Jan stops in to the Scranton branch and orders Pam to keep track of Michael's activities throughout the day. Dwight takes Ryan, who has been at the job for a year and not sold anything, on a sales call. Jim takes Karen's chair. Michael and Stanley stand in line for free pretzels.
Air date: October 19, 2006
Tropes:
- Berserk Button: Don't insult Dwight in front of Angela. Don't cut in line in front of Michael and Stanley.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: In a
Deleted Scene where Michael and Stanley eat their pretzels together, Stanley says "That's what she said" after Michael says the pretzels "taste so good in my mouth". - Department of Redundancy Department: The long lonely walk of loneliness.
- Enemy Mine: Stanley loves Pretzel Day so much he's willing to put aside all his animosity towards Michael so both of them can get their pretzels.
- G-Rated Drug: Michael gets hyper on too much sugar, then passes out at his desk.
- Hard Truth Aesop: As Dwight tells Ryan after the failed sales meeting, sometimes in life you can do everything right and still fail.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Why Ryan keeps following Dwight on the initiation.Dwight: You know what your problem is? You know why you haven't made any sales? Because you think you know everything. You have to trust that maybe there are other people that can teach you things.
- Literal Metaphor: Dwight tells Ryan he must fight fear...and then brings out Mose wearing a FEAR sweater.
- Manchild: Michael spends the episode acting like a hyperactive kid, even experiencing a sugar rush.Pam: It’s weird. Jan used to treat Michael like he was a ten-year-old, but lately it’s like he’s five.
- Mentor Archetype: Dwight wants Ryan to avoid becoming "a slacker, loser wise-ass like Jim" and be a part of "the Dwight Army of Champions", so he puts Ryan through a bizarre initiation ceremony. Ryan does eventually learn something from him.
- Motor Mouth: The pretzel guy reels off an impressive list of toppings. Michael also gets this once he hits his sugar high.
- No, You: In response to Kelly calling Dwight a freak, Angela calls Kelly a freak.
- Serious Business: Pretzels are Serious Business for Michael and Stanley.
- Sugar Causes Hyperactivity: After Michael gets his soft pretzel with its 18 candy toppings, he returns to his office, makes an impressive business deal, and possibly Out-Gambits Jan in her attempt to get Michael demoted.
- That Came Out Wrong: Just as Ryan is planting his seed in the ground, Dwight is going to plant his seed...in Ryan.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pretzels, for Stanley.
- When You Snatch the Pebble: Parodied. Dwight attempts to invoke this on Ryan with a beet seed, but Ryan is too Genre Savvy and keeps trying to grab it while Dwight is talking. Also, Ryan's reflexes are just better than Dwight's, and he just grabs it right away anyway.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Dwight's tactics with Ryan would make sense if he were a Trickster Mentor in some sort of Heroic Fantasy story. Not so much for a paper salesman taking a new associate out on their first sales call.
