During last season’s finale, I felt like we were finally bidding farewell to the lovelorn Toby, yet to see his return to the office in such a nonchalant fashion will forever lessen the significance of the previous season’s closer. Maybe the writers thought that by framing and insulting Toby at almost every opportunity would perhaps redeem this ‘jump the shark’ moment, but I felt that this particular story element was handled in a very transparent fashion. “The Office” wanted Paul Lieberstein back, so they brought him back despite his story arc having been completed.
Nevertheless, “The Office” still provided the more-than-adequate amount of laughs and non-stop hilarity. I particularly enjoyed Michael’s conversation with his boss, David. Michael’s 911 texting technique was a drop of comedic brilliance. One thing that I found hard to believe though was David’s extraordinary amount of patience. Sure, David eventually hung up on him, but a suspension of disbelief was required to simply accept that David would actually indulge Michael’s rationale for expelling Toby for as long as he did.
Another interesting query…why does nothing ever seem to rattle Toby. Most people would lose it within minutes of Michael’s absurd antics, yet Toby handles even the worst Michael can throw at him with grace. I’m inclined to think that Toby could have some kind of mental imbalance, given his monotonous acceptance of all verbal missiles with a lackadaisical attitude. Taking that into consideration, I think one of the major reasons why Michael is constantly opposed to Toby is perhaps of his inability to affect him.
Character psychology aside, I thought the whole idea to frame Toby was going to backfire from the get-go. Anybody with common sense would instantly know that 500 dollars is quite pricey for weed. Not to mention that Michael took the fall for his own salad greens was the cherry on top for that funny series of events. Even more sidesplitting was Dwight’s attempt to frame Andy Bernard in the process of framing Toby.
Concerning the subplot of Jim buying his parent’s house for Pam, I was sincerely shaken but relieved. All throughout the scene where Jim was displaying the house to Pam, she was very quiet. Her silence felt terrifying as I assumed she didn’t like it or was very creeped out by the notion of it all. However, just as things were looking grim for Jim, every thing suddenly changed into a beautiful hallmark moment. Close call, though…
The acting and direction of this episode were at the usual “Office” high, but I can’t support the out-of-the-blue return of Toby for no real apparent reason. I thought the writing took a bit of a hit in this particular episode. So I’ll give a 9/10
A few priceless quotes…
Michael – “I feel like Neve Campbell in Scream 2. She thinks she can go off to college to be happy…and then the murderer comes back. [He] starts killing off all of her friends. Learned a lot of lessons from that movie…”
Dwight – [Talking about how he learned to frame people for drugs] “Its illegal, but everything they do in “The Shield” is illegal.” [He then goes on describing how he framed raccoons and bears.]
Crede – [After seeing the cops come inside, he says to camera] “Just pretend like we’re talking until the cops leave…” [Seriously, everything Crede says is hilarious!]
