Life In The Office

Welcome back to The Office, everyone! It’s hard to believe we’re in season 8 of our beloved show. Where has the time gone? Eight years ago, we were just being introduced to the Scranton gang. Now, we are awaiting the birth of two new Office babies!

The episode begins with some of the staff engaging in the pop culture phenomenon: planking. If you’re unfamiliar with planking, it’s basically people lying face-down flat in odd places. Personally, I don’t get the hoopla about it. But it’s clear that some people must love it, or else it wouldn’t be a fad, right? The staff is divided about it. Some people love it (Erin), and some people don’t (Dwight).

We are also finally told who got the manager position. It was Robert California! But wait…shortly after his hiring, Robert decided the job wasn’t for him. Jim tells us in a talking-head that Robert immediately drove to Florida and somehow convinced Sabre’s CEO, Jo, that he should have her job. Apparently, Jo agreed and made Robert the new CEO of Sabre? What kind of guy is this Robert California that he convinces Jo to give up her own job?! It’s both scary and fascinating really. It ought to make for a great new addition!

As the new CEO, it was Robert’s job to hire a new manager. Over all the other possible candidates, he chose Andy Bernard.

Andy is obviously thrilled with this. He know that by being chosen manager, a few of his fellow employees might be upset (Dwight). Andy decides that his first order of business is to make Dwight his #2 and his “enforcer”.

I think this was very astute of Andy. As goofy as he is, he knew what title to give Dwight to placate him. We find out from Dwight’s talking-head that he was indeed upset about Andy getting the manger position instead of him, but with what appears to be constant distractions (meditation twice daily, karate, etc…), he feels he is doing well. Hey, whatever he has to tell himself to get through it!

Another surprise is that two of our Office ladies are pregnant. No, it’s not Phyllis and Meredith sillies! It’s Pam and….Angela?! Yep, apparently over the summer, Angela married her Senator and is now newly pregnant with their first child.

Pam is also expecting again. JAM explain in a talking-head that they’re expecting a boy this time. Pam jokingly rubs her substansial baby belly and calls it, “Michael Scott”. Jim tells her that joke “still isn’t funny”. I love that in episode one, we get a Michael Scott reference. It made me smile. Gone but not forgotten!

Jim explains in another talking-head that their new CEO works from the office conference room about half the time. So, I guess we can expect lots of “California” in Scranton this season. Jim tells us that he approaches different employees throughout the day for these “intense talks”. He explains in an awed voice that “you hope it’s not going to be your turn, but then you hope it will be your turn”. Man, this guy seems to be quite the draw. Or is he just crazy? Hmm…

New manager Andy, needs to speak with Robert while he’s having one of his “intense talks” with Erin. Leaving for his chat with Andy, Robert leaves his notebook open on Erin’s desk. Of course, Erin can’t resist taking a peek at the open page. She finds a strange list of all the employees names, broken down into two columns, and quickly gets Pam and Jim involved. Curious, the rest of the office want to know what’s all the hub-bub. Erin shows everyone the list. Right away everyone is upset and confused by this list. What could it mean?

 They decide to photocopy the list. But, they have to be sneaky about it. If CEO Robert sees them copying a page from his personal notebook, he won’t be happy. They try to come up with different “covers” so Robert won’t see them copying his notebook. Kevin’s is my favorite. He wants to yell, “Warning!” three times at the top of his lungs when Robert is coming. Not too sneaky, huh? But it is funny!

While everyone is arguing about how to best sneak a copy of the list, Robert emerges from his chat with Andy. Kevin yells his “Warnings!”, and our gal Phyllis comes to the rescue by faking a fall from her chair. Cover successfull, Pam sneaks on over to the copier while the staff and Robert are occupied with a fallen Phyllis.

Once Robert is back in the conference room, the gang tells Andy about the list. They all drive themselves crazy trying to decipher what is could mean. Why does the new CEO have a list of everyone put into two columns? Is one column better than the other? Is one column a list of the employees who will be fired? The stress level is climbing as everyone tries to figure it out.

Then new manager Andy notices that the left side of the column seems to be the preferred side. Why? Well, in his logic, because it contains; him, Jim, Dwight, and Darryl. The right side staff members take offense to this and get even more upset. Andy decides to nip this in the bud by confronting Robert about the list.

Robert tells Andy that the list is simply his version of a “doodle”. He explains that some people draw houses and penises when their mind wanders aimlessly. He writes words. In this case, names. Andy seems to accept this explanation, until he sees Robert move his name from the left column to the “inferior” right column as they’re speaking. Now Andy is upset too. Why did Robert move his name? Again, Robert explains, it’s just a doodle. But is it really?? This new CEO is definitely a weird, complex man!

Still trying to decipher the mystery of the list, the staff listens to Dwight and lines up according to the list to see if there is any rhyme or reason to the order. Once in line, Dwight yells, “attack!” and begins beating up the left-siders. He grabs Meredith and Kelly by their heads and slams them together! Andy and Jim calm him down, but the gang is now even more freaked out.

