Life In The Office

Dunder Mifflin having their first ever garage sale because like Pam explains, “most American’s they realized they have alot of stuff they don’t need”. True, true! And…10% of every dollar sold goes toward the party planning committe so they can throw parties for themselves. ha ha! Love it! Another “win-win” in Office-land.

Dwight is loving the garage sale. He explains in a talking-head that “the Schrutes hobby is farming, but they’re traders by trade”. He starts off by trading Meredith a thumbtack for a used candle. He’s going to trade-up. It reminds me of the true story where a teen started with a paperclip and traded-up to a house! Maybe that story inspired the writers to pick this particular plot for Dwight?

Any-who, on with the recap…

Michael and Holly chat about Michael selling his bachelor pad stuff. Holly mentions that he may want to put that stuff in storage instead of selling it “just in case”. Michael looks upset. He tells Holly,  ”I have no case”. Holly seems very pleased by this conversaton. This prompts him to start thinking seriously about marriage.

He immediately calls her parents and leaves a message on their voice mail asking for permission to marry Holly. Oh Michael! He’s so clueless as to the right way to do things. But he’s so earnest and sweet, that you can’t help but love him anyway.

Dwight next trade is Meredith’s used candle for Kelly’s romance books. Dwight is actually what he claims to be, a good trader. He understands how to use what he knows about a person to push a trade. For example, he tells Kelly that if Ryan sees her light a used candle for one of their romantic evenings, he will assume that she had already lit it for a date with another man and be jealous. Kelly buys it hook, line and sinker. And Dwight makes the trade!

Andy and Darryl visit Kevin’s table. He has an old board game based on the classic tv show, “Dallas”. Andy’s excited about the find. Kevin tells him that he was “on Dallas”. Darryl and Andy are impressed until Kevin explains that once when he was a kid, his family missed their connecting flight and so they were stuck “on Dallas”. He was once stuck “on Hawaii” too! Oh Kevin! It’s scenes like this that make me really worry about you.

Darryl thinks they should play the Dallas game and “make it interesting”, ie…a bet. They all agree, and each put $5.00in a jar for the betting pool.

Dwight is still working the garage sale. He walks past Jim’s table. Out on the table is a packet of seeds. When Dwight spots it, Jim tried to take it back saying, “how did those get out there?” Uh-oh, I smell a prank coming!

Dwight grabs the packet and reads it, “Professor Copperfield’s Miracle Legumes”. Jim tells Dwight story of meeting this man in Jamaica who told him things no one else could know about himself and then  he sold Jim those beans. Dwight is skeptical. He says incrediously, “so you want to sell me magic beans?!” Jim retorts, “no, these are not for sale”. Dwight walks away chuckling, but Jim has that look in his eye. The seed has been planted (pun intended).

Holly’s mom calls to tell her that her friend Michael Scott called. Holly is delighted. She thinks she knows the reason why Michael would call, to ask for her hand in marriage. But as Holly tries to find out from her parents what was said, it becomes obvious that her parents are confused and seeming to show signs of memory loss or dementia. Holly begins to realize she may have a real issue on her hands.

Pam sees Michael out in the parking lot pouring gas from a can all over the asphalt. Alarmed she runs out to see what he’s doing. He explains that he going to propose to Holly “in fire”. Pam tells him that he’s had two ideas today and only one of them is good. Michael replies, I’m not in the mood for riddles Pam”. Pam is thrilled for Michael and applauds his decision to propose to Holly. Pam tells Michel that he and Holly are “perfect for each other”. Then, she takes away his gas can and steers him back inside the office.

Ryan’s garage sale table is full of food jars. He explains that his mom makes the best pesto in the world, and he’s been after her forever to sell it. His mom only wants to make it for family. So, he lies to her and tricks her into making a huge batch of pesto, then without her knowlege, he jars it for public sale. He’s as good of a son as he is a boyfriend apparently. He had Phyllis’s picture on the jar because he thought she looked “mom-like”.

 Dwight comes over to see if it’s worth trading-up. He’s surprised to see Ryan’s pesto is Kosher certified. Then Ryan explains that he didn’t really get it certified, he just thinks “it’s cool, its Kosher, you know, its all good”. Ryan, Ryan, Ryan!

Dwight keeps using what he knows about each of his coworkers to trick them into trading-up. Walking around the sale he spies Jim’s magic legumes sitting on the table. Jim once again can’t explain how the seeds got on the table. When Dwight scoffs at him and tells him his trick won’t work on him, Jim exclaims, “this ends now!”. He takes the seed packed and throws it to the ground, stomps on it, crumples it up and throws it in the garbage. Dwight looks on, intrigued.

Pam tricks Michael into going into the conference room. He sees Jim, Pam, Oscar and Ryan. Pam tells him that because they’re like family, they should be involved in every aspect of each other’s lives and that includes Michael’s upcoming proposal. They then begin to give him advice and tell him what not to do when proposing. Oscar, “if at any time you find yourself tying the ring to a dog’s collar, stop”.

Andy, Darryl and Kevin are playing the Dallas board game in thick southern accents. They don’t have the actual rules because according to Andy, “Kevin never stapled them to the lid of the box like a normal human being”. So, they’re making up rules as they go along. Kevin is upset with how the game is going, but the guys just tell him “that’s life, that’s Dallas”.

While shopping the garage sale, Oscar sees that unbeknownst to him,  Ryan has also put his face on a jar of his mom’s homemade salsa. The photo features a surely looking Oscar in his work clothes with a colorful Mexican sombrero graphic pasted on his head. The label says, “Hot Cha Cha” salsa. Ha, ha! Poor Oscar.

