‘Business Ethics’ Review

‘Business Ethics’ Review by Megan

Hello Dunderheads! It’s Megan V. here and here’s how I’m calling “Business Ethics”…

The episode starts with Jim and Pam conversing via telephone. Pam expresses her disgust with the rest of the Scranton branch in that no one called her to congratulate her on the engagement. Jim proceeds to tell her that he hasn’t mentioned it to anyone yet. Pam convinces Jim to change his mind and then he makes the big announcement to everyone. Their reaction? NOTHING! It was pretty hilarious, especially when Dwight made his remark on the situation saying to Jim, “She’s not a virgin you know.” Well done, Dwight. Well done. This was followed by Michael tackling Jim to the ground in his delight of the news. A great intro scene into this episode.

As the title of the episode states, this is Business Ethics day at Dunder Mifflin. Holly needs to give a presentation. But as we all saw not just ANY presentation. LET’S GET PHYSICAL(ETHICAL) WITH SWEATBANDS!!! Are you kidding!?! I was rolling on the ground! This was clearly another one of Michael’s classic moments! I guess I just don’t understand why Michael won’t give up Jan and the baby (who isn’t even his) to be with Holly; who is CLEARLY his other half (which is becoming more and more evident with each episode). I’m just waiting for that romantic relationship to begin and I hope it happens soon!

Holly begins the seminar and states the reason why they are making this mandatory was because of an unnamed fired employee’s actions…ahem, Ryan. Ryan then stands up, acknowledges that he’s the culprit and being the sneaky, egomaniacal pig he is celebrated his short-lived success by stating that he had hooked up with a look-a-like of Joanna from Survivor Season Six. Was that necessary? Nope. Is Ryan awesome? Nope. After that chauvanist scene, Holly proceeds with the seminar with the guidelines from “The Binder” like time theft and supply theft.
Of all people, Kelly has an opinion on the time theft issue. She makes this statement, “Why is it okay for smokers to take breaks all the time? If I wanna go outside and hang out for once an hour, I’ll take up smoking! I’ll do it; I don’t care.” Wow. For once, Kelly makes a great and ethical point that makes sense with the topic. Irony anyone? Also, was anyone else truly impressed by Dwight’s ethical view on Andy’s stolen bread topic!?! Classic Dwight.
Michael then opens up the floor to a shame-free, disciplinary action-free forum for everyone to admit a time when, according to “The Binder” of Dunder Mifflin Ethics Policy, they proke the rules. Michael begins with this epic quote: “When I discovered YouTube, I didn’t work for five days! I did nothing. I viewed Cookie Monster sings ‘Chocolate Rain’ about a thousand times.” Wow. An amazing, hilarious and not so surprising discovery about Mr. Scott. This is definatley one of the best Michael quotes to date. He then proceeds to call the long lunches that Oscar admits to taking as siestas (naps in Spanish) and calls Dwight “a thief of joy”. Wonderful and funny. However, it didn’t seem right that he said that to Dwight. It felt more like a Toby moment.
Then the a-bomb of the episode: Meredith admits to sleeping with the Hammermill Rep for Dunder Mifflin for SIX YEARS in exchange for discounted supplies and Outback Steakhouse gift certificates. WOW!!!! Michael’s reaction is of course vintage, but Holly puts on her serious face. This was the point in the episode where I honestly thought that they were going to write off Kate Flannery. Not kidding.
Meredith, when pulled in private, admits to her “meet-ups” occurring once a month for the last six years! Holly then gives Meredith a window out of the impending consequences by asking her if her “meet-ups” were for personal (sexual) reasons. Meredith then said that she wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t for the discounted paper because “there’s not a lot of fruit in those looms.” Glorious quote, but horrifying situation. I cannot believe that Meredith didn’t take the hint from Holly and cover her butt from legal issues and instead admitted every dirty detail! Could you be more stupid(drunk)!?! She then expresses with Holly that the Outback coupons and sex made her feel good about herself. Pretty sad.
Cut to Jim & Dwight–
In response to Dwight saying that ethically he was not a time theif, Jim proceeds to have a stop watch in hand to account each moment Dwight was not working. Funny, funny, funny.
Michael decides to go to lunch with Holly to discuss Meredith. And in classic Michael style, he chooses a very “classy” place…Cooper’s Seafood House, which is pretty much like a Joe’s Crab Shack. He describes it as “business-romantic”. Again, I couldn’t control my laughter! To make small talk, he recalls with Holly that she’s from Des Moines and he proceeds to say, “That sounds so warm!” Hahaha! I’m from Wisconsin and most of the time around here, NOT so warm.

As Michael and Holly are sitting at the table eating, they discuss the future and the steps necessary to deal with Meredith. Needless to say, Holly being in H.R. wanted to deal with the situation ethically and Michael, being Michael, wanted to sweep it under the rug. They both returned to the office in seperate cars and very tense. Michael was very upset with Holly. So upset that he waited outside until she got upstairs just so he wouldn’t have to take the elevator with her and he threw out the leftovers she had asked him to hold on to. He also left the break room with the coffee pot when Holly wanted a refil and cut ahead of her to the copy machine to copy a picture on the wall when she wanted to use it.
Holly later met Michael in his office to talk to the corporate head of H.R., Kendall, on the phone. This obviously had me and probably most of America thinking at this point that Meredith was a goner. Then to everyone’s surprise, he took Michael’s side??? Really? Wow. I guess this means that Ryan was just the tip of the iceburg with the coruption at corporate. With her tail tucked between her legs, Michael tried to deal with how to tell Holly that he told her so. NOTE OF MATURITY: Michael didn’t go forward with making her feel like crap. He instead was very viligant in continuing and finishing the ethics seminar when it was clear that everyone else did not want to because it felt like a trap. So in the end, Michael finished what he had started in a responsible manner. Is Michael changing before our very eyes?? Will he conform to corporate America? Not likely. But this change of heart on his end was a big step in making him look like less of an idiot on a constant basis.

The seminar finished, the episode completes with most of the cast in the break room eating take-out from, where else, but Outback Steakhouse! Everyone is enjoying themselves and grateful to Meredith with a beautiful closing statement from Stanley, “Just keep the ribs coming!”

To sum up, this was a so-so episode. Not my favorite but not that terrible. I just feel that at this time the writers are setting up Dunder Mifflin to fail. If Dunder Mifflin fails with all of it’s ethical and corporate corruption, what will happen to The Office? However, there were many funny and classic moments in this one.
I’ll give this episode 3 out of 5 Dundees.

Until next week Dunderheads…have an “Oompa Loompa Doompity Dawesome” Day!

1. ‘Business Ethics’ Preview
2. ‘Business Ethics’ Deleted Scenes
3. Watch ‘Business Ethics’
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