The Office Recap, "New Leads"

‘The Office’ begins with Michael calling Jim into his office and showing him a picture of a man who he thinks is Johnny Depp. “I heard he was looking for a condo in Scranton, Pennsylvania” Jim replies. Michael puts on his best Jack Sparrow impression, and throws out his ideas for the fourth pirate’s film, while Jim messes with him regarding his ‘Sparrow’ voice.

Conference meeting, there are new sales leads that Sabre bought from a company that are on their way to Scranton. The sales staff is anxious to get their hands on them because they are primo good leads. Andy and Phyllis are itching to get out of the meeting so they can work on sales.

Sabre takes care of their salesman, evidenced by the fact that over the past few weeks the sales team has been receiving some swag, like jackets and bags, which is making Michael and the rest of the staff jealous.

It’s clear that Dwight and the other salesman want their hands on the leads very badly. At the same time, the accounting department, among others is getting aggravated with the treatment the sales staff is getting.

Darryl has settled into his new office, but he doesn’t treat Andy with the respect he’s been used to recently, as he refuses to give him a pencil. They proceed to wrestle it out.

Michael’s sandwich gets messed up, and Darryl tells him it was the entire sales department and it’s a conspiracy. He convinces him he needs to get back on top. He agrees “and that’s what she said.”

The leads arrive and Michael uses it as a reason to lash out at the salesman for their behavior, and holds them back.

Corporate tells him that he needs to give them out because they spent a lot of money on them. “Our policy is to support the sales staff.”

Michael announces that he is giving out the leads, but he gives them to the rest of the office rather than the sales staff. Jim tries to sway Michael into giving him some leads, so he gives him “clues” that will lead him to the leads. Michael hid them all around the industrial park. Let the games begin.

Angela tries to blackmail Phyllis to get her leads by making her do some clerical work. Jim tries to decipher some clues while talking to Pam, who is home with the baby.

Andy goes to Erin, they have some playful banter, and he tries to get the location of the leads from her. They play the hot and cold game, as Erin leads him to her keyboard, where a few were hidden.

Dwight realizes the leads are in and he is far behind the game. He gets going immediately. He forcibly gets Kevin to reveal where they are. The trash he says. Dwight heads to the dumpster to find the leads. He jumps in headfirst literally. But its empty, the trash was taken to the local dump.

Guess where we’re headed now? Trash central. Michael tries to force everyone to go to the dump so no one gets in trouble with corporate. He goes along with Dwight, who volunteers for the mission.

Michael and Dwight attempt to look for them, but there’s a lot of trash. Jim has an awkward moment with Oscar and Kelly, who tell him bluntly how the salesmen have acted.

The salesmen have a meeting about what to do. They decide to give some commission to the rest of the office to ease the tension. But they can’t decide how much, 1 percent or 2. They decide on 2, and offer it to the other employees. They butter everyone up with treats and coffee and they accidentally think it was the deal. They don’t realize they were even going to get commission.

At the dump Michael and Dwight argue about money and how their personalities have changed. Eventually they start throwing trash at each other as they argue. Still no luck on the leads, but both Michael and Dwight are tired and dirty. They are also losing hope on if they will ever find the leads.

They return from the dump with no leads, but some old furniture for himself tied to the top of his car.

The episode ends with Andy and Erin at the dump where she finds him a new coat, and they share a kiss for the first time.

“Happy Hour” is the next episode and will air on March 25, 2010. Michael gets kicked out of the bar when he whips out all the stops to impress a friend of Jim and Pam’s. Meanwhile, Andy and Erin do their best to keep their relationships under wraps. Dwight rethinks his prenatal plan with Angela.