“Didn’t all the people from the Stamford branch quit in, like, two weeks?”
“No, I fired them all and you’re next! …so what do you think?”
I’ve been on this theme pretty much all season now. I don’t believe he could even be a good salesman, despite the few times they’ve shown him making a sale. He’s just too asinine. Nonetheless, I liked this episode. As long as Michael’s too ridiculous to live, you might as well run with it. I hope the season ends with Michael, in serious financial difficulty, robbing a bank.
I think the writers are ramping up for Jim to have an epiphany or something. Karen has zoomed past him, career-wise, and Pam is leaving him behind (last episode and this episode) with his silly jokes. She’s at least showing some initiative, while he’s still goofing around. He’s been at DM for at least five years now (maybe six) and he’s going nowhere. Sooner or later, he’s going to smarten up.
I agree it was over the top, but I still had fun with it. It was all worth it for this bit from Dwight, who had been previously shown planning how to disable the security guard’s eyes:
Dwight, over walkie talkie, in a psycho serial killer voice: “I have to do something to his eyes!”
Cut to Dwight talking head: “The eyes are the groin of the face.”
Also, Jim’s facial expression when Dwight started going on about “or a real bomb” was priceless.
Speaking of, Jim’s given reason for continuing with them was that he cut a deal with Dwight - if he came along, Dwight wouldn’t build any real bombs. Of course, it would have made a lot more sense to call the Utica branch and tell them Michael’s plan, then call a cab and go home.
It’s somewhat plausible that Karen wouldn’t tell anyone in the company what happened - it hardly adds to your professional image to say, “My ex-boyfriend and his buddies came to our branch and wrecked a copier.”
They may indeed be pursuing the plot of Jim being all about Pam, while Pam is widening her horizons, and Jim being kind of a dick about it. “Angela’s Ashes - I thought it was a fun read.” 
I think I need a screen-saver of Michael, Jim, and Dwight in the PT Cruiser with the mustaches on.
I have a couple of plausible explanations for Michael’s continued employment.
–The people up the ladder from him are just as bumbling and incompetent. Maybe the company is surviving totally on the strength of a few big long-term contracts, so that the total incompetence of upper management hasn’t been able to kill it yet. Evidence: giving the promotion to Ryan solely because he has an MBA, which sounds like something Michael would do.
–Upper management is competent, but they find Michael’s antics entertaining, and he doesn’t do any damage at the Scranton branch that can’t be undone. Evidence: it would explain the camera crew.
Oh, I forgot one of my favorite laughs:
Andy: “The Finer Things Club is the most exclusive club in the office. Naturally, it’s where I need to be. The Party Planning Committee is my backup. Kevin’s band is my safety.”
I had trouble with this episode as soon as I found out Karen was the branch manager at the other branch. She quit Scranton and moved several months ago and now she is the branch manager? Weren’t there other people at that branch who were in line for the manager’s position for years like at Scranton? She was never shown to be a super salesperson or star employee worthy of getting such a promotion.
I’m sorry, but for Jim to just have not gotten out of that car and gone back to Scranton is totally out of character. He hates Michael and Dwight, he really doesn’t want to deal with the drama with Karen (which will inevitably result from all this), and he sure doesn’t believe this will work. He has no reason for revenge and you could argue he went just to make sure Dwight didn’t throw Molotov cocktails all over the place, but he didn’t leave the car.
I’m guessing Toby is just in the Finer Things Club because he wants to break off a piece of Pam.
I wonder if Stanley really was bluffing, or if he just made that up to save face in front of the camera crew. Methinks that thanks to the broken copier, Utica didn’t have enough money in its budget to pay for the raise he was offered.
This is actually one part of the show where I don’t have to suspend any disbelief. I’ve worked too many places where at least one of the managers is a frickin idiot, bordering on brain damaged, that I just take this as a given for any semi-large company. I’m not sure what their kryptonite is.
Well, she was one of the people under consideration for Jan’s old/Ryan’s current job which is even higher than branch manager, so her promotion doesn’t seem completely out of the blue.
This is the second episode he’s directed; the other one was “Business School” from last season–the one with the bat in the ceiling.
“The eyes are the groin of the head” is one of the best lines so far this season.
But a lot of the episodes have felt like they had a good premise and then were lazy about using it. Having Stanley announce he was moving to the Utica branch for more money was a good setup; but surely they could have had a more interesting reaction from Michael. Just going to Utica and creating havoc seems like lazy writing. The whole thing felt forced and off to me.
I did like Karen’s evaluation of her new job: “Turns out it’s a pretty easy gig when you don’t have a boss who’s an idiot and a boyfriend who’s in love with someone else.”
The bat in the ceiling, and it also featured Jim as a vampire. Which works really well with Joss Whedon.
pat
Don’t forget the incident of the kidnapping of the pizza delivery guy. I do believe that is a felony.
IIRC, this season (sesason 4) would make it 9 years. lol. I thought when the show first started he claimed that he had been here for 5 years already.
There’s a deleted scene on NBC’s website: They’ve stopped at a rest area, and Jim is on his cell talking to Pam, back in the office, while Michael and Dwight are in the bathroom behind Jim changing into the gray coveralls. Pam is clearly surprised that Jim has decided to go along with it; Jim tells her he’s pretty sure that if he doesn’t go with Michael and Dwight somebody will end up in jail or dead. Pam then mocks him good-naturedly, “You just want to see your girlfriend.” Probably a painful cut for the editors as it glued together a lot of pieces of the story.
To me, it seems, that were this the real world, Ryan-- who doesn’t like Michael and thinks he’s an incompetant boob who is unwilling to adapt to the times-- would’ve most likely fired him and put Jim in the position of Branch Manager, as I’m sure he had some part in Karen getting the BM job at Utica. Ryan sees himself as the youth movement at D-M and I would imagine wants to set up “the next generation” there.
Why am I reading so much into this? Sheesh.
Yeah, but in the context of the show Ryan doesn’t seem to even have the power to fire Kelly, let alone a regional manager. So, maybe he is on a probationary period were he can supervise but not make cuts.
Regarding Jim going to Utica. It was clear to me he was only going to stop maiming or bomb blowing up. He was going as long as he could wear a mustache, and that they would not use real bombs.
I hadn’t seen ads for the show or read anything about it, so I was quite surprised to see Karen still working for Dunder Mifflin. I like how they have portrayed each of the Dunder Mifflin offices. Stamford being really high tech and modern, Scranton being Scranton. Utica sort of being in an office park.
Oh. it’s fun to read so much into it!
Oh speaking of reading too much into it. When Scranton and Stamford merged Scranton was supposed to be made in charge of East coast operations. Is Utica a new branch because that merger didn’t work? Or, was utica always there under the radar?
Regarding why Michael lasts at Dunder Mifflin. He actually isn’t that bad when compared to other regional managers. Remember the big meeting at corporate where Michael made the video? The one manager brought nothing at all and had refuse to fire anyone, and michael had the video and financial data. So, there’s a reason for him keeping the job - Dunder Mifflin’s management structure is dysfunctional.
Ok. Too much reading into it, for sure!
pat
The thing that bugged me about this episode was that the company didn’t have a policy in place to keep branches from taking employees from each other. I can understand if Stanley was getting a promotion, but for one branch to snake another’s salesman by offering more pay for the same job seems silly.