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"Product Recall" is the twenty-first episode of the third season of The Office and the 49th overall. It was written by Stephen Merchant and Greg Daniels and also directed by Stephen Merchant. It first aired on April 26, 2007. It was viewed by 7.6 million people.

Synopsis

Jim Halpert enters, dressed as DwightSchrute. He explains that he accidentally found Dwight's glasses at a

Product recall

The watermark.

drug store for four dollars, and was unable to resist recreating the rest of Dwight's ensemble for a grand total of eleven dollars. Jim imitates Dwight's mannerisms and tone: "Fact. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica" and Dwight starts to get upset: "Identity theft is not a joke, Jim! Millions of families suffer every year!" Jim screams "Michael!" and ran to his office. Dwight, very annoyed, did the exact same thing.

Dunder Mifflin Scranton is thrown into damage control when some paper is released with an obscene watermark of a cartoon duck and mouse having sex. Michael addresses the media while Jim and Andy try to calm a school principal who used the affected paper to send out prom invitations. After arriving at the high school, Andy notices that his "girlfriend" is a student, and this ruins his day.

Meanwhile, Kelly is entrusted with training the accountants, Oscar, Kevin, and Angela, to handle customer support calls. Angela is unable to sincerely apologize to customers for the company's mistake, while Oscar seems to handle the calls well and Kevin simply repeats his apology over and over again.

Michael arranges for a customer to come to the office, so that he may apologize to her personally and present her with a novelty check for free paper. With the media present (a single reporter from the Scranton Times), Michael apologizes to the customer. However, she refuses his apology and asks for his resignation. Dwight attempts to defuse the situation by insisting that the cartoon sex appears consensual. Michael refuses to resign and angrily decides to give the check to someone else. He then decides to make an "apology video," filmed by Pam, in which he reiterates the fact that the mistake was not his fault and that he has become an "escape goat."

Meanwhile, Creed, who as Quality Assurance failed to catch the error, maneuvers to ensure that he saves his own job (at the expense of an employee at the paper mill). He gets a farewell card for her and money from all the employees. On his way out, Creed pockets the money and tosses the card.

Later, in the car, Jim cajoles Andy into singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" to cheer him up.  In the closing, Dwight comes to work dressed as Jim and imitates him very poorly.

Deleted scenes

  • Ryan is forced to listen to Kelly repeat the same apology over and over again.
  • Michael compares this crisis to an incident in which "an aspirin company" sold bottles with poison in it.
  • Dwight calls CNN and tries to reach the Scranton bureau chief, a position which does not exist.
  • Alternate takes of Kelly's training session.
  • The Scranton Times reporter recognizes Creed, whose obituary he wrote, at which point Creed thanks him for what he considered a flattering portrayal. In a talking head interview, Creed explains that he faked his death ten years ago and is collecting life insurance benefits as his own widow.
  • Andy reels from the realization that his girlfriend is a high school student.
  • Andy describes how he and Jamie met. Jim, mindful of the cameras, tries to rephrase Andy's story in less incriminating terms but eventually gives up.
  • Andy barges into Jamie's Spanish class.
  • In a talking head interview, Michael compares dissatisfied clients to women.
  • Additional footage from the press conference.
  • In a talking head interview, Dwight explains that he doesn't believe in apologies.
  • Angela's refusal to apologize to customers leads to a fight with Kelly.
  • In a talking head interview, Kevin giggles uncontrollably at the thought of cartoon characters having sex.
  • In a talking head interview, Michael explains that the customer is always right, but Ms. Allen was wrong.
  • In a talking head interview, Pam discusses Michael's previous apology videos.
  • Jim unsuccessfully tries to dissuade Andy from talking to Jamie in the courtyard. Jim tries making small talk with Jamie's friend.
  • Creed successfully rebuts Debbie Brown's claim that she is being framed.
  • Michael prepares for his apology video.
  • Kelly and Angela reconcile, and Kelly excitedly declares them best friends. In separate talking head interviews, Kelly expresses satisfaction for having softened Angela's personality, and Angela says that she learned something from Kelly today, but her look to the camera shows that she was speaking sarcastically.
  • Additional footage from Michael's apology video.
  • Dwight announces that Debbie Brown has been fired and thanks Creed for his effort in tracking down the problem.

References to previous episodes

  • Michael calls the situation "Threat Level: Midnight", which is the name of his screenplay in The Client.
  • Creed tells Dwight that Debbie Brown told him she had an emergency dentist appointment. In the episode The Fight Michael talks about friends who come to work late "having dentist appointments that aren't dentist appointments." The following year, in the episode The Coup, Dwight tells Michael he has a dentist appointment so he can secretly meet with Jan.

