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.
