Play...
0:50 - In this cold open we get our first real Ryan-centric moment of the season as he arrives in early to work at the behest of Michael with a sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich order in hand. He hands the food to Michael and excitedly inquires what surely big and exciting project he's being assigned. Michael responds that it was the sandwich. The thing he could have easily done himself was what he so desperately needed Ryan to come in early for.
But hey! He has the whole office to himself: "Home Alone. Risky Business. Take your pants off, run around." Ryan chooses to take a nap in his car instead. Michael sets the biscuit, aka most of his breakfast sandwich (and the "sandwich" part), aside and just grasps the sausage, egg and cheese in his hand. "See? Healthier. Gotta watch those carbs."
3:10 - Lost Dwight Trait: Michael is closing on a condo and starts hyping himself up as a property owner. This includes citing olden times when the landed gentry were the only ones who could vote and that others were put in stocks, a punishment Dwight thinks should return. Dwight eventually tells him he should go, which is kind of telling about Dwight's character during this season. Season 2 Dwight is thoughtful.
As with all positive interpersonal behavior this is reserved for his superiors, but the fact that Dwight is keeping an eye on the clock so Michael can focus on playing for the cameras says a lot about what Dwight is along with who he is. This transitions into Dwight trying to tag along as Michael's representative:
Dwight: Please? I'm always the guy that you rely on at work.Of course there's the joke about Michael stumbling backwards into a confession that he maybe didn't tell corporate what he's going to be doing today (during which he repeatedly looks at the camera, which could easily tattle on him to his bosses). From another person Dwight's question about a personal day might have seemed like needling, and later-season Dwight would have been an interrogation, but here Dwight is like...well he's like Google Now. He's not gathering information for some scheme or malicious purpose, he wants it so he can maybe repackage it into useful information later on. Just like him telling Michael he needs to leave to make it on time (as Google Now does), he's probably tracking Michael's personal day usage so he can alert him when he's about to run out. Dwight isn't a problem because he's insane, he's a problem because he's too anxious to be helpful. He's not Ultron, he's Clippy.
Michael: Well, this isn't about work. This is closing on a condo. It's completely personal.
Dwight: So you're taking a personal day?
Michael: (coughs) Except that...it's about my living arrangement, and as boss I need to have a living arrangement in order to do work.
3:41 - Respecting the Camera: Building off of the last episode where offensive behavior is called out just by virtue of the presence of a camera, eliminating the comedy delay of someone having to voice or even express their displeasure, Michael approaches Pam's desk as he readies to leave and busts out the second offensive Asian stereotype of the season. "Ahh, most honorable Pam-a-rah." As he finishes he side-eyes the camera and doesn't pause before following up with, "not offensive. Because that's the way they talk in movies." Which is both evidence he is adapting to having the camera crew around (although not a meaningful or helpful adaptation) and a quality joke about lazy racism.
4:23 - Michael is checking in with Pam to ask that everyone keep working on their expense reports (the big office-wide task of the day) before the end of the day, but he also wants to make sure she switched his magazine subscriptions over to his new condo's address. Small Business Man. Maxim. American Way. CRACKED.
Pam specifically emphasizes that she definitely changed his subscription to CRACKED, the Pepsi to MAD's Coca-Cola. Michael thinks for a moment and tries to do some image repair with "how about um, ah, fine arts...aficionado, monthly?" Pam shakes her head and he tells her to get on it, quickly glancing at the camera as he haughtily says he doesn't just read CRACKED.
(For the record CRACKED.com, which inherited the mantle from the long-bust magazine, is one of the smarts and most interesting websites around and I recommend it. Ironically Michael would likely be completely befuddled by it. #NotAnAd)
5:49 - The key to this episode is the total division between the A-story of Michael and Dwight's adventure closing on Michael's condo and the B-story of the eponymous Office Olympics. They haven't actually developed yet, but the seeds have been sown with Jim "dying of boredom" at his desk and Pam "reviving" him by sharing a game. Specifically, the game of trying to throw things in Dwight's coffee mug while he's away from his desk. Now Jim learns that Oscar and Kevin have a "paper football flicking and hitting things" game ("Hateball" named for how much their desk-cluster-mate Angela hates it) they've been playing for over 2 years whenever Michael is out. Hmm...I wonder if situational natures will be an important theme of this story...6:16 -
Michael: Home sweet home.One of my favorite unique quirks of Michael Scott is that he doesn't work incrementally. This condo isn't his, he's not even moving in today he's just closing on it. Still, it's his sanctuary (presumably he hasn't even been alone inside it yet) and his party pad (also nope). He doesn't have kids, he doesn't have a wife, he doesn't even have a girlfriend nor the hint of female companionship but his immediate go-to is his grandkids learning how to walk (in the street). Also perfect is he is developing these fantasies as he is speaking, as shown by the fact that he's not even looking at the right unit as he muses. While he said this was about his living situation it turns out it's about the WILDLY-removed, imaginary, 30-years-from-now living situation that he's desperately willing to slather an image of across any property.
