With Deangelo out, Dwight takes over as the acting manager on the office and imposes his new draconian managing style. Gabe tries to get Erin back.
Tropes
- Blackmail: Everyone agrees to keep Dwight's gun firing a secret as long as he abides to their many requests. These range from the mundane (extra vacation days) to the weird (making jazz hands whenever Jim coughs).
- Brick Joke: At the start of the episode, Dwight has a gun with the intention of impressing Jo, who collects guns. When he tries to smooth the situation with her mentioning which kind of gun he fired, she says it only makes him stupid, because it's a "girl's gun".
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Gabe, obsessed with Erin, tries to make sure that Andy does not has time alone with Erin. He even refuses to let her take Andy to the hospital after getting ear damage.
- Derailing Love Interests: Gabe goes from a normal Generic Guy (if not something of a Romantic False Lead) to a blubbering mess obsessed with getting any kind of attention from Erin.
- Didn't Think This Through: Jim declines the acting manager position because he thinks the office works well without one, and assumes Jo will agree with his line of thinking. Not only does Jo not agree with him, she immediately calls Dwight to offer him the position.
- Dumbass Has a Point: When Dwight is gloating about how he has a meeting with Jo to everyone, Erin excitedly asks what the meeting's about. Dwight rather pompously informs her that the meeting is on a "need-to-know" basis... at which point Erin points out that she actually does need to know, since she's responsible for managing his calendar.
- Evolving Credits: With Dwight at the helm, this episode's title sequence ends with him adjusting a shogun figurine on his new marble desk.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jim is offered the acting manager position, but turns it down due to the office not really needing one. Soon after, Dwight is offered the position and accepts, prompting Jim and Pam to freak out as they see Dwight sit on Michael's table.
- Dwight has this reaction when the gun goes off.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The only reason Dwight becomes manager is because Jim, seeing everyone being productive and feeling the office would be able to get by because of this, turned the position down.
- Reckless Gun Usage: Firing a gun in the office is enough to make Dwight permanently lose his position, and the extortion he is suffering from that is much less aggravating than the gun itself.
- Speaking of the gun, Dwight rather carelessly waves it around and it naturally goes off.
- Repressive, but Efficient: While everyone hated Dwight's Control Freak and authoritarian rule of the office, all of the orders still got out on time.
- Skewed Priorities: After watching Dwight firing the gun on accident and viewing the damaged floor, Oscar's first instinct is to complain about how the building has hardwood under the carpet.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Jim compliments what Dwight accomplished as acting manager when seeing how upset losing the job made him.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: Dwight manages to be somehow worse than Deangelo and his Straw Misogynist tendencies. He enforces the use of an archaic (and dangerously built) punch clock, requires employees to carry over-sized business cards, staggers lunch breaks so nobody can eat together, holds flag assembly every day, locks the copier behind 21-digit codes unique to everyone, and is implied to have created other numerous inconveniences. He even goes as far as putting a portrait of himself by the reception desk.
- Ultimate Job Security: As usual, Dwight still keeps his job, despite the fact that possessing and discharging a firearm in an office is a fireable offense.
- Verbal Salt in the Wound: When berating Dwight for negligently discharging the firearm, she adds on that it's a girl's gun as the cherry on top.
- What the Hell, Hero?: NOBODY lets Dwight off the hook for firing a gun in the office. To keep them from telling Jo, Dwight agrees to their blackmail terms at first until it becomes too much for him and he decides to come clean to Jo, hoping that claiming penitence will be sufficient. Instead, she is horrified and also lets him have it, removing him from the regional manager position.
