In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
So with Michael leaving, there's going to be a new manager. And for reasons that defy explanation (not that one is even offered), Sabre has hired a new guy from outside the company. His name is Deangelo Vickers and he's played by Will Ferrell, which sadly is about as funny as this episode gets. Seriously, I laughed more at the first two minutes of Parks & Rec than I did at this whole episode. Predictably, Michael is soon threatened by Deangelo's popularity (confusing "popularity" with "being someone everybody feels the need to suck up to") and the changes he wants to make. Equally predictably, Michael soon causes things to devolve into a pissing match which he brings to a head with a grand, immature gesture. Fortunately, Deangelo proves to be the bigger man, and Michael is able to start letting go. He probably should have let go less than a minute into that awkward hug, though.
What are people saying about your favorite shows and stars right now? Find out with Talk Without Pity, the social media site for real TV fans. See Tweets and Facebook comments in real time and add your own -- all without leaving TWoP. Join the conversation now!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Michael's at a hotel bar, and happens to mention to the bartender that he's leaving his company of 19 years. "I'll drink to that," another patron calls over. Nobody who's been following this show in the media will be remotely surprised to hear that the other patron is Will Ferrell. He says he's starting at a company tomorrow. "To beginnings and endings," he toasts. Michael keeps it going, and asks Will Ferrell not to tell his fiancée he's drinking on a Wednesday. "I won't. I don't know her, "Will Ferrell promises. And she's not even in this episode. Michael mentions his impending move to Colorado, but allows that he won't be skiing and ending up like Sonny Bobo. "Everyone I know who skis is dead," Will Ferrell agrees. Then they bond over Olympics, and with that, Will Ferrell moves over to sit to Michael. Small talk continues, until Michael pulls out his phone to call the guy he's supposed to be meeting here. Naturally, Will Ferrell's phone buzzes, and he goes off to answer it, and it takes them waaaay too long to realize they're talking to each other, and the guy they were each supposed to meet is the same guy they've been talking to this whole time. They introduce themselves (Will Ferrell is "Deangelo Vickers," because apparently he just climbed out of the "What Do You Think" box in an issue ofThe Onion), and settle in for another round.
Cut to them heading up to the office together, however late at night it is. Deangelo is impressed, for some reason: "She'll do. She'll do just fine." Even this late at night, Deangelo takes the time to shoot a little TH in the conference room about his excitement over the new job, and in the middle of it, Michael video-bombs him by sticking his face in front of the camera, cracking them both up. "We should write a movie or something," Deangelo says, chasing Michael out of the conference room. Anybody up for Threat Level 12:01 AM?
The morning, Oscar is giving us an update on the new manager the company hired to replace Michael. "It's a lot to process. Paperwork-wise."
In the office, Kevin is wearing his toupee for some reason, I guess to impress the new boss. In a TH, he assures us he's not really Ashton Kutcher, even though he's "Equally handsome, equally smart." Well, he's half right.
Michael is making a big announcement to the bullpen, prefacing it with, "As you know, one of my favorite things is fanfare for its own sake. So without further ado, let's all start clapping." Michael presents Deangelo, who emerges from Michael's office to continuing applause and shakes hands with Michael. Deangelo starts telling them the stuff they need to know about himself: his love for the American Southwest, his peanut allergy, how he's as comfortable at a ball game as he is at the opera, etc. Dwight's boredom with this is so contagious it pulls us into a TH: "Did I want to be made manager? Sure. A great opportunity squandered? Absolutely. A crushing blow? Yes. Will I get over it? Mmm, no. But life goes on. Not for me." On the bright side, his hair this week looks just like Kevin's rug.
Kelly engineers an encounter wherein she drops an armload of papers on the floor right in front of Deangelo. She tells everyone not to bother helping, not that anyone but Deangelo is. While he's gathering her stuff, she goes full on nerd-transformation, letting her hair down and taking off her glasses, asking if they've met before. "Not officially. I saw you coming out of the bathroom earlier," Deangelo says obliviously. She says it was great to meet him and heads back to her "cave," ignoring the stack of her stuff he just picked up for her. "And that is what they call a meet-cute," Kelly THs proudly. Is the bathroom reference optional?
