So this blog has basically become a place for me to post entries I write for NBN that I don’t turn on by deadline… how pathetic. Original material coming soon… I hope!
In the two part episode of The Office Michael goes on a lecture tour with Pam, Andy tries to seduce the new love of his life, everyone forgets Kelly’s birthday, Jim and Dwight attempt to organize a belated birthday party for Kelly, and Angela get a new cat called Princess Lady. It’s hilarious and does not disappoint those who love the essence of this show.
Opening Joke 1: Michael discovers the PA system in the office and is so annoying (as usual) that Jim cuts the wire.
Opening Joke 2: Recap
Michael/ Pam Plotline: Michael goes on the lecture tour and their first stop is at Karen’s branch. Michael makes a fool of himself, Karen and Pam make peace, and Pam gets the closure she needed. Michael is then inspired to take their lecture tour to Holly’s branch only to find she is on a three day retreat and also has a new boyfriend. Michael breaks down during the lecture, leaves Pam to deal with everyone, steals a sleeve off Holly’s jacket and a file off her computer titled “Dear Michael.” (Ooohhhhh) Pam reads it for him, deletes the file and informs Michael that Holly indeed still has feelings for him.
Andy Plotline: Andy tries to make the moves on Stanley’s client, serenading her with Feist and taking Creed’s love advice. He fails. They lose her as a client. Oops.
Jim/Dwight/Kelly Plotline: Everyone forgets Kelly’s birthday and she has a break down. Jim and Dwight have to then make it up to her the next day with their less than supreme party planning skills. Eventually they do indeed make it up to Kelly by coming up with a “Watch TV or Take a Nap” theme which she loves for some unknown reason. Unexpected success!
Angela Plotline: Angela buys a $7,000 cat with the money she got from selling her engagement ring on Ebay. She shows everyone on her kitty cam and discovers that one of her cats is giving it to Princess Lady. Mortified, Angela leaves the office to save her new pure bred but leaves the kitty cam on. Oscar and Kevin are extremely disturbed when they see Angela hissing at her cats and cleaning Princess Lady with her MOUTH.
Closing Joke 1: Creed contributes a three-dollar bill to the party fund.
Closing Joke 2: More talk about the wonders of closure and some fat talk from Michael.
Dwight also investigates Kelly’s file and notices she went to juvi. He confronts her about this and we learn that Kelly stole what she thought was her boyfriends boat to take him on a romantic getaway after he broke up with her. It just so happened to also be a felony.
That’s the short and short of it. Episode(s) well done!
A vast improvement to last week’s comparatively humdrum episode, “Stress Relief” revives everything that we love about The Office. The opening scene alone is enough to make you pee your pants. I’m not kidding. Also it was twice as long. Score!
Here’s the wrap up:
Opening joke: Dwight “simulates” a fire to test the office’s knowledge of evacuation procedures, too bad by simulate Dwight means set the office on fire. He also locks and blowtorches the handles of every door that they could possibly escape through. Needless to say, pandemonium ensues. Oscar climbs through the air ducts, Michael throws an overhead projector out the window, Angela tries to save a cat she has in her drawer, Kevin breaks the vending machine to take the chips inside and Stanley has a heart attack.
Office plotline: After a meeting with corporate, Dwight is in big trouble for almost killing a co-worker and Michael takes over as safety manager… oh geeze. So Stanley comes back, and the office sits through a health seminar. Michael forces Stanley to perform CPR on the dummy. Dwight gets into more trouble when he dismembers the CPR dummy. Michael attempts to make the office stress free and conducts a relaxation exercise only to realize that he is the cause of Stanley’s (and everyone else’s) stress. Michael decides to have a Comedy Central Roast of Michael Scott. During the roast we learned that Michael is the reason Meredith drinks, Kelly would rather make out with Lord Voldemort and even Dwight has some intense frustrations to dish out for Michael. Ouch. Michael comes back with jabs for everyone after failing to feed the pigeons that went west for the winter but when Stanley laughs at his, soon the whole office sees it as a joke and everyone lives happily ever after.
