I’m really looking forward to Ryan being a dick to everybody, try to break up PB&J, etc.
The Michael does a major screw-up that he skates through (as usual) but Ryan takes the blame and gets busted down to Scranton.
Cue Kelly: OOOHHHHHHHHH!!! We’re back together.
Cue Ryan: Gives the “Why me” look.
Phyllis has always been shown to be a petty bitch. She was rude to Karen from Stamford last season until she made the Bob Vance = Vance Refridgeration connection.
Hear hear! I feel that a lot of people here are being far too critical. It’s a new season, and a major plot arc has been resolved, yet people are complaining that the episode didn’t unfold exactly as they wanted it to. To quote Conan O’Brien: They’re booing and it’s free. This episode gave me more than a few good laughs, and promises a season full of interesting conflict.
Michael failed not only because he was saddled with a despondent Dwight, but because he was also badly off his game. He was not only highly agitated, but I suspect that living with Jan is bad for his mojo. We know that Michael’s skill as a salesman is strongly linked to his desire for love and friendship. Remember when Michael said that he didn’t want “weird sperm” in case he and Jan wanted kids some day? He is now pouring his energy into his personal life. His professional life is suffering because he no longer desperately craves the friendship of his prospective clients. That is not Homer Simpson disease. That is character development.
I’ve been ruminating on the car-in-the-lake scene. At first glance, it just seems that Michael is dumber than ever. Let’s mine this scene for symbolism. Michael didn’t drive his car into the lake; he drove the rental car into the lake. He knows and likes his Sebring, just as he knows and likes Dunder Mifflin the way it was. Now he’s confronted with a new Dunder Mifflin he doesn’t understand, and a new high-tech nav system he doesn’t understand. We’ve established that we’re not sure whether he drove the car into the lake accidentally or on purpose. Perhaps it was a subconscious decision. The biggest surprise to me in this scene was that Michael didn’t rescue the gift basket, the symbol of the old way of doing things, from the sinking car (despite the open door). Instead, we see the basket go down with the car. Is this foreshadowing? Will the new looks-good-on-paper business plan sink the company? Will the old-guard top salesmen, unable or unwilling to adapt to new technology, bail out and let the company sink? Will the bad take the good down with it? Will Dunder Mifflin be brought to the edge of bankruptcy not because of Michael, but despite his best efforts?
Stay tuned to find out.
On the other hand, I thought Ryan getting the promotion was spot on. Too many times I’ve thought, “What the hell were they thinking?” when I saw a company’s promotion announcement. It’s another case of an MBA trumping experience.
It just crossed my mind the other day while mowing the lawn that Pam and Jim screwed themselves over by waiting so long to hook up.
If they hooked up proir to the interviews at corporate Jim could have got the job, got a raise, moved to NY, Pam could quit her job, move in with Jim, and get an entry level job as a graphic designer in NY.
For now they’re stuck with crappy jobs in Scranton.
Yeah, and apparently they’re still giving him noogies.
I just want to emphasize what Dio said. Ryan was lying.
And don’t forget, after Jim broke up with the “hot girl,” Ryan was interested in asking her out.
That’s right - there was an episode in the first or second season where he wanted his desk moved because he was tired of looking at ‘the red-haired chick’ and wanted to be able to look at ‘the cute receptionist.’
The writers do an excellent job of protraying Ryan as an awkward 20-something who thinks they’ve got everything covered and have all the answers, when in fact they have and know nothing. He’s yet to find his place in life.
Cite: He had to tell us that he got a $200 haircut and he’s lying about women being into him.
Prediction: He and Kelly get married. The writers are making sure we see that they aren’t really that different after all.
While I might or might not agree with whatever else you say, this is a fallacy of some kind. As viewers and critics, we are allowed to judge a work on its artistic merits, regardless of anything else.
Essentially, Ryan has moved to Manhattan and become just another one of these guys.
That was exactly what popped into my head during that scene; in “The Merger,” Karen didn’t know who Bob Vance was, and Phyllis snottily said “You have a lot to learn about this town.” She definitely has a mean side.
Not to mention that she stalked Pam’s wedding by copying everything Pam had planned (dress, colors, band etc). Perhaps she’s been secretly been jealous of Pam all along.
And what made that line even more chilly, and showed Phyllis as a real bitch, is how she ended it: “You have a lot to learn about this town, sweetie.”
Well, I took that as her being an ignorant townie who thinks because her husband owns a refrigeration business that they’re important in town. I lived in some small towns and saw this behavior in action (one owned a photo shop and the other a restaurant).
Her expecting someone who had just arrived to know that, and the way she delivered the line, was really snotty. Sure, it’s a small-town kind of thinking, but it’s also bitchy.
I’d almost forgotten about her stealing Pam’s wedding! Yeah, I’m thinking she’s got a little issue there, whether it’s jealousy of Pam (since several of the guys had crushes on Pam and/or made comments about her being hot, while Michael has made comments about Phyllis being fat/unattractive), or just being self-centered enough to think it was OK to blatantly lift all of Pam’s wedding planning. The comment about “whoever you’re sleeping with this week” makes me think the former.
You’re probably right. She obviously was never considered to be cute, and probably wants to think that Bob Vance is her knight galloping in on his white steed. The sad truth is that he’s really just an HVAC guy driving around in a white van. But she’s really knows the latter, which explains her being catty.
I think there’s a little too much harshness on Phyllis here. She’s been portrayed as a three-dimensional character, with both virtues and flaws, and certainly her flaws are minor compared to people like Michael and Dwight.
Remember, Phyllis has been one of the biggest Jim-Pam boosters. For longer than anyone else, she’s the one who has tried to do something to get them together. She helped get the end of the Jim-Karen relationship started with her own little push.
Also, I don’t think there is any jealousy in operation here. Part of the defining characteristic about Phyllis is that she’s not how she looks. She looks like a demure, matronly, boring person. That’s certainly not how she sees herself. She has an active sex life (she’s had a one-night stand with a co-worker!), she considers herself a “strong” personality type (clashing with Andy), she’s a wily salesperson (with the makeover), she’s subtle and intelligent (with letting Karen know about the Pam thing), she stands up for herself against Michael’s (we’re the same age; we all thought you were gay), she’s athletic (she claims to like playing basketball).
And when she feels threatened, she fights back. Phyllis is happy that Jim and Pam are together. She’s happy for them, but she’s going to protect her turf, and if that means laying down the law for sweet Pam, then that’s how it is.
I don’t see this as having anything to do with Pam. Phyllis liked what she saw and she used it without really hurting anyone. A wedding plan is not a creative work protected by copyright law. It’s no crime; all those wedding accessories are sold on the free market. In one year or 10 years or 20 years, who in the world is going to care that Phyllis’s wedding choices were based on Pam’s? No harm, no foul.
Maybe it shows that Phyllis not very creative or original, but I don’t think it shows she has some complex about Pam.
Not harshness so much as countering the people who thought her comment was wildly out of character.