Out in the bullpen, Michael is telling the troops about his own meet-cute with Deangelo, and it's not really having the effect he was hoping for. In fact, they think the story makes him sound like an idiot. Then Deangelo enters, and tells his own version, which gets a laugh. Nobody points out that even though neither of them covered themselves in glory the evening, Deangelo was the one who was meeting a guy who gets followed around everywhere by a camera crew. Andy whips out some pre-printed nametags he carries around for occasions like that, and Deangelo thinks he's just met the office funny guy, even though Andy wasn't trying to make a joke. Moving on to Jim and Pam, with Michael finding yet another awkward and embarrassing way to introduce them to someone new (they're like snowflakes), and upon seeing their photo of Cece, Deangelo mentions that he's got four kids of his own. Pam makes a lame joke to the boss which extends all the way into a joint TH with her and Jim, in which they crack wise about their unplanned pregnancy advancing their careers. Hey, it's still early, Halperts.
Dwight has apparently lured Michael into the stairwell with the promise of showing him a turtle, but that was just a ruse so Dwight can complain about having to be a right-hand-man to a whole new guy. "Now I'm going have to go online and look at turtles or else I'm gonna be off the whole day," Michael whines. Dwight doesn't get why he wasn't even interviewed for the position, especially with Michael pushing for him. Somehow Dwight completely misses the "Oh, yeah, that" face that Michael makes.
Deangelo is eating an apple when a bunch of people converge to suck up. Even Darryl's not immune, saying the Southwest is one of his favorite regions. Afterward, in his office, he thinks that sounded lame, but then convinces himself it was cool. Too bad he then follows it up by saying the desert is one of his favorite ecosystems. From under his toupee, Kevin asks what Deangelo thinks of bald people. "I hate them," Kevin explains. Angela brings up politics and says Deangelo should meet her boyfriend, the state senator. Oscar gives a little smirk, because of how he's the only one who knows "The Senator" is gay, but Deangelo just says, "Sounds very interesting, thank you." Michael, who has been watching this whole scene, is not at all getting what's happening here. It's not hard, but then, it's Michael.
At reception, Deangelo hears Erin answer the phone using her name, in imitation of how Pam used to do it. "She's kind of a living legend," Erin explains. Deangelo suggests answering without her name, and Erin admits that she likes the sound of, "Dunder Mifflin, this is." Michael, overhearing this, says he likes the old way, which quickly turns into a sort of tense, faux-friendly pissing contest which Michael can't seem to drop. And then the phone rings, and both of them stand over her waiting to see what she'll do. "Change it," Gabe tries to whisper from behind the bosses. When Erin finally answers the phone, all she can come up with is "I'm so sorry" before hanging up.
Deangelo wanders into the bullpen and invites Andy, "Make me laugh." Andy tries to start a joke about "African Americans," but panics. Fortunately for him, Deangelo's barber shows up. Seriously. But Darryl wants to hear the rest of the joke. "What do African-Americans call?" he asks Andy. "I don't know, help me," Andy begs.
Ryan, of course, is totally impressed with the fact that Deangelo has a barber come into the office for him. He would be. In terms of displays of toolishness, that's like a forty-minute bass solo. "Real power move," agrees Phyllis, who should know better. Michael, feeling threatened, runs out to get some supplies and comes back to order Erin, "Shave me." In the manager's office, he settles in to Deangelo and his "number-one Yelp-reviewed shaver in Scranton." Erin squirts a big smile of shaving cream onto just the front of Michael's mug like he's a banana split and starts scraping away. While this is going on, in come Oscar, Jim, Pam, and Kelly for what Deangelo describes as his idea for "rap sessions with smaller groups." Pam wants to show Deangelo a new picture of Cece on her phone, which apparently goes with this whole long backstory, but Deangelo snaps, "You know what? Enough about your baby." Starting to like Deangelo now. His purpose for the "rap session" is to ask how he can manage them well. From under his dollops of shaving cream, Michael reminds them to be honest, but in that tone that means the exact opposite. Oscar says something about all memos being marked urgent and Michael gets defensive, which, all the talking makes it a little difficult for Erin to shave him. As if she didn't already suck at it.
Andy joins Deangelo while the later is having another portion-controlled snack, and begins, "I don't want to go off on a rant here..." He talks about Democrats wanting electric cars and Republicans not. And here's the punch line: "How is it we got a car debate going on in a city known for gridlock?" It's not all that less funny than most of the alleged real jokes in this episode. Deangelo just asks Andy not to talk politics in the office. "I like you better as a funny guy." Andy gets uncomfortable and leans on a table, which collapses under him. That cracks Deangelo up. So it looks like Andy is just the unintentionally funny guy.
