Season 2, Episode 23: The Campaign

The Gist:
 Everyone in Colorado Springs is tired of how long and ineffective Town Hall meetings are and they wind up deciding that they need a mayor.  Loren nominates Jake Slicker and Horace nominates Michaela. When Hank says a lady mayor would make them look like a town full of sissies, Michaela accepts the nomination. Oh boy.





Meanwhile, Horace and Myra are hoping that if Michaela wins, she will outlaw prostitution, and then Myra won't have to stay the duration of her contract.  When she is forced to entertain a client who she's heard is rough with women and gets hurt, she decides to break her contract with Hank.  When she shows up to vote, she tells him that she owns something.  And when Michaela agrees not to ban prostitution, Myra tears up her contract and walks out.


Commentary:
1. I like that Michaela lost for several reasons, but most chiefly because Jake Slicker needed it much more than she did.  Becoming mayor provided him with an opportunity to make better decisions and grow as a person.  And he mostly rose to that occasion.  Particularly in following through on his first promise: to allow women to vote, regardless of whether they own property or not.

2.  Robert E.'s sexism drives me around the bend.  Then again, I suppose it might be unfair of me to expect more compassion out of him, as he has overcome a tremendous amount of oppression himself.  But maybe not ... because if you don't feel compassion like that, what is wrong with you?  Even so, when he steps up to the ballot box, all nervous and proud, and the tender way Grace watched him ... my heart swelled.  Actually, every time I go vote myself, I think of that scene and feel that feeling.  And I love that we don't know who he voted for.

3.  And speaking of votes ... Sully! Sully who sells off his land to all the women so they can all vote. Sully's amazing.

4.  The extras on this show are incredible. You can tell many of them are reeeeally into the 19th century. I would have loved to be an extra on this show. I mean, really I wanted to be Colleen Cooper because WHAT A ROLE! ... but I could have settled for the role of an extra.