Episode 1
Title: “The List”
Original Airdate: September 22, 2011
After the search committee chooses Robert California (James Spader) as the new regional manager, he somehow gets himself promoted to CEO of the whole company (although he still works mostly in the Scranton office). Robert then promotes Andy to the regional manager position. Pam and Angela are both pregnant, after Angela has married the state senator. The employees discover a list of names in Robert’s notebook after he leaves it out, and they worry about what it means. Robert invites half the people on the list to lunch and dubs them winners, which Andy finds unacceptable, so he stands up for the employees.
Episode 2
Title: “The Incentive”
Original Airdate: September 29, 2011
Robert charges Andy with doubling the sales at the Scranton branch, and Andy doesn’t know what to do. He creates an incentive program whereby employees can earn points and redeem them for prizes, and jokingly offers to get a tattoo on his backside if someone garners enough points. Jim uses a loophole allowing everyone to pool their points so that within a day they have enough to force Andy to get the tattoo. He goes through with it even though no one really expects him to, and instead of being horrified, he ends up pleased with the results.
Episode 3
Title: “Lotto”
Original Airdate: October 6, 2011
When the warehouse workers win the lottery, they all quit, and Darryl has to hire new employees. In the meantime, Jim, Dwight, Kevin and Erin end up handling the warehouse duties and do a terrible job of it. Darryl is depressed that he wasn’t involved in the lottery pool and feels like his life is going nowhere. After Darryl tells Andy that he resents getting passed over for the manager’s job, Andy tells Darryl he didn’t work hard enough for it, and Darryl decides to take control of his life.
Episode 4
Title: “Garden Party”
Original Airdate: October 13, 2011
Andy decides to throw a garden party at Schrute Farms that is designed to impress both Robert California and Andy’s parents (played by Stephen Collins and Dee Wallace). His awkward efforts fail, however, since Andy’s parents are clearly more enamored of Andy’s younger brother (played by singer Josh Groban), which Andy’s dad makes explicit to his son. Robert is more charmed by the party, although he’s impressed more by Dwight’s event organization (based on a fake book Jim tricks Dwight into following) than by Andy himself.
Episode 5
Title: “Spooked”
Original Airdate: October 27, 2011
Andy is nervous about putting on a good Halloween party at the office to impress Robert California. Robert brings his son Bert with him to the party, and Bert bonds with Dwight. Erin feels insecure that she hasn’t done a good enough job planning an adult-oriented party and goes overboard to compensate. She’s worried she’s going to get fired, but Andy really just wants to tell her he’s been dating someone new. Robert finds out everyone’s fears and incorporates all of them into a scary story designed to help conquer them.
Episode 6
Title: “Doomsday”
Original Airdate: November 3, 2011
Robert California charges Andy with eliminating mistakes in the office. Dwight implements a system that will send an incriminating email to Robert if the employees make five mistakes in a day. When they make five mistakes the first day, everyone tries to convince Dwight to prevent the email from being sent out. Once the pressure is off, he relents and cancels the email. Gabe makes a feeble attempt to hit on a female warehouse employee.
Episode 7
Title: “Pam’s Replacement”
Original Airdate: November 10, 2011
Robert California decides he wants to join Andy, Darryl and Kevin’s band, and he quickly takes it over, bringing in a bunch of much more experienced musicians and pushing Andy, Darryl and Kevin aside. Pam is training an attractive young temp to replace her while she’s on maternity leave. She’s determined to get Jim to admit that he finds the temp attractive, and enlists Dwight to help her. Dwight’s makeshift lie detector doesn’t do anything except discover that Jim has high blood pressure.
Episode 8
Title: “Gettysburg”
Original Airdate: November 17, 2011
Andy offers to take the staff on a field trip to Gettysburg to inspire them. Robert shows up at the office and charges the employees who stayed behind with devising “game-changing” ideas for the company. He thinks Kevin has come up with a great business idea when Kevin is really just talking about cookies. At Gettysburg, Dwight keeps asserting that the Civil War battle of Schrute Farms is being suppressed by historians, Gabe gets mistaken for an Abraham Lincoln impersonator, and Andy’s plans to inspire fall flat.
Episode 9
Title: “Mrs. California”
Original Airdate: December 1, 2011
Robert California brings his wife Susan (Maura Tierney) to the office with the promise of finding her a job, although he warns Andy not to hire her under any circumstances. Andy can’t figure out what Robert wants him to do, and finds himself caught in the middle of the marital discord between Robert and his wife. Susan doesn’t end up working in the office, but she seems to take a liking to Andy. Dwight opens up a gym in the building and tries to motivate Darryl to get in shape.
Episode 10
Title: “Christmas Wishes”
Original Airdate: December 8, 2011
Andy dresses as Santa and tries to make everyone’s holiday wishes come true. Andy’s new girlfriend Jessica comes to the office Christmas party and freaks out Erin, who gets really drunk. Robert California also comes to the party, to try to cheer up after his wife has left him. When Robert takes a drunk Erin home, Andy worries that they’ll hook up, but nothing happens. After the new temp complains about Jim and Dwight’s pranks, Andy tells them they can’t prank each other or they’ll lose their Christmas bonuses.
