Andy's trying to throw a fancy garden party at Schrute Farms, and of course no social event can happen without the entire staff present. He claims it's for no special occasion, but they sniff out that he's trying to impress Robert California. When in fact the truth is much sadder. He shows them all an online video from the garden party his parents threw for his little brother's promotion last week, complete with an impromptu musical duet between Andy's dad and his brother. So obviously he's hoping to recreate that moment with himself and his father. Not that anyone realizes this until much later.
In the meantime, the party is deeply weird, with Mose acting as the parking valet, everyone sucking up to Robert, and Dwight putting on bizarre displays he learned from a party hosting book written by James Trickington (actually Jim, once again not caring who else gets hurt if he can mess with Dwight). Andy tries unsuccessfully to force things, including a round of toasts that goes completely off the rails before it gets around to him like he'd hoped, but ends up stomping off in a snit when his brother and father end up hijacking what was supposed to be his musical moment. Shortly afterward, everyone learns via Pam's baby monitor what a complete prick Andy's dad is, and they understand him a lot better. Also, Angela and Pam both want to name their sons Philip, but Pam wins. Decisively.
Jim and Pam show up in the office in the morning, having seen one of the new Dunder Mifflin billboards on their way in. Apparently it features Andy's face, which he's all excited about, until Pam breaks the news that "somebody defaced it." Before he can get more details, Stanley comes in guffawing. Jim delicately talking-heads about how graffiti artists often fall back on a phallic theme, as we see three ad slicks showing Andy in various positions that could be interpreted as gobbling a giant, invisible knob (nobody said I have to be delicate). But we can assume that thanks to Scranton's street-artistic community, that knob is no longer invisible. Meredith comes in raving about the billboard. "Funny, edgy, right up to the line without crossing it." And that's the one with 20 dongs on it. Dwight enters and laughs, until he realizes he was in one of the photos too, and runs out screaming, "No! No! NO!" all the way until he gets to a partially-blurred billboard of Andy apparently cornholing him. Right up to the line, The Office.
Andy and Dwight are briefing the staff on the garden party Andy's throwing at Schrute Farms, telling them directions, and how it's more formal than a barbecue, basically everything but the occasion. Andy wants it to be super-fancy, like the one his parents threw after his brother's promotion. He pulls up a YouTube video from that event, showing his father (Stephen Collins) singing with his brother (Josh Groban). Stuntcasting: an excellent sign for this show. Andy points out his brother's boss in the background, which is when everyone realizes that Andy's throwing the party to impress Robert California. Gabe is furious in a TH: "Classic Gabe move!" Andy reminds them to be there at three PM, dress code "Connecticut Casual," whatever that means, and Dwight insists they go by the map he drew rather than looking it up on the web. So of course, back at his desk, Jim pulls up the street view to reveal that the GoogleCam van caught Dwight and Mose half-dressed on a seesaw. Dwight is in any case more interested in reading his book, The Ultimate Guide to Throwing a Garden Party, by James Trickington, and he's got the only copy in existence. Jim THs about how disappointed he is that his book only sold one copy. Oh, I get it, Trickington is Jim's nom de plume! Tricky...ng...ton.
Angela and Pam are having one of their usual pregnancy conversations in which Angela endeavors to makes Pam feel fat when Pam accidentally lets slip that the bun in her oven is named Philip, after her grandfather. She asks Angela to keep it quiet, but Angela was planning to use that name herself, after her favorite cat. I can fix this: the one born first wins.
Andy's changing in his office, while on speakerphone with Robert, who somehow makes him feel guilty about liking one of the two gifts he gave him to choose from more than the other. Apparently participation in Robert's mindgames is non-optional.
At Schrute Farms, Mose is serving as the valet, and being pretty aggressive about it, if not outright Grand Theft Auto, a comparison that holds all the way up to him burying Toby's car in the cornfield. Inside the party, people are pretty fancy; Kevin's rocking his toupee, Kelly and Erin are both in flowered hats, and Ryan's sporting a scarf and a pipe. As Ryan walks by Dwight, who's wearing a bowler hat and Jed Clampett's three-piece suit, Dwight hollers Ryan's name. Jim's book, of course, instructs hosts to announce guests as loudly as possible. Dwight also announces Stanley and his mistress, and "James! Pamela! And...Peepee Halpert!" Jim shrugs. You take the good with the bad. In one of the tents, Andy dorkily nags Oscar to get his elbows off the table just as Dwight announces the arrival of Andy's parents. Soon the parents are at a table with Andy and some other employees, and apparently they had the idea that Andy was the CEO. Andy corrects them, saying he's the regional manager. "That makes more sense," Mr. Bernard nods. "Are you all regional managers?" he asks the others. Andy tries to TH that he isn't jealous of the garden party his parents threw his brother last week, while looking at that video again, showing Andy looking crushed and left out in the background. Do I have to say it?
