The Office: Halloween Gets Fishy in Scranton

It’s Halloween in Scranton, and though the warehouse has morphed into a haunted depot of sorts, the characters are finally acting like themselves again: Creed’s-a-creepin’ as a Vampire who wants to “sell your blood,” Meredith makes Paris Hilton look like a prude, and Jim undertakes his typical eye rolls at the camera.

As the gang suits up in various indistinguishable costumes, their timeless and awkwardly beloved characteristics—those that make The Office a hit—seem to shine like a 10-year-old’s eyes on October 31st (and no, this rave review is not a product of the cookie I happily munched on during the episode…but thanks for the input, Marcie!).

Jim prepares for a sales visit, and is not happy when the client asks that Michael accompany him. Michael insists he won’t babysit Jim, but it seems he’s the one who needs watching when he returns to the office, his suit soaked head to toe. His employees are confused as to why Jim is dry, yet solve the short-lived mystery when Erin receives a call that Michael’s keys have been fished out of a koi pond.

Due to their low sales numbers, Pam and Andy make a cold call to a potential client together. When a receptionist sees Pam’s belly, she immediately assumes the baby is Andy’s and congratulates the pair. Pam’s over-the-top reaction that she would never, ever, ever, EVER date Andy upsets him. He retaliates with an equally cruel—or perhaps worse—response when the client makes a similar comment. In doing so, he also blows the sale.

Meanwhile, Dunder Mifflin makes fun of Michael for his fishy encounter with an indoor tank, mocking him through wordplay such as, “When you fell in, did you flounder?”

These insults irk Michael, so he implements a sensitivity training for the whole office. Michael explains that you can’t make fun of someone for something they regret—though Phyllis points out that he makes fun of his employees often. He allows each to come up with a list of off-limit teasing topics: Dwight’s nose, Kevin’s “huge gut,” and Meredith’s sexual encounter with a terrorist (Hmmm…).

At Pam and Andy’s second cold call, they pretend they’re married for the sake of the sale. Yet Andy creepily takes this role playing too far, kissing and canoodling Pam’s stomach after the baby kicks and referring to the child as “soy bean.”

Michael’s client is charging him $300 for stepping on and thereby murdering one of their precious koi. Michael thinks he’ll be made fun of forever, like the time in High School everyone called him “pony tail,” for getting his pony tail caught in a power drill.

Jim suggests that if Michael pokes fun at himself, the rest of the office will lay off, too. However, Michael takes this approach too far, making himself look pathetic when he brings up the four times the Girls’ volleyball team threw him into a frozen lake and the fact that he is a friendless loser.

Meredith has procured a tape of Michael’s fall and plans to show it to everyone. Jim objects, but the tape surfaces anyway.

In the car back to the office, Andy admits that he took his acting a bit too far. He’s really just sick of being single and has been crushing on Erin, who Pam isn’t fond of but also doesn’t really think Andy can do any better.

Finally, the tape of Michael’s fall reveals a harsh truth: that Jim essentially let him fall into the indoor pond. Jim feels guilty as Dwight murmurs “Judas,” believing that he has committed a huge betrayal. Though you feel slightly angry at Jim, it turns out he was just jealous and thought he could handle the sales call sans his co-manager. Michael is thrilled that Jim could ever be jealous of him, and lets the whole thing go.

Kudos to the writers for getting the show back on track this week! Keep ‘em coming and let the characters do what they do best: bask in their own inelegancies.

Season 6, Episode 7: Koi Pond (Originally aired October 29, 2009)

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Thursdays, 9/8C on NBC

Photographs courtesy of NBC and Justin Lubin