Garage Sale

"Garage Sale" is the nineteenth episode of the seventh season of the American television comedy series The Office and is the show's 145th episode overall. It was written by Jon Vitti and directed by Steve Carell. It originally aired on March 24, 2011. It was viewed by 7.07 million people.

Plot
Michael decides to propose to Holly, and runs into trouble thinking of how to do it in the most elaborate way possible with his expensive diamond ring (bought with a "three year's salary"). His original idea is to pour gasoline in the parking lot in the shape of letters, light them on fire, and show it to Holly. Pam quickly stops it before Michael destroys the entire office.

Pam gathers Jim, Ryan, and Oscar to consult with Michael on the proposal. They all endorse his decision to propose and offer ideas on how he should do it. Michael decides to call Holly's father to ask his permission (although he leaves a message rather than speak to him personally). Holly catches onto the idea when she calls her parents herself, but she notices her dad seeming somewhat mentally disoriented. She talks to Michael later and says she wants to move back to Colorado to be there for her dad whom she is worried about, and Michael supports her decision. She tries proposing to Michael herself, but Michael quickly ends the conversation before she can ask him, since he wants to propose and not be proposed to. She misunderstands his intentions (thinking he does not want to marry her rather than him disagreeing with the method in the proposal) and is shocked.

Michael takes Holly on a walk through the office, pointing out the locations of various events throughout their courtship. He opens the door to the kitchen, revealing all of the other employees holding candles. Various members of the office ask Holly if she will marry them (all of Michael's plan) and she politely says no. Michael then leads Holly out to her desk, which is surrounded by dozens, if not hundreds of candles. Michael gets down on his knee and begins to make a speech when the sprinklers go off from the candles in the office.

The water drenches everyone in the office and Michael proposes in a speech pattern similar to Yoda, reminiscent of the Season 4 finale when Holly is trying to fix her chair, as well as when Jim proposes to Pam in the rain in the Season 5 premiere. Holly accepts. They laugh and take it in stride. Everyone then begins to congratulate Michael. However, Michael announces he is moving to Colorado with Holly. The scene ends with his employees in shock.

Meanwhile, Dunder Mifflin Scranton's staff host a public garage sale in the warehouse. During the sale, Dwight attempts to walk away with the most expensive item by trading smaller items with his office mates beginning with a red thumbtack (a reference to One red paperclip) and continuously trading up from table to table. One item on Jim and Pam's table that piques his interest is a packet of "miracle legumes." Dwight initially believes that they contain no magic, but is astonished when they reappear after Jim had seemingly destroyed the packet. Eventually, his curiosity gets the better of him and he trades Jim a telescope for the legumes. At the end of the episode, Dwight is seen planting the seeds and Jim secretly replaces the empty pots with full-grown plants. Andy, Darryl, and Kevin play and bet on the Dallas board game (which Kevin had for sale). As the instruction booklet is not with the game, Andy and Darryl make up the rules as they go along, much to Kevin's objection. Eventually, Kevin notices the money they had bet on the game with is missing, and storms out. As Darryl and Andy look at each other in confusion, Kevin reveals to the cameras that he has the money, stating, "And that... is Dallas", mocking Andy and Darryl's previous statement.

Dwight's trades

 * 1) Dwight's thumbtack for Meredith's used candle;
 * 2) Meredith's candle for Kelly's Helen Fielding and Jennifer Weiner collections of books;
 * 3) Kelly's books for Phyllis' plastic lobster;
 * 4) Phyllis' lobster for Oscar's umbrella;
 * 5) Oscar's umbrella for Stanley's old photo album;
 * 6) Stanley's photo album for a box of Ryan's pesto;
 * 7) Ryan's pesto for Creed's harmonica;
 * 8) Creed's harmonica for "a very cute squid that Erin happened to have";
 * 9) Pie for Stanley's telescope;
 * 10) Stanley's Telescope for Jim's "Professor Copperfield's Miracle Legumes".

Michael's proposal walk

 * The building entrance: Where Toby announced he was going to Costa Rica ("Night Out"). Michael says this was the happiest day of his life, until Holly came to replace Toby.
 * The stairs: Where Michael and Holly first kissed and where they first made love ("Crime Aid")
 * The blinds to his office: Where he first saw Holly ("Goodbye, Toby").
 * His desk: Where he called Holly to tell her he had herpes and that he was still in love with her ("Sex Ed"). In this episode Michael reveals the herpes turned out to be an ingrowing hair.
 * The Conference room: Where Michael and Holly ran their first meeting - obesity awareness featuring Michael Klump ("Weight Loss") and where Holly found out about Meredith prostituting herself for steak ("Business Ethics").
 * The water cooler: Where Michael went to stare at Holly through the kitchen window.
 * The kitchen: Where their love "faces its toughest test" as a series of co-workers propose to Holly.
 * Jim (Michael says nothing)
 * Stanley ("That guy's got more than he can handle as it is," a reference to Stanley's affairs)
 * Oscar ("That marriage would be a sham," a reference to Oscar's homosexuality)
 * Gabe ("Easy no.")
 * Angela ("That would be hot, I would pay to see that.")
 * Ryan ("Only one I was kind of worried about.")
 * The annex: Where Michael fell in love with Holly. Michael starts his proposal with "It started with a broken-" before he is interrupted by the sprinklers going off. The next word was most likely "chair," as Holly and Michael's friendship began with a broken chair in Goodbye, Toby. In the proposal they sit on the ground and exchange Yoda impressions, mirroring the broken chair conversation.

