All I know is Dwight's line about having the strength of a grown man and a baby had me laughing more than I have at anything in a long time.

Is it me or have there been more 'cringing' moments on The Office this year than in the past? I mean, Michael kissing Oscar, Jim thinking Dwight got a hooker, Dwight's breakdown in Michael's office, and Michael running-out to save the dead bird that Toby 'killed' all make this season memorable.

I really didn't think this past week's was that funny until I started laughing about the whole part of Michael running-out to check on the dead bird with Dwight following him while I was shaving and thought that was a sitcom at it's best. I think with Jim not at the Scranton Branch leaves it open for more madness to ensue without someone to keep Michael in-check.

Hey, if ya go to YouTube, go to The Office video under 'Pass That Dutch'...

Easily the best line of the night and I am ashamed that I can't remember it word for word

"I mean we celebrate the memory of Martin Luther King Jr every year and he never worked for Dunder Milfin"

I was laughing a good minute on that one.

Dwight's drawing of the Ed Truck robot with extension cord was priceless.

That episode fucking rocked some of Earth, part of Mars, and every part of Uranus. We saw MOSE!, Ryan and Dwight go insane and then bond, Michael and Stanley find a common interest, Jan lose all faith in Michael, Michael presumably doing something to regain her trust while showing that he isn't as out of the loop as she thinks, Jim and Pam reconnect, and Jim and Karen get closer than ever by pranking each other and Helms' character whose name I can never remember. Easily the best episode of the season so far aside from the opener.

Some of my favorite quotes -
“Just as you planted your seed in the ground, I’ll plant my seed in you. I don‘t think you know what you‘re saying.”
“Jan used to treat Michael like he was a 10 year old, but now it’s like he’s 5.”.
“Is he gonna join the DWIGHT ARMY OF CHAMPIONS?!”
"364 days until the next pretzel day...".

AMAZING episode. I need to rewatch before commenting b/c I'm sure I missed a ton in the 2 minutes I had to answer a call.

Rob

Oh god yes. I think this might be my favorite one yet. I don't know.

Mose darting across the fucking barn in the shadows was great. Stanley's pretzel obsession. The end phone call.

I'll have to get this one to watch again.

That episode was fantastic! I laughed the whole time with the Dwight/Ryan scenes, those rocked my world. And the Jim/Pam fangirls/fanboys finally got something to give them hope. I loved the awkwardness at first, then things seemed like old times, then with Ryan being mentioned it got awkward again. It could go any which way, with Jim and Pam together somehow (doubt it) or the planned course of Jim/Karen and Pam with either Ryan or Toby (not sure on which one though). It was still great.

Michael on the sugar rush was awesome, and the eventual nap just made it for me.

And Jim and Helms's character doing "Lovefool" to Karen's dismay was awesome. Bless them for that.

And yes, this is by far the best episode this season so far and my personal favorite.

"Get in the coffin."

Cousin Mose whittling the Vens Willendorf (or whatever the hell it's called) had me in hysterics.

The first thing I thought of was Jake 'The Snake' training The Ultimate Warrior, before his big match. Mostly because of the whole "YOU MUST WRESTLE FEAR TO THE GROUND" shout right before it.

BJ Novak is probably one of the better writers on that show, as his episodes are usually always home runs.

Solid episode, with my personal highlight being Michael pumping his fist and kicking his leg up during that song, after he made a sale, on his sugar rush.

The Venus of Willendorf, and that had me especially laughing due to my current work load in my Western Art History class.

This episode was seriously king-sized and one of the best in the show's history. Ryan in the barn had me dying with laughter. And finally we get Jim/Pam interaction which was great in the usuall Office way of being really true to life with the awkwardness between the two, even over the phone.

Dwight listening to "River Runs Red" by Life of Agony is his car was way random and way awesome.

It was perfect, because that is EXACTLY the kind of music a guy like Dwight would listen to.

Great, great, show.

I really hope this is not the last we see of Mose.

Pam confusing 28 Days and 28 Days Later was a hilarious touch.

Nice to see Michael and Stanley on the same page for once.


*paraphrased*
"To think, Ryan. that temp agency could have sent you ANYWHERE..."
"I think about that ... everyday."

Man, it's the smallest things that make this so good:

Michael's eyes lighting up when the vendor was telling him the things he could get on his pretzel.

Stanley showing life for the first time over a PRETZEL..

Ed Helms mouthing the song along with Jim.

Heck, I love anything to do with the Stamford branch, I start smiling as soon as I see their office.



