Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) return from their honeymoon in Puerto Rico and Michael (Steve Carell) tells Jim that he has been dating Pam’s mother, Helene, after spending the night with her in “Niagara”. Jim is in shock and tells Michael not to mention anything to Pam and to break it off with Helene immediately, which Michael then agrees to do. However, when Jim and Pam give Michael a gift from Puerto Rico, Michael asks if Pam thinks he should date who he wants. He then lets it slip he is dating Helene, and Pam storms out of the office and into the parking lot in shock and anger, screaming all the way down. She calls her mother and angrily asks her why she started dating him after she continuously complained to her about the way Michael’s treated her over the past several years.

During a conference room meeting, Pam maintains a hostile attitude toward Michael and openly defies him in response to the news. Michael then gets a call from Helene, who wants him to tell Pam to calm down. Pam then announces that he has been dating Helene to the rest of the office. Everyone is disgusted by this, but when Michael says he doesn’t understand why he doesn’t deserve happiness, they then say that Pam is overreacting, and Michael becomes hostile towards Pam. Michael asks Toby (Paul Lieberstein) to resolve the situation in a very kind manner and for a brief moment, they seemingly are friendly and working together. But, when Toby fails to strike an agreement with Pam, Michael goes back to resenting Toby, and the situation continues to worsen. Pam then brings Michael into the kitchen and orders him to stop dating Helene, and Michael responds by saying he will date her “even harder”. At the end of the day, Michael feels bad about being so belligerent and says goodnight to Pam, without response.

Meanwhile, Dwight (Rainn Wilson) apologizes to Jim for years of torment, and offers him a token of his desire for peace with a wooden mallard. However, he has secretly put a recording device taped underneath the mallard so that he can monitor him and Jim’s financial endeavors and sales. Jim quickly finds the device and starts using it to mess with Dwight. He first brings Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) into his office and plays the opera Martha loudly while he talks to Andy so Dwight will not hear their conversation. He then gives the mallard to Ryan (B. J. Novak) and Kelly (Mindy Kaling) in the annex, and Dwight is forced to pay $10 for it back. When Jim finds the mallard back in his office, he addresses Dwight directly through the recording device, and Dwight knows that Jim discovered it. Dwight admits his guilt and says he did it because of Jim’s promotion, which he felt that he was more deserving of. Jim punishes Dwight by making him wash his car. Jim then brings Pam into the conference room and successfully cheers her up by saying Dwight is washing their car as an apology for what she’s been through and recounting stories from their honeymoon. Pam admits she may have overreacted, but still doesn’t believe she actually did given the situation. At the end of the episode, Dwight reveals that that recording device underneath the mallard was merely a decoy, as his actual recording device was installed on the tip of a pen that he claimed Jim left on his desk earlier, along with the mallard. Dwight then plays back the audio on the pen, of which he says he has over 8 hours worth of “information” on Jim.

“The Lover” is the 6th episode of the sixth season of the U.S. comedy series The Office and the show’s 107th episode overall. It was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Lee Eisenberg.

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