The Office (USA)/The Coup

The Coup
Season 3, Episode 3
Airdate	October 5, 2006
Production Number	303
Written by	Paul Lieberstein
Directed by	Greg Daniels
Stream
← 3x02 The Convention	3x04 → Grief Counseling
The Office — Season Three

The Coup is the third episode of the third season of The Office, and the thirty-first episode overall.

Starring: Steve Carell (Michael Scott), Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute), John Krasinski (Jim Halpert), Jenna Fischer (Pam Beesly), B.J. Novak (Ryan Howard)

Starring: Melora Hardin (Jan Levinson), David Denman (Roy Anderson), Leslie David Baker (Stanley Hudson), Brian Baumgartner (Kevin Malone), Kate Flannery (Meredith Palmer), Mindy Kaling (Kelly Kapoor), Angela Kinsey (Angela Martin), Paul Lieberstein (Toby Flenderson), Phyllis Smith (Phyllis Lapin),

Guest Starring: Creed Bratton (Creed Bratton), Charles Esten (Josh Porter), Ed Helms (Andy Bernard), Rashida Jones (Karen Filipelli)

Co-Starring: Ursula Burton (Hannah Smotridge-Barr)

Plot Overview

It's Monday at the Scranton office, which means that the employees have gathered together in order to watch 30 more minutes of Varsity Blues, the MTV Films football movie starring James Van Der Beek. While Kevin gives a synopsis of what happened in the last installment of the film, Jan makes her way into the empty office and breaks up the event. She chews out Michael in his office and Angela pushes him into staging a coup.

Later that day, because movie night was cancelled, Pam finds more ways to waste time when she buys new clothes online and has them shipped to the office. Outside, Dwight calls Jan and has her meet him at a Liz Claiborne outlet store so that he can sell out Michael. Instead of putting him in charge of the branch, Jan calls Michael after her meeting and tells him to get his branch under control.

Instead of confronting Dwight, Michael passive-aggressively attempts to make Dwight come out and admit that he was plotting behind his back, not getting a crown put in by his new dentist. When this doesn't work, Michael tells Dwight that their jobs are being switched and he is now the active manager of the branch. Once Michael realizes that his hinting isn't getting anywhere, he tells Dwight that Jan called him and Dwight pleads for his job in a fit of shame.

Although Michael and Dwight "hug it out," Michael still makes Dwight stand on a box in the middle of the office with a sign that says "Liar" around his neck. Also, he has to do Michael's laundry for a year.

Meanwhile, in Stamford, Jim continues to have a hard time fitting in with the other people in the office. Similar to "Movie Monday," the Stamford branch instituted regular games of Call of Duty in order to increase productivity and teamwork. However, because Jim is new and has no idea what he's doing, he drags the team down. This leads to Andy threatening his life and Karen commenting on how cute it is that Jim is so terrible.

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Karen: Compared to her last appearance at the beginning of the season, Karen has significantly changed her look. Considering her comments about Jim in the episode and the exchange between them at the end of the episode, she is clearly dolling herself up for Jim.

Trivia

The Show

• Deleted Scenes: Several scenes were deleted from this episode and later shown on NBC's website including: Dwight suggesting that Michael cut costs by charging Creed rent (because Creed has been living in the office), Pam buttoning the top button of her shirt after catching Kevin staring at her and Jim managing to kill Karen in Call of Duty, only to realize that she wasn't at her desk.
• Online Handles: While playing Call of Duty, Karen and Andy's screen names are, respectively, "KarentheJimSlayer" and "HereComesTreble." Jim's screen name is, simply, "Jim Halpert."

Allusions and References

• Entourage: Michael makes several references to Entourage, a comedy series on HBO chronicling the rise of an A-list movie star and his childhood friends who make up his entourage in California. "Hug it out, bitch" is something of a catchphrase from the series and is often uttered after two members of the group have a fight.

Quotes

• Andy: Why did you do that?

Jim: I'm just killing Germans any way I can.

Andy: We're on the German team. Shoot the British.

Jim: ...Wait, are we playing on teams?

• Pam: I have this old vacuum cleaner that's broken. If Dwight doesn't work out, maybe it could be manager.