I think Michael even mentioned she left 10 months ago, so that right there should mean it isn't Jim's. Although Michael may not be the best with numbers.

Great episode with good stuff from Jim, Dwight, Andy and Creed. I'm actually wondering if Pam gets fired for convincing Michael to skip the next presentation.

Honestly, that was my first thought too, especially with the way they dropped the "To Be Continued" in there right after Pam convinced Michael to go to Nashua. And with the way David Wallace has been getting annoyed with Michael lately despite Scranton's good performance and the way Michael passed all the blame to Dwight for the fire safety stuff, I could definitely see Wallace exploding on Michael for skipping the conference in Rochester and Michael timidly letting Pam take the fall.

They've teased so much "predictable" tension before pulling back, that I could see them throwing this in there to create tension, with Pam out of a job and having failed art school.

That said, I fully expect to be completely wrong.

Well, if there is any threat against Pam, I would expect Michael to end up taking the fall. Yeah, he can be insensitive and a jerk, but deep down, he thinks him and Jim and Pam are best friends. I think if it came down to it, Michael would give up his job to save Pam. Though, there is the great chance that none of this is on the horizon. But I kind of hope it is given how fresh it would make things.

Also, in the time since Karen and Jim stopped dating, Jan had gotten pregnant and had a baby.

I thought Michael was fantastic in this episode. I'm interested to seeing where this goes.

Pam sucks.

The moment that Michael found out about A.J. might have been the most heartbreaking moment of the entire series, sans Jim's tears at the end of 2. Granted, not a lot of heartbreaking moments happen on this series but the second the receptionist pointed him out, my heart started to sink.

I'm going to go right out and call this the best episode of the season. Absolutely heartbreaking at how pathetic Michael was in handling what is probably the most emasculating part of a break-up, realizing they've moved on and you haven't.

The appearance of his flash drive at a pivotal moment was horrible, dishonest, sad, but brutally real.

I also like how AJ seemed to actually like Michael at first too.

And there was something really wrong with Pam reading Holly's letter. I almost think that was worse than Michael reading it.

Michael curling up in a ball and crawling out of the room is what most guys would feel in that situation, only Michael has no social barometer, so he actually does it rather than just feeling it inside and outwardly acting normal. I so would have done what he did with the Flash drive. She put it right on her freaking desktop! I wouldn't have told Pam, though.

I loved Jim and Dwight seemingly bonding, and then Dwight ruining it by bashing the triceratops. Hilarious. They are so hilariously inept at the party planning thing. The party came across even worse than I was expecting. A chiclet on the cake! "Kelley"! She has a freaking nameplate by her desk! Oh, and I can't believe Kelly got a year in juvie for stealing a boat. The guy's father must've been a real prick.

Pam doing Michael's presentation was just the most adorable thing ever.

I loved how pissed Kelly was with her birthday until the whole naptime bit and then she turned a 180 on the whole thing. That was nice. And I agree maybe Pam shouldn't have read it at all, but then again maybe she said she read it to appease Michael while deleting the file. For all we know, she didn't even read it but pretended to. But boy, was that a heartbreaking moment with Michael. Great episode.

Oh, and Creed made a great line in the beginning. The comment about buying a cat for the cost of the ring and he said he could buy a kid with that had me in stitches.

Seriously, what the heck was up with Angela licking and grooming her cats!
I wonder if Dwight or Andy knew she did that...?

That would make Pam the worst person ever, getting Michael's hopes up for no particular reason. I doubt she would stoop that low.

Something that I have enjoyed this season, even though it isn't in a blatant way, has been showing that Pam and Jim are every bit as inept at solving problems as anybody else. Jim couldn't even buy a cake right, and every suggestion Pam made (let's go see Holly, let's do the presentation anyway) sent Michael further into a tailspin.

Or just that they're human and makes mistakes sometimes.

I think Sydney is referring to the fact that in every other show, the "power couple" seem to always be flawless and have this "holier than thou" way about them. Jim and Pam are goobers just like everyone else. I liked Jim actually growing a pair for once and yelling at Dwight without a hint of sarcasm or joking in his voice.

I liked the fact that Michael's idea of closure is Holly saying she still has feelings for him.

Third fantastic episode in a row. Michael's self destruction and Pam's attempt at finishing the lecture were great. The "It Is Your Birthday." banner got me again as well. I didn't notice the period last week.

"Oh my god, is this how you are with Pam? Because she must want to shoot herself in the face."

I think they did a good job at least addressing Pam's mistake in saying she would read the letter by having her look at the camera embarrassed and try to make an excuse for it.

I actually thought that Michael was going to bump Holly's chair and her desktop picture would be her and Michael in a goofy pose. But I guess that would be weird if she's dating someone else in Nashua.

Jenna Fischer just posted this in her latest MySpace blog:

Wow, that was just...wow. Great video.

While this won't top it, I saw this webisode on Hulu and figured you guys would get a kick out of it. http://www.hulu.com/watch/55503/the-office-butt-slap

Was that a new episode tonight or did I miss the Valentine's Day episode originally?

Rob

My theories are:

1) The show was written for February sweeps with the writers unaware that sweeps are in March this year (thanks to the whole DTV thing)

2) The shows are running in no particular order since after a month of Andy acting as if the whole Angela-Dwight thing never happened, we FINALLY have a reference to it with Andy going on his honeymoon (which should have happened after the break-up, you would think.)

Eh show. Kevin's sub-plot was really sweet and funny, and Dwight had some killer throw-away lines, but the whole Michael-mystery woman thing was pretty flat.

