Spoilers for “Women’s Appreciation” below.

Things that happened

Phyllis gets flashed in the parking lot and, in turn, sets off a chain of events that leads to another boys-versus-girls episode of The Office. It all culminates in perhaps the most awkward scene in this show’s history.

The flashing incident goes unseen by the cameras, but it is described and relived several times throughout the episode. Phyllis is traumatized, Creed is confused (“if that’s flashing, then lock me up.”), Michael thinks it’s kind of funny, and Dwight… — well, Dwight is so infuriated he makes it his priority one to find the pervert and make him pay for his crimes.

Dwight spends most of the episode spiraling about, following clues. His attempt to catch the criminal is coupled with his new policies regarding the dress and behaviour of women. Essentially, he wants to make them all like Angela. (Who spends a lot of time this episode talking about her clothes. And about her height. Which is weird, because she never struck me as that short.) None of Dwight’s plans are very successful, however, thanks to prank-pulling Pam.

Since she’s “sort of” an artist, Pam is given the task of drawing the flasher from Phyllis’ memory. So, after listening to Phyllis’ story, Pam draws a picture of… Dwight. With a little mustache. Dwight is entirely ignorant of the striking resemblance between himself and the drawing, and so enlists a still-shunned Andy to help him plaster the poster all over town.

Meanwhile, after having a good laugh about the flashing incident, and pretending his finger is actually his penis, Michael is ashamed of his actions. So he attempts to bond with the women he so offended by holding a Women’s Appreciation meeting in the conference room. This does not go over well, mostly because Michael thinks “misogynistic” is a compliment.

He blames the chilly reception on the venue, oddly, and orders all the office women to join him at a more female-friendly place… the mall. It makes perfect sense to me, too. Girls love shopping. It’s there that we get to the root of what’s really bothering Michael these days — Jan. It seems Ms. Levinson-Gould is actually batshit crazy with a laundry list of sexual perversions and emotional issues. And all Michael wants to do is cuddle.

The girls (minus Angela, who disappears to go buy new clothes at the doll store) convince Michael that he needs to break up with Jan, because she just doesn’t make him happy. There’s some disagreement between Pam and Karen over how happy your relationship should make you — ooh, foreshadowing — but, in the end, a consensus is reached: Michael needs to dump the crazy broad.

Michael’s so happy that the girls were able to bond with him and help him make this decision that he treats them all to something from Victoria’s Secret. Karen gets sexy underwear for Jim. Angela wants neither a thong nor a g-string. Phyllis gets something we never see. And Pam gets a robe, which she is going to cut up and make towels out of. Is that sad?

She does change a tire all by herself on the way home, however, which is a nice achievement for her.

Back at the office, Michael calls Jan to break up with her. He gets her voice mail, so he… leaves a message, breaking up with her. That is a terrible idea. The worst ways to break up with someone are, in order from best to worst: 1) in person, 2) over the phone, 3) by telegram, 4) through voice mail, 5) via e-mail, 6) by singing telegram, 7) on your blog, 8) by introducing them to your new significant other, 9) faking your own death, 10) with a text message. So, while not the worst, the sin Michael committed was pretty bad.

He pays for it, too, as he leaves the message before he realizes that Jan is in the office, waiting to talk to him. She apologizes for an earlier incident in which she tried to pay him for sex (seriously) and makes real nice. Michael accepts her apology and asks if she wants to go to dinner. And, then, her phone beeps. And she checks her voice mail as Michael watches. It is about as awkward as it sounds.

But, hey, either way, Michael’s free of Jan, and things are looking good. Dwight finally realizes that the man on the poster is him, thanks to a well-executed mirror prank from Jim. Pam is feeling slightly empowered. Karen and Jim are celebrating their six month anniversary (grammatically impossible, sure, but still nice). And the rest of the Dunder-Mifflin men have spent the day hanging out in the women’s bathroom. Which, true to legend, has a couch in it and everything.

Things that were good

• The cold opening tonight was, once again, one of the funniest bits of the show. Dwight’s complicated demerit point system was great, and Jim’s reaction to it was greater. These two have such awesome chemistry. It is like comedy science.
• I like the longer episodes because it leaves more room for secondary character moments. Little details like learning that status of Ryan and Kelly’s relationship and more screen time for Kevin and Toby are great to see.
• I liked the moments foreshadowing the big Jim-Karen-Pam triangle blow-up we all know is coming before the end of this season. Pam’s inadvertent reference to Jim’s penis was perhaps the cutest inadvertent reference to a penis ever.
• Michael was a little more human this week (overall — he had a rocky start) which was a much-needed development after the wacky, zany, overkill Michael of the last two episodes.
• Kelly bopping along to Michael’s ringtone in the car. Kelly is my favourite right now.

Things that were not so good

• Even with the extra length, I felt there were things left out of this episode. I bet there are a couple of deleted scenes featuring Pam that would really flesh out the tire-change ending to her subplot, as it felt really empty and minor this episode.
• Michael and Jan breaking up is an interesting development, but where do we go from here? I think the Jan character deserves better than a mostly off-screen break-up. Hopefully we’re not done with her completely!

Worth Watching If…

You want to see a nice return-to-form for The Office. While definitely not a stand-out episode, this was far more cohesive and whole than a lot of the episodes have been recently. It involved the whole cast and featured nothing so overtly wacky than it made me question the long-term direction of this show. Though I still want to know where the camera man was sitting in Meredith’s mini-van. But that’s just because I am crazy.

In Five Words

Awful. No, I mean Awesome.