Michael Scott has had many opponents in recent years, but this season he will get an adversary worthy of a duel at sunset. Timothy Olyphant (FX's Justified) joins The Office for at least two episodes as a salesman who's just a little too good at his job. "He steals clients away from Jim and Michael and Dwight, so they have a little sting set up," Paul Lieberstein, the show's writer and producer who also plays Toby, tells TV Guide Magazine. "They set up a fake company to see what his secret is."
That's not the only obstacle Michael will tackle before Steve Carell bids adieu at the end of the season. "There's a lot of fun stuff coming up in the fall," promises Lieberstein. "Michael hires his nephew, who's a completely incompetent kid, and he has to deal with nepotism in the office, which is eventually going to send him into mandatory counseling with Toby as his counselor."
And Michael's less-than-stellar luck with the ladies will continue. "Michael's going to come into work with what he thinks is a pimple and it turns out to be a cold sore, which he then learns is herpes, and he feels the need to contact every woman he's ever been with to tell them they could be at risk," reveals Lieberstein. Though it doesn't sound like it will improve Michael's love life, the storyline certainly sounds like it could open the door for both Amy Ryan (Holly) and Melora Hardin (Jan) to return.
For the writers, plotting out Carell's last season has been both sad and exciting. "The sad part is obvious," says Lieberstein. "But it's exciting because we get a chance to change this character. We get to have him grow in a way that we could never do if we wanted him to stay for years. And we get to end this season differently than we started. As a writer and a producer that's super exciting."
