7.2/10. I enjoyed this one because they managed to sucker me in. When they showed Santos reading from cue-cards to talk to supporters, mastering the art of the pivot to the message of the day, and having no pushback about Josh’s urge not to take a stand on a California bill that would deny drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants, I thought we were heading to a bargain basement “you’ve changed, man” story. They even had one of Santos’s old colleagues and supporters give him the “we don’t even recognize you” speech. It struck me as implausible, that this guy who was such a champion of idealism would, however much you can handwave it via the unseen passage of time, would turn into such a spineless, go with the flow, Bob Russel equivalent so quickly.
But it was a feint on the part of the writers. Santos didn’t choose to hang back on the California bill because he’s making a cold calculation to help him win this race or because he’s forgotten where he came from or because he’s not the same ideological purist he was when he started, having been poisoned by Josh injecting “politics” into everything. Instead, he doesn’t want to make a statement because he doesn’t just want to be the Latino candidate, and however much he abhors that bill, he has a larger goal in mind that doesn’t have to involve winning the nomination.
It’s a goal of representation. Santos wants to stay in the race until Texas, even mortgaging his house to do it, so that he can stand up in front of all the kids from his neighborhood and be a real candidate, so that they see that they can be real candidates too, that their possibilities are endless. He doesn’t want to speak out on the bill because it will mean less coming from him than it will from the governor. He’s willing to stay silent about it not in the hopes that he can win a race that’s heavily tilted against him, but so he can get back to his home state and stand for something greater than himself, something that his old friend, and everyone else will recognize.
Of course, this being The West Wing, it all works out for him anyway. But the show earns that turn in two ways.
The big one is it has Josh agonize over whether he’s doing the right thing. I appreciate that this episode flipped Josh and Santos’s usual roles here. Santos was the full steam ahead/we have to keep fighting guy and Josh was the one telling everyone to slow down and think about the real issue. Having him feel the guilt of the Santos family staking their financial future on what he quickly realizes may be a lost cause is a nice beat for him. It helps show Josh’s empathetic side, and putting him in the position of someone who is trying not to ruin someone’s life, not to blow up Santos’s family by making them mortgage their house or have Matt return to the capital to pay for it, who’s calling Leo every ten minutes to ask if he’s doing the right thing, is a good look.
The other way it earns that is by having the good fortune that benefits Santos come from Donna’s hard work and good instincts. One of the most gratifying things about this season has been watching Donna live up to her potential. Seeing her be the one who realizes something is amiss with Hoynes’s campaign, doggedly pursue the issue and manage to sic the press on it, and then successfully knock her candidate’s most significant opponent out of the race is a big win for her, and “La Palabra” shows the character’s ingenuity and talent in getting it.
It’s a little convenient, but in the age of Anthony Weiner (and I guess before that, Bill Clinton) the prospect of successive sex scandals is not particularly implausible. At the same time, Santos being able to get the governor of California’s endorsement without actually getting it, and being able to speak against the bill of the day without actually speaking against it, is also a bit strained in terms of plausibility. And yet, for the most part, the episode gets the audience where it wants them to go, and the thrill of Santos winning California and having renewed life headed into his home state is a happy thing.
The episode succeeds despite these conveniences (and some facepalm-worthy dialogue) and gives us the best character-focused Santos episode yet. In the end, Santos is a good man, struggling between being true to his roots without being seen as nothing but a product of his roots, and finding, however conveniently, a way to be both.
(My one small beef is that initially it seems like Santos basically agrees to mortgage his house and return to Congress without so much as consulting his wife, which is really reprehensible. That said, the show addresses it (in a somewhat rushed fashion, but it’s enough) and gives Mrs. Santos some good moments that show her frustration with not wanting to squelch her husband’s ambitions but also not wanting to have to compromise again and again for him, that show she knows what they’re getting into with open eyes.)
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-10-01T22:20:23Z
7.2/10. I enjoyed this one because they managed to sucker me in. When they showed Santos reading from cue-cards to talk to supporters, mastering the art of the pivot to the message of the day, and having no pushback about Josh’s urge not to take a stand on a California bill that would deny drivers’ licenses to illegal immigrants, I thought we were heading to a bargain basement “you’ve changed, man” story. They even had one of Santos’s old colleagues and supporters give him the “we don’t even recognize you” speech. It struck me as implausible, that this guy who was such a champion of idealism would, however much you can handwave it via the unseen passage of time, would turn into such a spineless, go with the flow, Bob Russel equivalent so quickly.
But it was a feint on the part of the writers. Santos didn’t choose to hang back on the California bill because he’s making a cold calculation to help him win this race or because he’s forgotten where he came from or because he’s not the same ideological purist he was when he started, having been poisoned by Josh injecting “politics” into everything. Instead, he doesn’t want to make a statement because he doesn’t just want to be the Latino candidate, and however much he abhors that bill, he has a larger goal in mind that doesn’t have to involve winning the nomination.
It’s a goal of representation. Santos wants to stay in the race until Texas, even mortgaging his house to do it, so that he can stand up in front of all the kids from his neighborhood and be a real candidate, so that they see that they can be real candidates too, that their possibilities are endless. He doesn’t want to speak out on the bill because it will mean less coming from him than it will from the governor. He’s willing to stay silent about it not in the hopes that he can win a race that’s heavily tilted against him, but so he can get back to his home state and stand for something greater than himself, something that his old friend, and everyone else will recognize.
Of course, this being The West Wing, it all works out for him anyway. But the show earns that turn in two ways.
The big one is it has Josh agonize over whether he’s doing the right thing. I appreciate that this episode flipped Josh and Santos’s usual roles here. Santos was the full steam ahead/we have to keep fighting guy and Josh was the one telling everyone to slow down and think about the real issue. Having him feel the guilt of the Santos family staking their financial future on what he quickly realizes may be a lost cause is a nice beat for him. It helps show Josh’s empathetic side, and putting him in the position of someone who is trying not to ruin someone’s life, not to blow up Santos’s family by making them mortgage their house or have Matt return to the capital to pay for it, who’s calling Leo every ten minutes to ask if he’s doing the right thing, is a good look.
The other way it earns that is by having the good fortune that benefits Santos come from Donna’s hard work and good instincts. One of the most gratifying things about this season has been watching Donna live up to her potential. Seeing her be the one who realizes something is amiss with Hoynes’s campaign, doggedly pursue the issue and manage to sic the press on it, and then successfully knock her candidate’s most significant opponent out of the race is a big win for her, and “La Palabra” shows the character’s ingenuity and talent in getting it.
It’s a little convenient, but in the age of Anthony Weiner (and I guess before that, Bill Clinton) the prospect of successive sex scandals is not particularly implausible. At the same time, Santos being able to get the governor of California’s endorsement without actually getting it, and being able to speak against the bill of the day without actually speaking against it, is also a bit strained in terms of plausibility. And yet, for the most part, the episode gets the audience where it wants them to go, and the thrill of Santos winning California and having renewed life headed into his home state is a happy thing.
The episode succeeds despite these conveniences (and some facepalm-worthy dialogue) and gives us the best character-focused Santos episode yet. In the end, Santos is a good man, struggling between being true to his roots without being seen as nothing but a product of his roots, and finding, however conveniently, a way to be both.
(My one small beef is that initially it seems like Santos basically agrees to mortgage his house and return to Congress without so much as consulting his wife, which is really reprehensible. That said, the show addresses it (in a somewhat rushed fashion, but it’s enough) and gives Mrs. Santos some good moments that show her frustration with not wanting to squelch her husband’s ambitions but also not wanting to have to compromise again and again for him, that show she knows what they’re getting into with open eyes.)