photo: nbc
The Office
Murder
Original Air Date: Nov 12, 2009
Shannon – Associate Editor
shannon@thetwocentscorp.com
The branch gets word via the Wall Street Journal that Dunder Mifflin is declaring bankruptcy and is up in arms, naturally. Michael’s solution is to play a murder mystery game to get everyone’s mind off of things. Jim thinks it’s a bad idea and that everyone should just get back to work.
The game is set in Savannah so everyone has these affected southern accents and they’re just awful. Andy asks Erin out on a date in his Foghorn Leghorn accent. But since Erin is “Naughty Nellie” she’s been saying yes to everyone who’s asked her out. Andy is afraid he asked out Nellie rather than Erin.
Dwight thinks that Phyllis aka Beatrix Bourbon is the killer because she’s the person he most medium suspects. Oscar comes in with some news on the company and everyone wants to go back to work so Michael plays the tape that gives up that Beatrix Bourbon is the killer. Dwight looks smug.
Andy tries to roundabout ask Erin if she knew it was a real date and she answers in character so Andy thinks she didn’t know it was a real date. Erin is disappointed.
Michael will NOT give up the game and everything he says ends in “Ah do declayare!” and Jim is afraid that Michael’s snapped so he drags Michael off to discuss what’s happening. Michael shouts at Jim to shut up that he just wants to have this game. David Wallace calls and Erin busts up the outburst. Jim takes the call in his office and David says that Dunder Mifflin will definitely be out of money by the end of the year and that things don’t look good. Jim lies to the group and says there’s no news, but there has been another murder. They all get back to the conference room to finish the game, except Phyllis and Stanley.
At the end of the ep, Michael, Dwight, and Andy have a standoff because all the three of them have revealed that they are all, in fact, double agents. They all end up “shooting” each other. Man, working on this show must be the most fun ever.
Pretty solid episode overall. I mean, Dunder Mifflin can’t really go under, right? Guess we’ll have to see what happens. Leave your thoughts in the comments!
TheTwoCents 
I do agree that they must have had fun making this episode, but I was dissappointed with it, like most of the episodes this season. The show just isn’t funny to me anymore. I tune in every week, hoping to be surprised by a new and funny episode, but it hasn’t really happened this season. I’m beginning to think this is a show I can just wait to watch online on the weekends.
Maybe they are preparing for the show to go off the air with the story line that DM is in serious financial trouble.
I hope that’s not the case, but I can see why you might feel that way, PG. I agree with you that this season hasn’t been quite as good as previous’ years.
I’m still loving it. And that standoff at the end… with the reveal of Pam? That was fantastic!
I think it’s never going to have the juice the first 3 seasons had – they have to create so much for these people to be fresh and new. But it’s still better than most anything else on TV right now.
I would be interested to see when some of the actors began contributing as writers (i.e. Novak, Kaling, etc.). I wonder if that has anything to do with the decrease in quality.
I want to still like this show because I ‘ve been a follower from the beginning, but right now I put it behind 30 Rock, Community, and Modern Family. I’ve been genuinely laughing as much if not more while watching Cougar Town and Glee. That makes me sad.
As I understood it, Novak has been writing since the show’s beginning. I could be wrong about that, but I’m pretty sure he has.
I still really like the show or I wouldn’t be watching it. I’m willing to give it a bigger berth than I was for, say, Parks and Recreations, just because I’ve invested a lot of time in it and I like the characters so much.
I agree with PG Ignacio. I’m not enjoying this season basically because it’s not funny. My favorite parts of the season echoed the original humor that made this show great such as Jim taking advantage of Dwight’s bugged duck. But they are becoming few and far between.