The Office, “Garage Sale”: a proposal

Quick Take: The Office, “Garage Sale”
“I am not going to be proposed to in the break room. That is not going to be our story. I shoulda burned this place down when I had a chance.” – Michael

Review: The Office, “Garage Sale”
(S0718) If I weren’t so invested in Michael and Holly I could have skipped this episode because its side stories weren’t really worth watching. This week Dunder Mifflin held a garage sale and Michael pondered how to propose to Holly.

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Michael starts off his quest by calling Holly’s dad to ask for his permission to propose. In true Michael form, he is actually talking to an answering machine and leaves a message for permission instead. While Pam is getting coffee, she notices Michael is outside pouring gas all over the ground. She goes to stop him and he tells her he is writing out a proposal with gas and is going to light it on fire. Pam tells him it isn’t a good idea. She gets Michael to come to the conference room after where Jim, Ryan and Oscar are waiting to give him their ideas on how to propose.

They all agree that Holly is perfect for Michael and when Michael shows them the ring, Pam’s reaction is “holy s***”. Mine too, because that was a good ring. Oscar tries to tell Michael to keep it simple (if you’re in costume, you are doing something wrong). Jim tries to give advice, but is made fun of instead for his gas station proposal to Pam (remembering that episode, I thought that their proposal was sweet).

At the garage sale, Dwight was trying to bargain for the best thing in the room. He started off by giving Meredith a tack and made his way to each table, trading more along the way. I loved seeing everybody’s stuff because it represented their personality. Angela had cat figurines, Kelly was selling clothes. Ryan was trying to do a business with his mom’s homemade pesto and salsa using Phyllis and Oscar’s face on the jars and Oscar was trying to sell Will and Grace because he had gotten them as gifts because people automatically thought he liked the show.

Kevin had an old Dallas board game which set up a board game showdown with Andy and Darryl. Jim tricked Dwight into trading him a telescope for some “magic beans” he had received in Jamaica. Not one of his best pranks on Dwight, but Jim was cleverer than Dwight when it came to bargaining. Sometimes though I wonder why Dwight listens to Jim at all.

Elsewhere, Holly got a call from her mom telling Michael had called them. Holly realized why Michael called and when she tried to talk to her dad, she realized that he wasn’t doing well. He couldn’t focus on what Holly was asking him and changed the subject a couple of times. When her mom came back on the phone, she tried to reassure Holly that they were fine. I think by the conversation you could tell where this was heading and how both Holly and Michael were going to leave.

They met back in the break room and Holly told Michael she wanted to go see her parents in Colorado. She feared for her Dad’s health and wanted to see him. Michael understood and Holly asked him to go with her, but not as her boyfriend. When she tries to propose, Michael refuses to listen. I thought maybe they were going to go down a break-up road, but it turned out to be better than expected.

Later, Michael asks Holly to take a walk to show her some stuff. He takes her to the café where he learned Toby would be leaving and she would be taking his place. Then they went to the stairwell where they had their first kiss and the room they first had sex. They went to his office where he had called to tell her he was still in love and then to the water cooler where he would pretend to get water just so he could watch her (kind of creepy!). When they entered the kitchen, the whole gang was there, each holding a candle. As Michael led Holly through the kitchen, a bunch of them proposed with Holly saying no to each one. I liked Michael’s commentary as they proposed; “that would be hot, I would pay to see that” as Angela asked.  

When they reached her desk there were candles everywhere and Michael told her this is where he fell in love with her. He got down on one knee and in his best Yoda voice asked “Holly Flax...marrying me will you be?” As she answered “Your wife becoming me will I”, the sprinklers went off and they were soaked. I don’t think a better Holly/Michael moment could have been asked for. Everybody joined them to congratulate them and give them hugs. As they celebrated Michael dropped the bomb that they would be moving to Colorado. Everybody’s smiles turned to frowns after he made this announcement.

I had a feeling that Michael would leave to be with Holly, just didn’t know how they were going to do it. I presume that Holly will leave first and Michael will be right behind her. Like I said before, nothing else mattered in this episode except for Michael and Holly. The Andy/Darryl/Kevin story wasn’t entertaining until the end when Kevin ended up schooling the other two. The Jim/Dwight story wasn’t funny until after the credits when Dwight planted the magic beans and Jim was right behind him with replacement pots that had plants in them to fool Dwight even more. There are three more episodes with Steve Carell and I don’t know what we are going to do without Michael Scott.