Once again, this week’s episode of The Office took most of the Dunder-Mifflin staff away from the office. Some of the DM employees headed off to a high school job fair, others played golf, a couple stayed back in the office and everyone else went home. So it’s likely that those of you who prefer episodes of The Office to take place in the actual office were a bit disappointed tonight.
In an attempt to “euthanize this place,” Michael decides to attend the local high school job fair hoping to find a few summer interns. He brings Pam, suited-up Darryl and Oscar with him. While other local businesses brought basketball hoops, computers and other visual aids to give the kids a reason to stop by their booths, all Michael had Pam bring was a blank sheet of paper. Obviously, this isn’t going to do much to get a bunch of high schoolers interested in visiting the booth. Pam gets a dorky looking kid to stop by to talk about the internship but Michael shoo’s him away, telling him he might be better suited in a job as a classy janitor, a cashier with dignity or a “migraine worker.”
Michael becomes frustrated by their inability to get the kids’ attention, saying “I’m trying to lure these kids into my booth but kids are very wary of being lured these days. Thank you, Dateline.” Realizing he shouldn’t be so picky, he tries to get the kid he insulted earlier to come back and talk about the internship and even offers the possibility of sex with Pam but the kid declines. His final attempt is to get up on stage and try to divert the kids’ attention away from H&R Block and the local funeral home (how creepy looking was that mortician guy?) but announcing that Dunder Mifflin can’t offer college credits or pay does nothing to help his cause. Sometimes I really wonder how Michael was so good at sales.
Speaking of sales, Jim needs to make a big one. As he’s now on probation, thanks to Ryan (and Toby), he really needs to step up his game at work if he wants to re-establish his job security. Tonight Jim even mentioned Pam’s parents when referring to his plans to propose to her. As if we needed any other reason to take Jim’s teasing about the inevitable proposal seriously, could Jim be preparing to ask Mr. and Mrs. Beesley’s permission for their daughters’ hand in marriage? At the very least, he probably realizes that Pam’s parents don’t want their daughter engaged to a guy who’s unemployed.
So Jim sets up a golf date with a former client of Dunder Mifflin’s. He brings Kevin and Andy with him and the foursome head out onto the course. Andy, always eager to over-impress, blistered up his hands the night before practicing for the golf outing. Seriously, between his bloody nipples from the “Fun Run” episode and now his crusty, pealy hands, I’m thinking Andy might have the most sensitive skin ever. I’ve also never seen a man golf in spa gloves. “It’s actually not funny at all. It’s incredibly painful.” I love Andy.
Aside from being unable to shake McGuire’s hand, Andy also rubs the guy the wrong way by teasing him over the Dartmouth shirt McGuire’s wearing and introducing himself as Andy Bernard, Cornell, ’95. Meanwhile, Kevin, whom we all know loves to gamble, proves to have an impressive wealth of knowledge of golf-course gambling games. Has anyone else heard of, Skins, Acey-Ducey (don’t even know if I spelled that right), Bingo-Bango-Bongo, Sandies, Barkies, Arnies or Wolf? Kevin suggests all of these when McGuire brings up playing for cash and then later, quietly tells the camera that he’s going to turn the petty cash Oscar gave him into next month’s rent. Kinda shady, Kev.
The golfing excursion doesn’t go so well for Jim as McGuire is uninterested in doing business with Dunder-Mifflin. Things get awkward when McGuire gets a ball caught in a sand trap and insists on hitting it out even if it means taking swing after swing. Things get even more awkward when Andy tries to race to the next hole using the golf cart and hits a bump, causing him to fly from the front of the cart and into a sand trap.
In the end, Kevin wins lots of money and apparently, a new betting buddy in McGuire. Andy quietly nurses his Yuengling through a straw after failing to hold the bottle with his blistered hands. It hasn't been a good day for him. McGuire continues to refuse to do business with Dunder Mifflin and just when it seemed like Jim was going to throw in the towel, he decides to give it one more shot. Watching McGuire insist on getting the ball out of that sand trap earlier has inspired Jim not to give up. He follows McGuire out to the parking lot and makes one final pitch, promising to call him every day until he agrees to do business with DM again. McGuire gives in and Jim makes the sale.
When Jim returns to the office, he tells Pam the good news and the two kiss but pull away, awkwardly glancing at the camera. Then realizing he doesn’t care, Jim goes back to kissing Pam. Michael is watching this and we hear his confession to the camera, saying “I look at somebody like Jim Halpert and I think that guy could do anything he wants to do. He could do anything and he chooses to work here, selling paper just like me.” It’s clear that Michael looks up to Jim and is proud to work with him. Then Michael approaches Jim and Pam as they’re kissing and says, “Kiss her. Kiss her good.” Ew. Jim and Pam pull apart and both look equally grossed out by Michael’s creepy interruption.
And speaking of awkward silences, that’s most of what we saw from Angela and Dwight, who spent the day mostly-alone in the office. With half the staff gone either golfing or at the job fair, everyone else except for Dwight and Angela went home. As Creed put it, they’d rather “ditch this bitch” than stick around at the office doing nothing all day. Creed finished his work months ago, anyway. Dwight and Angela have always been totally by the book though so they stayed behind to do their work and not talk to each other. The exception to that was when Dwight sneezed and Angela said “Bless you” and when Dwight held the door open for Angela as they were leaving. Angela said thank you. I think these two are seriously close to reconciliation.
The episode ended with a clip of Pam chatting with guy at another booth at the job fair. She was about to fill out an application for a job there when the guy mentioned her needing to have a basic knowledge of most of the popular graphic design programs. He also suggested she take some courses in Philadelphia or New York. Pam put the application down after that, thanked the guy and left. So while Jim might’ve found some success with his job tonight, Pam wasn’t so lucky. But how long before she does consider leaving Scranton? It seems like it’s only a matter of time before she decides to take her goals at being a professional artist to the next level.
