'The Office': Welcome to the Beets Motel

So ends the great season-opening hour-long Office experiment. Next week the show goes back to its regular length, which means fewer extended discussions of proper grammar but also probably more focused storytelling.

(Spoilers for whomever -- or is it whoever? -- wants them beginning forthwith.)

Still, Thursday's episode offered up several emotional moments, with Jim and Pam bucking up their usual favorite whipping boy and Jan, for once, looking outside herself to help Michael when he really needed it. Plus, the return of Mose Schrute -- and how can you not like that?

The hour was a little disjointed, with Michael at his second job, Jim and Pam visiting the Schrute Farms B&B (and yeah, you can find it on Trip Advisor; good follow-through, NBC/Office web folks) and Michael contemplating life as a hobo. But somehow, maybe because the character through-lines were strong enough, it managed to hang together pretty well. Let's take the two major story lines one at a time.

Michael and Jan: Jan is remodeling the condo ("A futon is not a sofa." "It folds up. You've only seen it flat") and driving a Porsche, so money is a little tight. So tight, in fact, that Michael has taken a second job telemarketing a quack weight-loss pill. The funny/sad elements (Stanley on his call list? Brilliant) of that story were a welcome changeup from the frequent Bad Michael moments we've had the past few weeks, and I loved that Michael the employee was as easygoing -- how they all hung on his discussion of the Die Hard series -- and well-liked as Michael the boss is overbearing and just barely tolerated.

His resentment of Ryan seems to have faded a little bit, though he still passive-aggressively resists any kind of change the scruffy-bearded kid tries to bring to the company. Michael's admission that he probably wouldn't have learned PowerPoint even if he didn't have a second job was one of the more honest moments he's had.

And, as nutty as Jan can be ("My family, on the advice of counsel, still isn't talking to me"), the scene in which she talked Michael off the train really was pretty sweet (but not too; all through the hour, writer Paul Lieberstein -- Toby -- kept the show on the right side of that line). For all of Michael's voluminous faults, the guy does not turn his back on people he considers friends, and it's good that Jan recognized how important that is to their relationship.

Jim, Pam and Dwight: I'm with Jim here -- I wouldn't have imagined his first night away with Pam would involve Schrute Farms either. Yet what started out as a goof on their part -- a stay at the Beets Motel, the Embassy Beets, the Radish Inn, all Pam's -- and included the return of Mose, some beet wine and a bedtime reading of Harry Potter also gave them a chance to try to give Dwight, still reeling from his breakup with Angela, a little nudge back in the right direction.

PBJ love their pranks, but they also know better not to kick someone when he's down. Where, after all, is the fun in that? Their positive review of the B&B, with its three themed rooms (America, irrigation, nighttime) didn't help much. But Jim's stairwell pep talk, which is about the most honest we've ever seen him be about his time in Stamford, and it actually caused Dwight to express a little affection for his desk mate. Jim had already left, but still.

And you 'shippers have got to be happy about the kiss Jim laid on Pam immediately after that. Yes, it was awfully shmoopy, but it felt earned, too, and the way they discussed their love of "Italian food" in the talking heads right was totally charming.

Other bits of funny business from "Money":

• Kapoor Crazy lives: During the whoever-whomever discussion, Kelly blurts out "Ryan used me as an object," then makes a big show of kissing Darryl in front of her ex (though it doesn't quite get the reaction she wants). Darryl's onto her, though ("You need to access your uncrazy side"), and lets her know it -- which completely baffles Kelly. "Darryl Philbin is the most complicated man I've ever met. I mean, who says exactly what they're thinking. [Shakes head.] What kind of game is that?"
• Dwight and Angela's exchange of stuff: "One cardigan. One sleep cardigan. And one sleep apnea mat." But yeah, he kept the cherub figurine.
• Trouble in the Scranton music scene! Kevin has apparently left Scrantonicity and formed his own group, Scrantonicity 2. His petulant reaction to no one showing up for his gig was great.
• Michael's Devil Wears Prada moment at the top of the show. "Meryl Streep's the bad guy. You never see it coming."
• Mose running alongside the car, Mose mashing beets, Mose getting in a manure fight with Dwight, Mose at the foot of the bed while Dwight reads Harry Potter. Mose, Mose, Mose.
• Andy finally breaks Angela's icy reserve. Sort of. She accepts the stray cat he boxed up for her and informs him that he may ask her to dinner -- "nothing fancy or foreign, no bars, no patios, no vegetables. And no seafood."
• Creed's explanation of bankruptcy as "nature's do-over," his assertion that Monopoly is bunk because "No one just picks up Get Out of Jail Free cards. Those cost thousands" and his explanation that Creed Bratton has never declared bankruptcy, but William Charles Schneider has.

There's more to talk about, I'm sure, but it's late and I've gone on enough. So...

Are you happy to see The Office return to its regular length next week? Wish the hour-long episodes could go on forever? Happy as I was to see Mose again?

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