In “Baby Shower,” the third episode of The Office’s fifth season, we get a glimpse of the elusive rational side of Michael Scott, a side that’s only shown itself on a few rare occasions in the past.
“Baby Shower” was heartbreaking at times, hilarious at others. While the staff is preparing for a Jan’s baby shower, Michael continues to take ownership as the baby’s father, though Jan has repeatedly told him and others that the she was inseminated by a sperm donor. We feel for Michael when, in an aside, he explains how children everywhere seem to love him. And it’s true. At heart, he’s a child himself.
Michael’s been practicing childbirth techniques with Dwight and Andy, with Dwight giving birth to a ten-pound watermelon which Michael drops on the floor and splits. Jan shows up and it turns out she has baby Astrid with her and didn’t even tell Michael when she gave birth. He wasn’t there and wasn’t involved. Michael is crushed. While holding the baby, he comments that he feels “short-changed.” The office staff clears the room, awaiting Michael’s emotional explosion, but he’s defeated and is actually in touch with what the viewer is also realizing.
Moments after the staff presents Jan with her gift, a new baby stroller for the baby they presumed was still unborn, Dwight hears that the stroller Jan was using when she walked in with Astrid cost $1200 and proceeds to find different ways to test whether, for $1200, the stroller is indestructible. He’s dragging it in the street, throwing it up at barbed wire. Un-be-lieveable.
Michael’s deliberate “cold shoulder” treatment of Holly while Jan is visiting is moderately funny at best. In the end, Michael asks Holly “do you want to go out?” She tearfully accepts his proposal. Juvenile as that is, as much mud as he’s been dragged through, he’s still in charge. He’s still steering the ship through his own emotional turmoil, and his plan of starting out friends with Holly then taking things further is coming to fruition. Word has it we’ll see more of this next week in “Crime Aid,” episode four.
Will Pam and Jim make it? Signs are still pointing to yes. I think it would be too much of a downer should their long-distance relationship not work out. If it ended, Jim wouldn’t go wild. He wouldn’t turn into a Ryan performance. He’d be depressed and it wouldn’t make for good TV.
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