[1] In the episode, Michael Scott (Steve Carell) believes the office is cursed after he accidentally hits Meredith Palmer (Kate Flannery) with his car.
Over the summer, Jan Levinson moved in with Michael Scott; Ryan Howard started his new job at Corporate; and Jim Halpert broke up with Karen Filippelli, who left Dunder Mifflin Scranton.
Forced to join a group visit to Meredith in the hospital, Angela Martin leaves Dwight Schrute with complicated instructions on the care of her ailing cat, Sprinkles.
The combination of Meredith's accident, Sprinkles' death, and a virus on Pam's computer (which is cleaned by the company's tech support employee, Sadiq) convinces Michael that the office is cursed.
However, still feeling guilty about hurting Meredith, Michael organizes a charity five-kilometer (3.1 mile) fun run to raise awareness of the dangers of rabies.
Few take the race seriously: Creed, Oscar and Stanley sneak off to a bar; Jim and Pam visit a garage sale; however, Toby Flenderson finishes first.
After initially reading the script, Kate Flannery asked producer Kent Zbornak if Meredith was going to live, to which he replied "This isn't All My Children."
Zap2It's Rick Porter thought "the show handled the PB&J (Pam Beesly and Jim) stuff as well as it always has, underplaying the romance as much as the NBC marketing folks overplay it.
[6] TV Guide's Jack Rodgers was glad "the writers aren't jerking us around anymore, and the pair are finally busted when Jim hops a ride home with Pam after work".