Let's Get Ethical. Ethical.

This week's episode of The Office dealt with 'ethics' [embedded below] and really went back to the old, classic office. Jim finally tells the office that he is engaged to Pam. Apparently he had not told anyone in the office, for reasons unknown, and Pam gave him crap about it. The results were perfect. Oscar thought they were already engaged. Angela reminded him that was Roy. Kevin wondered if he still had to get a gift for them, since he had already gotten Pam and Roy one. Dwigt reminded Jim that Pam is not a virgin, and Michael tackled him to the ground. Perfection.

This episode began with Holly giving everyone an ethics meeting, and her first major meeting in the office. Michael gave her a hand, even though he's not sleeping with her. How kind. How did he help? By singing and dancing a song parody to 'Physical'. Awesome. Then the meeting went to hell, as it's always bound to do, and Michael offered people 'immunity' to dish on unethical things that they had been doing. Meredith dished that she was having sex with a paper rep for a discount on paper, along with coupons to Outback Steakhouse. TMI [I used to say 'don't go there' but that's so last year]. Meredith has always been a bit of a head scratcher. I don't really get her character, and frankly could do without her. I got hopeful that this was going to be the writers way of getting rid of her. But no, as it turns out the company HR doesn't really care. He would rather get the discount, especially in these hard finacial times.

The other thing this episode really demonstrated is some road blocks that may come up in the Holly-Michael relationship. Michael truely believes that his coworkers are his family, and I think genuinely cares about them, and would break the rules to keep them around. Holly, on the other hand, is a sane person, and ethical person. She firmly believed that Meredith should be fired. She made her point clear that Meredith was not her family. It was almost heartbreaking to Michael so heartbroken that she would do such a thing. His reaction was to steal the coffee pot and to cut in front of Holly to make a copy, of the plaque hanging on the wall, just to spite her. And when it turned out that Michael got what he wanted, how awesome was that speech at the end? 'How do you tell somebody, that you care about deeply, I told you so? Gently, with a rose? In a funny way? Like it's a hilarious joke. Or do you just let it go? Because saying it would just make things worse. Probably the funny way.' Awesome. Of course, Michael forgave Holly, after she got yelled at by the corporate HR rep, and let her give the boring meeting, that she probably had planned to begin with.

The other awesome part of this episode was some good old fashion Jim-Dwight-ness. In the first ethics meeting, Dwight claimed that he did not steal time away from the company with personal time. Of course, Jim being Jim couldn't let this slide, and started timing Dwight doing anything personal. Whether that be yawning or personal coversation or you know secret rendez-vous with a special lady from accounting who is engaged to be married to somebody else from sales. Which also brings me back to ethics meeting, when Oscar [who I seriously can't get enough of] was asking why they were talking about stupid company anti-shoplifting and not actual ethics about 'a real discussion of competing conceptions of the good'. Andy dopped an 'ethics bomb' and asked, 'would you steal bread for your family?' Did you hear the asside of, 'I took intro to philosphy twice. No big deal'. So Andy. Of course, Dwight being Dwight had to one up him and tell him that the bread was poisoned and it wasn't his real family since he had been cuckolded. This leaves me wondering how long Angela and Dwight can keep their little tryst a secret? You figure Andy has got to find out eventually, right? Angela wouldn't go through with marrying a man she can hardly stand, can she? Well, CAN SHE? I am all for Dwangela. Clearly the woman has got a soft side for the man.

Back to the prank. Jim starts timing all of Dwights personal time. It's starts off with yawning and personal conversation. Dwight, who wants to beat Jim at all costs, literally does not stop working. He even started peeing in a soda bottle, while doing expense reports, just to prove he is superior. He doesn't even give in, although you could tell he really wanted to, when Jim was falsely talking about Battlestar Gallactica, throwing in Dumbledore Calrissian. The only time Dwight relented was to get his freak on with Angela for 19 minutes and 48 seconds. Oh Dwight.

So that about does it, next week's episode will probably be just as awesome as this one. I only hope it features more Pam Beesly!