When I first heard about what Pam's Replacement was going to be about, I got excited. Jim and Pam don't get as many good stories as they used too, and Pam's hormones making her extra crazy sounded like as good a premise as any. Plus as I mentioned last week, Dwight and Pam have a good relationship so when I heard that Dwight would be involved, I knew good things would happen. And although the episode wasn't perfect, good things did indeed happen.
The episode plot was simple, which is always good, because simple allows for more jokes and character moments. Pam is training a temp Office Administrator, for when she goes onto maternity leave (which has to be soon. Though if the birth of Pam's 2nd baby isn't heavily advertised before it happens, that would be a fun surprise.). The temp, Cathy is quite attractive. But the rest of the office is both underplaying her attractiveness and insisting that Pam is still attractive, when Pam is around. Everyone except Dwight, who Pam starts to see as the only honest one. So she enlists Dwight to get Jim to admit that he finds Cathy attractive (which Jim confides to us that he does. But he loves Pam so much, he doesn't plan to tell her while she's heavily pregnant.).
This whole plot had a lot of quality material, but I felt like there could've been more of them trying to figure it out through wacky methods, before the makeshift lie detector test. What we saw was fine and funny, but the matchmaker test wasn't wacky enough for my tastes, and Dwight grabbing Jim's crotch was already spoiled by promos. The lie detector though, with Dwight using a drug store's blood pressure machine delivered on both the funny (Their run-in with an old man who wanted to use the machine. Dwight believing that Jim was lying about his name), and the sweet (Pam's concerned side conquering her suspicious side when they realize that Jim has high blood pressure), so it was fine that some of the stuff leading up to it didn't quite live up to my imagination.
And meanwhile, Andy, Daryl, and Kevin's band (which at the end of the episode officially becomes Kevin and the Zits.) returns in a subplot that was also funny and showed us a new, musically talented side of Robert California. This time, Robert wants to play in their band, and he proves to be a good Harmonica player. But when he invites some friends to join them with some impressive musical pedigree of their own, Andy and company find themselves slowly edged out of their own band. Their efforts to still try and be a part of it were amusing, and it was nice to see them jamming out to Peter Frampton classic "Baby, I Love Your Way" with what they could find in the episode's final scene. It was also good to see Val again, which seems to show that the new warehouse workers will slowly become a steady presence again.
Ultimately, Pam's Replacement wasn't the best episode of season 8 so far or the best Jim/Pam episode, but that's fine. It was still a solid, funny episode of The Office, with good moments for the characters and an earned sweetness at the end. And this far down the line, it's still amazing that the show hasn't had any real decline (at least in my opinion. I'm aware plenty of people believe the show has declined.). Office continues to be good this season, with it's nice ensemble focus. And hopefully, it'll stay this way.
Grade: Awesome! (Good)
Memorable Moments
-The cold open started by somewhat recycling a joke from season 4's The Deposition, where Andy wants Erin to fake that an important call is on the line, so he can turn it down and impress a client. But it takes a hilarious turn, when Erin doesn't realize that Andy doesn't want to take the fake call and tells him his mother had died. Andy ultimately takes the call and plays along, despite Daryl's objections on the other end of the line.
-Andy: “CEOs don’t play tambourine. Tambourines are for girlfriends.”
-As the office insists that a pregnant Helen Mirren would be hot, Dwight points out the absurdity of it. “The hottest thing ever is a 66-year-old pregnant woman?”
-Dwight: “Jim has no discernable sense of humor, Pam, you should know that.”
-Dwight: “Does your husband ever have very soft erections, 'cause if not, I just grabbed a very soft penis for nothing.”
-Jim: "Stop shoving me." Dwight: "Aww, 'stop shoving me'. 'Stop grabbing my penis.' Grow up."
-Dwight: "Doesn't it concern you in the slightest that Jim isn't his real name."
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