The Office: The Cover-Up

It's a good thing The Office stepped up its game last night. Parks and Recreation and Community have been nearly outdoing it all season and even 30 Rock has gotten really funny again in the last three weeks. So even though Community aired what may have been its best episode yet, The Office had a terrific companion with "The Cover-Up."

The cold open brought me back to more whimsical times, as Jim and Pam showed off their knowledge of Morse code by tapping on their computer desks and clicking their pens in order to make Dwight paranoid. It was totally a call back to season three when Jim said that he and Pam would hum the same high pitched note and convince Dwight to see an ear doctor for his "pretendinitis." Loved it.

The bulk of the episode, directed by first timer Rainn Wilson, focused on Michael trying to discern if Donna was cheating on him. After hearing about how Donna always wanted to leave town to go on dates, the employees grew suspicious of Donna's intentions. Michael hired Dwight to spy on her, but Dwight decided that the best way to figure out if Donna was cheating was to try and seduce her.

Angry, Donna confronted Michael at the office and said she wasn't cheating, but when Kelly grilled her about the jewelry she was wearing, Donna couldn't come up with a story fast enough. That made Pam wary, so she checked Facebook and found that Donna was indeed cheating on Michael. (Michael isn't on Facebook yet? Surely that'll happen soon.) But when Michael asked Donna, she revealed that she was actually married and that Michael is the mistress.

In the B plot, Andy received a call from a customer about their Sabre printer exploding into flames while printing a pretty huge amount of documents. Andy told Gabe, who promised to call corporate about it. Darryl, who was still mad about a missed shipment caused by Andy more than two years ago, saw his opportunity for revenge and convinced Andy that he was now at the center of a corporate cover-up and was likely to be "eliminated."

Darryl got Andy to test out a printer in the old Michael Scott Paper Company headquarters and - lo and behold - it actually blew up. I hope this is a setup for the rest of the season, because I can definitely see the comedy in a corporate cover-up - especially if Gabe continues to try to buy people off with Dunkin Donuts gift cards.


Quotes of the Week:

Michael: We went to a little Chinese bistro. P.F. Changs.

Michael: This is the real world. Not The Real World: Scranton.

Michael: How much do you charge?
Dwight: One hundred dollars a day, plus expenses.
Michael. I'll give you fifty. Money's no object.

Michael: It's never too early for ice cream. But we didn't have ice cream, so this is mayonnaise and black olives.

Dwight: I don't quit until something tears or pops.

Creed: So there I am, minding my own business. Darnell offers me three bucks. All I had to do was walk by Andy's desk and go like this: (slices finger across neck). Darnell's a chump. I would've done it for anything. I've done a lot more for a lot less.