Political Animals
Episode 5: 16 Hours
By: Carlos Uribe
Political
Animals is a six-episode miniseries that follows Elaine Branch,
former first lady and current Secretary of State, and her family. I
will be covering every episode.
Spoilers
Ahoy!
There
is a particular image in this episode. It's an image that appears in
the beginning and at the end of the episode. It's a scene where the
President, Vice-President, and the Secretary of State are watching
the rescue operations live. It's a scene that reminded me of the now
famous photograph where President Obama and Secretary of State
Clinton watched Osama Bin Laden being taken down. While the scene
isn't framed in a similar way, it does seem to be similar in it's
nature. I wouldn't be very surprised if the next episode happened to
feature such a picture coming out. What makes that scene work hard is
that it's not just the stress of the situation that is getting
Elaine. It's what is currently happening to her son, who has
overdosed on drugs and is currently in the hospital. This is a
mini-series that set out to not only tell the story of a woman who
wants to be President but to also tell the story of power and what it
does to a family. While every episode has touched on this theme, it's
possibly this episode that has managed to have the most success.
Having a family member be in the hospital but requiring that the
mother deal with issues of national importance is a great way to show
how the personal lives of the characters are being influenced by
their professional lives. In this way “16 Hours” manages to
encompass what the mini-series is supposed to be about. It isn't a
perfect episode but it's a perfectly enjoyable one.
One
thing that I think makes good drama is stories that involve large
stakes. It's not necessarily the life of the soldier that I'm
interested in but the political powerplays that lay behind these
stories. It can make for some juicy, backstabbing plot-lines. This is
why one of the most fascinating aspect of this episode was Elaine's
actual job. She's the one who pushed the President to save the
Chinese spies and she's the one who ensures that the President goes
through with it. She fought hard to convince him and she wasn't going
to let any obstacle get in the way. When the Chinese ambassador
reveals their intention of scuttling the submarine, which would
endanger millions of Californians to radiation poisoning, if the
rescue operation goes forward, Elaine has to deal with the situation.
She's able to give the President the bold speech that is required and
it's a simple message to the Chinese: scuttling the ship is a
declaration of war. The mini-series does make the mistake of trying
to drive up tension for the viewer by trying to have us wonder if the
trapped Chinese would actually go through with it. It was clear they
weren't going to. It would have been different if something went
potentially wrong with the actual rescue, but the consequences were
simply too outlandish for them to actually happen. It was a nice
technique to raise the drama for Elaine but it shouldn't have tried
to raise the tension at the very end of the episode.
While
Elaine has to deal with the Chinese, her own son is being revived by
doctors. The drugs have been pumped out of his stomach and he lies
asleep. His entire family wishes that he could be there when he woke
up but that obviously isn't going to happen. His mother is too busy
with national security to be there the entire time. It's nice that
she was able to be there when he temporarily woke up but she couldn't
stick around as long as she would have liked. It might have killed
her but she had to go to the situation room. His twin brother had to
go to San Diego to handle the rescue operation. That means that the
only person who is able to stick with him throughout his stay is the
former President and his father. Bud is currently without a position
of power and he's not drawn elsewhere. T.J. does have his grandmother
and soon to be (maybe) sister-in-law but they're busy setting up
Elaine's house for his eventual revival.
As
for that sister-in-law story there's some interesting developments in
that front. The grandmother reveals that she has realized that Anne
is polemic and confronts her about it. This is after having smoked
some pot with her. That wouldn't be any problem but it's what Doug
does that signals that maybe the relationship is doomed. Doug cheats
on her. While on a plane to San Diego, he sleeps with another female.
Who? Susan. That's right: he sleeps with the reporter that has tried
for so long to tear down Elaine. They both got drunk and this is
right after Doug expressed doubts that he and Anne were willing to
commit. He might have stated that he loved her but it doesn't hide
the fact that he proposed while he was on ecstasy. A secret that he
revealed to Susan. This finally helps to make Doug a more interesting
character rather than the boring old goody two-shoes. While Anne
might not find out that he cheated, the fact that he did is not a
good sign. I guess he's more like his father than he would like to
admit.
Political
Animals is about to end it's limited run. It hasn't been renewed for
an actual season and it's looking more and more likely that this is
all we're going to get. This is an episode that has been setting up
the final episode. It has Elaine finished her last buisness as
Secretary of State, T.J.'s recovery from overdose, Doug's affair, and
other confrontations. The question ultimately becomes whether or not
the next episode is going to be able to properly close out the
mini-series or whether there's going to be lingering plot-threads.
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