Connections to previous episodes

 * Michael is selling his St. Pauli Girl neon beer sign from the episode "Dinner Party." Unlike Jan, who hated it, Holly offers to have her "neon guy" take a look at it. Less obviously, Michael is also selling his broken plasma TV, also from "Dinner Party".
 * Jim and Pam are selling the clown picture from Jim and Pam's house. Jim states he finally got it down, and the two laugh.
 * Pam asks if one of the coffees she is buying is de-caffeinated. In "The Ultimatum" she had a New Year's resolution to drink less caffeine.
 * Michael's call to Holly's dad combines two of his previous behaviors. Firstly, he fake-fires Holly (he plays this trick on Pam in "Pilot," on Stanley in "Did I Stutter?" and on Erin in "Casual Friday") and he is also revealed to be leaving an entire one-way conversation on an answering machine ("Women's Appreciation").
 * Kevin's skills at poker were previously shown in "Casino Night."
 * Jim creates fake "magic beans". In "Branch Closing", Jim speculates that Michael would sell the Scranton branch for some magic beans.

Trivia and continuity

 * Holly's first and last episodes in the series both include an engagement: Andy and Angela in her first episode, and Holly and Michael in this one.
 * Kevin does not recognize the difference between the words "on" and "in".
 * Pam finds Michael pouring gasoline and tells him that proposing with fire is a terrible idea. Michael's eventual proposal nevertheless involves fire and sets off the sprinklers.
 * During the fires in "The Fire" and "Stress Relief", there were no sprinklers, yet Michael's candles set off the sprinklers in this episode. It's possible that Dwight installed sprinklers when he bought the building.
 * It is unclear how Michael paid for the engagement ring. He has been shown repeatedly to be in terrible financial shape. It's possible that he took out a loan to pay for the ring.
 * Michael mocks Jim's proposal to Pam because it was raining. During Michael's proposal, the smoke detector goes off, triggering sprinklers.
 * Holly's father calls Holly "Hollis". This matches the name on her desk nameplate.
 * Michael says that when Toby announced that he was moving to Costa Rica it was the happiest day of his life. However, Michael was not present when Toby made this announcement, as he was out clubbing in New York City with Ryan and Dwight. We don't witness when Michael was told of Toby's departure.

Amusing details

 * This episode shows that Dwight's Coffee Corner sells both Hank's album and adult magazines.
 * Stanley appears to be selling unused Christmas decorations.
 * Kevin is selling a model landscape labeled "The Mountain Hamlet of Millerschwill".
 * Creed is shown stealing from the garage sale during Dwight's talking head.
 * Dwight calls everyone else's items stupid (junk, crap, etc.) except for Erin's.

Behind the scenes

 * Actor Amy Ryan was moved to tears when she walked past the Office cast holding candles and looking admiringly. She had to remind herself that they were just actors and she wasn't really getting engaged.
 * After the first take of the sprinkler proposal, director Steve Carell told the crew that it was perfect. The crew pointed out that the scene didn't go as smoothly as it could have, but Carell said that the imperfections are what made it perfect. (Actor Amy Ryan was relieved that she wouldn't have to get wet a second time.) Ryan told a contradictory story in an interview with Vulture, in which she said that there were two takes, and the actors waited "in robes, shivering" while the crew cleaned up the water and reset the scene."
 * The annex set had to be rebuilt as a result of the water damage.

Cultural references

 *  is the most successful TV series with gay principal characters. Oscar is not a fan of the show.
 * Kevin says that when he was a kid, he was "on Dallas", suggesting that he was an actor on , the TV series. We learn that it was a grammar error, and he was "in Dallas" the city.
 * According to Kevin's story, his family flew to Hawaii via Dallas. is headquartered in Dallas and uses  as their primary hub. It is plausible that a trip from Philadelphia to Honolulu would connect in Dallas.
 * ' is an Italian basil-based sauce. ' is a Mexican tomato-based hot sauce.
 * Dwight's series of trades starting with a thumb tack is inspired by the  project, in which Kyle MacDonald started with a single paper clip and through a series of trades bartered his way to a house.
 * As he flips through Stanley's photo album, Dwight mutters, "I'm not ." In 2010, actor James Franco had an art exhibition which included . Dwight is appealing to Ryan's desire to appear cool and edgy, and this gave Ryan an opportunity to seem as cool as James Franco.
 * In the children's story, the protagonist Jack sells the family cow for a handful of magic beans. Jim creates his own "miracle legumes" to prank Dwight.
 * Kevin's "Mountain Hamlet of Millerschwill" is a jab at the, whose beer products have a reputation for being inexpensive and low-quality ("swill").
 * The promotes a "three months' salary" rule of thumb for the price of engagement rings; Michael mistakes this for "three years' salary."
 * The box that holds Holly's engagement ring is from real-life Scranton jewelry store Boccardo Jewelers.

Main cast

 * Steve Carell as Michael Scott
 * Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute
 * John Krasinski as Jim Halpert
 * Jenna Fischer as Pam Halpert
 * B.J. Novak as Ryan Howard
 * Ed Helms as Andy Bernard

Supporting cast

 * Leslie David Baker as Stanley Hudson
 * Brian Baumgartner as Kevin Malone
 * Creed Bratton as Creed Bratton
 * Kate Flannery as Meredith Palmer
 * Mindy Kaling as Kelly Kapoor
 * Ellie Kemper as Erin Hannon
 * Angela Kinsey as Angela Martin
 * Oscar Nunez as Oscar Martinez
 * Craig Robinson as Darryl Philbin
 * Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Vance
 * Zach Woods as Gabe Lewis
 * Amy Ryan as Holly Flax

Recurring cast

 * Hugh Dane as Hank Tate

Guest cast

 * Barbara Allyne-Bennet as Old Lady