Goodbye, Toby

Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch is planning a going-away party for Toby Flenderson before he leaves for Costa Rica. Michael Scott is extremely happy that Toby is leaving, but when Angela Martin balks at his unreasonable party demands, Phyllis Vance accepts the duty of planning the party. She does fantastically, ordering carnival rides and hiring a band. Michael's hatred of Toby is transferred to the new human resources representative, Holly Flax, and he and Dwight Schrute plan to haze her. When she playfully affects disdain for Toby, Michael takes her seriously, and falls in love with her. Taking advice from Jim Halpert, Michael warms Holly up with small talk and jokes, and even tempers Toby's exit interview, which he had originally planned to be brutally insulting, because Holly attends. During the interview, Pam helps Toby finally get revenge against Michael by making him give up his favorite watch to Toby after discovering he planned on giving him a rock for a going away gift. Dwight, however, continues the hazing, telling Holly that Kevin Malone is mentally challenged. After Michael catches Dwight releasing a raccoon into Holly's car, he loudly proclaims his high esteem for Holly. Holly gives special attention to Kevin due to her belief that he is mentally challenged, but Kevin believes her attention is a sexual interest in him. Pam Beesly is accepted into Pratt Institute in New York City, where she will spend the summer studying graphic design. Jim calls Ryan Howard about a huge sale that he has recently made. Ryan instructs him to enter the sale on the company's website before abruptly hanging up. Jim takes this as another sign that Ryan is trying to push him out of the company, and leaves Ryan a voicemail proclaiming that he will fight Ryan's efforts. Creed Bratton and Jim find a video on YouTube of Ryan being arrested for fraud. Ryan's website was floundering, so he double-counted office sales as website sales, inflating the firm's figures. Although Michael is deeply concerned for Ryan, Jim is pleased and leaves Ryan a second voicemail mockingly telling Ryan to disregard the last because he had his "hands tied". Michael discovers that Jan Levinson has artificially inseminated herself from a sperm bank. She explains that she did this while she was dating Michael, but still wants him to be involved in the pregnancy. He is indecisive, but eventually calls and agrees to attend Lamaze class with her. Jim contributes several hundred dollars to the party-planning fund in order to buy fireworks, since he has decided to propose to Pam, going back to their "first date". Pam notices the purchase and guesses his intentions; however, at the party, Andy Bernard ruins the moment by proposing to Angela, who grudgingly accepts. Pam is disappointed that Jim did not propose to her. Michael has security escort Toby out of the office as a parting insult. Dwight is crushed that his ex-girlfriend is marrying someone else. Phyllis returns to the office, pleased at the success of her party, and walks in on Angela and Dwight having sex on Angela's desk. ==Production==

, played by Amy Ryan. "Goodbye, Toby" was written by Paul Lieberstein and Jennifer Celotta. Lieberstein is also the actor who plays Toby Flenderson. It took Lieberstein and Celotta four or five days to write this episode. Writer Anthony Farrell said that the idea for Dunder Mifflin Infinity to fail was inspired by the days that he was an administrative assistant for Countrywide Home Loans. Farrell recalled watching the company try new online initiatives and seeing them all be unsuccessful. "Goodbye, Toby" was the seventh episode of the series directed by Paul Feig. Feig had previously directed "Office Olympics", "Halloween", "Performance Review", "Email Surveillance", "Survivor Man" and "Dinner Party". "Goodbye, Toby" introduced Holly Flax, played by Amy Ryan, who would go on to become Michael's main love interest. In fact, her return to the series in the seventh season was used by the writers as a way to write Steve Carell out of the series after his contract ended. Ryan gained prominence with her role as Beadie Russell on the HBO series The Wire. The writers of The Office, who were fans of the series, then approached Ryan about appearing in their show. Ryan, feeling that a comedy series would "keep [her] a couple steps ahead of people [and] surprise people" agreed. Holly's character was developed by the writers awhile before the episode was scripted. However, once Ryan began acting on set, Lieberstein explained that "we started to see this really silly side that Amy brought to the character, and [we] found almost like a junior Michael in her. And we all saw it and knew what we had." The episode also guest starred Melora Hardin, and Robert R. Shafer. In one deleted scene, in which Toby gives a "farewell" speech that is interrupted by Michael, Toby pleads with the Dunder Mifflin staff to continue his fight to have the office checked for Radon; this scene foreshadows the Season 6 episode "The Chump", in which Toby sets numerous Radon test kits around the office. ==Cultural references==

Michael offers to make Holly a mixtape. Michael and Holly trade comments, speaking as if they were Yoda. Michael and Holly shout "Acting!"—the catchphrase from the Jon Lovitz' "Master Thespian" skit from Saturday Night Live. Michael sings a parody of "Goodbye Stranger" by Supertramp entitled "Goodbye, Toby". He also mentions two other parodies that he wrote, "Beers in Heaven" and "Total Eclipse of the Fart", ==Reception==

"Goodbye, Toby" first aired on May 15, 2008, on NBC. The episode received 4.1/10 in the 18–49 demographic in the Nielsen ratings. This means that 4.1 percent of all households with an 18- to 49-year-old living in it watched the episode, and ten percent had their televisions tuned to the channel at any point. The episode was watched by 8.07 million viewers. "Goodbye, Toby" was generally well received by critics. TV Squad's Jay Black said that "The Office is at its best when it's exposing the dramas that take place at every workplace". Kelly West of Cinemablend.com wrote that even though the episode did not play-out "the way [she] expected", she was "definitely not complaining". Alan Sepinwall, a writer for The Star-Ledger, was critical of the proposal scenario, saying that "I really, really, really hope the writers aren't going to be foolish enough to try to create real strife in the PB&J (Pam Beesly and Jim) relationship over how long it's going to take Jim to propose." Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club noted that "Goodbye, Toby" felt like "the season finaleiest of all season finales", largely because the series "cramm[ed] three or four episodes worth of revelations and big plot twists and turns into one jam-packed, over-stuffed, incidentriffic mega-super-double-extended episode." The episode was nominated for an Emmy at the Primetime Emmys in the "Best Direction for a Comedy Series" category in 2008. ==References==