You're listening to The West Wing Weekly. I'm Rishi Kei Shereway.

And I'm Joshua Molina.

And today we're talking about the season finale of season 5. It's called Memorial Day.

It was written by John's Secret Young and Josh Singer. It was directed by Christopher

Missiano. And at first aired on May 19th in the year 2004.

Here's a little synopsis. Memorial Day is a season finale and in it, President Bartlett

wrestles with what to do in response to the killing of American officials in Gaza.

But even as he weighs the options, the situation keeps escalating with Israel and Palestine

attacking each other in retaliation and counter- retaliation.

Meanwhile, Josh finds himself being used as a proxy for back channels with the Palestinian

Prime Minister. And Charlie and Toby try to ready the President for throwing out the

first pitch at an Orioles game in Camden Yards.

Coming up later, we're going to talk with one of the writers of this episode, Josh Singer.

He's an Oscar winner for the film Spotlight, which he co-wrote. He also co-wrote the

post and he wrote the new film First Man.

How about that? That's a good get.

Yep. But first, let's talk about this episode a little bit. Josh, what did you think?

I liked this episode. I thought a good continuation of the last and a good end of the season.

I liked the very last moment itself. We don't have to begin at the last moment. But I like

the heft of this episode and where it kind of leaves us as we look forward to the next

season.

Let's take a second, maybe, before we even discuss the granular parts of the episode itself

...