# The Office 4/30 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 1, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981 "2009-05-01T16:07:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/1 "2009-05-01T16:07:23Z")
No thread yet; I hope \*\*Dio \*\*doesn’t mind if I jump in. :eek: Well there were certainty good things about this episode if last week’s thread didn’t kill your spirit, and you tuned out forever. Michael does have to address some consequence for quitting and forming his own company… only not to the people above him. This seemed like an episode plucked from seasons one or two to me. There was also a through-back when Michael fake-fires Pam. Loved watching Jim and Creed bonding. Kevin’s Famous Chili; He’s ‘serious about this stuff!!’ ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/2 "2009-05-01T16:26:57Z")
Meredith really does know how to do Casual Friday. Brain bleach, please. So what will happen to Ryan? I would love to see him assigned to the warehouse. Scenes with Ryan and Darrell would be gold. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/3 "2009-05-01T16:32:08Z")
\*throw-back I guess it was Michael’s character that reminded me of the earlier episodes. Speaking of Darrell, It was good to see him again. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/4 "2009-05-01T16:36:56Z")
“I told you, no building forts in the warehouse!” And Creed has a daughter??? And he wanted to fix her up with Jim, even though he thought Jim was gay. Those are some warped synapses there. Boy, Phyllis really can be the bitch, can’t she? “Close your mouth, dear, you look like a trout.” ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/5 "2009-05-01T17:12:08Z")
I really enjoyed this episode, particularly Jim and Creed interacting. My wife and I were trying to see what words had been played in their scrabble game. We think they spelled GRADCALL, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/6 "2009-05-01T17:13:20Z")
“noscrub” Maybe the TLC song? ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/7 "2009-05-01T17:21:29Z")
I missed the very end–Pam is in sales, and are we to assume the new receptionist was fired? And it’s not clear whether Ryan is back at reception? ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/8 "2009-05-01T17:22:05Z")
I see “gradcall” too. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/9 "2009-05-01T17:29:46Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I missed the very end–Pam is in sales, and are we to assume the new receptionist was fired? And it’s not clear whether Ryan is back at reception? Michael called Pam into his office as Ryan was leaving, and told her that he gave Ryan the sales job. She got very sad, and then Michael burst out laughing and told her it was a joke, that she got to keep her sales job. He also said he offered Ryan his old temp job back, but Ryan had to think about it. Then he told Pam to send the new receptionist (Erin?) in. He told Erin that no one likes her, so she’s fired. She got very sad, then Michael burst out laughing again, and told her it was a joke. She asked if it was true that no one liked her, and Michael said he had no idea. So it looks like Pam’s in sales, Erin’s still at reception, and Ryan’s in limbo. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/10 "2009-05-01T18:30:00Z")
Interesting how different eps can inspire such differing opinions. I barely chuckled at this one- I thought it was one of the weakest in recent memory. For instance, the Pam-Phyllis matching outfit thing was pretty stupid- I don’t think that’s something Pam would ever wear. Phyllis, yes. Pam, too garish, or something. Totally a setup for the joke. Kevin’s fall & chili segment in the beginning was too slapstick-y and pratfall-y to be believeable for a quasi-documentary. I liked that Dwight used Ryan’s mug to hold his urine for the invisible message, but that’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/11 "2009-05-01T18:35:48Z")
Kelly’s outfit was the perfect choice for her character. ---
**Author:** ![mr.jp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@mr.jp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr.jp)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/12 "2009-05-01T19:10:10Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > Interesting how different eps can inspire such differing opinions. I barely chuckled at this one- I thought it was one of the weakest in recent memory. For instance, the Pam-Phyllis matching outfit thing was pretty stupid- I don’t think that’s something Pam would ever wear. Phyllis, yes. Pam, too garish, or something. Totally a setup for the joke. Kevin’s fall & chili segment in the beginning was too slapstick-y and pratfall-y to be believeable for a quasi-documentary. > > I liked that Dwight used Ryan’s mug to hold his urine for the invisible message, but that’s about it. I also think it was weak, especially compared to the recent episodes. I think there were two funny things. The one you mention, and Michael getting Jim to say one bad thing about Pam. ---
**Author:** ![mshar253](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@mshar253](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mshar253)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/13 "2009-05-01T19:43:51Z")
“[Ryan] was not happy at all when I offered him this job and then I told him he didn’t get the job.” I enjoyed that line. I’m still not sure how I felt about it, as a whole. I’m scared that everything returning to the status quo will mean that the quality of episodes will return to the ones from seasons 4 and 5. This one was sort of average, and it could still go either way from here. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/14 "2009-05-01T19:53:02Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > And Creed has a daughter??? Prolly with his other family (the one in Toronto). ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/15 "2009-05-01T20:16:19Z")
My love for Erin the new receptionist continues to bloom. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/16 "2009-05-01T20:17:08Z")
Thw Scrabble board was ```auto NOSCRUB G T R U A N D E CENTS AS L FELT H O N G ``` ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/17 "2009-05-01T20:24:03Z")
We can’t expect a huge amount of emotional growth from Michael, but it was disappointing to see him do the exact same “joke” he’d done in the first episode of the show – call Pam in and pretend to fire her. How could anybody do that once and not figure out that it was a bad idea? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/18 "2009-05-01T22:57:38Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > We can’t expect a huge amount of emotional growth from Michael, but it was disappointing to see him do the exact same “joke” he’d done in the first episode of the show – call Pam in and pretend to fire her. How could anybody do that once and not figure out that it was a bad idea? I liked that this episode showed Michael playing hardball with the staff. It was a nice change from “I just want everyone to love me no matter what” Michael. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/19 "2009-05-01T23:00:33Z")
Michael is no one to be truffled with. I think Michael did show some growth, actually, and I liked it. First, he refused to be drawn into Dwight’s crap and walked away from him when he started being all sarcastic about arranging the meeting in the warehouse. He had a pretty good reaction to Phyllis et al’s threats to start their own paper company. Also, he admitted that yes, he was wrong when he hurt his DM family while at MSPC, without getting all pathetic and emotional. He made the adult decision to demote Ryan, which was the correct choice. Overall, of course it couldn’t reach the heights of Broke, but I think we saw some good character development. We also got to see the office hijinks that we’ve missed since we’ve seen so much of the MSPC and less of the regular staff. Anyone in the mood for some of that famous Malone chilli? Now with more carpet spice! ---
**Author:** ![satoridt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@satoridt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/satoridt)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2009, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981/20 "2009-05-02T00:51:53Z")
I liked Toby standing up for himself in the meeting about casual Friday. Usually he just doesn’t care enough to push it. Did you hear (Kelly I think) says “where has this guy been” when he wrested the meeting back from Dwight? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-office-4-30/494981.md?page=2)