The Office Review: Episode 9.16, "Moving On"

"Dwight brings Angela with him on a mission to clean his elderly Aunt Shirley."

...that's how anyone reading this episode's description was greeted. "This is why you'll want to tune in to this episode", the guy who wrote the description seems to say, quite delusionally. "Dwight and Angela are washing an old person, guys!!" I generally assume it's a pretty thankless task, having to write these descriptions, but once or twice a season they get the thoroughly enviable task of having to compress a lot of weirdness down into one sentence, and that's when they can say to themselves, "This is what makes it all worth it." And though this isn't quite as viscerally exciting (and filthy sounding) as last season's "Darryl teaches Nellie how to eat a taco", it definitely gets points for oddness!

The scary thing is that it ends up being one of the most important plots in an episode overstuffed with plots. Despite going up against Pam's job interview, and Andy's continued breakdown of his personal and professional likability, and Toby finally taking the Scranton Strangler case by the horns because apparently that's what people want, the extended storyline about aunt cleanin' manages to be just important. Is this the sort of thing we could've looked forward to every week if The Farm had been picked up as a series? Would we have eventually gotten an episode about Dwight teaching his wacky Nazi uncle to eat a taco too, for the universe is ultimately cyclical?

(Potential spoilers and whatnot after the cut!)

As usual with a vague title, there's the question of who, exactly, is moving on here. Is it Andy? Hell no it's not Andy! The episode description also claims that he's trying to move on from his relationship with Erin here, but he fails pretty miserable at that. Instead, he completes his devolution into a genuine villain by enacting an honest-to-goodness evil scheme. (Pete: "It IS awkward. This is a really uncomfortable situation that you've contrived.") And, well.....two episodes into his return, it's clear that he's just plain more entertaining now that we've abandoned any and all pretense that he is a person we are supposed to like, maybe, even a little bit. Granted, his character hasn't changed THAT much - after all, just last season, Andy's the guy who interrupted his girlfriend at her friend's bachelorette party to tell her he doesn't love her, not once, but twice! The only difference now is that we're not supposed to pretend he's a wonderful guy for stuff like this.

I'm really baffled by the return of Gabe, and even more baffled by the fact that he's actually kind of funny here. Kind of funny enough that I'm glad we're seeing him again, and that's saying a lot considering the fact that I generally loathe those multiple seasons of the Andy/Erin/Gabe "love" "triangle". I was a little less sold on Pete's ex-girlfriend Alice, who kind of has a chimp face, albeit the sexiest chimp I've ever seen by a long shot. She's basically there to fill a stock role, that of the blandly bitchy girl who doesn't even try to remain professional in these situations, and she fulfills her role in the machinations of the story just fine. It's just that it's clearly less interesting than Gabe 2.0, which is kind of a sad prospect, really. Still, it's worth it for that shot of Andy Barnard, evil genius, taking delight in all the lives he ruined today. That's about as over-the-top as this show's cinematography can get without becoming ridiculous and distracting!

So, if Andy's completely failing at moving on, then who else could it be? Is it Dwight and Angela, with the aunt-washin'? They come a bit closer, at least, and this plotline has a more mature, well-acted finale than it frankly deserves. Again, I'm baffled! For most of the hour, this is more The Farm-like Schrute family nonsense, of the sort they've been doing a LOT this season. (Paul Lieberstein's feelings must be spared, I guess, lest he wind up coming across as some sort of creepy sadsack!) When Dwight started describing his aunt, I rolled my eyes in anticipation of what was coming. And really, most of the plot was about as icky as I expected. And then Dwight gives his little "Casino Night"-lite speech, and it almost manages to put it all in context - Dwight needs someone like Angela to bring his weird, beety life some dignity. Against all reason, this moment actually worked for me. It's nice to see Angela Kinsey get to do some real acting again this season, and there's always something sweet about Dwight in what passes for an earnest moment for someone like him. "The eighty or ninety years I have left in this life, I want to spend with you."

What about Toby? Is he finally moving on from this Scranton Strangler nonsense? He might actually be! After Nellie basically tells him to nut up or shut up, in more polite, British terms, he puts his neck on the line - The Proud Neck of Justice, isn't that the expression? - and discovers that, yeah, both he and all the conspiracy theorists in the audience have been wasting two seasons of their time. Is the sudden conclusion of this story with Toby in a neck brace funny? Yeah, it's funny enough. (Darryl was right - George Howard Skub IS a devil name.) Is it also a bit disappointing after having multiple behind-the-scenes interviews talk about how exciting it is that they're "solving" this mystery this season, not to mention two seasons of buildup? A little. Anyway, yeah, this is something that has happened now.

