Life In The Office

Hey guys! Thanks for your patience. I was away and only just recently got a chance to see last week’s episode, “Frame Toby”. I have to say, I loved it! Alright, there were a few bits that annoyed me, but more on that later in the recap.

The show begins with the staff in the breakroom happily noshing on brownies. The camera cuts to Kevin, who is stuffing brownies in his mouth at an alarming speed. Of course, Angela can’t just let that slip by without an rude comment. She tells him, “you’re eating those so fast, are they even touching your tongue?”. Mouth full, Kevin sheepishly mumbles, “yes”, as crumbs spew from his lips.

In walks Dwight, who can’t help but also make a comment. He says, “brownies huh? pastry cubes made of sugar and fat. No thank you! I’ll stick to my jerkey.” Jim asks him, “so, why did you come in here then?” Dwight replies, “to socialize and inform”. ha ha Thanks Dwight, you’re so helpful!

Kelly grabs two brownies and re-do boyfriend Ryan questions her, “You’re taking two?” Ugh, what boyfriend in his right mind questions his girlfriend about her chocolate intake and expects to live? I mean seriously ladies, are you with me on this one?! But then I remember it’s Ryan & Kelly’s relationship, and then it becomes ok for some odd reason. Same old, same old. :)

Kelly responds that she’s bringing one of the brownies back to Toby. Michael walks in and laughs at that comment. He says, “what are you going to do, send it to Costa Rica?” Kelly says, “no, I think I’ll just walk it over to him”. This makes Michael hysterical. He thinks Kelly is joking with him.

Jim quickly realizes that Michael is somehow clueless to the latest office event, namely that Toby is back as their HR rep. He quickly clues Michael in, who still doesn’t believe him. Michael marches back to Toby’s desk to see for himself. And, lo and behold, there sits his arch-enemy, Toby Flenderson! dun-dun-DUN!!! Michael immediatly starts screaming, “No, No, God, No God, Please NO!!” Welcome back Toby indeed.

Next scene we see Michael on the phone with CEO David Wallace trying to figure out a way to make Toby go away. First off, David can’t believe that Toby’s been back to work in his office an entire week and Michael is just now figuring it out. (lol) Some boss, right? But he skips right over that and gets to the heart of the matter, which is that unless he commits some terrible offense, Toby is here to stay. And, David likes Toby and the job he does for the company. Michael will get no sympathy from him. Still Michael begs, “is there any way to get rid of him?” David impatiently replies, “not without cause”. Michael counters, “I have cause! It’s be-cause I hate him.”

Michael then decides he needs to come up with a way to make Toby do something that will get him fired. He and Dwight try to cook up a scheme to get rid of Toby once and for all. Hence, the “Frame Toby” title.

In the breakroom, Andy wants to know if Jim has purchased his parents home yet. Jim replies yes, but is curious how Andy knew he was in the process of buying the home when he didn’t tell him. Andy admits that he reads Jim’s emails over his shoulder. Nice! Creepy Bernard strikes again.

The other co-workers weigh-in. Kevin asks, “you’re going to live with Pam in the house that you used to pee the bed in?” Jim replies in a deadpan, “yes, technically I guess I am”. I guess there was no other way to really respond to that one! lol

Phyllis thinks it’s romantic that Jim bought Pam a house as a surprise. She asks what neighborhood it’s located in. Jim tells her that it’s down by the quarry. And, we can see from Mrs. Vance’s expression that it’s probably not the most desirable of places. Just then, Creed pipes up, “I live by the quarry!” Uh-oh, definitley not the most desirable of places to live! He tells Jim, “we should hang out sometime and throw things down there.” Obviously horrified by that prospect, Jim somehow replies “definitely we should”. ha ha! Can you imagine what Creed wants to throw down in the quarry? Me neither, but I’d be curious to see anyway…

Not digging the turn of conversation, Jim asks his co-workers to stop talking about it because Pam doesn’t know he bought the house for her yet. It’s a surprise. Andy chimes in again, “you haven’t told the misses about the castle?! You’re in for a spanking my friend! Me and my lady have no secrets.” The camera then pans to Angela for her reaction to that comment. And she doesn’t look nearly as guilty as she should. The hussy!

In Michaels office, he and Dwight are trying to come up with ways to frame Toby and get him fired. They decide that “workplace violence” is just the ticket.

 Poor Toby is at his desk, just trying to work. Right behind him is Ryan and Kelly completely engrossed in their own little pornographic make-out session. Toby tells them that’s not appropriate for the workplace and then tries to distract them by showing them pictures from his vacation to Costa Rica. Enter Michael and Dwight. Michael then pretends to be interested in the photos too. He leans in and smacks them out of Toby’s hand and onto the floor, trying to pick a fight. Ryan and Kelly egg on the violence, but Toby makes it clear that he’s not going to fight Michael. Strike one for their plan to get him fired…

 In the face of that failure, Michael and Dwight decide that “sexual harassment” is the new ticket to getting rid of Toby. First, they will set him up and then catch him in the act. Michael then approaches Pam’s desk singing, “Pam town ladies sing this song, do-dah, do-dah” (love that one!). He tells Pam to bring a folded note to Toby and not to read it. She takes one step and opens the note and reads it outloud. It says, “hug and kiss me no matter how hard I struggle”. Pam just looks at the camera and shakes her head while Michael is busy scolding her for reading the note. Strike two for their evil plan…

Back in Michael’s office, he and Dwight are discussing what went wrong and where to go from now. Dwight says, “we should frame him for doing drugs”. Michael replies, “I don’t know, it seems awful mean. But sometimes the end justifies the mean”. ha ha!

