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(S05E19) And just like that -- as mysteriously as he arrived -- he was gone.

SPOILER ALERT: At the end of The Graduate, Ben Braddock and Elaine Robinson get together after Ben makes an impassioned plea at her wedding to another man. They hop on a bus and as they ride off together, the camera lingers just long enough for us to watch the enormity of their decision wipe the smiles off their faces. A happy ending ruined by reality.

Watching Pam walk out with Michael tonight made me think of that scene. I don't know if this episode compares favorably to one of the greatest comedies ever filmed, but certainly, that idea -- that nothing ruins a good time like a dose of the real -- infused every bit of it tonight.

(S05E18) Today, reality came crashing down on the good people of Dunder-Mifflin like Godzilla's foot onto Bambi. It came not in the form of a giant, atomically mutated Japanese lizard, however, but rather in the striking good looks of "black George Clooney" Charles Miner, the new Vice President of the Northeast Region.

Michael's batting average with VPs has been pretty good -- he got to have sex with one and got to act like Jennifer Jason Leigh from Single White Female with another -- so he figures he'll be in fine shape with Charles Miner.

Unfortunately for Michael, Miner is neither a sex-crazed cougar nor a coke-addled narcissist. He's a no-nonsense businessman who very quickly realizes what every executive at Dunder-Mifflin should have realized a long, long time ago: Michael is an awful manager. Really, just brutally awful.

The sparks between the two were brief, intense, and glorious...