Meanwhile, Pam realizes that she has "moved on", career-wise, after a job interview in Philly with Bob Odenkirk as Michael Scott. ("Moved on" in quotes because her current job is completely fabricated and mostly seems to involve tending to orders of PENS.) This is undoubtedly really, really gimmicky, and therefore really, really risky. If something like this doesn't work, why, it's nothing short of a mockery of the show's golden years! So it's a good thing that Odenkirk hits it out of the park - you can easily imagine a less attractive alternate universe where he played Michael Scott and had praise heaped upon him for years before he decided to abandon ship. Though, the really interesting thing about this guy, Mark, is the subtle ways in which he's different, and invariably creepier. Imagine, if you will, that season two became bleaker and more desperate, as opposed to lighter (both in tone, and in actual set lighting). Imagine, if you will, that Michael had a thing for knocking up receptionists. Perhaps it's all really aimless, a lot of Mark without much of anything to mold it, but it's fun anyway.

Less fun is her dinner with Jim that night. Yeah, on one hand, it's as well acted as always, and on a technical level it's crafted quite nicely as well. And it was strangely refreshing to see flashes of their old cutesiness together, considering how genuinely sickening it had become by just last season. Okay, and yeah, the way Pam's mood crumbled when she spoke up about moving to Philly was a pretty good punch to the gut, as was intended. It's a really nice scene, on an objective level. But. Haven't they already had this same exact fight? Are you really gonna end the episode with the same setup to the same fight we've seen them starting to have several times before now? Doesn't drama usually hinge on gradually expanding a situation, not hammering the same exact moments week after week?

Like many of its characters, The Office itself seems to be having trouble moving on as well. There's a definite sense of hesitance when it comes to finding its endgame. Somehow Jim and Pam's final season story arc seems less sure of itself than ever, and the reveal that this documentary will, in fact, be a thing that airs in the show's universe was handled about as awkwardly as possible. (There's a reason real documentaries often have a narrator instead!) "Moving On" is a curious episode in that there's a lot of stuff going on, and you'd think that would make it a prime treatment for an hour-long episode, but somehow the pacing never quite congeals. It feels less like an hour-long story, and more like a lot of interesting storylines that just happen to fill an hour for some reason. Like they only just started to realize how few episodes they have left to finish everything up. Awkwardness aside though, "Moving On" is still a nicely solid final season episode with a lot to like, so I'm gonna give it 7.5 somethingorothers out of 10!

Trivial Observations and, Y'know, Stuff:

• Andy has officially managed to attract more open hostility from the office than even Michael ever managed. Even from Pam! "Where are you going?", he asks. "Not on a three month boat trip!"
• Andy was on fire in the terrible nicknames department tonight, especially when it comes to Clark. Clarker Posey, Clarkwork Orange, Zero Clark Thirty.
• Andy's making the most of the bachelor life. "Last night I ordered a pizza by myself and I ate it over the sink like a rat." (Clark: "There you go, good for you!")
• Mark fails to sell the receptionist position: "The last three girls here all got pregnant. Don't be afraid, it's a different chair."
• Gabe still wears Erin's old button-downs around his condo, and he doesn't have the lung capacity necessary to blow a whistle. And Cousin Mose apparently rapes scarecrows. Lots of dysfunction afoot tonight...
• "Gabe, can you stop talking? Because every word out of your mouth is like the squawk of an ugly of an ugly pelican!"
• A lot of fans seem to be convinced that Jim's character has been radically changed this season, but I feel like he convincingly comes across as himself trying to deal with a new and exciting but stressful situation. He still manages to be perfectly charming. "And this is just consolation champagne. It's from the part of France that IMMEDIATELY gave up to the Nazis."
• Probably my favorite thing about Pete and Clark, as "New Jim" and "Dwight, Jr.", is the fact that they actually do seem to be non-antagonistic friends. It's cute! And in this episode Clark put his hand on Pete's shoulder so I am now compelled, by the laws of fandom, to imagine them doin' it, and I don't really mind that.
• Coming up next week: Punxsutawney Phyllis, alas, did not see her own shadow, which means we have to deal with six more weeks of no new Office.
• By the way, my apologies for being so very late on this. Anxiety and insomnia are the best of friends, and they enjoy teaming up to be unrelentingly assholish towards Jesse, who seemingly has no choice sometimes but to put things off until they decide to go back on vacation.