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It's another all-staff event outside the office, and this time it's a fundraiser for local dog shelters, hosted by Angela's husband the state senator. Andy's still fired, but he shows up anyway as Erin's date, quickly making everyone uncomfortable with his manic insistence that he's doing great. Despite his cheerful façade, he's clearly still feeling a great deal of animosity towards Robert for firing him, and as the evening progresses, he ends up adopting twelve elderly, special-needs dogs just to show Robert up.
Other staff members are keeping busy, too. Nellie tries to bond with Darryl over tacos, for which he laughs at her but later gives her credit for trying. Dwight thinks the silent auction is like a game from The Price is Right in which he can win the items simply by correctly guessing their prizes, and doesn't realize his mistake until the end of the evening when he learns he just donated thirty-four grand. And Jim and Pam humor Oscar, who thinks the state senator just hit on him. Until he realizes he didn't. Until the state senator possibly hits on him again.
While learning about all the incredibly high maintenance that his new wolfpack will call for, Andy admits to his friends that he's just trying to convince everyone that he's okay. We got that, thanks. Too bad so many others had to suffer for us to get that point across, not least of all the dogs.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Ryan is clearly upset about something and wanting somebody to ask him what's wrong. When Pam finally, reluctantly does, he breaks the news that Smokey Robinson died about an hour ago. He's acting all upset about it, but can't come up with any other songs he remembers by the great man other than "Tracks of My Tears." While everyone's calling him on it, Oscar finds an online report that it's a hoax anyway. Ryan acts all relieved, and Jim has just found out Smokey Robinson will be playing at a college three hours away, giving Ryan the chance to finally see his "idol." Pam mock-excitedly points out, "$250 is nothing to the world's biggest Smokey Robinson fan!" Ryan acts all repelled by the opening act, Paul Anka, and storms out complaining about the price of parking. "Tears of a Clown!" Pam calls out. "Don't call me a clown, Pam, you're better than that," Ryan says. She certainly does seem to think so. She sips her coffee with more self-satisfaction than she'll get from anything she does for her actual job all year.
Andy's still tipping over Old Salty in the truncated opening credits, just so you know.
Robert enters, wearing a tie for the first time in memory. It develops that Angela's husband, the state senator, is holding a fundraiser for local dog shelters that night and Robert bought the staff two tables. "It's going to be a who's who of the northern 22nd district," Angela excitedly THs.
Dwight comes in to report that they're all about to be killed. "There's a disgruntled ex-employee sitting in his car in the parking lot!" he announces. But Erin assures everyone that Andy's just hanging out. Yeah, that's not weird at all. Dwight heads up to the roof with his "gym bag," and Nellie is taking this personally. "Everybody told me if I moved to America, I'd be murdered," she says. Most of the staff looks like, "Yeah, I can see that."
Jim, Pam, Kevin, Angela, and Erin come out to visit Andy in his car, and also so Erin can get some cell phone footage of Andy saying everything's okay. Andy calmly explains that he's just Erin's plus-one for the fundraiser, which Kevin thinks is going to be weird. At least it explains why Andy's sitting in the parking lot in a suit and tie.
Darryl has Nellie sign some papers, in a scene whose point is to show that Nellie's so out of touch with the warehouse that she literally doesn't know where it physically is. Along with many other things. Still, she's hopeful that the evening could lead to her becoming good friends with Darryl. "The only thing standing in our way is the contempt he seems to feel for me." And the fact that this has never been any kind of a deal before.