Michael Scott is an idiot.
Really no way getting around that. But, despite being an idiot, he actually has a pretty pure heart (and I know hearts). I think it's important to take a look at Michael's early life to understand him as an adult.
All Michael ever wanted as a kid was to be liked. He wanted friends and he wanted to belong. His dad was out of the picture when he was just a baby and when his mom got remarried to Jeff, Michael kind of lost his footing on where he fit in his family. He wanted Jeff to like him, but Jeff was the worst. He never provided little Michael with the stability and love he craved.
So as Michael grew, he always knew (subconsciously or not) that he wanted something different for himself. He would find a girl to love and grow old with, and raise kids, and provide a life he never had.
But Michael is an idiot.
Honestly, he means well almost every time he does something that makes people around him cringe. Which is why I've always had a soft spot for him. And for all the jokes the man makes about sex, he honestly just wants to love and be loved. Often to a fault.
But because he can be an idiot, finding love hasn't always been easy. And chances are, when he gets close to finding it, he does something to sabotage it. I cannot express how truly frustrating it is to watch someone who I feel genuinely wants to find someone, who deep (deep) down understands my purpose, continually trip on their own feet.
Most of the time, Michael's downfall is his constant ability to go from zero to sixty almost immediately. You give him an inch and he'll take a mile. A classic example of this is Jan Levinson.
Jan is a whole other can of worms that I can't get fully into right now, but that can is full of a flaming hot mess. Let me tell you that. But she wasn't always that way. She was professional and poised. Then one fateful night she kissed Michael, which sparked a slow, downward spiral.
But this isn't about Jan.
Michael never saw Jan as anything more than a boss in the beginning. Sure, he found her attractive but even Michael knew he would never have a chance. That is, until she gave him reason to believe otherwise. In a moment of weakness following a messy divorce, she led Michael to believe he had a shot. And you can't just do that with a man that holds such grand delusions about himself and his life.
Michael saw love in their future.
Jan saw regret. So much regret.
She tried desperately to backpedal and erase their one night together, constantly shutting Michael down, refusing to acknowledge that anything at all happened, and loathing herself.
But things like passionate, spontaneous kisses in the parking lot of a fine establishment like Chili's? (I mean, have you tried an awesome blossom? It truly is awesome.) Those things don't just happen to Michael Scott, so you better believe he grabbed on with two hands and white-knuckled his way through her icy demeanor trying to make a relationship out of it.
Eventually, Michael loosened his grip and somehow managed to begin a relationship with his realtor, Carol. Now, I admit that I did sway Carol a little bit because I needed Michael to see there were other women besides Jan that could be interested in him. When she saw him with her kids at the ice rink, I knew that was my in. Was it a perfect match? Eh…perhaps not. But it did the trick.
What I didn't expect was Jan's jealousy to rear its ugly head. Color me surprised. And lucky for her, Michael, in true form, put the pedal to the metal with Carol and scared her off by proposing to her, leaving the door open for Michael to call Jan and invite her to Jamaica in Carol's place. Apparently Jan had some more self-loathing to do.
After they returned, word got out that they had gone together because after all, it's Michael. Of course word got out. Like I said, things like this don't just happen to Michael, so when they do, he will let. the people. know.
Bless his heart.
Now, I gave Jan an out. I didn't do so much as even look her direction, let alone send anything close to a sparrow. She was not persuaded by me. Yet somehow, she kept coming back. And not only that, she decided to actually make their relationship public.
After that, however, the novelty of dating his attractive boss began to wear off for Michael when he started to realize how poorly he was being treated by Jan. And honestly, I kind of hated her for it. Michael is the perfect candidate for me because of how badly he wants real love, but he also can't help give himself up to anyone who wants him. If someone shows interest, he puts on his blinders because he's being "loved", which is like a drug to him.
Thanks to the ladies in the office, he was able to see that he deserved better so he planned to break it off. Unfortunately, however, Michael apparently sees "deserving better" as "dating someone with a boob job", so when Jan came crawling in with a few enhancements, his eyes popped out like an old cartoon and he changed his mind.
