I loved David's reaction to Charles's choice of Dwight as his unofficial number two. I completely forgot about Dwight's encounters with Wallace on SB Sunday.

Can you remind me?

Dwight sets an actual fire in the office to see if people paid attention to the last fire safety seminar. Gets reamed by Wallace, almost loses his job but Michael bails him out. Later, he defaces a dummy during a CPR learning session, Silence of the Lambs-style, and harvests its "organs". Again, Wallace is ready to fire Dwight but doesn't.

Oh right, then there was the 'Golden Ticket' fiasco, both Michael and Dwight came out smelling like shit after that...

OK I watched it twice, and I seemingly missed it...did Charles get the boot, or does he stay?

The way I understood it was that he would still be with the company, but leaving Scranton.

It was hard to tell. One one hand, when Michael said he wanted Charles gone, DW said no, he thought Charles was a good asset, etc. But on the other hand, the longer things went, DW kinda looked at Charles like he was an idiot.

I still feel that Charles was a good guy, he was just making decisions based on what he thought was best. When he comes in, Jim doesn't seem like this industrious, hard working type. He's not aware of and doesn't see all the craziness with Dwight. Also, while Dwight is an insane sociopath, he was not in the wrong at all with the golden ticket fiasco. That was all Michael's fault simply because Michael is never man enough to take responsibility for doing anything wrong really.

I'm sure everyone will be happy to have Michael back at first. Better the devil you know I guess. But Michael is still a devil.

Watch the credits at the end, you'll have your answer

I don't know if this was directed at me, but from management's perspective, both looked like fucking loons because of the issue. But yeah, Michael was completely to blame for that.

One thing I'm bummed about is that we never got a Todd Packer and Charles interaction. David Koerchner is a favorite of mine, and his presence in the Office is sorely missed by me.

I wouldn't say that was clear cut since DW did state that he wasn't going to get rid of Charles.

I loved Jim baiting Dwight into acting like an idiot around Charles. He knew he had nothing to lose because Charles already thought he was an idiot, and he knew Dwight could not resist being Dwight when Jim provoked him. Brilliant.

The only thing I found over the top unrealistic was hiring Ryan back. That's just ridiculous. It would have been funny for Michael to show his boardroom smarts by cutting bait with Ryan during the negotiation. It'd be a good comeuppance for that smarmy shit.

Anyway, I loved this arc and wish it lasted longer.

Ryan's character has obviously turned over a new leaf in that department, with admitting that he hadn't been to Thailand and all of the humbling he's been through. I have a feeling we're going to see him and Kelly reunite in a hilarious fashion.

I loved how Charles was cut down to size in this episode, am I the only one that thinks he was exposed as an idiot, or at least not being as smart as he tries to come off as? If he would do his research he would've know that Jim is a great salesperson for them, instead he went off first impressions with both Jim and Dwight and made bad decisions based on that, not to mention Jim's snide remarks to him in the conference room. This was definitely one of the episodes where Michael validates himself for all of the stupid shit he's done. But I disagree with the guy who said Michael is a piece of shit or an asshole or whatever said; Michael just doesn't know any better.

Oh no, you're correct, I meant to imply he got the boot from the branch, not the company, I don't think it's clear that he is out of Dunder Miflin.

I would assume that Michael wanting Charles gone and then kicking him out of the office means he is no longer in Jan/Ryan's former position. If he is still with Dunder Mifflin, then it's probably along the lines of Karen or Holly, where they're unlikely to heard from very often.

You know that if this were the Gervaise version, he would have been in a position to get himself hired back and leave the other two out to dry and would have done so in a heart beat. I'm glad they didn't go down that path. But it goes to show how much fluffier we like our office.

I'm pretty sure nothing has changed with Charles except he wont be in the office on a day to day basis as Michael is back and he's no longer needed to run the branch. I would hope (and assume) he'll be around next season as a constant thorn in the side of Michael.

I loved Jim seeing how Charles treated David Wallace and that giving Jim an immediate boost of confidence.

