West Wing 7.15: "Welcome to Wherever You Are"

Written by Josh Singer
Directed by (Unavailable)

In which the Santos campaign struggles against exhaustion through the final days of the campaign, while Toby is confronted with an ultimatum regarding his national security leak…


I wasn’t expecting Toby’s plot thread to return in any meaningful way, but once it was clear that it was coming up in a big way in this episode, I couldn’t argue with the logic. After all, this is still a transitional point in the story, and the writers were still reeling from the death of John Spenser. Unless I have the dates wrong, this is the first episode written after John’s death, and there seems to be a purposeful focus on everything else but Leo.

This isn’t the kind of episode that electrifies the audience. There’s a lot of talk about the election and how things might turn out, a lot of strategizing, but there’s precious little talk about where the polls are going overall or indications of how the election might turn out. It’s more about the frantic pace of the final days of a presidential campaign and the toll it takes on everyone involved in the process.

In that respect, it does a damn good job. Everyone in the Santos campaign looked exhausted beyond belief, and I really liked how Santos was portrayed. His good-boy image became more and more embattled with every new press conference and scheduling challenge. That little meeting with Nancy became the symbol for every single source of frustration, and when he finally exploded, it felt completely genuine and justified.

More importantly, Josh finally looked like the potential Chief of Staff that the writers always wanted him to appear to be. When Santos had his mini-meltdown, it was Josh that took the reins and focused his candidate on the big picture. I’ve been very critical of Josh and how he’s handled things, but it’s easy to forget that he’s a novice, despite all those years under Leo. But damn, if he didn’t step up to the plate in the final hours!

Speaking of Santos, I was happy that the situation in Asia was referenced so directly. That was something missing from the previous episode, I thought. Santos reacts about as strongly as I would have expected, and it just made me wish that the episode had also covered the Vinick campaign in as much detail.

Of course, that time was devoted to Toby’s realization that he’s going to jail, more likely than not, and what that will mean to his family. I was expecting that, and so it was a real treat to see Toby at his self-righteous best. I wasn’t particularly convinced that his way of avoiding a political nightmare should have worked as well as it did, but since Toby has always been a great mouthpiece for the writers, I couldn’t complain too loudly.

This is still a transitional episode, since everyone’s waiting for the next two episodes to begin the final stretch, so there’s nothing particularly distinctive about it. I love the chaotic atmosphere, but I can see how some would find it annoying. I’m just impressed by the fact that the cast took the raw emotions following John’s death and used it to give credibility to their exhaustion. Even under the circumstances, no one in this production is coasting through to the end.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 7/10