Author: Cheryl
•3:19 PM

Jim - "Jan is about to have a baby with a sperm donor. And Michael is preparing for the birth of a watermelon with Dwight. This baby will be related to Michael through........delusion."

This is the perfect summation of the beginning of this episode. Michael is going to act like this is his baby. After Dwight proclaims his cervix is ripening, he then simulates his water breaking by dumping a cup of water between his legs and then catching it in another cup and drinking it. Even I had to stop and say EWWWWWW. Dwight then simulates the birth of the watermelon, I mean baby, in Michael's office.

Dwight - "DO YOU HAVE THE SHARPIE? DO YOU HAVE THE SHARPIE? When the baby emerges mark it secretly in a kind of a mark that only you can recognize and that no baby snatcher could ever copy."

Brilliant Dwight, not only are you using the Sharpie trick that Michael used in the Christmas party episode with the Benihana waitress but you also now have saved hospitals tons of money in using those stupid bracelets.

Dwight then delivers the watermelon, which Michael drops due the fact that Dwight covered it in butter because "newborns are slippery".

Michael has the office throwing a baby shower for Jan. Michael has M&M's personalized with the baby's prospective names "Chevy" for a boy, and "Astird". Yes Astird. That will be explained later.

Pam is still at art school. Jim and her are trying to stay in touch over the phone, but Pam's stories about the various dorm residents issues are starting to bore and confuse Jim. And before he can catch on to the story Pam has to go to class.

Michael tells Holly that he has to ignore her and treat her badly in front of Jan so that Jan doesn't get jealous or mad, because Jan is in the "terminal" state of her pregnancy, and Jan is really big and fat and Holly is one of the more attractive people in the office, and so is Ryan.

Stanley gives one of my favorite lines about pregnant women, "I do not like pregnant women in my workplace. they are always complaining. I have varicose veins too. I have swollen ankles. I'm constantly hungry. You don't think my nipples don't get sore too? You don't think I don't need to know the fastest way to the hospital?" You know, he really does have a point.

Jan comes into the office......carrying the baby. Guess Michael wasn't invited to the delivery or told of her arrival. Michael meets Astird, or as Jan corrects "Astrid". That is much better, in an 80's semi-hippie kind of way. Jan lets Michael know that her birthing instructor thought it was a good idea if he wasn't at the birth. Poor Michael.

Michael begins his fake hatred of Holly as they all enter the baby shower. "I'm fine weirdo. Such an HR weirdo. Try not to suck out all of the air in there as you walk in." As a person in the HR field, I actually do find these comments quite funny. I tell my boss them all the time.

The shower doesn't go well as most of the games are designed around the baby not actually being here yet. The office chips in together to buy Jan a stroller. But the one Jan has costs $1200 and is supposed to be top line. Well leave it to Dwight "Consumer Report" Schrute to see if Jan's stroller is so great. He takes the stroller out of the office and puts it to the test, tying it to the back of his Trans Am, and throwing it up against a fence.

Jan sings "Son Of A Preacher Man" to her baby in front of everyone. And as Jim explains to Pam on the phone, the song is about someone losing their virginity next to a church. Very child appropriate.

While Jim is on the phone with Pam telling her the story, she can barely hear him due to the washing machines at the laundromat she is in. So she has to let him go. She comments on that they are just having a day where they are not in sync, and that everyone has days like this, oh and she washed her lipstick in her towels.

Jan description of the birth in a tub, makes many people lose their appetite for cake. Michael starts to feel quite badly that he wasn't there for the birth so he goes to the best place possible for sympathetic advise....the warehouse. There he asks Darryl, about being a Baby Daddy and having an instant connection with the "baby baby" (not a typo). Darryl tries to inform Michael that he is not the baby Daddy and he shouldn't feel a connection to her. We are still not sure if Michael is getting it.

Holly wakes up Jan, who decided to take a nap in reception. When Jan asks where Astrid is, Holly says she is on a sales call "Waaaaaa, more paper, waaaa". Jan is rude to her. Shocking, but I really thought it was funny.

Andy and Angela decide while Jan is sleeping to put Astrid in a Anne Geddes type picture in the kitchen in a cornucopia surrounded by produce. Andy "She is nature's bounty."

Michael helps Jan to her car with the baby. Jan tells Michael she does not want him to date Holly. Michael agrees, although he doesn't know why. When Michael walks back in the office he goes right over to Holly and gives her a very slow yet touching hug, and then asks "You wanna go out?" Holly says yes, and with tears in her eyes. Michael "I didn't feel much when I held Astrid, but I got a good feeling from Holly". YOU GO MICHAEL! I was never so proud of him.

The last scene we see that Jim and Pam are really quite in sync. They both reach each other's voice mail at the same time at the end of the day, and relay the same story about a scary man that they both had encountered on a trip together to Pam's laundromat and how Jim then helped Pam buy a washer and dryer. They both end the conversation with "I miss you".

I really liked this episode. It had great juxtaposition in the craziness of the baby, and Dwight's birth mixed along with little touching scenes with Holly and Michael, and Jim and Pam. Its one of the great talents of The Office writing staff, the mix of these two elements. Even though Michael does wacky things in every episode, we are really starting to see him grow as a person through the wonderfulness that is Holly. I only wish she were staying on the show forever. And I hope this is the end of Jan, but I think that is wishful thinking. I do love that they are making the relationship with Jim and Pam work, and not making it a soap opera, but I am hoping they bring her back to Scranton soon. We had enough of them being apart during the whole Stamford year.
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1 comments:

On October 23, 2008 at 10:29 AM , Billy and Maggie said...

LOL! You are to funny girl. I am SO out of touch with t.v. shows but reading your post makes it seem so exciting.