All through the Jim/Charles relationship, I gathered that Charles is a moron and a bully. He gets a bad first impression of Jim, and pretty much intimidates Jim into not defending himself or his sales record or even demanding that he be treated properly rather than like a dumb child. Jim was terrified to ask for clarification on what a "run down" is, and any boss should be open to questions of that nature, especially if they're new to a company and merely throw out a vague term in lieu of describing a task. He completely ignored Jim's sales record (that junk mail king he landed in Job Fair, the massive Blue Cross account was his as per The Golden Ticket) and wasn't even aware that Jim's assistant position with Dunder Mifflin Northeast was real. My boss is serious and critical, but I'm never afraid to approach him with questions, and if he were like Charles I'd probably shrink up like Jim did and be a much poorer worker as a result.

Charles' presence on the show lead to a very entertaining arc, but watching him operate was sheer Rick's Current Events activity, which I guess brought some of the British bleakness to the show.

I looked at the Charles character as the writers way of saying, "Hey, this is what the real world is like" and throwing that person in a TV land office. Even if that isn't what it was, I still don't think you could call Charles stupid. He seemed to have enough business smarts, but he lacked in being to apply social skills or proper judgment to those smarts.

Charles was a quick judge of character. I don't think that makes him stupid. He thought Michael was an idiot, Jim lazy, and Dwight at first brilliant, then a moron. Technically speaking, he wasn't wrong, but he just pegged them as that, and never bothered to see them as anything more than one dimensional.

He was brash, a bully, and definitely of the "I am right, you are wrong" mentality (a type of boss I've dealt with a few times too many.) But he definitely was not a moron.



That's partly why I loved that part of the plot. I have SO been in Jim's position where I was a major player in the company I worked for, and then a new boss came in, and decided right off the bat, that they didn't like me, and it didn't matter WHAT I did, I was always in the wrong, and my work suffered greatly. It was nice to know I wasn't the only one.

That was a series-classic right there. Michael came off looking great - mostly, but not all the time, thankfully. If he was just spot-on with everything, he wouldn't be Michael, but here, he showed more smarts than he ever has and yet still had his Michael-isms like the turn...tables... thing to keep everything grounded. The episode closing with Michael standing in front of his office like a proud papa, complete with overly casual-looking pose, ruled.

Another aspect of Charles, which sydneybrown just touched on, is the idea of a new boss coming in and making changes without really knowing what is going on yet. We've all had that boss, haven't we? They come in, change things to "shake things up" and quickly find that maybe they should have surveyed the situation a bit more closely before making all those changes.

Oh yes, working in an office much like Dunder Mifflin, with a bit of out/in sales calls, i've run into my fair share of new bosses stepping in that want to stir things up and change the landscape for the better of the company. Luckily due to some suave HR moves I've gotten a fair share of sup's fired, demoted, or transferred to another division where they're out of sight/out of mind. And I'm not talking about that dwight method of planting shit to get somebody busted. I'm talking know your ins and outs, do's and don'ts, and lay waste to any superior or inferior that makes your day trouble.

If i might step on a side rant, my biggest pet peeve isn't just Michael being a pr1ck to most of the workers, but that Toby's going around all inept when he's had the keys to the downfall of Michael for years now. So many times I've wound up frustrated that Toby doesn't sport his HR cap with full authority and put some of these badboys down. of course michael picking on him and toby never getting to one up michael is the way the show goes, we're supposed to feel bad for Toby, he's the down on his luck guy that never gets a chance.

But seriously, I've yet to find an incompetent HR person in real life who didn't know his shit. Why bring up Toby? I regret we never got to see him with Charles discussing the Michael situation. Or any of the other wackiness that DM Scranton is known for. It pained me to see Charles get the run of hte land up until Wallace returned, because in my thoughts, Toby working with Charles could've brought extra comedy gold and instead we had the girls flirting with Charles and the sexy new receptionist.

As a Toby fan/HR monster, I'm sad we've not seen too much of him since returning to work.


