Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Office Finale: Goodbye, Toby

Last night's season finale of The Office came far too soon. Since the Writer's Strike, the episodes have actually been a little hit and miss (and definitely far more awkward-feeling than ever before) but there's always a great moment or two in every one. This week's hour-long episode had a lot of the usual -- Michael making an ass of himself, Meredith playing Solitaire in the background of every scene she's in, Pam and Jim flirting. Amy Ryan (of one of my all-time favourite shows, The Wire) guest-starred as the woman replacing Toby. Yes, Michael's long-time nemesis is leaving, simply because he embarrassed himself by touching Pam's knee for a little too long before suddenly announcing he was moving to Costa Rica and running out of the room. Now he's too humiliated to say he'd just been humiliated, so he's actually going along with it. Michael is overjoyed, but he can't take the extreme pleasure in this departure that he'd like to, simply because he has the hots for the HR replacement, and doesn't want her to know he loathed Toby.

The best part of the episode was when Dwight told the new HR gal that Kevin was actually a special hire, and that he was mentally challenged. Kevin never acted differently throughout the episode, yet you could see why someone would think he WAS slow, and my husband and I were shrieking with laughter. At times, it felt very wrong, but then Kevin would have a button in with his change for the chips and I was in stitches all over again.

The only thing that I didn't like about the episode was Pam's reaction to Jim not proposing. It seemed a little strange... she couldn't have possibly wanted him to propose to her moments after Andy's over-the-top insano proposal to Angela, and it should have been pretty clear to her why he wouldn't do that. But that's OK... here's hoping that wasn't a little signal that things will go haywire in the Jam camp, now that their love will be long-distance.

What were your favourite moments?

1 comment:

Brian Douglas said...

Nikki: "Why would they (the Oceanic Six) use his pseudonym?"

Sayid warned Hurley not to say his real name because they were being watched.

Nikki: "Desmond not breathing when everyone pulls him out of the water. Okay, writers? We need to talk. Do NOT do that to me again. I could barely breathe."

I totally thought of you during this scene!

Nikki: "Penny on the boat! But... um... does this mean Desmond’s story is essentially over?"

I hope not.

Nikki: "That was not the orientation film we’d already seen on YouTube."

Cause the YouTube video was the outtakes.

Nikki: "I’ll have to leave it to the physics experts to describe the Casimir Effect, but you can read about it here."

The Casimir Effect is an attractive force between uncharged, electrically conducting surfaces.

Nikki: "How did she know the boat had blown up and it wasn’t just something on it?"

I would think the explosion was much more visible than just the smoke from it.

Nikki: "When Ben was in the snow cave, there were hieroglyphics all over the rocks."

DHARMA seems to build it stations on top of something more ancient sites: the Swan, Ben's house at the Barracks, and the Orchid.

Nikki: "Why does the orientation video begin to rewind? Is the actual video going back in time?"

I thought Locke wanted to rewind to a specific point, but then couldn't get it to stop rewinding once it started.

Nikki: "What DOES Miles mean when he asks Charlotte about coming back to the island?"

Charlotte just became a lot more interesting...well, besides being a hot red-head :-)

Nikki: "Why could Dan see the boat from the island, but they can’t see it from the helicopter?"

Well, the boat is bigger than the helicopter, but still..

Nikki: "Where is the storm that’s around it that Sayid and Des and crew had to fly through previously?"

I was wondering that too. I think when they moved the freighter closer to the island, they moved through the storm...off camera. After the island disappeared, the so did the storm.

Nikki: "That said, Sayid not seeing Eko sitting there would point to him not actually being there."

I will add that Sayid has not seen any apparitions on the island. By my count, only Jack (his father), Kate (her horse), Sawyer (Kate's horse), Hurley (Charlie), Locke (Walt), Eko (Yemi), and Ben (his mother) have.

Nikki: "What does Sun mean when she says 'we’re not the only ones who left the island'"

Frank and Desmond is the obvious answer.

Nikki: "Is Ben’s apology to Locke a sincere one?"

Now what I find suspicious about Ben's apology is that he apolgizes for making his LIFE so miserable. That seemed strange for someone who supposedly only knew Locke for 2 months.