EP. 161 — Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager 

Jenna [00:00:03] I’m Jenna Fischer. 

Angela [00:00:04] 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. Hello! 

Angela [00:00:28] Hi! 

Jenna [00:00:29] Can I share that we both missed our turns on the way to work today and then we were both late? 

Angela [00:00:33] Yeah- I

Jenna [00:00:34] It was so crazy. 

Angela [00:00:35] I was talking to my mom, and I missed my exit. We were just, like, jabbering away. And then I was like, Oh, no, Mom, I got to go. I’m. I’m going the wrong way. 

Jenna [00:00:44] Well, I saw a text from you pop up on my little screen, and I played it, you know, wireless and everything. Just saying.

Angela [00:00:50] Yes, yes, folks. 

Jenna [00:00:52] It was a message where it was like, you know, in the robot voice. 

Angela [00:00:55] Yeah, because I use Siri. 

Jenna [00:00:56] Yes. Telling me that you missed your turn off the freeway. 

Angela [00:01:01] I called it my stupid exit. I missed the stupid exit. 

Jenna [00:01:04] Well, while I was listening to that, I guess I missed my turn because all of a sudden I was out like this Giant. I don’t know. 

Angela [00:01:12] Like a shopping mall? 

Jenna [00:01:13] Yes, it had a Staples and a McDonald’s. And I thought, I’ve never seen this before. Where am I? I had gone almost a mile out of my way. I had to turn around. So I don’t know what that says about today’s podcast, but we both missed our turns. 

Angela [00:01:24] Missed our exits. 

Jenna [00:01:25] Let’s get to the episode today. It is Dwight K. Schrute, Acting Manager. 

Angela [00:01:30] Acting in parentheses. 

Jenna [00:01:33] It is season seven, episode 24, written by Justin Spitzer and directed by Troy Miller. 

Angela [00:01:39] I get very excited for episodes written by Justin. I think he is so funny. 

Jenna [00:01:44] He’s so funny. He has now gone on to create two amazing television shows, Superstore and American Auto. Here’s your summary. Acting manager Dwight is drunk on power and his coworkers are not happy with the changes he has implemented in the office. But an incident with a firearm might save them from his reign of terror. 

Angela [00:02:05] Reign of terror is some strong language. 

Jenna [00:02:09] Meanwhile, Gabe is struggling with his breakup with Erin. 

Angela [00:02:13] Gabe kind of broke my heart. 

Jenna [00:02:15] Very much. Fast fact number one, this was our first episode without Steve or Will. And according to Wikipedia, the fewest people tuned into this with the exception of Todd Packer. Todd Packer was our lowest watched episode. Am I saying that right? This was our second lowest. 

Angela [00:02:35] Our lowest viewed episode was Todd Packer? Well, Myles McNutt would agree with that. But I disagree with this episode. I think this is a fantastic episode. 

Jenna [00:02:45] Listen, people didn’t watch it, but critics loved it! 

Angela [00:02:49] Oh? 

Jenna [00:02:49] Including Myles McNutt. 

Angela [00:02:52] Yay. 

Jenna [00:02:52] He gave it a B. He called it, quote, A nice step forward for the show. Alan Sepinwall from HitFlix said, quote, I said I didn’t really want to start to judge the post Carell version of the show until Deangelo was gone. Well, he’s gone. And the first real impression of the show after Michael is a strong one. 

Angela [00:03:14] Yay! 

Jenna [00:03:15] Many people called it the best episode of the series in years. I agree. I loved this episode! 

Angela [00:03:23] Same, and I listened to the DVD commentary for this episode, which features Ellie Kemper, Mindy Kaling, Steve Healey, Justin Spitzer and myself. And we were all gushing about how everyone loved it. The cast, the crew, writers, we were all thrilled with this episode. 

Jenna [00:03:40] This was a big bump in our confidence, this episode, because we felt like, Oh wait, maybe we can do this. 

Angela [00:03:46] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:03:47] Fast fact number two, OfficeTally.com has a great interview with Rainn and Justin about this episode. 

Angela [00:03:56] It is really good. 

Jenna [00:03:57] And in that interview, Justin was asked how he came up with the title of this episode because it is very long. He explained that the working title for this script was Interim Manager, but that Mindy said that that was such a boring title that some TiVos might refuse to record it. 

Angela [00:04:16] She’s not wrong. 

