Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
In the original incarnation of The West Wing, with President Bartlet intended to be a more peripheral presence, Leo McGarry was at the center of the fictional White House environment. As the White House chief of staff, it was on Leo to marshall all the forces of the Bartlet administration, make sure everything was running smoothly, keep a finger on the pulse of the politics and the optics of every single decision made within those walls, and handle the not inconsiderable job of keeping the President on message and on task. His was the toughest job on The West Wing and everybody knew it.
As a result, John Spencer’s performance as Leo remains one of the most beloved in the show’s history. When Spencer died halfway through the airing of season 7, the outpouring of emotion from the West Wing family — writers, stars, and fans — was intense. Leo was in many ways the center of The West Wing‘s gravitational pull, and it only felt appropriate that the show couldn’t go on without him.
The following ten episodes were picked to showcase Leo in all his best moments, though it was incredibly difficult to pick them out, as oftentimes Leo’s best moments came when other characters had the spotlight. Think of his great “man falls in a hole” speech to Josh in “Noel.” Or, more pertinently, the fact that the Big Block of Cheese episodes are invariably not very Leo-heavy episodes, despite the fact that he’s the one who came up with the idea in the first place. These ten episodes were the best at putting Leo up to the front of the room, giving him a bit of the spotlight.
"Pilot" (Season 1, Episode 1)
It’s tough to say that the West Wing pilot belonged to any one cast member, since it did such a good job of setting up the entire cast of characters, but the walk-and-talk that takes place over the opening credits, as Leo sets the stage for the entire series, is one of the greatest scenes the show ever produced, and Leo holds it all together. It sets him up as the fulcrum around which the entire White House functions. “Leo will know what to do” became something of a mantra for the senior staff and the President over the years, and episodes like this explain why.
"Take Out the Trash Day" (Season 1, Episode 13)
One of season 1’s biggest storylines saw the White House rallying around Leo when revelations emerged about his past pill addiction and time spent in rehab. “Take Out the Trash Day” is when that particular story reached its peak, with the White House staffer who leaked Leo’s file being discovered. Instead of firing her, Leo opts for a sit-down conversation (the girl is played by a pre-Gilmore Girls Liza Weil) that is disarming, confessional, and so well performed by John Spencer.
"Let Bartlet Be Bartlet" (Season 1, Episode 19)
The episode that broke season 1 wide open featured a confrontation between the President and Leo that challenged Bartlet to stand up and take his presidency into his own hands. This is another episode where Leo proves himself to be the engine that runs the White House, in this case handling the President with one arm and the staff with the other. When it all comes together in those rousing final minutes, you’re ready to ride with Leo into battle.
"The Drop-In" (Season 2, Episode 12)
One of the great recurring relationships on The West Wing was between Leo and British ambassador Lord John Marbury, whose boisterous intrusions into the White House were always fun for the viewer but a nightmare for Leo. It’s mostly a good-natured personality clash, but every time Lord Marbury calls Leo “Gerald,” Leo’s blood pressure goes up ten points. This episode in particular saw Leo advocating for a missile defense system that can’t seem to work correctly, and Lord Marbury needled him incessantly.
"Bartlet for America" (Season 3, Episode 10)
After the MS revelations and the political scandal and the implications for the re-election campaign … after all that came the Congressional hearings. As “Bartlet for America” begins and Leo preps for his testimony, there’s something hanging in the air. Something urgent. It becomes clear that Leo is going to be made to testify to something embarrassing, perhaps disastrous to his own political career. In what may well be John Spencer’s single best episode, Leo moves between panic, dismay, defiance, and stoicism as it begins to look like he’s going to sacrifice his own career for the President’s. In the episode’s final moments, after disaster has been averted, Leo and Jed share one of the most genuinely emotional moments in the history of the show.
"We Killed Yamamoto" (Season 3, Episode 22)
It’s never fun when Bartlet and Leo fight. It’s like being able to hear Mom and Dad arguing in the other room. But as season 3 drew to a close, the issue of Qumari defense minister Abdul Sharif loomed large. Sharif had been behind a series of terrorist plots, and the defense and military establishments pressed to take the unusual (and illegal) step of assassinating him on his upcoming diplomatic visit. The President didn’t want to; Leo told him he had to. After 9/11, Leo more and more took on the role of the hawk on Bartlet’s shoulder, but as in scenes with Leo and Admiral Fitzwallace, we see Leo’s internal conflict over this as well.
"College Kids" (Season 4, Episode 3)
The West Wing had an unfortunate tendency towards letting relationships die on the vine. From Charlie/Zoey to Sam/Mallory to Josh/Amy, some of the show’s best romances were brushed aside, choked off due to lack of oxygen, and only dealt with in the aftermath. One of the most disappointing of these was Leo’s budding romance with Jordon Kendall (Joanna Gleason). Jordon was an attorney initially brought on to help with the MS hearings, but in this episode, Leo brings her in (after they’re already pretty much dating) so they can have a trusted legal opinion on the Sharif assassination. It’s a great opportunity to watch their rat-tat-tat give-and-take relationship during a high-stakes moment.
"365 Days" (Season 6, Episode 12)
After Leo’s heart attack at the beginning of season 6 — a plot development that I still find so unpleasant and disturbing that I won’t include that episode on a list like this — he was pretty much removed from most scenes of political wrangling within the White House. Fans knew that Leo had to be brought back into the fold eventually, though, and “365 Days” was the rather poignant episode where Leo returns to the White House, sees that the machine is running without him, struggles to get anyone to make time for him amid the busy rush of activity, and finally, grabs everyone’s attention long enough to do what he does best: focus the team on what matters (in this case: the big-picture Bartlet legacy).
"2162 Votes" (Season 6, Episode 22)
The Democratic Convention at the end of season 6 was almost unrealistically dramatic, with the uncertainty over who would win the nomination and the volatile back-room deals that everyone was trying to make. Leo and Josh’s relationship reaches its pinnacle here, as the student (Josh) finally defies the teacher (Leo) in defense of the candidate he believes in. This episode would have made this list anyway, even if it didn’t end with Leo as the Democratic nominee for Vice-President.
"Running Mates" (Season 7, Episode 10)
John Spencer died mid-way through the seventh and final season of The West Wing. The show hadn’t yet finished filming its final stretch of episodes — and in fact due to Leo’s centrality to the story, it had to be re-written — but there were a number of episodes already in the can by the time of Spencer’s death. Somewhat appropriately, the show’s first episode back after Spencer’s death was this Leo-heavy episode where the vice-presidential candidate was struggling to meet the demands of the campaign. That Leo ends up coming through for Santos is not a surprise, but “Running Mates” is a poignant episode that shows Leo as an aging lion trying to make his last big impact on his party and his country. It was also as good an episode as any to remember John Spencer’s great West Wing legacy.
