Dunder Mifflin CEO David Wallace tasks Dwight with finding a part-time replacement for Jim; Dwight in turn enlists several of his close friends, including his cousin Mose. Pam tries to find out who her new desk mate will be.
Tropes
- Acting Unnatural: Dwight gets Jim to be the one to have to announce to Dwight's friends none of them will be hired. But Dwight's exaggerated reactions of disbelief are so obvious that they all see right through it and abandon Dwight.
- Bittersweet Ending: Dwight's decision causes him to lose virtually all of his friends within the span of a few hours. However, he made the smart choice for his company by hiring someone competent and affable, and Pam cheers him up by suggesting they haze Clark together.
- Blatant Lies: Brian the boom mic guy tells Meredith that the documentary crew has been told not to engage with the subjects anymore... right as he's just finished having a long and rather personal conversation with Pam about her troubles with Jim.
- Cloudcuckoolander: All of Dwight's friends, naturally. Special points go to Gabor, who along with Dwight attended a school based on the X-Men comics that was supposed to harness their mutant abilities. The whole thing was a con, and yet Gabor still believes he has real powers.
- Continuity Nod: Several of Dwight's prospective hires appeared in previous episodes: Troy was Ryan's friend in New York who Dwight thought was a Hobbit in "Night Out", his babysitter (and possible lover) Melvina from "Dinner Party", his tag-team partner Rolf from "Company Picnic", and Trevor the hitman from "The Target".
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Dwight realizes early on that Clark is the only viable option to take over as Jim's replacement. However, he's so determined to have a deskmate Jim won't approve of that he brings in a bunch of friends to interview, only to realize that he still can't justify hiring any of them over Clark. So he not only ends up hiring Clark anyway, but loses all of his friends in the process.
- Didn't Think This Through: Mose tries to get the position by lying on his resume that he spent several years as a sales rep for a different company... which Dwight knows isn't true because they live together. When he asks Mose about it, Mose immediately runs out of the building.
- Humiliation Conga: Dwight squeezes his way into Jim's phone call with David Wallace, where Jim is told in succession that Dwight is in charge of hiring his part-time replacement, his pay is going to be cut down to only the days that he shows up, and David isn't interested in investing in Athlead.
- Kick the Dog: After Dwight's friends realize that he's snubbing them and all leave, he gets an email with a picture of them all playing paintball together and saying "Glad you're not here."
