Whether or not it was inventing the “walk-and-talk” digital camera approach or simply remaining among the best tv exhibits to grace the small display screen, The West Wing reveled in doing the sudden. Working example, creator and head author Aaron Sorkin used the yearly vacation episodes frequent to TV on the time as only a tinsel-studded backdrop in opposition to which to look at sociological points much more piercingly than was the present’s customized. Though the White Home units had been adorned to the nines with the requisite brilliant lights and ornamented timber, Sorkin’s storylines in these episodes acknowledged the reality that America’s capitalist construction is all too blissful to disregard: that the winter holidays are removed from a unanimously blissful time. For as many individuals who draw pleasure from the affectations and traditions of Christmas, there are as many or extra wounded by them for numerous causes. Season 2, Episode 10, “Noël,” excels with this idea via a searingly correct, deeply intimate portrayal of post-traumatic stress dysfunction, and in so doing not solely destigmatizes PTSD however validates the complexity of December melancholy.

What Is ‘The West Wing’ Episode “Noël” About?

Not like most The West Wing episodes that stability a number of facet plots throughout the expansive solid, “Noël” focuses virtually fully on Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford), the Deputy White Home Chief of Employees and one of the seen predominant characters. Through the Season 1 cliffhanger and Season 2 opener, Josh and the remainder of President Jed Bartlet’s (Martin Sheen) quick workers survived an try on their lives. Josh was among the many gravely injured, and “Noël” opens on that calendar 12 months’s Christmas Eve as he meets with a psychotherapist from the American Trauma Victims Affiliation (ATVA). Josh is not there by selection however via the priority of his coworkers and the Chief of Employees, Leo McGarry (John Spencer), following a collection of escalating, uncharacteristic outbursts.

He arrives on the assembly in all his typical glory, with cruel one-liners and lackadaisical swagger on the prepared, in addition to a hand harm he brusquely dismisses as a minor accident. The longer the assembly lasts, nevertheless, the extra agitated Josh turns into in response to the psychotherapist, Stanley (Adam Arkin), till he receives essential solutions to questions he wasn’t cognizant of asking. Stanley diagnoses Josh with PTSD; the episode’s conclusion is a bittersweet combination of hope alongside uncompromising honesty that different media of the period might have averted.

Even after 24 years, “Noël” is a mini-miracle in manufacturing and content material worth. For context, post-traumatic stress dysfunction happens after a person survives or witnesses an occasion threatening their bodily security or one other traumatizing incidence. The Nationwide Institute of Psychological Well being describes the re-experiencing signs as “reliving the trauma time and again, together with bodily signs like a racing coronary heart or sweating,” and the way “signs might trigger issues in an individual’s on a regular basis routine,” akin to heightened anger and a scarcity of focus, and “phrases, objects, or conditions which are reminders of the occasion may also set off re-experiencing signs.” Lengthy related to fight veterans, anybody can have PTSD following a life-threatening or psychologically unstable expertise, akin to a extreme automotive accident or the passing of a beloved one. Triggers range person-to-person; some might tie on to the inciting occasion whereas others happen in the course of the particular person’s routine environment.

In Josh’s case, his triggers are noises that unconsciously remind him of emergency sirens — particularly, the brass and string musicians enjoying within the foyer in the course of the three weeks of December. Listening to “loud” Christmas music, one of the beloved traditions of the vacation, offers rise to Josh’s irregular habits in an ever-building subliminal means. He is hostile in the direction of coworkers, and his irritability is out of proportion to the state of affairs; he is unable to course of, perceive, or actually discover his reactions. He even slips and says “I can hear the rattling sirens everywhere in the constructing” earlier than instantly correcting himself to “the bagpipes” as if in a haze.