Jan once said that if she dated Michael publicly, one of the downsides would be collapsing on herself like a dying star. Well, welcome to the collapse. Keep your arms and legs inside the ride.
Jan had what could only be described as a breakdown at work, resulting in her losing her job and immediately moving in with Michael, making him sleep on a tiny bench on the end of the bed, and spending all his money. Everything came to a head at a dinner party they hosted at their house. Michael had put up with so much, but the straw that broke the camel's back was Jan hurling a beloved "Dundie" trophy at his tiny little plasma screen TV. Dundie and TV trump boob job and Michael finally ended things.
I'm getting giddy just thinking of the next chapter of his story.
I have been doing this job for a very long time (literally forever) and I can count on both hands the number of couples who were better matched than Michael and Holly Flax. They were soup snakes, as Michael called them. She began working in Scranton in place of Toby Flenderson, who happened to be Michael's arch nemesis. So naturally, he thought Holly would be nothing short of terrible. Fairly quickly, (and with my help, thank you very much) Michael learned that not only was she not terrible, she was downright perfect for him. And for once, nearly everyone around them agreed. The most remarkable part of this all, isn't the fact that Michael found someone perfectly suited to him. The remarkable part was that he somehow managed to take it slow. He befriended her first. He got to know her. He also missed a few of her cues in the process, but it's Michael and we should still be impressed. Round of applause for Michael.
And they lived happily ever after, right?
Wrong.
Not yet, at least.
Michael and Holly's relationship was forced apart when David Wallace got wind of their relationship and transferred Holly to the Nashua branch and Holly felt the distance would be too much. It was a sad day in the realm of love, that's to be sure.
Michael was heartbroken but respected her wishes, only to learn several months later that she had begun dating someone else: AJ. Under any other circumstances, I would say that Holly and AJ made a good pair. AJ's one flaw was that he wasn't Michael Scott and I was skeptical that there was anyone more perfect for Holly than Michael.
To Michael's credit, he kept his cool about it. That's how I knew Holly was different. I know it sounds backwards, but the harder he clung to a relationship, like Jan, the more I knew it wasn't right. He loved Holly. Truly loved her. So when he found out she had seemingly moved on, he respected her enough to back off, even if it crushed him.
I also think that deep down he maybe knew it wasn't over. He understood their connection and perhaps hoped they could find their way back someday.
During this time with Holly in Nashua, Michael attempted to date. At Jim and Pam Halpert's wedding, he met Helene. Who happened to be Pam's mom. That went over with Pam about as well as you would expect (read: not well). But just as soon as Pam began to accept the relationship, Michael found out how old Helene was and the relationship was over about as quickly as it began. Probably for the best.
Michael also got himself involved with a married woman named Donna. He didn't know she was married at first, but once he found out...yeah, he still didn't do anything. He found it exciting to be "the mistress". It was something he had only seen in movies, so the fact that he was now making someone a cuckold was enticing. Eventually his conscience got the best of him, however and he ended it.
During this time, I was sending miniscule sparrow reminders to Holly in Nashua about Michael. (You know, for saying I don't meddle, I seemed to do it a lot for these folks. Huh.). I didn't necessarily want to break up her relationship with AJ. It was healthy and she was happy. But I didn't want her to forget about Michael either.
But when she got asked to come back to Scranton for a short time, I made those sparrows a little stronger. And once she realized how perfectly matched she and Michael had always been, she broke up with AJ and came back to Michael.
Thank the Gods. All of us.
There was one more thing that made me realize how much Michael loved Holly. That thing was his willingness to leave his family at Dunder Mifflin Scranton to marry Holly and join her in Colorado without a thought. This place, this office, these people--they were everything to him.
Until Holly became his everything.
(Okay maybe not his EVERYTHING. Can't forget about Ryan.)
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© 2006-2023 More Than That | Skin created by Kali