It’s a foregone conclusion that nearly all long-running (non-animated) television shows will swap out characters over time, but rarely do you get such clear transitions as the four-year election cycles naturally lend a show like The West Wing. Instead, with a show like ER (which I often use as a comparison since West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin’s departure a few years ago turned The West Wing into a political version of ER), you have random, sporadic replacements until you turn on the television one day a few years later and can’t quite put your finger on why the show seems so lame.

The West Wing, in contrast, couches its succession planning in storylines about the next Presidential election, and Wednesday’s season finale was a great succession episode— one of several great episodes recently. Like Dave, I’ve been really enjoying the election side of the show while really not caring much about the White House side anymore… almost the same thing that happened last year when the once-glorious Practice devolved into a tired existing practice I just Tivo-forwarded through, and an irreverent new practice which got its own show as Boston Legal this year (and, as a bonus, got advertised as "the only new show with two Emmy-award winning characters," since both James Spader and William Shatner won awards for their half of The Practice.) Similarly, next season really brings us a West Wing "spin-off" without the hassle of creating a new show. West Wing 2.0, the inevitable Santos-McGarry administration, gives the show an opportunity to recapture some of the luster it’s lost since Sorkin left.  

Which brings me to a point that really struck me in watching this episode— West Wing writers had to balance the drama of a good fight with the glory of a candidate you really believe in next year when he becomes President. The two goals really are in direct opposition; it’s not much of a show if Santos were to steam-roll the slimy Speaker character (who got crushed by Santos’ surprise vote a few episodes ago), yet Santos can’t be so mediocre that he barely wins an election and loses the whole audience next year either. The solution, it turns out, is to create a fictional Presidential election antithetical to our harsh, pathetic reality.

That is, Arnie Vinnick seems like a good guy, a decent person, and a likely good President, highlighted in moments like Leo’s "Ever seen Arnie Vinnick campaign?" soliloquy and the "Ice cream with Jed Bartlett" scene. He has different political philosophies, sure, but he’s still a good guy. Santos is also a great candidate, obviously, with the sanctioned "good" policies of liberal show writers and still "his own man" enough to not just be the second-string puppet of the current administration (i.e., Russell, who even the current administration detests). The result is a win-win election, where either candidate would be a great President, in stark contrast to our own US Presidential elections, a seemingly never-ending parade of "lesser of two evils" choices where disgust propels The Apathy Party to solid majorities every election. It suddenly hit me watching this episode how comforting a win-win election would be, rather than the depressing lose-lose elections we’ve had lately.

And finally, I remember hearing (before the recent Star Wars movies were made) that the real protagonist of the Star Wars epic was Darth Vader; having only seen the original trilogy, that seemed ridiculous to me. Watching Josh put his feet up on the desk as the President introduced Santos-McGarry at the convention, it struck me as one of those Annakin moments, where Josh finally ascends with the emperor’s blessing, rising to Chief of Staff in the new administration and becoming a "long-term protagonist" in a way that wasn’t nearly as clear when he shared the spotlight with Sam and Toby and CJ in the early years.

PS: Josh as Chief of Staff… So Will takes Deputy (Josh’s old job)? Donna’s the new press secretary… They can give CJ and others cabinet positions or something to get them out of the way gracefully. Or maybe Toby or CJ can spend 10 years in federal prison for leaking the space shuttle story. Not exactly the fairy tale ending, but it would be a pretty dramatic way to kill off a character!