Goodbye, Michael

So, it’s been five days since I bid farewell to the great Michael Scott from The Office.

I’ve had plenty of time to process the episode, and overall, I really enjoyed it. It wasn’t a perfect episode, but I did feel like it was a perfect goodbye to an unforgettable character in Michael Scott and amazing actor in Steve Carell.

The episode was perfect because is stayed simple. It was about Michael and his relationships with everyone in the office – not about some crazy concocted story. There was no big reveal that Michael was the Scranton Strangler, which many people have been speculating about all season (my pick is Gabe – dude is straight up strange, especially in this episode). Instead, the episode revolved around Michael saying his goodbyes to every single person in the office.

But it wasn’t in typical Michael fashion. There was no big spectacle attached to his departure. In fact, he had misled everyone in the office to believe he was leaving the next day. The truth was that he was leaving that afternoon.

It really shows how Michael has grown and developed as a character this season. I mean, he even kept things cordial in his goodbye to Toby. That’s proof enough! By the way, that was one of the funniest scenes in the episode. You could see the torture he was enduring by not giving in to his desire to be awful to Toby. We’ve seen him try to do this before, and it’s never worked. But the new Michael could resist. He’s grown up. It only took him 40-something years…

I loved all the throwbacks to past episodes. It was very rewarding for an Office super fan like me. It was all right there from the beginning with Michael baiting Dwight with his misinformation about bears.

Speaking of Dwight, I remember telling Brittany before the episode that I really hated the way things had gone between Dwight and Michael because Michael hadn’t recommended Dwight for his job. I didn’t want Michael to leave with bad blood between them. Michael tried to deflect the issue at the beginning of the episode, which I thought was weak. But he did redeem himself later in the episode when he gave Dwight a letter of recommendation. Watching Dwight read the letter and slowly crumble was awesome. It was a touching scene. You easily forget how good of an actor Rainn Wilson can be because of how ridiculous Dwight normally is.

Back to the throwbacks. I loved that Michael finally took Dwight up on some paintball lessons. I loved that Michael went to the warehouse to attempt to use the bailer. (Bail her? I hardly know her!) I loved the shot of Michael adjusting his Dundie on his desk. I didn’t really enjoy the throwback to the basketball episode. Him repeatedly missing just wasn’t that funny to me, but I kind of appreciate the history of it. And who could forget Ping?

My favorite goodbye was with Jim. I know that’s probably a bit too obvious, but I just loved how it worked out. Michael had purposefully misled everyone so that he could avoid real goodbyes. Jim busted him on it, but he was gracious enough to give Michael his last wishes. I liked that moment.

Is it weird that I actually believed Michael and Pam wouldn’t get a final moment together? The episode played with that notion the entire time, and I actually kind of believed it might happen. Of course, that wasn’t true. They got their goodbye, but we didn’t get to experience it thanks to a great play on the whole “the show is a documentary thing” (by the way, taking the mic off helped them slip in probably the dirtiest “that’s what she said” ever, which was another fitting way to send Michael out).

Pam told us what he said. But I don’t really know if I believe that’s exactly what went down. I think Michael had greater things to say to her than just, “I miss Holly.” But I don’t think Pam could bring herself to reveal the special moment they had. And I’m OK with that.

I enjoyed the B-story with Andy and DeAngelo. It was pretty comical – probably the funniest Will Ferrell has been on the show in his three episodes. But what I really loved about the B-story was that it kept Ferrell away from Carell, allowing the focus to really be on Michael.

I love Michael Scott. He’s easily one of my top 5 favorite fictional characters. A lot of that has to do with Steve Carell. I really enjoy his work. Will The Office be the same without him? No. Does that mean that it will be a terrible show from now on? I don’t think so. It’s going to be different, of course, but at least we have three episodes left this season to experience and decide from there whether or not the show is worth watching next year.

I say give it a shot. You may be surprised. At the very least, we’ll find out Thursday night.

Side notes:

• The Gabe-Erin-Andy story line is getting strange.
• Seriously, I think Gabe is the Scranton Strangler.
• Looks like an interesting storyline is developing between Phyllis and Erin. They might just be mother and daughter. Don’t believe me? Check this out.