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The West Wing Season 2 Episodes
Season 2 Episode Guide
22 Episodes 2000 - 2001
Series 2 of The West Wing begins with the end of President Bartlet's (Martin Sheen) second year in office. The multiple sclerosis arc introduced in the first season becomes more pronounced, as people are slowly introduced to the President's illness. The main question hanging over everyone's head is whether or not he will run for re-election.
Episode 1
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen
Wed, Oct 4, 2000 60 mins
Part 1 of two. The Bartlet administration is in chaos---an assassination attempt has left the White House (not to mention the country) reeling. Who was hit? Was anyone killed? Who did it? And why? The episode includes flashbacks detailing how the administration came to be. Oh, and one more thing: there's a downed fighter pilot in Iraq. National Security Adviser: Anna Deavere Smith.
Episode 2
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen
Wed, Oct 4, 2000 60 mins
Conclusion. As the Bartlet administration deals with the shooting (and with Josh still not out of the woods), flashbacks recall how the staff made it to the West Wing. Josh: Bradley Whitford. Abbey: Stockard Channing. Danny: Timothy Busfield. Zoey: Elisabeth Moss. Butterfield: Michael O'Neill. Margaret: NiCole Robinson. Isobel: Grace Zabriskie. Roger Becker: Allen Garfield.
Episode 3
The Midterms
Wed, Oct 18, 2000 60 mins
Things are looking up in the aftermath of the shooting: Josh is recovering nicely and the Administration is polling at 81 percent. But "those numbers are soft," Sam cautions, and probably won't hold up for the midterm elections in 12 weeks. Still, Toby wants to use this "honeymoon" as leverage for a domestic-terrorism initiative. Meanwhile, the President is obsessed with thwarting an old foe running for school board; and Sam enlists an old law-school classmate to run for an open House seat.
Episode 4
In This White House
Wed, Oct 25, 2000 60 mins
The West Wing gets a right winger as young Republican lawyer Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter) signs on as Associate White House Counsel. She's offered the job at the insistence of the President, after he sees her demolish Sam on a TV talk show. Meanwhile, the president (Zakes Mokae) of an AIDS-ravaged African country visits the White House and spars with drug-company executives.
Episode 5
And It's Surely to Their Credit
Wed, Nov 1, 2000 60 mins
Ainsley Hayes (Emily Procter) meets her new boss, White House counsel Lionel Tribbey (John Larroquette), and receives her first assignment: clean up after two domestic-policy staffers who presented inaccurate testimony before a House committee. Meanwhile, Sam hits upon the idea of Josh suing the hate group whose members shot him; and C.J. stares down a soon-to-retire general (Tom Bower) who's planning to blast the Administration on TV talk shows.
Episode 6
The Lame Duck Congress
Wed, Nov 8, 2000 60 mins
Josh, Toby and Sam want the President to consider calling a lame-duck session of Congress to try to pass a test-ban treaty, and C.J. leaks news of this to Danny, who initiated the story in the first place by asking if the White House was "considering" calling the session. Meanwhile, Donna goes on the warpath over carpel-tunnel syndrome; Sam and Ainsley teach each other a thing or two; and a Ukrainian reformer (Eugene Lavarev) shows up---drunk---at the White House, demanding to see the President.
Episode 7
The Portland Trip
Wed, Nov 15, 2000 60 mins
The President is taking a red-eye to Portland, Ore., to deliver an education address, and Sam must go with him because he can't get the speech right. Toby must also go, to help Sam, and C.J. has to go, too, because she's being punished for making disparaging remarks about the President's alma mater, Notre Dame. Back at the White House, Josh spars with a gay Republican congressman over a bill on homosexual marriage, and Leo monitors a minor crisis in the Persian Gulf involving an oil tanker.
Episode 8
Shibboleth
Wed, Nov 22, 2000 60 mins
It's the week before Thanksgiving and a shipload of illegal immigrants from China has just been intercepted. They're claiming asylum as persecuted Christians. Meanwhile, Toby presses the President to appoint Leo's sister (Deborah Hedwall), the superintendent of schools in Atlanta, to an important Education Department post. Making this politically dicey is that she's a foe of school prayer. Jhin Wei: Henry O. John La Salle: Sam Anderson. Mary Marsh: Annie Corley. Al Caldwell: F. William Parker.
Episode 9
Galileo
Wed, Nov 29, 2000 60 mins
Crises come in all shapes and sizes during one hectic day at the White House. The biggest fire to be put out is just that: it's in a Russian missile silo and the Russian government is covering it up. Other troubles range from a missing U.S. fighter plane to a news report that the President doesn't like green beans. Reese: John Carroll Lynch. Nadia Kozlowski: Charlotte Cornwell.
Episode 10
Noel
Wed, Dec 20, 2000 60 mins
It's the Christmas season at the White House but Josh isn't merry: he's rude to everyone, including the President---something that just isn't done. So Leo orders therapy. Meanwhile, C.J. takes interest when an elderly woman on a White House tour loses her composure at the sight of a painting. And the President decides that he wants to sign all his Christmas cards---well, maybe just 100,000 of them---personally. Stanley: Adam Arkin. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has a cameo.
Episode 11
The Leadership Breakfast
Wed, Jan 10, 2001 60 mins
With Congress reconvening, the White House is planning a "leadership breakfast." But first, Toby must go over details with the Majority Leader's new Chief of Staff (Felicity Huffman). There are plenty of devils in those details---it seems that the Majority Leader has Presidential ambitions. Meanwhile, Sam wants to move the press corps to new quarters across the street; and Leo, Sam and Donna (in turn) embarrass themselves in front of an influential columnist. Rep. Shallick: Corbin Bernsen.