Jenna [00:04:18] So when Justin sat down to write the script, he named it Dwight K. Schrute. Then he changed it to Dwight K. Schrute: Interim Manager. But then he did some research and he realized that Dwight’s actual title would be more of an acting manager, and he figured that Dwight would want to downplay the acting manager part, so that’s why he put acting in parentheses. 

Angela [00:04:42] Look how much thought went into the title of this episode. 

Jenna [00:04:44] Just the title! So much. Now fast fact number three, everyone. Buckle in. It’s a deep dive. 

Angela [00:04:51] Oh, I can’t wait. Wait. I want to guess. I want to guess, having watched the episode. It’s going to be a deep dive on… Well, I know the first one that comes to my mind. 

Jenna [00:05:01] What’s that? 

Angela [00:05:02] Either the samurai suit or the piranha or… Wait. There’s one other one. 

Jenna [00:05:10] You said it. 

Angela [00:05:11] I said it. The samurai suit. 

Jenna [00:05:13] Piranha. 

Angela [00:05:13] The piranha! 

Jenna [00:05:15] In this episode, Dwight- 

Angela [00:05:16] Oh, I can’t wait!

Jenna [00:05:18] In this episode, Dwight has a piranha in his office. 

Angela [00:05:22] I rewatched this episode with my daughter and my mother in law. 

Jenna [00:05:26] Okay. 

Angela [00:05:26] And my mother in law, Lynn, travels a lot. And she said, That is not a piranha. 

Jenna [00:05:33] Oh really? 

Angela [00:05:33] And I paused the TV and I said, What do you mean? She goes, I am telling you, it’s not a piranha. I’ve seen a piranha. And that is not a piranha. They’re smaller. And I said, Oh, well, I, I don’t know. 

Jenna [00:05:44] Well, Angela, Lynne is right! 

Angela [00:05:47] Really? 

Jenna [00:05:47] It is not a piranha in that tank. We could not have a real piranha because they are illegal to own in the state of California. 

Angela [00:05:56] Lynne, you knew it right away. 

Jenna [00:05:59] Now they are legal in Pennsylvania. So it is okay for Dwight to have a piranha in his office. But Randy told us that our trainers were not licensed to have piranhas. You can only have them in, like, a research facility or like a controlled environment. Like there is, I guess, a piranha in the Monterey Bay Aquarium. But they are on the restricted animals list for California. By the way, I looked up what the other restricted animals are in California. I just got curious. Like, what else can’t you have? 

Angela [00:06:31] Can I guess? 

Jenna [00:06:31] Sure. Let’s see. 

Angela [00:06:33] Tiger. 

Jenna [00:06:34] Well, that- no one can have a tiger. 

Angela [00:06:37] Oh, okay. 

Jenna [00:06:38] I mean. 

Angela [00:06:39] Well, I watched that Netflix show. They have a ton of them in Florida and Oklahoma. 

Jenna [00:06:43] Oh, I guess that’s true. 

Angela [00:06:45] Okay. 

Jenna [00:06:45] Well, that wasn’t on the list. 

Angela [00:06:47] Some type of snake? 

Jenna [00:06:48] Also not on the list. 

Angela [00:06:51] No snakes? 

Jenna [00:06:52] No. You can have a snake. And a tiger. I guess. I don’t know. Here’s what’s on the list. 

Angela [00:06:57] I’ll stop guessing. 

Jenna [00:06:59] As pets, you are not allowed to have a ferret. A mongoose. A bat. A bear. Gerbils. 

Angela [00:07:09] Gerbils? 

Jenna [00:07:10] Mmhmm. I had gerbils growing up, and I loved them. They’re so sweet. 

Angela [00:07:13] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:07:14] And I wanted to get my kids gerbils because I had such fond memories of having my gerbil. 

Angela [00:07:19] Sure. 

Jenna [00:07:19] Not in California. No, ma’am. 

Angela [00:07:21] What about a hamster? 

Jenna [00:07:22] Certain hamsters are allowed and certain are not. 

Angela [00:07:26] Okay. 

Jenna [00:07:27] Also, you cannot own a monkey or a hedgehog. 

Angela [00:07:30] Who wants to own a hedgehog? 

Jenna [00:07:32] They’re very cute. But you should not own a hedgehog. Let them live in the wild. 

Angela [00:07:37] Yeah. Let them live their life. 

Jenna [00:07:38] There’s enough animals that already want to live with us. 

Angela [00:07:41] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:07:42] Well, anyway, so also on that list, you can’t have a piranha. So what they provided us with was a Pacu, which is a very similar species. It’s also found in South America. Pacu look very similar to Piranha. Randy said it would take an expert to notice the difference. 

