EP. 179 — After Hours

Jenna [00:00:03] I’m Jenna Fischer. 

Angela [00:00:05] And I’m Angela Kinsey. 

Jenna [00:00:06] We were on The Office together. 

Angela [00:00:07] And we’re best friends. 

Jenna [00:00:08] And now we’re doing the ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. 

Angela [00:00:12] Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind the scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. 

Jenna [00:00:19] We’re the Office Ladies… Hi.

Angela [00:00:25] No, you can’t start like that. 

Jenna [00:00:27] Why? I’m in a fould mood. I’m in a foul mood. And the job now that you have ahead of yourself, Angela, is that you have to re-mood me during this podcast. 

Angela [00:00:38] Oh no! I am going to re-mood you. Don’t you worry. There’s some really good stuff. 

Jenna [00:00:42] I am actually excited about the stuff I have to share today. It’s good. 

Angela [00:00:46] Good. 

Jenna [00:00:47] Today we’re talking about After Hours. It is season eight, episode 16, written by Halstead Sullivan and Warren Lieberstein and directed by Brian Baumgartner!

Angela [00:00:58] I know! How fun was that? 

Jenna [00:01:00] A cast member. Do you want a summary or do I need to tell people why I’m in a foul mood? 

Angela [00:01:05] I think you should probably share why you’re in a foul mood and get it out of the way. Get rid of it. 

Jenna [00:01:10] Okay. It’s just one of those things. I’ve had two bad sleeps in a row. 

Angela [00:01:15] Oh. 

Jenna [00:01:15] And last night I really set myself up for a good sleep. I took a melatonin. I went to bed when the kids went to bed. I was like, I’ve got 9 hours ahead of me of sleeping bliss. 

Angela [00:01:26] Great. 

Jenna [00:01:27] And then at midnight, I don’t know, Maggie saw something out the window, and she started barking and it woke me up. And then I was awake for, like, an hour and a half. And I’m in a bad mood because of it. That’s it. It’s very simple. When I don’t get sleep, I get real cranky, and I’m on two nights of not good sleep. 

Angela [00:01:49] Is there a term for that? You know, like hangry is when you’re hungry and angry. 

Jenna [00:01:54] Am I sleep deprived-ry-gry?  

Angela [00:01:57] Slangry? Slangry? 

Jenna [00:02:03] Well, you’re already making me laugh. So this is good. Moving on. Here is your summary: In Tallahassee, Dwight and Todd Packer compete for the V.P. position of special projects by attempting to seduce Nellie. Also, Jim feels uncomfortable with Cathy’s behavior toward him. 

Angela [00:02:24] Um yeah! 

Jenna [00:02:24] I have a lot to say. 

Angela [00:02:26] I have so many thoughts. 

Jenna [00:02:27] All right. Finally, the group back in Scranton picks up the slack from the Florida group. They have to stay late. But things turn awkward when Val’s boyfriend shows up and confronts Darryl about some text messages he sent to Val. Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. Fast fact number one, our cast member, Brian Baumgartner, was director! 

Angela [00:02:53] (CELEBRATORY SOUNDS) 

Jenna [00:02:53] Yes! I loved Brian as director. He had such a great energy. 

Angela [00:02:58] He comes into a room with so much charisma. The cast and crew loved him. And he shines. You could tell he was having the best time and was excited to be there. And that energy was contagious. 

Jenna [00:03:11] Well, we got to trade messages with the writers of this episode, Warren Lieberstein and Halstead Sullivan, and they both had very nice things to say about Brian as a director. Warren said that Brian was very well-liked by the cast and crew, like you said, Ange, and he did a really great job of setting up shots. In fact, I have a couple of really fun things to share later that were kind of more elaborate than anything we’ve ever done before, that Brian thought of. 

Angela [00:03:37] I have a guess as one. I’m gona hold onto it.  

Jenna [00:03:39] Okay, hold on to it. But Warren said the thing Brian really excelled at was bringing out a real sense of fun, particularly between John and Rainn. Like in the scene where Dwight asks Jim if the bed bug was smug. 

Angela [00:03:51] That’s what I was thinking of as you started to say it. 

Jenna [00:03:55] Yep. And Warren thought maybe it was because those three had a really good real life friendship. So they had a shorthand. 

Angela [00:04:01] Well, yeah. You know, almost every day for lunch, you guys, the three of them would meet in John’s trailer and play Madden football. 

Jenna [00:04:08] And we could hear them while we were trying to have lunch.  

Angela [00:04:09] Yelling. 

Jenna [00:04:09] In my trailer.

Angela [00:04:12] They hung out a lot. You know, Halstead also said that Brian was great, and he said there was kind of a cool coincidence because Halsted, Brian, and Ed all went to the same high school. 

Jenna [00:04:24] I didn’t know that. I mean, I knew about Brian and Ed, but I didn’t know Halstead went there, too. 

Angela [00:04:28] Yeah, I mean, not at the same time. You know, He said Ed and Brian were younger than him, but they all went to Westminster in Atlanta and they took a photo for their alumni together on set. 

Jenna [00:04:38] I love that. 

Angela [00:04:40] Halstead said to say, Go Wildcats. 

Jenna [00:04:42] Okay, Go, Wildcats! 

Angela [00:04:44] Go, Wildcats. 

Jenna [00:04:45] Moving on to fast fact number two, I think we need to talk about Jerry Minor as Val’s boyfriend, Brandon. 

Angela [00:04:52] I mean, Jenna, when I rewatched those conference room scenes… 

Jenna [00:04:58] Right?

Angela [00:04:59] We could not keep it together. I see us breaking. I see- my character’s, like, smiling in a few places. I’m like, What is happening? He was so great. 

Jenna [00:05:09] I have known Jerry for a very, very long time. We have the same manager, and so we were often doing showcases together. In fact. 

Angela [00:05:18] Like acting like scenes? 

Jenna [00:05:19] Like when you’re trying to get representation, like you’re trying to get an agent or a manager. 

Angela [00:05:24] Sure. 

Jenna [00:05:25] You’ll put together like a little group of actors and you’ll do like a one act play, and then you invite a bunch of industry people to come see it in hopes of getting repped. 

Angela [00:05:34] Yes. I did something like this, but we did like a vignette of scenes. Like little scenes. 

Jenna [00:05:38] Yes, I’ve done that too! 

Angela [00:05:40] So you did that with Jerry? 

Jenna [00:05:41] Yes. He was already repped by Naomi Odenkirk, as was this actor Jim Zulevic, and they needed an actress to play a role and like a friend of a friend recommended me and I ended up doing the showcase with them. 

Angela [00:05:55] How fun!

Jenna [00:05:55] And and then Naomi ended up representing me, which was so crazy. But yeah. 

Angela [00:06:01] I kind of miss those days a little bit of just getting to do a group of scenes with great actors on stage. It’s so fun. 

Jenna [00:06:09] So fun. 

Angela [00:06:10] Did I do an actor nerd out moment? 

Jenna [00:06:12] I think you just had an actor nerd out moment, Ange. I love it. Well, you guys might recognize Jerry from a gazillion things. Mr. Show, The Daily Show, SNL, Eastbound and Down. And, you know, he actually has a bunch of Office connections. He was in Anchor Man with Steve. He actually auditioned to be Jim on The Office. 

Angela [00:06:35] I did not know that. Oh, I didn’t know that! 

Jenna [00:06:39] He also knows Craig really well. They did- we talked about this when we were talking with Craig, that he did that very famous song, Somebody’s (BLEEP) My Lady. 

Angela [00:06:48] Yes. 

Jenna [00:06:49] So funny. It was so much fun to have him on set. And the rapport between Craig and Jerry, it just made those scenes so good. And, you know, he has more Office connections since he left the show. He did the Sex Lives of College Girls, which is Mindy’s show. He was a recurring character on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt with Ellie. He was in Superstore, which is writer Justin Spitzer’s show. And most recently, he’s been a recurring character on Abbott Elementary, which is executive produced by Randall Einhorn. 

Angela [00:07:18] Right. 

Jenna [00:07:18] And Angela, I know you have your own connection to Jerry. 

Angela [00:07:21] I do. I mean, I met Jerry years ago through Improv Olympic, but then we ended up on Hot Wives of Orlando together. That job was so much fun. For those of you guys who aren’t familiar, it was a show that parodied The Real Housewives, and it followed seven women in Orlando, Florida. And the cast was Kristen Schaal, Casey Wilson, Timberly Hill, Andrea Savage, Danielle Schneider and Dannah Feinglass Phirman. It was the funniest group of women all in one space together. And Jerry played Rodney, FeFe’s cheating husband. And you know he crushed it. And also Warren and Halstead had worked with Jerry on a show they wrote on called Car Poolers. So they were already huge fans. And Warren said they both felt super lucky that Jerry was available to play Val’s boyfriend. 

Jenna [00:08:13] Can you guys tell that we just, like, love Jerry Minor? 

Angela [00:08:15] Yeah, like, I mean. 

Jenna [00:08:17] He’s just one of those, like, what would you call them? Like, he’s an actor where you just- is that like, a clutch? A clutch in the clutch? 

Angela [00:08:28] Oh, like a sports- um like they’re-

Jenna [00:08:31] Like, you just know. 

Angela [00:08:32] Yeah, they’re going to come in and. 

Jenna [00:08:33] They’re just going to kill it. 

Angela [00:08:35] Crush it.  

Jenna [00:08:35] Yeah, that’s him. 

Angela [00:08:37] He’s a clutch. I don’t think that’s the right way to use it. 

Jenna [00:08:41] In a clutch. 

Angela [00:08:42] In a clutch. But anyway, you guys. Our sports references are horrible. Someone is groaning right now as they listen. But yes, Jerry Minor was that clutch player. 

Jenna [00:08:56] We think is the word. 

Angela [00:08:58] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:08:58] Okay. Let’s move on to fast fact number three. It’s the Jim and Cathy controversy. 

Angela [00:09:05] I am positive, without you telling me, that there was a fan mail flurry. 

Jenna [00:09:10] There sure was. 

Angela [00:09:11] Because I have a few bull (BLEEP) cards I’m ready to play. 

Jenna [00:09:14] Oh, get them ready. I mean you’re going to have a stack of them. So the main question we got was this. People wrote in and said, There is a story going around on the Internet saying that the writers originally intended for Jim to have an affair with Cathy. 

Angela [00:09:31] No! 

Jenna [00:09:33] Yeah. 

Angela [00:09:33] No! 

Jenna [00:09:34] But that John Krasinski was so heavily against this idea that he convinced the writing staff to change their minds about the storyline. Is this true? 

Angela [00:09:43] Well, you would have never gone for that either. 

Jenna [00:09:46] Yeah. No. 

Angela [00:09:46] Uh no.  

Jenna [00:09:47] We can clear this up right now. Jim was never going to have an affair with or hook up with Cathy. However. 

Angela [00:09:56] There’s a however?

Jenna [00:09:57] There were things about the proposed storyline that did bump me and John. Here’s how it all went down. So after we filmed Cathy’s phone call at the end of Special Project, you know, where she’s like talking to her friend and it becomes clear that she’s going to go after Jim in Tallahassee. It comes out of the blue. 

Angela [00:10:16] Out of nowhere. 

Jenna [00:10:17] Well, that was a total record scratch for me and John. We kind of immediately went into Paul’s office and we were like. 

Angela [00:10:24] Wha- wha- wha- what?! 

Jenna [00:10:26] Yeah, we were like, exactly, like where is this going? We said, There is no way that Jim can hook up with Cathy. And Paul was like, That is not part of our plan, I promise you. No, that’s part of her plan. That’s Cathy’s plan. Jim is not in that plan. And I actually checked with Warren and Halstead, who wrote this episode, and they confirmed that it was never part of the plan. And, lady, don’t ask me how I have it, but I have the original Goldilocks outline for this episode. 

