My favorite part was the beginning with Michael and his Netflix movies. And when Pam figured out he was watching Million Dollar Baby: "I think he's going to kill me."

Yes, but will he figure out that Pam's story last year about "her aunt" was false? The only one he caught was Kevin's Weekend At Bernies reference.

She is, but she said that to upset Dwigt. He would cook her vegetarian dinners.

I didn't like that part. Just not funny, except for the throwing of the coat at the beginning. I haven't seen either of the movies, so I was lost.

Dwigt and Jim's heart-to-heart in the stairwell made me tear up a little.

"What century is this?!" My biggest laugh.

Also, when Oscar was going over Michael's finances with him they spoke of things that nobody would ever need, like the magic set and the professional bass fishing gear. I originally thought that Jan was spending all of Michael's money but it turns out he's a big part of the problem.

Anyone notice that Jims and Pams Beds were pushed together and Pam getting embarrassed and closing the door, nice quick moment.

Loved Dwight Crying/Moaning in the middle of the night.
Good end scene between Michael and Jan.

i actually didn't find ryan annoying in this episode. He appears to be headed the Toby route, where he says the "corporate" thing and the rest of the office ignores him.

It's funny how there isn't a single person in the office that takes Ryan seriously. From Michael on down.

I think it's very realistic. If the show wants us to take Ryan seriously, they're going to have to get him to fire Michael. That's the only thing that could give him credibility in the real world if you ask me.

Michael may be a ridiculous branch manager, but he's a great salesman, and his branch seems to hit the numbers (Dwigt is the top salesman in the company). I don't know what more corporate could ask of him.

Michael is a gigantic headache that I'm certain Ryan would prefer not to have. It would speak as much about corporate backing Ryan as anything for him to be able to swing that axe. He's literally a lawsuit waiting to happen in more ways than one, and he's a crap manager. Demotion is probably all Michael deserves, but Ryan has to be able to send a statement to be taken seriously.

I actually have been thinking about this, but I predict Ryan will fire Michael, but do so by falsely setting him up, resulting in Toby saving Michael's job and getting Ryan canned or demoted.

It would be the ultimate irony since Michael has so much irrational hate for Toby and his knowledge of the law.

What exactly is Ryan's skill set?. Yes, I know he has an MBA and it's clear from an episode last year where he takes Michael to his night class he understands the long-term strategy Dunder Mifflin needs to take to survive.

Is he a webmaster, too? From the previous episode, they made it seem like he single-handedly launched the website after it being stuck in limbo since 2003. Of course, if you’re a wunderkind, that’s not out of the realm of possibility. ;)

He’s also good at PowerPoint. IMHO, it also means he’s also good at making presentations and taking credit for accomplishments executed by others (i.e. Ryan: here’s a slide with our tremendous sales and net profit, Dwight/Michael: here’s our tremendous sales, Angela/Oscar: here is how our net profit is calculated, etc.).

I don't think he launched the website in the sense of coding the HTML and java and Flash. I think he launched it in the sense of championing within management the idea that Dunder-Mifflin needs to have a website, and making sure that the people who actually do the coding get assigned to do so instead of getting assigned to maintain the database that tracks how many rental cars various employees have driven into lakes.

That speaks volumes for the company: a tool like Ryan is taken seriously to successfully spurs an internet initiative 10 to 15 years after the web really started becoming worldwide.

Of course, promoting Michael to branch manager reflects just as poorly. While Dwight is the top sales person, wasn't the branch fourth out of five branches due Michael's lawsuits and reckless spending on company functions.

Exactly. You aren't going to let the computer geeks who did the actual work get the credit. That's the whole point of being in management.

That's not a bad guess. If they don't go that way, my guess is that Michael makes a credible threat against their customer list and/or their deal with Hammermill. He'll then end up getting Ryan sacked.