'The Office' recap: Take One for the Team

But I know we were all dying of suspense at this point, just counting the seconds until we could get back to the office and find out whether they'd get new chairs or a new copier. Oh wait. Not really. Except it was a hoot to watch Pam use sex as a weapon — that's a first — by threatening in not so many words but with ever so much body language to withhold sex from Jim if he stayed on Team Copier, and then slapping on lipstick to flirt with Michael. Still, I'm not sure it can ever be truly "on" in the feminine wiles department until Pam loses the cardigan. Also, was anyone else totally scarred by hearing her say "There's that ass!" as Michael wiggled in his $9 TJ Maxx pants?

Bottom line (sorry, I know that's just as bad as a poop joke): Michael could not be swayed in any direction whatsoever. Hank the security guard's immense repositories of knowledge about both chairs and copiers simply overwhelmed him. He called David Wallace at corporate to have the boss make the decision, except he couldn't get the question out because he was choking on the chocolate dust from the tirimisu he may have dug out of Pam's trash. Then he was totally distracted from the chairs/copiers conundrum entirely when Dave told him he could just report the surplus and pocket $645. This seemed like an exciting solution, because we all know Michael is in massive amounts of debt — but tonight he heard "$645" and thought only, "Burlington Coat Factory." "Burlington Coat Factory" is a funny thing to say, but again, he can barely pay the mortgage, plus we had literally just heard him raving about his $9 TJ Maxx pants — why not spend the $645 there? Also, who can't operate an office chair? And who doesn't know what's 15 percent of 200? Okay, me, but that's not the point. This was all just dumb-guy characterization, and Michael Scott is not inherently dumb.

Anyway. He eventually decided to force his employees to decide amongst themselves. Which they did. And they went with chairs. The end.

What did you think, binder clips? What could have been done to execute tonight's concept — which wasn't a horrible idea at heart — in a more comedic fashion? I for one would have liked to see a bit of the staff decision-making process, which could have been hilarious even without Michael's input. And I do wish I knew what teams Creed, Kelly, and Meredith were on, and why. I also wish I knew better than to buy things on my credit card before I had the money for them, and I wish Michael wasn't suddenly too dumb to know fur is bad, and I sure wish I believed there were PETA protesters standing outside a Burlington Coat Factory in Scranton throwing blood at people in the middle of winter. Finally, I hope the brazen hotness exhibited by both Pam and Jim — who exacted his copier revenge in the credits tag — reappears from time to time, because it was totally refreshing on every level to see those two toss a little fire back and forth instead of just gazing schmoopily into each others' eyes all the time. Your turn!

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