I’m split about this week’s episode of The Office. I thought the main storyline, centered around Ryan’s social media on crack idea “Wuphf” was really funny. Dwight’s “Hay Place” storyline, though? Yeah, that did nothing for me.
It turned out that more Dunder Mifflin employees than just Michael had invested in Ryan’s idea. Pam did. Stanley did, because “I want to own a decommissioned light house. And I want to live at the top. And nobody knows I live there. And there’s a button that I can press that will launch that lighthouse into space.” Awesome. I love Stanley.
Unfortunately, the company wasn’t doing so well…as in it only had about nine more days before bankruptcy. Everyone tried to convince Ryan to sell the domain name to a university with the same acronym, but he wasn’t budging. Michael was holding out too, even though everyone was trying to convince him of a hard truth – that Ryan isn’t actually his BFF, doesn’t look up to him, and is actually trying to take advantage of him. In the end Michael put his foot down a little and told Ryan he had nine days to figure it out, but the funniest part was finding out that the whole “Wuphf” idea had actually been Kelly’s.
Like I said, Dwight’s hay maze was totally lost on me. I thought Angela’s slight flirtation with a single dad she met in the maze was pretty funny, but it was the only part of the whole subplot that made me laugh. Kevin lost in the maze? Whatever. Dwight crowning himself Hay King? It should have been funny, but it just felt too disconnected from the rest of the storyline.
I did like Jim’s subplot, though. He found out that he’d reached his commission cap, which meant there was no reason to work. (You have to wonder when Dwight hit that number? It wouldn’t surprise me that he’d keep selling, though.) To kill time, he started editing Jo’s audiobook in order to mess with Gabe. It was pretty funny, and I like the idea of Jim and Gabe having some conflict, since Gabe is such a stickler for “policy”.
All in all, I thought the episode was just OK, but the season as a whole has been strong so I’ll let it pass. What did you think? Now let’s remember a few of the funnier lines and moments:
- “The petting zoo closes at two, and the goat roast begins at three.” – Dwight
- “Consider it a ‘Wuphf’ in person.” – Michael
- The way Kevin enters sales. (With a “duh-duh-dah-daaaaah!”)
- Michael thinks nine days equals a week.
- Kelly reminding Ryan of how she came up with ‘Wuphf”.
- “What happened to you in high school?” – Darryl, to Michael
