“I’m really excited for Michael either way, because if Holly chooses to be with him, he will be so, so happy. And if not, he’ll be avoiding the biggest mistake of his life.” – Erin
Everyone returns to work after New Year’s Day on this edition of The Office, and Michael waits for Holly to come back to see if she is engaged to AJ.
As the Dunder Mifflin gang makes their way into work, Michael sets up a sad box and a happy box in his office with Erin, for whatever the outcome turns out to be. The sad box includes two bottles of whisky, a ukulele as something to break, and gummy bears (“bears sad, worms happy… come on, Erin”). In the happy box are gummy worms, confetti, champagne, party hats and whistles. Michael has also made some videos to either cheer him up if sad or as a celebration if he is happy.
When Holly walks into the office, she is wearing gloves and Michael tries to feel them for a ring. Kelly, Pam, and Kevin follow her back to her desk and she lets them know that she is not engaged. I laughed so hard when she showed them her index fingers and then Kevin, thinking they were her middle fingers, flipped her off and said “right back at you bitch.”
Michael heads back to his office and goes crazy thinking Holly and AJ broke up. He puts on his party hat and sprays Erin with champagne. When Michael actually goes back to talk to Holly, he realizes that she and AJ are still together. I love Steve Carell and Amy Ryan’s chemistry and their characters. If it were anybody else talking like extraterrestrials to each other, it might not be as funny. Equally funny was Kelly, behind her cubicle, telling them to stop.
Pam decides she wants to motivate everyone more as the office coordinator and makes a New Year’s resolution board with everybody’s name on it. “She gets everybody to put a resolution on an index card and they are going to try to work on them together. There are some good resolutions such as Michael’s (to floss) and Kevin’s (to eat more vegetables). Angela wants to be more romantic and Creed wants to do a cartwheel.
Dwight decides his resolution is to meet a loose woman and Andy changes his to the same. Darryl gives Andy and Dwight advice to pick up women at a bookstore, but really he just wants to go there to get a book because his resolution is to read more and he wants a ride so he can eat his sandwich. The trio ends up at the bookstore, and then the roller rink, with Dwight making a side trip to a strip club. Alas, not one loose woman was found by the end of their trip.
At Pam’s resolution meeting, Michael flips out and forces Kevin to eat broccoli and makes fun of Creed for not being able to do a cartwheel. He yells at everybody for not coming through on their resolutions, but is obviously aiming his rant towards Holly. She leaves the room and when he goes to talk to her, she doesn’t want to. Michael then brings Creed and Kevin to apologize with Holly there, telling her he wants an HR rep in the room. He tells Creed and Kevin that he cares about them very much and he is sorry. Once again he is aiming this towards Holly. She goes back to her desk to call AJ and tells him that she wants to cool things down until she comes home to Nashua.
I haven’t laughed out loud at an episode of The Office this much in a while. The stories balanced each other out and I have to hand it to Pam for always trying to bring something good to the office. The Andy / Dwight / Darryl story was entertaining and the three make a good trio. My only complaint was: where was Jim in all of this?
Other quality moments:
- Andy, Dwight, and Darryl at the roller rink, skating under a strobe light to Dave Matthews.
- Erin doing a cartwheel in front of Creed, with his response being, “F— you!”
- Kelly’s resolution of “drawing attention to myself by any means necessary.”
Some stats and info about The Office, “Ultimatum”
TV SHOW – The Office
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 7, Episode 13
AIRED ON – January 20th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – NBC
GENRE – Comedy, Office Culture
CREATED BY – Greg Daniels, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
CAST – Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Angela Kinsey, Kate Flannery, Phyllis Smith, Creed Bratton, Oscar Nunez, B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms, Paul Lieberstein, Craig Robinson, Ellie Kemper
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.