Love this whole season of insights and observations from you, this has been a great journey and re-visitation to a show I originally watched 20 years ago back in university. Really appreciate your cultural perspectives and your personal narratives and fan theories (the orphan angle took me for a spin and I love how much you both focus on Toby having such a soft spot for veterans, which growing never felt odd to me personally during my viewings since growing up in DC I was used to that being a general and common soft spot for people working in US govt). You may be interested to know, it is indeed confirmed in season 03 that Leo served during the earlier phase of the Vietnam War (which I figure likely means he finished his tour of duty before his daughter Mallory was born). The ancestor Jed Bartlett mentions is an actual historical figure and was partial inspiration for Sorkin. And on the topic of softball, when I was growing up in D.C. in the 80s/90s, we also dealt with the stereotype that women being interested or really good at softball were likely lesbians.
The thing about calling the Captain's parents is that the President has to make the call to the parents to console them if he didn't make it back. That was what "if I have to call this kid's parents, I swear to God I'm invading Baghdad" was about - presumably this has happened off-screen at some point where a soldier died and he called the parents. But instead, this time, he gets to make the happy call to the parents (that their kid is OK).
I read Sorkin's op-ed in which he suggested the Democrats nominate Mitt Romney for president (to be fair, he didn't really suggest it, he just said if he was writing this election as a WW episode, that's how it would go). I am a lifelong liberal Democrat. If I thought Romney would guarantee that Trump was not elected, I would support that ticket. His point is that if this election is really about saving American democracy, as we Democrats have been saying (and I think it is) we should be willing to forego our political goals for 4 years. Anyway, my feeling is that Republicans are so extremist that even a mainstream Republican candidate like Romney running against him would not necessarily defeat Trump, so no way.
Not going to give any spoilers but a lot of the character backstories you mention in this episode do get 'fleshed out' in future seasons (some sooner than others).
Love this whole season of insights and observations from you, this has been a great journey and re-visitation to a show I originally watched 20 years ago back in university. Really appreciate your cultural perspectives and your personal narratives and fan theories (the orphan angle took me for a spin and I love how much you both focus on Toby having such a soft spot for veterans, which growing never felt odd to me personally during my viewings since growing up in DC I was used to that being a general and common soft spot for people working in US govt). You may be interested to know, it is indeed confirmed in season 03 that Leo served during the earlier phase of the Vietnam War (which I figure likely means he finished his tour of duty before his daughter Mallory was born). The ancestor Jed Bartlett mentions is an actual historical figure and was partial inspiration for Sorkin. And on the topic of softball, when I was growing up in D.C. in the 80s/90s, we also dealt with the stereotype that women being interested or really good at softball were likely lesbians.
The thing about calling the Captain's parents is that the President has to make the call to the parents to console them if he didn't make it back. That was what "if I have to call this kid's parents, I swear to God I'm invading Baghdad" was about - presumably this has happened off-screen at some point where a soldier died and he called the parents. But instead, this time, he gets to make the happy call to the parents (that their kid is OK).
Sorkin didn't know who was shot when the first season ended.
I had chills listening to your recap, and I know what happened. The next few episodes are such a whiriwind.
I read Sorkin's op-ed in which he suggested the Democrats nominate Mitt Romney for president (to be fair, he didn't really suggest it, he just said if he was writing this election as a WW episode, that's how it would go). I am a lifelong liberal Democrat. If I thought Romney would guarantee that Trump was not elected, I would support that ticket. His point is that if this election is really about saving American democracy, as we Democrats have been saying (and I think it is) we should be willing to forego our political goals for 4 years. Anyway, my feeling is that Republicans are so extremist that even a mainstream Republican candidate like Romney running against him would not necessarily defeat Trump, so no way.
Not going to give any spoilers but a lot of the character backstories you mention in this episode do get 'fleshed out' in future seasons (some sooner than others).