'The Office' - 'Double Date': Pam packs a punch

This week's episode of "The Office" gave us two almost entirely separate subplots, only one of which worked entirely. Manic, favor-bestowing Dwight had a couple of decent moments, but Michael and his impeccably bad timing stole the show.

I was expecting "Double Date" to be a cringe-worthy episode on par with the classic "Dinner Party," but what the show gave us instead was something a little different. Watching Jenna Fischer -- who killed it two weeks ago in "The Lover" -- as Pam come around to the idea of Michael dating her mom, only to end up in the same place she'd been before, was just a joy, and Steve Carell as Michael once again did that thing he's so good at where Michael almost seems like a sympathetic guy -- until he's not.

It's hard to feel too much for a guy who starts to freak out because he discovers the woman he's seeing -- with whom he's been really happy for the past few weeks -- is older than he thought (though, really, duh -- if Pam's in her early to mid-30s, then Helene is almost surely in her 50s). But a few of the other things he brought up, like their divergent ideas about travel, are actually valid concerns in a relationship. And in the hands of a normal person, that would have made for a bittersweet realization that perhaps this relationship wasn't meant to last.

But Michael is Michael (oh to have a dollar for every time I've written that in an "Office" recap), and because he's incapable of suppressing a feeling for even a few minutes, he has to tell Helene that he needs to break up with her in the most inelegant way possible, right after she opens his goofy but terribly sweet scrapbook birthday gift (again, watching Pam see how much Michael really cares, or cared, about her mom at that point was really kind of great for being just slightly unexpected). And so on the ride back, Helene is in the back seat with Pam and Jim is up front telling Michael to just shut the hell up already.

And then, and then, it got really good. Michael tries to bribe Pam into liking him again, and he makes the mistake of saying "Do you want to hit me?" as part of his offer. Yes, Pam says, I would like to hit you -- and it's so on.

I don't think I've laughed harder this week than I did at the sequence where Toby gives Pam a quick lesson in power-punching. The bit would have been funny enough if he had stopped with giving Pam the OK so long as it wasn't on company property, but to watch the barely restrained glee with which Toby shared ways to hurt Michael had me laughing so hard that my wife came in to check on me. Just a perfect moment of "Office" comedy.

But kids, take a lesson here: Violence doesn't solve anything -- or at least doesn't give Pam the satisfaction she hoped it would. "Feel better?" Jim asks as they walk away. "No -- you were right," she replies.

And so another Michael Scott relationship is relegated to the trash heap of history. But even still, it's hard to hate a guy who can so quickly put up a brave face and tell the camera that he saw his life flash before his eyes and saw himself being a happy, rich and immortal father whose kids play with Jim and Pam's children. God bless your unflagging and self-deluded optimism, Michael.

The B-story: It makes perfect sense to me that in Dwight's head, bringing bagels for the group carries equal weight in a conspiracy to get Jim fired. And the good deed one-upsmanship he and Andy engaged in -- loved Andy's "Do not test my politeness" talking head -- had a bit of Sideshow Bob and the Rakes (apologies for the poor video quality in the link) in it -- a bit that was funny, went on too long and then continued to go on till it was funny again. But then it kept going even past that and became less funny again.

But I like the fact that Andy was not trying to undermine Dwight -- he was just being his super-polite self, and even as the joke wore thin, that's what kept it from becoming downright grating.

Notes and quotes from "Double Date":

• There was only one Creed Bratton moment tonight, but as usual, it was awesome: When Pam tries to fake her way out of lunch, Jim fakes taking care of a paper shipment for her (itself a nice reversal of when Jim tried to bail in "Dinner Party"). Creed smiles, says "Oh thank god," and then tells the camera: "Something's up. That paper was never supposed to arrive."
• Meredith updates the group when it looks like Michael is ducking out on being punched: "He's not in the men's room, but the seat's still warm, so we may have just missed him." All together now: Eeewww.
• Pam at the restaurant (which, by the way, is called Paparazzo's): "I used to love coming here. The chicken parm is good, big part of my childhood. Oh -- maybe Michael will start dating that too."
• Michael tries to justify what he's about to do to Helene by using her lack of desire to snowboard as an example: "Do I really want to go snowboarding? No. But I would like to if I wanted to."

What did you think of "The Office" this week? Do you ever see a circumstance where Michael can get out of his own way?

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