The Office has always been great at making us laugh at the painfully awkward, whether it’s by tweaking the absurdity levels just the right amount or following up the cringeworthy moments with something sweet to make them go down easier. In recent years, however, the show’s lost sight of this, as evidenced by this week’s episode, “The Boat.”
All of the main plotlines this week dealt with Dunder Mifflin coworkers hurting each other somehow—whether intentionally or not—but unlike earlier episodes like this, there weren’t really any major payoffs to make it seem worthwhile. When Dwight’s radio interview falls through, Nellie, Jim, Pam and Phyllis let him believe that it’s still on and field his call themselves. Of course, they mess with him, leading him to believe David Wallace is about to be locked up for fraud and the company’s going under and telling him to remove his clothes because his buttons and zipper are interfering with the radio frequency.
It’s funny for a while, but it never really goes anywhere. Dwight emerges from the interview, sweaty and in his underwear, and everyone applauds him—but they never reveal the truth about it, and it seems like it doesn’t even matter if they do or not, as Dwight seems generally fine with how the whole thing played out. That’s that, I guess.
The Dwight gag is relatively harmless, though, compared to what’s going on over at the accounting desk this week. Kevin has discovered Oscar’s affair with Angela’s husband, and, terrified that he’s too dumb to keep the secret, Oscar actually comes up with some numbers to make it look like Kevin’s gambling problem has resurfaced and presents them to Toby. Toby calls Kevin into his office to dismiss him, and Kevin—who thinks perhaps he’s getting a promotion—tells Oscar, “Maybe I’ll get my own office and then I won’t have to worry so much about keeping your secret from Angela.” Guilt-stricken, Oscar interrupts the meeting with Toby and explains that the numbers were wrong. Surprisingly, he actually admits he cooked them up out of anger—why didn’t he just say he miscalculated? Toby doesn’t seem too concerned about the fact that Oscar was scheming to get an innocent employee fired, though. Instead, he’s reminded how he had his doubts about the Scranton Strangler’s guilt and may have put an innocent man on death row.
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