Thu, 30 October 2008
From NBC.com:
EMPLOYEE TRANSFER | 10.30.2008 | 9/8c TV-PG
LOVE
ALWAYS GETS IN THE WAY - OSCAR NOMINEE AMY RYAN ("GONE BABY GONE")
GUEST STARS - Pam (Jenna Fischer) is embarrassed when she is the only
person at corporate wearing a costume on Halloween. Holly (guest star
Amy Ryan) and Michael (Golden Globe winner Steve Carell) take the long
trip to Nashua after they get some shocking news from corporate.
Meanwhile, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) torments Andy (Ed Helms) and tries to
get under his skin. John Krasinski, B.J. Novak, Ed Helms, Leslie David
Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Kate Flannery, Mindy Kaling, Angela Kinsey,
Oscar Nunez, Creed Bratton and Craig Robinson also star.
----------- Lots of stuff going on here-- are we saying our final farewell to dear Holly Flax? Another Halloween episode, which is a plus. Pam in corporate... more than 30 seconds of air this week? Leave your comments below, and don't forget to join us in the TWSS chat room after the show.
Category:general
-- posted at: 2:21pm EST
Comments[50]
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If Michael and Holly dressed up for Halloween, what do you think they would dress up as? I think Michael would have been that dude from Get Smart. Anyways, the Office really needs to hire some continuity editor. I\'ve never seen so much continuity issues in one season, and aside from the Roseanne switching of daughters (with the girl from scrubs, which they admitted to and had fun with), I can\'t think of another long running series that would allow that to happen so much. I would be okay if the series ended with Holly back in Michael\'s life. But before it gets there, I do wonder what will happen next. And prediction: Next regional manager is Karen Filipelli.
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I laughed a whole lot at the Dwight and Andy plot line. I don\'t care if it\'s been done before, it was just such a hilarious way for Dwight to get back at Andy, even though Andy doesn\'t know why Dwight is doing it. Dwight just did it so well though; he learned a whole lot about Cornell, whereas Andy comes in as a beet farmer and doesn\'t really know much about beets. Meanwhile, Angela is wondering what on earth she started. Michael\'s story line was just sad, and kind of an irritating way to get rid of Holly. Plus, I was confused as to how Michael was supposed to get home without Darryl driving him. And how was Darryl was driving for 14+ hours in one day? (I guess we could assume they stopped for the night.) So his plot just bothered me, though perhaps I was focusing too much on the technical details, but the thought of him getting back with Jan again is just unnerving. At least we got to hear some quality blues.
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Matt, I\'m still not convinced Jim didn\'t tell someone. Maybe it\'s my inherent desire to trust in Jim completely, but I think he either told Michael and Michael forgot, or Dwight knows and Jim didn\'t bother to tell Michael since he knew he\'d be gone. After all, he knew Michael would be gone and Dwight would only be too happy to take charge. In my theory, that is why nobody at the office mentioned Jim\'s disappearance or even noticed for that matter.
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I was freakin happy when the story broke about Amy Ryan being fired. NEVER liked that woman and she was the only complaint I had about this season. Melora Hardin is a far more likable actress. And as for Holly replacing Jan in Michael\'s life - HATED it. Amy Ryan is simply NOT an attractive girl. Her nasty mug on the TV was a nightmare. She MIGHT be a better actress than Melora- but Melora has the looks!!
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well, to start off, this wasnt the best episode ever, but it was defintiely enjoyable.The Cold open was great, too bad we didnt get to see michel and hollys costume. that would definitely have been interesting. The \\\"blues\\\" scene definitely warmed my heart for Darryl to actually be nice to michael for the first time? speaking of darryl, they said michael was taking a personal day to help Holly move, what about darryl? Peronsal day, or skipping work? Well, there is none percent that jims brothers turned out to be douches. Horrible prank, sorry pam.
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With Halloween on a Friday this year, and the majority of this episode taking place on a Friday (presumably) after Halloween, it definitely looks like Pam is beyond her 3-month internship. Sure wish the show would address the details of that in some fashion. I liked how Dwight referred to Ryan as \"Temp\".