Angela [00:10:57] You know why? 

Jenna [00:10:58] Why? 

Angela [00:10:59] Because you’re my best friend. And we’re both digital hoarders. You say it’s really just me, But you have some old stuff you hold onto. 

Jenna [00:11:08] I have a few things. 

Angela [00:11:08] Now you hold on to things almost a little bit more intentionally, whereas mine is just like, you know, crazy clutter. 

Jenna [00:11:15] Yeah. Well, I did collect things that had to do with Jim and Pam. 

Angela [00:11:21] Yes. 

Jenna [00:11:21] And what the Goldilocks was, it was the kind of very first story outline for every script. 

Angela [00:11:29] Right. Before they went off and wrote anything. 

Jenna [00:11:31] Exactly. This was what the writers could use when they went to write the script. And it was based on everything that had been pitched. And this document had to be approved by the producers. There is nothing in the Goldilocks about Jim hooking up with Cathy for this episode. Nothing.

Angela [00:11:48] So this is even more. 

Jenna [00:11:50] More proof. 

Angela [00:11:50] More proof. 

Jenna [00:11:51] Yes. When I talked to Warren about it, he said that the character of Cathy was always meant to be a kind of like provocateur. You know, you think about when she was introduced. Pam is really bothered that Jim won’t admit that she’s objectively attractive. 

Angela [00:12:08] Right. 

Jenna [00:12:08] But it was never pitched or it was never the intention that Jim would have any romantic feelings toward Cathy. It was always kind of understood by the writers that that was off limits. However. 

Angela [00:12:19] Another however. 

Jenna [00:12:20] Another however. In the very first drafts of this script, there was a lot more kind of teasing of the audience. Like, will he? Like, is he being charmed by her? Is he flirting back with her? Or is he just being a nice guy? Like in the version you see here, he is so clearly uncomfortable and is a giant no every time she does something. But in the original script, there was a little bit more like repartee. 

Angela [00:12:50] Hmm. 

Jenna [00:12:51] And John and I got to read that, and it really bumped us. We felt like even walking that line was a betrayal. And we did not want that for Jim and Pam’s relationship. You know, the producers said that the idea was that they were putting temptation in front of Jim to show how committed he was to Pam. Those teases were more to create tension for the audience than they were to imply that Jim would ever do anything. But because we complained, they made some tweaks to make sure that it felt like this was 100% driven by Cathy and there would be no mixed signals from Jim. Like we didn’t want there to be anything where it was like you could say, Well, Jim, you shouldn’t have laughed with her in that moment, or you shouldn’t have whispered in her ear during that conference room scene. Like, of course she’s getting the wrong idea. Those are like examples of kind of the little things that she could have taken the wrong way. 

Angela [00:13:41] Right. 

Jenna [00:13:42] So the shooting draft of the script also included a scene where Pam calls Jim’s hotel room on speakerphone and Cathy answers the phone. 

Angela [00:13:51] Oh, I know. 

Jenna [00:13:52] Yes, we shot it. It was written that Pam is really insecure about this. And even though it was really clear from Jim’s side that he’s really uncomfortable with Cathy in the room, Pam can’t see that. So I didn’t like that scene. I didn’t like that Pam would become so easily insecure. Because, again, I felt like that pointed to a bigger issue in the marriage. And I asked them, like, How is that going to get resolved? Like, is Pam ever going to tell Jim her feelings? 

Angela [00:14:23] Yeah. What’s the long term ripple effect of that moment? 

Jenna [00:14:25] Yeah. And there wasn’t really an answer. They were like, Oh, it’s not an arc. Don’t worry. And I’m like, No, but if you’re going to bring it up, it’s- we should- 

Angela [00:14:34] It’s out there.

Jenna [00:14:34]  It’s out there. So. Yeah. 

Angela [00:14:38] Well, I watched that scene because it’s in deleted scenes, and, you know, there is more to it. There’s more to the phone call. 

Jenna [00:14:46] Yeah. I mean, some of that was a late night writing scramble. I was going to bring it up kind of like where it would happen in the breakdown. So we should definitely talk more about it. I mean, I still have more to say. 

Angela [00:14:58] Well, there’s a lot to discuss and I’m going to need to play that clip when we get to it. But I think we should take a break because when we come back, we have our very favorite cold open as Pam and Angela. 

Jenna [00:15:11] It really is. I’m already in kind of a better mood. And now the fact that we get to talk about that cold open, I think it’s going to be the medicine I need. 

Angela [00:15:17] Yay, no more slangry! We are back. This cold open starts with Pam walking over to accounting. She shows Angela a photo of baby Phillip wearing the booties that Angela bought for Phillip. 

Jenna [00:15:41] Yes. 

Angela [00:15:42] Right? 

Jenna [00:15:42] Very nice to learn that Angela did that. 

Angela [00:15:45] Right. And it seems like a nice moment. 

Jenna [00:15:48] Mhmm. 

Angela [00:15:49] There was an extra line to this little couplet. Jenna, I read it in the shooting draft last night, and I started laughing. I laughed out loud. It is such a small- it is only one sentence, but it cracks me up. Pam says, Hey, Angela, want to see a picture of Phillip wearing those booties you gave us? Angela says, So cute. Do you have any pictures of them without Phillip? It’s so snarky!

Jenna [00:16:21] Oh my  god. 

Angela [00:16:22] But that line got edited out. 

Jenna [00:16:24] It needed to because in this moment… 

Angela [00:16:28] They’re bonding. 

Jenna [00:16:28] Yes! 

Angela [00:16:29] They need to bond because then it sets up this great runner between Angela, Oscar and Pam. 

Jenna [00:16:35] Yes. 

Angela [00:16:35] Where they take turns taking sides. 

Jenna [00:16:38] Yeah. So after Pam and Angela bond over their bootie photo. 

Angela [00:16:43] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:16:43] Bootie meaning on their feet. 

Angela [00:16:46] Baby Booties. 

Jenna [00:16:47] Baby booties. Oscar wants to share a photo of his dog, Gerald wearing rain galoshes. 

Angela [00:16:54] I mean, now that Gerald has them, he can’t stop wearing them. He loves them. 

Jenna [00:16:58] Pam and Angela share a look. 

Angela [00:17:00] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:17:01] Mm hmm. Then they have a talking head where they’re like, Oscar thinks that having a dog is the same as having a baby. So they’re kind of, like, ganging up on that person who thinks having a pet is the same as having a kid. 

Angela [00:17:12] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:17:13] But then we’re going to go into the kitchen where Oscar is going to ask Pam and Angela if their babies are crawling yet. And Pam is like, Oh, no. You know, Phillip is only three months old. It’s too early for that. Angela insists her baby is crawling. 

Angela [00:17:27] She’s like, Really? My baby Phillip’s crawling. 

Jenna [00:17:30] So then Pam and Oscar share a look. 

Angela [00:17:33] They’re like, Angela is such a liar. 

Jenna [00:17:35] And then Oscar’s going to complain about his lack of sleep due to crate training. And Pam is going to have to one up him and say, Oh, you know what? Imagine having two. 

Angela [00:17:46] Right?

Jenna [00:17:46] I’ve got two kids. Two sleep schedules. And now Angela and Oscar are going to share a look. 

Angela [00:17:52] And then they have a talking head where they’re like, Listen, no one said you need to have two. We don’t need more Pam and Jim DNA out there. So now they bond over that. 

Jenna [00:18:01] Yes. Finally, Andy’s going to come in the kitchen because he wants everyone to see a picture of his brother’s new sailboat. Because you know what? There is nothing harder than taking care of a boat. Nothing!

Angela [00:18:11] And now the three of them really share a look because come on. 

Jenna [00:18:16] I mean, unbelievable! 

Angela [00:18:16] Un-be-liev-a-ble! 

Jenna [00:18:20] Oh, lady, we got so many fan questions about this cold open. Samantha A from Florida said, Was Oscar’s “un-be-liev-a-ble” scripted in the cold open? I need to know everything about this moment. Is my favorite Office line in the whole series. Oh, Samantha, we have so much to share. 

Angela [00:18:39] So this cold open hit close to home. Warren and Halstead shared with us their inspiration for it. Warren said that when they wrote this in 2011, he had a young daughter. You guys know, my kiddo. Isabel! 

Jenna [00:18:51] Yeah. 

Angela [00:18:51] And Halstead shared, he had just gotten a new puppy named Parker. They said this back and forth about raising a child and raising a puppy stemmed from their actual lives and was probably a source of contention between the two of them. And then Halstead made the mistake of saying in the writers room that having a puppy can be just like having a kid with the loss of sleep, etc. and Halstead didn’t have any children. And immediately everyone in the room who had kids, including Warren, jumped in and was like, No, no, no, no, no! And then this writer’s room debate made its way into the show. Halstead said since Angela and Pam both had kids, they used Oscar’s dog, Gerald, to make the bit work. And then, of course, they heightened it and heightened it and capped it off with all of them teaming up against Andy. 

Jenna [00:19:36] I thought this cold open was so relatable. I feel like I’ve been in these conversations. Right? 

Angela [00:19:43] Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Jenna [00:19:44] If you have one kid, then you have that friend that has two. But if you have two kids, you know someone who has four. Or if you have one kid, you know someone who has twins. And or what if you’re a blended family? Do you realize how complicated that is? 

Angela [00:19:56] Yes, I do. 

Jenna [00:19:57] Yes! So it’s like the subtle sometimes one upmanship of your family what would you call it? 

Angela [00:20:05] Dynamic? I would also say I do have friends and I love them dearly that their babies are their fur babies. And I know how special that is. 

Jenna [00:20:15] I had Andy. 

Angela [00:20:16] I know. 

Jenna [00:20:16] He was my fur baby. 

Angela [00:20:17] For a long time. And so I have gotten the Christmas card of just the dogs on the front. 

Jenna [00:20:23] I love them. 

Angela [00:20:24] I do, too. I hang them up. But I do feel like I’ve been in these conversations. 

Jenna [00:20:29] Well, Samantha, I also want to tell you in answer to your question, that the long, drawn out, Un-be-liev-a-ble by Oscar was not scripted that way. 

Angela [00:20:39] No. 

Jenna [00:20:40] We were all just supposed to say “unbelievable” in unison. But on one of the takes, Oscar just improvised drawing out that line. It was so funny. We all lost it. 

Angela [00:20:50] It was so out of the blue. It like threw us.

Jenna [00:20:53] If you see our faces, you and I, we look so surprised. It’s like someone threw water on us. We can’t believe. But also, it’s like sometimes there’s those moments when someone makes a choice that is so funny, you’re just you’re delighted. Like, you can’t believe it. 

Angela [00:21:09] Well Brian and Warren and Halstead all loved it, and they told Oscar to keep doing it. But you and I could not recover. 

Jenna [00:21:14] We couldn’t. 

Angela [00:21:15] We could not get through it. I am so impressed we even got one version of this that they could air. 

Jenna [00:21:20] Me too. Me too. 

Angela [00:21:21] And it’s in the bloopers, I think we should hear it. 

Jenna [00:21:23] I want to hear it. 

Pam, Angela, Oscar [00:21:25] Unbelievable! 

Oscar [00:21:25] Un-be-liev-a-ble! 

Cast and Crew [00:21:25] (LAUGHTER) 

Brian Baumgartner [00:21:25] Do that again but- Do that again- Do that again. 

Pam, Angela, Oscar [00:21:25] Ubelievable! 