Holly makes a stop at Phyllis’s yard sale table. She sees alot of the stuff Phyllis has for sale is Phyllis’s mom’s old stuff. She asks Phyllis how her mom is doing. Phyllis says,  ”it didn’t go down easy but shes made some friends and things are already better”.

Viewers can tell from this friendly exchange that Phyllis has confided in her coworkers about having to put her elderly mother in assisted living or a nursing home. Holly asks her, “how did you know it was time?” Phyllis replies the hard truth, “if you’re waiting for your parent to admit that they can’t take care of themselves, it’s never going to happen”. We can see that Holly has some tough decisions to make in regards to her aging parents.

Back in the conference room, theyre’ still working hard trying to get Michael to propose in a decent way. Michael’s other idea is to throw a cadaver from a medical university off the roof of DM and when it’s head pops off, then tell Holly, “I lost my head when I fell in love with you”. Everyone is exasperated.

 Then Michael pulls out the ring he bought. It’s a gorgeous ring, with an absolutely HUGE diamond. Pam exclaims, “holy sh**! is that real?” Michael replies, “yeah, they say 3 years salary”. Oh Michael! At least Holly will love you getting this particular thing wrong. Years, months, what’s the difference right? ha ha

Pam tells the story of her and Jim’s proposal. Now, Officefans know and love the romantic proposal of JAM, but when she explains how Jim did it, it sounds awful. He proposed at a gas station, in the pouring rain? How romantic! lol! Michael confides that proposing is very scary and he just wants to get it right. It’s a very sweet, vulnerable moment for him.

Michael sees Holly in the break room. She tells him that she needs to go home to Colorado to care for her aging parents and she wants him to come with her. She knows it’s alot to ask of a boyfriend, so she begins to propose marriage to Michael, but he stops her. He doesn’t want his proposal to happen in the break room! He says, “That will never happen. I should have burned this place down when I had the chance”. Oh boy!

Back to the Dallas game. The lack of rules is driving Kevin crazy, so he wants to quit and get his money back. when he looks in the money holder, no cash. “Where’s the money?” Darryl and Andy don’t know. Angry, Kevin storms away saying, “I am never playing games with you two ever again!” Outside, Kevin shows the camera the money he apparently stole and says, “and that is Dallas”. I was really glad for this scene because after the “on Dallas” bit in the beginning of the episode, I was really starting to worry about Kevin!

Trader Dwight is walking through the garage sale holding a telescope he apparently traded-up for. As he walks past Jim’s table he sees the magic beans seed packed is back on the table. Now remember, Dwight saw Jim trash that packet. It’s impossible that the packet would be back and in perfect condition, but there it is. Dwight decides he must have that packet. He trades Jim the telescope for the seeds. Ladies and gentlemen, Jim has actually pranked Dwight into buying magic beans!

Packing up the garage sale, Holly tells Michael she’s sorry about her earlier proposal attempt. She knows she expected to much from him. She tells him she won’t go to Colorado because “he’s her life now”. Smiling, Michael tells her that he wants her to take a walk with him. She does and they go for a walk around the office.

 Along the way, Michael makes stops at places where events happened in their relationship. Good to know that both their first kiss and the first time they made love was in the office stairwell. It’s very sweet and romantic how they both reminisce on how they got to this point.

 Then he leads her to a room where all the staff are holding lit white candles. He tells her that this is where their love would face it’s toughest challenge. After that, it would be smooth sailing from here on out. As she walks through the room, different people ask her to marry them. She replies no each time, and Michael makes his own funny comments. For example, Oscar, “Holly will you marry me?” Holly replies, “no”. Michael comments, “that marriage would be a sham”.

She is next lead into her office filled with lit white candles on every desk, file cabinet, surface in the room. It’s here that Michael proposes, “This is where I fell in love with you. This is where I ask you to marry me”.

Michael goes down on one knee and Holly kneels next to him, he begins what’s obviously a carefully prepared reverent speech about their love when just then, all the candles set off the sprinkler system and drench the happy couple.

The perfect moment Michael has planned seems ruined, but then they both burst out laughing. He pulls out the ring and says in his best “Star Wars” Yoda impression, “Holly Flax, marry me will you be” . Holly replies in her best Yoda voice, “Your wife becoming me will I”. He puts the ring on her finger and they kiss. It turns out to be the perfect moment because it was perfectly them. The whole staff joins them in the sprinkler soaked office for hugs and congratulations.

Then Michael drops the bomb that he is leaving to go to Colorado with Holly. Stunned, his DM “family” can only stare at him as he kisses his new fiance.

So now we know why Michael Scott will leave his beloved job. I would like to say to the Office writers, bravo! No one is happy that Michael will no longer be a part of the show. But for me at least, it makes it easier to bear knowing that they gave the character his much deserved happily ever after. Michael is leaving, yes. But he’s leaving because he’s finally found true love in Holly. I agree with Pam that they are “perfect for each other”. How can any fan begrudge Michael this? Best wishes Michael and Holly!

The closing scene shows Dwight watering five planters filled with dirt. Seems he has just planted his magic bean seeds. He walks away and around the corner sneaks Jim pushing a cart holding five identical planters filled with full-grown plants! Along the way, Jim joyfully jumps up and clicks his heels together. This was a laugh out loud moment for me. Jim has pulled some memorable pranks over the years, but selling Dwight magic beans? That’s got to be the winner!

What did you think of “Garage Sale”? If you couldn’t tell from the recap, I loved it. I feel they really put alot of heart into the episode and that it was a fitting explanation to sending off our beloved “world’s best boss”.

But enough about my thoughts, what did you think?! Sound off in the comments or join us over on the forums to discuss the episode. Thanks for reading! – Donna