High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "Branch Wars" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of the American comedy television series The Office—the show`s sixty-third episode overall. Written by Mindy Kaling and directed by Joss Whedon, the episode originally aired in the United States on November 1, 2007 on NBC. The episode marks the return of season three regular Rashida Jones, who plays Jim`s former girlfriend Karen, now Regional Manager of Dunder Mifflin Utica.