Ah, another Michael Scott romance. Aside from Holly, who was a genuinely perfect fit for Michael, all the other women who have been involved with him have fallen into a pattern. They're moderately successful business women who are simultaneously drawn to Michael's childish kindness and have some sort of complex that compels them to endure his absurdity. In the case of Donna, the restaurant manager who seems inexplicably drawn to Michael, it's hard to tell just what hidden geekiness or dysfunction has led her into Michael's arms. Though most of "Body Language" indicated the contrary, it seems we'll be able to find out over the next few episodes.

Most of this week's episode revolved around Donna's visit to the Scranton office to ostensibly purchase printers. She spends the entire meeting either shamelessly flirting with Michael or avoiding his increasingly clumsy advances. All the while, everyone in the office except for Pam tries to dissuade Michael from continuing his disastrous pursuit. Though it's mostly there for comic effect, Pam's support of the romance makes sense. Of everyone at Dunder-Mifflin, she's the one who has the most reason to believe in fairytales, however drab. In the past few years she has been swept off her feet by love and rewarded for a series of risky career decisions by a significant elevation in status and income. Pam also knows Michael better than anyone. It's not that the rational part of her mind believes that Michael can really woo a moderately sexy client, it's that she honestly wants Michael to triumph despite himself.

As it happens, Michael actually does get the girl, though we don't yet know why. We don't really know anything about Donna and we've never seen her outside the context of business. Maybe she'll only be around for a few episodes like Carol or maybe she'll become a major part of Michael's life like Jan. Amy Pietz, who plays Donna, has only been contracted for three episode and two of those have already aired. Given that we're so close to the end of the season, her next appearance will either be a breakup episode or the beginning of something big. There are also reports that Amy Ryan's Holly may come back into the picture next season. That, combined with the likelihood that Steve Carell will be leaving the show after next year, could make for a very interesting dramedy soup.

Another pleasant surprise is the sudden elevation of Kelly to executive in training. Sabre has a minority fastracking program that Gabe has been pushing pretty hard around the office. At first he markets the program to Darryl, the obvious choice considering his recent rise to office-dweller. It's only after Dwight gets his would-be puppet master hands on the proceedings that Kelly comes into the fold. With some extra coaching from Ryan, she gets accepted into the program. The comic potential of Kelly as an executive is functionally limitless and I really do hope that plot continues into next season.

Best Moment: Gabe beaming after "bagging an Indian" for the executive program. It was one of the best talking head segments of the season.

Notes: Michael's section of the episode was some of the most cringe-inducing material the show has trotted out in a long time. The desperation and creepiness was so damn hard to watch.

Episode Rating: 4.5/5- I have a limited tolerance for humiliation humor and this episode went over the edge for my tastes, but I know that cringing is a big part of what The Office is about. Otherwise, it was a fun, brisk episode that laid the groundwork for a lot of cool developments in the remainder of the season and potentially beyond.