New Leads

"New Leads" is the 20th episode of the sixth season of the U.S. comedy series The Office and the show's 120th episode overall. It was written and directed by Brent Forrester.

The series—presented as if it were a real documentary—depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. In this episode, Sabre has spent a large amount of money in order for some sales leads, due to their new "sales is king" policy. Frustrated with his sales staff's cocky attitudes, Michael is reluctant to hand out the new leads he has received, and instead hands them out to the non-sales staff, who are also frustrated with their coworkers' behavior, and the leads are hidden.

Synopsis

The sales staff (Jim, Pam, Dwight, Phyllis, Andy and Stanley) let Sabre's new "sales is king" policy get to their heads, frustrating Michael (Steve Carell) and the rest of the non-sales staff. The sales staff are expected to receive new leads from the corporate office and when they arrive, Michael refuses to give them to the sales staff due to their arrogant and disrespectful behavior (particularly Phyllis ordering Michael to "Hand them over, numb-nuts"), which earns him the respect of the non-sales staff. After talking on the phone with Gabe Lewis (Zach Woods) about their attitude, Michael is ordered to hand out the leads and cheerfully does just that—to the non-sales staff: Creed, Meredith, Angela, Kevin, Ryan, Kelly, Oscar, and Erin. They all hide them throughout the office, and Jim (John Krasinski) is given a list of clues as to where to find them and calls Pam (at home on maternity leave) to try and figure them out. Erin plays the warmer-colder game with Andy (Ed Helms), who thinks she is trying to have him touch her chest, only to find leads under the keyboard. Angela (Angela Kinsey) forces Phyllis (Phyllis Smith) to do unnecessary paperwork. Stanley (Leslie David Baker) wins leads from Ryan (B. J. Novak) and Kelly (Mindy Kaling) by pretending to agree with various points they're making during an argument.

When Dwight (Rainn Wilson) returns from a sales call, he is given a clue that leads him to Kevin (Brian Baumgartner), who tells him that some of the leads are in the trash after Dwight starts strangling him. However, the trash is empty, so Dwight checks the dumpster, which is also empty. Michael sees that the garbage truck had emptied the dumpster already, so he and Dwight go to the dump to find them.

Meanwhile, Jim's urging gets the sales staff to acknowledge their rude behavior, and they agree on a plan to offer the non-sales staff some pastries and 2% of their commissions. However, before mentioning their commissions offer, the rest of the staff are so happy with the snacks that they end their dispute with the sales force, who decide to cap the apology right there. At the dump trying to find the leads, Michael calls Dwight out on his bad attitude and Dwight complains that he "hitched my wagon to a horse with no legs" by accepting Michael's job offer years ago instead of going to Home Depot, and the two start throwing trash at each other until they get exhausted. Instead, they bring a beanbag chair back to the office for their own uses.

At the end of the episode, Andy and Erin try to look for the leads at the dump after work. Andy gets cold so Erin gives him her jacket. He tells her that she's the nicest person he's ever met and they share a first kiss amidst the mountains of trash.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "New Leads" was watched by 7.63 million viewers, with a 3.6 rating and a 10 share in the 18-49 demographic.^[1]

References

External links

• "New Leads" at NBC.com
• "New Leads" at the Internet Movie Database