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"The Alliance" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American comedy television series ''The Office'', and the show's fourth episode overall. The episode aired on NBC in the United States on April 12, 2005. It was written by Michael Schur and directed by Bryan Gordon, marking their first credits for the show. In this episode, paranoia takes over the members of the office as downsizing rumors swirl. Dwight (Rainn Wilson) forms a ''Survivor''-esque alliance with Jim (John Krasinski) against the other employees—later adding Pam (Jenna Fischer) also. Meanwhile, Michael (Steve Carell) arranges a morale-boosting birthday party for Meredith (Kate Flannery)—although her birthday is more than a month away. Michael agonizes over writing the perfect greeting in her birthday card, and in the end, his joke falls flat, ruining the party. The episode was inspired by popular reality television shows, most notably ''Survivor''. Originally, the first cut of the episode ran 37 minutes long and the producers considered making the episode a two-parter, one focusing on the Alliance and another focusing on Meredith's birthday party, but later decided against the idea. In addition, several of the lines and scenes from the episode were improved or ad-libbed by the cast. "The Alliance" was viewed by an estimated 5.4 million viewers and received a 2.4/6% rating share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49. The episode received positive reviews from critics. ==Synopsis== Although time has dragged on, the downsizing rumors at Dunder Mifflin have not ceased. Dwight (Rainn Wilson) feels particularly threatened by the impending crisis, and, in an act of desperation, forms an alliance with his office nemesis Jim (John Krasinski). Jim sees the alliance as an opportunity with great potential and agrees as a lark. He immediately enlists Pam (Jenna Fischer)'s help in the situation. The two continue to perform a series of office pranks at the expense of Dwight. Meanwhile, Michael (Steve Carell) tries to boost morale in the office by having an office birthday party for Meredith (Kate Flannery), even though her birthday is a month away. Michael agonizes over writing the perfect greeting in her birthday card. In the end his joke (and subsequent rejected ones) falls flat, severely ruining the party. At the same time Oscar also gets him to donate money to his nephew's cerebral palsy walk-a-thon, which Michael accidentally overcontributes to in an effort to look like a good boss. At the end of the day, after a breakthrough in his pranks on Dwight, Jim giddily grabs Pam's hand in an attempt to explain what has just happened. However, Pam's fiancé Roy (David Denman) catches this and sees it as an attempt by Jim to make a move on Pam. Jim tries to convince Roy that it was just "office pranks" and asks Dwight to back him up, but he simply denies any involvement leaving Jim awkwardly embarrassed. Dwight reveals that he had no problems betraying Jim, despite the fact that he recently fell into one of Jim's tricks. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Alliance (The Office)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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