The Office "The Return" (2007)

Oscar returns for his gay-cation and Andy departs to fix his broken brain while Michael is stinging from the loss of Dwight to chief competitor Staples. Since I always start off with Michael and end with PB & J, I'll switch it up for this episode. I was a little saddened that Jim went to Karen, and then Ryan(?), before he asked Pam to help him play a prank on Andy. It's almost as if he was avoiding hanging out with her more than he had to. Luckily he comes to his senses and Pam covers for him while he placed Andy's cell phone in the ceiling above his desk. While this is a pretty nasty prank when you think about it (cell phones are a no-no in our office, with good reason), I have to say Andy deserves it. Coming off last episode's framing of Dwight, I'm a little sour to Andy and he certainly was at his worst here, singing loudly (and badly, get enough of that in my office) and "catching" Big Tuna Jim. Of course it blows up again as he gets very upset, coupled with Michael's rejection, and puts his fist through the wall. Maybe a break from Andy is needed because I still feel the anger of what he did to Dwight. He did seem genuinely hurt however when Michael rejected his offer to party on Saturday and I couldn't muster up any sympathy for him. "Sorry, I annoyed you with my friendship."

It all helped to bring PB & J together again while Karen was very wary of them getting too close, having had Phyllis spill the beans about Jim's past hang-up with our favorite receptionist. It's both and an exciting and sad moment when she directly asks him if he still has feelings for Pam. Not covering as he did the first time she inquired about their past relationship, he solemnly tells her no and she walks off without another word. We're already driving to the inevitable conclusion to this rebound pairing that where success was never in the cards. Now with Jim's admission that he still carries a torch for Pam, that's going to put a downer on this relationship, which is actually sweet. I guess the end result is worth it however as we'll have a happy couple which isn't automatically doomed to failure.

Never to monopolize the office with their relationship drama, Angela was also hurting this week with the knowledge that Dwight lost his job because he helped her and wanted to protect their secret. It was touching how she lost it trying to make up to Oscar the best way she knew how: extending an invitation to join the party planning committee. While a little stereotypical, that's a pretty big leap for her to be so accepting of Oscar that she invites him into her own little slice of personal property that she rules with an iron fist. Of course Kevin can still never join. It was brave to tell Michael why Dwight went to corporate, and surely enough, the real reason behind the trip goes over Michael's head and he assumes it's because Dwight loves the company so much.

I loved Michael is this episode, hearkening back to "The Coup" where he became like everyone else reacting to him with regards to Dwight, he does the same here with regards to Andy. Going so far as to hide behind the conference room door to avoid him, he can't understand how someone could show such a lack of self-awareness. We're treated to some more of his great incredulous facial expressions reacting to Andy and we definitely need to see more to this side of Michael. He genuinely misses Dwight and once Angela relates the story behind his New York jaunt, he makes a beeline straight to Staples to invite him back to Dunder-Mifflin. A touching scene that surprisingly contained no Michael Scott patented awkwardness, aside from him wanting to talk about Dwight no longer doing his laundry, it shows just how much these two are friends. Their friendship isn't just built upon Dwight's hero worship and Michael's need for attention.

Favorite moment: Coming off the great "Traveling Salesmen" and that good-bye hug in the parking lot, this episode began with Jim in a talking head making the ultimate confession. "I miss Dwight. Congratulations universe, you win". A strong runner-up was Phyllis's own talking head regarding Dwight's departure. "Dwight had a big personality and I have a big personality, and a lot of times, when two people like that get together, it can be explosive."