“The Lotto” - not a very
ensemble-heavy episode, focusing mostly on the struggle between Andy and
Darryl, and the adventures of a few office workers in the warehouse. This episode gets a little serious, as Darryl
mopes around, discontent with the direction his life has taken. And although not everyone is given a lot of
screen time in this episode, almost everyone has a great one-liner/talking
head, from Toby’s “Flenderson Files,” to Angela continuing the pregnancy rivalry
and estimating Pam’s new baby will weigh 14 pounds. Overall a good episode with a little too much
of the A storyline and few great standout moments.
Grade: B
 |
| Señor Loadenstein in action |
RECAP (Warning: Contains Will Spoil. Read With Caution)
This
weeks The Office starts with a solid
stand alone cold open, with some members of the office taking a stand for
animals rights. Well, kind of. The
Dunder Mifflin employees find a dog left in a car in the parking lot, and try
to save it. Dwight is the first who
feels the call to action, and dumps his milkshake into the car through the
sunroof in order to provide sustenance and hydration. Surprisingly, the dog doesn’t seem that
interested by the shake. Oscar really
takes charge of the situation- furious at the car owner and dog owner, he
smashes the window of the car. Although
when Jim reminds him that someone has to take the dog, otherwise it will jump
out the open window, Oscar makes a brand new plan. It involves taping cardboard over the broken
window and poking holes in it. Everyone
is satisfied with the plan (that leaves the dog in just about the same
situation) and heads inside. Oh, except
for Kevin who went to sit in his car to test how long it would take for the dog
to die. And is still sitting there,
passed out against the horn.
So,
to the main focus of the episode- the warehouse crew won the lottery and
quit. This means a couple of things:
everyone’s imagining what they would do with the money, Darryl’s in a bad place
because he’s no longer in the warehouse pool…and there are no warehouse
workers. Up in the office everyone talks
about what they would do with the money (instead of working, you know, to
actually make money…). Jim has a fantasy
of building a little house in Maine, and living a simple life. Pam’s fantasy is a little different,
involving living in a city to get inspiration for her art, and drinking
flavored coffees that her husband brings to her out on her balcony. Their “lotto dream” functions as the C
storyline for the episode, ending with a compromise that sounds like something
from a Dr. Seuss book. In order to stop
the lottery discussion Andy threatens to change his tone. Literally.
And talk lower, like Mr. T.
Apparently his management tactic is to annoy his employees into
working. Who knows- it seemed to work
with Michael Scott…
Upon realizing that no one is going to be hired for the
warehouse anytime soon, Andy sends down some office volunteers to get out a
shipment to an important client of Phyllis’.
The team consists of Erin, Jim, Dwight (as soon as Jim boasts that he’s
the strongest), and Kevin, who complains that he is always volunteered for
everything. They’re down there for most
of the episode, trying to figure out the best way to move boxes after Dwight crashes
the forklift.
Meanwhile, up in the office Andy is struggling with
Darryl. Darryl has turned into the
self-proclaimed “fat Darryl,” who eats tacos in his basement, alone, and who
just wants to be fired. The misfit team
of Andy, who knows basically nothing about the warehouse (“Masters in Warehouse
Sciences?”), and Darryl, who has spiraled into a
not-winning-the-lottery/not-getting-a-promotion depression, try to hire new
warehouse workers while one of the applicants eats Stanley’s lunch. Andy finds some people on his own, the most
jacked guy in Scranton, a PhD candidate studying blue-collar workers, and a
random guy who doesn’t technically
have a hearing problem. Andy confronts
Darryl about his lack of enthusiasm and he finally admits that he’s made about
not getting made Regional Manager.
Darryl feels that he’s earned it and he wants Andy to give him his own
job, which he refuses to do (apparently Darryl’s not as smooth a talker as
Robert California who convinced Jo Bennett to do that exact same thing). Andy reminds Darryl that he was promoted from
the warehouse when he was taking initiative, and then he stopped doing that.
One of the best moments in the episode comes right near
the end, after Darryl finally snaps out of his funk and goes with Andy to check
on the warehouse. What he finds is a
little unexpected. Or at least, it would
be unexpected if you didn’t know Kevin, Erin and Dwight. Jim is also a part of the ridiculous
hilarity, though he’s a little more hesitant to reveal “Señor Loadenstein” to Darryl and Andy. This temporary warehouse crew figures out a
new system of moving boxes (because they couldn’t find/work the correct
machines). This system is called Señor Loadenstein because, as Jim sheepishly admits, “es muy rapido.” It involves greasing the floor, lining the
grease with boxes already destroyed by the grease, putting Erin on a makeshift
wooden sled behind four boxes and having Dwight and Jim pull the contraption
with ropes while running on the outside of the boxes. Needless to say, Phyllis lost her client.
The tag includes Jim and Pam’s final plan regarding their
future lottery winnings. It’s “city and
country combined” and involves living in a brownstone at the top of a mountain,
just a subway stop away from all the best museums in the world, and Jim could
fish from Pam’s pottery studio. And most
importantly they could chat anytime they want, “just like now.” Also, the schools are terrible, “but what are
you gonna do about that?”
Quotes:
-
“Stop- I’m a
barista in your fantasy?” (Jim) “Well in your fantasy we’re Steven King
characters.” (Pam)
-
“I guess I would
keep working. And for my salary I’d take
like, a dollar a year. I mean, obviously
I wouldn’t come in ‘til noon, and I wouldn’t do anything I didn’t want to do…I
mean I’m getting paid a dollar a year, you can chill.” -Kelly on what she would
do if she won the lottery
-
“I did have a fantastic basement. Now it smells like tacos. You can’t air out a basement. And taco air is heavy. It settles at the lowest point.” -Darryl, who
has settled about as low as taco air…
-
“I’ve never been
lucky. And I’m not talking about the
lottery, I’m talking about developing a soy allergy at 35. Who gets a soy allergy at 35?! And why is soy in everything?” -Darryl still
in a bad mental place
-
“You need to
drop it, ok? They hate it.
I like it a lot, but they hate it, so drop it.” -Erin gets really
intense while trying to convince Kevin to drop his idea of buttering himself
and sliding across the floor
-
“Hey, idiot,
what did Erin want again?” (Dwight) “A…hot chocolate tea.” (Jim) -a subtle, but
clear, indication of Erin’s quirkiness
-
“My future is
not gonna be determined by seven little white lotto balls. It’s gonna be determined by two big black
balls. I control my destiny. I do.”
- Darryl, finally getting it together
Fun Lil Tidbits:
-
Pam behind the
receptionist desk again! Although she
was excited to move on from being the receptionist, it feels natural to see her
back there. As Ryan says, “Nice- right
back where I like you.”
-
It was
interesting to see Oscar’s talking head where he gushes over the most jacked
guys in Scranton- one of the few times the show highlights the fact he’s
gay. What I learned from this? Apparently if you fixate too much on your calves,
your triceps go to hell.