Just as the chaos begins to subside, Kevin begins yelling his “Warning! Warning! Warning!”. Robert enters, and issues a lunch invitation to all the people who are left-siders on the list. The left-siders include: Kevin, Toby, Phyllis, Oscar, Jim, Dwight, Angela and Darryl. He gives no explanation for excluding the right-siders. New right-sider, Andy, tries to make the best of this snub by announcing a pizza party for everyone who was not invited to lunch with the new CEO.

No one seems comforted by Andy’s pizza party. Pam is especially upset. Being pregnant, she’s very weepy anyway. And being exluded from the left-siders, is making her boo-hoo even more.

At lunch, Robert asks Jim if his daughter Cecilia is excited about “the street”. Jim looks perplexed. Then it’s revealed that Robert is referring to “Sesame Street”. Jim just mumbles that he was unaware people were calling it that now, but tells his new CEO that “yes, CeCe really loves Elmo”.

This starts Robert off into a whole philosophical discussion about how Sesame Street and Elmo are a metaphor for our country being a “cultural ghetto” (or some other such high-brow nonsense that was over my head. It’s pretty clear that I would definitely be a right-sider! ). He goes on for a bit and then ends it by asking, “wouldn’t you agree?” to the table. The left-siders are all eager yes-men & yes-women and can’t wait to tell him how right he is.

 All except Toby who decides that after this discussion that he needs to leave. He tells the table that he should really be with the other group, and he leaves. ha ha! Guess “the street” discussion did him in! Poor Toby, ever the Eeyore!

Toby’s exit prompts the question, “why the list boss?”. Expecting to hear that it’s for no reason again, the group is startled when Robert tells them he picked  the winners to go to lunch and the other group is the losers.

This upsets Jim. He texts Pam and tells her that “this is getting weird”. Just then, everyone’s cell phone’s chime with a new text message. It’s a group text from Kevin saying, “Suck it, losers!”.

The right-sider, “loser group”, is now fully in the dumps. Ryan is not affected. He feels that since he is in the right-sider group that must make everyone feel better, right? Poor, deluded Ryan must still think he’s got some NYC-cool still clinging to him.

Pregnant Pam is very depressed. She laments, “I used to be this young, cute, funny chick. Now, I’m just a fat mom.” As she blubbers, Andy comes over to comfort her. He puts his arm on her shoulder and says, “Come on Pam, chins up!” What?! Has Andy morphed into Michael Gary Scott?! I’m definitely seeing shades of Michael in Andy’s fledgling managment skills. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, or just plain-old copy-cat? Guess time will tell…

Back at the winners lunch, Dwight is gloating that he is a right-sider “winner” and Andy isn’t, (since Andy was chosen manager over Dwight). Kevin is also thrilled to be among the winners. He explains in a talking-head that “he knew that everyone was wrong about him. His parents, friends, teachers, doctors…everyone”. Being invited to lunch over his fellow employees by a boss he barely knows trumps it all apparently! Gotta love Kevin.

As the “winners” return from their lunch, Andy decides that as new manager, he needs to clear the air with the CEO. Confronting him about the rumors and fears in the office since the list was found, he is suprised to have Robert agree that it is indeed all true. He did invite the winners and exlude the losers. He then goes on to wax philosophical again and say that, “he barely knows anyone in the office at this point. So, no one should take his initial opinion of them to heart. Opinions are formed and tweaked everyday people are together”. He ends his speech with, “winners prove me right. Losers prove me wrong”. He then disappears into the conference room.

Andy decides that he’s had enough of the CEO’s judgement of his employees. He heads into the conference room and tells Robert that he has it wrong about the right-siders “loser” group. He let’s him know all the positive, worthwhile traits of everyone in the group. The conference room door is open during Andy’s impassioned speech, and everyone is hearing him champion them.

Robert coolly recognizes Andy’s effort. I think the philosophical new boss is playing mind games with his staff. I’m sure Andy just gained major bonus points during this excercise. If Robert truly was keeping a list, Andy surely just earned his way back to the left side!

But Andy’s not done, he also wants a half-day off before the Columbus Day weekend for the office. Robert agrees to his “demand”. Andy is a very happy manager.

As the day ends, everyone acnowledges Andy as they leave. It’s clear his championing on their behalf was noticed. Andy is earning his stripes as manager. He already seems more at home in the job.

The closing scene has Jim heading out to warm up the car for Pam (aww!). As he exits, he drops a paper near her desk. When she picks it up, she sees Jim has created his own “list”. On the left “winner” side is: Pam, CeCe and new baby. On the right “loser” side is: everything else. *Squee*!! Love JAM!

I thought this season premiere episode was very well done. It answered alot of questions, and set up tons of new scenarios with more than enough meat to take us through the rest of the season. I’m very excited to see how it all unfolds.

What say you LITO-readers? Sound off in the comments. And, as always, thanks for reading! ~ Donna