Jim/Pam/Andy plotline: Andy illegally downloads an unreleased movie, starring Jack Black, and Jim and Pam watch it with him. (“We don’t download movies, but Andy already did so we have to watch it with him.” Meanwhile, Pam’s parents are going through a hard time and Pam asks Jim to talk to her dad. He does and Pam’s dad decides to leave her mom, making Pam question Jim’s feelings (“What could Jim have said to make my dad want to leave my mom? And at what point in our marriage is he going to say it to me?”). In the end, Pam talks to her dad and finds out that Jim told his how he feels when Pam walks into a room and how sure he is that she is the one he wants to spend the rest of his life with. It’s really so adorable and Pam realizes _____ (Comical side note: Whenever Andy overhears Jim and Pam talking about Pam’s parents, Andy thinks they’re talking about the film and is amazed by their insight.)
Closing joke: The conclusion of the Jack Black film, about a guy who falls in love with his girlfriend’s grandmother, where Black finds his lover in passionate embrace with another man as he attempts to reconcile. He dramatically drops the flowers he brought her through the window and, as she maliciously looks at him over her current lover’s shoulder, and Black cannot conceal his pain as he departs, completely defeated. It’s very dramatic.
Quotes of the week:
Michael, after Stanley collapses: “Stanley, you will not die! Stanley! Stanley, Barack is president! You are black, Stanley!”
Stanley: “I feel like I’m working at my own casket.”
Michael: “I’ve got to make sure that YouTube comes down to tape this.”
Pam, referring to Michael’s “thing”: “If it were an iPod it would be a shuffle.”
Andy: “I’m not insightful enough to be a movie critic. Maybe I could be an food critic: ‘These muffins taste bad.’ Or an art critic: ‘That painting is bad.’”
One of the best laugh out loud episodes of the season.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: awkward, music, Northwestern, song of the week, the national
Definitely the best tracks off Boxer, “Mistaken for Strangers” will blow your mind with it’s sick backbeat and unique blend of sound. You can barely tell anything apart it all works together so well. Add the fairly mellow vocals to contrast and you get the darkly upbeat masterpiece that crowns this album.
Not only is “Mistaken for Strangers” an amazing song by an amazing band, but the message behind it—or rather the message I am choosing to construe from it—is something I am certain many Northwestern citizens can relate to.
Have you ever been walking down Sheridan Road and seen someone you know? Of course. Have you ever stopped to say hello and chat with your friends. I’m sure you have. Have you ever been in a hurry and merely smiled, waved or nodded. Yes.
Now riddle me this: have you ever seen someone you are certain you met and spoke to at some point in your life, someone you’ve hooked up with, even, attempted a smile or nod of acknowledgement and been completely ignored? If you said no, you are a liar because if you go to Northwestern I am willing to bet you have experienced this wonderfully awkwardish situation.
So here’s where the chorus rings true to NU life: “You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends, when you pass them at night under the silvery, silvery Citibank lights.” And while the lights may not be silvery and they may not originate from Citibank, you get the point. Someone could probably make a music video for this song by putting hidden cameras around campus and editing it all into 3:32 minutes.
“You wouldn’t want an angel watching over,” because it’s embarrassing when that happens. “Surprise, surprise, they wouldn’t want to watch” because it’s just painful for everyone who witnesses it. I don’t really know what our campus population deal is with that. Everyone should just be really friendly and say hi to people even if you’re not sure you know them.
For instance, last week I think I may have smiled and waved to around five people I don’t think I’ve actually met because they look like combinations of people I know and in that split second when I’m thinking “to wave or not to wave” I always just go with the wave. At the end of the day I’d rather be too friendly than not. So maybe now you’ll get mistaken for friends by your own strangers… or something like that.