Michael's cue cards

  • Card 1
Hello, I am Michael Scott, Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin, Scranton. By now you're probably sick of hearing about Dunder Mifflin and our embarrassing watermark boner.
  • Card 2
I have literally apologized an infinite number of times over this, and still there are calls for me to resign, calls from an annoying woman and possibly even the media alike. Well, let me tell you something. Something from the heart. I will not resign. I am not
  • Card 3
leaving this office. It will take a SWAT team to remove me from this office, and maybe not even then. There is no way I will resign. It wouldn't be fair. Not to the good workers I work with. Not to my clients. And especially not to me. Let's not forget who this resigning business is really all about.
  • Card 4 (seen on screen but not read)
I need this job. My mortgage is hundreds of dollars a month. With this job I can barely cover that. I have a company car, but I still have to pay for gas. Gas prices are high and I have no savings whatsoever. And it wasn't even me. It's so not fair that they want me to resign.
  • Card 5 (only partly visible, text implied by Michael's reading)
If I could leave you with one thought, remember, it wasn’t me. They are trying to make me an escape goat. If I am fired, I swear to god, that every single piece of copier paper in this town is going to have the F-word on it. The F-word. You have one day.

Trivia

  • The writing staff appear to have an odd relationship with the teen television show The Hills. In a deleted scene, Jim tries to make small talk by asking about the character Heidi. At Comic-Con 2008, during a writing panel session, the writers compared Jim and Pam to other television couples, and B.J. Novak jokingly compares them to Spencer and Heidi.
  • In a talking head interview Creed explains that once a week he is supposed to go out to the paper mill for several hours to check the quality of the paper going out. He then says that the "one year he didn't go out to do it this happens."

Cultural references

  • A part of Jim's Dwight costume is a calculator watch. They were introduced in the mid-1970s and quickly became associated with nerds.
  • Stat (short for statim = immediately) is medical jargon. Appended to a command, it means that the action should be performed immediately.
  • The No Spin Zone is a segment of Bill O'Reilly's political television program The O'Reilly Factor which purports to cover the issues of the day without spin (bias).
  • O.J. is former football player O. J. Simpson whose murder trial captured the nation's attention in 1995.
  • Bridget Jones is the protagonist in a series of books by Helen Fielding. When the story begins, she is an unhappy single woman struggling to find love. Ice cream is a food stereotypically consumed by women in such situations.
  • Dingo babies is a corruption of the Azaria Chamberlain disappearance in which dingoes in Australia were reported to have taken a baby.
  • Michael announces that the press conference will be in 45. This is shorthand for in 45 minutes.
  • The Washington Post is a major national newspaper published in Washington, DC.
  • The Scranton Times-Tribune is a local Scranton newspaper.
  • Dickson City and Carbondale are suburbs of Scranton.
  • Tourette's is slang for Tourette Syndrome, a medical disorder characterized by motor tics and verbal grunting. In popular culture, it is depicted as a disorder in which victims swear uncontrollably; in reality, the shouting of obscenities is comparatively rare.
  • The Better Business Bureau is an organization which helps to resolve disputes between consumers and its member companies.
  • Newsweek is a national weekly news magazine. CNN is an international cable television news network.
  • A SWAT team is a police unit specializing in operations with a high risk of violence such as hostage rescue or subduing heavily armed criminals.
  • Kevin's exclamation Facial! is a variation of the victory taunt In your face!
  • Michael says escape goat instead of scapegoat.
  • When Andy describes in a deleted scene how he met his girlfriend, he rattles off various illegal activities. He purchased wine coolers for them, even though alcoholic beverages cannot be sold to people under age 21. He "threw in some scratch tickets", sales of which is illegal to people under age 18. Finally, Andy talks about "making out in the woods", which although not strictly illegal, teeters close to statutory rape.
  • Jim tries to make small talk with a high school student in a deleted scene by talking about Heidi, a contestant on the MTV scripted reality show The Hills. The student says that her dad gave her a Lexus, a brand of luxury car.

Cast

Main Cast

Supporting Cast

Recurring Cast

Guest Cast



Quotes

  • Jim Halpert: Fact, bears eat beets. Bears, beets, Battlestar Galactica.
Andy Bernard: [in Andy's car] Beer me.
Jim Halpert: What's that?
Andy Bernard: Hand me that water.
Andy Bernard: I always say, "Beer me." Gets a laugh, like a quarter of the time.
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