The Office Review: The Cover-Up

Another Thursday, another episode of The Office. This week is basically a direct continuation of the last. We seem to have advanced a bit through the relationship of Michael and Donna, which properly began last week. Or perhaps we haven’t. The episode primarily revolves around a Michael freak out that Donna is cheating on him. In my experience this is a common human emotional phenomenon that usually develops after the relationship has been going on a while and has gotten serious enough for an act of cheating to be considered a legitimate offense.

Then I remembered that Michael and half of everyone else on this show is insane, including perhaps, Donna herself.

Thus Michael and Donna’s relationship could’ve been going on for all of five minutes and it might be perfectly reasonable to both of them to be having this sort of crisis so early on.

Rainn Wilson directs this one, and it’s written by the guys who wrote Year One (Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky), and are heavily involved with the writing process of what is to be Ghostbusters III.

Anyway, speaking of Wilson, the fulcrum of the episode here is that Michael sends Dwight on a ridiculous mission to see if she’s cheating, a mission he goes about by trying to seduce Donna. It doesn’t work out, and Michael’s fears are calmed because, well, if she didn’t go for Dwight, then how could she ever want any other man at all?

I won’t give away where this actually goes, because it becomes pretty clear early on to anyone watching the episode, I think, that there’s only one way it can. Not that this takes away any of the fun in watching this unfold.

Season 6, Episode 23: The Cover-Up (originally aired May 6, 2010)

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Thursdays, 9/8C on NBC

Photograph courtesy of NBC Universal.