"Rocky Mountain Oysters"

And thus Michael Scott departed from The Office.

It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't The Worst, either. There were a few moments that I genuinely loved, and then there were some that I hated, or didn't understand, or that felt disappointing. Let's start with what was great:

- The cold open. A fun scene that maintained character continuity while hearkening back to some of the best cold opens with Michael and Dwight (mmm, peanut butter head).

- The look Michael had on his face as Deangelo was explaining how he was gonna drill holes in his favorite truck. 

- That scarecrow, OMG, and the entire laughing-about-Oscar scene: "He has the lowest opinion of me of anyone!"

- The assemblage of the Party Planning Committee Dream Team! And Meredith.

- The look on Michael's face when Toby tells him about his brother.

- Toby's brother, Rory Flenderson the creepy preserver. Does Toby hate his brother?

- Dwight's letter-reading scene was lovely, which is not an adjective one usually gets to use in regards to Dwight.

- Paintball fight!

- Speaking of paintball, there were two callbacks to Michael's atrocious behavior in season 2's "Christmas Party" (and how he's since become a kinder person): his acceptance and enjoyment of Dwight's gift of paintball lessons/pellets, and his appreciation for Phyllis' knitting - keen viewers can't help but notice the similarity in size, shape and color between this episode's mittens and "Christmas Party"'s much-maligned oven mitt.

- Creed's mug re-appropriation.

- The scene in the airport and one final "That's what she said". I liked the acknowledgement that this is a documentary throughout the episode; despite what some have said I think that The Office has managed to maintain that concept pretty well, with nods to the camera people in episodes like season 4's "Fun Run" - much better than, say, Modern Family. This show has also used silence to its advantage in the past - see: Jim and Pam's pregnant pause in "Booze Cruise" - and it was nice to have a return to it here, in the touching final moment between Pam and Michael. The relationships that Michael has with Jim and Pam, both individually and together, have created some of the best moments of the show, and it was wonderfully appropriate that they should each get their own goodbyes, and that those goodbyes, along with Dwight's, would constitute the emotional essence of "Goodbye Michael".

- The voice Pam uses as Michael's plane takes off is the same one she uses to speak at the bird funeral in season 3's "Grief Counseling". An interesting note that probably means nothing other than I have watched this show A LOT.

Ok, that was the good. This is the bad.

- Most of it has to do with Deangelo Vickers who, although this is his third episode, seems to be unable to sustain any connection with the audience. It feels strange to bring in a comedy A-lister like Will Ferrell to mosey around and not do anything particularly funny. It seems to be our job to hate Deangelo - and so hating him feels like work. I don't want to be filled with hate in these emotional farewell-to-Michael episodes, and Michael doesn't particularly need the foil that Deangelo provides, as his indecision and childlike emotions in response to his departure make Michael into his own foil. Additionally, because it is Ferrell in the role, we KNOW that he's not going to stick around and that there's no need to become emotionally attached in any way to this character. He is a nothing shell of a nobody, and he'll be gone within two weeks, so who cares?

- The Andy storyline was some of the worst writing decisions this show has ever made. Why, when we are all COMPLETELY invested in what is going on at the office, would they then leave the office for some of the most unnecessary crap I've ever seen. Do you remember that there was a scene in an animal shelter for some nothing reason? I would hope not, because it was NOT IMPORTANT. There was far too much of Deangelo being retarded in the sales meeting, or just awful in general. There was far too much of Deangelo, period. It's like they were so excited to have Will Ferrell around, they just stuck him into everything they could, and then let him improv some terrible shit. Bad, just bad, lazy, awfulness. And while I can see why they would want to have Andy triumph in some way (especially if they're gearing him up to be the new boss), it wasn't really a triumph, was it? He just managed to look good in comparison to the worst character ever. So. Cut all of that shit out, and this episode would have been great.

- The last thing I didn't like was the return to Michael's racist Ping character. They've been working hard to build all this character growth for him before he leaves, and this completely ignored all of that. The Michael of season 7 would, I believe, know better, and would be able to not revert to the most offensive of his characters in order to express his emotions. If such a callback is necessary (and I don't think it is), they could have gone with Date Mike, Prison Mike, Michael Scarn, Michael Klump, or any thing else. I mean, maybe they wanted to remind us of how far he's come - but it just came off poorly.

For the most part it was a wonderful piece of television. Take Deangelo out of the whole thing and it would have been a close to perfect episode. But I can't help wondering if the entire Michael Scott departure is a mistake. These past four or five episodes have felt like we are saying goodbye to The Office. Allowing Michael to stay and ending the entire series with his wedding to Holly would have given us an appropriately grand cap to the show. Instead, it'll end next year, MAYBE the year after, with what? Something not as meaningful. I love all of the characters on this show, and I don't think it will be bad, but, without Michael, the feeling of the show will be irreparably different. They've swapped our regular oyster for a Rocky Mountain one and it has yet to be seen if we can stomach the change.

Goodbye, Michael. Dip it in water so it'll slide down your gullet faster.

Notes & Quotes

"I'm just up here, getting used to the altitude"

"Obvious XM radio?"

"I've given up expecting Michael to do the right thing, or the decent thing, or even the comprehensible thing"

Holly's parents are going to hate Michael, dementia or no.

"As a person who buys a lot of erotic cakes..."

Nice callback to Creed's hard-won privilege to do number twos in the ladies' room.

"Well, no, he hates jams."

"The people that you work with are just, when you get down to it, your very best friends."

"Uh-oh."

Images via DaemonsTV, TheFlickCast