Oscar [00:21:25] Un-be-liev-a-ble! 

Cast and Crew [00:21:25] (LAUGHTER) 

Pam, Angela, Oscar [00:21:25] Unbelievable! 

Oscar [00:21:25] Un-be-liev-a-ble! 

Angela [00:21:47] Did we get it? Did we get it?

Brian Baumgartner [00:21:50] No, we did not that time.

Pam, Angela, Oscar [00:21:52] Unbelievable!

Oscar [00:21:53] Un-be-liev-a-ble! 

Brian Baumgartner [00:21:55] Oh, God. It’s so funny when he does that. 

Angela [00:21:58] I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

Brian Baumgartner [00:21:59] As soon as we get this, we’re done. I swear-

Angela [00:21:59] I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry…. Oh, my God. I think I said I’m sorry like eight times.

Jenna [00:22:06] We just. We couldn’t do it. 

Angela [00:22:07] We couldn’t do it. 

Jenna [00:22:09] He was so funny. And poor Oscar, you know, he never breaks. 

Angela [00:22:13] Never. 

Jenna [00:22:14] And he is sitting in between the two of us, and we’re losing our minds. 

Angela [00:22:19] And we’re the worst!

Jenna [00:22:19] Ah. Well, listen, before we move on from this cold open, that is just changing my whole mood, we did have a really fun fan catch in this scene. It’s from Stephanie B in Allen, Texas, who wrote in to say- this is a question for Angela- At one minute and 9 seconds, when you’re sitting at the table in the kitchen… 

Angela [00:22:36] In the kitchen, yeah. 

Jenna [00:22:38] There are like 4 to 5 unwrapped string cheese sticks in front of you. Surely Angela would not be eating 5 to 6 cheese sticks in one sitting. What’s up with the cheese sticks? Ange, it’s true. Here’s what you have in front of you. There is a Tupperware of grapes. 

Angela [00:22:57] Yes. 

Jenna [00:22:58] A Tupperware of Ritz crackers, and then a Tupperware of about a half dozen unwrapped cheese sticks. 

Angela [00:23:05] Yeah, this was me asking Phil Shea, can I have a little charcuterie? How about some cheese sticks and crackers? You know, they’re my go to snack. 

Jenna [00:23:13] We learned that in jury duty. You brought them to jury duty with you. 

Angela [00:23:16] I brought them to jury- 

Jenna [00:23:17] Cheese and crackers. 

Angela [00:23:18] That’s right. I bring them almost everywhere. Almost every time we record, I have a cheese stick in my bag. 

Jenna [00:23:23] This is true. 

Angela [00:23:24] I think Phil just wanted to make sure I had enough take after take. 

Jenna [00:23:28] Oh, my gosh. You know, I realize I’ve never asked you this. What is your favorite cheese? Is it a cheese stick? 

Angela [00:23:35] Of all cheeses? 

Jenna [00:23:37] I mean, I don’t know. 

Angela [00:23:39] Lady. There are so many cheeses that don’t travel in a stick form. I this is too big of a conversation. I love so many cheeses. I like Fontina and I like Brie and I like Gouda. I like stinky cheeses. But your cheese stick is like a mozzarella. Sometimes I like a sharp cheddar. See what I mean? I could talk about this for a bit. 

Jenna [00:24:01] Do you want to go to that place? I sent you on Instagram? 

Angela [00:24:04] Yes! Yes! 

Jenna [00:24:05] It’s a it’s a conveyer belt of cheese. You know where it is? It’s in Covent Garden in London. 

Angela [00:24:11] Yeah. It’s like a table. And there’s platters that, like, circle around you of cheese. 

Jenna [00:24:16] Yeah. Like they have sushi, places like that. 

Angela [00:24:19] But this is with cheese. 

Jenna [00:24:20] This is just cheese. 

Angela [00:24:21] Oh, I so want to go. 

Jenna [00:24:23] Okay. 

Angela [00:24:24] I need it to happen in our life as best friends. 

Jenna [00:24:26] Okay, well we’ve been saying we actually want to take Office Ladies on the road- 

Angela [00:24:31] To London! 

Jenna [00:24:32] To London. So we’ll eat cheese while we’re there. All right. Should we get into this episode? 

Angela [00:24:37] We should, because it’s the end of the very first week in Tallahassee. Nellie seems super pleased. They’ve made it through 40 hours. 

Jenna [00:24:46] How do they do it? She doesn’t know how they filled it. But they did it. And you know what? She thinks they need to have, like, a nice time tonight. Apparently, after a 40 hour workweek, you have to continue hanging out with those people on a social level. 

Angela [00:25:01] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:25:01] Which is my nightmare. 

Angela [00:25:02] So she invites them all to the lobby bar, I guess. But she’s still not ready to name a VP, even though Dwight is trying to, like, hypnotize her into thinking he should be the one. 

Jenna [00:25:14] Yeah, well, listen, she tried hypnosis. It didn’t work. She smoked more. 

Angela [00:25:18] Oh, no. 

Jenna [00:25:19] Cathy is going to approach Jim, and she just sort of says, Hey, maybe we’ll see the real Tallanasty we’ve been hearing about. 

Angela [00:25:28] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:25:29] Yeah. But Gabe is annoyed. He doesn’t want Cathy taking credit for creating Tallanasty. She didn’t. Okay?

Angela [00:25:36] Well, you know what? Gabe is right. Cathy didn’t make up Tallanasty. I looked it up. According to the internet, I guess it’s meant to be an insult made by the University of Florida students to slight their rival, Florida State University’s city. And let me just tell y’all, if you put a hashtag in front of Tallanasty on Instagram… 

Jenna [00:25:59] Oh, no. What do you see? 

Angela [00:26:01] A lot of people having a good time. They’re just living it up. 

Jenna [00:26:05] Okay. 

Angela [00:26:06] They’re partying. A lot. 

Jenna [00:26:09] I’m going to tell you, based on everything we’ve learned about Tallahassee since we’ve been on this story arc, I think it sounds like a lovely, charming town that I cannot wait to go to. 

Angela [00:26:21] Well, there are some folks that really like to party. 

Jenna [00:26:25] Well, listen, maybe that’ll make it great, too. It’s got. 

Angela [00:26:29] No shade. 

Jenna [00:26:29] Got some nightlife. 

Angela [00:26:31] Hashtag Tallanasty. 

Jenna [00:26:32] Stanley and Jim are going to be in a car now and they’re going to pull up alongside a couple of women, and Stanley is going to invite them for drinks and maybe to go dancing. And Jim is kind of trying to be invisible. We got a fan question from Abigail H in Brisbane, Australia, who asked, This is a general question about casting extras. I thought of it when I watched the scene where Stanley and Jim are driving, and they asked the ladies in the car next to them to get a cocktail. What is the process for casting extras like this? Do people have to audition for these roles or are they just random family or friends of the cast? Well, Abigail, that’s a really good question. So no, those background actors are SAG actors. They are part of the union. And what happens is you’ll put a call out, the casting director will put a call out, and they’ll specify kind of what they need the background performer to do. 

Angela [00:27:32] What they’re looking for. 

Jenna [00:27:33] So in this case, they probably put out a call for like two attractive women of a certain age and then a bunch of photos will get sent into the production and then they’ll sort of pick people based on their photograph. 

Angela [00:27:47] Yes, because these are non-speaking roles. They’re background actors. So they didn’t need to come in and audition, but they would have had their photos looked at to see if they were the right fit. 

Jenna [00:27:57] Yes. And so similarly, like a couple weeks ago when they were making the pyramid in the conference room, they put out a call for background actors who were willing to get into a human pyramid. 

Angela [00:28:08] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:28:09] You know? And there are agencies that you sign up for if you want to be a background performer. 

Angela [00:28:14] And we both did that. 

Jenna [00:28:16] Yes, I did it for many years. I learned a lot about what it was like to be on a set. It’s such great experience. 

Angela [00:28:23] It’s a great education. We’re now going to shift over to Dunder Mifflin. Andy addresses the bullpen. He said, It’s time to put their pencils down. The workday is done. But hey, also lift ’em back up because it’s the late night work jam. 

Jenna [00:28:37] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:28:38] Andy and Pam are really trying to get everyone fired up. They’re, you know, doing this chant, “I’m good to go!” In the background, Angela goes, Stop it, stop it. That was improvised. 

Jenna [00:28:50] Oh, I love that! I want to say something. I really love Kelly’s sweater in this episode. It is this sort of gold yellow color that I’m currently obsessed with. It all started when we did our Chili’s commercial, Angela, and the stylist pulled this, like, gorgeous gold silk blouse for me. 

Angela [00:29:12] Yes. You texted me. 

Jenna [00:29:14] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:29:14] Because we couldn’t do our fittings on the same day. 

Jenna [00:29:17] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:29:17] You went first, and I was like, So what’d they put you in? And you said, I think I’m gonna wear this gold yellow blouse. And I was like, Are you sure? 

Jenna [00:29:26] I know!  

Angela [00:29:28] It sounded a little like, Wha? It’s not a color you normally wear. 

Jenna [00:29:30] No. You know, she brought over this rack of clothes and she was pulling things out and she was like, This is kind of my favorite. And it was this gold blouse. And I said, I don’t wear yellow. I don’t think it’s going to look good on me. And as any good stylist would, she said, Give it a try. I loved it. 

Angela [00:29:47] You looked fantastic. 

Jenna [00:29:49] I fell so in love with it that I begged the Chilis people to keep it. And they said yes. So I still have it. And then later, you know, I ended up buying a gold sun dress. I’ve become obsessed with this color yellow and Kelly is wearing it. I don’t know. I’m obsessed. I want to, like, decorate a room in this color. But speaking of wardrobe from this episode, we got a fan question from Lex in Pennsylvania who would like to point out something about Jim’s casual wear. Lex said throughout the series, Jim wears the same gray sweater and jeans any time he’s out of the office. 

Angela [00:30:24] Really? 

Jenna [00:30:25] Lex did a mini deep dive and noticed that the gray sweater and jeans combo shows up in Casual Friday, Andy’s Play, Viewing Party, Pool Party, After Hours, and Finale. Lex said, What’s the deal with the gray sweater? 

Angela [00:30:40] I think that’s kind of cute. I kind of feel like he has his favorite kind of hang out sweater. 

Jenna [00:30:45] Yeah, I kind of love it, too. And you’re right, Lex, like, once you pointed it out, I realized, yeah, he does. Every time. Wears the same sweater. 

Angela [00:30:56] So Andy is going to explain that they’re staying late tonight to service the accounts of the employees who are in Florida. 

Jenna [00:31:03] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:31:04] Pam does point out they could have been doing that all along. But whatever. They’re now going to stay late. 

Jenna [00:31:09] I loved how Pam popped into Andy’s talking head. 

Angela [00:31:12] Yeah that was cute. 

Jenna [00:31:12] I remember when we shot that I was so excited because you always see Dwight doing that to Michael. 

Angela [00:31:18] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:31:18] And I was so delighted to get to do it. 

Angela [00:31:21] I know, I know. It’s a classic Office moment where you’re in the boss’s office. You think the boss is alone, and then someone pops in. We all coveted this bit. I got to do it one time with Michael when I’m hemming his pants. 

Jenna [00:31:36] I remember. 

Angela [00:31:37] I love it. 

Jenna [00:31:39] Well, Halstead said this idea of the office staying late at work, that storyline needed to happen because they needed to have a nighttime storyline for the people at the office to mirror what was happening in Tallahassee. 

Angela [00:31:51] For purposes of the documentary, right? 