Angela [00:08:00] Lynn Snyder. 

Jenna [00:08:01] Yes. Randy also shared with us that our head trainer, Denise Sanders, brought an assortment of tanks and water filtration warming systems and set them up backstage. I remember that. 

Angela [00:08:13] I do, too. 

Jenna [00:08:14] I remember the tanks of fish. 

Angela [00:08:15] Walking past them. Yes.

Jenna [00:08:16] Yes, We had four identical looking Pacu. We used one on each day. And the total cost for all the tanks, equipment, the Pacu and the trainers was $3,375. 

Angela [00:08:30] How do you train a Pacu? I have questions.

Jenna [00:08:32] I don’t know. I don’t know. I did not get that far into it, but I did not stop here. I did get curious about the piranha as a fish. Here’s what I found out. I found out that while piranhas are dangerous and they can bite you if you’re not careful, that idea that they just, like, swim around in packs and, like, eat a person to the bones. 

Angela [00:08:57] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:08:57] That’s kind of a myth. 

Angela [00:08:59] Sounds like a cartoon. 

Jenna [00:09:00] Yeah. Piranha are actually really timid. They’re kind of nervous. And the reason that they swim all together, it’s not because they’re like pack hunters. It’s because they feel safe. 

Angela [00:09:12] That’s why most little fish swim in like big groups. 

Jenna [00:09:15] Right. Exactly. However, splashing attracts piranha. I did not know this. This is why they think that maybe children get bitten more often because they’re splashing. Also, if you’re swimming in an area that might have piranha, don’t swim near fishermen because the flapping of the fish that they’re catching attracts piranha. Just a hot tip for you. 

Angela [00:09:40] Okay. 

Jenna [00:09:41] If you’re in a piranha stream or a possible piranha stream. That said, people have been killed by piranha. It happens. It is not common. But I did get curious about what animal kills the most people each year. 

Angela [00:09:57] This took a turn I did not see coming. 

Jenna [00:09:59] Listen, I got so curious. I was like, What animals can I not own? What animals are most dangerous? 

Angela [00:10:05] All right, wait. I want to guess again. And I want to think outside the box here. I don’t want to go with what might be some obvious choices. 

Jenna [00:10:13] Also, I want to say, here’s just a little hint. The term animal, it’s a very loose term. You could include. 

Angela [00:10:22] Humans? 

Jenna [00:10:23] Well, that’s on the list. 

Angela [00:10:25] Oh. 

Jenna [00:10:26] Humans is the second most dangerous thing to humans. But there is something that is the most dangerous thing to humans. 

Angela [00:10:35] More dangerous than a human? 

Jenna [00:10:37] And it’s more of an insect. It kills more people each year. 

Angela [00:10:43] Mosquito? 

Jenna [00:10:43] Yes. Yes!

Angela [00:10:44] You gave me a lot of clues. 

Jenna [00:10:45] I did. Mosquitoes carry life threatening diseases, and those diseases kill about three quarters of a million people every year. Then the next dangerous thing to humans is humans. 

Angela [00:10:57] Number three, wild boar?

Jenna [00:10:59] Number three is the freshwater snail. 

Angela [00:11:02] What? 

Jenna [00:11:03] Yeah. They also carry disease. 

Angela [00:11:05] Is wild boar on this list anywhere. 

Jenna [00:11:07] It is not. 

Angela [00:11:08] Okay. 

Jenna [00:11:08] But beware of a saw scaled viper, an assassin bug. The assassin bug, listen to this, they’re also sometimes called the kissing bug because they come and bite your face while you’re sleeping, and then you die of a disease. 

Angela [00:11:23] No, thank you. 

Jenna [00:11:24] Scorpions, roundworms, the saltwater crocodile, elephants and hippos. Those are the top ten things that kill people every year. So just to say Dwight does have a dangerous animal in his office, but it’s not as dangerous as some things he could have in his office. Not even as dangerous as Dwight himself. 

Angela [00:11:47] True. 

Jenna [00:11:47] As this episode will prove. 

Angela [00:11:49] Assassin bug. That’s going to keep me up at night. Bite your face? One time I was visiting my grandparents, small town Texas, and there was this bug and my cousin was like, Don’t step on that, that’s a blister bug. And I was like, What is a blister bug? And she’s like, You step on it and its butt, like, pops and then it gives you a blister. 

Jenna [00:12:09] What? 

Angela [00:12:10] I’m just telling you, I’m just telling you. 