The ending was out of this world. Just as you start getting used to Pam/Jim being apart, they give you that scene. I was expecting them to show a shot of a clock, and have it be an hour later. Just awesome.

A little detail about the ending... They shot Pam from head up the entire episode, then the last shot is her leaving and it's revealed that she was wearing her hawt new skirt. Not sure how to interpret that, but I noticed it.

Also because Michael is afraid of snakes. It all ties together.

The Ryan-Dwight bond may just be the best thing ever. I PRAY that Dwight begins to idolize Ryan (like he did over Ryan chugging and throwing the eggs) causing Michael to get jealous and break his man-crush.

Speaking of that, when's the last time they referenced that? Michael saying Ryan doesn't return is phone calls in Conflict Resolution?

Anyway, can't wait to download and watch it all again. Stanley was the star of the show and I had to pause TIVO when he gave Michael a high-five for standing up for the sanctity of the line.

Edit:

Just watched deleted scenes at http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/

"WRONG! Michael Scott is afraid of NOTHING!...i would have also accepted 'snakes'"

I think somebody here said it before but Pam and Ryan are going to hook up. Notice how she was concerned with Ryan enough to stop talking to Jim?

I did notice that when Jim first started talking to her the sky still had light in it, but towards the end of their call the sun was down. Thought that was a clever little touch.

No love for Kelly and Angela's little tiff in the break room?

DWIGHT ARMY OF CHAMPIONS and Stanely being all "exscuse the shit outta me" after realising pretzels were available were the highlights for me.

Great, great episode, and I'll have to admit I have become a sucker for the Pam/Jim dynamic. The ending of that phone call was rough stuff.

It was the same black skirt that she always wears.

I'm not sure what it means, really.. I saw it, but my feeling is three fold - 1 - they were gone all day, when they weren't really supposed to be, 2 - The look on Ryan's face was very very "wow. what just happened?" and 3, Ryan may have been slightly drunk when they got there.

Love that about the show. One line makes us all flip and say "One Man Gang are Pam and Ryan going to hook up?!?!?"

Great episode last night, but I hope that Ryan and Dwight's friendship will bring Dwight down a few notches, to almost normal, before he flips when Jim comes back. I love him, but this episode has to be a peak, at least for some time. I don't want to see this show turned into "what crazy thing can Dwight do this week?" Don't over push him as a nutjob. He is the best salesman, he can't be 100% wacko.

Anyone one else notice Bizarro Pam at the Stamford branch when Ed Helms' character came back to realize that he had the squeaky chair? I had to watch that one a couple of times to make sure I actually saw it.

He can be both. Michael is a complete narcissist and out of his mind, but in the clinch, he always hits a home run. This was the first time, I think, they ever showed Dwight being not only competent, but complimentary towards someone other than Angela.

Also, when Dwight informed Ryan of the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" advise, I loved the line "Michael says it to me all the time and it always hurts."

Well, my fear is simple - I don't want to turn on the TV and see a commercial for the Office where it's basically "Dwight does something unthinkable on a very special The Office." I don't want it to get so crazy and out of hand, where the show becomes "Dwight's gag of the week".

So far, I'm not really complaining about it, though. Since the season started, Dwight has only had two major events - the Coup and now this. It's not too much, but if they keep ramping it up, it could be. My point is just that it's quite escalated from the original Dwight. Even in season two, he had some nutty moments, but he also won the award for salesman of the year. So he's clearly competent.

Basically, I look at what the Simpsons did to Homer. Originally, he was a loveable guy who screwed up a lot, but in the end, he always did the right thing. Now? He is just a guy who screws up all the time. Dwight is different, but in essence - he's a guy who really takes pride in his job and in his company, and looks up to his boss. If they took that away from him, and made him just a relative crazy guy, I don't feel for the character anymore. Dwight is my favorite of the main characters and I don't want to lose the ability to root for him, I guess.

It's all in the situation, really. Last night was fantastic because Dwight did it because he wanted to help Ryan, because he likes him. Yes, it was over the top, but it worked. He wanted to do the right thing - to him, the right thing is making Ryan sit in poop, and then wrestle "fear". The same series of events could have happened, and at the end, if he doesn't start calling Ryan by his name and admit that he wants to be friends, he just drives home not understanding why Ryan is frustrated.. it doesn't have the same punch and it makes Dwight a nutjob with no social skills. Instead, he's a guy who wants to do the right thing but rarely knows how, and it's hilarious when he fails at it. I prefer that.

