Life In The Office

  The show opens with Jim happily whistling as he goes about his work day. Seems Pam is due home in 6.5 days. His fellow employees are also aware of this. Everyone is congratulating him and marking the days till his true love comes home right along with him. Which Jim finds sweet, and also “intrusive and weird”.  I personally thought it was adorable. It shows how well the staff interacts with each other after working together for so long.  Just like a family. Oh geez, now I sound like Michael Scott!

Speaking of Michael, after last week’s disappointment, he’s getting a treat. CEO David Wallace is sending him to Winnepeg for business. He takes along “his translator”, Andy. And also “his numbers man”, Oscar.

 In typical fashion, Michael is like an excited child about the upcoming trip. He can’t wait for the shuttle bus, which Meredith pronounces, “just a van. believe me, I know a van when I see one”. He’s also very excited for the upcoming “business class” flight.

David Wallace sent Michael because he felt bad about having to tranfer Holly, and it seems it worked. Michael’s mood is definitely lightened because of the trip. He tells the staff, “I have always been intrigued by all things intercontinental; the women, the pancakes, the man of mystery.” lol

The “translator”, Andy, is wearing his chapeau and is also excited for the trip. As he leaves the office, Angela tells him, “be good” (and seriously, is she kidding?!). Andy replies, “I’ll try”. An angry Angela replies, “Meaning what?!” And her fiance replies, “meaning, I will try to get other dudes laid”. Oh boy! Andy is just a delight in this episode. He’s a man on a mission. Unfortunately, his mission does not include finding out what his cheating fiance has been up too. It only goes as far as “getting other dudes laid”.

Back at the office, Ryan is still hounding Kelly trying to get her back. He’s even taking to doing push-ups in front of her to try and seduce her with his manly display (insert gag here).In a talking head, Kelly explains that she’s still with Darryl and that she’s not going to be taken in by all Ryan’s sweet-talking. She explains, “that door is closed”. Wow! You think, maybe Kelly is finally being an adult and is maturing. Then in the very next scene we see Ms. Kapoor climbing on top of Ryan on her desk for a make-out session. Oops! Guess I was wrong about her. The only “adult” thing about Kelly is the adult-situations she keeps finding herself in.

At the hotel in Winnepeg, the boys are at the concierge’s desk figuring out what to do for a good time. Michael is just enthralled with concierge Marie. Seems he thinks that a concierge is equivalent to a geisha, or a woman trained for a man’s pleasure. Andy senses Michael’s attraction to Marie and asks her where she likes to hang out at night.

In NYC, we see Pam on the steps of her school calling Jim on the cell phone. She’s upset because she’s failed her computer class, which she needs for her graphic arts major. In order to stay in the program she has to retake the class, which is another 12 long weeks away from Jim.

Jim, ever the awesome boyfriend, tells her that he supports her staying to retake the class, but we can see how dejected he is. He misses Pam and wants her with him in Scranton. Still, he stays strong. Pam hangs up and starts to cry.

Back in Winnepeg, the boys are out for a night of fun. And where are they? Exactly the place that concierge Marie said she’d be! Michael is in hot pursuit, but in typical Michael style, he appears to be blowing it. Then, here comes Andy to the rescue. Mr. Bernard hands the lovely lady and Michael a glass of wine and it’s smooth sailing from then on out. In fact, he leaves with her!

Michael explains in a talking-head, “Everyone’s going to die someday and I think it’s better to die with Andy, Oscar and concierge Marie instead of being alone and knowing that there is somebody out there that you love and you’re not with.” Ouch! Seems even though Michael is trying to make time with Marie, in his heart he’s no where near over Holly.

After his success pairing up Michael and Marie, Andy decides to try his hand at fixing up Oscar. He tells him, “I scoped out the joint. Those two dudes are as good as naked.” Oscar replies, “How do you even know they’re gay?” Andy scoffs. “Oh come on! It’s Dainty Dale and Floppy McGee over there!” ha ha

With two Long Island Iced Tea’s in hand he heads towards the two men. Oscar tries to stop him, but Andy replies, “You will thank me when they spank thee”. Wow! I had forgotten how relentless Andy can be. And I must say that this scene was just so awesome that it needs no comment from me. I will just rehash the better part of it for you and let you decide how wonderful you find it!

Andy approaches the table and asks the two men, “Do you like apples?” Both men look at him confused. He pushes forward saying, “Well, how do you like them apples?” and slams down the two free Long Island Iced Teas. Both men just stare at him. But like a man on a mission, he keeps it up. He points to Oscar and asks, “On a scale of 1-10, how hot is that dude?” One of the men replies, “Is he your boyfriend?” Andy says, “No, but he could be yours if you play your cards right”.

Andy returns to Oscar and tells him, “Dude you struck out. They’re totally stuck up. Drink up!” And so Oscar and Andy start drinking…Which leads to a drunken discussion about Angela. Seems Oscar, who has worked alongside her for years, just can’t understand what Andy sees in the Ice Queen.