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First of all it broke my heart to see the tears in Michael\'s eyes on the way back home. That was some good acting from both him AND Holly. The way she broke down when she started to realize the Long distance relationship wouldn\'t work. Michael\'s my favorite character on the show. As you guy have pointed out, he sometimes has these flashes of brilliance and other times he makes you wince at his stupidity. I think he\'s just an exaggeration of us all. We all have those same moments, just (probably) not as extreme, and certainly not on film. The cold open was great. 3 Jokers? They should have had a \"scare-off\" with Creed winning hand\'s down. To tell the truth, I\'ve worked with people somewhat like Creed (again, not as extreme) and they can be really creepy. Not run-in-the-other-direction-Creed creepy, but more like I\'ll-sit-over-here-and-eat-my-lunch or I\'d-rather-stand-on-the-bus-rather-than-sit-next-to-him creepy. Jim and Pam? I thought the brothers were A-holes, but it gave me a LOT of insight on why Jim is the smart-alec prankster that he is. But he was problem is that he was probably on the bottom of the totem pole, so that\'s why his pranks seem to be on the sneaky side, or bratty. I like Pam, but Jim seems like the kind of guy that would get punched in the mouth a lot if he talked to people outside of work, the way he talks to/treats people *at* work. Dwight/Andy - meh, not much there, good as filler between the real story, but that\'s all been done before. But I still LOVE the podcast, the way you guys discuss the show and bring up things that I might have missed, this is still one of my MUST HAVE podcasts. Keep up the good work!
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The Office has been one of the great shows of the last four years, these characters have been written so well that it is hard to think of to many other shows with the depth and reality of The Office, apart from Big Bang Theory. To say it is a \"Blue State\" show (whatever that is) is just an example of people who don\'t really really REALLY watch it. It is set in a small town in Vermont, who do you think these characters are going to resemble? Steve Carrell is a great comedy writer, but I am glad to read he will be doing other projects, hopefully another series. It\'s better than 90% of whats on T.V., though that might not be saying much with the current state of network T.V.
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I watched the episode twice to make sure my Thursday impressions survived the night. I agree with Heather that the realities of the Michael/Holly relationship and the big deal they made when they brought in Holly about training was not a minor point to screw up. Wasn\'t it when Holly first dissed Toby to Michael\'s face when he first noticed her in a positive way? However, here are my impressions that others may feel free to diss at will: 1. The cold open and the overall episode were too jarring together. I agree with the poster above that the chronology of Pam in New York would mean that she would have been in Scranton WAY before Halloween. I thought putting that first and then having no other mention of Halloween throughout the rest of the episode made no sense; it felt tacked on to the beginning because they knew when the episode would air. 2. When the hell is Pam coming back? Do they think that obsessive Office fans like ourselves and others on the internet can\'t count? Bring her back for Heavens Sake!! 3. The Pam/Jim stuff is officially lame with this distance. The joy of watching an office romance unfold is actually watching it unfold. Keeping people apart for the sake of some manufactured \"drama\" does not give the audience enough credit. 4. I thought the non-bald Halpert brother looked a lot like John Krasinski. I wonder if this was an actual relative of his, like Mindy Kaling\'s parents played Kelly Kapur\'s parents in the Diwali episode. Oh, and why am I not surprised that Jim is the baby of the family? 5. Steve Carrell, start writing your Emmy acceptance speech now. He was brilliant and showed so much humor and heart throughout, just by sitting in a middle seat. And his best interactions of the episode were with Darryl in my opinion. When Darryl joined in that song the first time I laughed my ass off. 6. Finally, like Luke in CA I laughed out of recognition to Andy\'s obsession with Cornell. My newborn son\'s middle name is Dean in honor of Dean Smith. UNC all they way baby!!!
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Someone has already said both of these, but I can\'t wrap my head around it; as a diehard JAMmer, I am confused. Wasn\'t Pam only supposed to be gone 3 months? But she was still at corporate on Halloween. And in this episode, did Jim mention that Pam is now going for her art degree? I feel like I have missed some information somewhere.
