Episode Report Card Kim: C+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Pilot
By Kim | Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired on 09.27.2003
Rob "Sodapop" Lowe is jogging while wearing an unfortunate stocking cap. Meanwhile, there's a building in another part of town, with the words Lyon, LaCrosse, and Levine inscribed on the front. Hey, there's a guy on the building ledge! Don't jump, guy! But Rob is still running, and now we see that he is running away from the White House. Oh, for crying out loud. We get it. You're not Sam Seaborn anymore. Meanwhile, the guy on the ledge turns and looks back into the room, fear on his face. Rob is still running, in slow motion. Now he too turns and looks over his shoulder. Oh, no! The guy is falling off the ledge! Did he jump? Was he pushed? Who the hell was that guy?
You know, if Rob Lowe really wanted to distance himself from The West Wing, maybe he could have found a show that wasn't set in Washington and he didn't play a lawyer. I think he would have fit in well in the Ted McGinley role on Hope & Faith. Hey, Ted McGinley was on another Sorkin show -- Sports Night. Maybe a TGIF sitcom will be Rob's fate in a few years. There are worse things that could happen. Like brain cancer.
Rob (which is what I'm going to call him until they reveal his character's name) jogs up to a storefront-type office. The sign on the door lets us know that this office is the home of the Lyon, LaCrosse and Levine Inner City Law Center Offering Free Legal Services. I hope they don't have to pay by the word for their Yellow Pages listing because that's a mouthful. Rob enters the office building and a rumpled guy calls him "Carl Lewis." After some banter about Rob being all healthy and virtuous while Rumpled Guy (played by Matt Craven) is eating a donut, Rob asks Rumpled Guy what he's got going on today. Rumpled Guy has "rape and murder" and Rob has "a client seeking political asylum." Rumpled Guy thinks that sounds boring, but I'd take political asylum over rape and murder any day. Rob agrees with me and heads further into the offices.
The bedroom of a nice apartment. Kyle "I'm The Bad Guy" Chandler asks Elizabeth "I'm Not Playing A Lesbian This Time -- Or Am I?" Mitchell to come back to bed. She says that she's got to go to an AA meeting because she's in charge of the coffee. Yeah, those AA people get surly without their coffee, I hear. Kyle asks why she would want to spend the morning with "a bunch of drunks" when she could spend it with him. So he's not exactly sensitive. Elizabeth purses her lips and looks disappointed. Kyle's cell phone rings. He checks the Caller ID and answers, making excuses about how he fell asleep at work. Unless his office is in Elizabeth Mitchell's bed, I have to assume that he's lying to a girlfriend or wife about his whereabouts. He's also making no effort to shield Elizabeth from his phone conversation, so she clearly knows the score. Elizabeth pulls on her clothes and starts to leave the room. As she scurries out, Kyle whispers that he'll see her at the office.
Rob -- now showered and dressed after his jog -- walks into a different office building. But not either of the two office buildings we've already seen in the first five minutes of the episode. Some dude wearing an African print hat asks Rob to wait there. Rob looks around and notices that just about everyone working in the office is non-white. Since they took the time to show us this, I assume it's important. A woman walks up to Rob and calls him Jack. Finally! So Rob is now Jack. Just so we're on the same page there. Jack seems happy to see the woman, and he calls her "Robin Petrie." She is beautiful, and has a lovely British accent. She informs Jack that she goes by Nwamaka now. She seems more amused than annoyed by him, though. Jack pauses and then tries unsuccessfully to pronounce her name (it's Nuh-WAH-ma-ka). She corrects him and he sort of gets it as she explains that it's her African name. Oh, she's one of those. I'm totally kidding, by the way. It just reminded me of when one of my students asked me what my new last name was after I got married, and I told him I was keeping my name and he said, "Oh, you're one of those." Jack's reaction is less obvious, but sort of similar as he says, "Never easy. Just like you." Yes, because changing her name was definitely meant to piss off Whitey. Shut up, Jack. Nwamaka says she'll take it as a compliment, and Jack says that she should.