The Banker

"The Banker" (alternately titled, "Clip Show") is the fourteenth episode of the sixth season of The Office and the 114th episode overall. It was written by Jason Kessler and was directed by Jeffrey Blitz, who directed Stress Relief and Business Ethics. It aired on January 21, 2010, and is partially a clip show. It was viewed by 7.29 million people.
==Cold open==
An investment banker comes to Scranton to perform a "due diligence" check on Dunder Mifflin to verify that the company can be purchased without any hidden liabilities. Michael explains he is devoted to making the branch look good. When asked if it is dishonest, Michael says it is no more dishonest than someone putting on a pushup bra, false nails, makeup and fake eyelashes; only to reveal that he is talking about drag queens "like Lady Gaga."
==Synopsis==
The banker enters the office to see the many changes Michael has made to the office, including replacing Stanley Hudson with an attractive young man and having Dwight pose as the branch HR representative. The second ruse is exposed when Toby returns to his desk, however. Pam also pretends that she is conducting international business and says hello in as many languages she can think of, while Andy claims that they are now the official paper supplier of the NFL. The banker asks Toby about any misconduct in the company (for example, time wasting), and after every question, several flashbacks are shown from previous episodes regarding the topic being discussed. Toby is very vague during the questioning and then admits to the documentary crew in a talking head that he doesn't want to lie, but "I don't want to tell the truth."
Michael comes to talk to the banker. When the banker asks a question about if anyone is near retirement age, Michael and Toby awkwardly look at each other and flashbacks of Creed are shown. Dwight eavesdrops on the banker checking back with the main office and begins to get suspicious that the banker may not sign off on the deal.
Over Toby's objection, Michael brings up that many people in the office have been in sexual relationships. Scenes of many office relationships are shown.
After the banker leaves, Michael expresses sympathy for the banker because he must determine the value of the office. Michael says that he doesn't care about the banker's opinion. Everyone waits for the banker to say he'll buy the company, however, it never happens.
As Michael ends his narration on how he deems the worth of the office to be invaluable, Dwight as computron says he feels emotional. Michael then jokingly threatens to pull his plug. To Michael's annoyance, Dwight remains in character and begs to be allowed to live.
Darryl's composed song from "Local Ad" is played as more flashbacks from the office are shown, followed by the full uncut video of "Lazy Scranton" as performed by Michael and Dwight in "The Merger".
==Deleted scenes==
The Season 6 DVD contains the following deleted scenes:
*Michael asks Erin if there are any messages. Erin responds with messages from the governor ("He said thank you") and the Treasury ("Dunder Mifflin paper is being used for counterfeit currency. That's how good it is.")
*In the conference room, Michael has set up a "think space", where Ryan and Oscar talk nonsense while bouncing a ball off the wall. Angela, accompanied by a basket of kittens, sits in a rocking chair, knitting. Michael explains that Dunder Mifflin has something for everyone, "whether you like cutting-edge thinking, or Pilgrim values." Dwight's robotic voice announces, "Help yourself to a kitten, Eric." Angela objects. "Compu-Truck" continues, "Give him a kitten. You have enough."
*While the banker inspects the warehouse, Darryl complains that Michael didn't give him enough warning of the banker's arrival. "I was going to put on a show. Hot dog station, dancing girls." The banker says that everything looks good.
*Andy announces that they got the Forest Service account. The banker notes that the paperwork says that the office has 3000 square feet, but the Scranton office has only 2000. He points into the annex: "Is the rest back there?" Michael insists that there is nothing back there. "Total waste."
*The banker returns from the annex and tells Michael he's leaving. Michael says, "That guy you just talked to is a liar. He's a weirdo, he's divorced." The banker says, "I'm divorced." Michaels awkwardly tries to recover.
==Amusing details==
*Michael has "helmet hair" in this episode (flat and compressed), thanks to the helmet he wore while riding the Segway. The practical reason for this is that actor Steve Carell had just returned from filming a movie for which he had his hair cut very short.Hair today, gone tomorrow, Office Tally, January 22, 2010
*Erin makes an effort to look away during the "computron" part of the episode. It is possible that Michael instructed Erin not to say anything in order to maintain the image.
*Ryan Howard still works inside the closet in the break room, Michael quickly shuts the door of the closet so the banker will not take note of him.
*Dwight insists that he is Toby until it is clear that the latter will not stand for this, upon which he admits he is Dwight and leaves.
*Most of the office cast do not have lines and this is the first episode where Jim Halpert had no lines, nor does he appear (until briefly at the end of the episode) aside from flashbacks.
