Synopsis:
A-Plot:
Michael and recently-divorced Jan have scheduled a meeting with Christian (Tim Meadows), a Lackawanna County government official whose order could practically double the Scranton branch's sales and prevent the branch from closing. While Jan wants the meeting to be a no-nonsense affair held in a conference room at a nearby hotel, Michael unilaterally changes the meeting location to Chili's and goes out of his way to avoid talking business, instead telling jokes to Christian, discussing what to order, and singing the Chili's Baby Back Ribs jingle (Jan, meanwhile, orders a vodka tonic...)
After Christian leaves, Jan and Mike celebrate with a hug that turns into a kiss... which turns into the two of them going off together somewhere in Michael's car!
B-Plot:
Several Dunder-Mifflin employees are in the break room discussing worst first dates. Pam says she wins, as on her worst first date, her date took her to an ice hockey game, went with his brother, and left her behind. It turns out this date was with Roy, her current fiancee...
Later, while searching over the phone for the best joke in Michael's joke book collection (Jan initially allows Michael to tell only one joke, so he wants to make sure it's the absolute best one in his collection), Pam comes across a copy of Threat Level: Midnight, Michael's script for a spy action movie starring "Agent Michael Scarn". With Michael away, the rest of the staff have a read-through of the script, which ends abruptly when Dwight finds out that Scarn's incompetent assistant was originally going to be named "Dwight" (a one-time misspelling of Dwight's name in the script as "Dwigt" prevents search-and-replace from completely changing the name). An enraged Dwight then offers to entertain the office by shooting off fireworks, an offer that only Kevin takes up (although Pam and Jim do watch the fireworks from the roof of the office, while having a dinner of Jim's famous grilled-cheese sandwiches, then dancing).
The next morning, the camera crew arrive to find that Dwight had slept at the office for some reason. They hear a car pulling in, and look out the window to see Jan arriving in a taxi. Dwight looks straight at the camera, astonished. After a talking head sequence with Michael, who claims at first that all they did was talk and then says they made out, Jan calls. We only hear Michaels's side of the conversation, but it's clear that Jan has some regrets about the night before. As he gets more and more dismayed at the way the call's going ("No, I didn't put anything in your drink!"), he hides under his desk while talking on the phone (shades of George Costanza?). Meanwhile, Jim talks to Pam, describing last night's event as a "date" using the logic that it featured dinner, dancing, and a show. Pam says that swaying doesn't count as dancing, and Jim responds with "At least I didn't leave you at a hockey game", which causes an enraged Pam to leave in a huff. Jim and Michael then share a glance of commiseration.
What makes this a great episode?
To begin with, this makes Michael a much more believable character; this episode shows him having almost a sixth sense for salesmanship with the way he bonds with Christian. His position as branch manager can now be understood in this context as a classic example of the Peter Principle, with Mike the phenomenal salesman being promoted to a managerial position that he has no real aptitude for and would rather not do. Not only that, but this episode manages to add considerable depth to his character while at the same time having many classic Michael Scott moments that are true-to-character, such as his reason for changing the meeting location to Chili's (a letter to the editor at a business magazine declared Chili's to be "the new golf course" for meetings... that Michael himself wrote), or after being told that he's only allowed to tell one joke at the meeting, he makes Jan and Christian wait as he makes Pam go through all of his joke collection books in order to tell the best joke ever rather than just telling the one he was originally going to tell.
Jan, on the other hand, goes in a completely new direction starting with this episode. In earlier episodes she was essentially the Americanized version of Jennifer Taylor-Clarke, but from this episode onward she becomes steadily more unhinged, culminating in the cringe-filled train wreck that is Dinner Party.
Tim Meadows, guest starring as Christian, plays his role quite well, as a client who is on the same wavelength as Michael, who likes the same kind of jokes and so on (it would be interesting to see another episode with a different client who is more of a stuffed shirt or all-business type, and to see whether Michael either loses that client or adjusts his personality and still makes the sale). What I liked was that he didn't try to outdo or overshadow Steve Carell, but instead played off him and reacted to his jokes ("I've got Awesome Blossom coming out of my nose!") .
In the B-plot, Jim and Pam's relationship is changed, Michael's magnum opus Threat Level: Midnight is introduced (although Michael's alter-ego "Agent Michael Scarn" has already appeared in other episodes), and Dwight gets some classic moments as well ("I played 'Mutey the Mailman'", his talking-head sequence in which he indignantly spells out his name with extra emphasis on the "H" in the name "Dwight", leaping through the fireworks).
How well do the A-Plot and B-Plots fit together?
They complement each other quite well; Mike's wanting to tell the best joke ever to Christian causes Pam to find the script to Threat Level Midnight while looking through Michael's desk in order to find one of Michael's joke books. The shared look between Michael and Jim at the end of the episode, as they are both left to deal with the aftermath of the previous night, ties the two plots together quite nicely.
Well, that's all for this great episode. Next great episode: Jimmy was Kung-Fu Fighting, from Grounded for Life!
Note: Screencaps are used for purposes of discussion and commentary.