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I guess I\'m in the minority along with Bess. I enjoyed this episode from start to finish. I laughed many times - maybe I was just in the mood for the type of humor I saw presented last night. Sure, Holly\'s departure is extremely sad and I love \"warm and fuzzy\" JAM moments, but I\'m OK with not getting them each time Jim and Pam interract. Often times, I base my overall enjoyment of an episode on whether or not I laugh - without over-analyzing it. Simply stated, this one made me laugh. Overall, I\'m much more pleased with Season 5 than I was with Season 4 at this stage.
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I don\'t think DM required Darryl to drive them to Nashua, I think he decided he had to b/c Michael cannot be trusted around such a piece of machinery on his own. Remember the forklift? Or the baler? And don\'t fret, all, Holly will be back I believe. I\'m wondering if JKras (I can\'t believe I just typed that) has had any influence on the plotline in terms of the brothers. When he was on Conan last year he explained all the hazing he got as a boy and some of the incidents he personally endured as a little brother (I seem to remember lawn darts being involved). Just a thought.
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I loved the cold open. Best part of the episode. But I had several serious issues with the Michael/Holly storyline. First off, I\'m pretty easy going about inconsistencies when it is a minor plot point that contradicts something from three years ago (like Meredith\'s birthday or the Hammermill slip). But it\'s only been six months since \"Goodbye Toby\" aired, where Holly was introduced as an outside hire. So I was really thrown off when she was \"transferring back\" to her old branch. Holly and Michael had that whole conversation about her previous job on the ferris wheel and Toby had to train her for the job. But now she\'s a transfer? That\'s a pretty big plot point to screw up. And then there\'s the fact that suddenly having a relationship within the company is a huge deal, despite what we know in the past with Jan and Michael. Plus, there was always the impression when Toby was in the office that HR was supervised by corporate, not Michael. So you could even argue that the supervisor/employee conflict wouldn\'t even be there. (The writers could have easily cleared this up with a comment from Michael that was something like \"We offered to sign one of those love contracts, but corporate said that wouldn\'t do. Apparently some idiot screwed things up for everyone\", in a complete clueless fashion that him and Jan were the ones that caused some new rule to be implemented. Those things really confused me and I wasn\'t really able to enjoy the rest of the episode. It just didn\'t flow right. I liked most of the Dwight and Andy stuff, and it was good to see JAM together again, but it didn\'t make up for the serious flaws in the episode.
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Most boring episode ever. Pam\'s prank idea was dumb and \"welcome to the family\" was so cliche; bears...beets..Battlestar Galactica 2.0 was tedious; and Life is a Highway was a downer. The best part of the episode was the 2 seconds where Daryl gives props to Michael for finally saying something smooth in the truck.
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Matt - That episode was complete crap. It was simultaneously overcrowded and terribly sparse. They crammed Halloween, Michael and Holly breaking up, Dwight and Andy with the Cornell bit, and the JAM vs. The Brothers Halpert into just a little over 20 minutes. 4 story lines kind of crowded the episode, but they didn\'t really have a chance to dive deep into any of them. ... Did Darryl touch you?
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I\'m surprised that so many people were not blown away by the Andy-Dwight conflict! This was a brilliant twist by the writers to have Dwight doing a classic Jim Halpert gag against Andy. Dwight is usually over the top & lame (remember when he tried to dress like Jim?). He was subtle & consistently frustrating without ever losing it, & I loved it. I do think the writers will surprise us with a happy ending for Michael/Holly, but they\'ll play with us for a while. I bet they\'ll work it out that she isn\'t on the show, but Michael still talks to her via Email, phone & the occasional guest starring role. That would be better than having Michael miserable or going back to Jan or something crappy like that.
