When the Sabre smoking printer scandal first broke a couple weeks ago, I let myself fall into the trap The Office has set time and again. I really thought it was going to blow up into some sort of major development that would set up a spectacular season finale. If this was any other show, that's exactly what would have happened. But The Office, despite being goofy and improbable in so many ways, is still more rooted in reality than most scripted (or for that matter, unscripted) shows. The Sabre scandal resolved itself in a way that is all too familiar to anyone who has ever watched the national news. Big corporations like Sabre usually don't fall apart or turn into sources of public outrage. Instead, they spend a little money and publicly apologize, then everyone stops paying attention. In "Whistleblower", the important part of the scandal was how it affected the small, forgettable lives of the folks working at the Scranton branch.

It didn't really come as a surprise to learn that there was more than one press leak in Scranton. Really, about half of the office ended up accidentally or intentionally telling someone in the media about Sabre's corner-cutting fire printers. Aside from Andy's misguided by good-intentioned letter to a newspaper editor (which he composed on a work computer, no less), Pam slipped the news to the wife of a reporter as a story-topper, Darryl may or may not have bragged about it to a woman at a bar and Kelly leaked the news via her obsession with social networking platforms. Michael, his heart always with his "family" at work, ends up obliviously taking the bullet for everyone after CEO Jo comes up on her private jet and manipulates him into holding an apologetic press conference.

It's more than a little sad to see Jo play Michael the way she does, but I think The Office is far beyond rooting for Michael's success as a businessman. He's exactly where he ought to be, so as long as he can enjoy the ease of his manager's chair it's not too heartbreaking to see him ruin any chance he has to climb the corporate ladder. It also helps that his sacrifice is likely to bring Holly back into his life, hopefully without her stupid jerk-face boyfriend in Nashua.

A lot of the humor in "Whistleblower" came from an uncharacteristic amount of randomness. A lot of it was awesome randomness, but it was still a strange tone for The Office. I loved Ryan's social networking aggregator "Woof" and it was nice to see Nick the under-appreciated tech support guy get his moment in the sun, even if both of those things really came out of nowhere. The same could be said for Toby's secret mystery novel or Dwight's foreboding plans to buy the office building. These were all really fun, but they just didn't feel as tight and cohesive as I'm used to seeing on this show. It was like a half-formed B-plot, especially since there was nothing in the episode that didn't have to do with the leak investigation.

Best Moment: Ryan's "Woof" pitch. Everything from his bow tie to the symphony of technology when he sent his demonstration Woof was perfect.

Notes: Michael's description of his bad year was both heartbreaking and silly, especially the bit about the video camera. This show really goes for the throat when it wants to.

Episode Rating: 4.5/5- Funny and plot progressive, "Whistleblower" was a good long arc episode that was just a little jumbled with all of its silly randomness. It really felt like it was one script edit away from its best incarnation. Still, it was thoroughly enjoyable. It didn't seem like a season finale, but maybe that's just the usual stretch of denial that comes at the end of every season of The Office.