(S03E20) When I was 19 -- about as weaselly as a little sophomore English major weasel could get -- my father gave me a summer job touring construction sites for his business. I guess I was always kind of aware about what a little sissy boy I was (I mean I could have held my copy of The Foundation Trilogy in my man-boobs), but it wasn't until I had to walk around those work sites that my distinct lack of testosterone was made so apparent to me.

I thought about those days a lot while I watched tonight's Office...

Before we get to discussing white collar impotence, though, let me say this: I loved this episode. I loved it in a way that might be unnatural for a man to love a network television show. Really, any more clicks higher on the "loved this episode" scale and I might be protested by a family organization.

Last week, I complained that the Pam/Roy/Jim/Karen quadrangle was a heavy, soapy stone around the neck of The Office. I complimented the brilliance of the supporting cast and said that maybe if they stopped trying to bait the viewer with "progress" on the romance front, we'd finally get to the core of what makes the show so great.

I'm not saying that I'm the most powerful man in show business -- that would be overstating (a little) my place in the entertainment universe -- but, I think it's obvious from tonight's episode that the writers of The Office paid attention to everything I said. What we saw tonight delivered on the promise of the last two years and gave us probably the best show of the season.

In fact, I'm a little worried that tomorrow, when I'm more removed from the hazy love that I have for the show right now, I'll be embarrassed about how ridiculously effusive I'm being. I suppose that's the risk you run whenever you review a show the second you're finished watching it. (And besides, I already revealed how big my 19 year-old man-boobs were, so I guess I'll have a lot to be embarrassed about concerning this review one way or the other.)

Moments of greatness tonight:

1) The blue collar/white collar dynamic that was the core of this episode. I've criticized in the past that sometimes Michael doesn't feel like a real person. Though you could argue that him jumping off the roof pushes him into that annoying cartoon character that he sometimes becomes, I thought that the impetus for his actions came from a very real place. It's nice to know that I'm not the only person who feels uncomfortable whenever I'm around "manly men".

1a) The build up to the jump and the eventual talk down ("You're Braveheart") never felt forced. Side note: did Creed discover the castle when he was peeing outside??

2) The betting. Even Cheers didn't have an ensemble this big and rich and defined. Each vignette existed solely because of what we knew about the characters; no awkward exposition was necessary. The high point was Kelly talking to Ryan while people just went up and placed money on his desk. Brilliant.

3) Shun. Unshun.

4) Stanley and the watermelon. Imus, take note, this is how clever racial humor is done. I'm not sure if one look at the end of an episode is enough to win someone an Emmy, but Leslie David Baker needs to be considered for it, doesn't he?

I think this episode proves that there needs to be a term for the opposite of "jumping the shark." If we use "jump the shark" to indicate a moment when a show peaks and can only get worse from that point forward, we need something for when a show defines its greatness and starts moving towards its place in television pantheon. I'd like to submit "jumping the castle" as a candidate for this term.

Question of the week for the male commentators out there: how many of you would have stood up for your girlfriend to Sea Monster? I ask because I thought the situation was a pretty subtle underscoring of the main theme of tonight's episode: for a lot of white collar guys, blue collar guys are scary. Last week I said that I would have probably punched Jim (like Roy did)... this week, I'm not so sure how manly I would have been in the face of someone as big as Patrice O'Neal being rude to my wife. What would you guys have done?

Alright, I'm off to go check whether it's legal for a man to marry a television episode.

Not sure if you can tell from the review or not, but I give tonight's episode a seven... out of seven!