Jenna [00:12:13] Wow. 

Angela [00:12:14] Also, they had stink bugs. 

Jenna [00:12:15] Well, I’ve heard of a stink bug. They’re stinky. 

Angela [00:12:18] They’re stinky. 

Jenna [00:12:19] Well, listen, that’s all I got. Should we take a break? 

Angela [00:12:22] Yes, because then I want to get into this episode. I really want to talk about what Dwight wants to give as a gift for Deangelo. 

Jenna [00:12:30] Yes, please… 

Angela [00:12:40] We are back. And we are in the conference room. A few of the employees are brainstorming gift ideas for Deangelo. I was thrilled this day because I got to be in a scene with you. 

Jenna [00:12:50] I know! 

Angela [00:12:51] And we got to be chatty between takes. Here’s what everyone is brainstorming. Jim thinks they should get baskets full of chocolates, teddy bears, balloons, stuff like that, right? 

Jenna [00:13:00] Yes. 

Angela [00:13:02] I mean, Deangelo is in the hospital. Dwight says, No, no, no. I want to do the knapsack filled with canned goods, chainsaw, gasoline and emergency radio in case he wakes up post-apocalypse. 

Jenna [00:13:14] I just want to say something. If I were in a coma and I woke up and one of my gifts was what Dwight described, that would be so funny to me. I would absolutely love that person who sent that with a card that said, In case you wake up post-apocalypse, we wanted you to be prepared. Please, if I’m ever in a coma, put this gift in my room. I will appreciate it. 

Angela [00:13:35] Two things with this sentence you just said. 

Jenna [00:13:37] It’s funny to me. 

Angela [00:13:38] Two things. One, you think you’re going to wake up out of a coma with a really good sense of humor. 

Jenna [00:13:43] This will give me a boost. 

Angela [00:13:45] The other thing is, Dwight isn’t being funny. 

Jenna [00:13:48] So I know.  

Angela [00:13:50] He’s being for real. But, you know, when you think about it, if you wake up out of a coma and there’s a balloon that’s been deflated and chocolates that have gone bad. 

Jenna [00:13:57] That’s what I’m saying. I mean-. 

Angela [00:13:58] Flowers are dead. 

Jenna [00:13:59] I just think it’s a very fun, like, post coma gag gift. 

Angela [00:14:05] Well, I know you’re not watching The Last of Us yet because you told me to stop telling you stuff about it. I’m not going to say a word. 

Jenna [00:14:11] We’re going to start. We’re starting this weekend. We have an overnight date night. We are bringing our Apple TV so that we can binge this show. 

Angela [00:14:19] I can’t wait. 

Jenna [00:14:20] I will get caught up. 

Angela [00:14:21] I need you to talk to me after. 

Jenna [00:14:22] Okay. 

Angela [00:14:23] I think about Dwight a lot in this series, The Last of Us. 

Jenna [00:14:25]  Jim has a talking head next, and he’s outside. He’s talking about how it turns out that they never got a manager. Because you don’t need one. People just come in and do the work on their own schedules, and it’s been really great. 

Angela [00:14:42] Everyone’s happy. They put a foosball machine in Michael’s old office. 

Jenna [00:14:46] We got a fan question from Stephanie W in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who said, Not a question, but an observation. In the cold open of this episode when Jim explains that it turns out they don’t need a manager, I found this interesting and wonder if that’s why this branch has always been successful. Are they used to not being managed at all under Michael Scott? 

Angela [00:15:06] That’s an excellent observation. Well, Jim is going to get a phone call from Jo and we can only hear his side of the conversation, but it’s clear that she has asked him to be the acting manager and he says, No, we don’t need one. And then immediately Dwight’s phone rings and you can tell Jo is asking him the same question and he accepts wholeheartedly. And Pam is like, What have you done, Jim? What have you done? 

Jenna [00:15:35] I mean, it’s very similar to when Jim would not pick a health care plan and it went to Dwight. 

Angela [00:15:41] Yes. Jim. What did you think was going to happen? 

Jenna [00:15:46] Dwight could not be more excited. He goes into the office, he sits down at his desk, and he makes a phone call. He says, Mose, you’ll never guess where I am right now. 

Angela [00:15:56] And then you hear Mose yell. He knows immediately. He’s so happy. 

Jenna [00:16:00] We had a fan question from Aidan W. in Portland, Oregon. In this cold open when Dwight calls Mose, please tell me this is a reference to the final scene in Working Girl. 

Angela [00:16:12] Oh! 

