TVSquad

(S02E04) Although I still obnoxiously quote it all the time, this episode kind of bugs me. I mean, it's hysterical in every way, but I've always thought that it stepped a little too far from reality. The beauty of The Office has always been the fact that all actions, all words, all awkward looks to the camera are realistically justified. David's ego is just larger than life in this episode. It got a little too sitcom-y with his training seminar storyline. Eh. Maybe it was just me.

So... yeah. David is still trying to up his cool points by keeping his leather jacket and heeled boots. He surprised Dawn when he showed up with one extra accessory...

Dawn: ... That's an earring.
David: Whatever. Get over it.
Dawn: How long have you had that?
David: Toooo long, baby.
Dawn: It's bleeding!
David: It really stings.

David's ego was still riding high after he was invited to be an expert speaker at some training seminars. He recruited Dawn to follow him along and carry his stuff for his first "gig" (he offered her £100 for an hour's work but quickly tried to drop down the price... No luck).

Tim and Rachel, making out in the corridors, also encountered a bit of awkwardness when Gareth confronted Rachel for dating Tim without telling him.

Gareth: Alright, I'll ask you straight... Is there anything that could happen between us while this is going on?
Rachel: ... Like what?
Gareth: What, specifically?
Rachel: ... Yeah.
Gareth: [Sighs and thinks] Hand job? ... Don't answer! Just think about it. [Starts to walk away; looks back in disgust]

There was a pretty random appearance by a new character, Simon the IT guy. He was a bit of a pompous jerk (much like many of the self-righteous computer geeks I know... a lot of that "holier than thou 010101011" attitude) and, although Tim didn't take to it, Gareth hung out with him for a bit. I loved his heroic retelling of his go-karting adventure ("Oi. No professionals") and the following dialogue...

Simon: Y'know Bruce Lee's not really dead, don't you? Yeah. It's in a book. What he did was, he faked his own death so he could work undercover for the Hong Kong police... infiltrating the drug gangs and the Triads.
Gareth: Yeah. I reckon that's true.
Tim: I reckon that's true... 'Cause if you were to send someone undercover to investigate the Triads, you'd probably want one of the world's most famous Chinese film stars.

While practicing his speech with Gareth, David found out that the Swindon intake had a few nicknames for him... Bluto (the villain from "Popeye" and Mr. Toad). David's subdued outrage at the "body fascism" in this scene is fantastic (haha, I especially love the way his voice goes really high when he says, "Mr. Toad!"). Another great David moment was when Neil walked in on him and Gareth doing sit-ups and working out together in his office. One of my favorite Gareth moments out of the entire series is when he senses that David is tense and starts giving him a massage.

Here's when it got kind of ridiculous... That night, David and Dawn went down to the place where the training seminar was being held. David was treating the situation like he was a real rock star, saying things like, "I love being backstage!" and posing seductively for a picture for the company's website. The whole pre-speech thing was a bit too sitcom-y for me. I think it was the first time that I ever thought that The Office had kind of stepped beyond their own little mock reality. I mean, it was really funny, but I just felt like it didn't belong. However, the speech itself was tremendously awkward (and therefore acceptable and hilarious by The Office standards). The "Simply The Best" thing was to die for (haha, it was like he expected credits to roll after his exit or something). Oh, and David's total disregard for Dawn was great (not holding the door open for her while she lugged in his giant duffel and boombox, flinging his cap and dirty t-shirt at her, accidentally spraying deodorant into her face).

The end of the episode (with Dawn dragging all of David's shit out) just made me kind of sad. I just wanted Tim to run in and help her carry the boombox or something. Sigh. I hate it when I start emotionally connecting with shows.