Episode 12
The Drop-in
Wed, Jan 24, 2001 60 mins
Lord John Marbury (Roger Rees), a friend of the President's (and a royal pain in Leo's neck), is appointed Britain's ambassador to the U.S.; Toby and Sam wrangle over an address the President is to give to an environmental group; Leo tries (with no success) to get the President interested in a missile-defense system; and C.J. is enlisted to ask a controversial comedian (Rocky Carroll) to decline an invitation to perform at a dinner the President is to attend.
Episode 13
Bartlet's Third State of the Union
Wed, Feb 7, 2001 60 mins
It's State of the Union night and West Wing staffers are basking in the address's glow, but Abbey (Stockard Channing) has problems with its tone. Another distraction: guerrillas have captured five DEA agents in Colombia. And it turns out that a cop Bartlet cited in the speech has a controversial incident on his record. Meanwhile, Josh can't get numbers from White House pollster Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin). And Donna is pestering Josh to ask Joey for a date. Shallick: Corbin Bernsen.
Episode 14
The War at Home
Wed, Feb 14, 2001 60 mins
The crisis over the missing DEA agents in Colombia intensifies, and the fallout from the State of the Union Address isn't so good, either. For starters, a liberal senator (Ed Begley Jr.) is upset about the speech's Social Security suggestions. It doesn't look like the flap over the brutality accusation against the police officer Bartlet cited in the speech is going to go away quickly. And Joey Lucas's polling numbers are discouraging. (Or are they?) Joey: Marlee Matlin.
Episode 15
Ellie
Wed, Feb 21, 2001 60 mins
The President returns from Japan to learn that his Surgeon General (Mary Kay Place) has said some things about marijuana that might prove troublesome. Then his daughter Ellie, a medical student, says something about the controversy to reporter Danny Concannon. Meanwhile, Charlie's choice of a movie for the President to watch proves controversial, too. And Toby tries to enlist his ex-wife, a Congresswoman, in his effort to make peace with liberal Democrats over the Social Security flap.
Episode 16
Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail
Wed, Feb 28, 2001 60 mins
It's "Big Block of Cheese" Day, which means that Leo sends grumbling staffers to meet with organizations who are not usually heard from at the White House. Toby, for instance, meets with World Bank protesters while C.J.'s assignment is the Cartographers for Social Equality. Meanwhile, a friend of Donna's (Jolie Jenkins) asks Sam to pursue a pardon for her grandfather, a White House staffer in the '40s who was convicted of perjury in a McCarthy-era spy case and died in prison.
Episode 17
The Stackhouse Filibuster
Wed, Mar 14, 2001 60 mins
Staffers (most of whom have weekend plans) are blindsided when an elderly senator (George Coe) begins a Friday-night filibuster on a bill they had thought was a done deal. Meanwhile, Toby is puzzled when the Vice President, normally a champion of the oil industry, volunteers to attack it for "price gouging." And C.J. fears that the ancient Egyptian cat goddess Bast has cursed her because she accidentally broke a Bast statuette that had been given to the President on a visit to Cairo.
Episode 18
17 People
Wed, Apr 4, 2001 60 mins
Toby puts two and two together and finds out about the President's "thing" (his multiple sclerosis). Then he challenges him on it---forcefully. Also challenging Bartlet is a terrorist threat, and he must decide whether to beef up security at U.S. airports. Meanwhile, staffers struggle to punch up a speech the President is to give at the White House Correspondents Dinner ("It's not funny," Leo sniffs); Josh and Donna bicker over their "anniversary"; and Sam and Ainsley bicker over the ERA.
Episode 19
Bad Moon Rising
Wed, Apr 25, 2001 60 mins
Bartlet decides that he needs an opinion from White House counsel Oliver Babish on whether his MS deception constituted a criminal conspiracy; an oil spill off the Delaware coast hits home to Sam; Josh heads up a White House team dealing with a Mexican economic crisis (and bickers with Donna about it); and Toby's on the rampage because of a press leak about a possible change in the President's position on school vouchers. Ainsley Hayes: Emily Procter. Emily Lowenbrau: Jacqueline Kim.
Episode 20
The Fall's Gonna Kill You
Wed, May 2, 2001 60 mins
White House counsel Oliver Babish (Oliver Platt) menacingly questions C.J. and Abbey (Stockard Channing) about the President's MS cover-up. And Josh enlists Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin) to take a hush-hush poll on it. Meanwhile, new estimates project a smaller-than-expected budget surplus---and that cheers staffers; and a Chinese satellite has fallen out of its orbit and is hurtling to earth at 2000 mph, and no one's concerned but Donna (Janel Moloney). Ed: Peter James Smith. Larry: William Duffy.
Episode 21
18th and Potomac
Wed, May 9, 2001 60 mins
With disastrous hypothetical polling numbers from Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin) in hand, staffers prepare to announce the President's condition. But first, both Sam and Oliver Babish (Oliver Platt) question the First Lady (Stockard Channing) about the matter. Meanwhile, a crisis erupts in Haiti; Josh deals with Democratic senators who are less than enthusiastic about the Government's tobacco-industry suit; and male staffers can't help but give Mrs. Landingham (Kathryn Joosten) car-buying advice.
Episode 22
Two Cathedrals
Wed, May 16, 2001 60 mins
The Administration prepares for the storm of its life. Indeed, a tropical storm is bearing down on Washington on the day the President is to disclose that he has MS and has been lying about it for eight years. Bartlet is distracted by Mrs. Landingham's death, but staffers are all business as they deal with Congressional Democrats, party officials and network execs. And they must fashion answers to likely press-conference questions. The one that concerns them most: Will Bartlet seek reelection?
