Ed Truck, the manager who hired Michael (and Creed) has passed away and Michael is having a hard time dealing with it. Jim tries to find the chips that Karen is craving.
Air date: October 12, 2006
Tropes
- Aside Glance: Ryan looks at the camera once he realizes that Pam's story about her aunt is actually just the plot of Million Dollar Baby.
- Brick Joke: A blink-and-you'll-miss-it example: When Michael complains about Dwight trying to bury the dead bird in a soda can, Dwight tells the camera that his grandfather was "reburied" in an old oil drum. In the second season finale, Dwight told Jim that he was wearing the tuxedo his grandfather was buried in.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Jan says that a statue of Ed wouldn't be "realistic", Michael thinks she's talking about its depiction of Ed rather than the expense and labor, and argues that they could make it more real-looking. Then he and Dwight ponder making the statue an animatronic robot.
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*: Andy very loudly does this to accuse Jim of being a suck-up.
- Failure-to-Save Murder: Toby starts telling Michael the story about the bird hitting the glass as a way to illustrate how death is a part of life. Instead, Michael decides he has to save the bird, and when he sees it's dead, says that Toby killed the bird!
- Hidden Depths: Karen speaks fluent French.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Michael tries to talk knowledgeably about the Five Stages of Grief, but the camera zooms out to show him obviously reading them from his monitor, indicating that he had to Google them.
- Losing Your Head: Ed Truck was decapitated. However, it's Creed who reveals this news, so it may or may not be true.
- Meaningful Funeral: A bird dies outside the office building, and Michael insists on holding a funeral for it. Pam's eulogy makes up for everyone not caring that Michael is in mourning.
- Overly Long Gag: Michael's "going down stairs" joke in the cold open. Made more so when Pam starts screwing with him.
- Shout-Out:
- When Michael asks for grief stories, the staff give him stories that are movie plots. He doesn't catch on to Pam doing Million Dollar Baby or Ryan doing The Lion King, but when Kevin tries Weekend at Bernie's, the jig is up.
- Pam sings Jeffrey Osborne's 1982 hit "On the Wings of Love" at the bird's funeral (accompanied by Dwight on recorder).
- Michael's observation that "There's such a thing as good grief. Just ask Charlie Brown."