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Ok - I haven\'t ready any comments yet, I\'m about to dive in. Thursday night/Friday morning Chris - with a heavy heart - says this is the worst episode ever. Man, it hurts to write that. I really liked Baby Shower and Crime Aid, which I know folks had mixed feelings on, but this was a painful 22 minutes. Goodbye Amy Ryan, see you sometime in April/May I suspect! The Jim/Pam plotline had no feeling behind it whatsoever. If that\'s how they are together, maybe Pam should hook up with Mr. Mad Man. Jim had more chemistry with Jan outside on Casino Night. Woof! The Dwight/Andy plot was the best, but it felt overly mean. And does Andy actually realize why Dwight is so hostile to him. He doesn\'t even know about Dwangela, right?
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LOVED the cold open. I also enjoyed watching Dwight torture Andy about Cornell and Andy attempting to mess with Dwight in return while having no idea of the underlying reason Dwight was after him in the first place. Meanwhile, Angela looks on in horror. The Jim/Pam plotline was a waste of time and didn\'t add anything to the episode. I thought she was going to New York for a 3 month class. Now she\'s there working on an art degree? The Michael/Holly story was a let down. Why go to all the trouble to introduce this character and then have the relationship fizzle out in such a lame way??
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One more thing - I totally agree that there should have been more Halloween shenanigans. People have said they wish there was a payoff for Joker x3. When Dwight walked in the office in a sweatshirt, I thought it was still Halloween and that he\'d gone home and changed and was pouting that his costume wasn\'t original. It took me a minute to realize it was a Cornell shirt and that it wasn\'t Oct. 31 anymore. However, assuming the cold open was shot July/Aug, it was intuitive of the show to have everyone as The Joker, seeing as this is what EVERYONE is dressing as this year. Creed wins, plus he\'s actually the one guy at DM that I\'d be afraid might kill someone. I love The Office - here\'s to a good show next week!
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Blake - I can see Michael at a new emotional level because after all these years, he found his soul-mate. We\'ve had a similar Holly/Michael moment in my company. An HR manager started a relationship with an executive in the same division. They quietly moved her to another organization. They should have put the scenes with Jim\'s brothers in the Deleted Scenes.
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I\'m going to defend this episode. I always see a lot of Negative Nancy\'s on the comments section here. I thought the Halloween costumes were hilarious. I also felt that it totally worked as just a cold open. Someone mentioned there was no \"payoff\" for Dwight\'s joker costume, but I felt that Dwight as the joker WAS the payoff for the \"multiple jokers\" gag. The Dwight versus Andy plot had me rolling. I always love to see those two go at it, and Dwight knew the perfect buttons to press to get Andy angry. As for Michael / Holly, I felt the employee transfer was perfectly realistic. An HR employee dating the manager is a huge conflict of interest. And with a drive that long, Holly\'s breakdown was natural as she realized this was the beginning of the end. I felt the Jim / Pam plot was the weakest. It was nice to see them back together, but meh. And as for the episode being depressing, I actually LOVE that this show can occasionally go to dark places. If you look at the premise, it\'s supposedly a documentary of real life. Real life is not always a bowl of peaches. Sometimes the bottom falls out and it\'s really depressing. I love the goofy jokes on the show, but I can also appreciate it when the characters have big issues they are facing.
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Wow, after reading through the comments I feel completely out of touch because I thought this episode was awesome. I rewatched the cold open a few times and laughed every time, loved Dwight messing with Andy and vice versa, LOVED that Darryl wasn\'t a jerk to Michael, and I thought they handled the Holly/Michael thing well (even if transferring her seems a little drastic, they did well with the relationship breakdown). There was a bunch of oneliners that made me snort in laughter (\"It\'s pronounced Ker-nel\"). The only thing I didn\'t like was the Jim/Pam storyline, but it was nice to see them together again. Maybe it\'s because I was completely spoiler/preview free? I knew nothing about the episode except for what Matt said on the last podcast. Whatever it is I\'m glad, because this is the first time this season I\'ve really enjoyed an episode from start to finish without getting bored in the middle.
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My apologies, I redact the statement about seeing the Halpert brothers before. I think I might have created an appearance in my head, because their personalities felt very familiar to me. I think I self-inserted a phone call between him and one of them into \"Valentine\'s Day\" in Season Two. See, this is what happens when you don\'t watch your early seasons enough! ;) At least I can be redeemed by the mention that his brother just had a baby in \"Branch Wars!\" My statement about the brothers personalities being obnoxious still stands, even if we haven\'t seen them before, by the way.