3 more eps, and if you browse AICN regularly, they've been teasing a Wire reunion with Holly and Charles meeting up at DM Scranton before the season ends. Just posting something that's been teased at their site for almost 3 weeks now, please don't crucify me if this needs spoiler tags.

Good stuff tonight, it was nice to see some of the background Office staff get lines and exposition for the first time in a few weeks. Really geared up to see what happens in the season finale.

Maybe it was just me but I didn't feel like any sympathy for the sales team that lost their clients. I honestly didn't think they should be rewarded for not being able to keep their clients happy enough to switch over by getting them right back. Like I saw the point that Michael, for all of his years of wanting to be liked, kind of targeted the people he worked with right away, but that's business. And in the end, the mere fact that Phyllis tried to say "you used to say we're a family" but easily dismissed Pam and to a lesser extent Ryan (who did earn that distinction with not making a sale in the first three seasons) seemed contradictory to me. Maybe that's the point, but I honestly felt no love for any of the existing team.

I liked some of the subtle stuff going on last night. I think they're writing out Toby again. It makes sense given that I'm sure the only reason he returned is because Amy Ryan was suddenly unavailable. My wild imagination has Holly returning at the end of the year to take back over HR but engaged to the guy from Nashua. Michael confronts her about still having feelings for him, but she denies it. Either she lies to him, or Pam lied to him weeks ago. It makes more sense for Pam having done it, and thus the last few weeks of Michael and Pam growing closer as friends through the Michael Scott Paper Company suddenly are in jeopardy.

Also, I have to say that Meredith's line about the dog fight might be the best thing she's said in like a year. Not that I have a whole lot of gems to choose from with that but it was great.

The other thing is I wonder if they wrote out B.J. Novak again. It seems like a logical place, offered the temp job and not sure if he will take it. I could see if Ryan sticks around, Season 6 features a small love triangle of Kelly/Ryan/Erin. That actually might be a little bit of fun. Hopefully they do some stuff with Erin, who has moved into #2 in terms of attractive women in Dunder Mifflin Scranton's office.

Really? I thought the opposite, as it looked like he finally grew a pair last night. That was probably the highlight for me, standing up to Dwight and getting the whole office to turn on him.

Good episode, though I was disappointed to see it end with a rehashing of a joke from the pilot.

Not nearly as funny as last week's episode but I did enjoy the Creed/Jim interactions. Especially Creed trying to hook a "manly beyond my wildest expectations" Jim up with his daughter.

Kevin with the pot of chili at the start of the episode was awesome. The casual Friday clothing was a nice little gag throughout the episode as well.

That was my favorite part, that or the 'fort' line as that is something Michael Scott would do. But seriously, she sees a crowd, and she goes directly to Dog fighting? Hilarious

The part with Kevin's chili had me in tears. Possibly the funniest bit he's ever been involved in.

I too, felt zero sympathy for the sales crew losing their clients, especially Phyllis, who acted like such a bitch.

"Close your mouth sweetie, you look like a trout."

I don't blame the sales team at all. The only reason they lost their clients is because the MSPC was offering way too low of prices, much lower then they were allowed to match. Imagine if you sold... shoes, and the lowest you could go was 35 bucks a pair. Then the split happens, and your old co-workers sell them for 20 dollars a pair. Well how can you compete with that? Naturally the company goes out of business (or would have) since its an impossible way to make money or even break even, and the old co-workers are brought back I'd be pretty mad too if they got to keep their clients only because they offered incredibly unrealistic low prices. Plus, since they are all commission, its messing with their money/paying bills/etc. so its not just a pride issue. So yea, I'd be pissed too if I lost clients in such a questionable manner.

I understand that, except when you look at it from the perspective that Phyllis and Dwight openly cut down Pam and Ryan. And they cut down Pam and Ryan who were able to close deals and are not "sales people" according to the rest. That's saying something. Morever, it also says that sometimes you have lick your wounds and say that's business and it sucks but that's that. Maybe...just maybe, if the sales team hadn't shot down Michael's offer and joined the MSPC, it wouldn't have gone down that way. Either way, the sticking point is that Phyllis of all people, who seems like a really nice person, takes opportunities and turns into another version of Angela. Perhaps that's where the character learned that behavior.

