The Office Recap: The Deposition
November 16, 2007 by Kath Skerry
So, Lester Lewis. From what I hear you wrote tonight’s episode of THE OFFICE. A newbie, right? Your first episode? Well here’s what you need to know: You may be a new “cool kid” in the writer’s room. You may get to hang with Gene and Lee and Brent and you might even be on B.J.’s speed dial (well probably not, because it’s B.J. and I don’t think B.J. Novak lets just anyone in his Fave 5). You may be able to walk on to the set of The Office and not be stopped by the security guard who has to remind you that a judge once said that you can never be closer than 300 ft of John Krasinski. But you know what? I’ve been around longer. I’ve been a dedicated fan of this show before you were even born (ok that’s a lie), but since this is my favorite show I feel I have the authority to tell you exactly what I thought of your attempt at writing tonight’s script. And I have one word and only one word for you…Bravo!
If I have to go without The Office for the unforeseen future, I’m glad the show went out in style tonight. It was all the best things of The Office rolled into one really tight half hour of television. We had cute Jim and Pam moments, we had Michael hating on Toby, we had a few ‘that’s what she said’s’, and we had Kelly Kapoor being very Kapoorish, and Michael being dumb, vulnerable and loyal. This viewer was left satisfied and smiling (a gift from me to you).
Office addicts love our continuity. We don’t like to admit it, but those of us who have been around for a long time still like to think that this show is our private little secret and those of us who get all the jokes and make Office references in our daily lives are part of the cool kids club, so we like when there are throw backs to old episodes and nods to past occurrences. Tonight we got to relive the beginning of Michael and Jan’s relationship, from the first kiss in the Chilli’s parking lot, a shout out to Urkel Grue, and even the love contract made an appearance. Nice.
Michael’s deposition, although very funny, showed him at his most vulnerable. Michael Scott is a loyal and honest man. And even though he had a lot to gain from Jan’s lawsuit he still could not be disloyal to his first true love, Dunder Mifflin. The company has brought joy to Michael’s life and has been his companion when no one else was. It hurt Michael to the core to hear that Jan and David Wallace thought he wasn’t good at his job. Being Regional Manager might be the most important thing in Michael’s life, and to be faced with the idea that he’s not a good RM just broke the guy. Michael’s not the type for self-reflection because I’m not sure he always likes what he sees. Michael wants to be the great RM, the best friend, the boss everyone loves and anything short of that is just not ok with him. I mean, after all the negative things that Jan and David said about him, the one thing Michael chose to focus on was that David said he was a ‘nice guy’. That is what is important to Michael. And at the end of the day, Michael is successful because he is a nice guy. A little misguided and at times a complete asshat, but he’s always well intentioned and loyal…sometimes to a fault.
Whew, let’s lighten it up here, shall we? Back in the office, the branch’s #2 wasn’t exactly minding the shop so to speak. He was more busy practicing ping pong on the makeshift table in the conference room and encouraging his underlings to stop working to help him. Hey, in his defense, his lady needed him to step it up.
Ms. Kapoor owned it tonight. What was probably supposed to be a fun game of ping pong between Darryl and Jim got all kinds of competitive when their ladies got involved. And as much as I love Fancy New Beesly, Kelly’s been a bad ass for much longer and she’s just better at it. And ladies, if you need a lesson in smack, learn from the master:
I don’t talk trash, I talk smack – they’re totally different.Trash talk is all hypothetical, like ‘your momma’s so fat she could eat the internet.’ But smack talk is happening like right now. Like, ‘you’re ugly and I know it for a fact cuz I got the evidence right there.
Pam was all about supporting her boyfriend. Has anyone noticed how much Pam loves referring to Jim and her boyfriend? I think it’s adorable. Anyway, her encouragement of his ping pong skills had very little to do with him and much more to do with shutting Kelly up (a worthy undertaking on its own). But in the end, we once again see the theme for season 4 emerge – Jim isn’t as perfect as Pam (or we all) thought he was. The boy can do a lot of things (including lookin’ good in his disheveled office attire) but ping pong isn’t one of them. A word of advice Halpert – stick to Pam Pong…now that’s a game you know.
Yeah, so I’ve watched tonight’s episode three times already and I realized that the mark of a good episode is that when I go back to rewatch, I don’t TiVo through any parts. So alright Lester Lewis…you can stick around. Um, I mean, well you can stick around once the strike is over and you can get back to writing. Way to leave us on a high note. Thanks!
