Ah, yes Michael. You do live in a fantasy world and not one I’d like to visit any time soon. After all, who wants to live in a world where mayonnaise and black olives is a substitute for ice cream. Michael’s disgusting choice in comfort food aside, I have to say I was a bit surprised that it took him the duration of the episode to realize what was really going on between him and Donna.
Granted, I thought it might be a stretch that the details of his recent liaisons with the new love of his life added up to her being unfaithful to him. After all, maybe Donna’s just adventurous. Maybe setting off for Chinese food and sex in the Poconos is her idea of a fun date. Who knows? But taking Ryan’s extensive list of signs she might be cheating into account and the fact that Donna never seems to want to be seen in public with Michael, the obvious conclusion seemed to be that she was cheating… only Michael wasn’t the man she was being unfaithful to.
Dwight might have professional looking business cards stating that he’s a private investigator but he definitely doesn’t have the skills to go with the cards or the title. In an effort to prove Donna was a cheater, he set out to bring her to orgasm (words that make me feel as icky as the thought of eating a spoonful of mayo and olives). That failed. For some reason Donna wasn’t impressed by Dwight’s weird display of weightlifting at the gym.
It was Pam who stepped up to do some real detective work. She facebook-stalked Donna and found a picture of her with another man. When Michael called Donna out on it, she admitted that she was cheating… on her husband. Michael’s the mistress! Yikes! I will say this, in terms of finding an original spiral to force Michael down in the relationship department, the writers did a decent job here. The big twist wasn’t as huge of a shocker as it could’ve been but there are definitely places they can go with this (aside from the Poconos). I’m sure it won’t be long before this relationship spirals out of amok as all the others have.
Points to Pam for declaring the truth in heart-shaped jewelry and she also gets points for the creepy laugh that followed her fake-interest in the activities featured at the resort Donna was looking at. The girl’s stealthy.
The B-story involved Darryl (or Darnell, if you’re Creed) messing with Andy. After Andy got a call about a printer that was smoking and caught fire, he brought it to Gabe, who apparently has nothing better to do around the office besides forage through the kitchen in search of almond butter and marmalade. Seriously, what is this guy’s job again?
Two years prior, Andy nearly got Darryl fired over a mistake made with a shipping order. Since then, Darryl’s been biding his time, waiting for an opportunity to arise and after witnessing Andy bringing the printer issue to Gabe’s attention, he decided to exact his revenge. With no set plan on what he was doing, he got into Andy’s head and convinced him that the whole printer issue was some kind of conspiracy against him. The ordeal ended in the old Michael Scott Paper Company office, where Darryl videotaped Andy attempting to recreate the printer malfunction. As Gabe had confirmed with headquarters that the problem was only occurring in a few printers, Darryl hadn’t expected anything to happen other than for Andy to look like an idiot, speaking in a high pitched voice as page after page of paper flew through the printer behind him. And then the thing caught fire. Darryl learned his lesson. Pranks are no good. Maybe for people like Jim and Pam, who go the extra mile in learning Morse code just to mess with Dwight, pranks are ok but for guys like Darryl, not so much. Perhaps he needs to have a plan next time, though something tells me by the way his eyebrows were raised, there won’t be one anytime soon.