Working Girl Clip [00:16:13] Sam. Guess where I am? 

Jenna [00:16:25] And then her friend is like standing up and just screaming. Just screaming. I asked Justin Spitzer if this was a nod to working girl, and he said, Yes, 100%. 

Angela [00:16:37] Oh, my gosh! 

Jenna [00:16:38] Yeah. Which is so cool. 

Angela [00:16:39] That is awesome. 

Jenna [00:16:40] We also had a fan question from Jessica P in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, who said, Who voiced Mose’s, “Ahh” when Dwight calls to tell him about the manager position? Guys, that was Mike Schur. 

Angela [00:16:52] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:16:52] He came and did some ADR work just to scream into a microphone for this one bit. 

Angela [00:16:57] He has a very funny answer to this question in that Office Tally interview that you’re talking about. 

Jenna [00:17:02] He does. 

Angela [00:17:03] So if you guys go read it, it’s very funny. The show is going to open with Jim and Pam. They’re arriving for work. Only Pam gets out of the car. Jim does not want to go in. 

Jenna [00:17:13] He’s going to sit in the car all day, apparently. 

Angela [00:17:15] Jim is going to have a talking head where he describes what it’s been like to have Dwight as the acting manager for one week. I mean, it feels like three months. 

Jenna [00:17:24] Mm hmm. There’s all of these new policies, new rules. Like they have to punch in on an old timey time clock. 

Angela [00:17:31] I listed every single new rule that I could find in the shooting draft. 

Jenna [00:17:36] Oh, really? 

Angela [00:17:37] Yes. 

Jenna [00:17:37] Are you going to give it to us? 

Angela [00:17:38] Do you want to hear it now? 

Jenna [00:17:39] Please. Please. 

Angela [00:17:41] Okay. I want to tell you, too, that Mindy shared on the commentary how much fun it was in the writer’s room to pitch all the different ways that Dwight’s new office would run. 

Jenna [00:17:49] Okay. 

Angela [00:17:51] Here were the rules I found in the shooting draft. There’s probably more. I might have missed some. Number one, like you said, they have to punch in to a very ye olde time clock. 

Jenna [00:18:00] Now, I remember something about that time clock. It did not work. 

Angela [00:18:03] No. 

Jenna [00:18:04] You guys were fakey- and Angela, your fakey is so good. You like. I just want everyone to know, like that sound, like that (IMITATES SOUND) that was in post-production. That machine did nothing. 

Angela [00:18:15] Nothing. 

Jenna [00:18:16] So you like. 

Angela [00:18:17] Flinching. 

Jenna [00:18:19] Flinching and then, like, your card gets a little bit- it was so good. That’s just Angela acting. 

Angela [00:18:23] Thank you. Apparently, I’m really good with a fake time clock. Okay, so then here’s another rule. Everyone got new business cards, but none of them fit in their wallets, and they’re all referred to as junior employees. 

Jenna [00:18:36] You see a shot of Jim trying to put that card in his wallet. And we did have a fan catch from Grace E in Rochester, New York, who wanted to point out the Wegmans grocery card that was also in Jim’s wallet. 

Angela [00:18:48] I saw that, too. 

Jenna [00:18:50] Mhmm. 

Angela [00:18:50] All of their lunch breaks are staggered to prevent wasting time. No one gets to eat together. 

Jenna [00:18:55] No. 

Angela [00:18:56] They have the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. Then there are morning announcements. Everyone has also been given a 21 digit number copier code that you cannot share. I’m going to get to that. That’s one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever done. 

Jenna [00:19:09] I watched it several times because it was such perfection. 

Angela [00:19:14] I can’t wait to share about it. Also, you cannot be late. Coffee is $0.50 and he’s installed security cameras in the kitchen to spy on everyone. There is no food in the breakroom vending machines, just advertisements for Caffeine Corner. The computers have internet blockers, and there’s no more voicemails because Dwight doesn’t trust a robot to give you your messages. 

Jenna [00:19:39] I mean, I think you pretty much summed it up. So Jim lays a lot of those new rules out in his talking head. And speaking of that talking head, we had a fan question from Laura M in Toronto, Canada. At 2 minutes, 4 seconds, when Jim is outside, we can see his breath. How did you achieve this, since it’s always so warm in L.A.? Well, Randy said that we shot the scene first thing in the morning on day one. It was Monday, March 28th, 2011. March 28th. I mean, that’s usually pleasant. But Randy said that our call sheet said that the overnight low was about 49 degrees, which still seems pretty warm to see breath vapor. But Randy said there is no note of having like added that in post. Justin Spitzer did an interview where he said it’s real. It was really that cold. 

