The Office: St. Patrick's Day

One of the highlights of each Office season is the Halloween episode where we see each character in their costume. So imagine my delight when Thursday's episode was a St. Patrick's Day themed episode in which everyone was sporting green!

Meredith had a green dress with white flowers in her hair and treated the day like her own Irish Christmas. Kevin had a horrible, horrible green blazer and newsboy cap. Dwight and Jim didn't participate, but it was Angela who was actively protesting the holiday that has come to be associated with drunken revelry.

Jim returned from paternity leave to find that Dwight had taken both Jim and Pam's desk, joined them with his own, and formed a massive MegaDesk. Jim dissembled it, much to Dwight's dismay - he had become hooked on MegaDesk. To retaliate, Dwight made Jim feel guilty for leaving his wife and new baby at home. He told stories of his own childhood distance from his father and played "Cat's In The Cradle" on repeat. But it was Jim who won in the end, per usual, when he assembled the desks into a pyramid of sorts, leaving Dwight to work in a cubby hole underneath the desk pile.

Meanwhile, Michael mistook Sabre CEO Jo's Southern hospitality for genuine friendship and basically did to her what Andy did to Michael in the third season: clumsily inserted himself into her life. At a staff meeting, Jo promotes Darryl for coming up with a great shipping idea and Michael is berated for coming on too strong. Later, Jo intends to pull an all-nighter while the staff is anxious to go out and celebrate St. Patrick's Day - especially after a call from the party scene from Todd Packer. (We haven't seen the Pac Man since season three's "Ben Franklin!") Michael kinda-sorta stands up to Jo and lets the staff go, but really he's just recognizing the hard work his staff puts in.

On the Erin/Andy front, Erin was sent home with a cold of sorts and Andy visited her at her apartment. He uncovered plenty of backstory - mainly that Erin grew up in foster care and now lives with her foster brother. The night ended with a kiss on the cheek - a nice reward when fans remember how long it look for the Jim and Pam relationship to get to that point.

Quotes of the Week:

Andy: Erin and I have our first date tonight. And it has to be perfect. Why? Because according to How I Met Your Mother, that's the date that your kids are going to wait patiently to hear about and you'd better have a good story to tell them.

Darryl: (turning on his computer monitor) Mike, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave. So I can learn about this tiny television.