The Office 5.2: “Business Ethics”

So how do you tell someone you care deeply about “I told you so”? After a week off for national politics, The Office returns with poor Holly embroiled in a tricky political situation of her own. What begins as a routine seminar on office ethics becomes far more dangerous when Michael hijacks the meeting in an attempt to liven things up—as if a headbanded duet on the lesser-known Olivia Newton-John hit “Let’s Get Ethical” wasn’t enough to get the corporate-mandated party started.

Borrowing, perhaps, from the same Survivor that featured a female contestant whose doppelganger Ryan once slept with, Michael’s offer of immunity to the staff leads to a confess-a-thon of ethical slip-ups, like Oscar taking long lunches and Kelly downloading pirated music to her workstation. But when creepy Meredith admits to having regular sex with a paper rep to get the company a discount (and herself some steakhouse coupons), Holly is left in an ethical dilemma of her own: do the right thing and have Meredith fired, or cave to Michael’s demands to sweep the incident under the rug and leave his office “family” intact.

Silly me for thinking Insane Michael was a thing of the season four past. After all the emotional ups and downs between he and Jan last year, I really hoped Holly would lighten Michael’s mood around the office. I forgot one thing: she’s Toby’s replacement. It was only a matter of time before the buzzkill hit the buzzsaw. Just because Holly is the woman of Michael’s dreams doesn’t mean she’s going to roll over and pretend it’s okay that he spends five days at a time on YouTube “watching Cookie Monster sing ‘Chocolate Rain’.” Could we be looking at a season of non-sexual tension for our Yoda-talking WTWTC (that stands for “Will-They-Won’t-They Couple” in case you wondered)? I sure hope not. I like them together. At least, I like the idea of them together. After Michael’s cold-shoulder treatment this week, I’m beginning to think he deserves Jan. Speaking of which, what is Psycho Mama doing while her beau steps out with another woman?

This first half-hour episode of the season didn’t quite have the punch of the premiere, perhaps because the Michael-Holly standoff didn’t leave much for other office regulars to do. I wanted more of a reaction from Ryan about the ethics seminar coming as a result of his arrest. And why tease Jim and Pam announcing their engagement if it has zero impact beyond the cold open?

With all the tension around the office, at least one good thing came out of the ethics seminar: it gave Jim one more excuse to torment Dwight, this time by using a stopwatch to track his deskmate’s personal use of office time. Sad as it is to have Pam temporarily out of the picture, I’m glad there’s still room in the show for good old-fashioned Jim ‘n’ Dwight shenanigans. We may only be two episodes in, but I predict Jim’s deeply flawed, Dwight-baiting Battlestar Galactica description will end up being a season highlight. “It’s about some guy named Dumbledore Calrissian and he has to return the ring back to Mordor”… classic.

Finally, I don’t know whether they flew Steve Carrell and Amy Ryan out to film on location or whether they built the set out west, but I really dug the show’s tip of the hat to real-life Scranton landmark, Cooper’s Seafood House. I used to work at a summer camp about half an hour outside of (what?) the Electric City, and Cooper’s was always worth the trip. Not only is the food great, the place is absolutely packed with knicknacks, doodads, life-size statuary, built-in dioramas, old toys, and vintage games. If you’re ever in the Scranton area I highly recommend you… oh, who am I kidding? Why would you ever be in the Scranton area. See you next week for “Baby Shower.”