Jenna [00:31:53] Yes, exactly. But Halstead said it was very easy for them to come up with funny bits for this office storyline because the writers often stayed at work until about 10:00 working on scripts, and they would get punchy or people would shout things out or like food would come. Anyway. They drew on their personal experience for this storyline. 

Angela [00:32:17] Well, you know, I was really curious about the idea of working after closing time and where the term after hours came from. So here’s what I found. It’s an expression that became popular in the 1800s. 

Jenna [00:32:30] 1800s?!

Angela [00:32:31] Yes! 

Jenna [00:32:32] The phrase after hours? 

Angela [00:32:34] Yes! It originated when governments passed certain laws to regulate business hours. And once businesses were meant to close, it became after hours. So it also gave rise to the term after hours club for a drinking club that remained open later than legal establishments. 

Jenna [00:32:54] Oh. After hours.

Angela [00:32:55] Mhm. Yeah. So the term after hours has been around for a long time. 

Jenna [00:32:59] Wow. Well, speaking of after hours drinking, everyone in Tallahassee’s at the bar. 

Angela [00:33:06] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:33:07] Packer and Nellie disagree on who would win in a fight between Jason Bourne and James Bond. Who do you think would win in a fight between Jason Bourne and James Bond? Because I checked all the message boards, and there is a very clear opinion on the matter. 

Angela [00:33:22] 100% Jason Bourne. 

Jenna [00:33:24] You’re correct. 

Angela [00:33:26] Yeah. I mean, he knows how many paces from the where he’s sitting to the door. 

Jenna [00:33:30] He just has a lot more experience with hand-to-hand combat. 

Angela [00:33:33] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:33:35] Is what everyone said. I got curious who would win a fight between Jason Bourne and John Wick? 

Angela [00:33:40] Oh, gosh. Why are you going to do that to me? Why do I have to pick? 

Jenna [00:33:45] Well, the fan forums say Jason Bourne again. Apparently, Jason Bourne is just the (BLEEP). 

Angela [00:33:51] Yes. 

Jenna [00:33:53] Yeah. 

Angela [00:33:53] Have you seen John Wick, like, drive a car with one arm and shoot out the other side doing a 360? Come on. 

Jenna [00:34:01] Listen, if you give John Wick a car. 

Angela [00:34:04] And a ton of like nunchucks and ammo. 

Jenna [00:34:08] Or a giant sword. He’s, I don’t know. 

Angela [00:34:10] I don’t know. I’m going John Wick. 

Jenna [00:34:13] Well, I mean, fan forums just really think that Jason Bourne, I guess, is the best. 

Angela [00:34:19] Listen, if you let Jason Bourne get up close to you, you’re donezo. 

Jenna [00:34:24] You’re dead. 

Angela [00:34:23] You’re donezo. 

Jenna [00:34:24] Yeah. 

Angela [00:34:25] But maybe John Wick could get him from a distance. 

Jenna [00:34:28] Well, Dwight’s money is on Genghis Khan because he was willing to kill children. 

Angela [00:34:32] Oh, my gosh. Dwight always makes it weird. He always makes it awkward.  

Jenna [00:34:35] Makes a weird comment.

Angela [00:34:37] There’s so many more moments like this that were in the shooting draft and in deleted scenes where Dwight takes it one step too weird. 

Jenna [00:34:45] So bizarre. 

Angela [00:34:46] He said, There’s a moment, Jenna, where Dwight is trying to flirt with Nellie and he’s trying to one up Packer. 

Jenna [00:34:54] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:34:55] Nellie says to Packer, Ooh, innuendo. And Dwight jumps in and goes, In your endo! 

Jenna [00:35:01] No! 

Angela [00:35:02] And Nellie goes, Watch it. Watch it. Like. All right. Just pump the brakes. There were so many more moments, like, this is all I’m saying. 

Jenna [00:35:12] Ah. Well, meanwhile, Ryan and Erin are sitting together, and Ryan orders a chardonnay and Erin orders a waffle. 

Angela [00:35:19] No, no, no. He orders the oakiest Chardonnay they have. 

Jenna [00:35:23] What is with the writers and oaky? They love oaky afterbirth. 

Angela [00:35:28] I know. 

Jenna [00:35:29] Oaky. You know what? They don’t have any waffles. 

Angela [00:35:32] Yeah, and Erin knows what she wants, and it’s a hotel waffle. 

Jenna [00:35:35] Well, this is when Erin decides to tell Ryan about her plan to stay in Florida. 

Angela [00:35:41] And I guess Ryan sees this as the perfect opportunity to hook up with her and then not have to deal with her. 

Jenna [00:35:46] Yeah. Exactly. 

Angela [00:35:48] So now that’s his mission. I’m going to hook up with Erin. I’m going to get her a waffle. That’s my way in. 

Jenna [00:35:54] Back in the conference room at Dunder Mifflin, the late night work jam is underway. But Kelly, Kelly cannot take it. 

Angela [00:36:04] She can’t take it. This is how the scene starts. Pam says, Watson Carpet and Tile. Kevin says, One order. Oscar says, Order reference number 00983-126. Phyllis says, Eight cases bright white inkjet. Angela says, Paid. Kelly yells, I’m dying! Darryl says, Processed. Val says, And delivered. So Halsted and Warren reminded me about the very real life inspiration for Kelly’s line. And as soon as they reminded me, I started laughing. Oh, my God, lady. I remembered it instantly. It was like a wave of memories had washed over me. 

Jenna [00:36:42] You have to share this story. 

Angela [00:36:45] So you guys know that I love to host a Yankee swap party. 

Jenna [00:36:48] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:36:49] You know, I was inspired by our show. I started hosting one. Well, one year. One year. A friend of ours brought a new date. We were all like, Ooh, who’s the new gal? We were playing Yankee Swap and I guess she didn’t care for it. And just out of the blue, she literally said, I’m dying. Like she hated the game. 

Jenna [00:37:12] She was so miserable. 

Angela [00:37:14] I think she was really bored by us. She also said at one time, Well, I’m pretty sure none of you have traveled as much as I have. She was like pissing people off left and right. But Halstead said, When she said, I’m dying to him, it felt like more like a verbal slip, like from her real true life inner monologue. 

Jenna [00:37:32] Yes. 

Angela [00:37:32] And he and Warren thought it was hilarious. They remembered it and they wrote it into this episode. 

Jenna [00:37:38] This is my favorite thing about writers is how they just file away little moments. 

Angela [00:37:42] They observe and they file away. 

Jenna [00:37:44] Like that’ll come out of the file at just the right time. And this was it. With Kelly. 

Angela [00:37:48] Oh my gosh, Warren and I were talking yesterday. We were cracking up about this moment. This whole Nellie/ Packer/ Dwight flirty triangle is now going on strong. 

Jenna [00:38:00] Oh, gosh. It’s so uncomfortable. 

Angela [00:38:02] Packer’s like, Hey, the cowgirl has chosen her saddle. (NEIGHS LIKE A HORSE) Like that. That was that neigh was not in the script. 

Jenna [00:38:10] It wasn’t. 

Angela [00:38:11] That was just Dave Koechner 

Jenna [00:38:13] That’s a Koechner special. 

Angela [00:38:14] But then Rainn matched it as Dwight, which is so like funny because he did it as only Dwight would do it. Like kind of cringey. I mean, they’re both cringey. Dwight says, You know what? If anyone’s going to sleep with Nellie for personal gain, it’s going to be him. Well, there was a candy bag alt for this Dwight talking head. 

Jenna [00:38:33] Please tell me. 

Angela [00:38:34] It was a must shoot. So you know it lives out there somewhere. Dwight would have said, If I can get ahead by shaking a certain hand, patting a back, or, you know- and then he motions to his penis- I’ll do it. This is a team effort. No part of Dwight Schrute sits on the bench. 

Jenna [00:38:55] Oh, wow. Okay. 

Angela [00:38:56] All hands on deck, if you will. 

Jenna [00:39:01] Well, meanwhile, back in the conference room, Andy has brought in dinner. A nice gesture. 

Angela [00:39:08] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:39:08] And he wants everyone to know it’s not pizza or tacos. He went another way with it. It’s a Jamaican feast brought to them by Val’s boyfriend, Brandon!

Angela [00:39:19] Yeah, her boyf! 

Jenna [00:39:20] Her boyf! Bringing in the food. Phyllis is snarky. She says, If I wanted Jamaican food, I’d just hire a bodyguard and go there. 

Angela [00:39:29] Oscar tries to bond with Brandon. He says, Oh, man, I was just reading about these elections in Jamaica. And Brandon’s like, Yeah, yeah, no, I’m not from Jamaica. 

Jenna [00:39:37] Yeah, I noticed. Angela, right after Phyllis says that line, you itch your nose real big. Like like super big nose itch. 

Angela [00:39:47] Okay. 

Jenna [00:39:47] I don’t know. Sometimes those are the things you see. 

Angela [00:39:51] Maybe someone was thinking of me. 

Jenna [00:39:53] Oh, yeah. Doesn’t your nose get itchy if someone’s thinking of you? Is that a thing? 

Angela [00:39:56] That’s what my mom- That’s what my mom always says.

Jenna [00:39:59] Yes, I remember that. Aw. Someone was thinking of you in that moment. You’ll always have it.

Angela [00:40:04] Or I just had a runny nose or something. 

Jenna [00:40:07] One of the two. Darryl is going to introduce himself to Brandon, and then Brandon immediately accuses him of sleeping with Val. 

Angela [00:40:16] Oh, f bombs were dropped. 

Jenna [00:40:18] Mm hmm. I love everything about Jerry Minor in this episode, but one of my favorite lines of his is in the scene. It’s when Brandon says, I hope you all like goat. 

Angela [00:40:28] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:40:29] I wasn’t even sure if that was scripted. I went to the script. It is scripted. Warren was like, It was scripted, but I have to give all credit to Jerry Miner. The way he delivered it steals the show. 

Angela [00:40:40] I thought the, “Nah, baby girl” was improvised. When Angela says, Is it spicy? He just throws that away so perfectly. 

Jenna [00:40:46] Yeah. Nah, baby girl. 

Angela [00:40:47] It was scripted. 

Jenna [00:40:48] Scripted. 

Angela [00:40:48] Not improvised. 

Jenna [00:40:49] No. 

Angela [00:40:50] He just made it feel so spontaneous. 

Jenna [00:40:52] I watched that scene like three times because it charmed me so much. 

Angela [00:40:57] Halstead shared with us that this Jamaican feast idea was inspired because when they would stay late at night as writers, how you mentioned, they would order from restaurants and they would often just pick new random places so they weren’t getting the same food over and over. 

Jenna [00:41:14] Yes. 

Angela [00:41:15] And I guess the production assistants would order. And so the writers weren’t sure where things were coming from. And he said there was always someone who would complain and they were always surprised. And as a result, they ended up eating a lot of strange things. 

Jenna [00:41:31] I love it. Well, listen, maybe we should take a break because Jim is getting ready to turn in for the night and all hell is going to break loose in that hotel room. And I have so much to say. 

Angela [00:41:40] Yeah. Someone’s heater is broken. Heater?

Jenna [00:41:45] But she’s wearing UGG boots anyway. Don’t get me started. She’s hot, but she’s wearing UGGs. What? In Florida? What? 

Angela [00:41:51] Also, in Florida. Let’s. Let’s pump the brakes there, Cathy.  

Jenna [00:41:55] We’ll be back. We are back. While Dwight and Packer are laying it on thick with Nellie, Jim has decided to turn in for the night. And you see this kind of spy shot from outside of his hotel room. You see Stanley walking past the sort of- what would you call that- patio door? Of Jim’s room with a woman that he has met. 

Angela [00:42:31] I was going to say, is this one of our fancy shots? 