Dwight: Which one's yours?
Michael: (points at the condo across the street) Right there. My sanctuary. My party pad. Someday I can just see my grandkids learning how to walk out here. Hang a swing from this tree. Push them back...wait...(turns around) No, it's this one right here. Home sweet home.
8:35 - Again, the "evil" of Dwight here isn't that he's the cartoon villain of later seasons but that he is a walking mass of practicality. The first thing he points out is that Michael's current place is bigger than this condo, which Michael waves away by pointing out he'll own this place so it's "still an upgrade." They then head up to the master bedroom where Michael begins an MTV Cribs-esque tour of all the amenities (surround sound system, plasma screen TV) that he has imagined for it. The camera is sticking with Michael, being drawn into his fantasy world. Meanwhile Dwight is staunchly tethered to reality, doing the inspection that Michael was obviously too busy fantasizing about pimped-out bedrooms and scurrying grandkids to even consider doing. The concern finally begins to creep across Michael's face as the neighbor's clearly audible shout of "I don't hear you practicing!" followed by the drone of a cello alerts Dwight to the condo's shared wall being paper-thin.
9:38 - The 1st Annual Dunder-Mifflin Olympiad has it's opening ceremonies, featuring the debut of Pam's (eventually massively important) yogurt-lid medals and Jim lighting a candle he found in the men's bathroom. Kevin happily and with a hint of self-satisfaction points out that it smells like cookies. I'm just mentioning this to point out that Kevin won a Dundie for stinking up the bathroom and now Jim has found a scented candle in the men's room that Kevin knows an awful lot about and seems in line with his olfactory preferences...hmm...
10:50 - Michael is already visibly shaken by Dwight's many observations about the condo, so when he says it's a ten year mortgage and Carol the realtor corrects him that it's "10 years fixed, over 30" he really falls apart. What's funniest about this is that 30 years is he obviously considers this an insane amount of time to think about being tied to this condo but we JUST heard him musing about his grandkids to walk out front! GrandKIDS. Plural. Did he think going from no relationship to multiple grandkids carried a ten year timeframe?
12:33 - He does eventually sign after claiming the ceilings have been lowered since he saw it last and lamenting that the complex isn't filled with sexy singles like he was promised (presumably by Melrose Place). Once Carol the realtor explains that he will lose $7,000 if he walks away now we get a second of Michael's thousand yard stare before smash cutting to he and Dwight hanging out on the floor enjoying some post-closing wraps.Michael congratulates himself on his becoming a homeowner and they both chuckle about how much fun they're having compared to the losers stuck back in the office.
15:08 - Jim & Pam Stuff -
Pam: Come on Angela, don't you have a game?
Angela: I have one, yes.
Pam: Well let's play, what is it?
Angela: I call it "Pam-Pong." I count how many times Jim gets up from his desk and goes to reception to talk to you.
Pam: ...we're friends.
Angela: Apparently.
I haven't talked a whole lot about the Office Olympics themselves because the individual moments - the naming of "box of paper snow-shoe racing" to "Flonkerton," Kevin pouring M&Ms into his mouth - aren't as important as the overall activity of the group sharing/reveling in their individual ways of staying sane at work.
This joyous openness is possible because Michael and Dwight are gone. While usually the worry with a boss would be being found goofing off, at Dunder-Mifflin Scranton the disaster would be being discovered goofing off without your boss. With Michael it's either he's going to be so hurt by being excluded that he'll overreact and seriously affect someone's employment or, even worse, interject himself into all the various sanity-restoring games thus ruining them. But for today the theme in the office is about being able to share what you love without fear of having it taken away from you or destroyed because the person you have to hide it from is gone.
Well, except when the thing you love is the guy/girl you're not engaged to. When any eyes, not just Michael Scott's, are the enemy.
With gleeful venom Angela yanks Pam and Jim's reliance upon each other into the harsh, artificial office lighting where it's made to look like an ugly thing. It's cruel, but at the same time Pam was needling her about sharing her coping mechanism while not being fully open about her own.
16:26 - Nope, never mind. Damn you Angela!
18:27 - Oscar and Toby are in the middle of a neck-and-neck coffee-carrying race around the office when Michael and Dwight return. Everyone immediately falls silent and returns to their desks and expense reports. Jim keeps the stopwatch running, but it's obviously in vain. Almost immediately we see Ryan dump his medals in the trash in the full, none-too-impressed view of Pam. He explains himself in a talking head:
Ryan: I figured I could throw it away now or I could keep it for a couple of months and then throw it away. I mean it was really nice of Pam to make them but what am I gonna do with a gold medal made of paper clips and an old yogurt lid?Gee, I don't know Ryan. Maybe keep it until your soulmate's girlfriend passive-aggressively asks you to put together copies of their performance numbers for a job interview with corporate at the end of next season. Then put it in the folder with his reports and an encouraging note. And then he's so touched that he leaves the interview, breaks up with his girlfriend, drives back to Scranton, and interrupts you doing a talking head about how star-crossed your relationship is so he can ask you to dinner and then a few seasons later you get married? How about THAT Ryan??? Cause, you know, that's what Pam ends up doing. Oh and also, Jim bailing on that interview also leads to Ryan getting the job which assists in him becoming a drug addict and failing his way out of everything.
