The Morning After: Catalog Shopping

NBC Photo: Chris Haston

SPOILER ALERT: Before you read this post, put down that chair catalog and watch last night's Office.

A ring? A ring? "Parking" was not just a funny and sweet episode of The Office—giving a nice character moment to a sideline player like Kevin, for instance—but it certainly moved the Pam and Jim ball downfield. It'll be interesting to see how long they play out the notion of the proposal just looming out there somewhere, like the Slap Bet in How I Met Your Mother. (What are we looking at: a proposal by the end of the season, engagement next season and then... complications?) But I also thought that the story of Michael falling in love with the dead chair-catalog model, bizarre as it was, put just the right capstone on the end of Michael's relationship with Jan and its implications for his dream of settling down and having kids. (Even if he handled it in typically insensitive Michael fashion, e.g., asking Phyllis if her friend could fit in a rowboat.) Did the episode make the sale with you? And just what does Creed want with that third chair?