The Office: After Hours

What Happened, Yo!:

-Nellie invites everyone out to drinks at the hotel after a productive week working on the store. She still hasn't picked a VP yet, but Todd is confident he'll get the job, because he's planning on sleeping with her. Dwight decides that he is going to try and sleep with Nellie to get the job. As the night goes on, Dwight and Packer are both persistant in their flirtations with Nellie, when Jim calls Dwight to handle a "Bed Bug" issue (more on this in a second.). Dwight asks Gabe to ensure that Packer doesn't sleep with Nellie, so Gabe sprays Packer's drink with something when Packer isn't looking, causing him to throw up (On Gabe, which wasn't planned.). Dwight seems to have won and Nellie wants to meet in his room, but Dwight has second thoughts, ultimately sabotaging the room key he gives Nellie because he would rather get the job the honorable way.

-Meanwhile, Jim has been spending lots of time with Kathy, because she's normal and not as wild as Stanley. But when she follows him back to his room to watch a basketball game with him and sits comfortably on his bed, Jim gets uncomfortable and tries to get her to leave/get someone else in the room. He calls Dwight to handle some "Bed Bugs" and Dwight's methods cause Kathy to need a shower, but she takes it in Jim's bathroom. Jim calls her on what she's doing, but she claims she isn't trying anything, calming Jim down before acting more suggestive than other. When she's actually under the covers in his bed, Jim calls Dwight again who chases her out of the room spraying for bed bugs. Kathy is gone, but Jim's room becomes uninhabitable and Jim has to room with Dwight for the night, as Nellie tries to break into the room.

-Back at the office, everyone has to work late, and Andy gets some Jamaican food brought in from Brandon, Val's boyfriend. Brandon almost immediately calls Daryl out because he thinks Daryl and Val are sleeping together. Daryl and Val insist he's overreacting, so Brandon gets Daryl to read his recent messages to Val. When one says "You're a great friend....." with five dots, the office (mainly Kelly) points out that five dots means Daryl is definitely hiding something. Andy and Pam talk to Daryl, and Pam advises him to make a move. Val apologizes for Brandon's behaviour and dismisses it as crazy, but Daryl says that he doesn't think the two of them being together is crazy and adds five dots.

-Meanwhile in Florida, Erin wants waffles but they don't have them currently. She tells Ryan she's planning on moving to Florida and Ryan sees this as a sign that she wants him to make a move. They sneak into the kitchen to make waffles, but have to hide. Ryan's interest in Erin dies when she suggests that something could happen in six months.


I Liked This: After Hours wasn't the strongest episode of The Office, but there was still plenty to like about it. Dwight continues to be an all-star in this storyline, flirting with Nellie one minute, and trying to smoke out bed bugs the next, with funny results. I also liked how he ultimately doesn't go through with sleeping with Nellie to get the job, preferring to do things the honorable way. Plus, if he had slept with Nellie, we wouldn't get to see Jim and Dwight eating ice cream in Dwight's room, which I found quite funny. Meanwhile, Kathy's attempts to make a move on Jim finally became more overt (Though not explicit) and I liked the way it was handled with Jim catching on immediately and not even considering making a move. As for back at the office, the story about staying late turned into a story about Val's boyfriend thinking Daryl slept with Val and became much more interesting because of it. Daryl and Val have kind of been in the background for much of the season and I'm glad to see them finally get momentum. The last scene with Daryl saying that he didn't think he and Val together would be crazy and ending with the quintuple dots was great. As was the scene where Andy insisted that he knew what advice Jim would give better than Pam would.

But...: Ryan and Erin's story was a total filler storyline, being funny but ultimately forgettable. Also, Dwight's story was also a bit thin and not as funny as his stories the past couple weeks (Still funny. Just not as funny). And Catherine Tate still needs more depth to her character. Hopefully that part is coming quickly.

The Bottom Line: After Hours will probably wind up being the weakest of the Tallahassee storyline when all is said and done (depending on how these last couple episodes go), but it was still really funny and I was happy to see some big steps in the Daryl/Val story.

Grade: 78% (Good)

Memorable Moments

-I enjoyed the cold open, with Pam, Angela, and Oscar taking turns to complain about each other, only for them all to complain when Andy says nothing is harder than owning a boat.

-Who would win in a fight between James Bond and Jason Bourne? Doesn't matter, according to Dwight: "Genghis Kahn could take them both down, because he's not afraid to kill children."

-Dwight: "Freak, I need a favour." Gabe: "Well then, you have to call me by my name: Gabriel Susan Lewis." I'm liking Gabe more and more this season.

-Kelly: "Three dots means 'to be continued', four dots is a typo, but five dots means: 'whoa. Do not make me say what I want to say baby, but if I did it would blow your mind'. Dot dot dot dot dot."

-Dwight: "A real man swallows his vomit when a lady is present."

-Dwight: Win it all costs, don’t respect women. These are the tenants that I was brought up with and they have served me well. But my ancestors never worked in corporate America. They were farmers, and before that hunters, and before that time travelers, and before that me again... At least that’s how the legend goes. The point is they never had to worry about how they got ahead. They just had to put food on the table and not alter the past".