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Time for the annual Halloween office party at Dunder Mifflin. has put Erin in charge of the shindig, but she's getting a lot of mixed signals from him, and not just about the party. It turns out Robert California plans to show up, and he has high expectations. As Erin's vision of the party proves to be just the tiniest bit childish, Andy freaks out and puts Angela and Phyllis on the case. Meanwhile, Erin flails around for ways to make the party more grown-up, and to hopefully forestall a serious conversation Andy wants to have with her at the end of the day.
In even less interesting news, Pam tells a story about the time she saw a ghost. Jim can't let it go, spending most of the episode trying to convince her she's wrong. Robert has brought his young son along, who at first spars with Dwight but then ends up playing Starcraft with him on Jim's computer. The party goes well until Erin crashes it into the ground with her attempt to make it "adult" in the entirely wrong sense. And Robert, who's been spending the whole party going around collecting everyone's greatest fears, provides a finale in the form of a long, spooky tale that literally has something to scare everyone in the office.
Oh, and that serious conversation Andy wanted to have with Erin? Was about his girlfriend, with whom it turns out he's had 31 dates. They've either been going out a long time or he needs to stay in more nights.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Apparently Andy is reserving right of approval for all Halloween costumes this year. For example, Angela is a cat again, and Stanley is a chef, though not Chef from South Park, as Andy guesses. Jokes like that don't make us not miss Michael Scott, you know, show. Andy talking-heads about the rules on this year's costumes: "Don't be offensive, don't be cliché, and don't take the first two rules too seriously." He vetoes Kevin's Rise of the Planet of the Apes for dropping a spoiler, and also Phyllis's tiny baby-doll outfit, because, well, "Kevin has a gorilla suit you could borrow." Kelly and Meredith both want to be Kate Middleton, which Kelly says she's more into, until Meredith shows her a cell phone video of herself hollering at the Royal Wedding party (as opposed to at her sister's funeral, which she'd said was the same weekend). Meredith THs about her interest in the royal story. "Warms my heart, thinking about them two kids. Doin' it." Saw that one coming all the way from Westminster Abbey.
On the actual day, Andy comes in dressed as a construction worker and sneaks through the wall of fake cobwebs Erin (dressed as Wendy from Wendy's) has playfully draped across his door. Erin THs about the best part of dating coworkers: "After you're done dating, you still get to work together. Every single day."
Kevin and Darryl enter wearing matching Miami Heat jerseys over their shirts, and they've apparently drafted Jim into being Chris Bosh. Would that be funny if I followed sports?
Speaking of stuff I don't follow, Dwight comes in wearing a horrifying, spiky, dreadlocked, boob-tastic costume that nobody recognizes. "Has no one here heard of Kerrigan from Starcraft? Queen of blades?" No one there has, and no one has on my side of the screen, either. Dwight blames this Toby, who THs that he tells Dwight every year that he can't bring in weapons. Montage of Toby disarming Dwight as Freddy Krueger, as Pinhead, and as Jigsaw, and finally, today, Kerrigan, removing the sword-wielding tentacles from Dwight's back as he entered the building. Toby also adds that Dwight threatens to kill him when he gets his weapons back, but Toby always survives until Thanksgiving. "I'm a lucky turkey." These are the jokes, people.
Andy comes out to the bullpen, not entirely impressed with everyone's outfits. He tells us about two texts he got: one from Broccoli Rob saying "Boo," which scared him, and another one from Robert California, saying, "Looking forward to Halloween party. Expectations are high." Which scared the shit out of him.