The Office: Business Trip

Posted by: Ariana  •  November 14, 2008 @ 2:45am

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

Michael is being sent on an international business trip -- to Canada. Hey, you know what's in Canada? Showbiz Monkeys. Turns out he's going to Winter-- I mean Winnipeg. Hey! You know what's in Winnipeg? Showbiz Monkeys Headquarters. That's right. Turns out it's not easy to find people to go to Winnipeg mid-November; that's why Michael's received this honour. Hey, did you know that in Canada we spell honour with a u? True story.

Michael has got a money belt and is taking two empty suitcases for souvenirs. He's also taking Andy as a translator, and Oscar, because he's the numbers guy. Know what's not fair? Michael gets to sit in business class, and Andy and Oscar are relegated to economy.

Turns out Ryan will be moving to the back room with Kelly when Pam gets back next week. He goes back there ostensibly to do push-ups and try to impress Kelly, who insists in an interview that the door is totally closed with Ryan. And then she jumps him on her desk.

The intrepid travellers have arrived at their hotel in Winnipeg. While Oscar checks them in, Michael and Andy get the local D-L from the lady concierge. Michael is for some reason fascinated by her and her function, likening her to a geisha.

Meanwhile, Jim is finding out from Pam that she's failing and she has to stay and retake a course, which will mean another 12 weeks in New York. He's disappointed but very supportive, and Pam signs off as she breaks down in tears on a bench, all alone, in New York. She needs a hug.

In Winnipeg (Showbiz Monkeys headquarters!), the Dunder Mifflin guys head down to the hotel bar, where Michael spots Concierge Marie and awkwardly tries to flirt with her. Oscar is suitably embarrassed. Andy's got his wingman on and is trying to spot gay guys for Oscar (who, you may recall, is in a committed relationship). He orders two Long Island Iced Teas and calls them "a bad decision in a glass," which made me snort. But then he takes the drinks over to a couple of guys in suits and pulls a horribly awkward Good Will Hunting "do you like apples" thing on them, then points to a mortified Oscar and asks how hot they think he is. He's basically pimping Oscar out at this point. The guys tell Andy to get lost. Michael is still "flirting" with Concierge Marie, and is totally impressed by her local knowledge.

Oscar and Andy hit drunken confession time at the bottom of the Long Islands, and Oscar wants to know what in the world Andy can possibly see in Angela. (Michael is, at this moment, making out with Concierge Marie outside the hotel.) Andy admits they haven't had sex yet, and also admits that he doesn't know why. Oscar wants Andy to call Angela and ask what's wrong with her. Oscar drunkenly giggles that no, he shouldn't actually call, but Andy drunk-dials her and when she picks up, is immediately like, "What is wrong with you?" Oscar yells into the phone, "Why won't you do Andy?" and then snort-giggles into his drink. Andy slurs at her for awhile, and then on Angela's end, plain as day, Dwight whispers, "Who is that, Monkey?" and Andy's all, "Is somebody there?" but Angela distracts him by asking whether he's drunk. Then Andy says "naked" a bunch of times.

Michael is now wandering away barefoot from Concierge Marie's hotel room. She opens the door behind him, places his shoes outside, and closes it again. It appears Michael has had a one-night stand.

The next morning, Oscar and Andy are bonding and Oscar starts giggling over the drunken Angela call, but Andy thought he'd dreamt that. He totally freaks out.

Kelly and Ryan have been fooling around behind the soda machine in the break room. He wants her to break up with Darryl and has pre-typed a Dear John text message on her phone for her to send to him. She hits Send and Darryl immediately replies, "That's cool." Kelly says it's like a fairy tale! Hmm. Ryan's face says that he's finally hearing the faint tinkling of warning bells. I wonder if he'll pay them any mind. Meanwhile, we see Darryl head outside to his truck, practically whistling and skipping the whole way.

Michael's in his Canadian business meeting and his potential clients have found someone with better prices. Michael launches into the speech about how people are treated like people at Dunder Mifflin, but something he's said has triggered a reaction in himself, and he goes all silent and pensive.

Oscar and Andy, sitting outside, bond a little more after Andy reports that Angela is right pissed and has sent him back to first base -- he can kiss her forehead. Ooo, sexy times. In an interview, Andy calls Oscar delightful, and his line delivery is just about the funniest of the season (second only to "LOUDER, SON!").

At the airport, Michael's on the phone with David Wallace, and even though David congratulates Michael on locking up the deal for two years, Michael waxes unpoetic about how much the trip sucked overall. He hated the airplane and the hotel and the concierge and all of it, and then it turns into a rant about how much it sucks that David sent Holly away. He hangs up on David. In an interview, Michael says he's stayed at Dunder Mifflin for so long because of how they respect him -- they didn't even fire him after he told his boss off to his face, over the phone.

So it looks like Pam's staying in New York for awhile. Jim's miserable. Only, as he walks out to his car at the end of the day, Pam's waiting in the parking lot and she says she's coming home because she hates designing logos and she missed him. They kiss adorably until they are not-so-adorably interrupted by Dwight, who needs Pam to make five copies for him. She says she's not going in, so he supposes it can wait until first thing in the morning. Yeah... I've been there.

In the tag, Ryan and Kelly co-interview that they're back together. Ryan looks positively sick to his stomach. He says he realized that for whatever reason, he couldn't do better than Kelly. She "aww"s at him. Oh boy.

Tags: the office, the office u.s., michael scott, dunder mifflin, jim/pam

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Original Comments Posted (7)

metal2000 says...

What was with the concierge's accent? Was it supposed to be Canadian? It sounded like a weird mix of multiple European countries.

And Winnipeg isn't Monopoly-land -- it's St. James Street, not St. James Place. Looks like you fooled Michael, Ms. Concierge. You don't know Winnipeg at all!!! (Although if they were staying downtown, apparently the 17 bus would've taken them near the city's best sushi restaurants on Osbourne, so you break even, weird-accented Michael sexer.)

Totally loved the Oscar/Andy parts of this episode -- it's probably the best either of them has been in the series so far, or at least my favourite moments from them.

Nov 14, 2008 5:47am

Ariana says...

I think it was supposed to be vaguely French-Canadian. Maybe they should have found a French-Canadian actress then. (Or did they? Because if so, she fails at her own accent.)

I want to hang out with Drunk!Oscar; he's fun.

Nov 14, 2008 11:53am

sarahm says...

I'm pretty sure that Oscar broke up with his boyfriend...remember he said something along the lines of "I think I might try women for awhile." Haha.

Also, probably my favorite moment of this episode was when Oscar offers Michael an egg salad sandwich on the plane and Michael's like "No, God! Oscar, could you have thought of anything stinkier to bring with you on the plane!?!" I think I watched that part about 5 times. Hysterical.

Nov 15, 2008 6:03pm

joalberts says...

I wanted more Canadian content.

No one even said "eh"!

Nov 16, 2008 12:42pm

Ariana says...

Did I say something about Oscar's boyfriend? I can't even find it! I'm confused, haha.

Nov 16, 2008 10:31pm

Sarahm says...

No you just said he's in a committed relationship.

Nov 17, 2008 2:55pm

Ariana says...

Good grief, I actually had to do a find on that. I'm so blind! But yes, I did say that. And I totally don't remember them breaking up, so minus ten points for me.

Nov 18, 2008 1:15am

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