Paper Airplane (The Office)

"Paper Airplane" is the twentieth episode of the ninth season of the American comedy television series The Office.

The episode features guest stars Roseanne Barr, Nora Kirkpatrick, Mark Proksch, Blake Robbins, and Bobby Ray Shafer.

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.

Meanwhile, Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) prepares for a potential acting job, and Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam Halpert (Jenna Fischer) utilize new skills that they learned in couples' counseling.

Erin Hannon in particular is fiercely competitive, and even as she realizes that she is showing an ugly side of herself to her boyfriend Pete Miller, she cannot hold back from smashing a box of packing peanuts when she loses in the semi-finals.

However, when Esther expresses her condolences to Angela about her financial situation since her husband separated from her, she realizes that Dwight is letting her win out of pity, not love.

Andy Bernard prepares for an acting job in a laboratory safety video that was arranged by his talent agent, Carla Fern.

In order to get a shot of Pam and Jim looking into the camera, Greg Daniels restaged the scene four years after "Niagara" had been filmed.

[1] In its original American broadcast, the episode was viewed by an estimated 3.25 million viewers and received a 1.7 rating/5 percent share.

[13] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix wrote positively of the finale scene, noting that "it really worked", and that Krasinski and Fischer were "terrific" during the sequence.

He argued that the tension does not feel as threatening as it should; he compared it to the second season episode "Casino Night", which had invoked real fears about the future of Jim and Pam.

Adams also was not impressed with the Dwight-Angela storyline, but was "enjoying Andy's day on the industrial-safety film—much more so than anticipated" due to the "unintentional hilarity" that ensued.

[15] Roseanne Barr's performance was later submitted by the producers of The Office for an "Outstanding Guest Actor in Comedy Series" Emmy consideration.