Jenna [00:42:34] Yes, lady! For reasons I’ll explain later, I was at this location. And I remember this shot, and I remember that it was super elaborate, but I couldn’t remember why. I remember it took a very long time to set up. And I was like, What was that? And Halstead reminded me that in order to get this establishing spy shot of Jim’s hotel room, it was complicated because that room was on the second floor of the hotel. It looks like it’s on the ground floor and he has, like, doors that open up to a patio. But no, this was on the second floor. 

Angela [00:43:12] So they had to cheat it?

Jenna [00:43:13] They cheated It. They rented a crane that they had to bring in and put the camera on. And Stanley and his date are actually walking on the roof outside. Like, it’s not really like a place to walk. It was a total cheat. 

Angela [00:43:32] Wow. 

Jenna [00:43:33] I know. 

Angela [00:43:34] Well, I thought it looked really cool. I liked seeing Jim’s room from that angle. That, you know, really sold that motel kind of look. 

Jenna [00:43:42] Well, they wanted it to be a spy shot. This first moment of Cathy kind of coming to Jim’s door, you know? But we had to make up a reason why we could have cameras outside the room. It had to be like that Jim’s room was on the first floor, right? And we were spying in, because they wouldn’t have rented a drone or a crane. But we did. We rented a crane. So here is where it all begins. Cathy, in her Uggs, says that the heater is on the fritz in her room and it’s like, super hot. And can she just hang in Jim’s room until maintenance is done fixing it? And Jim is kind of like, Oh, I, I Yeah. I guess so. 

Angela [00:44:22] Also, she didn’t show up in her clothes that she had on at the bar. 

Jenna [00:44:26] Right. 

Angela [00:44:26] She’s now in a tank top and what looks like to be kind of like pajama boxer shorts. 

Jenna [00:44:30] Yes. So now she’s in his room and they’re going to watch March Madness, but it’s not March. They’re going to watch basketball. 

Angela [00:44:39] It’s not March? 

Jenna [00:44:40] No, that was the joke. She’s like, Oh, you’re watching basketball? And he’s like, Yeah, yeah, come on in. And she’s like, Oh, I love March Madness. And under his breath, he’s like, March Madness is in March. It’s not March. 

Angela [00:44:53] That’s so funny. I didn’t catch that. 

Jenna [00:44:55] And since Cathy takes over the bed, Jim kind of awkwardly sits on the floor. 

Angela [00:44:59] Also, I’m sorry, who just goes and sits on a married man’s bed? In her pajamas.

Jenna [00:45:07] Cathy apparently.

Angela [00:45:08] That’s where she’s gonna sit?

Jenna [00:45:10] Let me say, so far, so far… I see how Jim was kind of like deer in headlights. 

Angela [00:45:17] Like he was bamboozled. He was like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. Oh, oh. 

Jenna [00:45:20] Yeah, maintenance is in your room, and now you just need some place to be. And, like, you know, Cathy was thinking ahead. She’s like, if I come dressed, Jim might say, Well, let’s go down to the bar while we wait. But, you know, you can’t really take her down to the bar in this pajama outfit, so he’s… 

Angela [00:45:41] He’s kind of stuck with her. 

Jenna [00:45:42] Yes. So far.

Angela [00:45:42] This at this point- at this point, it makes sense. 

Jenna [00:45:45] Yes. We’re giving him a pass. Meanwhile, back in the conference room, Kelly is finally invested. Kelly is like, This night went from being the worst to being the best. 

Angela [00:45:57] She’s not going anywhere. 

Jenna [00:45:59] No. And it’s going to get real juicy because Brandon is going to tell everyone that Darryl texted Val late at night. 

Angela [00:46:05] Midnight. 

Jenna [00:46:07] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:46:08] I’m sorry. Midnight texting. Nothing good happens after midnight. That’s what my mom would say. 

Jenna [00:46:14] Yeah. 

Angela [00:46:14] When I’d want to stay out late. 

Jenna [00:46:17] Kelly insists that they hear the texts. 

Angela [00:46:20] Well, here they are. And I do think a few of them crossed the line. 

Jenna [00:46:24] Yeah. 

Angela [00:46:25] Darryl starts to read them. The first one is, I got too much ice cream. You want some? Getting my fry on. The moon is huge tonight. Okay, that one. 

Jenna [00:46:36] That was what stopped everyone in the conference room. 

Angela [00:46:39] I agree with Phyllis. And Brandon says, Uh, you forgot one. Darryl reads, You’re such a great friend. And then Brandon says, With the dots. So Darryl rereads the text. You’re such a great friend dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. 

Jenna [00:46:59] Kelly explodes. 

Angela [00:47:00] Explodes. Five dots, Darryl! Are you kidding me? She says, Three dots means to be continued. Four dots is a typo, but five dots means, Whoa, do not make me say what I want to say, baby. But if I did, it would blow your mind. Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. 

Jenna [00:47:17] When we were trading messages with Warren on Halstead, I told them how much I loved dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. And Warren reminded me that in season seven, he and Halstead wrote that episode, China, where Darryl and Andy have that storyline about texting, about what is worthy of a text. 

Angela [00:47:33] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:47:34] And, you know, they said texting etiquette at this time, we were talking about it a lot. 

Angela [00:47:39] It was still new, guys. We’re old. This is old tech stuff. 

Jenna [00:47:43] It kind of is. But they really like the idea that texting late at night is something that would get Darryl into trouble. 

Angela [00:47:50] Yeah. This scene would have continued. It was longer. And in the end, Brandon goes storming out with Val chasing after him. Here’s what it said in the shooting draft. 

Jenna [00:48:02] Okay. 

Angela [00:48:03] Val chases after him, leaving Darryl upset. Everyone’s silent. Andy produces a pump and some balloons from his pocket. Andy says to Meredith, Meredith, if you could have any balloon animal in the world that was either a dog or a snake, which would it be? 

Jenna [00:48:21] Wait, lady, I am like, memories are flooding back to me of shooting this with Ed, like pumping the balloon, trying to make these balloons. 

Angela [00:48:31] And they were all horrible. 

Jenna [00:48:34] They were terrible. 

Angela [00:48:35] They were terrible. So you guys, if you notice a bunch of weird looking balloon animals on the conference room table, they were Ed Helms’s attempts. 

Jenna [00:48:46] I am so remembering this now. We laughed so hard. Because I think, you know, the people who do balloon animals, they make it look so easy. And I think we just all took for granted, like the writers, Brian as director, Ed, all of us that just like you could just make something. And we knew like, oh, they weren’t not going to be great but this was like he couldn’t even get them to like, to even make an X. Like he couldn’t do- they just kept flying everywhere. It was so hard. 

Angela [00:49:17] And also it was way more pumping than I think- 

Jenna [00:49:20] It was so much pumping time. So much time spent pumping the balloons. Oh, my gosh. What a fun thing to remember. 

Angela [00:49:27] Oh, my gosh. I was cracking up and, you know, part of its and deleted scenes. But then you see the balloons on the conference table in later scenes. 

Jenna [00:49:36] They’re so awlful. 

Angela [00:49:36] They’re awful. And this was Andy’s way of like easing the tension. 

Jenna [00:49:42] Oh, my goodness. Oh, thank you for reminding me of that. 

Angela [00:49:46] Well, things might have taken a turn for Tallanasty back in Tallahassee because now Packer is doing the cherry stem thing where he’s tying it with this tongue into a knot. And this made me laugh so hard when Dwight says, Please, anyone can tie a knot, the real talent’s in untying it. And he takes the cherry stem that was in Packer’s mouth and puts it in his mouth. And then he works real hard to untie it. You guys, in deleted scenes, this moment plays out. And Rainn as Dwight is really struggling. He’s working so hard on that cherry stem. And there is just this awkward silence as Nellie and Packer watch Dwight. And then ultimately he un-knots it and he spits it out and then he holds it up and he goes, There it is. Straight enough to pick your teeth with. He’s like handing it to Nellie. It’s so disgusting. 

Jenna [00:50:47] Oh, my gosh. This is our second cherry stem reference on The Office. Remember, Ben Franklin? 

Angela [00:50:53] Oh, yeah. 

Jenna [00:50:54] Was tying a cherry stem.

Angela [00:50:56] Was an expert with the cherry stem. 

Jenna [00:50:59] Also in Tallahassee, Erin and Ryan have sneaked into the hotel kitchen to make a waffle. And I’ll have you know that we shot these kitchen scenes in the actual hotel kitchens. 

Angela [00:51:10] It looked real. 

Jenna [00:51:11] Yes. In the morning we took over the hotel bar, and in the afternoon we took over the kitchen. And, you know, I’m always fascinated by the inner workings of the production, like, how does this work? And I asked Steve Burgess, and he said, you know, we shot at this hotel over two different weeks for two different episodes. He said it was like a whole ordeal. Like we took over their parking lot. We took over the whole second floor of the hotel. On various days we were in the lobby or the bar or the kitchen. During the week, we kept all our stuff there. They had guards that would guard everything like 24 hours a day, but we would move it all back to our stages for the weekend because it wasn’t just the stuff in the hotel either, like in the parking lot where all the crew trucks and all the trailers and where we would eat lunch, you know, that was like where you would have catering for lunch. It’s like a whole thing. 

Angela [00:51:59] Logistically, that is so much work. Like, it’s like every week you completely move in to your house and then you move out. 

Jenna [00:52:06] Yes, Imagine that. Yes, exactly. People working around the clock to make that happen. Just amazing. So also in the scene, Erin says, Oh, wow, they left the lights on. And Ryan says that they leave the lights on because it’s less expensive than turning them on and off. And Erin is really impressed with how smart he is. 

Angela [00:52:24] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:52:24] You know. Well, I decided to check this out. I wanted to fact check Ryan. 

Angela [00:52:29] Is this true? Because, you know, sometimes you drive through a city late at night and you see these big, tall business buildings and, you know no one’s in them, really, because it’s nighttime and all the lights are on.

Jenna [00:52:43] Well, according to energy dot gov, the cost effectiveness of when to turn the lights on or off depends on the kind of bulb and the cost of electricity. So light bulbs have a kind of operating life and that can be affected by how many times they’re turned on and off. So the more often they’re switched on and off, the lower their operating life. But I can get more specific with you. Incandescent lighting should definitely be turned off if you’re not using it, because they’re the least efficient kind of lighting. They give off a lot of heat. You’ll keep your room cooler by turning them off and you’ll use less electricity. Halogen lighting is slightly more efficient, but should also be turned off when not in use. However, fluorescent lighting is the light that where you shorten the light span if you turn it on and off. And there’s a popular belief that these lights use a lot of energy to get started, which is true. You know, when you turn on fluorescent lights, it’s like, (MAKES BUZZING NOISE). And it is better to not turn them off for short periods of time. But you could turn them off for like all night. But if you’re just leaving this hotel kitchen for, like 30 minutes, just leave them on. In short, it’s not about the cost of electricity that you save, but on the replacement costs. Like you’d have to replace those fluorescent lights more often. So I guess Ryan’s right. 

Angela [00:54:10] Because then your carbon footprint is building more lights, using more materials, using the machinery to make the lights. 

Jenna [00:54:19] And the cost of having to buy all the light bulbs and the labor of putting them in. So I guess Ryan’s right. I was annoyed. I wanted Ryan to be wrong. 

Angela [00:54:28] Ryan is working so hard to get laid. My gosh. 

Jenna [00:54:32] He’s really working hard. It made me cringe. 

Angela [00:54:36] It dit me, too. 

