Wow—solid cold opening, made doubly more effective by the thought that it was long overdue.
The episode jumps right into Michael’s love life. He’s looking for something new to do on the weekend instead of sex with Donna (and apparently he’s getting a lot during the work week—making out in front of security guard Hank is a highlight). This leads to the rest of the office questioning the nature of Michael’s relationship (Kelly and Ryan seem especially astute at detecting the trails of two-timers), so Michael commissions Dwight to tail Donna.
Meanwhile Andy blows open The Case of the Smoking Printer, which is exactly what it sounds like. He brings it to the attention of weasely “Do you guys have any almond butter” Gabe, who lackadaisically gets right on it. However, Darryl (and thank you, again, Office writers, for bringing Craig Robinson to the forefront [wouldn’t he be a fantastic Mr. T?) has it in for Andy and devises a semi-clever plan to spin him in a tizzy.
Pam tries to reassure Michael that things are okay with Donna and usefully brings up Michael’s self-destructive approach to relationships to allay his worries. She and Jim tell him to call off Dwight’s investigation (which takes place at a gym and looks like the outtakes of a horrific porno).
Donna immediately sees through Dwight’s ruse and hikes it over to the Scranton branch to reassure Michael that she “likes” him (is this middle school?), suggesting that they go away for the weekend.
Darryl’s ruse, on the other hand, somehow convinces Andy that someone’s trying to eliminate him.
Kelly spots Donna’s heart-shaped earrings, which gets Pam suspicious (because no woman buys heart-shaped earrings—only guys do that, apparently [thank heavens I’ve never been in a relationship that’s been to the brink of jewelry {eh, who am I kidding? I hate my life}]) so she does a quick Facebook investigation and finds compromising pictures of Donna.
The ending I won’t go into, but, thematically, it ties everything together, however, it’s excellent—and while this episode is not among the best The Office’s produced, it, like the open, is solid.
Mayonnaise and black olives…blech…
“Who eats eight protein bars?”
“Somebody who doesn’t trust egg whites.”
“We should do something fun this week…that would be fun.”
“If they catch us…they will rape us.”
“Darnell.” I haven’t laughed so hard in years.
