Episode 2: Counseling

Cold Intro
Who wouldn't love to send their kids to a daycare run by Dwight Schrute? I sure as hell would if I ever have kids. A dark, dingy room full of plastic forks and knives, and buckets set aside as toilets and feeding troughs, all the amenities I wish I had as a child. As the new owner of the building, this is exactly what Dwight did for the cold intro of the second episode.

Oh, and Dwight's cousin Mose also makes a special appearance. 

Mose has got some serious style. I mean, painting in the dark and carrying around a plastic baby? Wow.

Plot
As you can probably tell from the title, Michael has chosen to receive the six hours of counseling from Toby instead of termination (thank god). As Toby tries to penetrate the complexities of Michael's psyche, Michael, not surprisingly, reverts back to his childish ways and plays dumb. Toby finally makes a breakthrough midway through the episode, but his attempts were ultimately futile as Michael quickly realizes what Toby was trying to do.

It was nice to see Michael and Toby square off in what was supposed to be an epic showdown, but the writers ultimately turned an idea with a lot of potential into something of a disappointment; you can only cram so many "I hate you, Toby"'s into one episode before it gets old.

Subplots
Dwight returns to the office after being snubbed by a store selling "fancy things." With the help of his coworkers, Dwight decides to "pretty woman" the snobs by returning to the store as a rich, polite gentleman. The item in question, it turns out, was a statue of a wizard (of course), and the only reason Dwight wasn't allowed into the store was because of his "blood-stained" hands.

Meanwhile, Pam realizes her ineptitude as a saleswoman and decides to create a new title for herself as office administrator.  She manages to convince everyone around the office of her new position, including Gabe who later accuses her of lying. Gabe, however, is unable to make a definitive statement about the matter, and Pam uses this to her advantage to maintain her new role.

Highlights
1. Dwight's daycare
2. Dwight as Pretty Woman: hearing Dwight say "please" and "thank-you" made me feel all warm and tingly on the inside
3. Pam's attempt to become office administrator.

Lowlights
1. Michael and Toby's counseling session.
2. Where's Creed? 
3. Ryan at the end: I didn't think his little words of wisdom were all that funny.

Best Quotes of the Episode
1. "But there was this one thing, it was in a fancy store and it caught the corner of my eye when I took Mose down to the mall to get his blood pressure at the Rite Aid."- Dwight
2. "Disposable cameras are fun, although it does seem wasteful, and you never get to see your pictures." -Erin

Final Verdict
This episode, like last week's premier, seems to be lacking some substance. The gags just didn't make me laugh that hard, and the story overall was kind of forgettable. 

6/10