Jenna [00:54:40] So, listen, all of a sudden, though, people are going to come in this kitchen. And I guess what they decide to do, rather than just act like, oh, my gosh, sorry, we didn’t mean to be in here. We got turned around, which is what I would do if I was caught sneaking into a kitchen, they decide to hide in the kitchen a la Jurassic Park, kind of like under the table. 

Angela [00:55:02] From the Raptors? 

Jenna [00:55:03] That’s what it reminded me of. 

Angela [00:55:05] You know what’s a great thing to do if you’re somewhere and you maybe shouldn’t be in that part of a building? 

Jenna [00:55:10] Okay, what?

Angela [00:55:10] If you’re discovered? 

Jenna [00:55:12] What? 

Angela [00:55:13] Just say, Bathroom? 

Jenna [00:55:15] Why do we have so many excuses? Why are we so ready to get out of a situation where we’re in a part of a building we shouldn’t be in? Have we done this a lot in our life? Why? 

Angela [00:55:27] I think we’re both like snoops. And we’re like, we’re both like, Oh, it’s the kitchen. Oh, no one’s in. Let’s go look. Let’s see what’s in there. It’s very innocent. But I think you and I both snoop a little bit. 

Jenna [00:55:39] I think you’re right. So we have it on the ready. Why are we here? 

Angela [00:55:43] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:55:43] Oh, I’m so sorry. I got turned around. 

Angela [00:55:45] Bathroom? On the next episode of Mom Detectives. 

Jenna [00:55:51] Well, we’re going to use both those excuses in an upcoming snoop. 

Angela [00:55:53] Oh I know. 

Jenna [00:55:54]  Let’s go back to Jim’s room. There’s a knock at the door. It’s Stanley. 

Angela [00:56:00] Oh, Jim’s so relieved. Yes. Come in. Watch the game with us. 

Jenna [00:56:03] Yes. Come in! Stanley just wants some rum. 

Angela [00:56:05] For some reason, his mini fridge is out of rum. I wonder why. 

Jenna [00:56:09] I wonder. 

Angela [00:56:10] Florida Stanley. 

Jenna [00:56:11] And Stanley clocks that Cathy’s on the bed and he’s like, Oh, it gets easier and easier, Jim. 

Angela [00:56:17] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:56:18] And Jim’s like, No, that’s not what- and he’s like, Whatever. And he leaves. So Jim is going to have to enlist Dwight. 

Angela [00:56:26] Yeah, he’s come up with a plan of how to get Cathy out of his room, because I guess he’s too nice to just ask her to leave. That’s my bull (BLEEP) card. 

Jenna [00:56:35] I know! 

Angela [00:56:35] Just ask her to leave. Say, I’m tired. I need you to go. I need to go to bed. I actually need to call Pam and catch up with a few things. I’m not ask you to go. Have a good night. 

Jenna [00:56:48] I’ve got a fan mail flurry on this subject coming up, lady. 

Angela [00:56:50] Alright. My bull (BLEEP) card. I had to play one. So Jim finds Dwight, interrupts his seduction plan to tell him there are bedbugs in his room. 

Jenna [00:57:01] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:57:02] Because talk about playin the player. This is going to freak Dwight out. Bedbugs. 

Jenna [00:57:07] He’ll be right there. 

Angela [00:57:08] Yeah, but then Dwight’s like, Oh, I don’t want Parker to hook up with Nellie. So he goes up to Gabe and says, I need you to help me sabotage this. 

Jenna [00:57:19] Yeah. 

Angela [00:57:20] This is when we find out Gabe’s full name. 

Jenna [00:57:23] Gabriel Susan Louis. 

Angela [00:57:25] GSL. What’s in it for Garcelle? 

Jenna [00:57:27] I loved what’s in it for GSL. 

Angela [00:57:29] Dwight’s like, do you really want Packer as a boss? That’s all he needed to hear. 

Jenna [00:57:32] Mm hmm. Dwight is going to burst into Jim’s room, forces Cathy off the bed so that he can shake out all the covers and find the bedbugs. Then Dwight starts interrogating Jim. He’s searching his hair and asking him a whole bunch of questions about his encounter with the bedbug. 

Angela [00:57:51] Dwight says, Where did you see it? Jim says, In the bed. Dwight’s like, We got to find it before it eggs. Describe it. Jim says, Brown, shiny, painful bite. Dwight: Hmm. Could be a bat weevil. Describe its mood. Did it seem sleepy? Jim: Stressed. But to be fair, it was a tense situation. Dwight: Fair enough. But after it bit you, did it run away fearful, or did it walk away smug, self-assured? Jim: So smug, like he thought it was funny, like this. And then Dwight’s like, pshht. That’s a bedbug. Everything’s a joke. 

Jenna [00:58:24] Lady. So I told you, I was at this location. And I arrived and they were getting ready to shoot this scene. It was so funny. The first time John imitated the smug bedbug, it was the same as the unbelievable scene. Like, Rainn was like, shocked at how funny it was. And he started laughing. And they could not get through it. Like every time John imitated the smug bedbug, oh, my God. It was amazing. I was sitting with Brian at the director’s monitor, and I remember coming in to work the next day on our stages, and I was trying to, like, recreate it for everyone. I was trying to explain, like, you guys, you don’t understand. It was like 30 minutes of trying to get John to imitate the smug bedbug because we’re laughing so hard, and nobody got it. It was like crickets. I was like, Just wait till this episode comes out. 

Angela [00:59:20] I remember at the end of our season wrap party, they put the bloopers from it. 

Jenna [00:59:25] Yes. 

Angela [00:59:26] There were so many. And we were dying. We were dying. It was so hilarious. 

Jenna [00:59:32] I was so happy they did that because I finally felt like everyone could see and share in this moment that is like one of the hardest we ever laughed on the set. 

Angela [00:59:42] That was always one of my favorite things at the wrap party, because, you know, there are a few bloopers that live out there. You can find them on YouTube and places like that. But our editors would make a huge extended bloopers cut for the wrap party. Oh my gosh. I don’t know how they ever got one take of that. 

Jenna [00:59:59] It’s so good. 

Angela [01:00:00] There are so many moments between Jim and Dwight in this hotel room. Like when Dwight says that he farted constantly under the sheet to make a greenhouse. Like, how do they get through any of it? 

Jenna [01:00:10] Oh, my gosh. Well, Dwight is going to now remove all of his clothing. Like you said, he’s going to get into the bed under the covers. 

Angela [01:00:19] He’s going to attract the bedbugs with the body heat. 

Jenna [01:00:22] Yes, exactly. 

Angela [01:00:23] Also, when he went through Jim’s hair. Come on. 

Jenna [01:00:27] Well, Cathy is so disgusted. She’s like, I need to take a shower. And Jim’s like, Yess! She’s leaving. 

Angela [01:00:31] Yes! Buh-bye! 

Jenna [01:00:32]  And then she goes into his bathroom. 

Angela [01:00:36] I am sorry. Second bull (BLEEP) card. Who does that? Who does that? I do have a third bull (BLEEP) card to play. How is Dwight jumping into a bed? He had his appendix out just the week before. How is he doing any of this? 

Jenna [01:00:53] Angela, this was a fan catch from Angela B in New Hampshire!

Angela [01:00:57] From an Angela? A person named Angela? 

Jenna [01:00:59] Double Angela. You and another Angela.

Angela [01:01:01] Same brain! 

Jenna [01:01:02] Also, A.J. from Edmonton, Alberta wanted to know why when he undresses, there is no bandage, there’s no scar from the appendectomy. And he’s also very limber. 

Angela [01:01:14] Yeah, I should have thought about the bandage and the scar, but all I thought about was him diving into this bed. I was like, Wait, he has stitches somewhere, right? 

Jenna [01:01:22] It’s like it never happened. 

Angela [01:01:24] Mhmm. 

Jenna [01:01:24] I have one more piece of fan mail that goes with this scene, Angela, and I loved it. It’s from Stacey T in Saratoga Springs, Utah, who has worked at a pest control company since 2016. And they kill bedbugs every day. 

Angela [01:01:39] Is this some bedbug stats? 

Jenna [01:01:40] It is. 

Angela [01:01:41] Oh, my gosh. 

Jenna [01:01:42] Stacey T said, quote, I absolutely love the bedbug scene between Dwight and Jim. And I thought you might enjoy a little mini deep dive because I know way more about bedbugs than anybody wants to. 

Angela [01:01:52] I can’t wait. 

Jenna [01:01:53] All right. Stacey said, Dwight is right that bedbugs tend to gravitate toward warmth and carbon dioxide. However, you will not typically find them in your hair. They like rough textured surfaces, like wood or upholstered seams on mattresses, box springs or couches. The eggs and juvenile bedbugs are very small. You cannot see them with the naked eye, and they’re very good at hiding. Also, Dwight is wrong that they have a painful bite because they actually inject a small amount of anesthetic so the host does not feel the bite. The painful reactions that some people get are an allergic reaction to the anesthetic, but that can take up to two weeks to appear. Also, other people don’t react to their bites at all, which is why you could have two people sleeping in the same bed and one person is getting bites and then the other person isn’t. Stacey said you probably are getting bites, you just aren’t allergic to them, so you’re not having a reaction. So you could be like- 

Angela [01:02:51] Ew. 

Jenna [01:02:51] You know what that means? I just realize that means like Lee and I could be sleeping in a bedbug bed, but because we’re not allergic to it, we’ll never know. We’re just getting bitten by bedbugs all night every night. 

Angela [01:03:02] This is what I- This is exactly what I was thinking. Like. Like as we, you know, stay in a hotel are we just getting eaten up with bedbugs? 

Jenna [01:03:11] Maybe. But maybe you don’t react to them. Here was the most interesting part of Stacey’s letter. Bedbugs were almost completely eradicated from the U.S. in the 1950s. 

Angela [01:03:23] Oh? 

Jenna [01:03:24] But then there was a resurgence in the late nineties to early 2000s with a new bedbug that are extremely resistant to nearly all pesticides. 

Angela [01:03:34] Where’d it come from? 

Jenna [01:03:36] Didn’t say. 

Angela [01:03:37] Cause, like, we have a mosquito now. 

Jenna [01:03:39] We have a mosquito in L.A. that came over. 

Angela [01:03:42] On a plane! 

Jenna [01:03:43] No, on a cargo ship of bamboo. 

Angela [01:03:46] I heard it was on a plane from Australia. 

Jenna [01:03:49] I heard it was from Japan. They were hiding in bamboo on a cargo ship from Japan. 

Angela [01:03:54] Okay, we’ll get to the bottom of this. But pretty much everyone here, all they can talk about is that some mosquito traveled here from across the ocean. And now we have this mosquito infestation. 

Jenna [01:04:04] Yes. There were no mosquitoes here. None.

Angela [01:04:06] Yeah. It was amazing.

Jenna [01:04:06] It was so amazing. And now there is this fast multiplying little like black mosquito. 

Angela [01:04:15] That came here from somewhere abroad. 

Jenna [01:04:17] I have a mosquito guy. It might be a scam. I don’t know. But there’s a guy now who comes over and he puts buckets of something around our yard. And the idea is that the mosquitoes are attracted to this water and that it sterilizes them so they can’t reproduce. But the problem is, if your neighbor doesn’t also have the mosquito buckets, then they’ll just go reproduce on your neighbor’s yard and then fly over to you. But it’s supposed to help. But I don’t know. I’m desperate. I’ll have a mosquito guy. I’ll have the buckets. I hate the mosquitoes. 

Angela [01:04:47] Do I need the mosquito guy or can I just order the buckets and set them out myself? 

Jenna [01:04:52] No, because he comes and he changes the stuff in the buckets once a month. 

Angela [01:04:56] Oh. 

Jenna [01:04:56] I don’t know. Someone swore by them. 

