This is totally in character for Angela. And I get what’s going on with Phyllis. She has some understandable concerns that the PB&J relationship will affect her income.
If I never read the word “meh” again, I’ll be less unhappy than if I do. For Christ’s sake, we’re all reasonably literate here; how about using some real words?
I did like Dwight’s sad performance in the gift basket presentation, reflecting his rejection by Angela: “It’s over. It’s over. They just don’t want us anymore.”
I liked Ryan when he came on as a temp, studying at business school, baffled by how somebody so blatantly incompetent could be in charge of the office. Now that he’s a big shot, I just want to kick him in the ass.
Meh is a real word, I’ve heard people say it.
Michael Scott had another moment of greatness when he pulled that trick on Ryan. “Okay, well I’ll get mr. XXX on the phone and you can tell them why you kicked Old Man Dunder out of the building”
Ryan knew he was screwed there, and I liked that
Buh? Guh.
Joe
I agree about Phyllis, she’s worried after what Creed’s been saying about the older people. She just wants to make sure that Pam doesn’t give all the clients to Jim.
I watched it again last night with my wife and it seems that a lot of what happened seemed pretty real. At first I didn’t think that driving into the pond was very good, but Michael did keep saying we have to use the technology.
Ryan’s also getting to be a prick. I guess he thinks that because he’s got a college degree and is the boss now he knows everything. Though it would have been nice if Michael would have gotten one client back, though he still might.
I actually like this character arc and I think it’s true to his nature. In his grad school lecture last year he spent the entire time talking about how D-M had an outdated business model, how they couldn’t compete with the larger businesses, and that a change needed to be made. Now that he’s in a position of power, he’s acting on those words with the same cocky self-assuredness that he had in the lecture. I think that, true to reality, he will likely crash and burn later when he realizes that a classroom theory is not necessarily the way things are in a business. That should be interesting.
On the other hand, I agree with those that think Michael was off the deep end this week and I didn’t like that at all. Driving into the water - he may have done that to prove a point, but I still think it was stupid of him to go to such extremes to just prove a point. Then going back to the client to get the basket back? Give me a break. It would have been far better for them to be sitting by the water and get a call on his cell phone from the former client saying that he’d reconsidered.
Jim liked Ryan better as a temp. (So did Ryan).
The whole promotion thing with Ryan is a little ridiculous too and is clearly a TV contrivance. Ryan was in a part-time MBA program near Scranton so it probably isn’t exactly Wharton. His career appeared to consist of being a temp and then a salesman who never closed a sale. Now he is in Jans old spot as some kind of regional manager? And a failing paper supply company can pay him so much that he can live in Manhattan and get $200 haircuts?
Ryans problem is that while he is right, he doesn’t know how to connect with his people. He is basically dictating policy to a bunch of people he clearly feels contempt for. And he does it in a way that seems threatening to the staff (although “30 year old” Creed was great).
I might be dense, but I took Angela inviting Dwight out in public to mean something GOOD. Like she was all “worked up” about Pam and Jim “coming out” and wanted to “come out” with Dwight too. I took Dwight’s excitement to mean that the two of them had never gone out in public together before. I did not take it to mean that Angela might feel safer dumping Dwight if they were in public.
Honestly, it floored me that she dumped him in the restaurant. Not that I couldn’t see that she was very upset with Dwight before that, but I really thought that the restaurant meant an upswing in their relationship.
ZipperJJ: it’s SOP to break up with someone in public so they’re less likely to cause a scene or, in Dwight’s case, possibly trap you in your freezer until you suffocate.
I thought the episode was 30 minutes too long.
Let’s take Creed. There was the hair coloring scene and a separate scene with the Red Bull.
Creed wants to appear younger. We get a good long look at his new do. He wants to appear younger. He has a conversation in which he makes clear that he would like to be able to purchase Red Bull from the vending machine. Does this not strike you as overkill for a character whose main attribute is being nearly invisible in the background. It’s a great example of lazy writing and poor control by the producers which is a big turn off for me. Now imagine how the same scenario would have played out in Season 2.
