Jed Bartlet's 7 Best And 7 Worst Episodes Of The West Wing

It's a crime that Martin Sheen never won a best actor Emmy for his work as President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet on Aaron Sorkin's "The West Wing." He was nominated for the award six times over the show's run, but there was always someone else who took home the prize. That doesn't change the fact that he's an incredible actor, and "The West Wing" will always be a shining example of his talents. President Bartlet is arguably the best fictional president ever put to screen — he's brilliant, compassionate, and assertive, and he has just as many flaws as he does strengths, something that has always endeared him to viewers. Jed struggles with everything you might imagine a president of the United States to struggle with, but he handles it all with grace. He's a huge part of why "The West Wing" is considered one of the greatest political television shows of all time.

Jed Bartlet came out on top when we polled hundreds of people about the best TV presidents. But, like all the best TV characters, he's not perfect. We've compiled a list of his best and worst episodes of "The West Wing."

"The Midterms" is a good episode of "The West Wing." It follows the midterm elections as President Bartlet's staff continues to slowly recover from the traumatic shooting at the end of Season 1. Toby in particular spends the duration of the episode trying to understand why the Rosslyn attack has endured so disturbingly for the staff, and Jed is ultimately the one who helps him understand. "It was a lynching," he said, "they tried to lynch Charlie right in front of us." Charlie may have survived, but that doesn't change the fact that such enormous violence was undertaken solely from a place of bigotry and blind, ignorant hate.

Later, when he arrives at a reception with talk radio hosts, Jed gives one of the most epic verbal smackdowns in TV history. After peppering an ultra-conservative, homophobic radio host with a dozen questions about rules that are laid out in the Bible — "Does the whole town really have to be together to stone my brother, Jon, for planting crops side by side? Can I burn my mother in a small family gathering for wearing garments made from two different threads?" — he says, "One last thing, while you may be mistaking this for your monthly meeting of the Ignorant Tightass Club, in this building, when the president stands, nobody sits." It's one of the best examples of Bartlet's gravitas in the whole show.

Not only is "Two Cathedrals" one of the best episodes of "The West Wing" ever aired, but it's also one of the best episodes of television ever produced. It serves as a culmination of two seasons' worth of careful plotting to tell the story of President Bartlet's secret Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis. He knew about his MS before he even decided to run for president, and he and his wife Abby decided to keep it secret throughout his campaign and for most of his first term. In "Two Cathedrals," Jed deals with the loss of his longtime executive secretary and friend Mrs. Landingham (the episode shows flashbacks to Jed's high school years where he first met her while she was working for his father) and the reveal of his MS to the public.

Jed has two particularly incredible scenes in the episode. The first takes place in the cathedral after Mrs. Landingham's funeral where he yells at God for her death (it sounds heavy-handed but it's an excellent scene, we promise). The second occurs during a violent storm and a few minutes before Jed needs to arrive at a press conference regarding his MS. In that scene, he realizes that, despite his flaws and his mistakes, he owes it to himself and the world to continue trying to do good.

Season 3 of "The West Wing" is excellent, with "Posse Comitatus" serving as a nuanced and surprisingly dark finale. Much like the intricate Shakespeare performance happening on stage throughout the episode, there are many moving parts in "Posse Comitatus," all of which come back to center on a deeply conflicted Jed Bartlet. Jed mulls over his decision to assassinate the Qumari foreign defense minister after he helped orchestrate an attempted terrorist attack on the Golden Gate Bridge, while his staff struggle with the dynamics of running a presidential campaign while in office. Meanwhile, CJ's assigned secret service protector Simon Donovan (Mark Harmon) is shot and killed during a bodega robbery.

While dealing with all of these things, Jed runs into his opponent, Governor Robert Ritchie (James Brolin). The two men finally admit to the disdain they have for each other's political views and life philosophies. It's fun to see James Brolin and Martin Sheen in a showdown, and Jed's parting line — "In the future, if you're wondering: 'Crime. Boy, I don't know,' is when I decided to kick your ass" — sets up an exciting fourth season.

We constantly hear from the other characters on the show that Jed loves political debate, so it's great to see him in his element in "Game On." He's an intellectual powerhouse and his opponent Robert Ritchie is very much not. It's almost a little too satisfying to watch Jed debate Ritchie — there are a few moments where his verbal hits almost feel like picking the low-hanging fruit (for example, Ritchie refers to "unfunded mandate" as one big word, and Jed confidently points out that "unfunded mandate" is two words), but this episode is essential to Jed's character growth.

What's so great about "Game On" is that it marks the moment where Bartlet stops worrying about being likable and starts allowing himself to inhabit and express his extraordinary intellect without reservation. Like his fans in the show, viewers get to revel in the moment he wins his campaign for re-election against a man who often sought to diminish the value of intellect. It's without a doubt one of the best episodes of "The West Wing" ever.

"Han" is another episode where we can see the moral cost that Jed pays in order to do his job. An incredibly talented North Korean pianist arrives at the White House to perform a concert as an act of diplomacy between the two often-at-odds nations. Jai Yung Ahn (Tony Lee) conveys an acute sadness from the first minute he is on screen, and we soon understand why when he covertly attempts to request political asylum from the president without alerting his North Korean military handlers. Jed discusses the issue in depth with his staff and national security advisors, and eventually he is forced to deny Ahn's request due to hopes that North Korea will soon enter into negotiations regarding nuclear testing.

Ahn understands the position in which Jed finds himself, and he plays "The Celebrated Chop Waltz" (otherwise known as "Chopsticks") on the piano as he explains that the Korean word Han means being able to hold hope despite facing unmeasurable despair. Jed learns the true meaning of the word later in the episode when he discovers that the North Koreans have opted out of nuclear test negotiations, which means that he rejected Ahn's request for asylum for nothing.

This episode begins with business as usual: Jed receives a diplomatic delegation from Taiwan in the Oval Office and prepares for his trip to China. He accepts a Taiwanese flag gifted to him by the delegation, and later the entire world realizes that the flag represents Taiwanese independence from China — a very sensitive political issue, both then and now. Members of Congress, the West Wing staff, and countries all around the world (including China) believe that Jed's acceptance of the flag is a signal that it's time to support Taiwan in their efforts to become independent.

Throughout the episode, Jed asserts that he just didn't realize the meaning of the flag and his staff run around in a panic trying to put the ship back in the bottle, so to speak. At the very end of the episode, during a concert performance of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" by James Taylor, Jed admits to Abby that he didn't see the Taiwanese flag due to a flare-up of his MS symptoms. His fear is palpable as he confesses to her, and her understanding yet supportive and bolstering response is a big part of what makes their marriage feel so deep and real on the show.

This episode is really the turning point in Jed's Multiple Sclerosis journey. His disease is very much no longer in remission, and is officially having a serious impact on his ability to do his job as president. The happenings of "Impact Winter" were foreshadowed by Jed's MS symptom flare-up in "A Change Is Gonna Come." Now, though, Jed has worked through the fear he feels regarding his loss of control over his body, and the viewer can feel his visceral rage and frustration at his inability to harmonize the wants of his mind with the needs of his body. He is unable to meet with the president of China for most of their diplomatic summit, and, as a result, he doesn't accomplish anything he really wants to.

At the final photo op, Jed makes a play for a private conversation with the Chinese president, and, several hours later, he returns to his wife and his staff having secured many of the diplomatic agreements he thought were lost. His staff is awed, but later on the surgeon general's words of warning — "At this point in his disease, there is a cost" — come back to haunt everyone on Air Force One as Jed collapses and falls ill. He accomplished what he wanted to accomplish, but his body paid a hefty price.