The Office: Lecture Circuit, Part 2

Posted by: Ariana  •  February 13, 2009 @ 2:16am

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

This week: More Michael and Pam in a car! More crazy cat lady Angela! More Kelly's non-birthday! More more more.

Angela prances into the lunch room are cheery-like, and announces there's a new hypoallergenic addition to the Martin family, one whose father was in Meet the Parents. This particular cat cost $7,000, the money Angela got from selling Andy's engagement ring on eBay. She's so excited, she brings the lunch room occupants (Oscar, Kevin, Meredith, and Creed, for maximum hilarity) over to her desk to show them "Princess Lady" on her nanny-cam.

Michael and Pam are still in the car on their way to Nashua to get some closure with Holly. Pam tells us how excited Nashua seemed to have some visitors, and then makes a terrible joke about snowshoes. She confides that she's been driving for way too long now.

Dwight's interrogating Kelly in the annex about her stint in juvie. He drags her story out of her: when she was 14, her boyfriend dumped her and she thought it'd be fun/romantic, in a Thelma & Louise way, to steal his dad's boat. I... really wish we could have heard more about this.

Jim distracts her from her painful story with a birthday cake, which she hates because it's plain and boring and doesn't have any words or decorations on it. That's because Jim forgot if there was a second e in Kelly or not. Kelly's mad that there's no theme to her party. Phyllis, from the recesses of a corner in the kitchen, isn't pleased at this new party-planning committee either. Jim and Dwight fight like 12-year-old girls.

Michael poses outside Dunder Mifflin Nashua, and once inside, announces his arrival to the pretty receptionist. He asks after Holly and discovers that she's on a three-day HR retreat. The receptionist directs urgent inquiries to A.J., sitting just over there. Oh yeah... and he's Holly's new boyfriend. Michael is devastated.

Pam comforts Michael outside as he tries to back out of his presentation. She attempts to tell him about how upset she was when Jim was dating Karen -- how she didn't even want to come to work every day -- but Michael cuts her off, because this is about him, HELLO. Pam, who is becoming remarkably skilled at dealing with Michael's various neuroses, says that if he goes in there and does his thing, everyone will tell Holly about how great he was when she gets back, and he fills in the blanks with, "And then she'll move back to Scranton. And her boyfriend will die." Pam has done the trick, and Michael gears back up for the show.

Back at the office, it's discovered via nanny-cam that another of Angela's many cats, Mr. Ash, is busy humping Princess Lady back at Angela's house. She rushes out in a panic to stop the breeding and indecency. Jim and Dwight? Still fighting about Kelly's party.

Michael starts into his presentation with several terrible jokes that squish together quotes from at least five or six different movies. Really, all he's trying to do is glean info out of this A.J. guy. Pam is chagrined. When A.J. declares his relationship "pretty serious," Michael tries to find out if Holly ever asks about him, and before long, he's down on the floor with his head between his knees. Awesome.

Pam is forced to take over and pretend like this is all part of the plan, and poorly accented Forrest Gump quotes are totally up her alley. Oh no, she's turning into Michael. She even does the mnemonic device bit. And then the chainsaw comes out. Pam: "Mnneeeeeeehh... Cutting down the competition..."

Oscar and Kevin are watching Angela's nanny-cam, now featuring more Angela. More of Angela... licking her cat clean. Oscar and Kevin are not at all ok with this.

In Nashua, Michael wanders over to Holly's cubicle and caresses the sweater hanging over the back of her chair a bit before cutting off a sleeve for a souvenir. He takes a look at her computer desktop and noticed a Word file called "Dear Michael." He can't walk away; he pulls out his USB and steals the file.

Angela returns to the office and realizes her nanny-cam's been on the whole time. Oscar and Kevin lie and say they saw nothing. Angela coughs up a hairball. Oscar's scarred for life.

A defeated Michael and Pam sit in a diner and Michael tells Pam about the file. He wants to read it, but Pam is not going to allow it. However... she offers to read it for him. He runs outside to grab his laptop.

Jim and Dwight? Still fighting over the birthday, still under-blowing up gray and brown balloons, still trying to come up with theme ideas. Jim asks for Dwight's favourite birthday memory, and Dwight tells the horrible story of his actual birth. Jim tells him to forever stop telling that story. Jim's favourite was his seventh, when his dad took him to the Natural History Museum in New York. Dwight tries to argue about dinosaurs, but Jim's pretty much over it.

Pam reads the letter from Holly, deletes it, and tells Michael that Holly still has feelings for him and it's not over. Michael's overjoyed. Is Pam telling the truth?

Kelly comes into the conference room, where everyone has gathered amidst drab balloons and sad, declarative birthday banners, with a cake that reads "HAPPY B'DAY KELLEY." It's wrong, of course. Mostly she just wants to know why there is an orange Chiclet in the middle of her cake. Well, because it represents a pillow, or a television, which is the theme: she can pick either an hour of TV or an hour-long nap to round out her afternoon. Somehow, she loves this idea, and after waffling for a bit, chooses the nap. Dwight kicks everyone out of the conference room, and Jim gives her a pillow and a blanket. She lies down under the table, but she's too excited to sleep.

Jim and Dwight enjoy a friendly slice of cake each on the couch by reception until Dwight takes some trash can lids in to the conference room to end Kelly's nap. He tells her to go make up for the time she wasted napping. He also totally smacks her on the butt on her way out the door.

And then there's a disappointing throwaway scene with Pam and Michael in the car on their way home. Maybe the point of it is to make us feel just as weary as Pam clearly does after three solid days with Michael.

This will be your last Office recap for a month or so whilst I embark on some transpacific travels. Please try to enjoy your weekly dose of Dunder Mifflinites even without me to guide you through it. You can do it; I have faith in you.

Tags: the office, office recap

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