In the blip after the end credits - a newly blackened Creed is glimpsed at his desk with three cans of Red Bull in front of him.
See the difference?
All the above makes it incredibly believable to me. The person picked for a managerial position isn’t the workplace drinking buddy, or someone other people even like necessarily.
The real question is can this show stay good even with the jim/pam hook up. Few shows with sexual tension as a major plot driver survive after the two kids make it happen. Just look at Moonlighting.
I got two laughs instead of one?
Ah, so I got wooshed just like Dwight did 
Both of us thought that Angela wanting to go out in public with him was a good thing. heh
People tend to dump me in the middle of the day while I’m at work (work at home) or better yet, over IM. So I just don’t know the ways of the real world…
I tried to check it out, but it kept bouncing me between 2 login/signup pages.
Litigation value this week? $600K.
So, I watched the episode again and here is what Ryan said.
Ryan. “I never cared about you? Six months ago Karen Philapely (spelling?) sent me an e-mail asking me out. I said no because I was commited to our relationship.”
So this means that Karen asked him out while her and Jim were still together. Ryan didn’t know her till she moved, her and jim didn’t break up until the last episode, and that is when Ryan and Kelly broke up.
Man, this is going to be interesting. And Creed called Stanely, Sammy. Was this show full of slip ups this time or something?
Ryan was lying. He once asked Karen out and got shot down. Pam is the second woman he’s tried to hit on who turned out to be with Jim.
Creed called Stanley “Sammy” because he’s just crappy with names. He once referred to Angela as “Andrea…the office bitch” last season and in the same speech where he called Stanley “Sammy,” he called Meredith “that chick you hit with your car.” He just doesn’t remember names (mostly because he doesn’t care). It’s a running bit for his character.
Wow. NBC is about to lose me on Thursday night. That was just bad. Michael is so over the top that I’m having trouble make allowances any more.
Driving into the lake is stupid. Going back and demanding the gift basket is really stupid. Standing there and *screaming *to have it back and then putting his wet clothing all over the expensive leather couches is stupid, crazy unbelievable.
Speaking of the lovely Pam, we were rewatching season five of Six Feet Under wherein she appears in two episodes as Rico’s girlfriend. Shows a lovely length of muscular thigh, as well, and even gets to say the word “fuck”.
I don’t think it is lazy writing at work here. I think viewers like Creed and the writers/producers are giving them more of what they want. Sure, in a 30-minute episode, the joke might have been exactly the quick shot you described, but in a 60-minute episode they dragged it out a bit. I liked it; I can see why you might not.
I expected Michael to win back some accounts in the typical manner, but I’m happier that he didn’t. It is a set-up to a larger conflict. I don’t agree with posters above that the writers don’t know the characters and that’s why he didn’t get the accounts. If he had gotten the accounts back, it would have been too obvious and a bunch of us would probably be complaining about that. There is obviously a lot of character set-up in this episode. Phyllis being both bitch and negative seems like a set-up to develop her character – or at least create more conflict. Possibly so with Andy and Kevin. The Angela and Dwight story is unfolding pretty quickly.
I think these are all good moves. The show needs to establish that it has more to offer than the Pam and Jim tension. If it doesn’t, season 4 will be pointless. If it does, then the show can move on and grow into something much bigger. I think three seasons of Jim and Pam’s relationship was about a half-season too much, so I hope they find other plot drivers.
I wasn’t a big fan of the driving-into-the-lake scene; just before that turn, I assumed that the man vs. technology conflict would be won by accepting Dwight’s counter-instructions. And that this would have given them both the confidence to win back some clients and, in Dwight’s case, face Angela. I was less of a fan of the scene where they returned to get the gift basket, but once I accepted it, I thought it was pretty funny.
Overall I liked the episode quite a bit despite the awkward lake and gift-basket scene. I didn’t see anyone mention it, but I really liked Ryan’s return to the office only to find that he is still the temp. What did Kevin call him? Little-old-big-boy?