(The West Wing) Episode 24 – Barlet Being Bartlet: The Lost Episode

Episode 24 of the Poufwa Exchange has been released! Absent a spontaneous, liquor-induced discussion of Glee popping up out of left field, we are pleased to release our final Poufwa Exchange of our first season!  This one was lost, literally, in the editing bay for quite some time and was recently discovered behind a 24 pack of refreshing vitamin water.  This episode features Julia’s microphone from hell, Mike’s final contribution to Poufwa before GoldGate, and repeat references to who we think will win the 2008 presidential election.  This episode is about as current as the Golden Girl episodes where Rose wrote to Gorbachev and HW Bush stopped by the lanai, but it’s certainly a Poufwa Production! Completing our four episode arc of West Wing’s first season, this episode is a commentary of the critical episode, Let Bartlet be Bartlet!

Rumors percolate about a scathing memo that outlines the weaknesses of President Bartlet’s (Martin Sheen) administration for his political rival and grip the White House, until C.J. (Allison Janney) learns it came from one of the trusted staff. Now in someone else’s possession, C.J. finally tracks it down to one reporter and tries to dissuade him from publishing it. Meanwhile, Sam (Rob Lowe) and Toby (Richard Schiff) meet with opposing military officers and congressmen to discuss amending the current “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy towards gays in the armed forces. When two members of the Federal Election Commission resign, Josh (Bradley Whitford) sees opportunity and moves fast to meet with contentious senator’s staffers to suggest that the President appoint two campaign finance reformers as replacements instead of those wanted by the Senate leadership. Leo (John Spencer) not only has trouble with the White House’s faulty e-mail system, he confronts the President and issues a challenge that could define or destroy his administration.

On behalf of the podcasters and staff, this first season of Poufwa Exchange has been a pressure-releasing hobby for us.  PotterFicWeekly takes up a lot of hours in our day, and these twenty-four episodes represented downtime and variety for us.  With Season 2, with PotterFicWeekly in the safe hands of loving and new owners, the Poufwa Exchange moves to our front burner!  We’ll be transitioning to a Poufwa-style discussion format each week, with commentaries sprinkled in here and there, and in the first batch of episodes you can expect in-depth discussion and review of the pilot movie and first season of J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 and a reading group review of George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones.  Future episodes will cover the balance of the works set in these universes, and we plan to also visit Firefly, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and if the wife and I have to record it by ourselves with Mama and Mother-in-Law Huggles, we’ll do it:  Glee! Happy listening, enjoy, and you’ll be hearing from us soon!