'The Office' - 'The Meeting': Meet the new boss

"I tried to keep Michael in the dark. I should have known he can do just as much damage in the dark." -- Jim Halpert

I didn't find myself laughing a whole bunch during "The Office" this week. But I ended the half-hour very excited about where the show is headed.

A combination of Michael being extra dense and the consequences of that being a threat to Jim's future made "The Meeting" as much drama as comedy -- although there were moments, like Andy's description of the cheese platter and Ryan's super-d-bag moment with Pam, that had me rolling pretty good. But I think we've lived with the show and these characters long enough now that the occasional episode where the big laffs take a back seat is OK, especially when what comes of it is as intriguing as what went down here.

David Wallace is in Scranton to talk to Jim -- which is driving Michael nuts, because he's not involved. After threatening Pam ("If you're lying to me now, the baby is going to come out a liar. ... They inherit things through your breast milk." Pam: "Please don't talk about my breast milk") and faking a phone conversation while wandering into the conference room, Michael hits on his master stroke.

Eschewing the "so crazy it just might work" approach, he opts for a direct attack -- you know, by having Andy wheel him inside a cheese cart. Which, of course, happens just as Jim and David wrapping up. Jim has gone to great lengths to keep his plans under wraps, and with good reason: He's pitched a plan where he'd take over the Scranton branch (which has absorbed the clients of the now-shuttered Buffalo office and created some more work) while Michael would get bumped up to head of sales for the whole region.

It sounds great, but because Michael is completely insecure and even a little bit paranoid, he completely undercuts Jim, saying he's not management-ready and showing him a bad performance review from Toby (which was kind of hilarious/sad: Toby channeling his longing for Pam into damning employment documents on his supposed rival). I had kind of had enough, though, when Michael looked down on a dejected Jim and told the camera, "I can't help but feel ... partially responsible." Urge to kill, rising.

But how it worked out -- with Jim showing enough spine to confront Michael about having screwed him over, and Michael caving to the idea that he and Jim will be co-managers -- raises a ton of great possibilities for the show. Michael is obviously going to try to assert that he's more co- than Jim, Jim will push back and Dwight's head may very well fly off (witness his primal scream to close the episode). I think there's huge potential there to give the show a shot in the arm the way the Michael Scott Paper Company arc did last season.

The B-story had Dwight and Toby investigating a worker's comp claim from Darryl, who says he broke his ankle by falling off a ladder in a warehouse. Dwight isn't buying it, and Toby goes along for the love of a good case to unravel (his completely weak impression of a tough private eye was maybe the funniest thing in the episode for me). It was fun to see the two of them get along on the stakeout -- and more fun to see Toby cursing out Darryl's sister -- but of course with those two on the case, it wouldn't end well. And it didn't. Darryl was lying about the cause of the accident, Dwight wouldn't apologize for hassling Darryl's sister and Toby ended up with piles of paperwork from both of them. Sigh.

Other thoughts on "The Meeting":

• One of those moments that did have me laughing? The pre-credits teaser, with Michael asking Oscar what to expect from his colonoscopy, sensation-wise. So completely wrong and out of bounds, and so completely cover-your-eyes hilarious.
• I sympathize with Pam and her wedding-invite agita; my wife and I were going through the same thing about a year ago (my co-workers were fortunately a lot cooler about it than Pam's). It's nice to see, though, that Ryan has not shed his toolishness -- "I might stop by" and his smug line about once having had a $77 glass of cognac were perfect distillations of d-baggery.
• Dwight: "I'm rebuilding a turn-of-the-century steam engine in my slaughterhouse." Toby: "That's so cool. I'd love to take a look at that." Dwight: "It's just a run-of-the-mill slaughterhouse, but sure, anytime."

 
What did you think of "The Office" this week? How do you think the co-managers are going to get along?