Pam interviews for a job in Philadelphia, where her potential manager reminds her of her former boss, Michael Scott. Dwight acquires the help of Angela in order to give his elderly Aunt Shirley (Mary Gillis) a bath.
Meanwhile, Andy attempts to make Pete and Erin feel uncomfortable.
Tropes
- Alpha Bitch: Andy hires a marketing consultant named Alice who just so happens to be a former girlfriend of Pete's. She quickly realizes that there's no actual job and Andy only brought her in to harass someone she used to date, so she eagerly joins him in doing so for the entire day.
- Bad Impressionists: Mark, the manager who interviews Pam, tries to turn her resume into a song, via a really bad Bob Dylan impression.
- Bait-and-Switch: Pam's interview is for the job of "office manager", but over the course of the interview she realizes the job is actually a receptionist in all but name. Mark admits he changed the title to make it "less demeaning".
- The Bus Came Back: Gabe Lewis, who left the company when Sabre was liquidated, is hired back by Andy in order to make Erin uncomfortable. He's back on the bus by the next episode, though.
- Casting Gag: Bob Odenkirk plays an office manager who behaves remarkably similar to Michael Scott. Odenkirk was in the running to play Michael during casting, ultimately finishing as the runner-up to Steve Carell.
- Continuity Snarl: David Wallace is shocked to learn that Andy was out of town despite Dwight telling him in The Whale.
- Don't Explain the Joke: Along with his constant stream of pop culture-related quips, violating this is Mark's most blatant shared trait with Michael Scott.
- Expy: Mark is an obvious one for Michael Scott, with Pam even mentioning it on Confession Cam.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: After discovering that Andy has hired Pete's ex-girlfriend into the office to show him what it's like to work alongside an ex-partner, she realizes that he had also just hired a new management consultant...Erin: Oh no.Gabe: *standing in the doorway* Hello, beautiful!
- Pete realizes that Andy has been calling him 'Plop' for so long that Andy has forgotten his real name. Cue Andy finding a lunchbag in the breakroom labeled 'Pete', which clearly jogs his memory.
- Never My Fault: Andy blames Pete for stealing his girlfriend, blissfully ignoring the fact that he had effectively abandoned Erin while out on his boat trip and that the abrasive way he treated her beforehand was already drawing her to the much nicer Pete.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pete tries to level with Andy about how hard moving on from a relationship is by telling him about his ex-girlfriend Alice and how sour their breakup was. This inspires Andy to track Alice down and actually hire her to work in the annex alongside Pete just to get back at him (along with hiring Gabe for Erin).
- Oh, Crap!: Pete, when Andy finds his lunch bag (with his name on it) inside the break room fridge.
- Refuge in Audacity: Pete realizes that Andy doesn't suspect him of being the "Pete" that Erin is now seeing because Andy's been calling him "Plop" for so long that he genuinely forgot Pete's real name.
- Andy's defense when David Wallace rips him a new one for being gone for 3 months is to try to turn it around and accuse Wallace of lying. It ends exactly as well as you think.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Andy notes that while office relationships are fun and exotic, it can take a major downturn if that relationship ends because you still have to show up and look at your ex-partner every day.
- Andy tries to garner pity from his subordinates, failing to realize that his new mean-spirited attitude was making him repugnant not just to Erin but to the rest of the office. Thus, they all sympathize more with Erin, seeing her new relationship with Pete as healthier than the one she was in with Andy.
- Toby has to explain to Andy that he can't fire Pete purely out of spite (much like he also tried to do with Nellie). When Andy then tries to crumple up Erin and Pete's relationship contract, Toby states that destroying it won't stop them from dating.
- Although Pam is initially charmed by how much Mark reminds her of her former boss Michael, she comes to realize just how abhorrent it would be to work under someone like that again, especially as a glorified receptionist.
- Despite their feelings for each other, Angela chooses to stay in her unhappy marriage rather than leave her husband for Dwight. Dwight admits that he would expect that same loyalty if she was his.
- David Wallace tells Andy that he only remains employed because of the debt Wallace owes him. That said, this exhausts Wallace's goodwill and Andy is no longer protected should he screw up again.
- Wham Shot: At the end of the episode, the camera zooms in on Oscar's computer screen where an ad pops up for The Office: An American Workplace airing in May.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Alice the marketing consultant and Gabe are hired to make Pete and Erin miserable and then are never seen after this episode.
- What the Hell, Hero?: David Wallace chews Andy out hard for going away on a boat for three months and then lying to him about having still been there the whole time.
