TV Review: The Office 9.7, "The Whale"
I loved Pam’s line about how she used to watch Pulp Fiction and laugh but since having kids she just thinks, “That gimp is somebody’s child!”
rating: 4
The Whale is a pretty good example of The Office playing to its strengths while deemphasizing its weaknesses. The episode also reminded me of season twos Boys and Girls and season threes Womens Appreciation in that it benefitted from some keen gender distinctions. Plus, The Whale finally saw two of this seasons ongoing arcs reach some meaningful climaxes; now well have to see if their consequences are taken seriously in the next episode. Because The Offices success is so very much affected by its characters, I cant help but notice that The Whale had me cracking up and Andy and Jim, two of the three main male leads, were barely featured. Dont get me wrong; I dont hate Andy or Jim, far from it, but anyone whos watched this series from its beginning has noticed that the show hasnt really known what to do with both of these characters for a long time. Jims struggled to be relevant or consistently funny since season five and Andy hasnt really worked as the shows anchor since he essentially replaced Michael at the beginning of last season. I liked all of his jokes in the episodes cold open and the running gag that he cant hold on to anything on the boat was funny, but it shows that Andy works best as a supporting character, in small doses. As the show hasnt really known what to do with these characters for so long I was thrilled to not have to watch them much in The Whale. While Andy was gone for the majority of the episode, we did have to sit through Jim failing at contributing to his new companys first board meeting. There were only three scenes that made up this storyline in The Whale: the first, where Kevin kept interrupting and distracting Jim, was utterly boring; the second, in which Jim couldnt find a quiet spot out in the parking lot, I found hilarious the security guard screaming, This ends now! was what did it for me and the third served the function of finally introducing what weve all seen coming, the fact that Jims being in Scranton while his dream company is in Philadelphia (a difference of about 125 miles according to Google) cant work. Knowing that Greg Daniels wanted to put a significant wedge between Jim and Pam this season, Im assuming Jims going to try living in Philadelphia until he either gives up and moves back to Scranton or Pam and the kids join him in the city at the end of the season. The other seasonal arc that after far too long has finally seen some real progress is the love triangle between Angela, her closeted husband, and Oscar. And now also apparently a yoga instructor named Blake. I havent enjoyed this plot at all until the last episode where we watched Oscar scramble to keep his secret despite Kevin knowing it. This episode put even greater strain on Oscar as he and Angela both spied on The Senator to get to the bottom of this Blake situation. I realized why this episode and the last one worked for me regarding this plot its because Oscar, a character typically defined by his professionalism and strict code of etiquette, is hilarious when hes panicked or mean. I laughed out loud when Oscar accidentally ripped a drawer out from his desk when Angela told him she suspects her husband is having an affair and when he told Angela to shut up and pulled her back down to her seat when she got up to leave after seeing that the woman she thought The Senator was seeing turned out to have a boyfriend. By the end of the episode Angela has finally put the pieces together and realizes the truth when she sees that The Senator calls Oscars phone. Like with the Jim plot, we dont get to see the immediate consequences of this revelation, but nonetheless Im just glad the cats finally out of the bag; this storyline has been spinning its wheels for far too long. The best part of The Whale though was definitely the titular story of the regions White Pages needing a new paper supplier and Dwight getting the responsibility of tackling the sale. The first half of this plot was hilarious enough with Dwight struggling to improve his sensitivity to women while selling, but the twist of having Jan return as the head of the White Pages was the icing on the cake. Everything about this plot was gold for me (especially Dwight practicing how to smile and nod), but I have to say that once again Erin was the stand out throughout the whole episode. A lot of the female characters had really great contributions in The Whale. Phyllis telling Dwight to ignore your instincts; theyre all garbage, was unexpectedly effective; Nellys questions about how many women Dwights killed cracked me up; and I loved Pams line about how she used to watch Pulp Fiction and laugh but since having kids she just thinks, That gimp is somebodys child! The exchange between her and Dwight about Dwights old barber who used to fight dogs was hysterical too. I even thought the ridiculousness of Jans terror making her assistant, Molly, cry was well played, as was Dwights method of securing Jans business by offering her Clark on a silver platter. I also thoroughly enjoyed the Movember subplot in which Toby has convinced several of the men in the office to not shave their (would-be) mustaches in symbolic support of treatment for prostate cancer. Clarks line, I hope you like being turned on all the time, had me laughing out loud as did Tobys general creepiness. This plot also provided another opportunity for the show to demonstrate Petes ongoing attraction to Erin as he shaved off his stache after she couldnt help but be horrified by it as evidenced by her hilarious lines describing the eyebrow in the middle of your face. The Whale was a truly hysterical episode of The Office that worked supremely well; its just a shame that its success was as dependent on the relative absence of two of its main characters as it was dependent on the presence of so many of its supporting characters.