Michael, Pam and Ryan return to Dunder Mifflin after the buyout, but tensions flare between them and the rest of the sales staff when they refuse to give back the clients the Michael Scott Paper Company took from them.
Episode Tropes:
- Armor-Piercing Response: Phyllis delivers a devastating one to Michael that finally makes him realize he's in the wrong:Phyllis: Michael, you thought you were attacking corporate, but we were the ones who got hurt! You should be apologizing to us!The rest of the salespeople: That’s right.Phyllis: Michael, you always said we were a family. Then you went after us.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Toby furiously cancels Casual Friday after everyone go too far.
- Call-Back:
- Michael pretends to fire Pam (and later Erin) the same way he did to her in the pilot.
- Dwight uses Ryan's specialized mug from the ones Kelly gave out at her party in order to dip the urine-ink he writes the secret messages with.
- The Dog Bites Back: Toby, after trying passively to resolve everyone's complaints over Casual Day, finally snaps at Dwight when he tries to take hold of the meeting and tells him to sit down or he'll be written up.Meredith: Whoa, where's this guy been?
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Michael believes that he's entitled to remorse and apologies from all the employees who didn't follow him to his new company. Instead, they're shunted that Pam and Ryan are keeping all the clients that were stolen from them and are even more resentful when Michael continues favoring the two of them, and Phyllis has to be the one to point out that he's actually the one being disrespectful to everyone else.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Michael tells Jim he can't rely on him because Jim is biased in favor of Pam.
- Going Commando: Meredith does this while wearing a mini-dress for Casual Friday. Naturally, she winds up exposing herself, much to the disgust of the others.
- Heel Realization: Michael realizes that he was so focused on screwing over corporate with his company that he didn't consider how it affected the Scranton sales staff.
- Here We Go Again!: Subverted. Dwight, Andy, Stanley, and Phyllis threaten to quit and start their own paper company so Michael agrees to just give them their clients back. Michael simply calls their bluff and mockingly tosses them seed money.
- Hidden Depths: Creed plays a mean game of chess.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Darryl sees Michael having a secret warehouse meeting in a fort made of paper crates, and says that he told him not to do this.
- Only Sane Man: Jim refuses to involve himself in the feud and spends the day playing chess with Creed.
- Status Quo Is God: Zig-zagged. By the end of the episode, Michael acquiesces to the sales crew's complaints and gives them back their clients. Since this means Pam and Ryan can't both be salespeople, Ryan is coerced to go back to his temp job. The only difference is that Pam gets to be in sales.
- Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Toby declares that Casual Day is cancelled after getting fed up with everyone's complaints and Dwight's attempts to enforce his own dress code on everyone.
