After Toby returns from a camping trip (with Ryan) to which Michael was not invited, Michael decides to go on a "survival" mission of his own. Dwight tags along to keep him from dying. While Michael is away, Jim tries to streamline the office birthday parties.
Air Date: November 8, 2007
Tropes
- Big "NO!": Dwight sees Michael about to eat (possibly poisonous) mushrooms.
- Blunt "No": Dwight's subverted attempt at being tactful:"Do I believe Michael possesses the skills to survive in a hostile environment? Let's put it this way... No, I do not."
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Pam asks if Jim wants everyone to meet in the conference room, and Jim gives Michael's Once an Episode line of, "Conference Room. Five Minutes" before realizing what he's become, and deciding they're instead going to talk about the birthday problem right where they are. In the bullpen, one room over.
- Camping Episode: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Michael wants to go out and discover something about himself.
- Comically Missing the Point: Michael says he can say what he wants and nobody can hear him. Out loud. To a camera.
- Crazy-Prepared: Dwight has weapons stashed all over the office.
- Freudian Slip: Phyllis mistakenly calls Jim “Michael” as the office becomes increasingly frustrated with him management style before correcting herself. The implications of this slip are not lost on a horrified Jim.Jim: Yup. Phyllis just called me Michael. And I will always and forever be haunted by that fact.
- Mirror Character:
- Jim tries to be a different kind of manager than Michael. But he ends up taking residence in Michael's office, gets annoyed by Toby, initially tries to call an impromptu meeting in the conference room, and finds out that his way of handling a simple task (birthday planning) makes things unnecessarily complicated and troublesome. At one point, Phyllis even accidentally calls him "Michael."
- It's really hammered home in The Stinger, when Michael reveals that he actually once tried to do the exact same thing Jim did of organizing multiple birthdays into one big party. Jim remarks that he doesn't see himself at Dundler-Mifflin in 10 years, to which Michael says that's what he said back when he was in Jim's shoes.
- No Kill like Overkill: When Michael pretends he's being abducted by a serial killer, Dwight explains what he would do to Michael, stating people would call him the "Overkill Killer."
- Pet the Dog: Toby goes on a camping retreat with Ryan and other branch managers.
- Reckless Gun Usage: Dwight watching Michael through the scope of a rifle. With the scope still attached to the rifle. With the safety off.
- Series Continuity Error: Meredith wants devil's food cake for her birthday despite being allergic to dairy the last time she had a birthday in Season 1 (although that episode also said Meredith was an accountant, and she now works in supplier relations).
- Shout-Out: To Survivor Man. Michael also says a bunch of men together in a tent is "a little 'Broken Mountain'".
- Start My Own: Michael wasn't invited to a corporate wilderness retreat, so he starts his own and invites everyone who wants to come with him (ie. just Dwight).
- Surprise Party: Michael is a big believer in surprise parties, to the point that he'll jump out of a corner and scare the living daylights out of the staff.
- Tap on the Head: Played with. Dwight hits Michael with a shoe, pointing out that abducting him is easier if Michael is unconscious. All he succeeds in doing is making Michael yell.
- Written by Cast Member: The second of two episodes written by Steve Carell.
