Grief Counseling (The Office)

"Grief Counseling" is the fourth episode of the third season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's 32nd episode overall. Written by Jennifer Celotta and directed by Roger Nygard, the episode first aired in the United States on October 12, 2006 on NBC.^[1]

Michael is overcome with grief when he learns about the death of his former boss Ed Truck. Michael spends the rest of the day attempting grief counseling for the mostly grief-lacking office. In Stamford, Jim and Karen embark on a quest for a particular brand of potato chips.

Plot

Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is informed by Jan Levenson (Melora Hardin) that his former boss Ed Truck has died. Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling) and Phyllis Lapin (Phyllis Smith) console Michael after he breaks the news to a mostly unmoved staff. Later, Michael learns from Creed Bratton (played by the actor of the same name) that Truck, heavily inebriated, was decapitated in a truck accident. Michael summons the staff to a primitive grief counseling session involving a collapsible Hoberman sphere ball, in which Michael tells members of the staff to give stories of deceased love ones. This leads to the staff telling stories about losing loved ones based on death scenes in movies (Million Dollar Baby, The Lion King, and Weekend at Bernie's) with Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) saying he would elaborate more on his story, but it would take about an hour and a half to do it. Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) tells Michael death is a part of life, and uses an example of a bird that flew into a first-floor window that morning. Michael charges outside, picks up the deceased animal and tries in vain to revive it. Michael schedules a parking lot funeral for the bird. Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) fashions a makeshift coffin and reads a prepared speech that comforts Michael. Pam then proceeds to sing "On the Wings of Love" as Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) accompanies her on his recorder. The coffin is placed in a box of shredded paper and set afire.

Meanwhile, in Stamford, Connecticut, Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) gains authority over Karen Filippelli's (Rashida Jones) schedule for the day. When Karen mentions her favorite kind of Herr's potato chips is missing from the vending machine, Jim tells Karen that they cannot work until they find her chips. The duo spends the rest of the day searching stores and vending machines around town in a vain attempt to find the chips. But at the end of the day, Karen finds a bag of Herr's on her desk. Jim tells the documentary crew that he traced the chips from the manufacturer to the distributor to the vending machine company to an adjacent office building. This devotion to getting the right chips mirrors Jim's actions with Pam in a previous episode, The Fight.

Notes

• Although Karen tells Jim the vending machine is sold out of Herr's potato chips, the top row is filled with them. She later states she wanted Salt & Vinegar flavored, which are shown first in a white bag.

• Angela Kinsey's blog states the episode was originally scheduled to air after "Initiation".^[2] However, Jenna Fischer's blog disagrees. She claims that the episodes were filmed out of order due to the need for location shooting in "Initiation".^[3]
• Dwight's extinguishing of the fire was improvised.^[4]

References

External links

• "Grief Counseling" at NBC.com
• "Grief Counseling" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Grief Counseling" at TV.com