The Office: Unpredictable

As an infamous “predicter” of movie and TV endings and plot points, it’s always a pleasant surprise for me when a show throws me a curveball I wasn’t expecting.  It’s a pretty rare occurrence for me, and when it happens, it’s sheer joy.  And I have to say, this season of The Office has been beyond what I could have predicted.

For starters, TV etiquette dictates that the will-they-or-won’t-they-couple never stays together for more than a season without significant break-up drama.  So I’ve spent the whole season expecting the inevitable (or is it?) break-up of Jim and Pam.  I’ve also been wrong in every instance.  No rifts have formed between PB&J.  Trips to New York, threads of jealousy, bullying brothers, and a secret house purchase, and they’re still going strong.  They still work perfectly together, like, well PB&J.  Even this week, when they disagreed, they were still playfully, wonderfully together.

In this week’s episode, Jim and Pam did find themselves on opposite sides of a fight over how to spend Dunder Mifflin’s budget surplus.  Michael was thrilled to have the extra dollars to spend – after Oscar explained to him what a budget surplus was through a thoughtful lemonade stand comparison – and he was eager to spend it on a new copier, as Oscar suggested.  But Pam insisted they get new chairs instead. (‘Ol Pammy is still getting what she wants!  How the times have changed.) Oscar wouldn’t budge and Jim – who has been making all his own copies since he and Pam got engaged – sided with Oscar on the copier.  It was so on!

It quickly became Michael’s lucky day as everyone in the office sucked up to him trying to win his vote with their friendship.  Oscar and Jim took Michael out to lunch and laughed at all his jokes.  Kelly opened the door for him.  Kevin gave him a hot chocolate.  And Pam won him over with her sexuality – putting on some red lipstick, giggling at his jokes, and stooping to call him “hot tie guy.”  She also tried to win Jim over using a classic girl move: the threatening kiss (girls, you know what I mean).  Jim was on dangerous ground.

But Michael couldn’t make a decision.  And after he tried to have Hank, the security man, decide, he called David Wallace.  That’s when he found out that if he gave the surplus back to corporate he’d get a bonus of $645.  He could take that money to Burlington Coat Factory and become a king!  However, Michael’s plan to convince the Dunder Mifflinites that they didn’t need chairs or a copier didn’t go over too well, and they all turned on him.  So in a moment of shocking shrewdness, Michael left it up to the office to decide, and if they couldn’t make a decision he was taking the bonus.  Unfortunately for Michael, Oscar decided it was better to get chairs than nothing.  Also unfortunate for Michael was the fact that he already purchased a fur coat and had fake blood thrown on it.  I bet he didn’t see that coming.

But the biggest curveball of the episode happened at Schrute Farms.  Angela and Andy were reviewing the property for their upcoming nuptials.  For the full experience, Dwight walked them through the ceremony in the barn, presided over by a Mennonite priest – who spoke only German.  Dwight played the groom as Andy watched.  When Dwight put the twine ring on her finger and Angela said, “I do,” she got all teary eyed.  I was certain this was going to be the end of Angela and Andy, and after the ceremony, sure enough, Angela told Dwight she made a mistake.  She should have picked him.

Dwight, with his typical confidence, was already aware of this fact.  He knew, monkey.  That’s why he took care of it.  Took care of what, you may ask?  Angela did.  Dwight informed his beloved that the ceremony they just held had been real and the receipt Andy signed was actually a marriage certificate.  So there you go: Angela and Dwight are married.  Who saw that coming?  I thought they’d definitely wait for the season finale.

Angela was less than thrilled over this particular curveball – can’t say I blame her – and exercised her anger by publicly making out with Andy in the office (as he ate a tuna sandwich – gross!).  Then she was off to take care of a legal matter.

Will Angela and Dwight’s marriage stick?  Will Jim and Pam continue to defy the laws of TV land couples?  Will Michael ever get a clue?

Who knows?  I’m through predicting.

Season 5, Episode 9: The Surplus (originally aired December 4, 2008)

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