Misplaced Pages

Take This Sabbath Day: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 02:20, 29 December 2012 edit71.166.38.79 (talk) →Plot← Previous edit Latest revision as of 19:06, 8 April 2024 edit undoEmausBot (talk | contribs)Bots, Template editors2,860,580 editsm Bot: Fixing double redirect to The West Wing season 1Tag: Redirect target changed 
(10 intermediate revisions by 8 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
⚫ #REDIRECT ]
{{Infobox Television episode
{{R with history}} {{R from episode|The West Wing}}
| Title = Take This Sabbath Day
| Series = ]
| Image = ]
| Caption =
| Season = 1
| Episode = 14
| Airdate = February 9 2000
| Production = 225913
| Writer = ] (teleplay)<br>] & ] and Aaron Sorkin (story)
| Director = ]
| Guests = ]<br>]<br>]<br>]<br>]<br>]<br>]<br>]<br>]<br>]
| Episode list = ]
| Season list = {{Infobox The West Wing season 1 episode list}}
| Prev =
| Next =
}}

"'''Take This Sabbath Day'''" is the 14th episode of '']''. The episode addresses the ] and the ] government's custom of not scheduling executions between sundown Friday and sundown Sunday in order to avoid conducting an execution on either the ] ] or ] ] days. The episode also introduces the recurring character of ].

==Plot==
After a death penalty appeal is rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, one of the defense attorneys (]) reaches out to ] for help, whom he knows because he "used to beat him up in high school." The case involves a drug dealer who killed two other dealers and is eligible for capital punishment under a new omnibus crime bill. The court renders its judgment on a Friday, and the execution is to take place at 12:01 a.m. Monday morning. The convict's only hope is to have his sentence commuted by ].

Sam was going to leave for a weekend sailing excursion with friends, and sets the defense attorney straight when he rudely orders Sam to make the President commute his client's death sentence, but he stiill makes an effort to persuade ] to help convince the President to halt the execution. He gives the convict's attorney the location of Toby's ] and the ] in turn delivers a sermon condemning vengeance. The issue is later laid before the President, who is conflicted. Press Secretary ] and media consultant ] discuss C.J.'s obligation to learn personal information about the prisoner to share with the press, and the fact that while neither personally has strong feelings on either side of the death-penalty debate, learning this personal information about the man who is to die makes the task more emotional.

Meanwhile, ] has a meeting with an irate campaign manager from California named ] (]), who is furious that Josh has cut her candidate's funding in a race against a fanatically anti-immigration Republican incumbent. Josh is taken aback by both Joey's brilliance and beauty, and surprised by the fact that she is also ]. The President, walking the halls to think about the decision he faces, invites Joey to a tour the White House with him and asks her opinion on the death penalty. As a ], she is opposed, and they discuss ancient Christian philosophers who have supported the penalty. Like Toby's rabbi, she believes these older doctrines are outweighed by modern knowledge. She also raises the subject of her candidate, and Bartlet says her guy is an "empty suit" and that he "likes the devil I've got", but adds if she finds someone who has promise he'll be interested.

Bartlet continues to agonize over the death penalty issue and asks for guidance. While he is personally opposed to the death penalty, he recognizes that most Americans support it and does not feel that his personal beliefs can legitimately overrule the wishes of the American public. He expresses concern that if he commutes the sentence due to his personal beliefs and his successor does not commute sentences, a violation of the ] prohibition against "]" will be created. ] advises the President that if such a precedent is his only obstacle, then for once, "let that be the next guy's problem." The President indicates to Leo that he will not commute the sentence. Although Sam is waiting in the outer office armed with arguments for commuting the sentence and insists he should be allowed to present them, Leo sends him away, declaring that he has known the President long enough to recognize when he has made a decision beyond persuasion, and Sam says brokenly, "Leo, there are times when we are absolutely nowhere."

Prior to Joey Lucas leaving Washington, Josh arranges to meet with her at her hotel, where he offers the President's apology for any rudeness during their encounter and his renewed offer to support a better candidate. She asks if he had offered any suggestions, to which Josh replied that the President believed Joey herself should run. The episode concludes with Bartlet discussing the matter with his boyhood parish priest (played by ], in his last screen acting role before his death), who upholds Catholic doctrine against the death penalty. After C.J. enters with confirmation that the execution has taken place, the priest prepares to administer to Bartlet the ].

==Title==
The title of the episode is a reference to ], in which God instructs, "Observe/Safeguard the Sabbath day," in the ], ] 5:1-22. It makes reference to the scene in which Sam explains to Leo, "We don't execute people between sundown Friday and sundown Sunday". The rabbi also notes that he had hoped his sermon might prompt Toby to "take this Sabbath day" to consider how to advise the president. On the DVD commentary track for this episode on ''The West Wing: Season 1'', series creator ] notes that the writing staff had urged him to write an episode addressing the death penalty, but that he had not found any inspiration for a plot until he learned of the fact that the government avoided scheduling executions on the Sabbath.<ref name="dvd-track"">Aaron Sorkin. "Take This Sabbath Day" commentary track, ''The West Wing: Season 1''.</ref>

==Emmy Awards==
;Nominated:
* Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (nominee: ])

==Trivia==
*This was the last television or film performance of ] veteran ].
*Donna's reason for being late to bring Josh his clothes was that she had trouble on ], something that was also joked about in Sorkin's film '']''.
*Joe Cosgrove, the actor who played bearded defense attorney Peter Hayes is a practicing attorney who briefly served as a judge on the ], ] Court of Common Pleas. Cosgrove was nominated by then-Governor Ed Rendell to serve the remainder of the term of disgraced judge ] following Ciavarella's corruption arrest in connection with the ].
*The subject of the show's inpending execution, drug kingpin Simon Cruz, is likely a reference to real-life drug lord ], who was eventually executed on June 19, 2001 for several murders connected with a marijuana ring in ]. His execution was the second carried out by the federal government since 1963; Cruz' is described as what would be the first one, which would have been the case for Garza had terrorist ] not been executed by the federal government on June 11, eight days before.

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*
{{tww}}
{{Navbox The West Wing episodes}}
⚫ ]
]
]
] <!-- two scenes set in a synagogue, as well as a discussion between Toby and Bartlet about capital punishment in Jewish law -->
{{WestWing-stub}}

]

Latest revision as of 19:06, 8 April 2024

Redirect to:

  • With history: This is a redirect from a page containing substantive page history. This page is kept as a redirect to preserve its former content and attributions. Please do not remove the tag that generates this text (unless the need to recreate content on this page has been demonstrated), nor delete this page.
    • This template should not be used for redirects having some edit history but no meaningful content in their previous versions, nor for redirects created as a result of a page merge (use {{R from merge}} instead), nor for redirects from a title that forms a historic part of Misplaced Pages (use {{R with old history}} instead).
Category: