Koi Pond (The Office)

"Koi Pond (The Office)"

"Koi Pond" is the 8th episode of the sixth season of the U.S. comedy series The Office and the show's 108th episode overall. It was written by Warren Lieberstein and Halsted Sullivan and directed by Reggie Hudlin.

Synopsis

It's Halloween and the office plans a "Haunted House" for the children in the community. Michael (Steve Carell) dresses as "Dick in a Box", Dwight as Billy the Puppet from Saw, Jim (John Krasinski) as Facebook (simply with the word "book" written on his face), Pam (Jenna Fischer) as Rosemary Woodhouse from Rosemary's Baby, Ryan as Edward Cullen, Andy (Ed Helms) as Michael Jackson, Creed (Creed Bratton) as a blood-selling Count Dracula, Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) as Paul Blart, Angela (Angela Kinsey) as a black widow, Oscar (Oscar Nuñez) as Sarah Palin, Kelly (Mindy Kaling) as Leeloo from The Fifth Element, Erin (Ellie Kemper) as Princess Fiona from Shrek, Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) as a sorceress/mad scientist, Stanley (Leslie David Baker) as a the victim of a science experiment (he is shown with a metal machine attached to his head), and Meredith (Kate Flannery) as a hobo. Darryl (Craig Robinson), dressed in a pumpkin shirt (which Michael interprets as a Gangster Pumpkin), gets almost everyone's costume wrong and Michael scares the children by pretending to be hanged and giving them a lecture about suicide. Dwight's cousin Mose is also seen in the background, who dressed as he normally does but standing still is apparently unnoticed by Darryl.

Jim sets up a meeting with a client, who requests that Michael comes with him. Jim is upset since he wants to be able to do meetings by himself. When they come back from the meeting, Michael is soaked because he fell into a koi pond, and when that fact is revealed to the rest of the office, they start to make fun of him. Michael holds a sensitivity meeting, where he asks everyone to say things they wish were not said about them. When the meeting doesn't seem to be going anywhere, Jim ends it and tells Michael to embrace the fact that he fell in. Michael does this in front of the office staff, but it works so well that he gets carried away and admits many other embarrassing stories from his life before realizing he's said too much. Meredith receives a copy of the security tape showcasing Michael's fall, and it is revealed that Jim let him fall into the koi pond, looking like Jim Leavelle. Jim admits to Michael that he wished he had gone by himself because he wants to be able to do things by himself as a co-manager; Michael's mood is lifted when he realizes that Jim is jealous of his sales skills. Jim then becomes the victim of office mocking, but he and Michael laugh it off later.

Meanwhile, Pam and Andy go cold calling to drum up more sales as they have the lowest quarterly sales numbers in the branch. At the first place they go to, the receptionist notices Pam's pregnancy and believes Andy is the father. Pam laughs it off, mildly offending Andy. During the meeting, the client also assumes that Andy is the father, to which Andy laughs it off and insults Pam, losing the sale. At the next place they go to, that client also assumes Andy is the father, and this time they play along with it. However, Andy takes it too far by touching her belly too much, even kissing it, but the client says "maybe" to signing with them. In the car back to the office, Andy admits that he enjoyed pretending to be the father because he doesn't like being single. He then admits his attraction to Erin. At the end of the episode, Pam asks Erin her opinion of Andy, and she responds by saying that he is the coolest person she ever met.

Reception

This episode was watched by 8.1 million viewers, with a 4.2 rating and a 10 share.

Cultural references

Michael dresses as one of the guys from the Dick in a Box SNL digital short. It possible that the box was meant to also insinuate a Death_erection death erection, which often results from a male hanging.

Darryl refers to Jim's "costume" as "Bookface", to which Jim sarcastically responds that he is the popular social networking site known as "Bookface", actually Facebook.

When Darryl introduces Dwight's costume as a clown, Dwight angrily responds by saying that he is the Jigsaw Killer. However, he is actually Billy the puppet. Because of its close association with Jigsaw, this is a common cultural mis-reference.

Creed asks Michael if he "found Nemo," referring to Finding Nemo when everyone was mocking him for falling into the koi pond, to which Michael goes on to list other Pixar films, such as Toy Story. Oscar asks if he means "Koi Story." (This is the show's second Pixar reference to date.)

There is a remark about the growing craze of the Twilight series; Creed (dressed as a more "classic" vampire) says "I vant to sell your blood", and Ryan, who is dressed up as Edward Cullen, responds, "That's really not the trend in vampires right now."

External links

• "Koi Pond" at IMDb
• "Koi Pond" at OfficeTally