Angela [01:04:59] Okay. 

Jenna [01:04:59] A friend of mine in their neighborhood, they all got together and they did the buckets. So we got the buckets. And then we told our neighbors, and I don’t think anyone else got the buckets. It’s just us. 

Angela [01:05:08] Well, give me his info. 

Jenna [01:05:10] All right. Anyway, back to bedbugs. Apparently, there is not a pesticide that reliably kills bedbug eggs in a single treatment. So the best treatment options are either a professional heat treatment or a series of at least 4 to 6 chemical treatments spaced every two weeks so that you can kill the bugs every time they start to hatch. 

Angela [01:05:33] But you’ll be sterile. I’m kidding. I’m just saying.

Jenna [01:05:35] Also you can just throw away the mattress. I think. Right? I mean, how much does all this cost? Is it cheaper than a new mattress? Could you imagine? You have someone coming to your house? 

Angela [01:05:48] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [01:05:49] You know, every two weeks. For how long? Six treatments of your chemically treating your mattress? What does that smell like. 

Angela [01:05:57] No, I don’t want it. 

Jenna [01:05:58] I’d rather sleep on the floor, but are the eggs on the floor now? How do you get rid of bedbugs? Stacey said they could live in a couch. I’m itchy now. Now I’m itchy.

Angela [01:06:06] I don’t want to think about it. I was happy before we started talking about it. I was fine. 

Jenna [01:06:12] I know. I’m sorry, but I found that fascinating. Stacey, I loved that. I ate it up. 

Angela [01:06:17] Yes. Thank you, Stacey, for all of that information that’s going to haunt me. Well, Gabe is spraying something into Packers beer. 

Jenna [01:06:27] His inhaler. 

Angela [01:06:28] Yeah, I looked it up in the script. I wanted to make sure what it was. In the shooting draft, it said, Gabe takes out his inhaler and starts repeatedly pumping it into Packer’s drink. Gabe gets winded and takes a hit of it, then goes back to emptying it into the drink. 

Jenna [01:06:43] Oh, we didn’t see that part. 

Angela [01:06:45] Well, it works because Packer is going to vomit into Gabe’s lap, ruining his bootleg corduroys. 

Jenna [01:06:52] We got a piece of fan mail from John T in Hull UK who said, One of the lines that has always tickled me is when Gabe says, They don’t make these cords in bootcut anymore. I laugh every time I rewatch the series, which is a lot, and I would love it if you could do a deep dive on bootleg cords. 

Angela [01:07:10] John, I’m with you. It cracked me up. What I also really loved was the camerawork where they pan down. 

Jenna [01:07:16] Yes. 

Angela [01:07:17] You know, Zach Woods is very tall, so those are some really long cords, but they were bootleg. 

Jenna [01:07:23] I’ll have you know, John, I looked it up for you. You can get men’s bootcut cords, in fact. They were labeled as being back in style. You can find them at Walmart for $36.99. And they come in a variety of colors. You can get black, coffee, khaki, wine red or cream white. 

Angela [01:07:48] Give them to me in cream white. 

Jenna [01:07:50] I mean. 

Angela [01:07:51] I’m kidding. 

Jenna [01:07:51] I saw the picture of just these white bootcut cords and I wondered, where are we going to go in these? But yes, they’re available. 

Angela [01:08:01] Speaking of Tallanasty, somebody is going to get hashtag Tallanasty’d.  

Jenna [01:08:06] And so it begins. 

Angela [01:08:08] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:08:08] Buckle in, everyone. 

Angela [01:08:10] Buckle in because Cathy is going to order room service and then she’s like, Oh, but, you know, I work out, feel my legs. 

Jenna [01:08:18] Feel my leg? 

Angela [01:08:19] Yeah, that by the way, she’s been putting lotion on in front of him. I mean, stop it, Cathy. Stop it. This is it. Jim is like, okay, listen, I think I just need to say it. I am married. I’m actually very happily married. And then she does such a bitchy thing. 

Jenna [01:08:34] Mm hmm. 

Angela [01:08:35] She goes, I’m sorry, what are you talking about? 

Jenna [01:08:40] I, I sat at your wife’s desk. 

Angela [01:08:43] I know you’re married. 

Jenna [01:08:46] How little do you think of me? 

Angela [01:08:49] And then Jim is really thrown. He’s like, I’m sorry, I guess I read this wrong. And now he’s going against all of his instincts. Right? He’s like, You know what? Fine. You can stay. And then she’s like, You promise you won’t run to the other side of the room all night? He’s like, Yeah, sure, sure. We’ll just watch the game. And he sits down and she snuggles up right next to him. 

Jenna [01:09:12] Here began the fan mail flurry. 

Angela [01:09:15] Let’s hear it. 

Jenna [01:09:16] It goes something like this. I’m pulling from several letters. Quote, What the hell, Jim?! 

Angela [01:09:22] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:09:23] You are to blame here, Jim! 

Angela [01:09:26] Uh oh. 

Jenna [01:09:26] Stand up for something, man. Put your foot down. Get this woman out of your room! And if you can’t, then leave the room yourself. 

Angela [01:09:34] And don’t go back. He went down to the bar to get Dwight. Just stay at the bar. 

Jenna [01:09:40] No kidding! I am reading it like this because there was a lot of all caps. Just so you know. There’s more. I cannot stand Jim in this episode. Please, please discuss this at great length, ladies. More mail. Kiana from Oregon said, I never understood how this whole Cathy situation was never discussed on screen with Jim and Pam. Did he ever tell her? And Morgan in Raleigh, North Carolina, said, Please tell me there’s a deleted scene that we don’t know about. 

Angela [01:10:11] Oh, yes, there was. There was a very big scene. It was deleted. It would have come after the next scene when Pam and Andy go into Darryl’s office. 

Jenna [01:10:22] Yes. So Darryl is bummed about Val’s boyfriend. Andy and Pam go into his office. Andy’s saying, Play it cool. Val will come around. And Pam says, No, just go for it. And Andy says, No. Jim would tell you to play it cool. And Pam says, Jim would tell you to go for it. 

Angela [01:10:39] Yeah. So now the scene would have extended its end deleted scenes. It would have continued. And Pam would have said, Well, you know what? Let’s call Jim and ask him. Basically, she’s debating with Andy. Is Andy right? Is Jim going to say, play it cool? Or am I right? I’m his wife. I think I know my husband. 

Jenna [01:10:59] Yes. So somehow, by memory, she knows Jim’s hotel room number in Tallahassee and she puts this on speakerphone and Cathy answers the phone. 

Angela [01:11:10] Yeah. And Andy and Darryl and Pam are all like, Huh? So let’s hear it. 

Pam [01:11:18] Let’s call Jim. 

Andy [01:11:23] You’re going to be embarrassed. 

Pam [01:11:23] You think so? Okay, We’ll see. He’ll tell you. 

Cathy [01:11:30] Hello? 

Pam [01:11:31] Hello? Who is this? 

Cathy [01:11:32] Oh, hey Pam, it’s Cathy. Um, here’s Jim…  

Jim [01:11:36] Hello? 

Pam [01:11:37] Hello. 

Jim [01:11:39] Hey, How are you? Are you still at work? 

Pam [01:11:41] Yeah. Yeah, I’m here with Andy and Darryl. 

Andy [01:11:44] Tuna!

Jenna [01:11:45] What are you and Cathy up to? 

Jim [01:11:47] Watching a game. 

Andy [01:11:48] You guys alone, or? 

Darryl [01:11:49] Did everyone come up from the bar? 

Jim [01:11:51] Just me and Cathy now. Something’s wrong with their heating unit. Dwight dropped by too, though, and Stanley was here. 

Kelly [01:11:57] Ah! Jim, don’t do it! Or do do it! Whatever it is, this is awesome. 

Pam [01:12:03] Hey, babe, is Einstein with you? 

Jim [01:12:06] No, Einstein is not with me. 

Pam [01:12:09] Einstein is the code name we use if we’re ever caught in a home invasion scenario… As a parent, you think of these things. 

Jenna [01:12:17] Okay. So there’s a lot of things happening here, a lot of things to unpack. Pam is weirded out and like Kelly comes in, Kelly is having the best night of her life, because- 

Angela [01:12:25] So much gossip. 

Jenna [01:12:26] Yes. So much is happening. It’s the best night of her life, basically. Okay, so this kind of started something that never got resolved. This was my complaint that I was talking about earlier, which is that you were going to see Pam get insecure and you were also going to see everyone in the office assume something was going on between Jim and Cathy. I mean, Kelly’s so excited. And so because of that, John and I were like, You have to write a scene that resolves this insecurity in Pam. You have to. So they did. And then there was another scene that we shot that was also deleted. Jim and Pam are on the phone. It would have played a little later. Shall we listen to that one? 

Angela [01:13:07] Yeah. 

Pam [01:13:08] She’s still sitting right there? You know she’s lying about the heating. 

Jim [01:13:12] Of course. 

Pam [01:13:13] I feel bad for her. It’s really pathetic. 

Jim [01:13:16] Yes, it is. 

Pam [01:13:19] I wish I was there to see your face. You always look really cute when you’re embarrassed. 

Jim [01:13:23] Okay. Ha ha ha. 

Pam [01:13:26] I love you. I’ll talk to you later. Have fun with that. 

Jim [01:13:29] Love you, too. I will not. 

Cathy [01:13:35] It’s nice to hear her voice. Scranton feels a million miles away, right? 

Jenna [01:13:41] So the point of that one was to show that, like Pam is on to Cathy. She is in no way insecure. And in fact is somewhat amused by Jim’s predicament. 

Angela [01:13:50] Yeah, she’s like, enjoy that. He’s like, I will, not. Well, you know, Warren said if you watch the deleted scene, you can tell it doesn’t play because the audience gets both halves. They get on the front end, Pam in the office trying to mask her anxiety about it. But then on the B side, you can hear her do a complete 180 and she’s totally at ease. And when they watched them, it just didn’t match and it was cut. 

Jenna [01:14:16] No, I agree. It didn’t really play. But by cutting it out, it kind of ends with the audience knowing that Jim ultimately spent the night with Dwight. But we don’t know if Jim ever told Pam about this. And you have to remember, both Stanley and Dwight know that Cathy was in Jim’s room. I mean, someone’s going to end up saying something back at the office. Like, even if this phone call never happened, people still know Cathy was in Jim’s room. 

Angela [01:14:40] You know Stanley’s going to tell Phyllis. 

Jenna [01:14:43] 100%! 

Angela [01:14:44] And then Phyllis is going to tell somebody. 

Jenna [01:14:47] Well, here’s what happened. I told you I was at the hotel because I was going to do the other side of my phone call dialog. 

Angela [01:14:52] Right? 

Jenna [01:14:53] Well, I was just watching all of this play out, like, all of like the way Jim was playing it, the way Cathy was playing it. And John and I were so in our heads about this. We just were so nervous about how Jim was going to come across and how the relationship was going to come across. And we had one of those moments that had not happened in a very long time. 

Angela [01:15:13] I know. It became I mean, these moments when they did happen, it was like screech, like all filming stopped. 

Jenna [01:15:20] Yeah, they kind of shut down the set and we had this huge discussion with Warren and Halstead and Brian. Paul got in on it. John and I were there, and that is kind of in the moment, they crafted that second phone call to show that Pam was going to be okay. 

Angela [01:15:38] Well, Jim and Pam are the heart of the show. We’ve known that for a long time. Stephen Merchant said that from day one. So you cannot lose hope in Jim and Pam. Hope in a frame. 

Jenna [01:15:50] Hope in a frame! That’s right. I remember that. 

Angela [01:15:53] I brought it back. I brought it back.  

