Here is how it might play out:
Charles ends up with a mutiny on his hands and Wallace decides to bring Michael back. Michael comes back and replaces Charles with Jim taking over the branch. In the mean time, Pam is not allowed to come back because they’ve since hired a new receptionist. But maybe Pam is hired to fill Jim’s now vacant position?
Technically, Dunder-Mifflin didn’t hire Ryan back. His former temp agency did. Michael then begged the temp agency to send Ryan back to him.
I like the idea of Pam as sales (at either DM or Michael Scott Paper), if not only because I love all of the sales episodes they’ve done. There are far too few of them.
And thinking about this at lunch, I think Michael Scott Paper could work (ignoring the lack of start-up capital). In town, we have a specialty paper store. Homemade paper, made-to-order paper, fancy paper, gilding, embossing, etc. It’s a very different market than DM, and something a two-time bride-to-be would be extremely knowledgeable about. She also now knows how to run a top-of-the-line printer…
I think Dwight was miffed that Andy heard about it before he had. I don’t understand why Michael would talk to Andy before Dwight though.
That’s an interesting thought.
Michael didn’t want Dwight. Dwight didn’t want to go with Michael. Awkwardness ensued.
Yeah, that was a great scene. Dwight only likes Michael when he’s his boss. Michael only likes Dwight when he’s sucking up to him.
I think it would be fun to see Micheal, Pam and Ryan blunder into wild success.
Through-away scene, but I haven’t seen Darryl in a while:
Glad to see Darryl be straight with Michael. Also shows that Michael may actually know the risk but is still pretty determined
I think Charles lunging at Michael shows that he’s not as sane and in control as we’ve been led to believe. Put that together with him staring through the window at Jim last week and we have a couple small signs of something – maybe nothing as dramatic as a crackup, but something.
I thought there was something weird about the way Charles was staring at Jim through the window. That would make anyone uncomfortable. He’s so openly hostile to Jim that I thought either he’s goofing on him or he already has a grudge against him.
A stationary store would be great. Pam would be the buyer/merchandiser, Michael would be the salesperson, and Ryan would run all the accounting.
I don’t get why anyone’s surprised. If anything, the lack of characters lunging at Michael is by far less plausible.
The guy’s kind of annoying.
“Yeah, you live on that beat farm and it’s probably going to be far from wherever I set up.”
I think he really does have a grudge against him. I think it’s pretty realistic that a no-nonsense boss wouldn’t appreciate Jim’s goofy pranks. I can also relate to “getting off on the wrong foot” with someone and then trying to make amends for it only to end up making things worse. 
I’ve only watched the final scene of this show, so I might be completely off-base, but wouldn’t it make more sense for Kelly to be a temporary receptionist? She’s the customer service rep, right? So she already has the phone experience that Kevin lacks, and she would LOVE sitting at the front desk looking all cute.
And I’ve never really understood all the hate for Jim. Sure, he plays a few pranks, but he’s trying to grow out of that now that he’s decided to make a go of this as a career. He is at the core a decent guy, and a good salesman. I think the look at the end was supportive of Pam, even if he can’t leave with her. He has always encouraged her dreams.
I think maybe Michael will approach the owners of the recently defunct Prince Paper with an offer to restart their company. He really liked those people, and he felt bad about screwing them over. Plus they have the infrastructure in place (unless they’ve already sold off everything) so he wouldn’t be starting from scratch.
Note that another big issue with the client list is if they find out that their old buddy Michael is no longer with DM, they might switch to another supplier. Figuring they aren’t going to get the personalized service any more they may want to go for cheaper paper.
There’s more than one reason to prevent Michael trying to contact customers.
If they had Kelly on Phones who would take Kelly’s position? We all know the office doesn’t need 3 accountants, and we’re talking Kevin here. I don’t think people ‘hate’ Jim, they just don’t think he should have total immunity because he’s smart, (or a smart-ass). I think most people think Jim’s a good guy in most respects.
There are times where people ask about Pam’s contributions to the relationship.
Indeed–Michael creates remarkable chaos wherever he goes. Even if there’s no way he could get the business off the ground, it’s totally plausible that he’d make a mess of an attempt, calling previous clients and badmouthing DM to them. Just like there was a good chance he’d use his goodbye speech to try to recruit employees. Preventing him from taking anything from the office, and preventing him from a goodbye speech, are rational acts.
Charles is a jerk, natch, but he handled Michael’s departure sensibly.
Yeah, I hate chasing after them!