The lake was definitely a WTF moment. However, you have to give kudos to them for having their two biggest stars (plus camera man) actually drive a car into a lake. I don't care how well you plan a stunt like that, there is always an element of risk involved. Very ballsy.

Now that they've shown Michael's low point for the year they'll probably have him close a huge sale or do something managerially miraculous to really throw us off.

You mean the cameraman that they have never explained why they are there?

In the UK version, they explain that they are doing a documentary.
I don;'t believe they have ever explained that in the US version

Does it matter?

I've seen a lot of documentaries. In none of them do they ever explain that "this is a documentary".

But I think they mentioned it in the pilot, which had more or less the same script as the pilot of the UK version.

they have mentioned it before. would there some other reason for the "confessional" type interviews?

Precisely. You have to be pretty dumb to drive into a lake, but even the dumbest person isn't going to stop, contemplate, listen to his passenger explain that it's a lake, and then drive right into it. It should have been, "turn right", an immediate right turn, Dwight shouting "lake!" right as they hit the water, and then impact. I think them dragging it out is yet another sure sign they were trying to fill time due to this 1 hour format.

"You need to put your mouth on that."

The writers are realy trying to turn Michael into Homer Simpson

would have been nice to see him try out the gift basket idea, get some personal feedback from customers, and do something good for a change.

I agree, Michael has showed that he is a damn good sales man on numerous occasions, would have been nice to see him pull this one out.

Did anything ever come of his deal with Hammermill? The way they set it up, I expected to hear either that it helped DMI immensely or that it was a complete fabrication on Michael's part, but they never addressed the issue again.......

What's that Jerry Lanford line from King of Comedy: "You don't say 'here's the punchline', you just do the punchline!!"

I don't remember Dwight ever saying "there is a lake directly to our right". Actually, I was unclear as to why Dwight was so freaked out that Michael wanted to turn right, because it didn't seem to me that there was a lake there. People seem to be exaggerating the scene.

It was poorly written, but I don't hate the scene or think it destroyed the episode.

When Ryan asked Pam to create some design samples for the Dunder Mifflin Infinity logo, was this just a set-up to ask her out for dinner or was asking her out a spur of the moment thing?

Driving into the lake was dumb but well staged. So far we have Meredith rolling off the the hood of a car and Michael and Dwigt driving into a lake -- what's next?

The old Dunder-Mifflin site was pretty funny.

Christmas Party 2002

Tivo:

As Michael is making the turn Dwigt says "It can't MEAN it, there's a LAKE there!!" (the camera also shows the GPS, which shows them a tad short of the suggested turn), at which point we immediately sees the lake in front of them.

Well shit, just have him drive the car off a bridge and die. That's impact.

An okay episode. I only really chuckled throughout the episode. As others said, Michael driving the car into the lake was too far out there. Then, of course, Michael and Dwight freaking out after screwing up has become redundant. Steve and Rainn even seem to not be giving it their all so far this season.

Creed and Kelly were the highlights of the episode for me. Kelly's 'WE HAVE A DATE!' squeal was hilarious.

I think it was all set up to ask her out, frankly.

Kelly really put on some weight since last season!

Fixed

I loved when Michael told the guy not to give one of the items in the gift basket to his daughter because she was allergic. I really thought that would be the moment the guy understood the importance of personal relationships in business so I was very disappointed when Michael went back for the basket. I can't believe Michael didn't have one win in the episode except where he made Ryan sit down for the agism meeting. There needs to be a balance or his antics become too ridiculous to keep him employed.

However I find that David Brent was just as unrealistic since he didn't seem to really have any redeeming qualities as a manager where we already know Michael is a good salesman.

Okay, so everyone is wrong. Dwight doesn't say anything about a lake until Michael is already making the turn, and the audience doesn't see the lake until Michael is making the turn.

Can't believe the two best parts of the episode haven't been mentioned:

Angela (about Pam): "I'm not surprised. She is the office mattress."

And the cut to Kelly shaking her head, earrings rattlingly slightly, when she lied about her pregnancy. I had to rewind that and watch it again. Had me rolling.

About the length, you do all realize that these are essentially two half-hour episodes butted together, right? Both last week and this week it would have been pretty natural to end right at the halfway point. I just feel like I'm watching two episodes

I certainly agree with this. It would have been better if Michael were staring at the GPS screen, or distracted by the camera or Dwigt. While watching the show live, I probably filled this in as having happened while I was transfixed on the water getting closer and closer.