Going ahead with their new plan, Michael head out to the parking lot looking to score some drugs. He finds his “dealers”, the two delivery men from Vance Refrigeration. Or, as they’re better known to Office fans, writers Gene Stupinsky and Lee Eisenberg! Michael tells them that he wants to “buy some weed”. At first they are upset that he chose to approach them for drugs, but then they decide to go with it. Lee’s character disappears and comes back with a bag of “stuff”. They sell it to Michael for $500, telling him it’s 2lbs. of weed. hmmm…..:) I don’t think so!

Back in the office, Michael plants the “weed” at Toby’s work desk and then Dwight calls the police using Andy’s name as the informant. Score one for Dwight on that one! Getting a little dig at his lover’s fiance.

The cops show because of Dwight’s “tip” and make their way back to Toby. As they pass through the office, everyone looks alarmed. But no one looks more alarmed than Creed. The camera then flashes to Creed in a talking-head. He says with a fake smile, “Just pretend like we’re talking until the cops leave”. ha ha! Loved that.

The cops question Toby about the “tip”. He is obviously upset. The cops then find the “weed”. But once they open it, we find out that it is not weed, but a fancy salad of basil, salad dressing and mozarella cheese. So basically, the Vance Refrigeration guys sold Michael their leftover lunch for $500! So awesome.

The cops realize the “tip” is false and leave. Toby knows Michael tried to frame him and confronts him in his meek manner. Michael just gets flustered, he knows his plan to get rid of Toby has failed. Foiled, all he can do is spit out “welcome back, jerky jerk face!”

Then, in what I believe is their first-ever co-talking head (anyone correct me on this one? let me know!), Michael and Toby “discuss” the matter. Michael tells Toby, “You said you were leaving and made liars out of all of us”. Toby calmly tells him, “I did leave, but now I’m back”. Michael scrunches up his face in disgust and retorts, “wanna hear a lie? I think you’re great. I’m your best friend”. Poor Toby! And poor Michael, I guess. His arch-enemy (whether real or imagined) is back for good.

Back to Ryan and Kelly, who are still making out at Kelly’s desk. Abruptly, Ryan pulls away and tells her, “I can’t do this. It’s not fair to you and it’s really not fair to me.” Kelly just looks at him and says, “What are you saying? I broke up with Darryl to be with you”. Ryan, ever the slick double-talker, replies “That was your choice, don’t put that one me!”

He then tells Ms. Kapoor that he’s going on a trip to Thailand with friends from high school (well, a high school! oh boy…) Oh, but he’s not done yet. He tells Kelly, “Let’s have sex one more time and if you have any extra cash, that’d be amazing”. Kelly’s reply?! “Ok”.  ~  WTF?! OK??? Man, it’s just horrible, but I laughed out loud at that one.

It was reported recently that BJ’s character of Ryan Howard may be leaving the show. So, I guess this is it. He’ll still be a writer though. I know the fans seem to love Ryan Howard, but his coming back to Kelly, and as a temp again, seemed such a re-do. Although I will miss him, I’m curious to see where this latest crushing blow will take our Kelly. With her character, one can only guess…And with the way they left it, Ryan Howard could certainly come back with no problems in the future.

Back to our favorite fiances. Jim finally bring Pam to see the big surprise. They drive up to the house and she recognizes it has his parents. He then tells her he bought it for them. Pam doesn’t really react, good or bad. She just follows him around the house as he points out what he wants to change and what a great deal he got. He’s tripping over his words trying to make her love it. Still, she says nothing. Finally, he takes her out to the garage, which he has set up like an art studio for her telling her that the “light out there is amazing”. A very romantic gesture. Still, Pam is silent.

Obviously, she hates the house right? Jim tells her that if she doesn’t like it, they don’t have to live there. And, truth be told, there is alot to dislike; it’s proximity to “the quarry” and Creed, the shag carpets and 1970′s decor, the immovable clown painting in the hall, etc…

Finally, after many long agonizing minutes, Pam tells Jim that “she loves it”. He grins, they hug and kiss. You can almost hear bird chirping for god’s sake! lol Very sweet I guess, but a bit corny too. This is the natural progression of JAM’s love, but for her to sit silent, with a stone-face, while he tries to hard-sell her on the house? So un-JAM like in my opinion. They’re always so open and in tune with one another that it seemed a bit false to me.

Well, maybe I’m a bit cynical. (ok, I am very cynical!) Another less cynical person might say that she was “stunned into silence by his thoughful gesture”. But not me! And, I guess that’s just one girl’s opinon. You are welcome to disagree with me of course, and I’m sure a few of you will. I stick by my guns that it seemed very un-JAM-like. Unless you convince me otherwise!

Another thing that irked me (and I know I will make a few enemies here) is the return of Toby. Now, before you start throwing garbage at me, I love the character of Toby Flenderson. My past posting will attest to my love of all things Toby. I just think his return seems, I don’t know… stale. Michael still hates him, he seems the same after his return from Costa Rica. It’s a “been there, done that” thing for me. I hope the writer’s do something fresh with his character, otherwise why bring him back? 

Toby left. He wanted to change his life. He didn’t want to work around his crush Pam and not be the one dating her. But now, he’s back?! At his same old job that he literally ran away from (remember when he broke down after grabbing Pam’s knee and ran off, scaling the fence as he left?). It just seems like reaching to me.

So, there you have it folks. Once again, I apoligize for the lateness of this post. Thanks for reading and let me know what you thought of the episode. And most of all, have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

~Donna