Life In The Office

Deangelo Vickers is in the house ladies and gentlemen! The new boss is making changes and ruffling feathers in this episode and it’s wreaking havoc on the staff at Sabre Scranton.

 During the Michael Scott-era, we knew a few things would always just be. Things like: Pam can always be counted on, Kevin is the lovable but goofy one, Toby will always be tortured, etc…These are things that just were. Now? It’s all up for grabs. We see staff member struggle to hold onto their office status, and others do what they can to maneuver themselves into better positions. And it’s all based on one man’s opinion, new boss, Deangelo Vickers.

The cold-open shows Deangelo heading a meeting in the conference room. He is letting the staff know that there’s a new sheriff in town, and he won’t take any guff off anyone. He tells the staff, “You don’t like it? There’s the door.”

But then he lets them know some of the changes he’s making, and they’re all good! He approved Darryl’s request for management training education (paid for by Sabre), he ordered Toby a new chair and he is starting “Ice Cream Thursdays” at the office. Why the initial tough stance and then all the treats? Deanglo expains he likes to keep everyone guessing. He doen’t want anyone to really “get” him. Mission accomplished on that I think!

Then the opening credits roll and we see the show has added a new bit. No more Michael Scott adjusting his dundee on his desk (*sniff*). Now we see Deangelo adjusting what looks like an Indian doll from the American Southwest. And we all know how he loves that area! That new ending on the opening credits really highlights what this episode is about. Michael Scott is gone. Deangelo is here. And life as the staff at Scranton Sabre knew it, will never be the same.

Deangelo and Darryl walk into the office together, laughing and smiling. Pam intercepts them to talk to Deangelo. He shushes her. Seething, Pam waits nearby for her chance to talk to Deangelo. After a few awkward moments where Pam tries to insinuate herself into Deangelo and Darryl’s conversation, she is finally permitted to ask her question. Pam cheerfully tells Deangelo that she’s solved his problem of finding an assistant. She has a friend with experience that is perfect for the job. Deangelo shuts her down right away by telling her to “put that resume with the others”. Ouch!  In the era of Michael Scott, Pam would never have been “shushed”. And, her ideas were always carefully considered and given merit. Seems those days are over!

Pam is glum and whispers to Jim that Deangelo, “hates” her. Jim tries to soothe her by telling her that it’s not true, it’s just that she becomes nervous around Deangelo and is not herself. Pam complains that it is true that he hates her, but Jim just can’t see it because he’s in Deangelo’s “inner circle”. Jim immediately denies that there is an “inner circle”. Behind Pam, we see Andy grimace.

Andy explains in a talking-head that there is indeed an inner-circle, and he is jealous that he is not a part of it. Who is, you ask? Well, that honor belongs to: Jim, Darryl, Kevin and Gabe.

Where does Dwight figure into in this new situation? He is still not happy with his new boss. Deangelo is trying to win him over, but Dwight is being stubborn. Deangelo even brings him coffee and asks Dwight to hang out with him outside of work. Dwight throws out the coffee, right in front of Deangelo, and responds to his offer to hang out by motioning towards Oscar and saying, “I think you’ll find what you’re looking for over there”, as if Deangelo’s peace-offer was a sexual proposition. Dwight, you are a piece of work!

Deangelo explains in a talking-head that he is upset that he can’t win over Dwight. It reminds him of his relationship with his son, except he’s the Dwight in that situation. Huh? Little by little, bits of Deangelo’s personality are revealed, and every layer gets scarier.

Proving again that he is not the most astute business man, Deangelo has his inner-circle in his office and enthusiastically tells them that they need to go after the “biggest client in the state”. When the guys look confused, he edits himself and says, “or fifty thousand little clients”. What?! Then he spends the next few minutes shooting a toy basketball at a hoop connected to his office door and discussing if the ball is weighted properly. Again…what?! As Jim tells him, it’s a toy basketball.  Deangelo alludes to the fact that he’s quite a good basketball player. And the confusion about Deangelo continues…

Making his rounds, Deangelo tells Ryan that “his department is killing it”. What department, you ask? Seems Ryan told Deangelo that he was Kelly’s boss. He believes Ryan and apparently no one else in the office has corrected this mistake. There is a funny scene where Ryan explains this logic to Kelly. He begs her to keep up the lie in front of the boss. Kelly is upset and tells him he always lies. Then Ryan tells her that “he would die for her” and she buys it. Two seconds after she tells him he always lies, she buys that corny line! Gotta love Kelly.

