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"Take This Sabbath Day" is the 14th episode of The West Wing.

Plot

An appeal on a death penalty case is rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, and one of the attorneys Noah Emmerich tries to reach out to Sam. The case involves a drug dealer who killed two other dealers and is eligible for capital punishment under a new omnibus crime bill. Since he liked to beat up Sam when they were in high school together, asks very rudely for the President to commute the sentence, and interrupted Sam's plan to leave on a sailing trip with some friends, there's no reason to expect Sam to help him...but he does. Sam reaches out to the rabbi at Toby's synagogue, who gives a speech about how vengeance is not something Jews should seek. Meanwhile, Josh goes to a bachelor party on Friday night and comes to the White House looking quite disheveled, only to encounter a very angry woman named Joey Lucas, who is upbraiding him for cutting her Congressional candidate's funding. Josh is taken aback, not least because Joey is also beautiful and deaf. She eventually gets to meet with the President, who asks her take on the death penalty issue (she says she doesn't believe in capital punishment and he should commute the dealer's sentence) then tells her the funding was cut because her candidate's a loser and the Democrats like having the incumbent, a rabidly anti-immigration sort, in power because he's the devil they got and they like that. Joey later tells Josh she knows her candidate is worthless but it's hard to find people who'll work with her; he says the President thinks she should try a Congressional run herself. President Bartlet doesn't want to commute the sentence and Leo says that for once, it should be the next guy's problem. C.J. expresses no strong views in either direction of capital punishment but does become emotional when she realizes she'll have to talk about the dealer's family after he's executed. Despite Sam's pained protests, the sentence isn't commuted and the execution takes place. President Bartlet has invited his parish priest from his youth in Manchester to the White House, and says he allowed a man to be killed by other men, and then has the priest hear his confession. "Bless me father, for I have sinned..."

Title

The title of the episode is a reference to the bible, in which God instructs, "Observe/Safeguard the Sabbath day," in the Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 5:1-22. It references the scene in which Sam explains to Leo, "We don't execute people between sundown Friday and sundown Sunday" because of the Sabbath.

Emmy Awards

Nominated

• Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series (nominee: Martin Sheen)

Notes

• This is one of only three episodes (the others being the Pilot episode and The Stormy Present) which do not feature a "Previously on The West Wing" segment.

External links

• The West Wing Episode Guide

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