Office Recap, "Employee Transfer"

Happy Halloween, everybody! The Office celebrated in style. I love how Dunder Mifflin Scranton actually dresses up for the occasion. We had Kelly as Carrie Bradshaw, Ryan as the Geico Gecko (or Gordon Gekko, which conclusively proves the latest Stuff White People Like post), Meredith as a cheerleader (probably a slutty one), Oscar as Uncle Sam, Jim as Dave, and Kevin, Dwight, and Creed as The Joker. Creed was almost too accurate for comfort in that costume. Pam made an adorable Charlie Chaplin/Hitler all alone at corporate.

(via NBC.com) Just a couple of kitties, out on the town!

David Wallace let the cat (and by cat, I mean kitten) out of the bag on Holly and Michael, so H-dawg got transferred back to Nashua. I hate to say that not discussing the issue was classic Michael, because I feel like I overuse that phrase, but come on. It was classic Michael! Holly and Michael practiced their cute voices again in the truck, 'cept Michael's trucker voice sounded like it was from The Dukes of Hazzard. I'm not sure why Darryl agreed to be in a vehicle with Michael for seven hours, but whatevs.

The thing about long car trips is that they're fun in theory. The first hour rocks, but after that you begin to realize that your butt hurts and the scenery hasn't changed and the only radio stations with decent reception are country. Michael's ability to carry on a conversation and nap is astounding. The magnitude of a long-distance relationship with Michael hits Holly hard and they begin to hash it out somewhere around the halfway point, where there are no beds & breakfasts...emphasis on both. Life is a highway, but for Darryl, hell can be a highway, too. While Holly and Michael are so perfect for each other, the timing and location just wasn't right and sometimes that's all it takes. Curse you Amy Ryan for being such a talent and in demand actress!

Remember what I said last week about Dwight using his instincts to get Angela back? This week he began the attack to chip away at the fragile, preppy shell of Andy Bernard. What better way to do so than to mock the best Ivy League school out there? Dwight has this ability to fully research any topic and carry out a plan in exact detail. Andy receives "permission" to interview Dwight, which was the perfect opportunity to get back at his nemesis. (During "The Job," Dwight gave an interview to Andy for the Assistant (to the) Regional Manager position.) Dwight quickly turns the tables on Mr. Bernard and the interviewer becomes the interviewee! Brilliant. Of the three plot lines, I thought this one did the best job of mixing the funny with the character relationships.

Part of me was glad to see Jim and Pam interacting again, but the other part of me was sad that it had to be in such a lame situation. I'd always pictured Jim's family as being incredibly nice and funny. Sadly, his brothers were neither. Pam's prank wasn't that great when I first heard her describe it, but it after her elaboration at the end, it sounded pretty complex. Anything would have been better than the hot mess of a lunch with the Halpert boys. They decided to tease her about being an art major, because Jim hates it when they tease his girlfriends. Something like that would have been over-the-line in real life and while The Office can usually get away with that kind of stuff, their brotherly razzing was laaaaaaaame. TVGuide.com had this to say about the sitch. "The prank wasn't on Jim - it was on Pam. They wanted to see if she can take it and hang with the Halperts." That makes sense in a roundabout sort of way, but I thought the execution was poorly done. Pam talking about being the "absolute best" and planning to prank Tom for male patten baldness were both really cute.

I laughed lots during the first half, but the second half was very meh. What'd you guys think? Do you bet that Holly will ever come back? Will Michael go back to Jan? Will Kevin ever recover from waking up at 4 am to become the worst interpretation of The Joker ever?