Someone pulls a prank on Michael, leaving a foul-smelling substance on his office carpet. While Darryl and Roy clean out the office and replace the carpet, Michael relocates to Jim's desk, forcing Jim to take the empty desk next to Kelly, to his regret. After failed attempts to bond with his employees, Michael punishes them. Pam returns from vacation, and Jim continues to have trouble dealing with his feelings for her.
Air date: January 26, 2006
Tropes
- '80s Hair: Younger Michael has a shoulder-length mullet when he's shaking Ed Truck's hand in the newsletter photo.
- Blatant Lies: Michael tells Ed Truck there is a problem with his pension, to get him to meet.
- Call-Back: After deciding he needs to move on from Pam, Jim leaves a voicemail for Brenda, the corporate liaison who was visiting Scranton in "Booze Cruise", asking her for a date. It's been speculated that when Jim says he has a date in "Take Your Daughter to Work Day", it's with her.
- Establishing Character Moment: Kelly Kapoor had been on the show since the second episode "Diversity Day", but had been limited to background scenes and one or two lines per episode. Her constant pestering of Jim when he sits by her here marked the debut of her familiar immature Motor Mouth personality. It also marked the start of the Kelly/Ryan Relationship Revolving Door.
- A Father to His Men: Subverted. Michael expects a boss to be a father figure to his employees, and is angry when Ed tells him to keep his friends, family, and work relationships separate.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The text
◊ of the newsletter next to the Ed/Michael photo is a hilariously meta explanation of placeholder text."By typing alot of words in two columns on the front of this page, we can achieve the look of a newsletter without really reporting much news or provide any real information to the reader at all." - Hypocritical Humor:
- After subjecting Jim to a non-stop monologue about the mundane details of her life, Kelly claims to be too shy to ask Ryan if he's interested in her.
- Michael is extremely upset about the mess on his carpet, until Packer tells him he's the one who did it, then Michael finds it hilarious.
- Manchild: Strong examples in this episode of Michael and Kelly both having the mental age of a teenager, with Michael conducting a "raid" on the accounting department and throwing their paperwork on the floor, and Kelly begging Jim to ask Ryan if he likes her.
- The Reveal: At the end of the episode Michael learns that Todd Packer was the one who soiled his carpet.
- "Stop Having Fun" Guys: Michael describes Ed Truck as this type of boss.
- Take Our Word for It: We never get to see the mess left on Michael's carpet, or even know what it actually is. But everyone's reactions to the awful smell and the necessity of getting a hazmat team to remove it tells us enough about how bad it is.
- Tell Him I'm Not Speaking to Him: Jim unwittingly becomes the middleman between Kelly and Ryan as they gauge their interest in each other.
- The Unreveal: No one really knows what's on Michael's carpet. It's implied to be feces, but any direct naming of it is completed avoided.
