When the American iteration of The Office started, it famously took some time to find its feet. Producers, writers and actors couldn’t quite find the right tone for the show’s character, with attention-seeking office boss Michael Scott, in particular, struggling to find an audience who’d identify with him. But one episode in season 2 changed all that.
This episode unexpectedly laid the groundwork for Michael to redeem himself, and bring the series up with him. While season 1 is The Office’s worst with Steve Carell in it, season 2 turned out to be a triumph which put the show on the map.
It all started with “Halloween”, the first holiday instalment of the series, and the moment when viewers were introduced to a character of The Office we’d come to love, though couldn’t help but hate to begin with. Creed Braton donned the appropriate costume for his bloodsucking act of treachery, as he pushed Michael into committing a shameful deed.
The Office Season 2 Episode “Halloween” Featured The Worst & The Best Of Michael Scott
Overall, this episode was one of the best Halloween specials in any sitcom, thanks to its careful balance between the light and dark sides of life working at Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch. Specifically, we saw Michael Scott at both his caring best, and his callous worst.
The episode was predicated on the idea that Michael was under instruction from corporate to fire someone by the end of Halloween due to apparent budget cuts. Because he didn’t want to do it, he procrastinated throughout the day, and tried to lean on precisely the subordinates whose positions he had to consider for support.
We felt for Michael’s predicament for most of the episode, as much as he was making a hash of the situation and shirking responsibility primarily for his own selfish reasons. But it did seem as though he genuinely cared about whoever he was going to have to fire. That is, until he settled on Creed, and called him into his office.
Creed’s machiavellian streak came out, as he gave Michael an out by telling him to fire Devon instead. Michael liked this idea, as it meant he could absolve himself of guilt by cowering behind Creed’s suggestion. Of course, it backfired when Devon was equally reluctant to be let go, and told him to change his mind back to firing Creed.
The kicker came when Michael decided to stick with Devon purely on the basis that he’d look like an idiot if he changed his mind again. Devon stormed out, understandably furious, and all of his colleagues barring Creed and Dwight walked out with him.
The episode could have ended there, but it didn’t. On the contrary, the writers decided to show us another side of Michael.
“Halloween” Also Proved That Michael Wasn’t All Bad
There was no question that Michael Scott had to change after The Office season 1, as he was just too offputting as a lead character to sustain a sitcom for any great length of time. The final scene of “Halloween” was the precise moment when this change occurred.
After the confrontation with Devon, the agony that Michael apparently felt about having to fire one of his staff was swept to one side. He was unquestionably the bad guy in the equation, alongside Creed. Yet, he was still given the chance to redeem himself at the end of the episode, when some trick-or-treating kids rang his doorbell.
In a short scene without jokes, we saw Michael generously compliment each of the kids on their outfit, and hand out a large bag of sweets. When he mistakenly burst open the bag in front of them, he leant down to pick up the sweets and told the kids they could have all the ones that fell.
This ending was signposting to us overtly that Michael Scott wasn’t all bad. He was ultimately just a sweet person out of his depth in life, who wanted to be loved and behaved badly to get the attention he craved.
The Episode’s Trick-Or-Treat Scene Was The Start Of Michael Becoming A Better Character
The trick-or-treat scene at the end of “Halloween” was a watershed moment, which allowed The Office to serve up heartwarming moments involving Michael Scott that we didn’t know he was capable of beforehand. There are several of these moments in season 2 alone.
Among them, the standouts are Michael’s pep talk to Jim about not giving up on Pam in “Booze Cruise”, and the way he entertains Toby’s daughter, Sasha, in his office during the episode “Take Your Daughter to Work Day”. Michael Scott could still be agonizingly cruel, but, in general, The Office had a much better protagonist from season 2 onwards.
- Release Date
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2005 – 2013-00-00
- Showrunner
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Greg Daniels
- Directors
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Greg Daniels, Paul Lieberstein, Paul Feig, Randall Einhorn, Ken Kwapis
