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The West Wing

Episode H Con – 172, of The West Wing, season three, dealt with many important issues and ideas of morality. Some major characters in this episode were misleading and deceiving fellow peers and friends in an attempt to achieve goals and hide facts and emotions. While others were discovering the power of truth and fighting the urge of turning to lies and fantasy. Some were even dealing with the pulls of duty and desire. The issues being addressed were those dealing with the morality of the characters, whether to lie and deceive to attain our goals or to tell the truth but possibly fail, to give into our personal desirers or to follow our sense duty.

In the tenth episode of The West Wing, the characters were dealing with inner conflict, as deception was a tactic used to achieve goals and hide the truth and feelings. Josh claims “I’m a straight shooter” yet he feels it necessary to “come in under the cover of business” when the issue of asking out Amy, an attractive women’s rights leader arises. Josh feels that in the case of asking Amy to meet socially with him “there’s a potential she will say no” and then evidently Josh would “have to move someplace where it’ll never be spoken of again”. Josh is afraid of exposing himself to humiliation, and understands that to deceive Amy with “the bad news” of the fact that the government will only be paying “$20 million-five hundred thousand” when Amy and her group “wanted $21 million” he would be able to conceal himself from the mortification that a ‘no’ would result in. Josh feels the need to “construct some nonsense problem” to “have an excuse to see” Amy. He can not face the truth of his feelings or reveal them to Amy. He is fighting an inner battle between honesty and dishonesty. Despite his past history of being a “straight shooter” he can not even use a thread of truth or directness when it comes to his feeling about her.
Sam, as well, throughout this episode deceives his peers of his feelings. Sam displays that he...