Michael and Deangelo are trying to share Michael's desk and computer when Erin pushes in a giant box. It's Deangelo's stuff, and everyone comes in to look it over. First is a garish desert-scape painting, and a ten-gallon hat that, as Deangelo points out to Darryl, only holds about three quarts. Michael THs his doubts about Deangelo. "Deangelo's great, I love the guy. But I'm not sure he's a good fit for the office. And also, I'm not sure if I love the guy."
Darryl's sister is secretly delivering him a pair of cowboy boots in the parking lot, although he passes on the matching pair of cap-gun six-shooters. She might be fucking with him on the latter.
In the kitchen, Andy runs into Deangelo, who orders, "Make me laugh." Andy responds by doing some mime. When that flops, he goes into a whole kitchen-trashing tantrum of forced wackiness, going so far as to pour hot coffee on the front of his pants. "Drink some soap!" Deangelo laughs. Andy obeys. "I guess this is my life now," he THs. Nobody said comedy is easy.
Dwight is in the annex, asking Gabe how to become a manager. Gabe tells him to start by getting a recommendation from Michael. Which is how it comes out that Michael didn't recommend Dwight after all. Gabe has the grace to feel awkward, but that's about as far as his grace gets him in this situation.
In the bullpen, Deangelo is holding forth about whale-watching when Michael interrupts with a plate of PB&J sandwiches. Did Michael forget that Deangelo has a peanut allergy? Probably not. Michael tosses one to Kevin. Standing right to him, Deangelo dodges while Kevin catches it in his mouth. Deangelo explains he's itchy for three days if a peanut touches him, and Jim's a little surprised to hear it doesn't kill him, like most TV peanut allergies. Michael tosses one to Oscar, but Deangelo bats it out of the air with a binder. "You're gettin' nut particles all in the air here!" he complains. Michael says no one had a problem until Deangelo got there. Deangelo circles around Michael and ducks into the conference room, and calls a "mandatory meeting" in the "multipurpose room" right away. Michael tells everyone not to go in, but they all file in past him. Including Darryl, in his own Western shirt and ten-gallon hat. Oh, Darryl. Jim is almost the last one to go in, and he reminds Michael, "You're the one who decided to leave. Come on, he's our new boss, you know we have to do this." Michael turns to the last person in the bullpen, saying, "Looks like it's just you and me, Dwight." Dwight says, "Correction. Just you," and enters the conference room, announcing, "Meeting, multifunction room." Look who figured out how to be someone else's right hand man after all.
Michael drops the tray of sandwiches in Dwight's trashcan and heads for the door. Deangelo comes out to catch him and ask for advice on how to start the meeting. Michael stiffly says he starts with some chitchat and some jokes. "And you might want to develop a couple of characters." Like what, a goofy male cheerleader, or an egomaniacal anchorman, or a basketball player with a huge afro? Give him some writing prompts or something. Deangelo says it's too bad for the office that Michael's leaving, and holds out his arms for a hug. "Bring it in. Come on." Michael just glares at him, but when Deangelo turns to walk away, Michael runs up and hugs him from behind. Deangelo returns the hug from in front. It's as awkward as it sounds, especially with Will Ferrell being so much taller. "Why did you have to be so damn good?" Michael whispers. "I," Deangelo says emotionally, "am adequate. I'm half as good as you." Michael insists that the employees know Deangelo is good. "I just didn't expect you to get there so fast." Deangelo tells him to enjoy this time. "Get your senoiritis on." Finally they release each other, but before stepping inside, Deangelo asks Michael, "What is the...Native American girl's name?" Michael says he'll figure it out, and Deangelo heads into his first meeting and closes the door. Michael closes himself into his office, behind the other door. Closing doors, symbolic, blah blah blah just get to the tag already.
Jim and Pam bring Cece into Deangelo's office. He stares stone-faced at the threw Halperts, but finally admits, "That's a cute baby." Jim and Pam joint TH, "We knew it, If he just met her, he'd understand." "We're back in," Jim agrees, and they both fist-pump. Cece appears to be the only one in the room who picked up on Deangelo's totally insincere tone. And here's Deangelo's own TH to prove it, saying, "I'm telling you, that baby could be the star of a show called Babies I Don't Care About." Man, I should have watched that instead. What channel?
M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter , or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.