*During the flashback to the hot dog eating contest from "Beach Games" in Season 3, Michael tells Phyllis to "dip it in the water so it slides down your gullet more easily," to which everyone responds, "That's what she said!" This is from a deleted scene not shown in the episode.
==Trivia==
*David Costabile is the third member of The Wire to appear on The Office, following Amy Ryan (Holly Flax) and Idris Elba (Charles Miner).
*John Krasinski (Jim Halpert) does appear at the very end of this episode. He's briefly seen in the transition from the clip show and is standing by Jim's office.
*This episode is the only clip show in the entire series. (A clip show is where the bulk of the plot is shown through clips from previous episodes).
*One of the clips shown is Michael telling Phyllis to dip the hotdogs in water to make it "slide down her gullet faster." In the clip shown, the entire cast says "that's what she said" in unison. However, in "Beach Games", where this scene actually occurs, the cast falls silent when Michael says this.
*Near the end of "The Dundies" in Season 2 when Pam falls off her bar stool, music was originally present in the background of the scene, however the flashback does not, instead replaced by just background chatter.
==Connections to previous episodes==
*Michael's parking space reads "Employee of the Month" which was introduced in "Scott's Tots". Michael expressed how much he wanted to win Employee of the Month to Jim, who told him it wasn't possible because he was a branch co-manager. 
*Dunder Mifflin was bought out in the episode, "Secret Santa". Dunder Mifflin started to become insolvent in the episode, "Murder".
==List of scenes==
===Q: "Are there any outstanding liability issues? Safety issues, injuries, that could leave the company open to potential lawsuits?"===
*Michael knocks over shelves with the forklift. 
*Michael hits Meredith with his car. 
*Dwight launches a spud with his spud gun, crashing it into Darryl's office in a deleted scene. 
*Dwight and Michael test the trampoline with a watermelon, which lands on Stanley's car. 
*Andy jumps onto an empty refrigerator box, which collapses, while performing Parkour with Dwight and Michael. 
*Dwight starts a fire to test his co-workers' knowledge of the fire evacuation procedure, and clips of the ensuing panic. 
*Jim slams the brakes in his car, pushing Dwight's head into the back of Jim's seat. 
*Dwight traps the loose bat and Meredith's head inside a garbage bag. 
===Q: "Are people generally happy?"===
*Andy punches a hole into the wall. 
*Pam slaps Michael in the face for dating her mother. 
*Dwight takes a couple jabs at Michael, who granted him a free shot. 
*Jim slaps Dwight for not answering the "door" in a "Ding-Dong" joke, in answer to a joke told by Dwight to Michael. 
*Dwight attempts to knock Michael unconscious while driving him to the "wilderness". 
*Phyllis throws her crumpled-up notes on how to deal with Angela, in Angela's face. 
*Kelly slaps Michael for mocking people of her ethnicity. 
*Oscar shoves Angela out of his way, and Dwight tries to go after him. 
*Michael asks, "Can't we all just get along?" 
===Q: "Sexual harassment?"===
*Michael refers to a picture of Stanley's daughter as "hot" and "center-fold" and says that he enjoys staring at it. 
*Pam walks in on Michael while he is changing in his office. 
*Toby asks Meredith to pull down her dress, one of her breasts falls out, and then she pulls it up to reveal she isn't wearing any undergarments. 
*Michael hugs and kisses Phyllis after one of Packer's jokes offended her. 
*Dwight thinks that Meredith's vagina was removed during her hysterectomy. 
*Michael declares he will no longer tell jokes or forward jokes by email, his "retirement from comedy" including "that's what she said", then Jim gets him to immediately break it when he provokes him with many "that's what she said" lines. 
*Kevin asks Michael why he got the Christmas tree so big, and Michael answers, "That's what she said." 
*The doctor asks if Michael's foot is "red, or swollen" and Dwight answers, "That's what she said." 
*Michael adds a "that's what she said" after he asks about a "Phyllis-Angela dispute" and Angela replies, "You already did me." 
*Michael directs Phyllis to dip her hot dog in the water so it will slide down her gullet more easily, and several employees remark with "that's what she said." 
===Q: "Waste of time and resources?"===
*Michael and Dwight go on an "old-fashioned raid, sales on accounting" and dump binders and papers on the floor. 
*Phyllis and Kevin play Flonkerton, Phyllis winning "by a nose" and Jim and Pam announcing. 
*Dwight finds his desk missing, while Jim acts baffled as well. (Jim relocated it to the men's room which is not shown in the clip.) 
