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Scranton gets a visit from the Sabre CEO herself, Jo Bennett, and whatever her other faults may be (and we suspect they are manifold), she's astute enough to realize the branch doesn't need two managers, so either Michael or Jim is going to find himself back on the sales floor. They wrangle for it at first, but then Pam shows Jim that there's more money in sales under the Sabre commission plan, so Jim recuses himself. But when Michael realizes what's up, he overrules Jim, and Jo lets him. Michael is on the sales force for literally half the day before his reduced real estate, diminished perks, and Phyllis's farts drive him back into his old office. Which Jo goes along with, but it's clear she's not going to put up with much more from these people. Even though they have to put up with her sexually harassing great Danes.
And speaking of sexual harassment, Andy distributes Valentine cards to the whole staff, to provide cover for the one he really wanted to give to Erin. The problem is that the one he gives Kelly is pretty amorous, to the point where Kelly reciprocates his nonexistent interest. He sort of straightens things out in the end, but things don't progress with Erin, either. Gosh, what I'm really hoping for is that those two will waste more of our time trying to get together than Jim and Pam did.
And finally, Dwight and Ryan congratulate each other on the ultimate success of their diabolical plan to bring Jim down. It's a happy ending for everyone, really.
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!Michael's on the phone to a Vancouver hotel, trying to get the woman on the other end to acknowledge his reservation for the Olympics. We're expecting Michael to have screwed this up, but in fact, with a little help from Dwight the reservations are found in the system. So there! Michael and Dwight are all sarcastic, but now that they have proven the reservations exist, Michael wants to cancel them. Wait, so will the Olympics pre-empt The Office Thursday or not? I'm confused.
Michael THs that Jo Bennett (the CEO of Sabre, the new corporate owner, in case you missed last week) is coming to visit today, after having bought them sight-unseen, like a mail-order bride. After a little montage of people making preparations for the visit, we see her sweeping into the office, complete with furs and a matching pair of black-and-white spotted Great Danes. The furs aren't black-and-white, but the Cruella De Vil connection is hard to avoid. The Great Danes are making friends with Andy in a big way. "They love a good crotch," Jo says. Erin smiles at Andy proudly. Jo notices that Dwight is the only one not standing. He says he wouldn't stand up for anyone, man or woman. "Unless it was the president. Or Judge Judy." Jo's more than satisfied with that. Her flunky Gabe introduces some other people, and when he gets to Jim, there's some confusion about the co-regional managers. "Two guys doin' one job? We gotta do something about that," she chuckles. No one else chuckles.
Andy passes out Valentines to everyone, as cover for the one he's giving Erin. The one he tosses Meredith gives her a paper cut on her neck. In a TH, she admits that she has kind of a thing about that. "Don't try to cut my throat," she warns all potential suitors. Nice to see Meredith does in fact have a line she won't cross.
Jo is in the conference room with Michael and Jim, who are trying to explain how they split the job. Jo isn't buying it, and she says one of them needs to go back to sales. Michael graciously accepts the manager job, and Jim asks why Michael gets it. Michael goes all corn-pone on him, trying to suck up to Jo by talking like his version of a Southern person, which sounds more like a Faulkneresque man-child. Rather than being offended by the fact that Michael apparently thinks they're in the Ya-Ya Sisterhood together, Jo sends them both away so she can think about it.
We get our first interview with Jo, in which she says she's a breast cancer survivor, close friends with Nancy Pelosi, "and Truman Capote and I slept with three of the same guys." Well, I think that's all we need to know, except that she proudly sells the best printers Korea can make.