TVSquad

(S05E17) I'm with Jay Black: last week's episode of The Office was kind of "meh" for me. Luckily, this week more than made up for it. Even though season five has our favorite Dunder-Mifflinites looking way more glamorous than in the first season (I mean, really. I know Pam's in love, but it does not make your hair that shiny), we've gone back to season one levels of Michael Scott stupidity.

At first, when Jim and Michael were freaking out about giving 10% off to one of their biggest clients, I couldn't figure out what the big deal was. I mean, I love sales and all, but 10% isn't enough "whimsy" to make me want to wear a top hat. Then I realized that the coupon was for 10% the entire year -- and as Darryl said, they use three pallets of paper a week. So that's bad enough -- but then it turned into 50%, and I can see why everyone was freaking out.

Convincing Dwight to take the fall for him is such a classic Michael Scott idea that I kind of groaned when they started going down that route. However, they managed to take it into an unexpected place. That it ended up being a good idea isn't a huge twist, but that Dwight so readily went along with it and took the credit? I didn't expect that -- and it was hilarious. Between Michael's face and Dwight's conference call, the last ten minutes of this episode were absolutely golden.

There wasn't much of a B story this week, just Kevin trying to get up the courage to ask out the woman he met at the Valentine's Day mixer last week. I love how Andy, who put down multiple non-refundable deposits on wedding venues and honeymoons just to cater to Angela's every whim, is giving Pick-Up Artist-style advice to Kevin. There really hasn't been a whole lot of fallout from the Dwight/Andy/Angela love triangle, but it's nice to see it's still playing out in the background.

Some of my favorite lines from this week's episode:

"I don't like getting advice from more than one person at a time. I'm a textbook over-thinker." -- Kevin

"You can't let a girl feel good about herself; it will backfire on you. Every compliment has to be backhanded: 'Oh, I like your dress -- but I'd like it more if you had prettier hair." -- Andy

Michael: "Hey, hey, hey! You Idiot!"
Darryl: "Start over."
Michael: "Sir..."

"Look, I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to be honest: What is a pallet?" -- Michael

"I am just a net that traps all of your crappy subconscious ideas and adds a little bit of my own childhood memories and whimsy, so..." -- Michael

"Well you know what, Jim? It is not my fault that you bought a house to impress Pam. That is why carnations exist." -- MIchael

Michael: "Why do you keep a diary?"
Dwight: "To keep secrets from my computer."

"Okay guys, listen up. Here's the deal: I love candy; sweet, sugary candy from the second it touches my tongue, to the moment it's metabolized by my stomach acids, so naturally I liked Willy Wonka." -- Dwight