'The Office' Recap: Michael's Love Seat?

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6. Dwight comes to the rescue. Sort of. Once again, Michael demands something of his staff that any other boss would get reamed for: Set him up with someone by the end of the hour (by writing her name down on one of his ''love cards'') or you're toast. Stanley didn't know anyone he hated enough to write her name on the card. Jim puts down Pam's mom. Kevin offers up Wendy, ''a hot juicy redhead,'' and gives Michael the number to the eponymous fast-food chain. Dwight, on the other hand, nearly comes through with the chair model: ''I will find her and I will bring her to you. And as God is my witness, she shall bear your fruit.'' The problem? She's dead — killed when her car crashed into an airplane hangar. In Dwight's words, ''As dead as every dead animal who has ever died.''

7. So Pam sets Michael up on a blind date — with her landlord. As Julia Roberts says in Pretty Woman, ''Big mistake...Huge.'' Their disastrous meeting at The Coffee Gallery reminded me a little of David Brent's second date in the British Office's Christmas special, especially the face Michael makes when he sees the lovely lady. Sure, she's got a face like a wet weekend, but Michael is terribly cruel. Now, as Jim pointed out, Pam's going to have to find new housing. With him (which kills all speculation that they already live together). But Pam balks, claiming she won't move in with someone until they're engaged. Then Jim tells her that's coming! ''When it happens it's going to kick your ass, Beesly, so stay sharp.'' And he admits to us that he bought a ring the week after they started dating (a little weird, but okay...). I was so thrown by this I didn't even realize it was a wind-up when, later on, he bent down as if he was going to propose and said, ''Hey Pam, will you wait for me a second while I tie my shoe?'' Argh!

8. Last but not least, Michael and Dwight visit the chair model's grave — for ''closure.'' I'd like to see Michael's need to say goodbye to chair model Deborah Shoshlefski (whom he never even met) as his dysfunctional way of excising any of his lingering feelings for and regrets over Jan. But who cares? All I know is that after Michael whined, ''You know I used to think that I had this perfect person out there waiting for me. But now I know that that's just silly because she's dead. What do you do?'' Dwight responded with the best advice of the season: ''You wait until next year's chair catalog comes out and you find someone who's still alive.'' Amen, brother.

Tune in next week, when Michael and Dwight surprise Ryan with a night of clubbing in New York and the Scranton Branch pulls an uprising when they have to work on a Saturday for another of Ryan's Dunder Mifflin Infinity projects. And for all of you out there who also professed a love of Ricky Gervais — those of you who slammed the Brit Office, well, I won't tell you where you can go — if you haven't already, you should check the fairly recent TV doc, Ricky Gervais: New Hero of Comedy. Steve Merchant, Chris Rock, Karl Pilkington, Billy Connelly, Russell Brand, Richard Curtis. They're all there!