SYNOPSIS: Santos' staff is worried because the Vice Presidential debates are approaching and Leo is doing absolutely terribly in the practice sessions. Meanwhile, Santos comes home to be with the family for a few days, but ends up spending his "vacation" working from home, to the annoyance of his wife. In the end, Donna confronts her and learns that she's no longer certain that she wants Santos to win the Presidency.
Overall, an OK episode. The biggest problem is the passing of John Spencer. It was hard to watch the scenes with Leo and not think about the loss of a great man and a great actor. Plus, my mind kept drifting to the topic of how they're going to write him off the show. I kept thinking that he'd do miserably in the debates and would resign or something. Martin Sheen's monologue at the beginning was a great touch.
In other news....Again, we get an appearance from Toby in which the writers use him strictly as a sounding board for Josh's concerns about the Santos campaign. I view these scenes as wasted opportunities. Toby was a fixture on the show for 6 seasons, and I'd like some compelling reasons and some answers for why they wrote him off. Do they ever plan on exploring that, or is he just gone?
The subplot involving Will and Kate (which I made no effort to include above) should have been dropped. Why do they keep shoving these scenes in back at the White House? What's the point? Honestly, does anyone even care about this (poorly executed) Russia-China-Kazakhstan plot they've tried to do this season? (If you do, please say so!)
Martin Sheen's monologue at the beginning was a great touch.
I missed it... Came in at the tail end of the first mock debate, just before the credits. What did it say?
I caught the tail-end of it, Scott. He was saying that "Johnny, we barely began to know you, and we love you." *sniff*
I KNEW who the leaker was before it was revealed! Brilliant move!
I heard an interview with Richard Schiff on Air America. He said that he didn't believe that Toby would do what the writers had him do and that that was in his mind as he was doing the scenes about the leak and its consequences.
The main point of Sheen's speech, btw, was to talk about how it might seem odd to watch the episodes knowing that Spencer is dead, but that they could think of no better tribute to him than to show them.