Image Credit: Justin Lubin/NBCSomething didn’t sit right with me about last night’s Office. Was it the near-absence of the “interviews”? Was it the mere two seconds of hearing Pam’s voice? The lack of hilarity between Michael and Dwight? Or is it simply that the throne of humor is moving on from the stars of seasons past to the likes of Andy, Erin, Kelly, and Meredith. Their stars shone brightest last night and saved the low points from the people we previously tuned in to see.
Last night’s premise was that Sabre sent leads over to Michael to distribute to the sales staff. The sales staff has become more and more cocky (which makes me think of Anthony Michael Hall in Sixteen Candles saying he’s “king of the dips—s”) and everyone is starting to resent them. But no one more than Michael who can’t stand that a blue index card with a lead written on it could possibly generate more interest than a meeting about the lost Lost and Found. “The way this place used to work was make friends first, make sales second, make love third,” he says in his usual delusional way. One by one, the sales staff members have to find their leads. Michael turns Jim’s leads into clues, leading him on a wild goose chase through the kitchen and into the parking lot. Angela blackmails Phyllis (fabulously bitchy last night!) into doing clerical work before she can get her potential commission leads. And Erin, officially my new favorite character on TV, lured Andy into the most adorable, almost sexy but actually just awkward game of Hot-or-Cold. The more she said “hotter” the more it seemed like our sweet little receptionist had hidden the leads in her bra. When she said “lower!” you could almost see the steam shoot out of Andy’s ears at the prospect of a blue index card being hidden somewhere downtown. In the end, the cards were under Erin’s computer keyboard.
Kevin hid Dwight’s in the garbage can, but Erin emptied that along with Toby’s babaganoush, which then got emptied into a dump truck, which, nautrally, meant Michael and Dwight had to go off campus to the Scranton dump. For some reason, this scene between these two comedic giants was lacking. The pacing was off. The dialogue not as sharp as usual. The high point for me came when Dwight said with a completely straight face, “This place has gone to hell.” While those boys were throwing trash at each other, the sales staff tried to figure out a way to buy the affection of the rest of the office. They set out a spread of food. They were ready to announce their plan to part with a portion of their commissions. And then Oscar made the stupid move of making peace over a paltry spread of pastries. You could have had cash, Oscar! Team Accounting should have put Kelly Kapur in charge. She would have gotten something better out of the sales staff. In the end, what came out of this whole sales lead debacle? The office got a new purple bean bag chair from the dump. And Andy and Erin got the most romantic kiss possible on a heap of filthy, stinky, vile garbage.
Very important observations:
-Dwight has six phone numbers.
-Dwight might watch American Idol Rewind. How else would he have come up -“Dwight out”, a.k.a. Ryan Seacrest’s erstwhile sign-off?
-Andy’s red pants are awesome. Any man who wears red pants deserves accolades here (to go with the mocking he’ll inevitably endure everywhere else).
-The Angela-Phyllis rivalry continues to be brilliant. Remember the episode about office party planning? Ooh, Angela was loving making Phyllis come over to her desk, when Phyllis had previously told her she was too busy.
-Kelly watches the Kardashians. I’m not surprised by this, but it’s worth noting. Her reasoning? “It’s about a family. A real family.”
-Toby patronizes the local Syrian restaurant.
-There is a Syrian restaurant in Scranton.
- Phyllis loves purple (though I suspect she wouldn’t have liked that sweater Dwight found inside a discarded bathtub)
5 best quotes of the night:
“You couldn’t handle my undivided attention.” – Dwight to Michael
“Nothing but vomit and diapers over here” – token Pam moment of the night, which, though not particularly funny, did allow us to hear from the new mom
“Yeah, I basically wish you were dead.” – Erin, in a beautifully misguided attempt at flirtation with Andy
“Okey-dokey,” – Meredith, not skipping a beat after Dwight tells her to take off her dress
“If they don’t have an iPod by now, they really don’t want one” – Phyllis, saying a truism of life. Don’t buy iPods for your friends anymore, people. They’ve got one. And they’ve got at least one ipod shuffle that they bought, loaded up with songs, and then lost. Sorry, maybe that’s just me.
Honorable mention goes to Erin for “People love shells from far away beaches.” By “people” she probably means “grandmothers” and “senile neighbors.” But I like it. And if you can’t get an iPod, a shell is the next best thing, right?