Obviously ignoring Pam’s suggestion of her friend as his assistant, Deangelo has his inner-circle reviewing submitted resumes. The guys sit around the conference table laughing at the errors in the resumes. Darryl points out that one resume is so ridiculous, the applicant put down” juggling” as his interest. Deangelo tells the guys that juggling is great. In fact, he himself  is a “motivational juggler”.

He then goes out into the office to announce that he wants to perform his juggling skill for the staff, but he forgot his juggling balls. Oh darn! But wait, Andy has an extra set (of course he does!) in his desk. He throws them to Deangelo who jumps away saying, “I never touch another performers instruments”. He then tells the staff that since he has his music and is ready to perform, he is just going to mime how great of a juggler he is, so they can get the idea. The staff is then treated to Deangelo’s “performance”. It’s so over-the-top ridiculous, but no one wants to make the new boss mad and call him on it. His “show” ends and everyone claps like he actually did something.

Later in the break room, everyone is discussing Deangelo and his ridiculous  juggling act. Pam can’t believe it even happened. Angela adds her two cents saying that Deangelo is a sexist. Andy says he’s not, but Angela has proof. A few of the office department heads are women (herself, Pam & Kelly) and Deangelo has never once consulted with them, preferring to run things by his all-male inner-circle. Hmmm, does she have a point? Pam thinks so and she encourages Jim to bring it up to him.

So, for the first time this episode, we see someone (besides Dwight) cross the new boss. Jim gently brings up the fact that some of Deangelo’s behavior could be construed as sexist. The rest of the inner-circle is aghast! The boss is aghast! He immediately goes out into the office and lets everyone know that he is not a sexist. And, he does so in a very Michael Scott kind-of way by asking people to” raise their hand if they have a vagina, or care about someone with a vagina”.  None of what Deangelo does makes any sense, but in the interest of not rocking the boat, the ridiculousness continues.

He then introduces his new assistant, the very pretty and young, Jordan. Pam asks Jordan about her previous work experience and (surprise!) it turns out she has no office experience. Deangelo claims he hired her because she was” a clean-slate”. Versus what? Someone who knows what she’s doing?!

Deangelo then calls another inner-circle meeting, but this time, Jim’s not included. Guess his “sexist” remark got him booted from the inner-circle. Andy did get invited this round though, which thrills him.

Kelly has enough of Ryan’s lying about being her boss. She confronts Deangelo about it. And guess what? He doesn’t care! He likes Ryan and thinks Kelly’s a bit hysterical, so he is making the lie real. In his eyes, Ryan is now Kelly’s boss! Logic be damned in Deangelo Vicker’s world!

The inner-circle are in Deangelo’s office, playing with the baby toy basketball hoop. They’re screaming and yelling. Pam goes in to ask them to be quiet and they explain that Deangelo is “teaching them all how he’s the hoop master”. Deangelo sees Jim and invites him in to his office. Pam is happy. Jim’s back in! But we can see from Jim’s face that he’s had just about enough of Deangelo’s antics. Instead of rejoining the inner-circle, he challenged Deangelo to show us his real skills with the warehouse basketball hoop, right now. After a few excuses as to why he can’t do this today, Deangelo runs out of reasons and accepts this challenge and heads down to the warehouse.

Dwight refuses to go. But then Deangelo screams at him and demands he go. Dwight jumps up from his desk and scurries down to the warehouse. He explains in a talking-head that he “really responds to strong leadership”. ha ha! It was great seeing Dwight flustered and looking scared.

Down in the warehouse, Deangelo proceeds with his basketball “exhibition”. He sloppily dribbles up to the hoop and then jumps up on it for his “dunk”. But one problem, he hangs on too long to the rim and pulls the whole thing on top of himself!

The ambulance takes Deangelo away. But next scene, we see him show up at the office in a hospital gown and bare feet spouting  jibberish. Jim and Gabe quietly lead him back to the hospital. And, that’s it for this episode.

So, as Jim asks Pam when the ambulance is driving Deangelo away, “now what”? Now what, indeed! Obviously Mr. Vickers will not be able to mime his way out of this one. Sabre Scranton will need a new boss. Who could possibly fill his shoes? Hmm…I bet there will be a few takers.

I enjoyed “The Inner Circle”. Not an instant classic, but it was funny and real. Two things every Office episode is usually chock full of, thankfully.  But more importantly than what I thought, what did you think? Sound off in the comments and please join us over on the forums as well.

Thanks for reading! ~ Donna