The West Wing: Episode Three

John Wells tries to be funny this week and fails.

We open with Josh, Toby and Will arriving at the White House and still looking for a missing Leo. After some not so witty banter they agree he must be in Foggy Bottom, which is why they can’t reach him by cellphone. Not to nitpick before the opening credits even start, but why would the COS be in Foggy Bottom? Wells’ idea of funny includes everyone repeating the location Foggy Bottom over and over again. Finally, Charlie (yay!) enters the Oval Office with some Secret Service types who tell Jed they found Leo almost dead in the woods. Everyone looks mildly concerned.

After the credits, Abby flexes a little doctor muscle as she fills the President and the rest of the staff in on the details of Leo’s condition, which, from the ER-speak that follows, we get is pretty serious. Leo is rushed to bypass surgery as Jed and Abby go to the hospital. They hold hands in the limo. It’s cute.

Meanwhile, Josh, Toby and CJ have the task of shoring up international and domestic support for the peace keeping treaty the president brokered. Apparently, Josh and Toby become incompetent almost overnight as they badly bungle up the process of getting the votes they need in Congress. DCist gets that the whole point of this is to show how badly Leo is needed, but it doesn’t really work.

At the hospital, Abby convinces Jed that he has to fire Leo for the sake of his health. There’s a nice scene here between Jed and Leo, where Leo resigns gracefully and names CJ (shocker!) as his replacement.

Also, Josh gives Donna a pen and they stare at each other for a little while. Bradley Whitford and Janelle Maloney are both good actors and the scene really works. There’s no dialogue, just a nice pause between the two. Someone kiss someone already!

What did you think DCers? Is CJ really going to be the new COS? Don’t you think it should have gone to Josh?