But at least you stressed how nice it was of her to make them.
20:59 - While trying to talk Michael into signing, Carol the realtor mentioned how condo buyers in financial duress often rent out the unit's third bedroom to help pay for it. Michael balks at the idea, but after signing he "rewards" Dwight by offering to let him pay $500 a month (plus utilities) to live there. Dwight of course responds with a barrage of questions and Michael takes back the offer in a fit of annoyance.
We then watch as Michael snaps at Dwight over his mortgage advice (even though Dwight actually outright owns his 9 bedroom farmhouse and 60 acre working beet farm) and sits in his office gazing in misery at the keys he was bouncing out the door to go get earlier. Wallowing over how he has become trapped in what he called his "sanctuary" and "party pad." He now realizes what Dwight understood immediately: he has basically bought a coffin. And as Dwight said, "if I were buying a coffin I would get one with thicker walls."
Jim is also wallowing. He passes in his expense reports and explains in a talking head that he got more work done during breaks in the Dunder-Mifflin Olympiad than he normally does trudging through a full day. While Michael looks at his keys with a glazed expression of nausea, Jim looks longingly at his Pam-crafted, yogurt-lid medal hanging in full-view from his desk lamp. He refuses to be defeated though. He returns to reception (another point in Pam-Pong. Deal with it Angela!) and informs Pam to tell everyone the closing ceremonies will take place at 5:00 as planned.
In a beautiful moment he invites Michael out and presents him with a gold medal for closing on his condo and has him take the highest position on a paper-stack medal podium. "I don't really know what to say...I'm not one for making speeches, but my heart is very full at this moment." Naturally the yogurt-lid medal does for Michael what he imagines the Dundies do for everyone else.
Of course the joke of the Olympiad's closing ceremony is expertly hidden by Jim using Michael's condo closing. Despite the playing of the national anthem ("uh, because your condo is in America") and Pam releasing a string of paper doves the mock ceremony doesn't mock Michael's celebration. As with the best moments of The Office the joke and the feelings run in parallel, not in opposition. The ending is both a last-minute victory for goofing off and a meaningful and desperately needed moment of support for the clueless boss the joke is being smuggled past.
The condo side of "Office Olympics" is obviously about lying to yourself. Michael had filled his head with so many fantasies that he never really looked at the condo to see if it could make those dreams possible, never mind plausible. Dwight's inspection and practical questioning was a necessary dose of harsh reality that just came wayyyy too late. At first glance, the Olympiad might seem like it's about truth; about taking a day off from the lies you have to tell others. With Michael gone everyone pulled back the veil on what they really choose to make of themselves in the office when others (particularly Michael) aren't looking. They got to show themselves to one another for possibly the first time.
Jim: Okay, so I think that's H-O-R for Stanley and H-O for Phyllis.The Olympiad was born out of a general bristling at filling out expense reports. It was stupid and pointless so they strapped boxes of paper to their feet and raced to a strip of scotch tape in pursuit of used yogurt-lids. It was just as stupid and just as pointless. Ryan makes that clear when he immediately and openly tosses his medal in the trash, revealing that the ruse was over. He was done with the process that had transformed it from paper clips and trash into something meaningful and desirable. The 1st Annual Dunder-Mifflin Olympiad was a fantasy much like Michael's party-pad, but it was about coping together rather than the usual lying to each other about the need to cope at all.
Phyllis: Are you callin' me a ho?
Jim: (shocked) Oh my God. Phyllis coming alive! I like it.
Jim and Pam keep their medals because, for them, they don't revert back to a hasty union of garbage and office supplies. They stay medals. That's what Ryan is oblivious to when he stresses the part about Pam making them. Pam designed them and assembled them, but everyone playing together is what made them medals. You could presumably hire a jeweler to shape a lump of metal into the shape of an Olympic medal, but that doesn't make it an Olympic medal. What makes it an Olympic medal is the part where an athlete wins a contest and someone hangs it around their neck as a result.
The closing ceremony was a joke but it also really was a closing ceremony, and it really was a celebration of Michael buying his condo. It was everything that they worked together to make it.
=Rankings=
#1 Episode 1 - The Dundies
#2 Episode 2 - Sexual Harassment
#3 Episode 3 - Office Olympics
(These rankings might kill me by mid-season considering how much I agonized over just these three)
No comments:
Post a Comment