After the ads, the 'rents don't seem keen on sticking around long, since they have theater tickets. Moneyball, specifically, which was Walter, Jr.'s pick. Josh Groban walks up, calling Andy "Bro-nard," surprising Andy with his presence and surprising me with his side-part. Also surprised? Erin, as a crow steals her hat off her head and flies off with it.
Walter, Jr. meets Jim, whom he of course immediately starts calling "Tuna." And then he mistakes Meredith for Pam, to the horror of both of them. Kevin's hogging canapés when suddenly harpsichord music strikes up, and Dwight makes one of the maids do a weird dance with him while everyone watches. More tips from Jim's book, obviously.
Mose parks another car so tightly between two others that he has to climb out the sunroof.
Robert California arrives, looking less "Connecticut Casual" than just plain casual, and he's announced by Dwight rolling both R's in his name. Robert has no sooner met Andy's parents than he's back to messing with Andy's head over the gift he brought. Kevin and Ryan are trying out the seesaw, with predictable results, and Erin's trying to shake her hat loose from a tree. Before Andy's parents can make their escape, Andy makes a toast to his staff. Which a TH reveals he thinks is going to come right back to him, but instead Darryl toasts Robert California. Then Angela toasts her unborn child by name. Which of course forces Pam to stand up and toast her own unborn Philip: "May he be a good namesake to my grandfather, who I promised as a child, long before tonight, that I would name my son after." Advantage: Halpert. "It's the Ford Taurus situation all over again," Angela raging-heads.
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Ryan makes a shit-stirring toast to the troops. "All troops. Both sides." Meredith is the only one who drinks to that. And whatever Erin was going to toast (and we all know it was Andy) gets interrupted by Dwight interrupting with a live reenactment of da Vinci's The Last Supper. I hope Jim is having fun thinking he's fucking with Dwight when he's actually fucking with Andy. Kevin and Gabe also toast Robert, and when Andy protests the triple toast before everyone's had a turn, Robert stands up and defers the praise, but on behalf of both himself and Andy. He gets a laugh from everyone by saying that the difference between a crying baby and a manager is that one day the baby will grow up. His point is that he thanks everyone for making his job easy. Gabe's in the middle of toasting Robert again when Andy interrupts, strapping on his guitar and calling his reluctant dad to the front of the tent. He starts to play "More than Words," which is an odd choice for a father-son duet, given how it's a romantic ballad about a guy trying to guilt his girl into bed. So it's not entirely surprising when his dad ends up not only changing the key and totally hijacking the performance. Andy's trying to keep up when his dad suddenly stops and calls his brother up to join them -- like he didn't with Andy last week. Then the two Walters sing "Forever Young" together, completely shutting Andy out. That is, until he says, "Cheers," grabs the instrument from his dad, and storms out saying, "Get your own guitar." Don't forget to knock something over on your way ou-- theeere you go.
Mose is about to jump his Vespa over the parked cars, but thinks better of it and runs across the roofs instead. At the party, Kelly complains to Ryan about the cold. "It's cause you didn't bring a jacket," he smugly says from inside his.
Dwight talks to Robert about being a beet farmer, but Robert tells him to skip the beets and concentrate on hosting, hinting that Robert could spend a lot of money having his birthday party there. Not so much hinting as outright saying, actually. Dwight starts going on about the number of goats that come with different packages, which is of no interest to Robert, so Dwight segues to exotic meats he can offer, like hippo and giraffe. "We'll talk," Robert says, and steps away. Dwight smirks over his shoulder, "It'll all be goat."
Andy's in the house playing with Cece when his dad comes in asking what happened. Andy says he just wanted his dad to be proud of him. Walter downplays Andy's manager position and asks how long he's going to need his dad's approval. This is all going out live over Cece's baby monitor, until Pam takes pity on Andy and shuts it off. In a joint TH, Darryl and Oscar suddenly get Andy. Oscar says his parents are Andy's "Rosebud," which makes Darryl do a double-take. Oscar feels like he has to explain the Citizen Kane reference to Darryl, who, it turns out, has thought it out more than Oscar did.
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