Season 2 of American television drama The West Wing aired on NBC. Season 2 saw the unexplained departure of Mandy Hampton and Donna Moss being made a main character in her stead, Janel Moloney becoming a main cast member.
Summary[]
In the wake of the shooting, both President Bartlet and Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman have been hit. While the President is not seriously injured, Josh is critically wounded.
Josh survives, and the staff go on to face a myriad of challenges that include the President's hiring of a staunch Rebublican as an associate counsel, a trip to Portland, the discovery of Chinese refugees fleeing religious persecution, the loss of a costly Mars probe, Josh's post-traumatic stress disorder, and Bartlet's third State of the Union Address.
All of these challenges are rendered minor after the staff and the President are confronted with two serious events; the revelation of Bartlet's concealed serious illness to the public, and the death of one of their own. There is one question on everyone's lips; will Josiah Bartlet seek a second term?
Cast[]
- Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn
- Dulé Hill as Charlie Young
- Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg (21 episodes)
- Janel Moloney as Donna Moss
- Richard Schiff as Toby Ziegler
- John Spencer as Leo McGarry
- Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman
- and Martin Sheen as President Bartlet
Special Guest Stars
- Stockard Channing as Abigail Bartlet (8 episodes)
- Emily Procter as Ainsley Hayes (8 episodes)
- Timothy Busfield as Danny Concannon (4 episodes)
- Marlee Matlin as Joey Lucas (4 episodes)
- Oliver Platt as Oliver Babish (3 episodes)
- Tim Matheson as John Hoynes (2 episodes)
- John Larroquette as Lionel Tribbey ("And It's Surely To Their Credit")
- Adam Arkin as Dr. Stanley Keyworth ("Noël")
- Felicity Huffman as Ann Stark ("The Leadership Breakfast")
- Roger Rees as Lord John Marbury ("The Drop-In")
- Mary Kay Place as Dr. Millicent Griffith ("Ellie")
- Roma Maffia as Officer Rhonda Sachs ("Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail")
- SPECIAL APPEARANCE BY
- Yo-Yo Ma ("Noël")
Recurring cast
- NiCole Robinson as Margaret Hooper (17 episodes)
- Kathryn Joosten as Dolores Landingham (10 episodes)
- Gregalan Williams as Robbie Mosley (5 episodes)
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Episodes[]
# | EPISODE | AIRDATE | WRITTEN BY |
---|---|---|---|
1 | In the Shadow of Two Gunmen (Part I) | 4 OCTOBER 2000 | Aaron Sorkin |
All the President's men and women scramble in the chaotic wake of an assassination attempt that leaves some victims fighting for their lives. Meanwhile, as a manhunt continues, the wounded drift in and out of surgery recalling how Bartlet's team came together during the dark months of his long-shot primary campaign. | |||
2 | In the Shadow of Two Gunmen (Part II) | 4 OCTOBER 2000 | Aaron Sorkin |
All the President's men and women scramble in the chaotic wake of an assassination attempt that leaves some victims fighting for their lives. Meanwhile, as a manhunt continues, the wounded drift in and out of surgery recalling how Bartlet's team came together during the dark months of his long-shot primary campaign. | |||
3 | The Midterms | 18 OCTOBER 2000 | Aaron Sorkin |
As one of the President's staff recovers from bullet wounds, the rest of the team pushes on to the "mid-term" congressional elections in November -- but as C.J. deflects press requests on how the assassination attempt has affected the mood in the White House, she knows that nearly everyone bears psychological scars in its aftermath. | |||
4 | In This White House | 25 OCTOBER 2000 | Aaron Sorkin |
When a confident Sam is outmatched by a novice Republican advisor on a political point-counterpoint television program, an impressed President Bartlet offers to hire her as assistant White House counsel despite her party affiliation-- a bold move that sends shock waves through the resentful staff. | |||
5 | And It's Surely to Their Credit | 1 NOVEMBER 2000 | Aaron Sorkin Kevin Falls & Laura Glasser |
President Bartlet's controversial -- and conservative -- new choice for associate White House counsel has rough sledding on her first day when she suffers the wrath of her hostile boss (Emmy-winning guest star John Larroquette, "Night Court," "The Practice"), gets a chilly reception from her co-workers and is humiliated by two other staffers. | |||
6 | The Lame Duck Congress | 8 NOVEMBER 2000 | Aaron Sorkin Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. |
A wily President Bartlet considers the extraordinary option of recalling the Senate from a winter holiday to push through a ratification of a new nuclear test-ban treaty -- despite the lame-duck status of many Senators who will not return in the next session -- while the drunken Ukrainian leader (guest star Eugene Lazarev) thunders through the White House demanding to see the President. | |||
7 | The Portland Trip | 15 NOVEMBER 2000 | Aaron Sorkin Paul Redford |
While President Bartlet and some of the staff are en route overnight to Portland for a major education speech, Leo remains behind to monitor a tense situation in the Persian Gulf when a foreign tanker is suspected of smuggling contraband oil and fires on U.S. Navy helicopters sent to investigate. | |||
8 | Shibboleth | 22 NOVEMBER 2000 | Aaron Sorkin Patrick H. Caddell |
As Thanksgiving nears, President Bartlet has his own hot-potato issue when a boatload of persecuted Chinese evangelical Christians arrives in California seeking asylum, while a perplexed C.J. must choose between two turkeys for the Presidential pardon ceremony -- with the other destined for the chopping block. | |||
