The one where The Office warehouse guys win the lottery

It was certainly one of the show’s more bizarre cold open concepts, but I loved last night’s opening to The Office, featuring puppy love moving enough to drive Oscar to an act of violence. It’s sad that Kevin goes so unnoticed that no one so much as processes what he says — although I’m not sure why he thought his idea was a good one — and I wonder how long it took for someone to go out to the parking lot and investigate what all that honking was about. I was kind of hoping we’d discover whose car it was — I wonder — but it was all good. And Dwight trying to hydrate the dog by pouring gobs of his drink through the sunroof? Awesome.

I wasn’t surprised to learn that Darryl’s been secretly fuming about being passed over for the manager slot, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how deftly Andy defused the situation. It appears to be true that, as the season goes on, we’ll continue to see just how wise a choice he actually was for the job (I honestly never would have guessed). And I like how goofy he still has the opportunity to be — his handling of both group interviews was ridiculous, and I loved his riff on bubble wrap.

Also nice was the ever briefest of Jim outwitting Dwight moments, when Jim referred to himself as the strongest in the office knowing full well that he’d force Dwight to volunteer for warehouse duty, too. And Jim and Dwight did have some good times together doing manual labor, but what’s generally wrong with Jim? Why does he seem so awkward in his own skin? So stiff? I can’t tell if he just doesn’t want to be there, or if he’s regressed in his acting chops.

What I can say with certainty is that he and Pam have officially hit rock bottom. Arguing over how the other would act in their personal fantasies? Spending their time coming up with more and more elaborate fantasies of how they’d spend $950,000 (which, by the way, would buy Pam about a parking spot in SoHo)? They’re painful, and thoroughly unpleasant to watch … what happened?

But back to some of the good. I wonder what the episode sets Darryl up for. I imagined for a moment that he was actually leaving, but that crisis seems to have been averted. Instead, with him recommitting himself to business training — once Andy said it, it did occur to me that maybe Darryl hadn’t deserved the promotion … not to say that Andy did, based on those standards — is it possible that one day soon Andy will be demoting Dwight and promoting Darryl to be his number two? I’ve been hot and cold on Darryl all along, but down-in-the-dumps Darryl is nobody’s friend; much better that he be happy and having fun.

Even if he’s weird and whacky, I’m actually wondering if we didn’t feel Robert California’s (James Spader) absence last night. Was the third episode weaker than the first two, both of which featured the newest member of the cast? I wonder….

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 07, 2011 @ 17:00 EST5EDT