The Office doesn't spend much time in the office anymore.  Since the beginning if the season, most of the episodes have kept a majority of the action outside the actual office setting, where most of the first three seasons took place.  This makes sense – as a series progresses, they have to open up the playing field and give themselves story flexibility.  The Office is all about the characters anyway; placing them in the close quarters of the Dunder-Mifflin Scranton branch is merely a way of forcing disparate personalities to interact.  As long as that dynamic stays intact, inside or outside, The Office will succeed.  None of the out-of-office endeavors we see involve employees who get along – we're not seeing Jim and Pam's domestic life, we never even really saw Michael and Pam without other Office characters around.  Tonight's episode had A and B stories that not only took place outside of The Office, but also occurred in one night. 

The plot, as per usual, was simple.  A story: Michael and Dwight join Ryan on a night-out in New York City.  B Story: The rest of the employees work late to avoid a Saturday work day, and inadvertently get locked inside the office building parking lot, and outside of their actual office. 

Michael is horny.  He's been upset with the level of women he's been set up with.  They lack a certain aesthetic quality.  So, Dwight and Michael find Ryan at a nightclub in New York.  They spend a night on the town and we learn a few things.  First, Michael is never, ever going to pick up a woman at a club or a bar.  He is clueless, even calling his mother for advice at one point.  Second, Dwight is kind of a player.  His no-nonsense authoritative jerkiness works wonders and he ends up making out with a hot female college basketball player.  And, third, we see that Ryan dabbles in the magical white powder – when they find Ryan at the club, he is absolutely coked out of his mind. 

Jim and Pam fail the employees at seemingly every step in their attempts to escape the parking lot.  Being locked in forces everyone to wait, antsy and pissed off.  Pam nails Meredith in the face with a football, which made me happy.  But, the biggest moment was a surprise announcement from Toby.  Of course, it occurred after he embarrassingly placed his hand suggestively on Pam's thigh as everyone watched.  He then told everyone he's moving to Costa Rica and then jumped the fence and ran away.  I hope he's not really gone – Michael needs a nemesis. 

That's about it.  It was a typically hilarious Office episode, with some awkward moments  and not much in the way of over-arching story forwarding. 


Five Best Quotes of the Episode

(Not a quote, but perhaps the funniest moment was when everyone got the picture text of Dwight making out at the same time.)

“They lack a certain Crawford-ness.” 

“Three is unlucky.  Curse of three.”

“Well, it's weevil season, but we were prepared.”

“This place is like a sexy pre-school.”

“Amazons.”


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of NBC)