Warning: SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW

Episode Title: “Ultimatum” (Season 7, Episode 13)

Original Airdate: January 20, 2011 at 9:00 PM

Synopsis: Michael (Steve Carell) gets angry after Holly (Amy Ryan) is still with AJ after she gave him a deadline to propose. Meanwhile, Pam (Jenna Fischer) tries to get everyone in the office to follow their New Year resolutions.

Review: All good things must come to an end. With Steve Carell leaving somewhere during the season it seems like the perfect time for The Office to end. However, the brass at NBC as well as the producers have already begun the search for a new lead, so that won’t be happening.

This episode has its ups and downs, but it seems like the downs are starting to outweigh the ups lately. The whole deal with Michael and Holly seems to have run its course, but intertwining it with Pam trying to get everyone to follow through with their resolutions and seeing Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) trying to eat vegetables was priceless.

The B plot with Dwight, Andy and Darryl (Rainn Wilson, Ed Helms, and Craig Robinson) trying to find cute girls at the bookstore and roller skating center was a little weak. So weak in fact that they used about 30 seconds of screen time for the three of them to just dance under a strobe light.

I don’t know who is going to replace Michael, but next season probably will see a big decline in quality. While the show is more of an ensemble piece now, I don’t think the show will survive too long without Carell. He is the glue that holds the show together, and while he might be a little too much sometimes, it still makes the show funny.

One thing that I noticed that was weird was that Jim (John Krasinski) wasn’t in the episode at all except for the cold open. This hasn’t happened for a long while, and although he wasn’t fully needed in the plot it felt almost Ryan-like. And by that I mean that Ryan (BJ Novak) is hardly in any episodes anymore yet somehow is still credited in the top billed cast. Go figure.

Next week we have the pleasure of looking forward to Ricky Gervais appearing as the original David Brent from the UK show in the cold open. This should be the highlight of the season minus seeing who finally replaces Michael.

Final Grade – 7.0/10