'The Office' recap: 'Glee'-Ful Night

There are two things I just don't like about The Office: episodes that stray outside of the workplace, and Andy Bernard. (Apologies to your regular recapper Margaret Lyons, an extremely reputable Nard-Dog loyalist.) But I kind of enjoyed last night's telecast, even though it was an extremely Andy-tastic evening away from Dunder Mifflin. The key to the episode, I think, was how completely the non-work event -- a Glee viewing party at Gabe's yuppie-palace apartment -- was dominated by a work-centric power play. The Dunder Mifflinites were only there because they consider Gabe the boss, and you can't skip the boss's party. Michael was only there to re-establish his dominion (or, if that failed, commit sabotage). Erin, bless her, was the only one without any ulterior motives. She just wanted Gabe and Michael to mash-up. "Take Gabe, take Michael. GayMike. Best Friends!"

The problem began early, when it became clear that Gabe has precisely the kind of life both Michael and Andy would like to live. His well-appointed apartment includes a well-stocked kitchen and a man-cave filled with swords and virility drugs. He doesn't make music, he creates soundscapes. ("Imagine one instant of the song expanded to be the size of the universe.") Things escalated quickly. Andy mixed several powdered seahorses into his drink and became a vomiting sex machine. Michael started his own Glee party in the back bedroom, and then he cut the cable. Gabe told Michael, "You're making this harder than it has to be." Michael, somehow filling this old joke with all the anger and self-loathing of a general who's just been demoted to latrine duty: "That's what she said."

If this had been a better episode -- from a couple seasons ago, perhaps -- Michael and Andy's twin Gabe-hating plotlines might have intertwined. But instead, they both genially dawdled away -- Andy into the toilet, Michael into a beyond-bizarro mock-paternal squabble with Erin that was truly one of the weirder moments in Office history. Still, the episode was saved by the sheer specificity of its Glee jokes, which were less about the show and more about how people watch the show. Kelly was echoing the highly specific gripes of a few million tweets when she asked, "What was with Jesse's sudden turn on Rachel, between 'Dream On' and 'Funk'?"

Likewise, Phyllis totally nailed the annoyance of watching a show with someone who doesn't get a show when she asked, "Which one's Glee?" Best of all was Oscar, who took the time to freeze on Dianna Agron's face while proudly (and wrongly) noting, "That one was on a couple episodes of Friday Night Lights!" And who among us hasn't experienced that excruciating horror, so modern that it doesn't yet have a name, of "Switching Back To the Show You Were Watching Before And Realizing That You Were Watching It On Delay And Weren't Recording It." Scream!

NEXT: The best moments from "Viewing Party."

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