Angela [00:20:31] Well, I can tell you, I was there that morning. 

Jenna [00:20:34] I was there that morning. 

Angela [00:20:35] That’s right! I walked right after John. That’s I think when we did the clock thing. 

Jenna [00:20:40] See, I had no memory of being outside. I’m outside in that scene. I’m at the car and then I’m in the background. We shot all that stuff on the same day. I have no memory of it being cold. Isn’t that weird? You’d think I would remember. 

Angela [00:20:52] You think. I share on the commentary that I was freezing that morning, that we had had a cold snap, and that was just a real chilly morning. 

Jenna [00:21:00] So fakey time clock, real breath vapor. 

Angela [00:21:03] And real baby belly. 

Jenna [00:21:06] My baby belly catch? Oh dear. 

Angela [00:21:08] Go to 3 minutes, 11 seconds, when Pam yells, Stop stalling! I see your baby bump. 

Jenna [00:21:15] Well, this is the episode where I described in our book that I had gone to J.Crew over the weekend and bought myself a new outfit because I realized I was not going to make it to the end of the season in my wardrobe. 

Angela [00:21:28] You were busting out of your button down Pam shirt. 

Jenna [00:21:29] So much. 

Angela [00:21:30] And you tried to hide it. 

Jenna [00:21:31] I did. 

Angela [00:21:33] And 3 minutes. 11 seconds. It made me smile, Jenna. I was like, aww.

Jenna [00:21:36] Aw, that’s my little boy in there. 

Angela [00:21:38] I know. Well, now we’re going to see the bullpen under Dwight’s supervision. I went to the shooting draft to see how it was described. 

Jenna [00:21:46] Okay. 

Angela [00:21:47] Interior office reception. People are walking in for the day. Stanley punches in and walks past an American flag and a framed portrait of Dwight. Andy at his desk takes off his windbreaker, revealing he is wearing a short sleeved shirt like the one Dwight wears. We hear the beep of a watch alarm coming from what is now Dwight’s office. Dwight walks out with a smile. He kicks the front door shut and says, Let’s begin. 

Jenna [00:22:13] So I noticed a couple of things in this scene. First of all, at 4 minutes, when Dwight walks up to start to lead everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance followed by his morning announcements, there’s a shot of the messages container. You know the thing on reception? Deangelo Vickers is still getting messages. His name is still on the little message thing. We also got a fan question from Steven M in San Francisco, who said, I noticed that Andy was wearing a short sleeve business suit. Was this a nod to his usual sucking up to the manager by replicating Dwight’s style choices? Yes. So we shot that little moment of him taking off his windbreaker. And then Dwight clocks it. And when they did their writers screening, because they would do that, they would screen the episodes for the writers while they were editing, he said it got a huge laugh in the room, but ultimately it had to get cut for time. So then you just see Andy wearing the short sleeve shirt and it’s not really explained. 

Angela [00:23:18] It’s now time for everyone to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Behind Dwight is a huge painting of himself. 

Jenna [00:23:24] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:23:25] Looking like a dictator. Angela is very into this Pledge of Allegiance. She’s kind of into this whole mood, I think. 

Jenna [00:23:31] I think she is, too. We got a bunch of fan mail about you, Angela, in this Pledge of Allegiance. People want to know if your “Amen” was scripted or improvised?

Angela [00:23:41] Yeah, I improvised that. I was so delighted it made it in. 

Jenna [00:23:47] We also got a fan question from David P in Pennsylvania who noticed that Oscar does not say, One nation under God. And he even gives a look to camera. Wanted to know if that was scripted. That was scripted. Justin said he heard that some people thought that this implied that Oscar is an atheist, but that was not Justin’s intention. He said he just figured that Oscar was the kind of guy who would resent being made to talk about God in the workplace. And he would very proudly and very smugly, publicly abstain. And so that’s why he wrote that bit. 

Angela [00:24:22] I bet Oscar has a “actually” ready to go. 

Jenna [00:24:25] Exactly. 

Angela [00:24:26] In the morning announcements, Dwight is going to let everyone know about the copier codes and also that Jo Bennett is coming for a high level meeting between him and Gabe. And by high level, it’s just a general meet and greet. Kelly is going to be late. 

Jenna [00:24:42] She comes in like a back door. 

