Tonight's episode of The Office combined the show's past with the show's future. Before sending Michael Scott out the door next week, the show brought back the Dundie Awards for one last hurrah. At least, one last hurrah with Michael as a host. The first episode about the Dundies, the season two premiere, was, in my opinion, the first great episode of the show. However, that episode was still about establishing these characters. Now, "Michael's Last Dundies" was about celebrating them, and the only one being established is Deangelo, who is certainly more fleshed out after this episode, though also still not really in tune with all the other characters. Of course, to a degree that makes sense.
The cold open begins with Michael taking Deangelo around to deliver Dundie nomination certificates to his employees. Framed ones, too! Michael clearly spared no expense. While Deangelo is iffy on the whole idea of the Dundies, as part of Michael's legacy, and perhaps his favorite part, Michael is really concerned about keeping it going. They deliver nominations to Jim and Pam, though Jim clearly has just woken up and Pam doesn't come to the door. Stanley gets angry at them. Then, they get to Meredith's house. It's so run down at first I assumed it was Creed's house, but it also works as Meredith's place. They find the door unlocked, and then find Meredith stumbling home from a night out. She offers to make them breakfast, she does have sausages and napkins after all, but they run away.
The early stages of the episode is mostly about Deangelo's trepidation about co-hosting the Dundies. The idea of performance is worrisome to him. There is also an aside where Ryan chides Pam for saying the breadsticks at the restaurant the show will be held at are "like crack." This is one of Ryan's few astute observations. They are in no way like crack, and Pam has no first hand experience with that drug anyway. I mean, I know she's presumably saying they are addictive like crack, but that's not even true. It's all lies! Lies, I tells ya! Anyway, Michael brings some of the gang together in the conference room to try and help Deangelo get prepared for the show, but he's having problems riffing. Even Ryan's pointers can't help. Even Michael sitting on his stomach can't help. Why, even trying to borrow from The King's Speech didn't help.
Also, Jim and Pam, coming from somewhere, espy Erin sitting in her car eating a sandwich. Afraid of being spotted, she brings them into the car to explain she's taken to eating lunch in her car to get some time away from Gabe, who she's started to despise. Pam stays to try and help her through it. Jim leaves because he's bored. Also, I like how skewed Erin's vision of who Pam is as a person is.
Anyway, it's showtime, and the gang is all piled into the restaurant, much more willing to humor Michael than they were back in the day. Although, the original Dundies episode was sort of the first time everybody sort of stood up for Michael and kind of supported him, showing that while they don't like him as a boss they kind of feel for him as a person. There is an opening video that sees Deangelo searching for Michael, in which Michael plays folks around the office. First, he's Jo. Then, he's Angela, which gets laughs, particularly from Oscar. Next, he's Jim, who he plays as sort of a stoner type character. As his imitations go off the rails, he finishes up as Phyillis, who he plays as basically being an old, infeebled woman. She even falls and can't get up. Stanley eats it up, however. In the end of the video, he appears in the mirror to Deangelo. Oscar sums the video up best, saying something along the lines of, "The analytical side of me would love to dissect it, but I know there is no context there."
However, moments after being introduced, Deangelo disappears into the bathroom to vomit. Eventually, Michael is able to psych him up, and the show begins. Oh, is it ever a glorious show. It was even funnier than the first Dundies, and that was a tremendous event as well. Once again, Dwight steals the show, particularly with his use of sound effects. After Jim wins the award for "Best Dad," he plays a crying baby. In a humorous twist, Meredith wins "Best Mom." This is funny because not only did Pam not win, but Meredith is actually a lousy mother. After Erin wins for "Cutest Redhead," she gives a speak in which she breaks up with Gabe, who takes the stage to defend himself and express his emotional pain. Dwight drops a crickets sound effect. In the tag scene, Toby accepts his award from repulsiveness, Michael had to get one last dig at Toby, and Toby's speech revolves around his concern that the Scranton Strangler, sentenced to death, may be innocent. Dwight responds with the "Oh yeah!," sound effect. That's how you end an episode of television! Lastly, in Dwight's speech, he gives a shoutout to trash cans, before throwing his Dundie away. Creed agreed about thanking trash cans, however. Dwight has become a polarizing character in recent seasons, but he was great in this episode.
There were also some good jokes regarding Deangelo's ability to co-host the show, including his literal reading of the cue cards. Also, when giving his speech, he pulled the King's Speech move again, getting the show cancelled early. Michael give an emotional talking head, before the gang suggests they take the show back to the office, after stopping to get some ice cream for some reason. The ice cream was never seen, but it was mentioned. On the way there, Michael and Dwight get in a fight, and Dwight gets out of the car and runs off.
After Michael hands his first award to Andy, Andy takes the time to thank Michael, and then the group breaks into song. Seriously. I'm pretty sure it was a play on a song from Rent, but since they never mentioned AIDS I'm not entirely sure. I know jokes about how much they mention AIDS in Rent have been done, but that doesn't mean they aren't apt. So yeah, they sing this song to Michael about all the time he's spent in the office and they mention some things from the past, including Oscar forgiving Michael for kissing him. In song, they tell him to remember to call. Even Deangelo gets in on the action, singing in that humorous way that Will Ferrell likes to do it.
It was... a bit much. I'm willing to accept that the gang might miss him. For all his awfulness as a boss, and the fact that none of them really consider him a friend except for maybe Andy and Erin, I can buy that by now they'd do a little something for him. However, this felt a bit much. It was a garish, made for TV moment that just didn't quite fit into the show. The song was a bit too well done and a bit too rehearsed. Of course, I say this having thoroughly enjoyed "Threat Level Midnight," and that was certainly more implausible. It was also funnier. This may have been going more for heart than for laughs, but it didn't quite hit for me. Then again, it didn't quite miss either. I'm sort of ambivalent to it. Michael wasn't, however. He was quite moved, and it set the table well for next week's farewell to Michael Scott and Steve Carell.
Having loved "The Dundies," I was quite excited for this episode. While it didn't live up to my expectations, it was still good. The song aside, most everything else hit for me. I really enjoyed the ceremony, especially Dwight as previously mentioned. Erin breaking up with Gabe wasn't surprising, but it also didn't amount to much, at least in this episode. I'm sure something will come of it. It won't be next week, I presume. That will be all about Michael, and with good reason. I thought Deangelo was funny in this episode, but he still mostly exists to be the new boss because there has to be one. If somebody is going to vamp for a few weeks, it may as well be Will Ferrell. So, despite not being as good as the original Dundies episode, and despite a musical coda that didn't work all that well for me, I still thought this was a good episode. Although, their big musical number does make me ponder what they'll break out next week.
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