Michael begins a “Golden Ticket” promotion for Dunder-Mifflin by slipping golden sheets of paper (10% off coupons) in five boxes that happened to be on the same pallet. Donning a Wonka-esque ensemble, he presses the rest of the office to come up with ideas that are better than or at least as good as his.
Meanwhile, Kevin asks for advice about dating Lynn, the woman he met during last week’s “Blood Drive”. Jim, Pam, and Andy share dating tips throughout the episode.
Scranton’s largest customer finds five golden tickets in their recent shipment, resulting in a massive loss for the company and Jim’s sales. Michael is quick to disown the golden ticket idea and uses Dwight as a scapegoat when David calls to ask which part of the sales team is responsible.
Michael attempts to convince Dwight that he actually came up with the idea. Though unconvinced, Dwight is torn between his loyalty to Michael and once more submitting to Michael’s disrespect. Jim tries to persuade Dwight to not take the fall.
When David Wallace makes a trip to Scranton, presumably to fire Dwight, he announces that the winning client has decided to make Dunder-Mifflin their exclusive paper supply company and congratulates Dwight on his brilliant idea.
The rest of the office antagonize Michael when he attempts to take back credit, claiming that he has never seen Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
During a conference call that David has arranged with Dwight and the other regional managers, Michael bursts in and admits that the idea was his. He and Dwight have a duel of terrible ideas to impress David with Michael’s being primarily “toilet ideas”. Disgusted at the immature conduct, David leaves and abandons the successful promotional idea.
Kevin ignores the advice he’s been given and asks Lynn out on a date. Andy tearfully watches from a window, disappointed that Kevin did not listen to him.
“Golden Ticket” is built on a good premise, especially Michael’s “random” placement of the tickets, but goes off in too many familiar directions. A new romantic Kevin subplot is introduced but it is far from the focal point. It serves mostly as a vehicle for Andy, Jim, and Pam’s conflicting advice than Kevin himself. Also, Dwight’s loyalty has been tested several times before. The only redeeming factor of this episode was the office turning against Michael in favor of Dwight. As well as another classic Creed line regarding the true purpose of carnations.
