Did anyone else notice that part where Brian said that Caron asked him out? I was surprised that that didn't come into play later in the episode. If that's true, than that's a pretty big thing, cause she would have been with Jim when that happened, but the writers presented it really subtly.
they actually sort of allude to this in one of the last episodes of season three, "women's appreciation day", the one where michael goes to the mall with his office girls. the office guys are in the women's bathroom and jim talks about how it's his sixth month anniversary with karen. the rest of the guys laugh as ryan tells jim that everyone thought that they were just hooking up as opposed to seriously dating. jim handles it well and tells them that he is, in fact, dating karen.
ryan than goes to talk about how he emailed karen awhile back asking if she wanted to go out with him and how she gave him the typical "i dont date guys from the office" reply.
i like how this season they are showcasing how much of a yuppie piece of shit ryan really is, because it's something that was always there from the begining.