The Office Season 9 Review “The Farm”

Those people still lamenting “The Office” spin-off that could have been got a taste of what might have been in store for them this week with “The Farm,” which featured footage taken from that aborted pilot. As it turned out, from the looks of things, it would have been a weird, wild ride.

It was fun seeing long-lost “Roswell” actress Majandra Delfino as Dwight’s heretofore unknown sister. I heard she went off to pursue her music career, but then she sort of dropped off my radar for a while. I always fall for the snarky sidekicks (i.e. Ksenia Solo, Aubrey Plaza, and once upon a time, Zooey Deschanel, before that sort of thing became commercially acceptable) and she was a particularly memorable one on that show that I always thought would hit it bigger than she did. Maybe this newfound exposure will help with that. Her role was a bit underwritten, admittedly, but that’s why they call ‘em pilots, folks.

We’ve met others in Dwight’s clan over the years, but it’s always fun to see them in their element, as we did here. This time around, it revolved around the death of Dwight’s aunt, who was apparently sort of a surrogate mother for him, while his actual mother was more of a surrogate aunt, according to the man himself. I loved his rejection of Jim’s condolences: “Keep them!” And the dirt-tossing ritual was funny, too, as Dwight went around throwing dirt on everyone, sometimes unsuspectingly.

Also putting in a return appearance was Todd Packer, played by David Koechner, of “Anchorman” fame, among many other comedies. He was supposedly in town in service of his enrollment in both AA & NA and was there to make amends with…well, pretty much everyone in the office. His apologies were hilariously terrible- for instance, to Pam-Pam & her “Pam-Pams,” he said: “I am so sorry I objectified you and personified your breasts,” then added, to the breasts: “Sorry, guys!”

Except that he actually intended no such thing, and was instead on a mission of revenge and gave them cupcakes laced with either laxatives or drugs- sometimes both. I loved the montage of Andy and Kevin’s shenanigans while zonked out of their gourds, especially the clothes-switching that culminated in a Hammer-style dance from Andy. Good stuff.

But the meat of the episode belonged to Dwight, of course. The funeral was hilariously awkward, with brother Jeb driving partially into the freshly-dug grave, then hopping out and wrestling Dwight; and another group doing a drive-by in a truck, complete with eulogy. Yep, that was none other than Alan Ruck, aka Cameron from “Ferris Bueller” in the driver’s seat. I assume all concerned at the funeral would have been on the show, had it actually become one. Well, save Oscar, who correctly observed of the Schrute clan, “They’re a descriptive people.”

I almost fell out when Dwight fired two shotgun rounds into the corpse to make sure his aunt was dead- it’s no wonder the NBC executives passed! But I thought it was all funny, if somewhat dark stuff. Maybe they should have downplayed the more twisted elements on the front end- it’s possible it might have scared the NBC brass off. But I loved it, personally. And that dialogue! Where do I begin?

Dwight: “The only thing we’re planting here is dead bodies.”
Jeb: “That’s fine, ‘cause they’re not going to grow.”
Dwight: “Thank God they’re not. Because we don’t want to make zombies.”

And his “flirting”- and boy, do I use that term loosely- with Esther was also brilliant, not in the least as he’d clearly said it before, if you noticed Mose mouthing along with the words.

Dwight: “Well, if you can snap two chicken necks with a single motion, why use two motions to slaughter those chickens?” I’m not even sure what that means, and I still laughed.

Okay, one more: this one when Dwight lamented that Jeb had become a pot farmer, and he talked about Jeb’s former dreams of planting glory.

Dwight: “He used to talk about growing a peanut-grape hybrid. One plant, one sandwich.” Would that it were so, Dwight, because that sounds awesome!

So, a solid episode all around. You can’t go wrong with Dwight, IMHO, and as this was mostly made up of his potential spin-off, it was a lot of fun. I can’t wait to see the rest of the lost footage on the inevitable DVD of the final season. If it’s half as funny as what we saw here, it should be a hoot.

What did you think of “The Office” this week? Would you have liked to see “The Farm” become a series? Do you still think there’s hope, somehow some way? (Hey, they’re resurrecting “Veronica Mars”- crazier things have happened.) Did you enjoy Packer’s antics, or would you have rather seen more of Dwight’s? Let me know what you thought in the comments!