I agree with your first part. I do think that the "it was what is was" was referring to the training exercise. I do think that the clips can be misleading in hopes to get more people hooked. You can tell that Andy's character is torn between Sam and Luke and the training exercise I assume Sam has more insight than Andy does about Luke. It is perfect opportunity to show who is the man in a work related activity that does not involve others know what is exactly about. The others would think that Sam just way into his job and the only other one know differently would be Andy. So, that is just my opinion.