Written by Aaron Sorkin, Lawrence O’Donnell, and Paul Redford
Directed by Thomas Schlamme

Take This Sabbath Day is one of those West Wing episodes that really sticks with me after watching it. It isn’t flashy, and there isn’t a big political victory at the end. Instead, it slows everything down and puts President Bartlet (Martin Sheen) in a situation where there simply isn’t a good answer.

The episode centers on Simon Cruz, a federal prisoner whose final appeals have been rejected and whose execution is scheduled for the following Monday. His lawyers turn to the White House, hoping President Bartlet will commute his sentence. What makes the situation especially difficult is that Cruz is guilty. There isn’t a question of an innocent man being executed. He committed a horrific crime, and the legal system has already made its decision. The question is whether the government should have the power to deliberately take his life. That’s what I found so compelling about the episode. It doesn’t let the characters, or the audience, take the easy way out.

President Bartlet is usually the person who seems to have all the answers. He’s confident, intelligent, quick-witted, and usually able to walk into a room and take control of a situation. Here, we see a completely different side of him. He’s struggling. As a Catholic, Bartlet can’t separate the death penalty from his beliefs about forgiveness, morality, and the value of human life. He talks with Toby, seeks religious guidance, and even reaches out to the Pope. But none of that gives him the answer he’s looking for. And I actually love that.

Take This Sabbath Day doesn’t use religion as a way of conveniently solving the problem. Instead, Bartlet’s faith makes the decision even more complicated. He wants someone to tell him what the right thing is, but ultimately he’s the President, and the decision belongs to him. There’s something incredibly lonely about that. Everyone can give him advice, but nobody else can carry the responsibility.

The conversation between President Bartlet and the President’s Personal Aide, Charlie (Dulé Hill) is probably the moment that hits me the hardest. Bartlet asks Charlie what he would want to happen if the person who murdered his mother were caught. Charlie says he wouldn’t want the government to execute him. But then Charlie admits that he would want to kill the man himself. It’s such a human answer. Charlie isn’t pretending he’s above revenge. He’s angry, and understandably so. But the conversation also makes a really important distinction between wanting revenge personally and believing the government should carry out an execution. I love that Bartlet doesn’t lecture Charlie about his feelings. He listens. And I think the conversation helps Bartlet understand the issue in a much more personal way.

Communications Director Toby Ziegler (Richard Schiff) also struggles with the death penalty and turns to Rabbi Glassman (David Proval) for guidance. This is another part of the episode that I appreciate because Toby is usually so certain about what he believes. Here, he’s genuinely wrestling with the issue. The conversations about religion, morality, justice, and forgiveness never become overly simplistic. Everyone seems to be searching for certainty, but certainty just isn’t there. That’s one of the things I love about The West Wing: the characters can be incredibly intelligent and still not know what the right answer is.

The Joey Lucas (Marlee Matlin) storyline is almost a completely different kind of political story. Joey is furious because the Democratic Party isn’t giving enough support to her congressional candidate. Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford)  initially sees it as another political problem he needs to manage, but Joey isn’t interested in letting him smooth things over. I really like Joey because she doesn’t seem intimidated by Josh or impressed by the White House. She calls him out, and she understands the political game just as well as he does. Her storyline also provides an interesting contrast with President Bartlet’s dilemma.

While President Bartlet is struggling with the moral consequences of political power, Josh is dealing with the much more cynical side of politics: campaign strategy, resources, winning races, and deciding which candidates are worth supporting. It reminds us that the people in the White House aren’t saints. They’re politicians. They make calculations all the time. But every once in a while, an issue comes along that can’t be reduced to polling numbers or political strategy.

The death penalty is one of those issues.

Eventually, President Bartlet decides not to commute Cruz’s sentence. The execution will go forward. I think the way the episode handles that decision is brilliant because it doesn’t feel like President Bartlet has “won.” There is no triumphant music or sense that everything has been resolved. Instead, President Bartlet is left with the weight of what he has chosen.

The final scene, when he goes to confession with Father Cavanaugh (Karl Malden), is one of my favorite endings of the series. Seeing President Bartlet, this incredibly powerful man, kneeling in confession is such a striking image. He’s the President of the United States. He can order things to happen that affect millions of people. He has the authority to make this decision, and yet, when it’s over, he’s still just a man trying to figure out whether he did the right thing. Having Karl Malden portray the priest is a stroke of genius. It’s too bad he wasn’t named Father Barry.

What I love most about Take This Sabbath Day is that it doesn’t tell me what I’m supposed to think. It makes me uncomfortable. It makes me question what justice really means and whether punishment and revenge are always as different as we’d like to believe. It’s also a great reminder that having power doesn’t necessarily make difficult decisions easier. Sometimes it makes them much harder because you know exactly how much your decision matters.

Martin Sheen is fantastic in this episode. I love seeing President Bartlet without the usual confidence and humor covering everything up. He’s thoughtful, frustrated, uncertain, and ultimately very human. The supporting characters are just as important. Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) takes the case seriously, Toby wrestles with his beliefs, Charlie brings a deeply personal perspective, and Josh and Joey remind us that the White House is still a political machine even when something much bigger is happening.

For me, though, the heart of the episode is Martin Sheen as President Bartlet. He spends the entire episode looking for an answer, and in the end, he has to make the decision himself, and then live with it.

It’s not necessarily the most entertaining episode of The West Wing, but Take This Sabbath Day is one of the episodes I find myself thinking about afterward. It’s thoughtful, emotional, and very human. That final image of Bartlet on his knees says everything. The most powerful man in the country still has to answer to his own conscience.

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