The final season of The Office may have been off to a rocky start, but now in its third episode (“Andy’s Ancestry”), the long-running series has once again found its footing.
This episode’s cold open had to be the funniest I’ve seen in a couple of seasons. While at a dentist, Jim has an Asian American actor friend, Steve, impersonate him. It’s a classic Jim prank, showing his trademark attention to detail. Not only does Steve do a decent Jim impression, but he also knows exactly what Jim did yesterday and knows his voicemail’s passcode. When Dwight goes to a picture of Jim and his family, he finds that it’s a picture of Steve, Pam, and two half-Asian kids. His mind is blown. And it is hilarious.
“Andy’s Ancestry” deals with…well, Andy’s ancestry. Nellie tricks him into believing that he’s related to Michelle Obama, causing the office to conclude that Andy’s family was, at one point, slave owners. Awkwardness ensues.
Nellie also gets Pam to give her driving lessons during lunch, where they wind up becoming friends. Pam opens up that she feels Jim’s hiding something from her (he is), and Nellie is a horrible, horrible driver.
Erin’s nervous about hanging with Andy’s family and feels she’s not at the same mental level as them. So, she decides to learn French. Dwight scoffs at the French and convinces Erin to learn a real language – Dothraki…which isn’t a real language at all, but a language in Game of Thrones.
Now that he’s assistant regional manager, Darryl’s decided to implement some “lifehacks” into his work ethic. Jim’s impressed, but Andy’s too busy trying to convince the office he’s not a bad guy even if (and only if) his ancestors owned slaves.
Darryl has enough of not being taken seriously, and Jim understands, in turn offering Darryl a place in his soon-to-be-real sports marketing business in Philadelphia. It’s only soon-to-be-real, because as Darryl says, “It’s not real until your wife is on board.”
By the end of the episode, Jim will have told Pam the truth, Nellie will have inspired Pam to paint a mural, the new guys will have done a lot of clapping, and Andy will have accused everyone in the office of having horrible ancestors.
All in all, a pretty fun episode. Definitely the best episode of the season so far. And if nothing else, “Andy’s Ancestry” proves that Jim and Pam are just more interesting when they’re apart.
What did you think of the episode? Let us know in the comments section below!
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