The show is on a production hiatus for the holidays. Fourteen of the 22 episodes ordered for this season have already been filmed; nine have aired.

At this point, we don't know who will win the electoral battle between Santos and Sen. Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda). And, we're repeatedly told, the writers themselves haven't decided yet.

We have seen a whole lot more of Santos and his team than of Vinick and his team. But if, as expected, this is the final season for "The West Wing" and it's going to end with the election, that doesn't necessarily matter.

It's hard to imagine that the show could go on without the character of Leo. And, while the writers might be inclined to have the character die, they can't. Absolutely cannot.

The current season of "The West Wing" opened with a sequence set three years in the future at the opening of the Bartlet Presidential Library. And Leo was there.

If he's alive in the future, how can the writers have him die in the present?

Which would seem to leave them with two alternatives, neither of them good — they could try to write around Leo's absence, which would seem impossible. Or they could bring in a new actor to play the part.

I don't envy them their task.

---

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com