What's Next?

After sinking their teeth into a satisfying resolution to the first-season cliffhanger, West Wing fans contemplate the long-term after-effects.

All the speculation, all the debate, all the slow-motion frame-by-frame replays are done. Viewers of The West Wing finally know "Who's been hit?".

There were surprises. Fans were fairly certain that the President himself would escape without injury from gunfire, but would possibly have a heart attack or experience complications of his Multiple Sclerosis. Instead, Bartlet suffered a gunshot wound but the bullet passed cleanly through his body.

The President's Secret Service Agent, Ron Butterfield, was struck in the hand, although Zoey's Agent, Gina Toscano (played by Jorja Fox), an odds-on favourite to fall prey to the assassins, was uninjured.

Brad Whitford, who plays Josh Lyman, had fooled everyone into thinking that Josh escaped unscathed. Instead, he was the most severely injured staffer, requiring hours of delicate surgery to overcome a chest wound.

The events, and particularly Josh's surgery and grave condition, was the catalyst for the long-awaited flashback episodes wherein viewers got to find out more about how the team which now populates the West Wing came together. We witnessed Donna Moss as an adrift and seeking ex-student signing on as a Bartlet volunteer and talking her way into Josh's office and his life. We also saw Josh - one of the only True Believers in those days - cajole upscale lawyer Sam Seaborn from his tony law firm to join the Bartlet team. We saw Toby Zeigler drinking too heavily and bracing for what he thought was to be his dismissal from the Bartlet campaign, only to be given a cautionary second chance by Campaign Manager Leo McGarry who somehow saw his potential. We met CJ Cregg, hopelessly out of place as a PR flack in Hollywood, and witnessed one of what seem to be many intimate encounters with swimming pools in her career. And we met then-Governor Bartlet, difficult, impatient and cranky, a man who did not want to be and was not ready to be a candidate for the Presidency, much less President.

In the here-and-now of The West Wing, Josh survived the surgery. (The final scene of the two-part season opener featured a post-surgery Josh whispering to the President "What's next?", West Wing code for, "I'm ready to move on.") Now, the aftermath of the shooting must be dealt with. Last season, we saw Josh in a session with his psychiatrist exploring the guilt he carries because of his sister's death in a house fire which broke out while she was babysitting him. How will his wounding and recovery affect those feelings? Has Josh "atoned" in some way for the guilt he carries? CJ Cregg is still obviously considerably more shaken up than she chooses to let on. What will the aftermath of the shooting hold for her? And Charlie Young (played by Dule Hill) has been told that he, not the President, was the intended victim of the assassins because of his skin colour and his interracial relationship with Zoey Bartlet - an extremely heavy burden for the young man to bear.

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