The Office has been off for two weeks, and what bad timing: This episode is about Valentine’s Day, of all things. Because this is a TV show, not an actual office in Scranton, Pennsylvania, a high percentage of Dunder Mifflin’s middle-aged staff is single, so the Lonely Hearts Party that Michael puts together makes a bit of sense. (Though it’s difficult to imagine anyone excited to go on a date with Kevin.)
Of course, the main plot finds Michael, like us, still coping with the loss of Holly. While giving blood, he meets a woman who banters with him and calls him cute, but he passes out before he can have a real conversation with her. (He’s still charmed: “I think our blood bags touched.”) The Lonely Hearts Party is organized in hope that Holly blood-donation girl will return. She doesn’t, but we do learn that Dwight can retract his penis up into itself, so that’s something.
It is legitimately touching when the whole office stays with Michael late into the night, after it becomes clear that his immortal beloved isn’t showing up. But this is mostly a placeholder episode, with a few fun sight gags (Creed stealing a tube of blood), some obvious asides (Jim and Pam’s dinner with Phyllis and Bob Vance ends with the latter couple having sex in the restroom), and silly Michael puns (“Today, I hope to hit someone with Cupid’s sparrow. What a bird that is”).
The takeaway? We find out where the heck Ryan has been. In real life, B.J. Novak was filming Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. On the show, Ryan has been traveling through Thailand, “sleeping with random prostitutes.” That doesn’t sound all that different than filming a Tarantino movie, particularly when it involves hanging out with Eli Roth.
