Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present: Michael Scott, grown-up. Sure, he's always going to do goofy things, whether it's small things like eating an entire chicken pot pie and sleeping through most of the afternoon or big things telling the Buffalo branch they'd be losing their jobs during a skit.
But all season long, especially through the Holly Flax and Michael Scott Paper company story arcs, we've seen Michael grow and mature, to the point we saw at the end of tonight's finale. It was the first 30 minute finale The Office has had since season one. The hour-long finales in seasons two, three and four are rightly considered classics.
This one wasn't quite there, but it was still a lovely way to finish the season, a nice mix of flat-out comedy and general sweetness, plus one of those big end-of-season, life changing events TV loves to drop on us in May each year. Spoilers on that, and the rest of the episode, are ahead.
At the start of "Company Picnic," it seems like Michael's reunion with Holly is going to be awkward. He's trying to joke his way through conversations with her new boyfriend -- calling him "fatty" after he says he wears a size 34 pants -- while preparing to read her a list of reasons they should be together.
(It's apparently a hastily-written list, as Michael first reads "soul mates" as "soup snakes.")
But it doesn't happen. Michael keeps waiting for the right time, but eventually, he realizes things between he and Holly are -- at that moment -- just about perfect. They're no longer a couple, but watching them plan their horrific skit, and then talk about what went wrong later, you can see why they'd be good together.
Then comes Michael's great monologue at the end, about how he and Holly are "one of those couples that has a long story." They'll keep finding each other, and maybe one day, one year, the time will be right. And they'll have a lovely story to tell about how they got together.
Maybe it's not realistic. Holly and her boyfriend are designing a house (and Amy Ryan may not be available for the show for a long time). But the old Michael would have gone ahead with his plan to read the list, leaving him, Holly (and us) feeling miserable. This Michael is one who gets to win sometimes.
Speaking of victories: Jim, Pam and the writers, for not throwing stupid roadblocks into their relationship and letting them be happy. In the last minutes of the episode, Pam discovers she's pregnant (no one comes out and says it, but it had been set up that way, and there's no other explanation for their absolutely joyous reaction). This has just been a great, great season.
Some other thoughts:
- I hope we'll get to see more of Rolf, Dwight's friend (who basically functioned as a mini-Dwight for the picnic). Actually, he's more like uber-Dwight, a version of what Dwight would be like if he never left the farm.
- "Slumdunder Mifflinaire" continued Michael's streak of not-quite-current pop culture parodies (the others were "Lazy Scranton" and "The Scranton Witch Project.")
- Little throw-away moments I liked -- Dwight taking off his shoes to sneak into Michael's car, Toby chatting with an HR doppelganger, and Pam's "I went to volleyball camp every sum-mah!"
- And that's it for this season. We'll be back at this in September.
Tom Coombe
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