History Recap / TheOfficeUSS3E10ABenihanaChristmas

* InTheStyleOf: The party subplot plays out like a TeenDrama with grown women. Angela is the AlphaBitch (with Phyllis as the reluctant BetaBitch), who picks on NewTransferStudent Karen, who then joins CoolLoser Pam to pull a PartySchedulingGambit. Except in this case, the AlphaBitch is the unpopular one whose party is shunned from the get-go.

* WeHardlyKnewYe: Hannah, who made her first appearance two episodes earlier in "The Merger",[[note]]She was in some deleted scenes from the first few episodes of the season[[/note]] makes her last appearance here, before getting formally PutOnABus in "Back from Vacation".

* PartySchedulingGambit: Pam and Karen schedule "A Margarita-Karaoke-Christmas" 15 minutes before Angela's "A Nutcracker Christmas", and almost everyone chooses the former.

* CrappyHolidays: Carol breaking up with him right before Christmas puts Michael in a dark mood. He even announces to the office that Christmas is canceled.

* InTheStyleOf: The party subplot plays out like a TeenDrama with grown women. Angela is the AlphaBitch (with Phyllis as the reluctant BetaBitch), who picks on NewTransferStudent Karen, and CoolLoser Pam reaches out to her, and they pull a PartySchedulingGambit. Except in this case, the AlphaBitch is the unpopular one whose party is shunned from the get-go.

* PartySchedulingGambit: How Pam and Karen get people to come to their party instead of Angela's.

* TheReveal: Angela admits she's the one who stole and hid the power cord for the karaoke machine at the other party.

* RacialFaceBlindness: PlayedForLaughs, when Michael can't figure out which Asian waitress is his date. He then marks her arm. Also subtly invoked with the casting, since the waitresses who accompany Michael and Andy to the party are different actresses (and presumably different waitresses) than the ones at the restaurant.[[note]]Reportedly, the InUniverse explanation is that the waitresses we saw at Benihana turned them down, so they settled for different waitresses. The RealLife explanation is that the script called for the waitresses that Michael and Andy bring with them to be plain-looking, and it was decided that the actresses used in the restaurant shoot were too attractive[[/note]]

* TheUnreveal: Dwight proceeds to get rid of everything with Carol's name, before coming to the closing papers for Michael's condo. He sees that Carol saved him $2,000 by failing to report a mold problem, and wonders how it didn't affect the deal. He's impressed when he sees how she managed it.

ChristmasEpisode. On the day of the office Christmas party, Dwight brings in a goose he ran over in the parking lot. Michael books tickets to Sandals Jamaica as a gift for Carol, but when she stops by, she announces that she's breaking up with him. Andy tries to get him over it with a lunch outing to Benihana, joined by Jim and Dwight. Angela's autocratic leadership of the Party Planning Committee leads Pam and Karen to form the Committee to Plan Parties, which sponsors a rival office party.

ChristmasEpisode. Dwight brings in a goose he ran over in the parking lot. Angela, Pam, and Karen don't see eye to eye about the Christmas party. Michael books tickets to Sandals Jamaica as a gift for Carol. When it goes over badly and they break up, Andy takes Michael, Dwight, and Jim to Benihana.