“Koi Pond” Episode 6:08… Kevin’s Recap

You know, I was wondering just how this episode was going to be handled. You had Halloween plus Michael falling into a Koi pond PLUS Pam and Andy doing cold sales calls. To me, it seemed like the writers had a lot of balls in the air (TWSS). Well, I soon found out how it was going to be done. Halloween was relegated only to the cold opening, which was very “meh”. The best lines in it were Michael calling Daryl a “Gangsta Pumpkin” and Jim’s sarcastic “Yes, I am the popular social networking site known as Bookface.” So after all the promo pics and video, Halloween was hardly touched upon in this episode, which I found disappointing. Luckily, that was the only thing about “Koi Pond” that was, as it turned out to be a pretty good episode with a little twist at the end.

The episode opens with Jim trying to get ready for a sales call (and trying to get the hell away from Michael) when Erin informs them that the client is expecting both JIm and Michael in an hour. Jim is annoyed, as he was expecting to do this alone and a phone call to the client makes it clear that they will feel more comfortable if the more experienced Michael were there as well. Or as Michael cluelessly puts it, “Why would you date an amateur when you can date a professional?” I almost got the feeling that Michael previously arranged for this to happen but got no further proof of that. In any case, Michael lords this over Jim and tries to micro-manage Jim’s role, even suggesting he change his watch to something more stylish. Jim feels babysat and, more importantly, resentful.

In the B story, Pam and Andy are making cold sales calls, a fate that befalls the two salespeople with the lowest amount of sales. On their first visit Andy starts annoying Pam by singing the suite numbers on the building directory, which Pam tries desperately to interrupt. Off to a good start.

Back at the ranch, JIm and a mysteriously soaked Michael return. But when asked about it, both are vague and evasive. Hmmm….

Pam and Andy are chatting up the receptionist at the prospective client and when Andy mentions Pam’s baby she assumes that the two are a couple. Pam vehemently denies this, even going so far as to say “Never”, which hurts the ‘Nard Dog. Poor Andy.

When Erin fields a call back at the office about the building custodian finding Michael’s keys in a Koi pond, the office folk can take no more. They convene at reception and call Michael, attempting to get the goods on speakerphone. Failing that, they force Michael to fess up face to face and the whole ugly story comes out; Michael, walking into the lobby of the client he and Jim were visiting, fell into a Koi pond. Everyone finds this amusing but as Jim says in a Talking Head it wasn’t so much that Michael fell in, it was “how long it took him to get out.”

Back with Pam and Andy, we see their contact make the same mistake as his receptionist. Andy gets his revenge by saying he only dates face models (his “girlfriend” is “on a scale of one to Giselle, uh, a nine”) and that Pam is a surrogate so his girlfriend can keep her figure for fashion week. An annoyed Pam watches him detail all this to the poor client. Not surprisingly, scratch one sale.

Michael is subjected to all kinds of jokes about the Koi incident ( “David Wallace called. He heard you made a big splash at the meeting” “Don’t you mean Koi Story?”, etc.) with Dwight feeling the need to explain each fish pun to the increasingly embarrassed Michael. Michael says in a Talking Head, “I’m not usually the butt of a joke. I’m the face of a joke” and that leads to, of course, a meeting. Michael wants to set up a list of “Off Limit” jokes starting with, naturally, any koi pond gags. He invites others to put up their unsafe jokes such as Angela eating like a squirrel (which we actually see later) or Dwight’s “small” nose or Kevin’s “huge gut” but it’s Meredith’s hilarious “Sex with a terrorist” that is the highlight. There is also the funny Creed line “Who’s your worm guy?” Another very good conference room scene with a lot of personal info on characters that fans will remember. But for Michael, this goes nowhere and Jim shows Michael that if you are humble and roll with the jokes, even playing along with them, they will eventually stop. People naturally let you off the hook. Taking Jim’s advice, Michael starts jokes at his own expense and is free and clear when he inevitably goes off the beam. telling way too many stories about himself. He ends up looking pitiful and sad to the office yet again and, recognizing that he screwed up, even yells “Too far!” Michael retreats to his office, mad at Jim(!) for suggesting this tactic.

Andy and Pam are at their second client who makes the exact same assumption the last client made. By now, though, Pam and Andy have learned their lesson and go along with it. Andy, however, takes it a bit too far, even kissing Pam’s belly (which was kinda creepy) and calling the baby “Soybean” (which was funny). At least they get a “maybe” out of this client and in the car ride back, Andy tells Pam that he enjoyed the wife/baby fantasy and is sick of being single. He brings up Erin and asks Pam’s opinion of her, but she is non-committal. But Andy is interested and you know Pam.

Trouble back at the office. Meredith has a lead on the security tape of Michael’s Koi pond dive and against Jim’s desperate, uncharacteristic ultimatum (”As your boss, I’m saying we’re not watching it!” ) everyone gets a look-see at Michael’s faux-pas. But now we get the big reveal of the episode. In the video, everyone sees that Jim had a chance to catch Michael and didn’t. Jim let Michael take the plunge. The look Jim gives the camera when Oscar calls him on it is unlike any look we’ve ever seen from Big Tuna, a mixture of embarrassment and shame. Jim apologizes to Michael saying that he was annoyed and he really thought that he could do the sales call alone. Michael happily concludes that Jim is jealous of him and, as the office busts Jim’s chops over the incident, lets bygones be bygones.

In the epilogue, we see more strained Pam/Erin interaction, but Pam, being Pam, tries to put in a good word for Andy with the increasingly quirky receptionist. Erin already appears to like Andy, but in what capacity is unknown. An Andy/Erin match up will be, without a doubt, really nutty. I’m interested to see where this goes.

In conclusion, I really liked Koi Pond. There were no Jim/Pam scenes, which is rare, but that didn’t hurt it. It had some funny Pam/Andy bits, added some shades to good guy Jim Halpert with a little surprise there at the end and gave us some silly conference room moments. And it had its fair share of funny quotable lines. Hmm. Not bad for a half-assed Halloween episode. : )

-Kevin