Fibby poses a question in her comment to my last post that is worth a whole bloggy entry of its own. She writes: "I saw huge parallels between the last episode [of Ugly Betty] and an episode of The West Wing. I wonder if you'll see it too..."And the funny thing is that I didn't. So I went to Television Without Pity (source of snarky but complete recaplets of all the tv worth watching). And as soon as I saw the headline for the Ugly Betty recap, I figured out the reference. And digging up the details on the West Wing episode was a fun little Google adventure. You really can find any sort of information in about 2 minutes on Google!
It was episode #322, "Posse Comitatus," in which Mark Harmon's Secret Service Agent Simon Donovan had captured the heart of one C.J. Craig (and more than a few audience members at the same time), only to be killed off in a convenience store hold-up while C.J. and the rest of the President's entourage watched an opera . . . just in time for May sweeps.Santos, we loved you, though we hardly knew you. At least Ugly Betty's telenovela conceit shields it somewhat when the writers pull a soap operatic move like killing off the happy, beautiful minor character the fans love just in time for sweeps. Nonetheless, I'm hoping that with Drive cancelled, Kevin Alejandro (Santos) miraculously survives or is brought back from the dead next season. Hey, if it's going to be a world where characters get shot for ratings, it ought to be a place where they can get revived for ratings too. (And it is: cf. the ridiculous ferry disaster arc on Grey's Anatomy in which Meredith is dead for at least two full episodes and then is cheerily looking gorgeous and back to work in the next one . . . that was February sweeps after all!)
4 comments:
i hated that episode. it made me cry. it was only second is sad to "18th and Potomac." i'm going to go weep anew...
i meant "Second in sad" still not grammatically correct, but correcter.
Another reason to love Google. I found this little story when I googled "18th and Potomac":
Oh, I have a little Dulé Hill story: By the time they got to "18th and Potomac," they had told everyone that what was going to happen to Mrs. L. - except Dulé. He had been in New York for a few days and they hadn't had a chance to talk to him before the table read. So when Dulé got to that line - THAT line - he couldn't say it. Aaron said it was like he was saying to himself, "if I don't read it, it can't happen. It can't be true." Isn't that sad? Just makes you feel for him all the more.
I'm so glad you looked this up, LB! I couldn't believe the parallels (performance, good guy going into a convenience store to purchase a gift for someone he loves, hold-up, gun going off, weeping woman in the end...). As much as I'd love for Santos to come back, the reality is that if two police officers show up at someone's door, it's never a sign of something good.
That Ugly Betty episode was so good but so sad - I wanted to watch it again because I thought maybe it would end differently (pathetic, but true).
And MOMP, I'm with you on the top list of West Wing episodes that make me cry. Those two definitely make my top five. The one where the final scene is of the president on the phone with a naval officer on a sinking ship gets me too.
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