In truth, Josh does not understand something is totally different about himself and mocks Stanley from the beginning. Though he does not say as a lot, Josh is insulted by the insinuation he wants therapeutic assist. As a result of he is blind to the literal sense of his wants, not to mention how you can healthily strategy them, the episode’s emotional apex unfolds throughout a congressional Christmas efficiency by acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Similar to the musical devices, Ma’s efficiency reminds Josh of the incident and induces a flashback the place he relives the hazard as if he had been bodily in that location and time; his fight-or-flight prompts, he tastes adrenaline in his mouth, he panics. The expertise performs on an emotional loop, and episode editor Invoice Johnson mimics as a lot by sporadically flashing between three totally different — however inseparable — occasions: Ma’s efficiency, Josh’s recollections of the capturing, his reactions within the White Home, and his session with Stanley, all whereas overlapping the cello chords with automobile sirens, glass breaking, and a person knocking at Josh’s condominium door. It is overwhelming. And with out the instruments to determine his triggers, with out the skilled steerage to acknowledge the signs, Josh feels powerless all whereas denying something could be mistaken.

One other stage of accuracy lies in how these recognized with PTSD might unintentionally misremember occasions. Earlier than “Noël,” The West Wing had by no means dabbled within the realm of unreliable narrators. Viewers and characters alike don’t have a purpose to doubt Josh’s account about how he injured his hand, aside from the truth that it’s clearly, patently false, as a result of one thing is clearly, patently mistaken with Josh himself. From Josh’s perspective, he is not mendacity about his hand; he genuinely believes it is from damaged drinkware quite than slamming his hand via a glass window after the cello efficiency. As Stanley explains, “You are in 9 sorts of ache,” confused and not sure, whereas his psyche scrambles to “harm management” regardless. The purpose is not for Josh to share his emotions and discover a magical repair; the purpose is to recollect his trauma with out reliving it. The terrified, agonized hope in Josh’s eyes after somebody named and legitimized his ache is heartbreaking. Right here, lastly, is a solution. Right here is the understanding he wasn’t conscious could possibly be afforded him.

‘The West Wing’s “Noël” Episode Wouldn’t Succeed With out Bradley Whitford’s Efficiency

On no account was Josh Lyman an underutilized character earlier than this episode. Sorkin’s scripts typically favored him, in reality, to the purpose that viewers are fairly conscious by this level of who Josh is: a person as passionate, hyper-intelligent, and stuffed with idealistic integrity as he’s bull-headed, intentionally obtuse, and doubtless caught in some type of arrested growth. His tendency to verbally railroad others with weaponized insults regularly comes throughout as extra merciless than intelligent, even when some situations aren’t intentional (and a few of his self-indulgent quips are value fun).

What Josh lacked earlier than “Noël,” then, was an outlined dramatic arc — not simply frustration over their fragmenting political ecosystem or a triumphantly inspirational flip of phrase, however one thing with enamel. “Noël” reinterprets Josh’s comedic tendencies via his new actuality and offers Whitford an opportunity to include new shades into his efficiency. Josh’s biting one-liners develop into a nasty but essential protection mechanism, as knee-jerk an intuition to guard himself like a wounded animal huddled and hissing within the nook, and subsequently out-of-sync with the dramatically altered world Josh now inhabits. His new actuality isn’t one in every of simple camaraderie however a relentless flight-or-flight mélange of panic, hazard, and concern.

The primary apparent indicator that one thing is profoundly mistaken about Josh (not simply totally different) is the second he bulldozes a workers assembly within the Oval Workplace. His rambling speech turns more and more nonsensical, repeating “hearken to me” again and again till it devolves into begging shouts. Josh has all the time been emotionally constipated, however for maybe the primary time in his life that we all know of, he’s determined and misplaced — falling off a cliff the place nobody can hear him screaming, however he doesn’t even know why he’s screaming. It is a man who’s unraveling on the seams, even when his heightened vitality circles again on itself to develop into uninteresting and soulless, in comparison with the invigoratingly chipper man with whom we’re acquainted.