What did you all think of the episode? Do you love Erin as much as I do?
That kiss between Erin and Andy was a pretty neat twist. A lot of us have been waiting for it and to stick it at the very end like that was cool. (But I loved her putting her coat on his shoulders…awww….)
I’ll be spending my day signing all my e-mails “Dwight out”
I love Erin and I think she’s a wonderful addition to the cast. But I kind I can’t decide if she’s being written as naive or stupid. I’m hoping it’s the former, not the latter. They’re kind of walking a thin line.
I think she’s just naive and young. I think in her premere episode she said it was her first “real” job working at D&M (could be wrong). I still love that whole “I’m in my jammy jams”. She’s so cute!
I think naive with a few awkward social skills… which I’m sure comes from her upbringing.
But why were Andy and Erin at the dump in the first place? I loved Jim questioning if “M. Night Schulman” lives in Micheal’s complex. And I thought the garbage fight at the dump was pretty funny. Oh, and Creed stealing the lost and found and wearing lost glasses was funny too!
Amazing how funny Creed can be without any lines. Loved those glasses.
Exactly, isembard. More Creed, please!
i agree – more creed!!
How did the reviewer not throw in Andy’s post-kiss “roo doo doo doo duh doo” under quotes, that had me dying
Johnny Depp lives in Scranton, PA!!! In Michael’s condo complex no less.
That turned out to be M. Night Shulman. Duh!
Best moment – Stanley’s reaction when he realizes he’s not going to have to given up ANY of his commission to the rest of the staff!!!
Whenever Stanley smiles it’s golden.
I know! Realizing he wouldn’t have to give up any of his money was like two Pretzel Days rolled into one.
It was priceless him sitting between Kelly and Ryan’s argument and siding with each to get his leads.
Yeah, that was one of my favorite parts of last night. He sided with Kelly and she barely broke stride saying “thank you Stanley” and handing him a lead while continuing the fight with Ryan.
The best line when Stanley said “It is a good show…” about Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
that argument was hilarious. It wasnt a surprise that Kelly watches Keeping Up With The Kardashians, but the fact that her and Ryan were going on and on about it cracked me up
OMG, that was my favorite part of the episode. I was dying laughing.
I agree! I laughed so hard at Stanley’s goofy smile! BEST MOMENT OF THE SHOW!
Really? I thought his reaction was kind of hateful. All of the salespeople are really getting obnoxious.
I LOVE STANLEY!! I thought that was great. Bebe, they ae supposed to be obnoxious.
Good thing I was watching live because my DVR would’ve cut off Andy/Erin at the end!
Mine did! A kiss! I guess I’ll have to watch it at nbc.com.
The part where they kissed was the first part of my recording 30 Rock. Loved the showing of the AMC drink cup!
I’ve learned to tell my TiVo to stop recording a minute late, so I don’t miss the funny scenes after the credits.
You people have not learned the timing of network TV yet? Come on now.
Creed in the glasses it seems he took from the missing lost and found box….clasic Creed moment.
I wonder who those belonged to? They seemed pretty outdated.
Maybe he wore them when he was in the Grass Roots. He has mentioned before that he was a singer in an old rock and roll band……and he actually was.
Creed is the dark long sleeved shirt with the horizontal stripes. If you haven’t seen this and are a Creed fan, you’ll flip. Particularly if – like me- you’re from “that” generation.
Well, Ryan has had some interesting clothing choices lately. I wouldn’t be surprised to find he had lost them.
I think they were Ryan’s. Ryan has really been into the glasses, scarves, poetry, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if Creed stole them from the lost and found.
I think The Office has been a little off lately but I love the Andy/Erin storyline. I think their very awkward flirtation is great. I don’t miss Pam. I don’t know what it is about her but when she goes through these phases where she is more heard of than seen I don’t really find myself wishing she was back.
I didn’t miss Pam either and I actually really enjoyed this episode…quite a bit. So many great one liners. Even Dwight’s “Don’t touch my spool” at the dump made me laugh out loud.
I noticed that too! It seems Creed has stolen the lost and found, I wonder what other itemds they’ll get him to wear!
Erin has turned out to be way more than just Pam’s replacement. Her character is great, and her romance with Andy is sweet and awkward and hilarious. I loved that their first kiss was in the dump! Aww.