A few other favorite moments and quotes from ‘The Deposition’…
- Pattern Pat-tern. My friend Pat took a turn. Disray. My friend Disray got new specs. Disrayspect. My friend Inapro drives a Prius with his behind neighbor.
- Michael: What do you call a butt load of lawyers driving off a cliff?
Mr. Schneider: A good start…and I think it’s bus load.
Michael: Yeah…a bunch of rich lawyers took the bus.
- Mr. Schneider: How long have you known the plaintiff?
Michael: I haven’t actually seen it, but I have seen The Firm and I plan on renting The Pelican Brief.
- Who is this other woman, Ryan, who you refer to here as just as hot as Jan but in a different way?
- You expect to get screwed by your company, but you never expect to get screwed by your girlfriend.
- Did anyone catch Toby laughing? Have we seen that before? I loved it! Oh and how about Michael throwing Toby’s tray right off the table? I think there isn’t as much hate there as Michael wants there to be.
- Jan Levinson – she’s never fully won me over. I’m not sure she’s good enough for Michael (I’m a bit protective) and she did nothing to endear me to her tonight.
- ‘That’s What She Said’ doesn’t work well in court proceedings, but I think with all the great lawyers we have out there, if they work hard enough they can start working it in there and it will be dawesome. (That’s what she said)
- Dwight and Most have MAD ping pong skills. It looked to me like that was really Rainn Wilson and Michael Schur playing…but then again, I thought Forrest Gump was really playing too. Maybe someone will let us know if it was really them.
And finally, I leave you with a little smack talking courtesy of Kelly Kapoor:
- “What has two skinny chicken legs and sucks at ping pong?”
- “You’re boyfriend is so weak he needs sterouds just to watch baseball.”
- “Jim couldn’t hit a ping pong ball if it was the size of the moon.”
- “Were Jim’s parents first cousins that were also bad at ping pong?”
- “The floppy hair girl you date won a point.”
- “Hey hey you you I don’t like your boyfriend. Cuz cuz cuz cuz cuz he sucks at ping pong.”
Love it…hate it? Favorite moments?
Related Posts
Filed under The Office
[…] reading this post by: Give Me My Remote For more… RSS […]
I totally get what you mean when you said it feels like we belong to this cool kids club that get all the inside jokes and throwbacks. It feels like they put that in there just for us.
Here go some of my fav moments:
– Pam telling Jim he needs to practice and Jim’s “Bring me players” after finding out what Kelly has been saying. Those two are just freaking adorable!
-Pam’s hotdog “Hiya buddy”
– “Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?” ….”Yeeesh”
-XOXO
-Jim’s unbuttoned shirt
-“That’s a lot of guacamole!”
-Michael and Toby at lunch
-Kelly trash talking
OK, so maybe I went a little overboard but I loved it. Thanks Lester Lewis and welcome to Office fandom!
Pam’s sticky notes to Michael were hilarious. Also loved it when she “put the call through”. HAAA!
My heart broke a couple of times for Michael tonight. It hurt the same as when we saw Dwight crying/hurting in the stairwell. So sad!
I could watch Jim Halpert play ping-pong all day. GAHHHH!
Forrest Gump wasn’t really playing??? Lady, you have rocked my world.
I loved Ms. Kapoor.
“You may be able to walk on to the set of the office and not be stopped by the security guard who has to remind you that a judge once said that you can’t be closer to 300 ft of John Krasinski at any given time.” – THIS is why I love you GMMR!!
A fantastic episode tonight. Steve Carell is a genius. Please let this not be the end of Season 4. I refuse to believe it.
I wonder what John Krasinski was thinking during the table read. Was he offended by the chicken legs comment?
I would have liked to see more of the ensemble cast in this last episode, but I guess no one really thought it was the last one.
Did you notice Dwight’s talking head? It was an angle and background we haven’t seen before.
Oh, I’m so sad that this was the last episode of the season. What a great episode; I’m going to miss it so much.
Heather, I think Dwitght’s TH was different because they normally do them in the conference room, where there was a “meeting in progress” 😉
Good episode. Sad that it is the last, especially considering the fact that the next episode was supposed to deal with the repercussions of the deposition on Michael and Jan…Ugh!
Great episode. I will not allow myself to think of it as the last of season 4 though, not yet! I still have hope that this strike will end soon and successfully for the writer’s and we will get more Office!!!! And when this strike does end, I want my Office Christmas episode…even if it’s airing in May!