“Noël” earned Whitford his first Emmy nomination and his first win (out of the three complete nominations he would earn throughout his tenure on The West Wing). Whitford was keenly conscious that this explicit script required a distinct strategy than his normal weekly performances. He advised The West Wing Weekly podcast (hosted by musician and podcaster Hrishikesh Hirway and Whitford’s fellow West Wing solid member, Joshua Malina):

“I didn’t need the fabric to sound…chipper. You recognize, I didn’t need it to be…not what Aaron’s writing is, however the parody of what Aaron’s writing is. I keep in mind consciously not desirous to, in these scenes with him, be as acutely aware of the rhythm as you’re in a enjoyable scene with Donna.”

Regardless of Whitford’s uncertainty, nervousness, and “frustration” about his efficiency on the time, he displays: “I keep in mind this being, you recognize, one of many nice artistic experiences in my life.”

‘The West Wing’ Is not Afraid to Have a look at the Darkish Facet of Christmas

In typical West Wing trend, “Noël” performs with expectations by setting Josh’s second of emotional depending on Christmas Eve and what led to it in December. There isn’t any second the White Home is not decked out with ceiling-high timber, colourful gentle strands, wreaths on doorways, large purple bows, and garland-draped doorways. In direct distinction to Josh’s trauma, his coworkers are enthusiastic about Ma’s efficiency and revel in it earnestly and guilelessly. By shattering the stigmas surrounding PTSD via Josh’s achingly trustworthy ache, “Noël” highlights the darkish vitality distinctive to December. Many lengthy for the idyllic simplicity of carols, Hallmark films, and scorching cider, and wanting that solace is not mistaken so long as neighbors obey the “love as thyself” commandment and embrace those that are hurting. The family-focused seasons and the bitter instability of the shut to a different 12 months and all it wrought convey many, many hardships. But society likes to bury these cycles of ache beneath merry traditions and procuring offers as unhealthy as sweet lodged in a single’s tooth.

This brings the narrative full circle to Leo, a person recognized with alcoholism. He recites a parable to Josh a couple of man who fell right into a gap and the good friend who leaped down with him “as a result of I have been right here earlier than, and I understand how out.” Usually the toughest a part of any psychological well being situation is asking for assist, not to mention accepting it when supplied. Mixed with Stanley assuring Josh he will not relive the incident each time he hears music “as a result of we get higher,” Josh understands he can heal as a result of an expensive good friend is aware of that path nicely. Leo extending real acceptance and style towards Josh embodies the genuine that means of Christmas because it’s pushed to the world at giant greater than any set of bagpipes may.

Within the episode’s closing scene, a gaggle of carolers singing “Carol of the Bells,” full with rhythmic bell-ringing, briefly paralyzes Josh into silent reflection. The hand-held digital camera — a rarity for The West Wing — slides onto a skewed angle because it rushes via the scene till it is painfully near Josh’s half-numb, half-terrified expression. As soon as once more, even essentially the most creative musical interludes in “Noël” come throughout as exaggeratedly intrusive and threatening, quite than background noise including to a scene’s ambiance or one thing seasonal to be treasured. It is not sufficient for Josh to only admit his situation or for Leo to reassure him. The place different collection may current a completely and immediately healed Josh, the episodic equal of a Christmas present wrapped up with a bow on high, Sorkin as an alternative refuses to let Josh emerge unscathed. As quickly as Josh steps exterior the White Home, he’s confronted together with his trauma’s set off, and we don’t want advanced modifying methods to grasp that he’s internally reacting to the music.

The important thing distinction is that Josh is not screaming in the dead of night alone. He has individuals who will present him how you can crawl free. It doesn’t matter how resilient anybody is individually – they merely lack the instruments to emerge from sure circumstances with out assist. He holds his emotional response to these bells alongside the newfound consciousness of what it means for his life. Aaron Sorkin accepts the wintertime wounded via Josh, a personality well-known for all the time having (and needing) the final phrase. “Noël” makes room for the December occasions which are lovely, melancholy, and as advanced because the human expertise.

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