NBC’s ‘The Office’ season 9, episode 16: Michael Scott returns… sort of

On tonight’s episode of “The Office” season 9, David Wallace tells off Andy for being gone for 3 months without telling him, but decides not to fire him, saying that without Andy, he wouldn’t have gotten his job back.

Andy is worried that Erin is moving on really fast, so he goes to Clark and Pete for some advice, not knowing that Pete is dating Erin and that Clark knows everything.  He later sees Erin giggling while texting on her cell and decides to snoop through her phone while she’s away from her desk.  Everyone in the office tries to tell him to stop, but he discovers that she’s dating and texting a guy named Pete.  Andy has been calling Pete by a nick name for so long that he doesn’t remember that his name is Pete, but when he finds a lunch bag in the office with Pete’s name on it, Andy is on a mission to find this man that came in between him and Erin.

Andy calls Pete into his office and tries to tell him that he caught a disease from Erin in an attempt to trap him into admitting that he is with Erin.  Pete admits that he’s the person dating Erin and Andy fires Pete on the spot, so he goes to HR and reports Andy.  Toby tells Andy that he can’t fire Pete and that Erin and Pete signed a NDA.  Andy decides to torture Pete and Erin, so he hires Alice, Pete’s ex-girlfriend and brings back Gabe to the office.  While Alice is upset that she was tricked in to being there, Gabe is happy to see Erin again and hopes that maybe things will rekindle between them. As Pete and Erin fight with their exes it makes Andy feel so much better.

Jim set up a job interview for Pam as an office manager at real estate company in Philadelphia and although she’s excited for it, she’s also very nervous because things are moving so fast.  When Pam gets to Philadelphia Jim is super supportive of her interview and it’s nice to see the two of them back to their old selves – the romance is back and we couldn’t be happier.  When Pam gets to the interview it’s crazy exciting not only to see “Breaking Bad” star Bob Odenkirk playing the boss, but he’s exactly like Michael Scott!  Because she knows how to deal with Michael Scott she knows how to work this new guy too and he’s happy to hire her.  We knew we missed Michael Scott from “The Office”, but we didn’t realize just how much we missed Michael Scott until seeing Odenkirk playing the character so perfectly.  As he starts to show her around the office she realizes that the job is for a receptionist, not an office manager.  She decides not to take the job, because she feels that she can’t go back to being a receptionist for another Michael Scott again at this point in her life.

Pam goes to see Jim at work after everyone left and he has dinner and champagne to celebrate and even though she tells him that she didn’t get and/or take the job, he’s just happy to celebrate the two of them being together.  While they are dining Pam tells him that she’s not sure that she wants to move to Philadelphia and he’s feeling a little blindsided.  She tells him that she loved their life in Scranton and they are left  at an impasse.

Dwight asks Angela to help him with his aunt and after spending the day together, Dwight realizes that he belongs with Angela and is sorry he has misses so many years without her.  He tells her he wants to be with her for the rest of his life after kissing her, and while she wants to be with him too, she decides to stand behind her marriage.

What did you think of tonight’s episode of “The Office”?  Leave us a comment and tell us what you think.

Photo: NBC