem with the whole "private person" / "public person" thing is that it's both hard to draw the line between public and private persons, and also hard to draw the line on where privacy ends in either case. It's obvious that the President is a public person, and a dentist is a private person, but what about a public servant who didn't run for elected office but whose personal conduct can impact their job working for the public? Or a very minor elected official - do they have a somewhat diminished expectation of privacy, but not as diminished as the President, or are they just in exactly the same category as the President or a generic private person? And then where do you draw the expectation of privacy line for those public and private persons anyway? The law attempts to do so for private persons. But there is still a line even for someone like the President: we wouldn't think it acceptable for the press to put listening devices in their bedroom or to leak comprehensive medical records for example; so you get into the whole "is it in the public interest?" question and again there's no clear line: someone's got to make that decision. Your example of pregnancy is a perfect one: many people would say that is in the public interest, and many others would say it is not. I don't have an answer for this, but we do need to be cognizant that even public persons do have some expectation of privacy, and so it's very valid to ask which side of the line a degenerative cognitive illness such as MS falls. P.S. if you're interested both Jacinda Ardern (P.M. of New Zealand at the time) and Benazir Bhutto (P.M. of India at the time) gave birth while in office.

Gayle Dick

Richard Schiff was in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency which I enjoyed too.

Gayle Dick

Lake Placid and The Negotiator are both great popcorn movies!

Jack

Last comment from me: Richard Schiff was in 10-minutes of a film called Pentagon Wars, his segment is on YouTube in a quick 10 min video which is worth watching. I could actually imagine it being part of a WW plot. It's entertaining as well, although obviously the writing isn't quite up to WW standards.

Ville Vainio

Charlie and Bartlett is propably my favorite relationship in the series, their chemistry is so palpable, you really believe they respect and love one another. The "don't lie"- scene and the "carving knife"- scene make me cry every time. Also, I like how Donna is the basically the viewer throughout the series, and exposition comes through her character, makes it more organic when it's prompted by her inquiries.

Balazs Foldes

Love this episode, and loved your reactions, guys. The one plotline which is a bit of an off one out for me here is the Mexico bailout. I mean, it's a nice thing so that Josh and Donna has something to do, but seems to unrelated to everything. Now that I think about it, it may help the script underline the aspect of the staff that these are a band of people who are dedicated and want to do good. Donna understands and accept Josh's arguments: we can help, so we must. This is an important point in the MS story. Yes, Bartler may have been wrong by keeping this a secret, but these people are good, want to do good, and this fits nicely with the 'Bring It On' sentiment - we must not be afraid of the issue, and we must repair the mistakes in an honest and open manner, because that's the only choice worthy of us.

Roland

So the topic of leaks and leaders comes up with a degree of regularity during the show, there are even examples of controlled leaks. There's a leak story arc that comes up later in the show that caused a behind-the-scenes rift, the actor involved said that his or her character wouldn't do that. The point is debatable, but I'd recommend paying attention to the personalities involved in the various leaks / leak discussions as the show goes along, see which side of the argument you will (eventually) come down on.

Laura Dawson
>>112217720

Oh, I loved Dirk Gently! It was such a fun show and Richard Schiff was great in it! Plus, Ted from Schitt’s Creek was in it too!

Weird Magic

The Big Hammer!! Originally airing on April 25, 2001, 'Bad Moon Rising' is Episode 19 of Season 2 of The West Wing. It is the 41st episode overall and has an IMDB rating of 8.7, placing it as the #9 ranked episode of this season and #12 out of all the episodes shown so far.

Joy M

Did anyone notice that Oliver’s assistant was played by Eric Stonestreet from Modern Family?

Pam Nail
>>112216103

Such a good movie! And an especially good portrayal of the kind of questioning a male candidate would never be subjected to.

Pam Nail

Richard Schiff was also briefly in Seven -- without facial hair, which is maybe the scariest thing in the movie. The comment about Babish's gavel being a gift from Brandeis has always made me wonder if Sorkin expected John Larroquette to be back as Tribbey and they just couldn't get him. Whatever the reason for the recast, I love seeing Oliver Platt join the show. He instantly gives off the impression that he is someone to be taken seriously. This is (I think) the first episode since Somebody's Going to Emergency... that I notice those four chords from the Eagles' song make their way into the score for the show. You hear them in the final scene, and it's such a great through-line for the last arc of episodes.

Taylor

One of my favorite Charlie/Bartlet scenes of the whole series. When the show started a lot of previous White House staffers were interviewed and asked how true to reality the portrayals in the show were. The one thing almost everyone agreed on was that the relationship between the President and Charlie was the most accurate. The President’s body man really is his right hand most of the time, so they always have a very close relationship. There’s even an amazing story about how Obama once walked into his body man, Reggie Love’s, hotel room unannounced while Reggie had a “friend” in bed with him.

Kat Oliver

Richard Schiff, has been in The Good Doctor as a main character. He has also been in Mom, also with Allison Janney. But my favorite performance was in Heaven, he really showed his depth in that movie.

Ana Mony

love all of Oliver acting and the most recent I think it's Chicago Med where it's not as perfect but fun to watch 😝

Youtalkingtome
>>112216501

The right answer i've settled on is: It just depends. I wish I could have a more thoughtful answer but it's true.

Youtalkingtome
>>112224663

Nicely said. I agree about the Mexico subplot but you're probably right. It shows the willingness that they all have for this administration.

Youtalkingtome
>>112261849

I did not! So Joe had a theatre professor in college who knows him and went to college with him! Great actor!

Youtalkingtome
>>112262604

HE IS IN SEVEN! I forgot all about that. Yeah I was wondering the same thing. I wonder if they just couldn't book him. Their characters are different but very similar.

Jack
>>112256350

It is crazy that something with a rating of 8.7 can be the 9th ranked episode of the season.

MrRuss50

Strangely enough Richard Schiff had a cameo on Entourage. Playing "himself" in a meeting with Ari, his agent, he talks about wanting Ari to get him a role as a tough guy in a Scorsese movie. Funny scene.

Youtalkingtome
>>112456479

I haven't seen all of Entourage, but I do love movies and shows that take you the behind the scenes of Hollywood.