"The Deposition (The Office)", 11-15-2007

"The Deposition", last night's episode of "The Office", ties off a plot thread that has existed since the end of Season Three -- namely, the consequences of Jan's firing from Dunder-Mifflin.

Jan, who was the clueless Michael Scott's former superior, moved in with Michael afterwards. Michael was left to deal with the emotionally comatose Jan. However, Jan decided to sue Dunder-Mifflin for several million dollars in a wrongful termination suit.

Jan preps Michael as to what to say in the deposition. Michael's role hinges as to whether or not Michael's relationship with Jan was an inappropriate one. (Michael, however, made sure to announce the relationship to HR, carefully storing the document as if it were a family heirloom.) However, when the picture of a topless Jan from Michael and Jan's vacation in Jamaica is made evidence, Michael finds himself tripped up as to his claims regarding when the relationship began -- the picture predates his official announcement of the relationship.

However, Jan is not unprepared. She introduces Michael's diary as evidence. The diary entry states that Jan didn't really consider himself in a relationship with Jan, to Michael's chagrin. (It also states that Michael thinks Ryan is "hot", in a purely heterosexual way.) The lawyers decide that the diary needs to be photocopied as evidence, and Michael enters the lunchroom to the sight of lawyers reading his private thoughts.

The prosecution, hoping to turn Michael as a witness, introduces Jan's performance review of Michael. Jan wrote that Michael was simply impossible to motivate (duh) and should have been demoted back to sales. The question is then posed to Michael -- "does he believe that his girlfriend is capable of making accurate judgments?"

The defense counters with a deposition of David Wallace, the Chief Financial Officer of the company. Wallace, in his written deposition, is asked if there was truly any serious consideration of having Michael replace Jan after her firiing. Wallace is forced to admit that Michael was never a serious candidate, but Wallace thought Michael was a nice guy.

So Michael's dilemma is: does he claim that Jan has proper judgment and admit he's a horrible boss? Or does he agree with Dunder-Mifflin, who never thought seriously of giving him a job, and just led him on?

In the end, Michael sides with Dunder-Mifflin. Jan's bringing the diary was the clincher. Michael says that he expects his employer to treat him badly -- but not his girlfriend. It is implied that Jan loses her case, and Michael and Jan drive back home very quietly. It is also implied that the Michael/Jan relationship is not yet at an end....

(* * *)

What's odd is that this is the second straight episode where Michael says something profound. In "Survivor Man", Michael and Jim commiserate on the perils of being a boss -- Jim tried to plan a communal birthday parties for some of the employees rather than having separate birthday parties for each employee. Michael tells Jim that he made that "rookie mistake", and it implies at least at some level that Michael is aware of his employee's needs -- if this were the British version of "The Office", David Brent would have indeed tried to plan a communal birthday party (undoubtedly to riotous results).

Now, he recognizes -- at least to the mockumentarians -- that Dunder-Mifflin might not be as great as Michael sometimes lets on. However, when Michael shakes hands with one of the execs at Dunder-Mifflin after the deposition, you can see that it's a humbling moment for Michael -- learning what Jan and the company really thought of him could not have been pleasant. (I expect Michael to shake it off quickly.)

As for the Michael/Jan relationship, it looks like they're a couple that is stuck with each other -- at least in the same way that Ryan and Kelly were stuck with each other in earlier seasons. Jan has nowhere else to go, it seems, nor does she seem to want to go anywhere else. As for Michael, he can't just get rid of Jan because he doesn't have the backbone to tell her to get lost. For now, they're left with each other's company, but I predict that this relationship has about as much chance of surviving as Ryan and Kelly's did -- seeing Michael playing the field gives more chances to see Steve Carrell be clueless and inapropriate.

The dilemma was an inspired bit of writing by new staff writer Lester Lewis -- would Michael Scott actually admit that he was a bad employee, even though Jan's multi-million dollar settlement hinged on it? Thank goodness Michael was able to leave with his sense of self-delusion apparently (mostly) intact.

However, the B-plot was dull. Jim and Darryl play ping-pong in the warehouse, and when Darryl beats Jim, Kelly Kapoor (Darryl's current girlfriend) begins to trash-talk Pam. (Kelly patiently explains to the mockumentarians the distinction between trash talking and "smack", which is what she claims she's doing.) In addition to making Kelly that much less likeable -- when did Pam every go out of her way to belittle someone? -- it illustrates a problem that "The Office" writers are having with Kelly Kapoor -- without Kelly's love of dreamboat Ryan, the character seems strangely undefined. Kelly's at her best when she's making some guy's life miserable, and Darryl is no Ryan, at least when it comes to humor. How many characters does this show have? Perhaps, they might need one less character if they can't find a role for Kelly. Let's hope they can.

(Incidentally, this is the final new episode of "The Office" for some time, due to the writer's strike.)