I just remembered my favorite exchange from the episode.
Dwight: I didn’t know we were in communist Sweden.
Darryl: If we were in Sweden we wouldn’t have this problem because we’d have universal health care.
Which shut Dwight up completely. Maybe for the first time ever.
I liked the episode, but agree with **Dio **the “co-manager” thing is weird. I understand why Jim wouldn’t telling Michael everything. But Dio’s opinion about Jim is probably right, in that Michael should have at least known that ‘HIS’ job wasn’t in danger. Of course it didn’t matter because Michael was able to almost screw thing up anyway, and dicked Jim over. I knew it wouldn’t end with Jim not getting something out of the deal, but (like Dio), “Co-manager” sounds weird… how often does that happen? Jim’s a good buffer between Michael and corporate… a ‘ringleader’ in the office circus. I don’t think the branch would function without him, so “co-manager” doesn’t sound like a bad place for him, I just doesn’t know any situations in real life where there are co-managers, (except for small businesses where you have co-partners).
I really like the episodes that make changes to the dynamic of the show, so long as they’re relatively well implemented. So, to someone who doesn’t know all that much about business, does the fact that the Scranton branch has “co-managers” make any sense given the circumstances of the Buffalo branch closing?
Glad to see **Dio **authoring the thread. 
I always want to talk about the show on here, but I don’t feel comfortable making a thread about it all the time.
I didn’t get the impression that they wanted to have their co-workers there. It was more that they wanted to have things like the first dance and such.
It could have been when Ryan was in charge, and gave Jim the ‘formal warning’.
Yes.
The wedding subplot was funny, but the rest of the episode left me a bit cold. The “co-managers” theme seems too similar to last season with Charles; it’s another variation of “how does Michael freak out when he thinks his job is threatened?” And Michael’s saving grace is that he’s good-hearted, even when he’s completely thoughtless (as with Stanley’s affair); when he’s deliberately sabotaging a colleague, he’s a different person.
I thought it was out of character for Toby to go with Dwight on a stake-out and then to yell an obscenity. Also, Darryl is always so glum that he’s just a downer, and his sister was more of the same. This is a screwball comedy, and it takes me out of the show to contemplate that in real life people would file complaints and call each other “sad.”
I mostly agree, but I loved Toby yelling. I think it’s totally in-character – Toby’s a pushover who’s gotta be bottling up some serious frustrations. I think finding himself in a position where he could lash out and be totally in the right would be a serious temptation for him.
Actually I disagree with those who think that Jim should not have gone over Michael’s head about his job offer. He had a legitimate offer and needed to decide his future with the company. To date, he was denied chances for advancement within the company primarily because of Michael, who admitted as such (“because he didn’t want to lose Jim, Pam, and the baby”). Jim had nothing to lose since he had another offer. The part of the plot that was contrived was David coming down to the Scranton branch office to meet with Jim. In real life, Jim would make the trip to David’s office, but the meeting in Scranton allowed the writers to put in some Michael shenanigans. In his meeting with David Jim proposed a bigger job for Michael, and then replacing him as manager of Scranton/Buffalo. That’s a win-win for Michael and him. But Michael didn’t know that and screwed it up for both of them. At the end, Jim got his promotion, but Michael got a de facto demotion. Overall, just an episode to start this season’s story arc, not a particularly great episode, but salvaged by Dwight’s SCREAM!
Perhaps if Jim were to tell Michael he had an idea that would benifit the company, but he would have to run it by David before telling him. Of course, by now Mike shouldn’t assume Jim would go over his head with anything that would lead to bad things for him
It’s a little weird for David**or **Jim to, like nivlac said, have a meeting in *that *Office room, under his nose. Or at least have had him clued in to the point where he shouldn’t have to worry.
From the deleted scene, it’s more clear the workload’s been pretty crazy for Michael.
I may have missed it: did Jim really have another offer, or was he just saying that?
Well, yeah, imaging having a job where you have to work every day. And he even had to come in on Saturday…
“But I do want to ‘be there’ for Jim.”
It was worse than that. It was “be there to support Jim.” As if marrying Pam were something that Jim needed his friends around him to get through it.
Meredith was really hoping that they would be serving ribs at the wedding.
I had a completely different interpretation about the episode that everyone else. Notice how at the very beginning of this episode, David Wallace asks Michael for a rundown of the clients and Michael treats it as if it’s no big thing whereas Jim was completely flummoxed by a similar request last season.
Michael was having one of his rare moments of managerial competence in the private meeting when he points out that, while Jim is likable, making him manager would be a big mistake. He hasn’t shown any particular competence in either sales or management. At various points in the show, Dwight, Andy & Stanley have been singled out for having excellent sales but never Jim. And the few times we’ve seen Jim in charge while Michael is away have inevitable lead to disaster.
I thought it has been shown that Jim is an excellent salesman. An example would be where they had the office Olympics and Jim said, “yeah, I made all my sales this morning” or something like that. And a couple of seasons ago Jim was proud of himself when he landed the sale at the golf course because that was the first time he had to actually work for one.
I think you’re right in that Jim has yet to display any notable managerial skills, but I’m pretty sure there have been references to him as one of the branch’s best salesman and indeed one of the best salesmen for all of Dunder-Mifflin.
I think Dwight is the top salesmen most years, at least he was when he won the award a few years ago.
He has the kind of sociopathic dedication that lends well to sales.
I can’t recall Jim ever being called that, usually it’s Dwight.
Dwight is definitely one of the best, but I’m pretty sure Jim is too. I didn’t remember this specifically myself, but The Office wiki indicates that Jim was #9 for the entire company the same year that Dwight won #1. This was the same year that Dwight stole Jim’s usual biggest sale of the year, so Jim would presumably have been ranked higher (and Dwight lower) in other years.
It’s always been shown that Jim is good, he just didn’t care because he doesn’t want to advance. That’s changed recently, and he has worked harder (like the golf episode).