Vandalism (The Office)

Plot

Someone paints butts on Pam Halpert's (Jenna Fischer) warehouse mural. Distraught, she demands to know the vandal's identity, but the warehouse workers remain silent to protect their coworker. She then tries appealing to the sympathies of the other office workers, but with her husband Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) off in Philadelphia, only Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Nellie Bertram (Catherine Tate) show any interest. The three lure warehouse worker Nate upstairs and interrogate him in isolation; Nate soon cracks and identifies Frank (Brad William Henke) as the vandal. They take the matter to human resources, and Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) holds a meeting between the involved parties. Pam, presumably at Toby's suggestion, apologizes for having possibly infringed on Frank's space by using the warehouse to paint her mural, but Frank in response insults Pam and her mural using vulgar language and insists that his drawing of butts was funny. Toby and Nelly both take Frank's side, so Pam and Dwight take things into their own hands by painting a grotesque nude man on Frank's truck with washable paint. As Pam tells the documentary crew that she feels it is appropriate that she used her art to enact her revenge for the vandalism, Frank shows up yelling in anger and lunges at Pam. Brian (Chris Diamantopoulos), the crew's boom mic operator, intervenes by hitting Frank across the face with his mic. Frank and Brian are subsequently fired by their respective employers. As Brian leaves, he tells Pam that he will always be there for her if she needs someone.

Meanwhile, in their Philadelphia apartment, Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) and Jim find their living styles are increasingly clashing. Jim is slovenly, leaving dirty dishes to soak in the sink until someone else washes them, while Darryl is so fastidious about his possessions that he puts labels with his name on all of them, even a bag of flour. When Darryl takes issue with Jim using his labeled coffee mug, the two begin bickering. Eventually the two come to understand each other's habits better, and relieve tension by playing a video game together.

Angela (Angela Kinsey) and Robert Lipton (Jack Coleman) are celebrating their son Phillip's first birthday with a gathering of wealthy political allies. Angela is shocked to learn that Robert invited his lover Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) to the party after she told Robert she did not want him there. Angela invites Dwight (her own extramarital lover) in retaliation, but he scorns the invitation. Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) hears of this and eagerly volunteers to go in Dwight's place. Oscar, who believes he was invited because Robert is in love with him, is hurt when he finds out that he was invited to boost Robert's opinion in the polls among Latino voters. During the taking of a group photo, Robert has Oscar stand in a spot where he almost completely blocks off Angela, and Oscar and Angela begin to bicker with each other. After the party, Robert rebukes them for their behavior and admonishes them to do better in the future. However, Kevin interrupts to tell Robert that he is a terrible person for treating Angela and Oscar strictly as a means to gain political support.

Production

"Vandalism" was written by supervising producer Owen Ellickson, making it his third writing credit for the series. It was directed by Lee Kirk. This marks his first directorial entry for the series, although he had previously guest starred as the minor character Clark in the sixth season episode "The Delivery". Kirk is also Fischer's husband. The episode guest stars Diamantopoulos as Brian the boom mike operator, his third appearance after the preceding two episodes. Mark Proksch returns as Nate, as does Ameenah Kaplan as Val. This is the first episode to feature Henke as Frank. Daniels had teased in an interview that one character would be fired from the show "in Episode 15". Although "Vandalism" was the fourteenth episode aired, it was actually the fifteenth produced, based on production numbers.

Ratings

"Vandalism" originally aired right after "Junior Salesman" on NBC on January 31, 2013. In its original American broadcast, the episode was viewed by 3.97 million viewers, making it the second episode in the series, after the earlier ninth season entry "The Target", to dip below the 4 million threshold. It received a 1.9 rating/5 percent share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. This means that it was seen by 1.9 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 5 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. The Office ranked first in its half hour timeslot, and tied with the series finale of 30 Rock to be the second highest-rated NBC series of the night, although 30 Rock garnered more viewers. Both the finale of 30 Rock and "Vandalism" were beaten by "Junior Salesman".

Reviews

Michael Tedder of Vulture awarded the episode—along with "Junior Salesman"—four stars out of five. He enjoyed Kevin's telling off the Senator for his poor treatment of his friends and family, and said "that it came with Kevin's halting delivery just made it better." However, he was critical of the Brian subplot, calling it "the least interesting way this camera crew reveal could have gone". Roth Cornet of IGN awarded the episode a 7 out of 10, denoting a "good" episode. Despite noting that the show itself was still good in comparison to much of television, Cornet wrote that the episode is an example of the "danger of needlessly dragging things out, as we have seen the waste of ending things before they have had the opportunity to reach their full potential in the past." Cornet praised Kevin's "truth bomb", writing that it "worked beautifully", but she called "the 'man behind the curtain' reveal [...] a bitter disappointment" and a "cop-out" to engage the audience.

Brett Davinger of The California Literary Review called Brian's antics "creepy", and wondered if the character would begin to emulate the characteristics of the eighth season character Cathy, who attempted to cheat with Jim. He called the Jim and Darryl story filler, but was more positive about Oscar and Kevin's story, noting that the ending was "a short segment, but well done". Bonnie Stiernberg of Paste magazine wrote that the idea of Brian temporarily dividing Pam and Jim led to "one of the more out-of-the-box episodes" of the series. However, she felt that the writers should have "thought of [the idea] sometime last season" and that the concept seemed forced. Stiernberg paralleled the quick buildup to Pam and Brian's relationship unfavorably to the slow buildup of Pam and Jim's initial attraction to each other. Nick Campbell of TV.com wrote that "Vandalism"—along with "Junior Salesman"—was "so much sharper than last week's trial in Dullsville". He felt that the episode was "important", because it continued the plot involving Brian. Campbell initially was not pleased with the development, but said that the plot will be "the ultimate test of the show's romantic theory" that "the meek men (the proletariat) constantly and righteously upending the established and neglectful men (the bourgeoisie) in the lives of The Office's womenfolk".

Erik Adams of The A.V. Club awarded the episode a "C−" and largely criticized the introduction of Brian as a potential love interest for Pam. He was especially critical of the fight scene, saying Brian coming to Pam's rescue was an unnecessary contrivance, and that having Dwight in the role of Pam's defender would have been a more fitting resolution to the subplot. Adams, however, was complimentary towards Kevin's part in the episode, and called it a flash "of late-period Office at its very best". Casey Gillis of The News & Advance said the overall success of the ninth season of The Office was hurt by "Vandalism", as well as "Junior Salesman". She wrote that, while the episode "would have been enjoyable by" itself, after Brian defended Pam "the show sailed right over that shark".