Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
It’s easy to see why Josh Lyman was an early breakout character on The West Wing. In this show that took you behind the curtain and into the ways that politicians maneuvered in the halls of power in Washington, Josh was the political maneuverer. Like all of Aaron Sorkin’s characters, he was an idealist, yes. But more than any of his fellow senior staffers, Josh was all about winning. That’s how he could best serve his President: by winning the fights with his political enemies. By winning the battles for votes on a House bill. By winning the test of wills with the Vice President. By winning so much he’d get sick of winning. (No, don’t worry, I’m not going to try to make a comparison between Josh and Trump. Except to say that their hair often proves untamable.)
Josh’s innate cockiness was a necessary counterpoint to the idealistic optimism of a Sam Seaborn or the pious fatalism of Toby Ziegler. Josh was taking care of business, getting things done, drinking from the keg of glory, and feasting on the finest muffins and bagels in all the land.
Settling on the ten best Josh episodes was an incredibly difficult task. Do we go with the more process-heavy episodes that focus on Josh as the Rahm Emanuel-esque White House pitbull? How best to balance Josh’s many love interests? (Tragically, this list gives short shrift to Joey Lucas, but go watch “Mandatory Minimums” as our honored runner-up episode.) Ultimately, some Josh highlights were too readily apparent to turn down. Enjoy this journey through the career of the guy who the guy counts on.
"Five Votes Down" (Season 1, Episode 4)
Early on in the show’s first season, we got a look at why Josh Lyman is the preeminent political operator of Jed Bartlet’s administration, as he works, manages, and threatens Congresspeople in order to get a bill passed. It’s said that Josh was modeled, at least in part, on Rahm Emanuel, and it’s this side of Josh that they were talking about: politically savvy and totally ruthless. He’s the teeth of the Bartlet White House.
"Celestial Navigation" (Season 1, Episode 15)
When C.J. gets sidelined with an emergency root canal, Josh steps up to deliver a the press briefing. By virtue of his arrogance, Josh turns a rather mundane press briefing in an all-out disaster, one he spends the rest of the episode trying to clean up. Watching Josh whip a bill into shape is fun, but watching him reap the rewards of his constant bluster is fun too.
"In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part 2" (Season 2, Episode 2)
After the shootout at the end of season 1, Josh ended up the worst for wear, fighting for his life in surgery while flashing back to the early days of Team Bartlet. This includes convincing Sam to head out to Nashua to see Bartlet speak and, in the episode’s best moment, finding out his father has died on the night of the Illinois primary.
"Noel" (Season 2, Episode 10)
Josh’s PTSD after his shooting reaches a crisis point in this episode. Bradley Whitford plays Josh’s emotional breakdown perfectly, setting his outbursts just outside his own control. The big scene at the end where Leo extends Josh his hand in friendship is one of the all-time great West Wing scenes.
"The Two Bartlets" (Season 3, Episode 13)
Josh’s prickly relationship with Amy Gardner was a big highlight of season 3, and this episode was probably the best showcase for them. After Amy breaks up with her opportunist politico of a boyfriend, Josh starts to panic about their flirting entering the relationship zone. That trip to Tahiti? Yeah, don’t count on it.
"The U.S. Poet Laureate" (Season 3, Episode 17)
Josh discovers that he’s popular on the internet, before making the cardinal mistake of anyone online: he reads the comments. And then he engages with the commenters. In a storyline ripped from Aaron Sorkin’s own ill-advised misadventures online, Josh’s attempts to high-hands the peons only serves to get him deeper into trouble, until C.J. threatens to shove a motherboard so far up his ass.
"Guns Not Butter" (Season 4, Episode 12)
Another process episode, this one where Josh tries to move heaven and Earth to get a foreign aid bill passed. He can’t, and he and Bartlet have a particularly illuminating little tete-e-tete about it. Once again, Josh’s political maneuvering is The West Wing at its finest, and it’s elevated by a glimpse into Josh’s psyche.
"The Supremes" (Season 5, Episode 17)
Season 5 was a period of rough waters for The West Wing, after Aaron Sorkin left and before John Wells’ crew got the hang of things. But one standout episode was “The Supremes,” where a high-court vacancy had to be filled, and Toby and Josh come up with a plan just crazy enough to get liberal hero Evelyn Baker Lang (Glenn Close) on the Court.
"Freedonia" (Season 6, Episode 15)
In season 6, Josh took over managing the insurgent presidential campaign of Congressman Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits), and it was rough sledding in the early going. In “Freedonia,” Josh gets a visit from old flame Amy Gardner in order to help Santos make the leap from fringe candidate to legitimate contender.
"Election Day, Part 1" (Season 7, Episode 16)
The big day for the Santos campaign becomes an even bigger day for Josh/Donna shippers, as The West Wing‘s eternal will-they-or-won’t-they couple finally hopped into bed just as the pressure was getting too much to bear. Oh, also there’s all this stuff about a historically close presidential election coming down to the wire.
