Life In The Office

Office fans, I ask you, how do you top the JAM wedding episode? Well…you don’t! But “Mafia” holds it’s own considering the episode it had to follow.

“Mafia” starts off in the conference room. Michael is lecturing the staff about the fundamentals of business. You have to be “mental” (get it? fun-da-”mental”?) not to like the strategies Michael has come up with. He begins to list his strategies. #1. Handshake #2. Small Talk, etc…To help illustrate his point, Michael asks his staff for examples on how to best make small talk. “Ask a client about their weekend” is mentioned. Great example, Michael praises! He then looks to Meredith to play the client in his example scenario and asks her about her weekend. I was excited he picked Meredith for this. We don’t often get to hear about her personal life and whenever we do, it’s always a doozy! This time is no exception. She tells her co-workers how she found her son “taking a dump” in the top of their toilet tank. She said he calls it an “upper-decker”. ha ha & eww! Talk about TMI! Just another fun-filled day in poor Meredith’s world I guess. No wonder she told Pam she’d hate being a mom!

The episode title, “Mafia” becomes relevant when we meet the insurance salesman waiting to pitch to Michael. A big, burley man of “suspicious southern Italian heritage”, he raises immediate red-flags to certain members of the office right away, namely Dwight & Andy. Michael is at first oblivious to Andy & Dwight’s concerns, but once they fill him in he knows they must be right in their suspicions. Didn’t the shady-man talk about “getting hurt” or a “possible fire in the warehouse”?! All legitimate insurance concerns true, but the suspicous staff wonders, could it be a thinly-veiled threat?! And most importantly, aren’t all Italian men in the mafia? lol

It’s exactly this kind of sterotypical “logic” that has Oscar concerned. The crazy theories surrounding this insurance salesman, Angelo Grotti (a nice nod to famous mobster “Gotti”, and more evidence for the mafia-theory), are starting to infect the rest of the office. In a talking-head, Oscar explains that with Pam and Jim away on their honeymoon in Puerto Rico, the “coalition for reason” in the office is unbalanced. In other words, the “office crazies” outnumber the “normal folk” at the moment!

In the episode sub-plot, Kevin has been hanging out in Jim’s office while he’s away on his honeymoon with Pam. He explains, “at first, I just went in there to fart”. Once again, ha ha & eww! But soon Kevin realizes it’s really nice in Jim’s office. He finds himself hanging out in there more and more. As you can see from the photo (above), he even makes it more “homey” by bringing in his desk name plate and M&M jar!

Back in mafioso-land, Michael, Dwight and Andy agree that the only way to stop this big, bad mobster from trying to shake Michael down is to stand up to him. They agree to meet him in a public place for lunch. They reason that he would be less likely to be violent where there are witnesses around.

The three knuckleheads meet up in the restaurant parking lot. Andy comes wearing a disguise. He’s dressed as a mechanic. Why? Because he’s carring a “tire-thingy” (read: tire iron) as a weapon and he doesn’t want to appear suspicous! Except he’s still wearing his loafers. lol  Ah Andy, you’re definitely my favorite character at this point!

Back at the office, Kevin is just chillin’ in Jim’s office. Jim’s phone rings, Kevin ignores it at first but then he hears that it’s Jim’s credit card company calling to tell him there may be some “suspicious activity” on his card. Kevin, being a good friend, grabs the phone and when the credit-card company representative asks if he’s Mr. Halpert he doesn’t hesitate to say “yes”. Anything for a friend, right?

Wrong! The credit-card representative was concerned about the charges incurred in Puerto Rico, where Jim & Pam are in fact on their honeymoon. Since Kevin answered the phone as Jim, she now has proof that the Puerto Rico charges to the card are fraud and that the card was in fact stolen. Uh-oh! To remedy this problem, she’s cancelling the card immediately. Double Uh-oh!!

Kevin is understandably upset. He confides in Oscar what he has done. Oscar has to agree that it’s pretty bad. In fact, it’s fraud, and Kevin could in theory go to jail for identity theft. Kevin is now very upset. He tells Oscar, “I wouldn’t last in jail. I’m not like you.” Oscar responds, “What does that mean!?” Kevin doesn’t get that Oscar is appalled by what he just said. He continues, “Oh, you would love jail!” Poor Oscar!

Back with Michael and the gang at lunch, the insurance agent is working hard to sell a policy to Michael. And Michael is still under the delusion that it’s all a mafia shake-down! Theres lots of stereotypical mafia comedy at this point. Michael even orders, “gabba-ghoul” from the waitress. She, of course, has no idea what he’s talking about. It’s pure Michael Scott cluelessness!

Then, in comes a mom in distress looking for Andy, or rather a mechanic! She noticed Andy in his “uniform” and immediately sought him out because she needs a jump on her car. Andy, goaded on by his table mates, follows the woman outside to help her. After a few minutes of looking clueless, the woman’s son announces that the mechanic doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. Andy retorts, “it’s been a long day in the mechanics store”. He then attaches the jumper cables wrong and sparks start flying. He announces that she has a “leaky spark tube” and that her car is totalled. Then, he runs off! ha ha Love Andy!

 Lunch is now over. How did it end? Michael signed the policy. Dwight is very upset at this. Michael reasons, “It’s just the cost of a cup a coffee an hour”. lol

Back at the office, Michael is having second thoughts about his decision to give-in to the mobster. He fakes an emergency and calls Jim, who’s on a catamaran with Pam. He needs his co-manager’s advice. Jim, ever the prankster, fakes the phone tuning in and out. He toys with Michael for a while before basically hanging up on him. Even in Puerto Rico, Pam and Jim can’t escape Scranton!

Michael is now completely depressed about signing the insurance form. Number one, he can’t afford it. Number two, he gave into the “mafia” guy. Feeling somewhat responsible, Dwight and Andy decide to convince Michael that the mobster was not really a mobster, but in fact just a salesman. They lie to accomplish this, and Michael buys it. Feeling strong, he calls Angelo Grotti to cancel the policy. Then, the knuckleheads tell him that he really is mafia and they just told Michael he wasn’t to give him the courage to stand-up to him.

Instead of being upset at this, Michael is pleased. He announces to the staff that he was a big, bad man to the mafia guy and told him where to stick it! Oscar chimes in that it wasn’t a mafia guy at all, but just an insurance salesman. But reason won’t win out today. Michael’s glory is secure. The “coalition for reason” has indeed left the building. At least until Pam and Jim get back from their honeymoon.

The show ends with Kevin in Jim’s office on the phone with Pam. He can’t tell her what he’s done, so he says he’s calling to say “hi”. Pam explains that she can’t really talk right now because their credit cards were cancelled. Instead of owning up, Kevin just reiterates to say hi to Jim. Pam hangs up, and we see Kevin sitting comfy at Jim’s desk smiling, munching M&M’s.

 The End!

Overall, I liked this episode. Andy shines once again. Lots of funny bits. I loved Kevin’s sub-plot, and Oscar being the voice of reason in the chaotic office. But more importantly, what did you guys think? Sound off in the comments section. And as always, thanks for reading my recap! ~Donna