Anyway, back to tonight’s episode. It was awesome. It also reminded me of “Branch Closing” when Jim spoke about Michael Scott and the difference between him and Josh. Michael is true to his company. Although I think the performance review Jan wrote about Michael would help her case. They were dating and she still thought that he should be demoted for the good of the company. Her and Michael’s relationship was not getting in the way of Jan doing her job. So whatever. It was a great episode. I loved Toby laughing about the whole “Ryan” thing, that was so funny.
Love Pam and Jim!!!!!! I can’t believe they finally get together and now there is a strike keeping them apart =( I totally support the writers and I hope everything works out and soon!!!!
I still seem to have that special Dwight connection (scary as it may be), because just earlier this week I was telling Billy that “dumbass” is the funniest insult ever.
And also, when Michael said “absolutely not” and you see the look on David Wallace’s face, I almost cried.
I really can’t say anything more without repeating all of the great comments above but I think Lester Lewis did his homework. He wrote each character perfectly, and the humor was great.
My heart broke for Michael. Toby and Ryan got to read his diary- how horrible is that? The whole thing with their relationship sucks because Jan had just redeemed herself slightly a few episodes back on the railroad car and there she goes and makes me mad at her for being stupid.
Great episode to “end” on- hopefully it isn’t the end of the season- i’ve got faith. Is anyone else wondering what is going on with Angela and Andy? We haven’t heard from them in a couple weeks… 😛
Loved the episode last night! I agree that Lester Lewis did a fantastic job on his first script. I loved the XOXO from Michael’s diary (probably since I’ve just started watching Gossip Girl!). I though it was a great episode for us to hang onto until this strike is over – so funny! I loved the scene with Michael and Toby – I think at some level Michael appreciated that Toby was trying to make him feel better but of course since it’s Toby, Michael just had to do something to reject him!
I liked the whole Pam-Kelly competition but I did miss seeing a lot of the other cast in this episode. And kilwiggle – I also was wondering what’s going on with Andy and Angela. I missed Ed and Angela in this episode. Other than that, I thought it was a great episode – one of the best so far this season (yes, I still have hope there will be a rest of the season at some point).
Give the writers what they want so we can have our Office back! I’m so sad that this was the last episode. I loved it, BTW. XOXO! Too funny. And all the little notes from Pam. And the reading of Michael’s diary. Oh Michael. How I’ll miss you. Excellent job Lester Lewis.
Loved this episode!!! I also must register my extreme sadness about the very long, cold winter ahead for us all…
I too loved Pam’s “boyfriend glee”! But, I have to ask, am I the only one who thinks that they are being a little too platonic? I just think that they should be a little, well, “hotter” for each other sometimes.
It’s also possible that I’m just watching Pushing Daisies too much- talk about chemistry! I’m still swooing over Ned and Chuck’s dream kiss! lol
Are you saying you thought Michael did that cause he couldn’t betray DM ? Cause it sound a little like that, but that’s really not how I saw things.
To me, even beyond the diary thing it was Jan’s betrayal while they were together that hurt him that much. Because Michael wants to be loved, and he felt like she never really loved him, and attacked him at what he loves : his job. After that I’m not even sure he heard anything but that he’s a nice guy.
Anyways, loved this episode, one of the best this season so far!
that was a great episode, but just know that the ping pong scene with dwight and mose was absolutely fake. absolutely positively 100% fake.
Did anybody notice that MOSE LEFT THE BEET FARM???? I thought he was never ever going to leave! I mean, he didn’t go far, but still, it was quite a milestone. Maybe we’ll see more of Mose’s adventures in Scranton in the future…if the strike ends.
What about all the little Ryan clones? It’s like he’s building an army or something!
Great episode, hopefully it’s not too long until the next one!
[…] Me My Remote: It broke our hearts to recap what could have been the last episode of The Office this season (a moment of silence). At least we still have Pushing Daisies to make us happy, at […]
[…] Me My Remote: It broke our hearts to recap what could have been the last episode of The Office this season (a moment of silence). At least we still have Pushing Daisies to make us happy, at […]
[…] Me My Remote: It broke our hearts to recap what could have been the last episode of The Office this season (a moment of silence). At least we still have Pushing Daisies to make us happy, at […]
[…] Me My Remote: It broke our hearts to recap what could have been the last episode of The Office this season (a moment of silence). At least we still have Pushing Daisies to make us happy, at […]