"High" Treason
Unpacking Season 2, Episodes 15, 16, and 17 "Ellie", "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail", and "The Stackhouse Filibuster"
“I think truth is pretty much truth across the board,” the Surgeon General tells Josh when he shows up at her office to fire her/get her to resign.
But that doesn’t actually seem to be the case for the White House. As the real White House is spreading various lies in preparation for an invasion of Venezuela, the fictional White House tries to fire a Surgeon General for saying that marijuana isn’t as harmful as other narcotics (something that is objectively true of course). Meanwhile the FBI says that “HUAC got it right more than wrong”, Toby claims the WTO somehow can benefit both corporations and people, and a senator holds up a family healthcare bill in order to get an amendment for quote, “fighting autism”. There’s a lot going on in these episodes and none of it is good.
But I think the worst moment of all three of these episodes is the hack speech Sam gives after finding out Donna’s friend’s grandfather really was a Soviet spy while he’s in the middle of having a breakdown over his adulterous father (a classic Sorkin moment):
“It was high treason, and it mattered a great deal! This country is an idea, and one that’s lit the world for two centuries and treason against that idea is not just a crime against the living! This ground holds the graves of people who died for it, who gave what Lincoln called the last full measure of devotion. Of fidelity.”
Yes, I’ve shared it in full because it’s just that insane. First of all, countries aren’t ideas, they are nation-states that often do tangible harm (America especially). And treason against America is a crime against the living? Can we be serious? Talk about truth not being the truth at all. Because if it was, Sam would be acknowledging just how much crime against the living the very idea of America has done to the world. And yeah, the ground holds graves of people who died for their countries all over the fucking world. America isn’t unique in that regard.
And all this over a Soviet spy from over fifty years ago. Newsflash Sam, you won! The Cold War is over, what’s with the Red Scare? This episode seems to argue that actually it’s okay that this guy died in jail because he was in fact a spy. Never mind all the innocent people that died in jail alongside him. And, hey, maybe you agree with that, that traitors and political prisoners should be punished with life in prison. That’s fine.
I just don’t want to hear any more whining about the gulags then.
Other Thoughts
Toby looks adorable in a hat.
“Why haven’t I ever been able to get her to like me?” Jed asks about his middle daughter Ellie. I don’t know Jed, maybe because you’re so fucking mean to her?!
A bunch of Ivy league grads somehow don’t know the Mercator projection is wrong and racist?
ACAB but Toby should fuck Rhonda the cop.
Love Jed and Leo’s romantic dinner date. It’s important to make time for your partner no matter how busy you get!