Life In The Office

Happy Halloween LITO-ites! I feel very lucky to be reviewing The Office Halloween episode. It’s one of my annual favorites. So fun to see the office crew all dressed up in their Halloween finery!

The cold-open begins with Andy prescreening the office staff’s Halloween costumes. Everyone gets trotted into Andy’s office to see if their costume is up-to-snuff. The funniest part of this for me is that both Kelly and Meredith dressed up as Prince William’s new bride, Kate Middleton.

Kelly’s obsession with anything celebrity or wedding is well documented. But Meredith? Not usually. But it turns out that Meredith is quite enamored of the royals. She tells us, “why is it such a shock that I follow the royal story? Warms my heart thinking about those two kids…doing it”. Well, seems Meredith hasn’t quite changed her ways!

The best part is that Kelly wants to wear what looks like an perfect replica of the authentic Kate Middleton wedding gown. Meredith is in a white t-shirt that is duct taped to a plain beige skirt, with a cheap tin crown on her head, and she gets chosen to keep the costume!

Kevin, Darryl and Jim are the Miami Heat basketball players “the 3 amigos“: LeBron James, Dwayne Wade & Chris Bosh.  Jim got dragged into it even though he wasn’t that interested. We all know he’s famous for his low-key costume choices. He’s not a big dress-up guy for Halloween. But Darryl & Kevin needed a third amigo, so he stepped up to the foul line for them(see? I know basketball lingo!) I will admit that I had nooo clue who the “three amigos” were and had to Google it.

Dwight comes into the office. He looks demented. He has a brownish body with big black hair and purple breasts. Obviously, no one has a clue who he is (including me). Dwight is annoyed. Seems Toby met him in the parking lot and took half his costume because it had giant tentacle-like things tipped with knives that attached to his back.

Poor Toby. Seems he has to de-weaponize Dwight every Halloween as we see in flashbacks of Halloween’s past. Toby explains that he has to do this every year. And Dwight always tells him the same thing, ”as soon as I get my weapons back I’m gonna kill you”.

What is Dwight? Dwight is Kerrigan from the popular computer game Star Craft. ruler of the Zerg swarm. Yeah, I didn’t know that either! Another Google-it moment for this post. This episode is sure teaching me alot!

And hey, why is Andy doing a costume check anyway? Seems CEO Robert California is coming to the office Halloween party and “expectations are high”. Which in Andy’s mind is the scariest thing ever!

All stressed out, Andy emerges from his office and asks Pam to fax something for him. This upsets Erin, whose job it is to fax stuff for him and after all, she’s right stinkin’ there! Sweet Erin doesn’t get mad though. She just asks Pam if she can watch her fax Andy’s paper to see “what she’s doing wrong”. Aww, Erin! Pam tells her not to worry. Andy put her in charge of the Halloween party and that’s something, right? Then Erin runs into Andy and he tells her he’d like to talk to her, after the party at 4:30. Uh-oh, what’s up? Erin is worried.

A few of the staff are telling scary stories in the break room. Pam chimes in with her own story. When she was in her 20′s, she worked at a pub that was haunted by ‘a man in black’. She claims that she saw him in the mirror at work and when she turned around, no one was there.

This is news to Jim who over hears this conversation while at the vending machine. The look on his face is pure shock. He then has a talking-head where he tells us, “no, my wife does not believe in ghosts”.  Jim’s aghast. He can’t believe his wife would believe in such a thing! He then questions her and tries to talk her out of what she’s seen. Pam holds her ground and tells him, “I know what I saw”.

Robert California arrives.  He is dressed as Jack Nicholson.

He has his son with him, Bert. He’s in costume, but is only interested in getting on a computer to “track hurricanes”. Robert gives him Jim’s computer to play on.

Robert sees Andy’s costume and isn’t that impressed. He tells him, “on this day of fantasy, you chose to be a laborer?”

Then Bert comments on a ‘pin-the-tail’ Halloween game on the wall and pronounces it “for babies”. Andy is not happy. He quietly tells Phyllis and Angela to take down all Erin’s party decorations. Erin catches them and questions what they’re doing. Angela is happy to tell her that Andy told them to take down Erin’s babyish decorations.

Kelly and Toby are the skeleton crew. And oh yeah, Gabe overheard them and (without being invited) decided to join in! Robert compliments them and they ask if he want to see them glow. He does, and so they do a little dance for him.