Totally agree. I didn’t like Erin at first, but could never decide if it was the writing or just the actress. Now her & Andy are the cuter more face-paced moving Jim & Pam. Adorable
I first starting liking her when she went dancing in Micheal’s disco downstairs. She can’t dance at all and looks cute doing it.
Best moment for me was Stanley playing both sides of the Ryan/Kelly argument to get his leads.
I think one of the whole reasons the Dump fight was off because it was done on a virtual set (i.e. green screen.) Didn’t have that real feeling that most of the other stuff has.
YES! I was thinking at the time “is that a green screen?” And it kept distracting me throughout the entire scene. Very odd choice for a show that usually films scenes out of the office very well. Couldn’t they find a dump in S. California to film at?
Green-screen-dump kept bothering me too. Then again, if anyone’s even been to an actual dump you know how gross the smell alone is (imagine every bad smell ever, combine them all, then mulitply by a thousand) it would have been impossible to shoot on location at an actual dump
I don’t think it was a green screen b/c I didn’t see any background movement. Most likely they did it old school and used a huge backdrop of a dump
I definitely saw a flock of birds at one point. Just sayin’
100% chance it was fake. Bothered me too.
Yes, it was a backdrop. I noticed it and it bothered me too. I kept looking at the background instead of the scene that was going on with Michael and Dwight.
I didn’t mind the dump that much, but I have to agree that my favorite part was Stanley having to sit through Kelly and Ryan’s fight over the Kardashians and agreeing with them so that they would hand him a lead. That was my favorite lead distribution method out of all of them!
The green screen was terrible. It ruined that scene even more because it looked so fake. Kind of like the time they had mountains in the background when they filmed at the chair-lady’s grave.
I liked this episode, mostly because the entire office was involved. I howled at the “That’s what she said” (Daryl to Michael: “You have to get back on top.”) I love that Michael thinks Lincoln was the first president. Oh well, at least he used the word complicit properly!
Underrated line: “This is a representation of how we feel, which is really sorry.” – Jim on the spread they laid out.
LOVED that “First President: Lincoln” line. Only Michael. I didn’t even catch that line from Michael, so thanks. Love a show that’s so chock-full of great lines that you have to watch it a couple of times to catch them all.
Michael didn’t actually say it. It was on one of the clues he gave to Jim, and Jim read it out loud as an explanation when Dwight asked him why he was looking under the car.
finally someone mentions Daryl, their scene was my favorite..”it was a conspiracy; they all did it Michael”
Last season Kelly had to leave early to pick up her sister at school. She said that they were really tight, like the Kardashians. Nice to hear another Kardashian reference.
Pam knows and understands Michael really well. His clue for Jim said “moppy” place, but Pam understood he meant “mopey.”
Me too, I always like when they do little things to show how well Pam really knows Michael.
Yeah, I liked that too-sometimes it seems like they forget she was ever the receptionist.
This, for me, was what this show has always been about; and that’s the people IN the office. I think over the last couple of seasons they’ve gotten away from that. They keep introducing new foils for Michael when in fact Michael is his own foil! I loved last night’s ep and feel like it hearkened back to what makes this show great and that’s the people inside the office walls.
Exactly! Can’t stand the whole Sabre/Jo Bennett storyline.
Agreed. I LOVED the episode. A new, but totally realistic angle on a shift in office dynamics.
What timing! I just re-watched Glengarry Glen Ross this week and last night’s Office with the leads definitely reminds me of the line “Because to give them to you would be throwing them away”…and they end up at the city dump (surprised no one’s mention GGGR).
-Stanley’s smile was Pretzel-Day priceless
-Angela vs. Phyllis is always gold
-more Creed! Always more Creed!!
I didn’t like…
Oh, I’ll say it: this ep blew chunks. And yes, I watch the show, and yes, I usually love it, but oh boy . . . it’s totally left the realm of the believable, and that little toehold on reality is what I love about it.
I don’t know. I work in a large PA office, and you’d be mortified – and seriously wouldn’t even believe me – if I told you the things that go on here.
I’d like to hear about your real PA office!
My dad worked in a large PA office as well, and he always talks about how Michael is a carbon copy of his boss and how his cubicle was next to a guy who was exactly like Creed.
Sorry, Ted, but you’re dead wrong!