Last week’s penultimate episode of The Office gave us a frustrating glimpse of what might have been.
In a season filled with mediocre comedy, intelligence-insulting plot choices[1], and inexplicable character development, we got a flawed but good episode centered largely around a familiar dynamic, with Dwight as regional manager and Jim as assistant to the regional manager.
Where has this version of The Office been the last two years?
The Jim / Dwight interplay wasn’t some groundbreaking revelation—it was merely a smart and natural extension of their original relationship. That evolution of the show would have been a logical choice that could have lead into a nice season-plus send-off for the venerable NBC program.
Instead, viewers were treated to absentee Andy, an Erin / Pete romance that suddenly stopped being referenced at all, a failed backdoor pilot, evil Andy, the Jim / Pam debacle, pathetic Andy, and Dwight being told he was the father of Angela’s baby after all (despite being told by a doctor that he wasn’t in an earlier episode).[2]
But I’m putting all of that aside. Tonight is the final episode of this show. I can’t really call this “SitCombat,” per se, since the only competition for tonight’s finale of The Office is the series’ own legacy. But I see no reason why I can’t use the tried and true SitCombat format.
I’m writing all of this before the episode begins, but my fear is that we’re going to get a run-of-the-mill, C-plus wedding episode. The fact that the creators chose to go out with one of the most cliched plots in television is disappointing yet somehow appropriate.
But, as always, I sit down in front of my television with an open mind. Let’s begin . . .
2K Games released BioShock Infinite to acclaim and mild controversy a little over a month ago. In development for five years, the game was much-anticipated by fans of the series, but the subject matter raised some eyebrows in the gaming community and beyond.
The first was that it immediately reminded me of the London Underground bombings when I was in a study-abroad program in England in 1999. There, a paranoid schizophrenic 
Unless SitCombat reformulates around 
The Axis of Ego 
A Subtle Lesson of the Woolwich Attack
After doing so, one of the men issued a statement of sorts to a nearby camera.
It was something the man said that struck me as the most profound element of this entire sad, grisly saga. Here was his quote, in full:
The fact that a vague threat is made isn’t remarkable.
The fact that he cites an antiquated legal principle isn’t remarkable.
The fact that he invokes religious fervor as a motive, sadly, isn’t remarkable.
No, all of these are to be expected, given the facts of the case.
What intrigues me is this: ” . . . but, in our lands, our women have to see the same.”
“But, in our lands . . . ”
His lands?
Yesterday’s attack appears to have been perpetrated by a British citizen of Nigerian descent who only converted to Islam in his 20s. The attack resembled other plots in certain respects, including one bombing plan from earlier this year formulated by three British-born Muslims.
And that’s important.
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