I like this connection we see between Jim and Michael. Michael, as we saw when he got a second job, has a great deal of Jim in him deep down, and as we find out later in this episode, Jim has a whole lot of Michael inside him. Take that for what you will, but I doubt Jim likes it too much. I also doubt that Michael knew, in his younger days, that he’d end up being like he is now. Jim assumes the mantle of leadership on Michael’s absence. Dwight doubts Michael’s ability to survive in the woods, so, of course, he’s going to trail Michael the entire time. Michael and Dwight are out into the wilderness. Michael explains the concept of Survivorman, being that someone with just the stuff they have with them has to survive a fake accident. Michael’s fake accident is best explained by him. Dwight: No, I would never leave you for dead. I would never let you escape. Michael: Well, yes I would, and I would survive. Michael: You are as creepy as a real serial killer. For real. Michael covers his eyes, so he won’t have any familiarity with his surroundings. To heighten the experience, Dwight then tries to knock out Michael by hitting him with a shoe. Michael begs for one decent cathartic experience. Angela comes to new boss Jim, informing him that it’s Creed’s birthday. In fact, it’s Birthday Month: Kelly, Creed, Oscar, and Meredith. Jim has an idea: one big shared birthday party, presumably to avoid the multiple birthdays. We find out about Michael’s birthday customs: toasts that are inappropriate in nature, gag gifts that are also usually inappropriate in nature (like a blow up doll for Kevin), and a love of leaping out of corners and scaring the pants off people with surprise birthday greetings. Angela doesn’t like the idea. Jim does. Pam, well… more discord. Making a universal party is as hard as it sounds, given everyone wants different things. Meanwhile, Michael is in the woods with a tripod and a camera, charting his Survivorman adventure. Dwight swears fealty to Michael, promising to let him get hurt or die, but never lose his dignity. Michael, meanwhile, loses his dignity by using his knife to cut his suit pants into, err, suit shorts. He looks like a mailman. Dwight, on the other hand, is having absolutely no problems surviving in the woods, unlike his boss. Jim’s multiple birthday plan is a bad one. Andy wants an ice cream cake and mushroom caps. Creed wants peach cobbler. Meredith wants Devil’s Food Cake. Everyone hates Jim’s idea. Phyllis accidentally called Jim Michael. Uh oh. Michael and Jim share a moment, and Jim has the harsh realisation that, well… he’s going to end up just like Michael in 10 years. I see it, too. Line of the Night: Dwight: People say, ‘Oh, it’s dangerous to keep weapons in the home or the workplace.’ Well I say it’s better to be hurt by someone you know accidentally than by a stranger on purpose. Ron Hogan doesn’t go on wilderness retreats, because he knows that soon enough we will be living in a Mad Max dystopian pos- nuclear wasteland. Find more by Ron at his blog, Subtle Bluntness, and daily at Shaktronics and the Flektor Development Blog.