And the less said about the Phyllis-Bob storyline, the better. That bit looked stolen from a far inferior sitcom.

I thought the Phyllis/Bob storyline would have been way funnier had they just bailed on Jim and Pam because they didn't like being out with them.

That video in 2 minutes was better than all of last night's episode...great stuff.

That is incredible and would have made a glorious cold open.

"I believe Michael may have actually started the recession"; might be the best line Oscar has said in a LONG time. Shame it didn't actually air.

I'll agree that this was a so-so episode, but Dwight really did bring it up a few notches. Also, Kelly's crestfallen face after recieving the Valentine from her dentist was excellent.

2,000,000 extra points for going with crestfallen to describe the situation. Crest. Dentist. Ha!

You get me Stuttsy...that's why I like you.

What was the very last joke tonight? The ACC Tourny coverage cut off the last scene here.

Dwight tried doing the "ding, dong, KGB" joke to Jim, but Jim kept giving excuses for not "answering the door" - just got out of the shower, brushing teeth, have to go to work. Dwight asked when he'd return, and Dwight/KGB said he'd return later, Jim said to give it a try.

I don't know why, but Creed and Dwight's "kid/old man" exchange really cracked me up. Maybe it's because those two never interact with each other.

Dwight's knock-knock joke was hilarious. I think I can honestly say it is the first knock-knock joke I ever laughed at. And the kid/old man bit was funny too. As was Darryl's scene.

But good Lord after a solid start, this episode was a major disappointment. You know all those old cliched sitcoms where the hero would do all these ridiculous things to get the girl, then get busted, but she would be happy anyway because of all the trouble he went to (ie The Simpsons' LoveMatic Grampa tribute?) That was tonight's show. They didn't even pick up on the obvious joke (Michael jumping on the Willy Wonka bandwagon four years too late.) For the most part season 5 has been one of the best, but these last two shows have not....been....good.

I have to assume this season ends with Michael getting fired. Otherwise David is an even worse boss than Michael is.

David Wallace playing the straight man is always great, but last night he was especially cracking me the hell up.

Michael's branch is the company's best selling branch. Wallace has already said he'll put up w/ Michael as long as that is the case, what with the tough economic times. Unless Carell decides he wants off the show, Michael isn't getting fired.

That's not to say Wallace will give Michael carte blanche to do whatever, which is why

Any true Wire fan can tell you that the only true "THAT GUY" of the show is Omar.

And THAT GUY isn't THE GUY who's appearing on The Office.

If Omar was on the The Office...oh shit.

Just for clarification, I've never watched The Wire, so my saying "that dude" should not be construed as "THAT dude".

Stringer Bell.

to be honest, as much as I loved Omar, Stringer Bell is and always will be THAT DUDE.

Didnt see that coming at the end,

Wow, what a car-crash of an episode...it was really hard to watch the TV when Michael kept putting his foot in his mouth, and refused to shut up.
Has Jim ever been such a neutered doofus as he was today? He didn't have a clue...

What an absolutely fantastic episode. Charles was the character that I wish Ryan would have been last season.

It was as if Charles was a person from the real world trying to clean up the mess that is Scranton. And I loved every cringe-inducing moment of it.

I would have been more surprised by the ending if every other major character on the show hasn't already done the same thing in this series' run. Michael was the only one left.



Jim's attempts to be professional which only showed how unprofessional he really was was a highlight. Interesting how the two real dorks of the office (Andy and Dwight) seemed to stay out of the way.

That was a forty-degree day.

That was uncomfortable to watch. Great episode.

Jim was trapped in the tux, and it completely neutered him. He even stumbled into making his actual post-merge position as the #2 guy in the branch seem as made up as Dwight's former fictitious post. Jim seemed a little too shaken in this ep. Hopefully his sales numbers and Wallace liking him can make up for it. He wears a freaking tuxedo to work once and all the sudden fears for his job, after scoring that gigantic junk mail account, and the gigantic Blue Cross score.

Angela and Kelly both getting fired up over the same guy was pretty funny.

Jim being more concerned with screwing around with Dwight than helping the company (which he basically admitted) completely neutered him. If Charles is anything like some of the bosses I've seen in my "careers", the first impression will stick. I don't expect the VP to stay long (I have to believe somewhere in this, we get Holly back in some way), but in the meantime I'm looking forward to how else Jim can turn a positive attempt into a negative.

That's part of why I loved tonight's episode so much. I completely related to being Jim, suddenly dealing with a boss who doesn't like you. And it doesn't matter what you say or do. They aren't going to like you. It's a small moment but Jim realizing that Charles was STARING at him while he was working was so funny because it was true.

Loved the episode. I did not like it at first because it was just SO bizarre to take in. EVERYONE in the Office just accepts certain things to be the way things are: Dwight is strange and annoying, Michael is obnoxious but means well, Jim is the cool guy, etc. And so seeing someone who clearly wasn't adhering to the unspoken office way of thinking was just... jarring. It really was, as someone else put it, like seeing someone from the real world interacting with these people who live in this office microcosm. The fact that he wasn't putting over Jim really drove this home.

Boy did Jim get thrown under the bus by Charles. Even if he played it straight and didn't put his foot in his mouth after the first meeting with Charles it couldn't have made much of a difference. Michael quitting was a little surprising, but I can't imagine that lasting long. And Angela and Kelly going nuts over Charles was a great little diversion from the main Michael/Charles story.