The Office (UK) "Episode 6" (2002)

The second season of The Office (UK) comes to a close and in an ironic twist of fate it has more cliffhangers than the first season finale which tied up everything pretty much by the end of episode. David is putting up a brave front, acting as if he's better off leaving Wernham-Hogg as now he can do more outside the halls of our favorite British paper company. In a further boost to his ego, at the worst possible time, he is being interviewed for a trade magazine. He feels the need to write the article for her and he's more than willing to blow his chance for some exposure as he's about to head back into the job market. I realize I harp on it every episode but Brent has just become painful to see. Every scene he is in he manages to come off as more of an ignorant jerk that previously and the battering he is taking with his redundancy and then finding out he's been let go from the public speaking gig he managed to secure a few episodes ago only serves to drive him further into immature and jackass behavior. He can't even maintain a semblance of professional civility when he is told he won't be used again as a speaker and kicks them out of his office with a few obscene words.

This is probably the point in the season where we should start to feel for David, the cracks in his veneer are showing more often and he is gravely disappointed that no one seems to be taking his leaving with any kind of remorse. When he finally does get real and begs Neil and Jennifer to let him stay on, promising to make serious changes and doing what they want him to do, I'm afraid it's too little too late. Up until that moment he still acts smug and superior and flips off Neil's words of gratitude for his work with the company. He has alienated this viewer so much that I cannot really dredge up any sympathy for him. Maybe it's his personality type that I loathe and biases me so negatively against him as I cannot stand smug people who have no right to be that way. They are an irritant that never go away and that is what David has become over the course of this season. He's too far gone for me to care that he is losing his job and has nothing else to really fill it with. Maybe that's harsh but it's of his own doing because in the end, we hope, people like him get what they have deserved for the longest time. I do wish to point out again how much I admire Ricky Gervais's courage and skill in taking on such a role as it's one most actors would probably shy away from. We're left not knowing if his heartfelt plea allows him one last reprieve from management and will have to wait until the next season, if there is one . . .

David's not the only person (possibly) heading out as Dawn gives her notice as she and Lee plan to head to the States for a holiday. David of course believes that Dawn is resigning as a gesture of loyalty to his being let go and then when he discovers the truth really couldn't care less that she is leaving. This is a stark contrast to how he reacted to Tim resigning last season where he worked hard to get him to stay. Understandably he doesn't have an interest in the office anymore but I thought it was worth a mention. Her and Tim appear pretty friendly despite the initial awkwardness of their first kiss in the last episode. In fact Tim is getting along a lot better with Dawn than he is with his girlfriend Rachel, who he has been keeping at a distance since the kiss with Dawn. He immediately refuses a trip to Rachel's family reunion and says he cannot go. The kiss has caused him to re-assess his feelings for Dawn and as Rachel is looking to get more serious, he does the admirable thing and breaks it off rather than lead her on.

Maybe it was that conversation in the break room where Dawn admits to be attracted to shy guys and Lee reveals she prefers a man with a sense of humor whice resulted in his decision to end the relationship. He knows there is something there and decides he cannot continue to see Rachel. Side note: Sheila (Jane Lucas) has the best laugh of the episode with her admission that she "likes blacks" and the cut to everyone's dumbstruck reactions. I don't know if that was her first line ever but it certainly made an impression in this last regular episode of the series. Certainly once Tim finds out that Dawn and Lee are leaving on an extended holiday it mobilizes him to action. I think it's a great scene that begins with Tim trying to explain away the first time he asked Dawn out and how it was in the name of being mates and not romantic. In the middle of saying he can't change circumstances, he gets up and asks Dawn to speak with him in the conference room. Taking off his mic, we don't get to hear the actual confession, almost as if it was real life and we were a co-worker watching from the bullpen. It ends on a sad note with his solemn confession, "She said no by the way." This season finale really left things on a bitter note for all the regulars unlike last season's with one major exception.

I had been wondering if Tim would be promoted into David's position after he left and surprisingly when asked by Neil to take the job he turns it down. He doesn't want to be stuck in a job he doesn't want and as much as he hates his current job, he knows he won't find anything more in David's and it might make it harder for him to leave once he's in that position. It would take a lot to walk away from the money and the "power" to start over somewhere else. Plus I think he's scared of turning into David, much like how we saw him acting when he accepted the promotion in the last season finale. These two episodes really do complement each other rather well upon inspection. To everyone's surprise he nominates Gareth for the position as he's already a David-ish person and would relish that job. Of course, Tim realized his error once Gareth makes plans for major changes around the office and how his nemesis has just become his boss.

All in all I would say this season is an improvement on the first season, which in and of itself was very well done. The characters introduced the previous year are further explored in these episodes as well as adding some new friends into the mix. The one major grievance is that it became a less ensemble show in its second year as more focus was placed onto the David Brent character and those certainly weren't the best scenes of the episodes. There is no third season, but a two-part Christmas Special follow-up which should be interesting to see our lingering questions being answered and give us a chance to spend a bit more time with the workers of Wernham-Hogg, who we grew to love over the course of this past season. See you at the reunion.

Favorite moment: Gareth's new toy provides him endless fun as it's an overweight man who quickly becomes aroused and climaxes to some silly music. After the third time, Tim throws up his pen in frustration and exits the frame before it lands. Later when trying to win over Neil that Gareth is the man for David's open position, we hear the toy go off again all while Tim is talking up Gareth's professionalism and expertise. A humorous scene in an otherwise serious episode it served as the comedic oasis before all the cliffhangers began.