Anyway, while it probably would suck ass for the existing sales team, life's life. I don't know, I just felt like if I was supposed to be agreeing with the old sales team, then the writing wasn't in a position for me to do that. If it wasn't, then it did its job. I honestly hope that it leads to Pam closing some monster deal.



Yeah, I can see it going either way. Either Toby stays and becomes kind of a dick about rules, or he quits. I go with the latter because they seemed to set it up by having him tell the story of how he ended up there in a manner of "yeah...I really don't care about this job or my life too much". Then he encouraged Meredith to flash the rest of the office and walked away. It could be set up where Holly returns to reprimand him or something. I do think it's tied into Holly returning in some manner.

Yeah, I agree about the fake firing bit though Steve Carrell's exhaling laugh cracks me up too much to get too upset about it. I only wish he had dropped the "You've been Xed, punk" line again.

I think the point of that was to show Pam's reaction. She was extremely hurt by that in the pilot, and saw herself as morally and intellectually above Michael because of episodes like that, and sought to stop them from happening when she could...but seemed totally not bothered now about seeing him inflict that same misery on the new secretary.

Her relationship to him has changed as has her sense of power in the office. i can't help but see her as quite a bit more ambitious and corruptible now after that scene. I'm fairly certain that if Jim knew what was coming, he would have tipped off the new girl just to thwart Michael. Pam not only went with the flow but seemed to smirk that old-boy "I got hazed so now it's your turn" smirk.

This, for some reason troubles me. I'm still waiting for any female character on this show to exhibit the sort of loyalty or magnanimous comradery that we've seen at times between Dwight and Andy, or even between Jim and Dwight.

Wait...who said that Erin is now #2 in hotness in the Office? Have you ever seen Angela?

Sorry, I'd put it in Erin before I would Angela.

God bless obsessed Office fans on LiveJournal. Erin is totally adorable by the way.

That gif makes me think that the whole cheese puff catching wasn't on the up and up.

Really? It makes me think of oral sex.

Well, I thought of that at first, but in my slack-jawed staring, I noticed that the cheese puff is never visible in the air. I have to say I'm disappointed...mostly in myself.

Well now that's all I see! Thanks for ruining Dean Malenko for me.

I owed you one...lol

No offense but if a quick opening of the mouth followed by lots of chewing reminds you of oral sex, somebody is doing it wrong.

I have a bad (or good) feeling that if/when Holly returns, Michael will use Erin as a way to make Holly jealous. Even though I wouldn't mind Erin to stay on the show, I can see that leading to her exit. That leaves the secretary job open once again which Pam can slide uncomfortably into after she blows some big sale.


And I'd be happy with Pam, Erin or Angela or their real life counterparts.

Maybe they think that Erin's technique in that College Humor clip is the proper way to do it.

A light graze with the teeth? lol

(***)



None taken. Jenna Fischer doing anything with her tongue will elicit that response, at least from me.

To lead things back to PG-rated (aka 2009 WWE) material, I love this life imitates art:

Anyone else think KFC's "Free Grilled Chicken" promotion followed by numerous KFCs in major markets refusing to honor said promotion because too many people wanted free food as a real life Michael Scott idea?

And tonight's Office promo is driving me nuts. I've seen it twice with the audio on mute. Why the hell do they keep rewinding the Pam and Jim clip?

Pam says



and the omnipotent NBC commercial narrator goes "What?!" and keeps rewinding it and playing it back in different speeds of slow-motion.

I know its a lot more closely related to Scrubs than the Office, but are any of you watching Better Of Ted. I think the show is absolutely great. The Office and Scrubs have been my favorite TV shows since Arrested Development was taken from us, but Better of Ted has been pretty great.

I totally agree. I've been debating on whether or not to make a thread for it because I wasn't sure how many people were watching.