Kathy Bates is guest starring as Sabre’s CEO tonight. Either Jim or Michael must go back to being a salemen. While I think it would be much more interesting for Michael to get demoted and Jim to become sale manager that probally won’t happen.
Well I was right about the reset button. They really should have drawn this out longer. We could have at least gotten more of rest of the office’s reaction to his demotion.
Since when did Ryan become such a moron? Is he just fucking with Dwight? If not, this is way out of character. I know Ryan really hates Jim, but this whole “diabolical conspiracy” with Dwight is just getting ridiculous.
I doubt Ryan was supposed to be that smart in the first place. Consider the recording-the-same-sales-twice thing he got thrown into jail for. Did he really figure he wouldn’t get caught? Not to mention the fact that he seemed genuinely excited to be “mentored” by Michael at one point.
Also, Erin is starting to grow on me. Initially I thought she was just a complete airhead, but now I think she’s just supposed to be a bit naive, and just a bubbly personality. The bit in the end of the episode, with the keyboard, made me break a smile.
Nice episode tonight. I actually thought that the twist was going to be Michael finding that the printers don’t sell for some reason. Then he would’ve lost his manager’s job for nothing. Instead they reverted to the previous order of things with Jim going back to sales where he has done well in the past. One thing isn’t clear to me in the plot. Has Dunder-Mifflin just added printers to its sales line of paper products, or is D-M only a printer reseller now? Selling printers require technical expertise beyond paper knowledge. You can’t just go from selling cases of paper to batches of printers without some training. I guess we’ll find out in the upcoming episodes.
During their “orientation” last week, the D-M people were told to think of themselves as a printer company that also happens to sell paper instead of a paper company. So I guess they’re selling both now.
This was a very strong episode. I laughed pretty consisently. The nard dogs following around Nard Dog was hysterical. “You should take that as a compliment.” “Oh, I do!”
The exchange between Dwight and Kathy Bates.
The co-manager meeting had some good laughs. Carrell managed to tone down the awkwardness to make it *just slightly *uncomfortable, which is right where it should be.
Phyllis’ sulfur smell. “No, that can’t be it. This is geological.”
“Oh, this isn’t for the smell - I feel a nosebleed coming on…”
The opening was funny, but not believable. I’d think Dwight would have been all over the profit angle of a hotel room in Vancouver for the opening weekend of the Olympics. He did hoarde those Christmas dolls for big profit.
Really, everything except the business between Ryan and Dwight was great. I’d really like to see BJ Novak just leave the show, I can’t stand him.
I don’t know if I’d say he’s “fucking” with Dwight exactly, but I think the whole conspiracy thing is an amusing diversion to him, and part of what amuses him is how seriously Dwight takes it, so he’s helping to feed that.
I spaced out a little and missed some of the subtleties, but I thought it was overall a good episode because the crazy was turned down from eleven.
And Kathy Bates is always good.
Should have been an hour long. I hope there’s a directors cut online.
Very enjoyable episode for me.
The dogs with their noses in Andy’s crotch, and Dwight not staying seated when Jo enters, (I know, **Munch **got there before me). They didn’t just drop the plot for Dwight and Ryan to try and get Jim in some way, and I liked the way it resolved.
I sort of wish the whole, ‘co-manager’ thing never happened. But I’m glad it’s over.
Poor Andy is so guarded after having his heart broken, he can’t tell Erin, (who’s freaking hot BTW), that he likes her.
The intro actually made me laugh out loud, which hasn’t happened on this show for a long time.
Kathy Bates plays a great uber-bitch, going from folksy-fake-friendly to killer-laser-glare-pissed in the blink of an eye. She adds a needed element to a sagging show. The diabolical plot angle has been just plain painfully stupid from the outset and should be dropped.
This was a great episode and involved absolutely nothing not office related. Coincidence?
I just wish that the Jim as manager plot played out for a few more episodes, but that’s probably because they’ve been so poor at coming up with new plot lines for a while.
I thought an absolute great last line would have been the phone call Jim made to Michael, “You have to do something, you can’t just sit there.” The next episode or two could have been the aftermath and everyone else reacting. The episode after is Michael finding out the manager gets a percentage of the profitability or something that makes the manager job much more attractive and the annoyances of sales much less tolerable. Then after Pam has her baby, the owner realizes that she and Jim are married and puts Michael back in charge to avoid a conflict.
Ooh, then they could have hit how hard it is to transition to selling printers and how the plant is no longer profitable. Michael gets annoyed and actually starts to grow to be a good manager.
Anyway, good episode.
You have to wonder about someone who’s never been exposed to Peanuts. “You named them? That’s so cute!” (or something like that) Could she be Amish?
I think he’s just playing along with Dwight to amuse himself the way Jim used to do. I don’t THINK he was serious about going Saw on Jim.
Interesting that Ryan agreed to a drink. If he’s off that wagon, it may be an indication that he’s doing coke again too. That could account for more erratic behavior and darker ideation.
“It’s not farm boy swill, it’s beet vodka…”
I thought this was the funniest episode in recent memory (though I missed last week) with several laugh out loud moments. I like Kathy Bates and I like the Nard Dog + Erin romance story line.
I’ve noticed that each episode seems to have Ryan wearing some hipster accessory. The scarf in this episode, glasses a few weeks ago, and he’s had a hat or two.
That’s a scary look that Kathy Bates can fix people with. It makes me want to reflexively protect my ankles.
I’m guessing home schooled.
+1
She once said she was an orphan. We don’t know if she grew up in an orphanage or was adopted. There is no shortage of Amish and Mennonite around Scranton, but I would think many, if not most, of them have heard of Snoopy; and she knows how to use a computer/typewriter, which says to me that if she was brought up Amish she left in her teens.