The Alliance (The Office)

"The Alliance" is the fourth episode of the first season of The Office (U.S. version). It was written by Michael Schur and directed by Bryan Gordon. It first aired on April 12, 2005.

In this episode, Jim forms an alliance with Dwight due to the possible downsizing, so he and Pam can play a prank on Dwight. Meanwhile, Michael has a month-early birthday party for Meredith to boost morale, and spends his day debating on what to write in her birthday card.

Synopsis

Although time has dragged on, the downsizing rumors at Dunder Mifflin have not ceased. Dwight (Rainn Wilson) feels particularly threatened by the impending crisis, and, in an act of desperation, forms an alliance with his office nemesis Jim (John Krasinski). Jim sees the alliance as an opportunity with great potential and agrees as a lark. He immediately enlists Pam (Jenna Fischer)'s help in the situation.

Meanwhile, Michael (Steve Carell) tries to boost morale in the office by having an office birthday party for Meredith (Kate Flannery), even though her birthday is a month away. Michael agonizes over writing the perfect greeting in her birthday card. In the end his joke (and subsequent rejected ones) falls flat, severely ruining the party. At the same time Oscar also gets him to donate money to his nephew's cerebral palsy walk-a-thon, which Michael accidentally overcontributes to in an effort to look like a good boss.

At the end of the day, after a breakthrough in his pranks on Dwight, Jim giddily grabs Pam's hand in an attempt to explain what has just happened. However, Pam's fiancé Roy (David Denman) catches this and sees it as an attempt by Jim to make a move on Pam. Jim tries to convince Roy that it was just "office pranks" and asks Dwight to back him up, but he simply denies any involvement leaving Jim awkwardly embarrassed. Dwight reveals that he had no problems betraying Jim, despite the fact that he recently fell into one of Jim's tricks.

Deleted scenes

The Season One DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include:

• Dwight brags to Jim how secure his computer is.
• Michael critiques Pam's phone-answering delivery.
• Dwight throws old food out of the office fridge, including Jim's lunch.
• Oscar asks Angela to contribute to the walk-a-thon.
• Extension of Jim and Dwight's conversation in the parking lot.
• Toby signs Meredith's card in Michael's office, but Michael prevents him from writing any jokes.
• Jim hopes to get Dwight to say "immunity" (a la Survivor).
• Extension of Dwight trying to help Michael with Meredith's card. When Dwight asks Michael for immunity from downsizing, Jim quietly celebrates.
• Michael asks Meredith to recall recent funny moments.
• Michael chides Oscar for deceiving him about the walk-a-thon.
• Michael presents alternate card jokes.
• Dwight questions Ryan about his alliances.

Production

• The first cut of the episode ran 37 minutes long. Producers considered making the episode a two-parter, one focusing on the Alliance and another focusing on Meredith's birthday party.^[1]
• Not much of the footage made the final cut, but during the party, Ryan talks to a different woman in the background of each scene. The producers thought this was a nice character touch for the new employee.^[2]

References

External links

• "The Alliance" at NBC.com
• "The Alliance" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Alliance" at TV.com