I have plenty of faith in the show's writing and overall direction to believe they can handle whatever, though. I'm not going to question them at every turn - the show has been phenomenal so far.

I should write a paper about Dwight. He's that great.

Are we supposed to be reading into Jan keeping track of Michaels progress as a sign that things might get a bit rough for Mr. Scott down the road? Yeah, he made the big sale which probably saved his ass for the time being but even Pam mentioned that Jan has been treating Michael worse then usual lately.

I haven't watched the complete UK series but apparently the American version is mimicking it fairly well and I know that

Dwight only won the Salesman of the Year after yoinking Jim's biggest sale out from under him (Season 1's "Diversity Day"). According to "The Convention," Jim's selling more in Stamford than Dwight is in Scranton.

I agree with this. I think Ryan looked so discheveled that Pam had to ask him what happened, just the same as if Stanley, Kevin, or Toby would walk in looking all messed up, Pam would stop to ask them what happened.
I really think this was the strongest episode this season and definately a top 5 episode for me. There was so much storyline stuff going down this episode and they always tend to be the better episodes. It sort of pained me though to see how Pam was not covering for Michael doing her observation though. But it was amazing to see Michael pulling through and in regards to the spoiler thoughts above:

Dwight listening to River Runs Red was fantastic. "GET IN THE COFFIN" made me nearly fall out of my chair. I love this show more than anything else on TV right now.

Uh....

Maybe I'm mistaken, but...

It's already been touched upon. She got awkward because it was so late and that in turn made Jim awkward and they were pretty much back to square one. No feelings for Ryan there, I don't think. Plus, even if she did ever look at him that way, she'd probably be scared shitless because of Kelly.



I could have sworn that was a joke.

I don't think it was a joke. It came off to me as Jim stating his sales and Dwight being taken aback as he was expecting a much lower number.

But keep in mind that the Stamford branch does a "higher volume" than Scranton.

I think using UK Office as a basis to try to find out what will happen in the US Office is ultimately useless, since it's turned into its own show at this point. Plus, I don't think the producers for the US show would want to do that much of a direct copy of the UK version, partially because they want to write their own show, and partially to keep fans of both shows guessing as to what happens on this show. Whatever happens, I suspect it will wind up being original in its own right, and I look forward to seeing what happens on this show, because it's definitely my favorite on TV.

Awesome episode, especially the parts with Stanley. I've never seen him so enthusiastic.

I thought the part where Ryan downed the beer and Dwight chanted "Temp, Temp, Temp" stoppped for a second and resumed with "Ryan, Ryan" was a nice touch.

Yeah by this point the US Office has steered way off course from the UK Office and has finally come into it's own as an original story.

I always took Dwight for more of a power metal man. I can picture him blasting Yngwie or Dragonforce.

I think that pretty much happened by the middle of Season 2.

The problem is that so many fans of the UK Office watched the first two, three, or four episodes of the first season, saw them copying it, and wrote it off completely and now, no matter what the show does, it will never change those people's minds.

I think that's true. In a way it almost makes me happy because I hear a lot less "God the US version sucks...on the UK version (x), (y) & (z) were all done so much better!" And THAT shit was getting annoying.

I'm British, and I loved the UK version of the office. When the US pilot aired, I thought it was fucking terrible, and wrote the show off. A few weeks ago, before season 3 started, I became intrigued that people on this forum and at Something Awful were really excited about it so I watched the whole of season 1. Straight after that, I watched season 2 in its entirety over the course of a weekend. The US version outdoes the UK version in pretty much every way. i love that Roy is now a sympathetic character while I nver saw anything to like in Lee from the original. I'm a total convert, the US Office outshines the UK original and no-one could be more surprised about that than I.

Fun Fact: Jim's nameplate in Stamford reads "Jim Halpert: Asst. Regional Manager"

I thought it was great when Dwight flat out told Ryan about his problem of thinking he knew everything, because you knew Ryan wasn't going into that barn unless Dwight somehow got his attention.

That is awesome. Oh, and I should have caps up soon of this past week's show, but I doubt they'll be many, since so few things were cap-worthy.

I love Ryan constantly outwitting Dwight. Twas great.

Re-run this week. Boo-urns.

Yeah, I was disappointed that it's a rerun.

I am trying to get others to like this show. So far, so good. However, I realized that I know nothing about the first season except for the whole Jim and Pam story. So, what's the essential information from Season 1 that I should know about? You can PM me this if you prefer. Thanks.