Angela [00:24:45] Sneaky. How often is she late if she always comes in that back door? You know, Michael wasn’t looking for her. 

Jenna [00:24:50] I don’t think we’ve ever used that door. 

Angela [00:24:52] Well, she said she had an illness of a personal nature. And Dwight wants to know which part of her body. Mindy could not keep this together. She was laughing so hard. 

Jenna [00:25:02] As he was, like pointing. 

Angela [00:25:03] Yes. And I’m surprised they even got a take without her laughing. Now we’re going to start this Gabe/ Andy runner, where Gabe is just trying so desperately to win Erin back and he doesn’t want Andy flirting with her. 

Jenna [00:25:17] No, he grabs Andy and brings him into the conference room, and they close all the blinds. I loved the spy shot through the blinds. 

Angela [00:25:25] There is only a two inch space. You see the whole scene play out in two inches. Basically, he makes Andy promise to never date Erin again. Makes him say it. 

Jenna [00:25:35] And he’s so overbearing that Andy kind of agrees. 

Angela [00:25:40] He just wants out of there. Andy’s like, Get me out of this conference room. In the meantime, Jim has started his sabotaging of Dwight. 

Jenna [00:25:47] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:25:48] You know, there are a bunch of deleted scenes on the DVD where he gets Jordan to prank Dwight with him. And Jenna, it did not sit well with me. 

Jenna [00:25:56] No! 

Angela [00:25:57] I was like, why is Jordan pranking Dwight with you and not Pam? I didn’t like it, and I. I’m glad they were deleted. 

Jenna [00:26:03] Well, I remember seeing an early cut of this episode, and there was a talking head with Jordan where she says something to the effect of, like, Well, there’s one person in the office I don’t mind or something like that. Meaning Jim, after this day of pranking. 

Angela [00:26:18] It’s on the DVDs and she smiles and lights up and looks so beautiful and she’s so, like, tickled by Jim. And I was like, Uh uh, that would have made people lose their minds. 

Jenna [00:26:28] Yeah. That all went goodbye. 

Angela [00:26:31] Well, Jim is going to try to start a social club called The Fist. 

Jenna [00:26:35] Mm hmm. 

Angela [00:26:35] Dwight sees this, of course, as a rebellion. 

Jenna [00:26:38] Jim says, Listen, I’d love to have you come in today, but it’s just that today we’re really busy with Operation Overthrow. It’s not a big deal, but… 

Angela [00:26:47] What was Jim’s morning like? He wouldn’t come inside. Then he did come inside. Then he made a whole bunch of fliers, used a lot of black ink. 

Jenna [00:26:53] He did. 

Angela [00:26:54] He’s been very busy at the copier. 

Jenna [00:26:57] Oh! 

Angela [00:26:57] Why wasn’t he at the copier? 

Jenna [00:27:00] I don’t know! 

Angela [00:27:01] Well, Angela is stuck behind Kevin at the copier as he tries to type in his 21 digit copy code. This was one of my favorite scenes to do in all of season seven. I loved doing this bit with Craig and Brian. We were having the absolute time of our lives and it’s going to come back later and I’ll share more then. 

Jenna [00:27:20] Well, I have a fan catch from Shanley S in Anchorage, Alaska. At 6 minutes and 40 seconds, you can see a solitaire game on the computer screen behind Kevin when he’s at the copier. So not everyone was worried about the copier. Some people were playing solitaire. 

Angela [00:27:36] Well, Andy is now going to try to show Pam a video, and it’s blocked. The website is blocked. Internet blocked. This was a bigger runner and it was driving everyone crazy because Dwight limited their Internet access. Phyllis was really struggling with it. She was trying to remember a movie. She was trying to tell everyone about it. It’s in the deleted scenes and I kind of need you to hear it. 

Pam [00:28:02] Well, maybe we should talk to Jo. 

Oscar [00:28:04] And say what? Jo, Dwight won’t let us watch sneezing animal videos online anymore. Fire him. No, Pam. This is our life now. Mindless drones working for a machine. 

Phyllis [00:28:15] It’s just like that movie. What is that movie with that actor? He’s in that one big movie with that lady. 

Kevin [00:28:22] The one with the lady… 

Phyllis [00:28:24] Yeah. And then one really huge movie with that black actor who’s been in a bunch of things, too. 

Pam [00:28:30] He’s black? 

Phyllis [00:28:30] No, no, no. He’s not black. He’s the one who- oh, my God. This is why we need the Internet. I’m going bonkers. I can’t think. 

Jenna [00:28:39] Oh, my God. 

