Episodes 22/23:

As the office readies for the premiere of the documentary that night, Jim convinces Dwight, who is planning to propose to Esther, that he needs an Assistant to the Assistant Regional Manager, and holds tryouts to find the best candidate. Angela brings her baby to work after her daycare turns her away. Meanwhile, Andy attends auditions for "The Next Great A Cappella Sensation."

Guest stars: Aaron Rodgers, Clay Aiken, Mark McGrath, Santigold, Jessica St. Clair

So, next week will be the series finale?

I WOULD WATCH AN ENTIRE SEASON OF DWIGHT AND JIM AS REGIONAL MANAGER AND ASSISTANT TO THE REGIONAL MANAGER.

Love the picture of Dwight in the conference room.

I liked the picture he had in his office as well.

This was a good episode. Aside from bringing back many previous characters (which it appears they'll do next week), this would have served as a fitting finale.

Really looking forward to next week. I'll be sad to see the series go. I'll be also watching the retrospective before the airing of the finale.

I haven't even finished the episode and it's abundantly clear the show missed the fucking boat by making Andy the boss. Jim and Dwgt and gold together.

Good episode, though the Jim and Pam stuff didn't do anything for me. Loved the dancing at the end. Looking forward to the last episode.

So why are they still shooting if the documentary is airing? Will certain people be pissed about relatively little time they get in the doc?

Why are they following Andy around if he doesn't work there anymore?

So what is the explanation for the paternity test that said that Dwight was not the father?

I thought the Jim and Pam stuff at the end was very corny/mawkish. Maybe that whole retrospective of their relationship would have worked as something the audience watched, but in the context they presented it, it was a little cringe-inducing.

Also wasn't too nuts about the dancing part. It struck me as the kind of self-indulgent silliness in which the show has overindulged over the years. Thankfully, they kept it short.

The best part of the episode was easily Jim and Dwight goofing around like old times. That part was solid, really like the good old days.

And the gang watching the documentary is actually part of the documentary? How does that work? Count my mind as blown.

Someone that posts on dvdtalk should know about a little thing called extras.

Well, that's one theory. The continuity of the whole documentary thing is confounding as all get out. Apparently, there is some kind of additional documentary after the original one, to account for the finale. At this point it is hard to tell where the documentary leaves off and the "reality" of the character's lives outside of it begins.

Maybe the documentary crew will follow the characters around for the rest of their fictional lives.

In terms of the "reality of the documentary", if they followed Jim to Scranton and Andy in his post Dunder Mifflin life then they absolutely would have followed Michael.

I enjoyed all of it, except the Andy stuff. That was a huge waste of time and painfully unfunny.

Dwigt portrait was awesome, and I liked the Pam/Jim stuff, especially that Jim finally gave her the card from the teapot.

This is what I was wondering... didn't they say prove it wasn't his?

I wonder if Jim gets busted on his way home from the bar. And speaking of the bar, couldn't they have argued to the bartender "Uh...this bar is probably going to be featured on the show numbnuts, we've been here a lot of times with these cameras."

Anyway this was up there with last week, although Daryl was a dick for that quiet goodbye. Seems like Nelly is like the Bean Bunny of The Office at this point.

See the documentary thing is just a gimmick the show employed for all those years. It's not a REAL documentary. To tie up the show, the show is now presenting it as a real documentary. But since this continues to be a work of fiction, the rules of the documentary aren't going to follow the rules that a typical documentary would follow in the real world.

Hope that helps.

It's a show.

I can chalk the first two up to "It's a show" but the last one seems like a pretty major plot hole and particularly lazy writing.

Didn't Angela get the results and tell them to Dwight? I always thought she was lying.

Exactly. I thought this episode was pretty funny, unlike many, many before it. This season could've been salvaged if they did this earlier.

Same here. I thought it was obvious she was lying.

Good episode. Funny (except for Andy). Soo many feels. Nice callback with the teapot note.

After that episode, I might be a little sad to see the show end.

The show has felt SO superfluous since Michael left. The past two episodes have been much, much better.

No, it's going out on a high note, but honestly it's well time for this show to go. All the self-referential documentary-shooting stuff proves that -- eight seasons of just accepting that and making it the framework of the show and now in season nine, they talk about the filming all the time? It looked like they completely ran out of ideas this season.

It's nice to see it end on a much better note than most of the last couple seasons... other than Andy's tired scenes, the past 2 weeks have been mostly good.

Yep. He was The Office... well, Dwigt too. The others are filler.