As someone who has lived in a place with a lot of people, I know that it's almost impossible to keep anything a secret. Whatever you want to keep under the radar will come out at some point, whether it's due to someone not knowing that you wanted to keep it a secret, or people just talking over themselves, not realizing that they just said something that was not to be revealed. It's clear that secrets are not meant to last in a place with a lot of people, so I can imagine that workspace secrets also don't last. Ever since Jed Bartlet told Leo McGarry that he was suffering from multiple sclerosis, I've been waiting for the day when someone would confront him about this, talking about the fact that they found out. I should have guessed that the writers never intended to keep the secret and that it would come sooner than expected. In "17 People," Toby is still trying to untangle the mystery of why Vice President Hoynes would change his stance on oil, and quickly realizes that someone is wrong at the highest level of office and that the President may be keeping a few secrets from pretty much everyone. There's a lot in this episode, but all of it is good. The main conflict is riveting and engaging, especially because the writers have been letting the audience in on this before the characters, crafting a lot of conflict between a hit show and its trusted audience who has to choose sides.
The first thing that I'd like to note on the episode is how well it balanced its two main plotlines. They're polar opposites in terms of tone and it was handled with a lot of grace and care, handling the drama with a lot of heart, while utilizing all their best humor in crafting the correspondent's dinner speech for Bartlet. Sorkin has always been a master of snappy dialogue, but this is where you really get to see the contrast in how dialogue can be delivered and the different impact it has if it's done in different ways.
It's a very intense hour of television, and it delves into the themes that I've loved the most about this show. It's the care that lies underneath the characters and their actions. They like to seem very snappy towards each other, but at the end of the day, they'll always sacrifice their own arms to help the people that they love. The intensity in this episode is provided from that fact and even though the tension was high and not many nice words were uttered, it's clear that it all comes from a root of respect and deep love for Bartlet.
It's difficult to unravel all the big things that happened in the episode, so I'd like to focus on the small things that made me happy. Which was basically the entire speech plotline. First of all, it's pretty obvious that Sam and Ainsley are having some kind of relationship at this point, and their arguing is honestly always a highlight because it's mixed in with a lot of nice snappy rebuttals that often throw Sam out of his element. I don't know what was going on with Josh and Donna's storyline, but it didn't take me out, so I was fine.
The acting on this show is always a highlight and there were numerous great acting moments in this episode. It'd obviously be easy to talk about the dramatic highs of both Richard Schiff and Martin Sheen here, but also the comedic timing of Bradley Whitford has been very underrated throughout these two seasons. He's a comedic mastermind and comes in with a lot of those nice quips when you expect him to. But definitely the scenes between Schiff and Sheen were the most memorable acting moments of the episode and probably of most of the show so far.
"17 People" continues to address those questions that the audience asks themselves, showing that Sorkin and the writers pay attention to each detail like the fans. It featured some of the show's most memorable acting, but also showed the talent of Sorkin, who flawlessly balances humor and drama in two vastly different intertwined storylines.
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