 Robert then asks Kelly what she wants out of life, is she happy? Very odd questions yes, but after all this is Robert California. We don’t know much about this character yet, but we know he’s one for odd-ball questions. He asks her “What’s your fear?” Kelly says, “never marrying” and immediatly becomes all depressed. He then turns to sad sack Toby and asks him the same question. Afraid of Robert bumming him out, he tells him weakly, “I’m so great!”

Erin is upset about her party decorations being taken down, so she demurely goes to ask Andy why. He tells her that he fears the party is “too kiddie” because that’s what Robert’s son Bert said. He’s jumping through hoops to impress him at the expense of Erin’s feelings.

Erin asks Gabe for help. She remembers when they were a couple and he took her to a Halloween party where she was so scared that she cried when she got there and just kept crying. Quite the relationship they had, huh guys? Gabe agrees to help her make the staff party more scary.

Robert’s son Bert is still on Jim’s computer, which puts him across the desk from Dwight. They squabble, and then realize they have alot in common. Bert even knows what Dwight is supposed to be for Halloween! The two bond and play Star Craft together on their computers.

Jim teasing Pam about her believing in ghosts. He asks her to draw the ghost and she draws a middle finger to give him. Seems Jim is afraid that Pam will pass her “superstitions” onto their children.

With Gabe’s help, Erin amps up the party and makes it more adult & scary. Andy likes the new decorations Erin did, but still wants to see her in his office at 4:30o. Erin is afraid. Is she getting fired?!

Erin shows a film that Gabe recommends. “Cinema of the Unsettling” is a growing movement in film genre, Gabe tells her. The office staff are grossed out by the film. She then pulls out the game Pecker Poker “the game of cards that makes you hard”. She shudders in disgust on the word “hard”. 

After that, Andy pulls Erin into his office with Robert to clear the air. Robert realizes this conversation is about to get personal, but instead of leaving, he parks his butt in a chair and watis to hear what they’ll say to each other. Andy assures Erin that he is not about to fire her. He just wants her to know that he’s dating someone new. He and his new girlfriend has been on 31 dates. Erin seems upset, but puts on a brave face and tells Andy congratulations.

Back at the party, Robert is asking everyone about their secret fears. When he questions Creed, he admits that snakes are his fear. He tells Robert, “you don’t live as long as I have wthout having a healthy fear of snakes Bobby.” Love that he calls him ‘Bobby’!

Robert is busy throughout the party, asking everyone what scares them. Darryl is afraid of being buried alive. Kevin is afraid of mummies. Meredith is creeped out by Jim, etc…

Oh, I should probably mention that Kevin had another week of super-stupidity. He originally tells Robert he is only afraid of “real stuff”, not fake stuff like ghosts and mummies. Oscar tells him that mummies are real and in museums. In a talking head, Kevin is stuttering that “mummies are real and why would anyone keep them in museums.” I did not find this funny. It was overdone. We get it, Kevin in Season 8 is ultra-stupid. I wish they’d show a little more depth to his character like in previous seasons. A little wink to the camera… something!  But it seems we are not going to get that.

Robert then begins telling the staff his own scary stories. His story centers on a mother who fears for her child, who is in his crib. He puts in all the bits that scared everyone in his story. It includes; mummies, snakes, being buried alive, husbandless women, etc…He ends the story with the the mother asking her baby in the crib how he is and the baby sitting up slowly and saying,”I’m fine bitch, I’m fine”. Everyone is stunned. Robert’s son is the only one who laughs.

In a voice-over we hear a monologue from Robert telling us that fear is a powerful thing and how dare we let fear motivate us. Blah, blah, blah!

I have to say, I am just not quite getting his whole character. I know he’s eccentric, but do we really believe that a CEO of a company would spend his time psych-analysing his new staff? I’m having a hard time believing it. I guess they need a cohesive force in the episode to tie in all the staff’s fears? Still, to me, it’s reaching a bit.

The ending scene is Dwight having  Robert’s son Bert, tell Toby that he’s fired. Dwight is hiding, watching & laughing. Toby looks hurt and confused by the whole thing. He’s not sure whether to believe this kid or not. Dwight is thrilled. This is his revenge on Toby for him confiscating his Halloween weapons.

So, what did you think of this episode? I always love when our Office staff gets dressed up for Halloween, but I didn’t love Robert California getting all “Dr. Phil” on everyone. And I also didn’t love the Kevin-the-idiot routine.

I do like the growing tension between Andy/Erin. Her sadness is tugging at my heart strings. And I loved the interaction between Jim and Pam. Just because they’re married, doesn’t mean they agree on everything. The show handles that very realistically, and therefore it rings true.

But enough about what I think. What did you think about this episode? Sound off in the comments section or join us over on the forums. We’d love to hear from you! – Donna