Jenna [01:15:56] Here was another thing that kind of drove me crazy. And I brought this up in our discussions, and it drove people crazy in the audience, too, which is that Cathy is not Jim’s superior. She’s not even a permanent employee at Dunder Mifflin. So what is driving Jim’s inability to speak up? You know?

Angela [01:16:16] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:16:17] I mean, some people pointed out that they did think it was in character for him, because Jim does tend to kind of like freeze up in moments like this. But I don’t know. Why couldn’t Jim just do everything we’ve been saying? Just kick her out, stay down in the bar? 

Angela [01:16:33] You know, Warren said something that I hadn’t thought of, which was that the series of events with Cathy, like the heater going on the fritz and her taking a shower, all of these different moments, they were trying to build this feeling of Jim feeling trapped. Like Cathy has trapped him in his own room. 

Jenna [01:16:52] Mm hmm. 

Angela [01:16:53] And I kind of felt that tension. It just kept heightening and heightening. And he started feeling more and more trapped. Warren and Halstead also shared with us that in an earlier draft of the episode, Cathy initially comes into Jim’s room crying about her boyfriend. 

Jenna [01:17:08] I remember this. 

Angela [01:17:10] Yeah, she had trouble with her boyfriend, and she starts reading Jim her boyfriend’s text messages off of her phone to get his opinion on how to handle it. You guys remember I brought up a deleted talking head a while back that she had this boyfriend named Doug, right? 

Jenna [01:17:24] Yes. 

Angela [01:17:25] But then all of that ended up getting scrapped. That makes more sense for me if Cathy is trying to play Jim that she would come in with like the shitty boyfriend story and be the damsel in distress in a way that’s where Jim might feel like, Oh, maybe I should talk her through this. 

Jenna [01:17:41] Yes. And then she turns the tables on him. Looking back, maybe that would have made more sense. I don’t know. I mean, here’s my question. Do you think they should have kept all the deleted phone call stuff between Jim and Pam? It bothers me that all of this went down and Pam has no awareness of it and that the audience is left wondering. 

Angela [01:18:03] Well, I agree with Warren that the way the two phone calls like happened, Pam does this 180 that didn’t quite make sense. 

Jenna [01:18:10] I agree. 

Angela [01:18:11] So I agree with that. But you know what I would have liked? Do you remember in early seasons of the show when Jim would leave Pam messages? 

Jenna [01:18:19] I thought of that, too! 

Angela [01:18:20] Yeah. And then you would see a montage of the end of their evening. Maybe it’s Pam, you know, cleaning out baby bottles or whatever and she’s listening to Jim’s message. Maybe she missed his call because she was doing bedtime or something. And he’s like, You would not believe the night I had. It was so crazy. Cathy came in my room, she wouldn’t leave. I had to pretend there were bedbugs and get Dwight to spray her out of the room, you know, or something. And then you see Pam laughing. 

Jenna [01:18:46] Yes. 

Angela [01:18:46] And then Pam leaves a message like, Hey, I missed your call. You’re probably dealing with Dwight and bedbugs right now. But that’s hilarious. Also, do I need to punch her? Or something, you know? Like-

Jenna [01:18:59] Yes. Yes.

Angela [01:19:00] Something that Jim confided in Pam that shows the audience that, that lives in the canon of the show. 

Jenna [01:19:06] Yes, I thought of that same, like, dueling voicemail thing as well. 

Angela [01:19:10] Or even just a phone call at the end of the night. 

Jenna [01:19:13] You know, I know that they really wanted to end this episode on Jim and Dwight and kind of showing that bond between the two of them. But I just I wish that we would have had more resolution on this Jim and Pam thing. 

Angela [01:19:25] For Pam. And for Jim. 

Jenna [01:19:27] Yeah, and for the audience. 

Angela [01:19:29] Yeah. I do think it’s a hilarious episode and a great ending and there were so many funny beats. But I agree with you. As this episode comes to a close, Ryan is going to learn that basically Erin wants him to be her roommate. Who knows, maybe in six months they could hook up. And he’s like six months?! 

Jenna [01:19:46] Yeah. 

Angela [01:19:47] He’s like, I’m in love with Kelly. 

Jenna [01:19:49] He had 6 hours. He didn’t have six months to dedicate to this. 

Angela [01:19:53] No. 

Jenna [01:19:54] Now there’s a scene that I found really charming, which is that Dwight and Nellie are putting their heads together. Dwight has won, by virtue of default, I think, because Packer got sick. 

Angela [01:20:06] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:20:06] And Nellie is like, What am I thinking? What am I thinking right now? Read my mind. 

Angela [01:20:12] And Dwight’s like, 7-1-1-9. 

Jenna [01:20:17] She’s like, not numbers. I loved it when she said that. That was my horrible British accent. 

Angela [01:20:21] And then she’s like, Do it again. And he’s like, again, I’m just getting numbers. 

Jenna [01:20:25] I have a really fun piece of mail from Shannon M in Manchester, Kentucky, who said, I noticed that when Dwight is at the bar with Nellie and he’s trying to read her mind, he just keeps coming up with numbers. In the next scene, back at Dunder Mifflin, Angela is reciting numbers. 

Angela [01:20:44] Okay. I thought about this, too, Shannon.

Jenna [01:20:47] You did?!

Angela [01:20:48] I did. And you know what I wrote down? I said, Isn’t it interesting that Dwight said three of the numbers that Angela reads out loud? 

Jenna [01:20:54] Yes! 

Angela [01:20:55] Because Angela reads 1-4-3-4-9-6-7, and Dwight says 7-1-1-9. 

Jenna [01:21:01] Shannon wondered if this was just a little nod to the fact that the people who are really connected are Dwight and Angela, and that’s why he’s receiving numbers. 

Angela [01:21:10] I loved it. I think it was a coincidence, but I thought it was really sweet. 

Jenna [01:21:15] Also, Becca R from Ohio wanted to know if this mind reading scene was a callback to Catherine Tate’s time on Doctor Who. 

Angela [01:21:23] Oh, cute. I like that. 

Jenna [01:21:24] Mm hmm. So a lot of people saw a lot of meaning in the scene. 

Angela [01:21:28] Dwight is ultimately going to decide that this is not how he wants to get ahead, you know? 

Jenna [01:21:33] Yeah, I like it. He has integrity. 

Angela [01:21:35] He does. And he gives her his room key, but then scratches out the bar, you know, the magnetic strip on the back so she can’t use it. 

Jenna [01:21:44] Yeah. Jim is going to finally grow a set, and he comes out of the bathroom and finds Cathy under his covers without a bathrobe on, and he just tells her to leave. 

Angela [01:21:56] He finally says, Get out. But I guess he’s also called Dwight because as he’s yelling, Get out, Dwight comes in with, like, a fumigation mask and, like, cleaning chemicals, and they basically spray her out of the room. 

Jenna [01:22:09] Yeah. 

Angela [01:22:10] Which I just thought, I felt like Cathy’s behavior was horrible, but I was like, This is such a (BLEEP) way to get her to leave the room. 

Jenna [01:22:17] Yeah, I mean, really, really it shouldn’t have come to this. I mean, this is-

Angela [01:22:20] I know, I know, I know. 

Jenna [01:22:24] Ugh. Oh, so, you know, now Dwight has sprayed chemicals all over Jim’s room. So where are they going to go? They’re going to both go now to Dwight’s room. 

Angela [01:22:32] With the desserts that Cathy ordered. 

Jenna [01:22:34] Yes, And they’re having this really nice time eating their desserts in bed together. And Nellie is going to try to get into Dwight’s room, but it doesn’t work. 

Angela [01:22:45] Yeah. In the shooting draft, there was an extra piece of dialog where Dwight and Jim kind of acknowledge that they had to dodge these women because Dwight goes, Bedbugs, huh? And Jim’s like, Yep. And then Jim says, Is that Nellie? And he’s like, Nope. You know what I mean? They hadt his moment. 

Jenna [01:23:05] Yes. I know I said that maybe the final scene could have been a Jim and Pam thing, but I do actually love how this episode ends with Jim and Dwight. And Warren said that when he thinks of this episode, the image that comes to mind is John and Rainn eating dessert on the bed together. And he said, I know that’s not what the episode is about, but he loved that final image so much that when he was on set, he took a picture of it, which he said is something he almost never did. But it is like, I love those moments when Jim and Dwight bond for a second, like that they’re deep down they’re friends, right? 

Angela [01:23:38] Yeah. It was that classic Dwight Jim like episode where they always used to have adventures together. They’d go on the road with Michael, and I did love that. 

Jenna [01:23:48] You know, it reminds me, you know, I’ve been fostering kittens again. 

Angela [01:23:51] Qhat about this reminds you of the kittens? 

Jenna [01:23:54] What reminds me about it is like, you know, Sonny gets really cranky when the kittens are trying to play with him. But then every once in a while, he’ll, like, engage them or he’ll, like, sniff noses with them or give them like a friendly little pat. And that’s what it reminded me of, like these two cats that are always going at it, but then all of a sudden you walk in a room and they’re snuggling and you’re like, Oh. 

Angela [01:24:15] Oh! 

Both [01:24:16] Oh, they do love each other. 

Angela [01:24:18] For 5 minutes. 

Jenna [01:24:19] Yes. 

Angela [01:24:19] I mean, I feel like that’s something Oscar would have said at the beginning, and Pam and Angela would have been like, Oh, okay. Unbelievable!

Jenna [01:24:25] You’re so right! Unbelievable!

Angela [01:24:28] Well, the late night jam work session is officially over. Everyone is leaving, even though Andy’s like, Wait, I have a cool down session. I got decaf coffee, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. Everyone just wants to go home. 

Jenna [01:24:40] Except Kelly thanks Andy for an amazing night. 

Angela [01:24:43] Exactly. And Darryl and Val have a moment. Val says, Look, I’m sorry. Can we just never talk about this again? And Darryl says, Sure. And by the way, I don’t think the idea of us is ridiculous. Dot, dot, dot, dot, dot. 

Jenna [01:24:59] And Val kind of smiles. I loved it. 

Angela [01:25:03] I loved it. Before we wrap up this episode, I have to share one thing for my digital clutter. 

Jenna [01:25:08] Okay. 

Angela [01:25:09] When we were filming this episode, we received an all cast email from Greg Daniels. The subject said, Congratulations. And when you opened the email, it said, oO your SAG nomination for Best Comedy Ensemble again! Exclamation point. You guys are so brilliant. It is so well-deserved. 

Jenna [01:25:30] I always loved our emails from Greg. 

Angela [01:25:32] It just took me back. It took me back. What a fun group of people we got to work with! What a fun show we got to do. 

Jenna [01:25:39] We laughed so much. 

Angela [01:25:40] We laughed so much. 

Jenna [01:25:42] Guess what? 

Angela [01:25:43] What? 

Jenna [01:25:43] My mood has shifted. 

Angela [01:25:45] Yay! 

Jenna [01:25:46] We did it. 

Angela [01:25:47] We did it! You guys, we hope you have a fantastic week. Huge thank you to Warren and Halstead for sharing their memories about writing this episode. 

Jenna [01:25:55] And also to Steve Burgess, who gave me a bunch of great behind the scenes production info. 

Angela [01:26:00] And to all of you for sending in awesome questions and comments and observations. We love you guys and we’ll see you next week. 

Jenna [01:26:07] See you then! Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. 

Angela [01:26:16] Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. 

Jenna [01:26:21] Our senior producer is Cassi Jerkins. Our in-studio engineer is Sam Kieffer. Our editing and mixing engineer is Jordan Duffy. And our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico. 

Angela [01:26:30] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.