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Michael's feeling guilty that Corporate launched an idea of Darryl's that Michael shot down, but it turns out that Darryl went over Michael's head with it. And when Michael finds out, he's pissed. He turns the office Halloween party into his own personal vendetta over what he sees as a breakdown in the chain of command, but eventually Michael and Darryl resolve things by more or less screwing Gabe over. Win-win-win!
There's also the lingering, awkward issue of why Pam and Danny never had more than a couple of dates back in the day. Jim and Pam are trying to be cool about it, but it's just not happening. Which is why it all fits when after making a number of excuses, Danny admits that Pam was just too dorky. Took him two dates to figure that out?
And speaking of the Halloween party, the centerpiece is the costume contest with a coupon book supposedly worth $15,000 as first prize. Everybody loses their mind over it save Oscar, who is rewarded appropriately.
Watch the episode below, discuss it in our forums, then see why Jim and Pam are perfect for each other!
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!While Jim and Andy are wasting time at Andy's desk, Stanley absently picks up Jim's mug of O.J. and takes a swig without ever realizing it's not his own coffee. "Is there no limit to what he won't notice?" Jim talking-heads incredulously. And as we're about to see, Jim does not mean this as an idle question, but as something that could be the title for the scientific study that begins now:
Doing his crossword, Stanley asks for a seven-letter word for purse. "Satchel," says the person across from him in Phyllis's chair, glasses, cardigan, necklace, and voice, without Stanley noticing that said person is in fact Kevin. "Handbag," suggests Andy. Stanley thanks him without perceiving that Andy is wearing only his tie. Jim slides a box with a color screen-print of Stanley's monitor over the real thing -- no reaction. Stanley walks into the conference room right past Michael, who is grinning at him through a mouthful of clown teeth -- and sits down in the only chair facing the front, amid all the other chairs facing the back of the room. Everyone but Stanley celebrates the great sales numbers from the company's branch on Jupiter. Apparently this goes on all day, until Stanley finally notices something unusual: the wall clock, which reads 4:55, is five minutes slow. "See you all tomorrow," he says. "'Bye, Stanley, love you," Pam says through a big fake (I hope) moustache, and Stanley walks out past Dwight and his pony in front of Reception, heroically oblivious to all.
Okay, it's costume time. Oscar comes in dressed as, I guess, Linc from The Mod Squad, followed by Kevin dressed as Michael Moore. Stanley's dressed as a Japanese shogun, Angela as a penguin, Erin as some kind of flayed-skulled ghoul, and Michael is MacGruber, complete with a blond wig and an unsurprising insistence on doing a whole sketch. Pam, as Olive Oyl, tells us how much people are into the costume contest, thanks to the prize of a 2011 Scranton/Wilkes-Barre coupon book worth -- wait for it -- $15,000! I had a comment all ready here but Oscar will be covering that later.
Dwight comes up behind Jim as the Scranton Strangler, which is a bit that either needs to pay off or get dropped sometime soon. Dwight is deeply offended by Pam's costume, which Dwight thinks is his own mom. Pam explains that Jim doesn't want to put his own costume on, so Jim pops a corncob pipe in his mouth and claims, "I am Popeye." Way to get into it, Halpert. Jim THs about never having been into costumes, over a montage of his past looks that includes Three-Hole Punch, Dave, and Bookface. "And then this morning, Pam hands me this little number," he says, holding up a polyester Popeye costume. "Nope." So that will clearly not be what he yam, let alone all that he yam.