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I can keep this post short by just saying \"ditto\" to what Kate said above. I think this is my least favorite episode ever. - The Holly farewell was a downer (and if it was depressing for me, then I think we need to chip in for some happy pills for ole\' Matt) - The cold open was funny, but it limited the Halloween content to a minute and a half. also, thought the Dwight Joker didn\'t get a payoff (how bout some dwight on creed on kevin joker interaction) - I didn\'t think the bit with Jim\'s brothers was either awkward funny or regular funny. I just thought it was poorly executed (really, who makes fun of the bride-to-be\'s earning potential - - i thought it was lame and forced). I did love the Cornell bit (despite it similarity to the Jim impersonates Dwight episode). I, like Andy, am a little deranged about my Alma mater (UCLA - Fight, Fight, Fight), so the college gags always make me laugh (as does Andy going ballistic). . . .well, so much for short AND DO-TELL IAN, WHEN HAVE WE SEEN JIM\'S BROS BEFORE????
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I really think this was an inspired way to end the Michael/Holly storyline for now. It will put Michael in an emotional place we\'ve never really seen him in before (i.e., grief over a GENUINE loss), and we\'ve also seen some maturity when he recognized his weakness regarding Jan. But most importantly, it would be very easy to bring Amy Ryan back, even part-time, which I\'m sure is what most of us here are hoping for. The Jam plotline was good too -- it was great just to see her for more than a few seconds, first of all, but I also think it was pretty telling how she got rattled by the brothers\' pranking. Whether they intended it or not, they definitely hit a nerve. I\'ll be interested in seeing how that plays out. And yeah, I don\'t remember ever seeing Jim\'s brothers before either.
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Hey Matt After seeing the episode twice, I have to say that my reactions the first time around were the same. I loved the cold open and wished we could have seen more of the costumes and the office interacting. While Dwight got the Joker costume perfectly, the edge goes to Creed obviously. The Michael/Holly plotline was perfectly dramatic with Darryl injecting some much needed humor and sympathy at the end. Even you\\\'d have to admit that Darryl was good in this ep. I was disappointed that the first time we see a real Jim/Pam plotline since the premiere basically amounted to Jim\\\'s brothers shitting all over their new sister-in-law. That was just downright cruel and more villainous than Dwight sticking it to Andy. Which brings me to the one real bright spot in the episode. While they may have rehashed a few moments, it was still entertaining and incredibly funny to see Dwight turning Cornell against Andy. GO DWIGHT GO!!! And Michelle, when has Pam ever been cocky? What the brothers did to Pam is akin to some of the worst high school bullying anyone can ever be a part of. She did not deserve one bit of that.
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Ugh, I hated that episode. Jumpy, not funny, and weirdly clumsy. I would like to have faith that the Holly stuff will work out somehow, but it\'s hard when things seem so arbitrary. Why get us involved if they knew they couldn\'t afford to keep her? What is the point of seeing even more sad lonely Michael? I understand that the show needs tension and everyone can\'t be happy all the time blah blah blah. But why is a comedy trying to make me depressed?
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I love the Jim/Pam dynamic, but I have to confess that Michael and Holly were becoming my favorite couple. Poor Michael. Tonight\'s episode has left me so sad. Overall, the episode was a bit disappointing for me. Limiting the costumes to the cold open was such a disappointment. It\'s similar to when Jim announced he and Pam were engaged. It was mentioned once in the opening and that\'s it. I feel like all I need to watch is the opening. And it was nice to finally see more Pam, but I just felt sad for her and Jim during the lunch. I read previews about Jim\'s brothers and I was expecting to see some great moments but all I feel is disappointed and sad. Kind of a depressing episode. I admit there were a few funny lines, but they seemed few and far between. And even though I enjoyed the Andy/Dwight plot, it felt too similar to the Jim dressing up as Dwight and vice versa opening/closing from season three. Maybe I need to watch the episode again. Perhaps my expectations were too high.
