Yeah, is there a reason one phone call to CFO-Guy wouldn’t take Ryan down? That thing about re-entering through the website is pretty much Ryan screwing everyone to make himself look good - the upshot being the website looks good, people get downsized, and now D-M loses a lot of sales.
-Joe
I don’t remember the general information website. All I remember is that when Ryan first brings up the idea, Jim says something like, “I didn’t see what was wrong with our old web site” and points to a monitor that says something like “Under Construction: Coming Fall 2003” or something like that.
And then when the website first launched, it just barely undersold Dwight in a single day even after Dwight called in all of his big sales for the year.
It was definitely awful for Ryan to attribute sales to the site that sales associates made, and a social networking component was probably ill-adivsed, but the website thing doesn’t seem to have been a complete failure. Especially since it hasn’t been operational that long. And some people must be using it for them to have any sales at all to attribute to it, so it wasn’t a bad idea, really.
Ryan is clearly way out of his depth, especially when it comes to interacting with his old co-workers, and he does seem to be getting less scrupulous since he’s become a drug addict, but he’s not that bad, I don’t think. He just seems like someone who would have been a lot better off had he worked under Jim’s old boss from Stamford rather than Michael Scott.
I don’t know - I’m betting IT, Legal, and HR would all consider “the website was invaded by pedophiles” the DEFINITION of a complete failure. And Ryan even said something like “They have to come in on Saturday to enter all their sales into the website. Which is what they were supposed to do in the first place…if the website had been working.”
Well, you’re definitely right, there. I didn’t remember the coming in on Saturday thing.
Still, though, you’d think that all you’d have to do would be to jettison the social networking thing and clean up some bugs, and the website would basically be a fine idea. At the very least I can’t blame Ryan for wanting to implement some of the stuff he learned in business school because, well, that’s all he really knows.
There’s no doubt that Ryan is kind of a jerk, of course, but I think that the things he’s doing now are understandable considering his experience in Scranton.
But by that same token, the things Jim is doing are understandable considering his experience in Scranton.
I asked it on the last page, but it may have been caught in the noise:
Does anyone know why there’s a line going back from Lonnie to Michael on Dwight’s org chart?
and what’s the significance of Creed’s name being in quotes?
Dwight doesn’t believe that Creed is his real name.
And having seen all of his past behaviour, I’m going to side with Dwight on this one.
For Lonnie, I think it’s because he intimidates Michael. He’s yelled at Michael a few times, including in front of the staff. For Creed, I think it’s because he’s the kind of person who might make up a name — an alias — for himself, and Dwight knows it. Those are my guesses, anyway.
Remember when Creed revealed that he has a passport in the name of William Charles Schneider? (which is incidentally the real name of the the readl Creed Bratton)
Can those of us who missed it get a recap? I missed all but the last few minutes.
The episodes are all for free on (NBC’s?) website. You have to watch some annoying commercials, but my fiancee and I just got caught up on this whole season over the weekend.
They’re also available on Hulu, and for a couple of bucks you can download 'em uncut/without commercials on Amazon’s Unbox.
Man, Toby’s turned into quite the little Iago, hasn’t he? I think it’s delicious that Michael’s seemingly unmotivated hatred of the “skeevy little perv” has proven slightly prescient, though of course – since this is Michael – his hatred is instinctive and irrational, and has little to do with the real reasons one might have for disliking Toby.
Stanley’s “Did I stutter?” outburst can’t be justified by Michael’s racial “hey you’re urban, help us out?” remark, because Stanely was clearly not listening and didn’t hear the comment in the first place. I don’t blame Stanley’s later smackdown after the fake-firing, but even then he shouldn’t have done it in public. Of course Michael practically issued a written invitation for it, with his “do you have anything to say to me?” request. Oh Michael.
I just adore Carell in this role. You can see every ounce of pain and fear in his eyes when Stanley barks at him, and then Michael just shuts down and tries to blow the whole thing off as a face-saving joke. My mouth literally dropped open when Toby then came into his office and fanned the flames of discontent. What an ass.
And then Michael went over to Stanley and gave the guy an out himself, saying he didn’t expect an apology and none was needed. Stanley could totally have acknolwedged Michael’s gesture – Michael wanted him to do it, he needed him to do it – but no, Stanley is too freakin’ stubborn (and man, he must be a real joy as a husband!). Here again I was on Michael’s side. It’s true he’s a horrible boss. And yet… The thing about Michael is that he’s ignorant and all kinds of inappropriate, but he’s never malicious and doesn’t mean to hurt anyone. (Except Toby. Always, always excepting Toby!) I expect more of semi-normal people like Stanley. Later, I couldn’t have been happier when Michael shocked us with that moment of off-camera reasonableness, telling Stanley “okay, I accept that you don’t respect me, but you can’t talk to me like that.” For Michael Gary Scott to accept that someone doesn’t respect him? Man, that is a huuuuuuge deal. A big character moment for him. Michael’s whole raison d’etre is desperately needing others’ approval. I wanted to cheer.
And the Jim/Ryan/Toby dynamic. I really would have liked to see Jim stand up for himself a little more, as in, “uh my sales numbers are still excellent, so WTF are you talking about?” (but in a professional manner, obviously). But in fairness he did try to get Ryan to explain himself, but Ryan hilariously claimed that Jim was getting ‘defensive’ and claimed it was simply constructive criticism. And former good guy Toby sits on listening and being his typical passive aggressive self. A man may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
Oh and finally: poor Phyllis and her “that’s the dumbest thing I ever heard!” remark. I have the feeling that every bit of sass at Michael from now on is gonna be met by “okay, everyone out of here but ____.” He clearly thinks he’s got a winning technique now.
A great episode. I hate that there are only two eps left!
As some here takes an understanding stance towards Ryan’s behaviour, I think Toby’s, as well, is human and understandable. Toby has been harassed by Michael since day one for no reason at all. I am not buying that Michael somehow foresaw Toby’s present change of character, he was simply cruel to Toby and poked at very sensitive spots in an unprofessional way.
Up until this point, Toby has showcased to be one of the most rational and level-headed in the staff. Unfortunately, he also has a broken soul. He seemingly has few to no friends, he is divorced, he is alienated by his boss and his love for Pam is unrequited. This all doesn’t excuse his jerkish behaviour (frankly, I am more upset by his act to ask Michael to reprimand Stanley, because that decision just didn’t seem like something that should have been affected by Toby’s own personal state), but it makes it less evil in my eyes.
I seem to remember during the writers strike that they said, should the show come back, there would be
an explanation of exactly why Michael hates Toby. I don’t know if it’s just Toby’s current behavior or if we will find out something specific, though.
I haven’t read any other spoilers, so I don’t know if this is included in those. It’s not really a spoiler per se, but I’m erring on the side of caution.
Wow, choie, that was great commentary. Thanks!
Are you guys saying Ryan is a drug addict just because of the way he acted the night he partied with Michael and Dwight? Or have there been other incidents?
Wasn’t that enough?
The shaky hand. The trips to the bathroom. The wide-eyed delight at seeing Michael and Dwight (itself a shock to me). The wiping of the nose with the finger. The incoherent rambling about string theory (with Michael, of all people.) The question about “a friend” who’s a drug addict.
What more do you need?
I’d need more than one night’s partying to call someone a drug addict. Plenty of people do coke recreationally without being addicts. I thought maybe he was showing up to work like that, or some other evidence that his drug use was problematic.
What you will need, then, is lessons on TV shorthand. This is a farcical sitcom, not a family drama showing the the downward spiral of recreational use to fatal addiction. The fact that so much time was spent on it shows that it is not “recreational”.