*Dwight finds his desk and chair wrapped in gift wrap, but when he sits down, the desk and chair collapse. 
*Dwight opens his desk drawer to find his stapler suspended in Jell-O and accuses Jim of putting his stuff in Jell-O again. 
*Michael wobbles into the conference room in his sumo suit as his Michael Klump character. 
*Stanley charges at Jim, both in sumo suits at the "beach", and Jim runs in fear. 
*Jim impersonates Dwight including his speech, topics of conversation, and dress, and Dwight catches on, informing him of the seriousness of identity theft. 
===Q: "Is anyone near retirement age?"===
*Michael introduces Creed to the children of various office employees, and Creed asks if they have ever seen a foot with four toes. 
*Michael reads a complaint filed by Ryan about Creed's "old man" smell, which Creed attributes to the Mung beans he sprouts in his desk and eats throughout the day. 
*Oscar, just back from vacation, asks where Dwight is. Without pause, Creed says that he was decapitated and that they had a funeral for a bird. 
===A: "This is a building where friends become lovers and lovers become sexually interactive"===
*Jan forcefully kisses Michael. 
*Angela kisses Andy to make Dwight jealous. 
*Dwight kisses Angela, and Jim discovers them. 
*Darryl advises Kelly to access her "uncrazy side", and the ensuing talking head interview with Kelly. 
*Kelly kisses Ryan in celebration that they don't have to break up because their jobs are safe. 
*Michael complains to Jan about his vasectomies. 
*Kelly tells Ryan that she's pregnant, and the ensuing talking head interview with her where she admits she's lying. 
*Michael kisses Oscar. 
*Kevin tells Creed, "Jim has got it bad for Pam." Creed asks, "Which one is Pam?" 
*A drunk Pam falls off her barstool. 
*Pam tells a jinxed Jim, "You can tell me anything." 
*Pam and Jim listen to music together on his iPod. (Sing by Travis plays and continues through the next clips.)
*Jim and Pam encourage Dwight to ask out the purse girl. 
*Pam kisses Roy before the basketball game starts. 
*A drunk Pam kisses Jim after receiving her Dundie. 
*Pam looks inside the teapot Jim gave her for Christmas. 
*Jim leaves Pam after kissing her on Casino Night. 
*Pam's talking head wishing Jim well on his new job, ending with Jim interrupting the interview to ask her to dinner. 
*Jim proposes to Pam. 
*Jim and Pam kiss at their wedding. 
*Pam rests her head on Jim's shoulder at Niagara falls. 
*Pam rests her head on Jim's shoulder on Diversity Day. .
==Cultural references==
* is a musician known for her outlandish make-up and costumes. She intentionally portrays herself androgynously.
* Michael rides a device. The device was introduced to great fanfare in 2002 but quickly became relegated to a niche product.
* was a live-action life-size puppet television program.
* NFL stands for , the professional American football league in the United States. It celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1970 and not 1972 as claimed by "Computron".
* is a variety of lobster found in the Atlantic coast of North America.
* Mul Yam is a seafood restaurant in Tel Aviv, considered by many to be the best restaurant in Israel.
* Cooper's Seafood is a Scranton seafood restaurant.
* The song Michael and Dwight sing at the end of the episode prior to the credits is a parody of Lazy Sunday, a musical skit by The Lonely Island made for Saturday Night Live.
** The song had previously been used in Season 3's episode "The Merger", where Michael attempts to welcome all of the new employees from Stamford to Scranton.
* In a deleted scene, Michael describes Angela as representing "Pilgrim values". The were early colonists of what would become United States, known for their very conservative beliefs.
* In a deleted scene, Darryl's list of ideas for the warehouse included "a baler full of " (an ice cream snack) and "The " (a traveling exhibition basketball team).
==Quotes==
==Cast==
===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
===Supporting cast===
*Ed Helms as Andy Bernard
*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
*Paul Lieberstein as Toby Flenderson
*Oscar Nunez as Oscar Martinez
*Craig Robinson as Darryl Philbin
*Phyllis Smith as Phyllis Vance
*Melora Hardin as Jan Levinson (archive footage)
*David Denman as Roy Anderson (archive footage)
*David Koechner as Todd Packer (archive footage)
*Rashida Jones as Karen Filippelli (archive footage)
*Bobby Ray Shafer as Bob Vance (archive footage)
*Amy Ryan as Holly Flax (archive footage)
===Guest cast===
*David Costabile as Eric Ward; The Banker
==References==
Category:Season 6 episodes