“The West Wing”

I thought the season finale of “The West Wing” last night was pretty terrific. First of all, I was bowled over by the woman who played the young Mrs. Landingham in Jed’s flashbacks. She completely nailed Kathryn Joosten’s delivery — the accent, the timing, the intonation, everything. Pretty incredible. Blew me away.

There were some really nice camera shots. I’m thinking particularly of the transitions back and forth between Charlie giving his speech at the National Cathedral and the young Mrs. Landingham pestering Jed about unequal pay for women. A pillar in the cathedral becomes a pillar along the private school’s walkway, and back again, and back again. And there was the abrupt transition from a shot of the stained-glass window of the Cathedral’s soaring ceiling to a shot of the White House and the Washington Monument. Church and state. Ahh, now I get the episode’s title… “Two Cathedrals.”

There was the president’s terrifically acerbic monologue delivered to God at the Cathedral in Latin. (This translation is helpful.) Throughout this series, we’ve been able to marvel at the power of the most powerful man in the world — his motorcades driving through red lights, his army of aides, his grandeur, his private movie theater — and then we realize that even the President of the United States is powerless before God. His tirade made me think of Bill Clinton: Here I am, look at all the good I’ve done, look at all the people I’ve helped; so I screwed up! Do I deserve to be punished this severely?

But this all paled next to the penultimate scene in the Oval Office. Wow. A storm rages outside and the exterior door of the Oval Office flies wide open. (Where were the portico’s guards at that point? And would the White House staff really have let the door’s hinges stay unrepaired for that long? Unless the door was opened by a Higher Power…) And then Mrs. Landingham just strides into the room, as purposeful as ever, as if she were still alive. Their conversation was so inspiring and moving.

(Just think of the possibilities, though. They could turn this into a sitcom! “I Dream of Mrs. Landingham.” The president’s secretary dies in a freak accident, and nobody can see her now except the president. Wackiness ensues. No wait… that’s “Providence.”)

I could have done without the Dire Straits music as Jed rode to the press conference — I would have preferred more of the pure West-Wingy intense presidential-sounding stuff. But I looked at my watch and saw that it was about 9:56, and I kept thinking, “Please don’t end it now… please don’t leave us on the edge like I know you’re going to… just a few seconds more, a few more seconds, okay?” And then it cuts to black. Ack! I was all giddy and crazy for a few seconds, jerking my muscles around like I was doing the tarantella. Well, of course he’s going to run again. I mean, the series wouldn’t be much fun otherwise, and there was also his body language — hands in his pockets, looking up and away, a hint of a smile on his face. So the agony isn’t in waiting to find out what his answer will be; the agony is in waiting for the catharsis, for the brilliant resolution that we know is coming in four months.

Four months? Damn.

To get through the long summer, here’s a compendium of “West Wing” quotes.

Whew… between last Sunday’s incredibly intense and nail-biting episode of “The X-Files,” and this, it’s been a terrific few days of television.