“If I can make mushed carrots seem better than a boob, I can pretty much sell anything.” – Jim
Ryan’s attempt at a social network, Jim’s work woes, and Dwight’s scheming were all part of The Office’s shenanigans in this installment of the show.
The main story focused on Ryan and his effort to start up his Internet company, called WUPHF, a social network-like site that alerts users to messages via voice mail, e-mail, fax, and text all at the same time.
Michael, Andy, Pam, Stanley, Kevin, and Darryl all have a stake in WUPHF, with Michael putting the most money into it. Ryan gets an offer from a university to buy the site, but isn’t ready to sell. When they all sit down with Oscar to see what kind of money could be made from the site, Ryan admits he only has nine days’ worth of money left. Everybody urges him to sell, but he tries to convince them he could make a profit if more people invest.
Pam goes to Michael and tries to tell him that Ryan is only using him for money and that the respect doesn’t go both ways. Michael confronts Ryan, but Ryan uses his charm on Michael to get him to try to get a second mortgage to help him out. When Ryan is confronted again by the others to sell the site, Michael stands up for him once again, but tell him that he needs to get the company running. Hours later, Ryan sells the site to the university.
Prankster Jim finally made his way back; he has been missed. After learning that the salesmen commissions are capped after a certain point, Jim goes to Gabe to protest, but Gabe tells him that he can’t do anything about company policy. Jim tells Gabe that the cap eliminates his incentive to actually make sales. Gabe has no answer for Jim, so he decides to find ways to goof off. To get back at Gabe, he changes the audio book of the Sabre CEO Jo Bennett and Gabe ends up listening to it all night thinking the changes are real.
Outside the office, Dwight decides to make a “Hay Place” in the Dunder Mifflin parking lot to make money off of people (the petting zoo starts at 2:00, the goat roast starts at 3:00). Parents bring their kids to the lot and Dwight crowns himself “Hay King.’ When Angela comes asking for a roll in the hay, Dwight tells her to meet in their spot. When Dwight doesn’t show up for their rendezvous, Angela confronts him. He ignores her again and while she is waiting for him to get done with the Hay Place, she ends up meeting another man. Dwight goes to their secret place in the warehouse and finds their contract on the door voided out.
I am hoping that the old Jim sticks around for a while. Jim is definitely more fun when he is pulling pranks on people and goofing off. Those have been his best episodes over the seasons of the show. It was nice to focus on a different person this week, i.e. Ryan and the plot was entertaining. It does bug me though that Michael always stands up for Ryan, even though Ryan doesn’t treat him very well. It just shows what a good guy Michael is though. He tries not to focus on the bad in people and mainly sticks to the good. I found Dwight’s plot to make money the funniest of the three storylines this week. Kevin getting lost in Dwight’s hay maze made it even better.
Some stats and info about The Office, “WUPHF.com”
TV SHOW – The Office
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 7, Episode 9
AIRED ON – November 18th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – NBC
GENRE – Comedy, Office Culture
CREATED BY – Greg Daniels, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant
CAST – Steve Carell, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, Rainn Wilson, Leslie David Baker, Brian Baumgartner, Angela Kinsey, Kate Flannery, Phyllis Smith, Creed Bratton, Oscar Nunez, B.J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, Ed Helms, Paul Lieberstein, Craig Robinson, Ellie Kemper
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.