User Reviews

A reviewer said " they worked together for 4 years and were like total strangers" I worked in a office for 14 years with 16 people" it's all fake, they are "surface friends" i left the office 2 years back. 2 people kept in-touch never even got a leaving card. All this BS which is said "we will stay in touch" out of sight out of mind.

So as my job was in Government maybe people keep more secrets? As on the West Wing?

As for the episode Superb, some great acting, Donna and CJ excellent scared to show any weakness to each other, scared to trust each other, barriers up, a lot of the reviews say that once Arron Sorkin left the series went down, well this episode for me one of the best of the show, as is the next episode.

Martin Sheen brilliant as always, without him this show would never have taken off.

I am only now starting to watch this show, did not know just how good it was/is.

I did find the swab test scene funny, Charlie moaning, and me thinking, we had to do that every day for nearly 2 years, after 10 times you get used to it!

Seems rather disturbing/ironic to be watching this episode during the ongoing Cov-19 pandemic, with most countries around the world still in lockdown.

Although this story is on a much smaller scale, the shots of everyone wearing gloves, masks, along with secret service agents sealing off rooms with people inside unable to leave seems like Déjà vu.

But on the plus side, this episode is purely character-driven rather than the usual event-driven one. Seeing Toby & Will argue over the credibility of VP Bob Russell, is well written. But also shows how determined Will is to defend his man despite Toby's verbal bullying (Toby always raises his voice to anyone when he tries to enforce his view). Toby might be the experienced old pro, but Will has new insights & idealisms that Toby refuses to acknowledge because is too stuck in the muck to even want to change.

Then we have CJ & Donna sharing a room together. Despite having worked together for 4 or 5 years, you would think they were almost complete strangers when they try to have a conversation not entirely to do about work. Instead their conversation touches on Donna's desire to progress in her career choices, but feels that Josh is holding her back.

CJ responds by intimating that she can do whatever she wants if she fights hard enough, and that perhaps there is something more personal about Josh that is holding her back. This touches a nerve with Donna, and she goes quiet. And that's about it in terms of getting to know more about them. Other than work they are indeed total strangers!

Then we have Josh & new girl, Kate Harper. As we all know, Josh is full of himself, arrogant, aloof, over-confident and seems to think he can ride rough-shod over people he thinks are beneath him.

But as usual he comes upstuck here, and his fragile ego soon crumbles when he finds he cannot strike up a conversation with her. She doesn't bat an eyelid in fact, and just carries on with her work while Josh finds another way to break her (in a nice way) In one example he threatens to access her NSA file because he thinks he has the necessary codeword clearance given his position. But again she thwarts him by saying "you really don't have codeword clearance for my file!" Which shuts him up again.

I do like Josh. He is perhaps my second favourite character after Leo. But it always quite fun to see him gently pushed from his high horse.

Finally there's the Bartlet, Charlie, Debbie confinement. And to be honest I found this the least interesting of the captive groups. I have never been much of fan of Debbie Fiderer. She lacks the genuine warmth of her predecessor, Mrs Landingham. Plus she was pretty rude to nearly everyone who entered her office over her tenure in the show, and as a consequence I never really cared much about the character.

A good story overall, but some of the character revelations were never really carried forward into other episodes, which is a shame.

The White House goes into biohazard lockdown, isolating people in sealed rooms - paging Jean-Paul! Let's take a moment to acknowledge the work of writer Deborah Cahn. Perhaps more than any other single individual, she's the reason why the post-Sorkin era cannot be dismissed. Look at the episodes she penned - it's clear that she captured his voice, and housed that voice in the right settings, far better than the rest (this one's her third offering after "Abu el Banat" and "The Supremes"). This episode is also an object lesson in why the post-Sorkin years partially failed. There wasn't enough advancing of the cast relationships, in the right way, as here. All the concerns about Will being removed from the inner circle are forgotten as he and Toby argue the way to the heart of their conflict. It's written so well that you temporarily forget we never completely buy Will's defection. C.J. and Donna have a scene of unvarnished truth that advances their characters more than the past four seasons combined. Kate's professional standoffishness gets on Josh's nerves. Leo and Abbey are alone in the residence. She pops pills. And the most enjoyable thread of all has Jed, Charlie, and Debbie showering in the basement. The greatest Fiderer episode is just one of the many reasons why this one's brilliant. Plus some Butterfield, Reed Diamond (JUDGING AMY) in the first of three appearances as Dr. Gordon, and a lil' Brent Huff (THE PERILS OF GWENDOLINE IN THE LAND OF THE YIK YAK).