The Office: Lotto

Daryll Philbin has always been a great character. So when he got promoted towards the end of season 6, I was very happy. Daryll in the office meant more scenes with Daryll. And it was great. I thought Daryll would make a great replacement for Michael, but suddenly in Search Committee, he seemed unlike himself, not having a resume and whatnot. What happened? This is something that Andy points out towards the end of Lotto, in a great scene where he confronts a depressed Daryll who wants to be fired or given Andy's job. Daryll stopped pushing and became complacent. The executives noticed. This scene helped make for another solid season 8 episode.

After a funny cold opening, involving Oscar and others trying to help a dog that's been left in it's owners car with no windows open, we jump right into the action. The warehouse staff has won the lottery playing Daryll's birthday and quit. Since moving into the office, Daryll is no longer part of their lottery pool and doesn't get to quit, which of course makes him to depressed to do his job and hire new warehouse workers. So Andy tries to help him in the process by calling in the applicants for an interview. But Andy doesn't know anything about hiring warehouse workers (at one point he asks if anyone has a degree in warehouse sciences) and whenever Daryll speaks to them, he's either telling them what happened to the old workers or telling them not to settle for a job in the warehouse. Eventually, the applicants have all left and Andy makes a couple hasty hires, including Nate (Dwight's helper from last season) and a buff guy from the gym, as recommended by Oscar.

Andy has a bigger issue though, when Daryll is demanding that Andy fire him, which is not something that Andy is willing to do. When he asks what will get Daryll to stay, Daryll asks for Andy's job, which leads us to the scene I mentioned at the beginning of this opinion. This scene and story in general, works because of the acting and because a good part of season 7 was spent building the relationship between Andy and Daryll. Andy confronting Daryll on how he's become complacent, and how he doesn't have the business experience or people skills for the job, and didn't even ask for business classes. This is a solid scene, and in the end Daryll is out of his funk, and will hopefully go back to being the old Daryll we know and love.

Meanwhile, Phyllis has a massive order that could cost her a client if it doesn't get out. So Jim, Dwight, Erin, and Kevin have to go work in the warehouse and get 300 boxes of paper onto the truck. But Dwight crashes the forklift into the wall, in an effort to show off his strength and no one notices the other loader, so they have to figure out how to do it. This is a silly plot, that mainly serves for physical comedy bits, but it works well enough with all the physical bits landing, and great pay-off at the end, with them showing off their method for getting boxes onto the truck (it involves sliding the boxes on a lid along a greased-up floor), as it cuts to Phyllis frankly informing us she lost the client. There's also a runner with the employees (mainly Jim and Pam) imagining what it'd be like to win the lottery, that's mostly flat, but has it's moments. All in all, season 8 continues to deliver on the goods. There hasn't been any flat-out classics yet, but I'm confident that one will be right around the corner. Keep it up, Office.

Grade: Awesome! (Good)

Memorable Moments
 
-No James Spader this week. That's fine, as he's only supposed to be in 15 episodes this season, so might as well get one of his absenses out of the way early.

-Oscar: I bet this guy didn't leave his weed in the car.

-Dwight's impression of Jim and Pam winning the lottery: "Hey Pam, let's buy expensive bathrobes and hug."

-Creed: "I already won the lotto. I was born in the U.S of A, baby. And as a back-up have a Swiss passport.