9 | Galileo | 29 NOVEMBER 2000 | Kevin Falls & Aaron Sorkin |
President Bartlet prepares to address thousands of elementary students nationwide as a NASA space probe descends on Mars, but a host of thorny problems suddenly land on his doorstep, including a fire in a Russian nuclear missile silo and a last-minute loss of communication with the Mars spacecraft. | |||
10 | Noël | 20 DECEMBER 2000 | Aaron Sorkin Peter Parnell |
Christmas draws near as Josh is ordered by Leo to consult with a doctor who specializes in analyzing trauma victims. Elsewhere: the President wants to personally sign all of his Christmas cards; Sam confronts a representative of the Energy Secretary who publicly advocates release of federal oil reserves. | |||
11 | The Leadership Breakfast | 10 JANUARY 2001 | Aaron Sorkin Paul Redford |
As a bi-partisan friendship breakfast with members of Congress nears, President Bartlet's staff vigorously debates the merits of including a patient's bill of rights and minimum wage increase among the incendiary topics while C.J. jousts with the new chief of staff of the House Majority leader (guest star Felicity Huffman) over the press conference's agenda and location. | |||
12 | The Drop-In | 24 JANUARY 2001 | Aaron Sorkin Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. |
Leo tries to convince an unenthusiastic President Bartlet about the merits of an expensive and errant missile defense system while the chief executive ponders the political benefits of chiding hard-core environmentalists over the actions of eco-terrorists when he addresses their convention. | |||
13 | Bartlet's Third State of the Union | 7 FEBRUARY 2001 | Aaron Sorkin Allison Abner & Dee Dee Myers |
There's electricity in the air as the President addresses the Congress for his third State of the Union address -- which was intricately composed by Toby -- and while Josh anxiously tracks public response via a phone poll, a crisis looms when five American drug agents are taken hostage by Colombian rebels. | |||
14 | The War at Home | 14 FEBRUARY 2001 | Aaron Sorkin |
After his State of the Union speech, Bartlet boldly greenlights a daring military mission to rescue five federal drug agents taken hostage by Colombian terrorist commandos -- until complications arise -- while Toby is confronted by an angry, liberal Senator (guest star Ed Begley, Jr., "St. Elsewhere") who threatens to launch a third-party run for President. | |||
15 | Ellie | 21 FEBRUARY 2001 | Aaron Sorkin Kevin Falls & Laura Glasser |
As the President wings back from a Tokyo trade summit, a firestorm of controversy awaits him when Surgeon General Griffith (guest star Mary Kay Place, "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman") hints that marijuana should be decriminalized -- but Bartlet is even more incensed over his middle daughter Ellie's (guest star Nina Siemaszko) public assurances that her father would never fire Griffith. | |||
16 | Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail | 28 FEBRUARY 2001 | Paul Redford & Aaron Sorkin |
While a contemptuous Toby is assigned to meet with a noisy, unruly mob protesting the World Trade Organization, Donna asks Sam to consider fronting an executive pardon for the grandfather of her friend (guest star Jolie Jenkris) who was imprisoned for espionage in the 1940s. | |||
17 | The Stackhouse Filibuster | 14 MARCH 2001 | Aaron Sorkin Pete McCabe |
The President's staff waits impatiently for an elderly but stubborn Senator (guest star George Coe) to yield the floor as he stages a marathon filibuster hoping to stave off a vote on Bartlet's Family Wellness Act bill while Toby is leery of the Vice President's (guest star Tim Matheson) sudden interest in supporting another bill tightening fuel-emission standards. | |||
18 | 17 People | 4 APRIL 2001 | Aaron Sorkin |
After a foreign terrorist is caught at the border with explosives, Bartlet ponders the impact of ordering a heightened security alert for the nation's airports while an exasperated Toby is shocked to learn of the President's secret affliction with multiple sclerosis -- and he details its political and legal ramifications. | |||
19 | Bad Moon Rising | 25 APRIL 2001 | Aaron Sorkin Felicia Willson |
The President's vaunted administration could be brought down by the tiniest oversight as Bartlet secretly summons chief counsel Barash (guest star Oliver Platt, "Bulworth) to discuss how his failure to divulge his multiple sclerosis condition could be a criminal violation of full disclosure -- which would give his enemies enough ammo to destroy him. | |||
20 | The Fall's Gonna Kill You | 2 MAY 2001 | Aaron Sorkin Patrick Caddell |
Sam is happy to learn of a lowered surplus estimate that will reinforce the administration's case for a revised tax cut and Josh seeks more funds to support the overwhelmed Justice Department in its prosecution of tobacco companies. | |||
21 | 18th and Potomac | 9 MAY 2001 | Aaron Sorkin Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. |
The newly elected president of Haiti flees for his life and asks for sanctuary in the U.S. embassy -- which would place the compound under army attack. Elsewhere, a frustrated Josh needs more money from a Senate committee to continue the Justice Department's case against Big Tobacco companies. | |||
22 | Two Cathedrals | 16 MAY 2001 | Aaron Sorkin |
The Haitian army besieges the American Embassy there and Bartlet continues his campaign to sufficiently fund the Justice Department's case against Big Tobacco. Additionally, Toby gets a surprising job offer and the President gets some sage advice from an unexpected corner. |