The West Wing is on my shortlist of the greatest shows in the history of television (and one I’m constantly rewatching with my HBO Max subscription), and the reason it has remained on that list for decades is because of episodes like “18th and Potomac.” There is a lot of lore surrounding the episode, and one of the most interesting stories comes from when and how Dulé Hill found out the writer and showrunner Aaron Sorkin was killing off the beloved Mrs. Landingham, secretary to the President. Sorkin told the story on The West Wing Weekly Podcast.
A Character Death That Crushed Us All
The penultimate episode of Season 2, when paired with the final episode, “Two Cathedrals,” is as good as network television has ever been (something the show achieved often) and why the show is still influential today. That doesn’t mean it’s not a heartbreaking episode, however. In the episode, Mrs. Landingham (Kathryn Joosten) is killed by a drunk driver, completely out of the blue, after she buys her first new car. The character who first learns the news and is tasked with telling everyone else is Charlie Young, played by Hill.
Charlie and Mrs. Landingham were close on the show, as were Joosten and Young on the set. Unfortunately, the producers didn’t have time to warn Hill the death was coming, as Sorkin explains on The West Wing Weekly:
Everyone, prior to the ‘18th and Potomac’ table read, had been told that Mrs. Landingham was going to die in this episode, except Dulé, who we couldn’t get a hold of, and who hadn’t read the script prior to the table read, and who has the line, ‘No. She’s dead.’
Just like Charlie in the episode, Hill was stunned. Sorkin continues:
As it happened, that line was the first line on the next page. So, Dulé turned the page at the table read, and he looked at it, and he couldn’t believe it, and it was almost like, ‘Well, if I don’t say it, it doesn’t happen.’
I think I speak for all West Wing fans when I say it’s really heartbreaking that the words had to be said.
The Episode Is So Good At The Misdirection
A big reason the death was so shocking to fans (and Hill) is that there is nothing in the episode that foreshadows it. “18th & Potomac” is setting up the moment the President, played by Martin Sheen, will tell the public about this MS diagnosis that he’d been hiding for years. It’s a tense episode, with the only real moments of levity coming from Mrs. Landingham as she discusses the new car she’s buying.
Throughout the episode, Mrs. Landingham talks about the new car, mostly with Charlie and the President, and they give her a lot of bad advice. There is absolutely no indication that this B-plot is ever going to be anything more than just a chance to let the audience breathe between the heavier moments as the staff prepares for the MS disclosure. Then it becomes the one thing no one who watches the show will ever forget. One of the most heartbreaking moments in TV history, if you ask me.
The West Wing, which is also available to watch with a Netflix subscription, won a slew of Emmys because of moments like this, and knowing Dulé Hill was as shocked as we were when we heard him deliver the line “she’s dead” makes it all the more relatable.
