By Kevin McCarthy

Thursday’s episode marks the return of Ryan to Scranton.  Ryan Howard (named after the 2006 MLB NL MVP when he was the star of the Scranton minor league affiliate) has been a character since the first season, when he served as THE OFFICE’s temp.  When Jim left at the start of season three, Ryan was promoted to salesman.  And in a surprise twist at the conclusion of the season, he beat out Michael for a supervisor’s position at Dunder Mifflin headquarters.  Last night’s show was the first experiment with the new power dynamic, which sees Ryan delivering a high-tech business plan to the Scranton office. I’m glad this was a good episode because it was tough pulling myself away from the Division Series games last night. 

For those of you who were watching the Yanks get their assed kicked, you missed a classic episode of THE OFFICE.  In the early days of the series, we were treated to storylines based around the differences between the work environment and the outside world.  Specifically, how you’re supposed to conduct yourself in the workplace as opposed to elsewhere.  Some of those original topics included diversity, sexual harassment and disability sensitivity.  Steve Carell is best when he can he can funnel Michael’s self-absorption into a touchy subject and boldly go too far in the name of propriety. In the second episode of this season, Michael rebels against Ryan’s charge to update the company.  Employees are given Blackberries and a new playbook to compliment the Web site redesign Dunder Mifflin has planned.


After calling a meeting to bandy his troops against the pitfalls of Ageism, Michael draws up a plan to win his old customers back the old fashioned way – by personally bringing them all gift baskets.  Dwight, who has been officially dumped for murdering Angela’s cat, sees the mission as a means of at least winning back someone and tags along.

Jim and Pam reveal their relationship to the others and honestly who was surprised?  They’re living together.  Ryan’s ex-girlfriend Kelly manipulates him into a date by claiming to be pregnant.  She doesn’t understand why he’s upset that she lied, and it seems pretty clear that he’s officially escaped her nagging clutches. Meanwhile, the gift basket mission is a bust, with none of the clients committing to Dunder Mifflin.  On the way to the final company, Michael blindly listens to his car’s GPS system and drives into a lake.  With his frustration coming to a head, he returns to the previous stop by foot, reclaims his gift basket and makes it back to the office victorious – it was this new-fangled technology that sent his car into a lake.


The return of Ryan is appreciated.  His deadpan wit has always been an overlooked pleasure in the show and BJ Novak has shown great comedic ability.  He’s actually written and produced a number of episodes. The new Ryan of this season is a bit of a cocky jerk, and he’s becoming an enjoyable foil to his old buddy Jim.  The two butt heads at the conclusion of the episode when Ryan asks Pam out to dinner, unaware of her relationship with Jim.  With Jim’s desk only a few feet away, the awkward exchange is vintage OFFICE.  Following last week’s premiere, this season looks to be a return to basics for the series.  Though never unfunny, the show needed just the type of reining in we seem to be witnessing now.  After the cast explosion of last season, we’ve whittled down to the beloved few and I sense that the writers are going to shy away from some of the more gimmicky plot developments moving forward.  I’m definitely looking ahead as well to another hour-long episode next week.  And given the Phillies’ performance in the postseason thus far, we can be certain at least one Ryan Howard will still be on TV next week.  Which, for me at least, is a very good thing.