Okay, not really. Maybe earlier in the season, but it became pretty clear that wasn’t going to happen. What we did get was a reunion of Michael and Holly which reaffirmed that there aren’t two people on the planet more suited for one another. Certainly no fully sane person would be able to be completely happy with either of them.

Well, maybe Holly because she seems a bit more grounded, but who else is there for Michael? The picnic was a fun diversion, as it showed us how petty and immature Charles Miner could be (I knew it), how clueless Michael remains capable of being (I knew it) and that Pam and Jim are ready for what’s next (that one I didn’t know).

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Angela has become one of my favorite characters on The Office, but I think she might be getting worse and worse as time progresses. Every time we get a glimpse of her personal life, I worry more and more. Not only was her behavior with Andy and Dwight deplorable, there’s the matter of her cats. Everybody knows the cliche of the lonely old lady who lives alone at home with her millions of cats. But how did she become that way?

Apparently it was by working for years at a paper company. The level of her disturbing relationship with her cats has been touched on over the run of the series, but it reached a new high (low?) tonight. I think she was cheating on both Dwight and Andy with at least one of her harem. And if there was any doubt that it was a harem, I think that was pretty well clarified tonight.

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(Season 5, Episode 12 – “Prince Family Paper”)

What a fantastic blend of the emotional heart of this show with the unique humor that makes it so special. There’s nothing like The Office for taking something completely mundane and making it entertaining. Tonight, while the major story featured Michael and Dwight’s infiltration of a rival smaller paper company, the rest of the cast participated in that age-old debate. Is a chick hot … or not? Tonight’s candidate: Hilary Swank. I actually remember getting into this exact same debate about her shortly after her gender-bending performance in Boys Don’t Cry back in 1999.

And here we are ten years later still having the debate? And yet, Hilary Swank is one of those actresses where you can see why there would be some uncertainty. But the show did a great job of breaking it all down. Isn’t it interesting how it was Jim who tried to curb the entire debate early into it to get everybody to go back to work. Not that it worked, but Jim is certainly stepping up in the world of office responsibility. No longer the prankster playboy. Maybe he’s finally taking his potential career seriously.

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(Season 5, Episode 11 – “The Duel”)

Well, that was a departure from the norm. The Office has successfully straddled comedy and drama in a way that half-hour shows have never truly mastered. This week things were far more serious, dealing with the fallout of the office finding out about Dwight and Angela’s affair. Ultimately, I was very satisfied with the way things turned out. Unlike most episodes, the B-story was almost inconsequential, taking up virtually no time during the show. And yet the time seemed to just fly by and suddenly it was time for 30 Rock.

Ever since we found out about Angela cheating on Andy with Dwight, I’ve wanted this to come into the light, and for Andy’s sake I was hopeful that it would do so before their wedding day. That it became known by the entire office before Andy, I didn’t anticipate. Going into tonight’s episode, that burden has apparently been weighing on everyone for seventeen days, and especially Dwight who leapt to his feet constantly expecting the inevitable confrontation.

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NBC

(Season 5, Episode 7)

So the new love triangle is really starting to get on my nerves. Not because I don’t like it, but because I do. That said, I really hope it doesn’t go on much longer. The post anger management Andy Bernard is still a weirdo, but he can be a helluva guy, as shown here. I liked the unique character split this week as it explored some new relationships. As Andy said, he’s worked next to Oscar all this time and it took a trip to Winnipeg to really get to know him.

Considering the size of this cast, the possibilities for creating new and interesting relationships between the characters are nearly endless. And there’s still so much more I’d love to know about Meredith, Phyllis and Creed. Especially Creed, but at the same time he works so well now with these short bizarre glimpses into his world and psyche.

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