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Wow, this episode managed to go everywhere I was hoping it would not. Jim\'s brothers were even more obnoxious than they were the last time they were on, and what they did to Pam was just plain cruel. Jim stood by her and all, but that is how they initiate someone into the family? Seriously? You have to go through less to become a Corleone! And then there\'s Michael and Holly. While it might make sense to break up due to the distance...I hurt watching Michael get broken down to pieces yet again. What a sad, sad man. When he broke down about not wanting to go back to Jan, I was hoping Holly would console him. While she did in the end, too much of their breakup felt rushed and forced. The Dwight and Andy stuff? Funny, but not the best I\'ve seen between them. So yes, I do believe this episode was the worst of the season so far, and the worst in quite some time. Even I can be negative it seems. Ah well, hopefully next week will be better!
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Liked only some parts of the episode. Halloween was much too short, I\'d say. How about a little more Joker interaction? Pam looked adorable in her costume. And Jim took an even easier way out then 3-hole punch version of Jim, which at least was a little clever. Holly said it was a weird week since they\'d heard about the transfer. Did David Wallace go straight back to corporate and assign her back to Nashua? I felt like there should be at least something before a transfer, which seems like it should be the last option. I probably feel this way because I love Holly. Just seems too soon. Best line of the episode, however: \"Did Darryl touch you?\" \"WHAT?\" The PB&J (and brothers) plot was a little weird. I thought maybe Jim was pre-pranking Pam\'s prank, but it just turned out to be a really awkward lunch. All I have to say is that they BETTER like Pam and accept her into the family. A few good lines, but nothing special. Dwight/Andy was fairly meh as well. Again, some okay lines, but overall nothing great. Some felt repeated from previous Dwight/Andy interactions. I miss you already, Holly.
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Interesting episode. I think the cold open might have been my favorite part; the three Jokers, Jim with his classic undersell of a costume and Hitler/Chaplin/Pam cracked me up. Otherwise, I didn\'t really get point of meeting Jim\'s brothers, but it was a blessing to see Jim and Pam share the screen again. And though I hate to say it, it was also a little gratifying to see Pam at a loss; she\'s come across a little cocky lately. I liked seeing her defend her choices without needing to brag. I\'m not a huge Michael/Holly fan, but I\'ll admit, I got a little misty as their plotline progressed. Michael is rarely at the top of the list of people I wish happiness upon, but tonight I did wonder why they just couldn\'t work something out. (And wow, Amy Ryan? Quite an actress, that one.) And I did enjoy Andy finally getting some spine back and standing up to Dwight. Snatching the interview away was inspired, even if it did devolve into slapstick. At least Andy seems to be regaining some legitimacy as an enemy for Dwight. (My favorite line: \"I see what you\'re doing. But I\'m not sure where you\'re going with it.\")
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I\\\'ve always admired Amy Ryan, as an actress and as a beautiful woman. But the botox, lip injections, and hair coloring belie her lack of concern with vanity. Also, I always end up feeling a little sad about her children - something about the way she speaks of them makes it seem as if she\\\'s had little to do with their lives. Perhaps it\\\'s because she rejected Scientology, who knows, that\\\'s purely speculation. Great episode for her to go out on!
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Middle of the road not Good not Bad. A few great lines. Creed scary as hell or maybe even scarier than the Joker himself....At least more disturbing. Not enough Halloween and too much Jam pranking. Pam was very cute in her Chap-itler costume....Dwight was pretty good at getting to Andy....Daryl was somewhat sympathetic to Michael. What a sad breakup...Just hug it out Bit*h....
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I was hoping they would do more with the Halloween storyline, particularly with Pam being the only one at corporate in costume. She looked great in her Charlie Chaplin/Adolf Hitler costume. As much as I was looking forward to see Jim & Pam together, I thought the who pranking storyline fell a little flat...though that final line of Pam wanting to prank Jim\'s brother for being bald did earn a chuckle. By the way, I thought her art program was only supposed to last 3 months. How long has it been now?? Such a sad way to see Holly go, but I did love the ending scene with Michael and Darrel.
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