Episode Report Card M. Giant: A | 9 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT The End of the Beginning of the End
By M. Giant | Season 9 | Episode 22 | Aired on 05.09.2013
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.It's the day of the documentary premiere, but there's so much else going on that it barely registers for most of this hour-long episode. Dwight is about to put a capper on his excellent spring by proposing to Esther. Jim is already outdoing himself as Dwight's Assistant to the Regional Manager by setting Dwight up to become the Assistant Assistant to the Regional Manager. Andy spends the day in line for a singing show audition, and ends up having a meltdown, but at least he made friends with a woman who's cuter but more delusional than he is. Angela's son got fired by his day care, so he has to spend the day in the office, leading Kevin to act out like a jealous older sibling over Oscar and Angela's fussing with the kid. Darryl has already left, but he "sneaks" back in to return the delivery truck, clearly hoping the gang will demand a proper goodbye from him. In that, he is not disappointed.
Pam is enjoying having Goofy Jim around, as I'm sure we all are, but after a conversation with Darryl she fears that Jim will end up resenting her for his decision. Jim enlists the aid of the documentary crew to prove otherwise. Meanwhile, Dwight's exposure to Angela's child renews his suspicions that he really is the boy's biological father, to the point where he reconsiders proposing to Esther. He makes an offer to Angela instead, but she is unmoved by his businesslike presentation, and says the kid isn't his anyway.
And so it is that Jim ends up juggling two romantic crises at once. Dwight demands Jim's advice on what to do, and Jim makes a speech about the overriding importance of love -- even as Pam is in the break room watching the video of Jim & Pam's greatest hits he had the doc guys cut together in less than a day. And then he finally gives her the note he once tucked into a teapot, back in the dark ages when this show was still funny. And dammit, tonight it was funny again. Which kind of makes me mad.
But we're still not done. Dwight makes Angela a real marriage proposal, insisting that he doesn't care if Phillip isn't his. Which, of course, he is. And everyone, even Andy, ends up at Poor Richard's that evening for a viewing party of the documentary. Which, from what little we hear of it, doesn't seem all that great so far.
Next week is the two-hour finale/epilogue/farewell cast party, and given how good tonight's episode was, I'm not even dreading it that much.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Another one-hour episode? You've got one more week of this, The Office, and then I'm done with you unless you knock it off.
Kevin steps off the elevator and we see that the entrance to the office has been fortified with a security door. Kevin buzzes the attached intercom and Erin picks up her handset to say, "The tea in Nepal is very hot." Kevin rolls up his sleeve to read aloud from his arm, "But the coffee in Peru is much hotter." Erin grins and proudly buzzes him in. By way of explanation, Dwight interviews that as the new permanent manager, he's been able to institute some new security measures, including these doors from a bankrupt jewelry store and the institution of pointless code phrases like we just saw on The Amazing Race four days ago. He adds that he now emails everyone the secret codes every morning. "It's not the KGB, but it's a start." When it's Dwight's turn to come in, he misses one word. Erin says that after three wrong tries, she needs to give him the steam. "Unless you want me to break protocol," she offers. By now the other employees are watching, and Dwight has to allow it. He THs that it's only harmless steam, due to the prohibitive cost of harmful steam. As his resolve cracks and he panics, Creed heads out the suite's back entrance with a handful of shirts on hangers.
Full credits, which still include Ed Helms. Worse, there's no final shot of Dwight doing something at the manager's desk. Instead, there's that shot of Jim kissing Pam in its place. Rip-off.
Well, this is promising. Oscar and Angela are at his place getting ready for the day, and the apartment isn't exactly built for three. "Ironic that now its Angela who's living in the closet," Oscar THs, adding a weak "Hey-ohh." But at least we see that little Phillip is now protected from the fashion faux pas that Angela would have dressed him in.
Esther drops Dwight off at the office in her dad's pickup, and he THs that between being a manager and the owner of a 1,600 acre beet farm, being engaged to "an actual milkmaid" is icing on the cake. Not that he's done it yet; he shows us his grandmother's ring. "It was made from a bullet I took out of her left buttock. She was a moonshiner shot by Adolph Coors." One would expect the Schrutes to get along better than that with people named Adolph.
Andy shows up at what looks like cattle call auditions for a show called America's Next A Capella Sensation. Catchy title. He's all excited about being sent to the back of the long line, as though that means his pitch has really impressed the intake guys. While taking that long hike, he explains what sets this show apart from all the other televised singing competitions out there: "All three judges are mean."