Jim and Pam return from their honeymoon and discover that Michael is dating Pam's mother, which infuriates her. Meanwhile, Dwight tries to install a recording device in Jim's office, by giving him a wooden mallard as an apology for their long rivalry.
Original air date: October 22, 2009
- Armor-Piercing Question: Michael asks the rest of the employees what's so wrong about him dating Pam's mom. They don't answer.
- Batman Gambit: Dwight pulls one on Jim. He gifts him a wooden duck with a recording device taped underneath, for the express purpose of spying on him. Jim finds out and confronts Dwight, who admits he did it because he was envious of Jim getting a promotion. Later, when the other employees leave, Dwight scampers to Jim's office and reveals that he had previously hidden a microphone inside the pen he gave Jim at the beginning of the episode. Dwight wanted Jim to find the recording device in the wooden mallard, to give him a false sense of security. He smugly announces that he has eight hours of recording.
- Big "NO!": Pam, upon learning that Michael is dating her mother, runs to the parking lot and lets out one of these.
- Comically Missing the Point: Dwight is disappointed Michael didn't tell him he was into mothers. If he had known, he would have introduced Michael to his.
- Chekhov's Gun: The pen Dwight gives to Jim at the beginning of the episode. It's where the real microphone is hidden.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Dwight's punishment for planting a bug in Jim's office is... to wash Pam's car. Dwight readily accepts it.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: Dwight at the end, when he asks the viewers if they actually thought he didn't expect Jim to find the recording device.
- Dumbass Has a Point: Michael is right that Pam shouldn't be bringing personal issues like this into the workplace.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Michael demands Pam to apologize to her mother after getting a phone call in a meeting.Michael: Pamela Morgan Beesly, you need to apologize to your mother right now.
- Funny Background Event:
- During Pam's "No More Meetings" chant, Stanley is happily participating.
- Creed immediately gets Manly Tears when Jim starts blaring opera music to screw with Dwight.
- Hypocritical Humor: Pam was dying to learn the juicy gossip about who Michael was dating...right up until she learned it was her mom.
- I Banged Your Mom: Micheal has been dating Pam's mum since the wedding. Pam is not happy to discover this.
- Incredibly Obvious Bug: The wooden mallard that Dwight gives Jim is quickly discerned by the latter to be a bug when he hears beeping sounds coming from it and sees a walkie-talkie planted into its underside. It's revealed to be an invoked trope so that Jim does not realize Dwight planted a better-hidden bug in the pen he returned earlier.
- Insistent Terminology: It's not a duck, it's a mallard.
- It's All About Me: Michael thinks Pam wants him to be happy, and therefore that she should be happy he's dating her mother.
- Little "No": Pam blurts several of these in quick succession after learning that her mom is dating Michael Scott.
- Loud of War: Jim plays an opera song at maximum volume in his office to mess with Dwight.
- Manly Tears: Creed gets emotional listening to the opera song.
- Name McAdjective: Michael comes up with a new character named "Blindguy McSqueezy" in the Cold Open. He's just Mr. Magoo but with a more perverted bent.Michael: The women in my improv class absolutely hate him. (pantomimes groping)
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After Michael tells him he's dating Pam's mom, the normally friendly and polite Jim angrily snaps at Toby when the latter attempts to talk to him. Similarly, Pam is so upset that she spends most of the episode displaying Angela-levels of unpleasantness.
- Precision F-Strike: Both Jim and Pam, although they're bleeped out.
- The Unsmile: Michael does a spectacular one when he reveals to Pam that he's dating her mom.