Andy tells him that he can see through her hard shell and into the jelly center inside. He tells him that she makes him a better person. He also sighs into his drink and confesses, “I can’t wait to have sex with her”.

Oscar is of course shocked. They’re getting married and haven’t had sex yet? This is not good. So, the two drunkards decide that calling Angela is a good idea. And we all know what a good idea “drunk dialing” always is!!

Angela picks up and is upset that Andy is drunk and calling her. Or, is she upset because Dwight is there!!! Yep, in the background you can clearly hear Dwight saying, “Who is it monkey?”. Ugh! They’re still at it, but lucky for them Andy is too drunk to really catch it. Before hanging up the phone, Angela tells Andy, “we’ll discuss this later.” And Andy replies, “we’ll discuss this later naked!” Oh boy. Someone is losing patience with her whole act…Even if he can only admit it drunk right now.

Michael’s night went exactly as he originally hoped. We see him emerging from conceierge Marie’s apartment. But he doesn’t look happy. We can hear her saying that she’s got to be up early tomorrow, etc…So, for her it was just sex. But Michael is not looking for just sex. He wants a relationship, he wants love. So, even though he “got what he wanted”, he really didn’t and now he feels worse than ever and is missing Holly even more.

Back at the office, Jim is getting sad looks from his co-workers. He realizes that somehow they found out that Pam failed and is not coming back in 6.5 days. They’re all sad for him. Well, except Dwight who isn’t at all surprised she failed. Seems he noticed a mistake in her portrait of Dunder Mifflin that Michael bought at Pam’s art show. He tells Jim that there is shadows coming from two different directions. He says, “Are there two suns? Last time I checked, this is not a planet on the Andromeda System”. Way to be a friend Dwight!

They boys in Winnepeg are heading home. Oscar thanks Andy or trying to fix him up. Andy replies, “Are you kidding? When you’re with me, you get the whole nine nards!” I love that little word play on Andy Bernard, the nard dog. Very cool of the writers, but then again, when aren’t they cool, right?

Oscar then informs Andy that they drunk dialed Angela. Andy, it appears, doesn’t recall this and calls his beloved right away. As punishment for his behavior, she tells him that she’s sending him back to “first base”, which is allowing him to kiss her forehead. Poor Andy!

After Oscar and Andy’s weekend, they’ve bonded. Andy tells the camera that he had to go to Winnepeg to get to know a guy who works twenty feet from him everyday. Then he asks Oscar for a “chest bump”, which Oscar declines. He then asks him for a “bro hug”. This Oscar also declines, but instead offers him a handshake. Andy takes him up on his offer and says “back to basics”. Just like he is resigned that he is back to basics with Angela.

David Wallace calls Michael to congratulate him on making the sale in Winnepeg. He asks Michael how his trip was and he tells him exactly how it was! Every painful detail. He finishes the conversation by telling David, “why’d you have to make her leave?” *sniff!* Seems Winnepeg wasn’t too bad, it’s just that our Michael is still heartbroken because Holly left. He actually hangs up on David, which is not good considering that he’s his boss. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see if there is ramifications for that.

Back at the office, Jim is leaving for the day and when he gets out to his car, he seems Pam leaning on the trunk. She’s back!! Seems she lost her heart for NYC and art school and all of it. She misses Jim and she misses Scranton and she is back! They have a very cute little love scene and while they’re kissing Dwight interupts and tells her to make copies for him. She tells him she’s not going inside to do that, and he says, “ok, tomorrow then”. Jim just smiles and says, “welcome back”.

I didn’t know what to think of this plot line. Pam has been gone this whole time and has lusted for art school for so many years as her ultimate dream and now it’s just all over? It seems, I don’t know…anticlimactic? I guess I’ll just have to have faith in the writer’s to see where they intend to take this. I can’t imagine it will be a straight path to the altar. That’s just not how the show seems to work.

In the closing talking-head, we see Kelly and Ryan together. She squeals, “we’re back together!” Ryan says, “for whatever reason, I just couldn’t do better than Kelly”. Ouch! But the remark goes right over Kelly’s head anyway.

They flash back to show us how it unfolded. Making out by Kelly’s desk, Ryan gives her the ultimatum, dump Darryl now so they can be together. So, she does, via text. Literally 3 seconds later Darryl replies, “it’s cool”. Kelly is thrilled. Ryan is shocked. He gasps, “that’s all he wrote?! weren’t you two together like for a long time?” Kelly hugs him, “it’s like a fairy tale!” Ryan has that oh-no-what-have-I-done? look.

Next we see Darryl as he leaves work to head to his truck. He’s almost skipping. He appears very happy with this turn of events. Shame, I actually liked seeing the two of them together. It was always funny!

So, what did you guys think of the episode? I really liked it. I especially loved Andy in this one. He was just hysterical and had some of the best quotes.

I’m still not sure about what to make of JAM right now. But, I have faith in the writer’s to make it “not suck”.

Thanks for reading! ~Donna