text: counseling ( the office ) " counseling " is the second episode of the seventh season of the american comedy television series the office and the shows 128th episode overall . it originally aired on nbc on september 30 , 2010 . the episode was written by b. j. novak and directed by jeffrey blitz . " counseling " guest stars eric zuckerman as a store clerk , vincent angelo as a vendor , and michael schur as mose schrute . evan peters also appears as luke cooper in archival footage from the previous episode . the series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the scranton , pennsylvania branch of the fictional dunder mifflin paper company . in the episode , michael scott ( steve carell ) is forced to have six hours of counseling with toby flenderson ( paul lieberstein ) after he physically reprimanded his nephew luke ( peters ) , but michael refuses to make toby 's job easy . meanwhile , pam halpert ( jenna fischer ) attempts to a promotion to office administrator and dwight schrute ( rainn wilson ) boycotts the steamtown mall after a shop owner refuses to serve him . " counseling " received mostly positive reviews from television critics . the episode was viewed by 7 . 36 million viewers and received a 3 . 7 rating among adults between the age of 18 and 49 , marking a significant drop in the ratings when compared to the previous week . despite this , the episode was the highest - rated nbc series of the night that it aired , as well as the highest - rated non - sports nbc broadcast for the week it aired . plot michael scott ( steve carell ) is assigned six hours of counseling with toby flenderson ( paul lieberstein ) after he physically reprimanded his nephew luke ( evan peters ) , but michael refuses to speak to toby . one hour into their session , toby tells michael that he will not fill in the official assessment form unless michael talks to him , so michael begins telling ridiculous stories . toby then tries the common counseling method of playing games with the client to get them to open up more . the method works , and michael opens up to toby about his personal history and relationships with people ( he mentions seeing a baseball game with his stepfather where he was told that the team 's manager deserved respect and how he never forgot that ) , and toby makes an important discovery that michael needs to be liked . michael realizes what is happening , gets angry at toby , and denigrates his counseling ability . toby gives up and gives michael the official form , allowing him to fill it out however he wants . in his haste , michael accidentally checks off on the form that he is severely depressed and homicidal . gabe contacts toby , confused by his extreme assessment of michael . although michael initially blames toby for the mishap , he turns his ire to gabe lewis ( zach woods ) , even making toby laugh . michael openly offers to return to the break room with toby and " bang this out " . at the end of the episode , they are both talking and drawing pictures . meanwhile , pam halpert ( jenna fischer ) realizes that although she has her dream job of salesman , that she just might not be cut out for it after all since she makes few sales and very little money . a chance visit from a vendor gives her an idea to a promotion to office administrator , hopefully for some added income . she informs gabe of her promotion " from a few months back " and tells him she has not been paid accordingly , to which gabe promises her he will get the missing wages if she can get all of the department heads to sign off on it . while she is busy convincing everyone that she has become the new administrator , gabe catches on that she might be lying , and confronts her about it . using a strategy she learned from watching poker , she stands her ground against gabe and becomes de facto office administrator . dwight schrute ( rainn wilson ) has decided to boycott the steamtown mall after a shop owner refuses to serve him , going so far as to cancel orders to businesses there . jim halpert ( john krasinski ) and the rest of the office convince dwight to get revenge on the shop owner by making dwight appear to be high - class , and then having him refuse to buy from the shop , a scheme the office references from the movie pretty woman . using tips from the rest of the office to make himself appear more sophisticated , dwight , with jim and andy bernard ( ed helms ) , return to the shop . to their surprise , the shop owner immediately recognizes dwight even in his new attire , and explains that they did not serve him before because they were intimidated by his blood - soaked hands ( actually beet juice ) . dwight , somewhat flustered from the truth of the situation being revealed to him , stumbles over his words before finally saying the line he had came all the way there to say , " you made a big mistake . huge ! " , while waving his shopping bags . the group leaves somewhat embarrassed , but not before dwight buys what he came for : a pewter wizard statuette holding a crystal ball . production " counseling " was written by b. j. novak , a producer and screenwriter for the series who also portrays the character of ryan howard on the show . the entry was directed by jeffrey blitz , who had also directed the previous episode " nepotism " . " counseling " features eric zuckerman , vincent angelo and michael schur in guest appearances as a store teller , a vendor , and mose schrute , respectively . evan peters also appears as luke cooper in archival footage from the previous episode . with the seventh season of the office being carell 's last , the writers decided to divide the season into two distinct halves ; the first half would " celebrate carell 's finale year and highlight different actors on the show " , whereas the second half would focus on his departure and the search for a new manager . as such , " counseling " was one of the first episode of the season to specifically highlight other characters , in this case lieberstein 's character , toby . the season seven dvd contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode . notable cut scenes include stanley discussing boycotting , dwight putting on his fancy clothing , dwight getting his pipe from creed , kevin giving dwight a tissue , extended footage of michael 's counseling session , michael discussing dogs , and extended footage of dwight in the mall . cultural references at dwight 's daycare , a poster for the american hip hop duo insane clown posse is hung on the wall ; however , dwight has scribbled out the words " insane " and " posse " to make it fit into the daycare . in the episode , dwight 's subplot is inspired by as julia roberts 's character did in the film pretty woman . dwight even attempts to use roberts 's line , " big mistake " , but instead renders it as " you made a big mistake . huge ! " during michael 's counseling session , he sardonically tells toby that he was probed by alf , the alien star of the eponymous television series . michael and toby later pass the time playing connect four . darryl notes to pam that he saw a tlc show about kate walsh 's home office , and he wants one similar . reception in its original american broadcast , " counseling " was viewed by an estimated 7 . 36 million viewers with a 3 . 7 rating / 10 % share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49 . this means that it was seen by 3 . 7 percent of all 18- to 49 - year - olds , and 10 percent of all 18- to 49 - year - olds watching television at the time of the broadcast . this marked a decrease in a million viewers and a 14 percent decrease in the 18 – 49 demographic from the previous episode . the episode became the highest - rated non - sports related nbc program for the original week it aired and also became the twenty - first most - watched show for the week of broadcast among adults aged 18 – 49 . joel keller of aoltv called it a " vast improvement " from the previous episode " nepotism " , because he felt that " everyone at dunder - mifflin [ sic ] scranton acted like themselves " . keller called toby and michael 's counseling session " great " and enjoyed the way toby was able to trick michael . kelly gerlach of tv equals enjoyed the episode and noted that it " felt like the earlier seasons " because " there wasn ’ t forced humor , nothing made me cringe in my seat because of bad writing , and the awkward situations were written specifically to be awkward . " in the end , she called the episode " decent " . alan sepinwall of hitfix felt that the main story employed " one of the show 's most reliable running jokes " . furthermore , he felt that michael softening to toby was an interesting element to the episode , and he wondered if " this was a one - time thing , or if michael 's treatment of toby will be softened , even a little . " sepinwall also felt that pam 's story was the stronger of the two subplots , and felt that an office controlled by her would be interesting . dan forcella of tv fanatic awarded the episode four out of five stars and called it " pleasant " . while he noted that each of the three stories " weren 't flat out funny " , he wrote that they were all " enjoyable " . furthermore , he positively commented on the main plot , noting that the michael and toby rivalry was fun . not all reviews were positive . myles mcnutt of the a.v. club awarded the episode a " c " grade . while he enjoyed the main storyline revolving around michael and toby and felt that it " came together both comically and dramatically at the end of the day " , he felt the rest of the episode was " quite uneven " with elements that were " ridiculous " , such as how pam attained her new job . mcnutt 's largest complaint with the remainder of the episode was that neither ended in " a logical place " ; he felt dwight 's plot featured a disconnect from the character , and that pam 's story was " lazy " .