|
"Murder" is the tenth episode of the sixth season of the U.S. comedy series ''The Office'' and the show's 110th episode overall. It was written by Daniel Chun and directed by Greg Daniels. It originally aired on NBC on November 12, 2009. The episode guest stars Andy Buckley as David Wallace, although he only appears via the phone. The series—presented as if it were a real documentary—depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. In the episode, rumors spread that Dunder Mifflin is in financial trouble, so Michael Scott (Steve Carell) tries to distract the office by having everyone play a murder mystery game called ''Belles, Bourbon, and Bullets''. Meanwhile, Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) uses the game as a way to ask out Erin (Ellie Kemper), but fears he may have asked out Erin's character, instead of Erin herself. "Murder" was the first entry in the series written by Chun, and was his first script for the series. The episode also was the inception of two major story arcs, the first being the season-long arc of Dunder Mifflin going out of business and its purchase by the printer company Sabre in the episode of the same name, and the second being the budding romance between Andy and Erin. The episode scored a 4.2/10 rating share in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic, and was watched by 8.046 million viewers. The episode received largely positive reviews from critics, with many highlighting its purposeful ridiculousness. ==Plot== In the cold open, Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) instructs the members of the office once a year on the various "changes" that various martial arts have experienced. Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) pranks Dwight by asking him to demonstrate the moves on himself, because Jim reasons Dwight is the most worthy opponent for himself. Dwight ends up punching, blocking, and kicking his own attacks, and ultimately ends up punching himself in the groin, to the bemusement to the members of the office. The members of the office learn that Dunder Mifflin is in financial trouble. In an attempt to get the worried staff under control, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Jim call a meeting to provide optimistic viewpoints, despite the steadily worsening news. In a moment of quick thinking, Michael pulls out a murder mystery party game called ''Belles, Bourbon, and Bullets'' and forces the rest of the staff to play along. The staff slowly warms up to the game. It is set in Savannah, Georgia, and everyone has to adopt a Southern accent. Thanks to Pam Halpert (Jenna Fischer), Andy Bernard (Ed Helms), and Phyllis Lapin-Vance (Phyllis Smith), the game becomes a hit. Everyone present starts to play along, except for Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) who tries to get updates on the situation from corporate and Creed Bratton (Creed Bratton) who shows up late to work and flees after being told he is a suspect in a murder. Jim, however, believes that the entire exercise is pointless. Andy decides he needs to make a move on Erin (Ellie Kemper) before the day is out, as he may otherwise never see her again due to the possible impending closure of Dunder Mifflin. While in character, he asks Erin out for a weekend date, but becomes unsure if he really asked her out, or if he just simply asked out her murder mystery character, "Naughty Nelly." He is worried that Erin only agreed because Naughty Nelly is a promiscuous character. Just as the game seems to get interesting, Oscar returns and informs everyone that accounting has been notified to stop payments to vendors. This brings the staff out of the game and back to the reality of losing their jobs. Michael tries to win them back, but accidentally skips to the game's conclusion, revealing that Phyllis's character was the murderer. Although everyone else goes back to work even more stressed out, Michael refuses to give up, and continues playing the game with Dwight. After the game, Andy and Erin meet at the receptionist desk, where Erin asks him about their upcoming date. Andy tries to sound out whether the date is real or fictional by suggesting that they go to Savannah for their date. Erin remarks that Savannah is a long way away, but does so in character; confused by this, Andy slips up and indicates that the "date" was just part of the game. Erin says she was also just playing, but appears humiliated as she walks away and later reveals to the camera crew she thought the date was real. Michael tries to introduce another murder and other twists to the story to pull his staff back into the party. This infuriates Jim to his breaking point, and they hold a private talk in Michael's office. Michael snaps at Jim and points out that he is doing this to keep the office calm. CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley) finally returns the phone calls to Jim, and reveals that while nothing has been officially decided yet, Dunder Mifflin is expected to be insolvent by year-end. Jim hides the news from the staff and nudges them back into the party. Jim finally realizes that Michael was doing this to help his co-workers cope. At the end of the episode, Michael, Dwight, Andy, and Pam find themselves in a fake Mexican standoff lasting until 6:00 at night. Jim pulls Pam out so they can go home, and the others pretend to shoot each other to death. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Murder (The Office)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|