The Office: Job Fair
By fred | May 9, 2008
(S04E13) This wasn’t the last episode of the season for The Office. No, we’re lucky enough to have some more of it next week, for a season finale of one hour. And, given how it comes after the strike and I’m sure writers have plenty of stuff in mind, and of course it is the bug season finale, it should feel a lot more like one great episode, only longer, like the last one of the hour-long episode we’ve had in the past, and not like those before that.
Anyways, this was not the finale but it was an episode that put things in place, getting everyone and everything ready for a big show down next week, one that will address many of the issues we’re all dying to find about. But don’t get the wrong impression : yes, this episode was about setting this up for next week, but no that doesn’t mean it wasn’t any good, in fact it was really good, pretty awesome, and damn hilarious, too!
At first I was worried, because right away it looked like this was going to be another one of those episode that took place outside of the office, and as I stated before I tend to like episode confined behind the walls of Dunder-Mifflin better. Lucky for us it might have take place outside, but the spirit of the Scranton branch was still there, unharmed, and about everything worked.
This week the crew was split up in three : we had Jim, Andy and Kevin playing gold as Jim tried to get a big client to sign with him; Michael, Pam, Oscar and Darryl went back to Pam’s old high school to attend a job fair and try to find the new Ryan; while everybody else stays at the office.
And let’s start with them : Of course with the boss gone, (pretty much) leaving Dwight in charge, a Dwight who, to my surprise, acknowledged that he wasn’t second in line to Michael, and not even third after Jim ! I guess his point was to insist that he was, for once, really in charge, but I still found that shocking I tell you. What was absolutely not the least surprising was Stanley’s reaction : he gets up, takes his coat and walks away.
We’ve seen recently that he had no respect for Michael, it’s no surprise that he’s got no such thing either for Dwight. Of course, Stanley wasn’t the only one who felt like they should leave, and except for Angela, of course, and maybe also because she’s actually pregnant, everybody else just waited for Dwight to go to the bathroom and then left. So I guess I’m completely out of touch with the reality of Dwight these days, because for a moment I thought he might have locked the door or something, just to make sure this wouldn’t happen. And really, could he really be surprised they’d do that ? Really ?
Anyways, I guess the point of this plot was to see that Dwight and Angela are not at war anymore, because those silences they shared didn’t feel that uncomfortable, I don’t think so, and she did say “Bless you”. Of course it was the polite thing to do, and she’s Angela, but that also proves things are getting a little better between them. Or that she’s really getting sick of Andy.
Speaking of which, on to the golf course! So Jim wanted to do something amazing, that he never did before, and… try. Yep, because the douchebag drug addicted Ryan warned him last week, and Jim really can’t afford to loose his job with all those marriage plan he’s got in mind, so he was here trying to get a big client to sign in. Andy was here because, well, I guess just because they work together, even though it’s Jim making the sale and getting credited, it seems, and Kevin was here probably because he can actually play golf.
So Jim really wanted to get the guy to sign, and the whole situation about trying not to do too much, not to hurt anyone’s ego, and clearly the guy knew Jim wasn’t really in any position of power, but it still felt pretty weird to me : is this is that important to Jim, couldn’t he have actually tried (a little harder) ?? Did he even had anything planned, except to ask if the guy wanted to sign ? He didn’t seem to have any speech ready, any sales arguments, anything to offer but his begging… ?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: The Office
