Back to Halpert and Beesly in love (so adorably in love it could get saccharine if the writers and actors aren't careful). What's with people thinking Pam's a tramp? That theme was worn out: Angela called Pam ''the office mattress,'' and Phyllis asked her not to ''base who gets new clients on who you're sleeping with that week.'' You'd think Kevin's lechery or Andy's machismo would offend educated career women more than Pam being pretty and single, or whatever her crime is! My only other question right now about the happy couple is whether Jim is holding back in subtle ways. Will he turn out to be a commitment-phobe, or am I imagining that subtext? This week, their story line started seeming anticlimactic, probably because of the sluggish pace with which we're being fed details. We're hungry for more! Frasier kept kicking after Daphne and Niles finally got together, so I'm pulling for the Office writers to make this work.
While Ryan (''If they knew how much I was paying for my haircut now, they wouldn't be giving me a noogie'') should have owned this episode, it was stolen by Dwight and Angela. And Garbage, the feral barn cat! I was moved (okay, I moved myself off my couch laughing) when Dwight presented Garbage as a replacement for Sprinkles. Angela wasn't having it. And she rebuffed his offer to cook dinner (a meal I assume is her all-white, all-bland fave: ''cauliflower with noodles, baked potato on the side'') so they could dine at a restaurant, where she dumped him. Stricken, Dwight later told Michael, ''Everything falls apart….You die….No one remembers you.'' (Michael: ''That is a very good point, Dwight.'') Well, I refuse to believe this made-for-each-other pair is through.
After Michael followed the directions of his rental's GPS gadget right into a lake, the episode began to feel too long. Michael (rescued from the shallows by Dwight) resolved to reclaim the gift basket they'd just given to a former client, and a madcap tantrum scene — including Dwight and Michael childishly sliding, dripping wet, all over the lawyers' leather foyer sofas — ensued. Michael's conclusion about the march of high-tech progress? ''Computers are about trying to murder you in a lake.'' IQ test, driving test, someone please help this awesomely silly man.
What did you think? Was Ryan exaggerating tales of his glamorous New York City life? Will we ever see Karen again? Will Jan and Ryan have more passive-aggressive encounters? And was anyone else alarmed that Dwight's grandpa Manheim may be a Nazi war criminal hiding in Argentina?
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