Angela [00:28:40] I know. She’s so. She’s like, I can’t take it. She kind of trails off. And then later, Dwight finally lets everyone have Internet. And Phyllis, I think, does Googling Jenna. 

Jenna [00:28:50] She Googles? 

Angela [00:28:51] I think she Googles because then she has a talking head. And guess the actor she was trying to think of? 

Jenna [00:28:57] I don’t know. 

Phyllis [00:28:59] It was Keanu Reeves. 

Jenna [00:29:04] AHHHHH! It was Keanu!

Angela [00:29:05] Yes, when Oscar says, We’re just like mindless drones working, she was thinking of The Matrix. At least that’s what I think. 

Jenna [00:29:13] Oh, my gosh. 

Angela [00:29:14] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:29:16] Keany is always popping up in our lives. 

Angela [00:29:18] His name was literally said on our set. In an episode. 

Jenna [00:29:23] We- that is all we need for him to come be a guest. Even though he was in a deleted talking head, he is part of the Office world. Keanu!

Angela [00:29:32] He is! He’s part of the canon. Keanu. Keanu, would you come? Maybe we’ll like, we’ll break down Speed and you could sit with us and tell us what it was like to do Speed? 

Jenna [00:29:41] Just come here. 

Angela [00:29:42] Just come hang out, Keanu. We’ll have snacks. 

Jenna [00:29:45] Wow. 

Angela [00:29:46] I know. 

Jenna [00:29:47] He was on The Office. 

Angela [00:29:48] He was on The Office. I flipped out. I had to play it for you. This is going to lead now to a Dwight talking head. He says, You know what? I will never be happier than I am right now. He is so happy to be the Dunder Mifflin acting manager. 

Jenna [00:30:02] Yeah. He’s sitting in his office at his giant desk. 

Angela [00:30:09] You know, Mindy and Justin talked about how much fun it was to pitch what all would be on Dwight’s desk. 

Jenna [00:30:14] I loved his office, and I loved the care that they had so clearly taken in decorating it. 

Angela [00:30:21] In deleted scenes, Jenna, Dwight gives the documentary crew a very big tour of his office. 

Jenna [00:30:27] Really? 

Angela [00:30:28] He goes through every part of it. He points out a framed 3D velvet wolf picture. 

Jenna [00:30:34] Incredible. 3D.

Angela [00:30:35] I wish. I wish I had it. He also points out his samurai armor that’s in the corner. And there were a bunch of swords as well. Jenna, he has like a dagger letter opener. And he can really open letters with it, but he could also, you know, stab someone with it. 

Jenna [00:30:50] Sure. 

Angela [00:30:51] Yeah. A Spartan mask, a fake fireplace, the piranha we’ve talked about, the Beaumont Adams. He says it’s over 120 years old. And they also shared in the commentary that at one point Dwight improvised as he’s giving this tour, putting on the samurai armor. 

Jenna [00:31:11] Okay. 

Angela [00:31:12] And the props department freaked out, because they had rented it and it costs like $10,000. 

Jenna [00:31:18] Oh my gosh! 

Angela [00:31:19] It was so expensive. 

Jenna [00:31:20] Wow. 

Angela [00:31:21] Yeah. And when Rainn started pretending to put it on, they’re like, Bahh! Like, stop! Stop! If you want to see the tour of Dwight’s office, go to the DVD extras. Well, Jenna, before we go to break, I want to show you what this framed 3-D velvet wolf poster looks like. I took a screen grab of it. I’ll put it in stories. 

Jenna [00:31:42] It’s haunting. 

Angela [00:31:43] I know! 

Jenna [00:31:44] That would terrify me if that was in my home. 

Angela [00:31:47] It’s super creepy. 

Jenna [00:31:48] Or any room I’m in. 

Angela [00:31:50] I know. And I thought I wanted to live up to my Dundie of bringing in visuals onto a podcast. 

Jenna [00:31:54] Well, thank you so much. Everyone listening is loving that photo right now. 

Angela [00:31:59] Of a 3D velvet wolf. All right. We’re going to break. We’ll be right back. 

Jenna [00:32:12] We’re back. And before we start breaking down this incredibly awkward scene with Gabe, Angela, I need to say that I love your sweater that says “love”. 

Angela [00:32:20] Thank you. 

Jenna [00:32:20] I love it. 

Angela [00:32:21] I have a gray sweater in some really pretty sort of pastel colors that says love. 

Jenna [00:32:27] Do you also have a sweatshirt that says love or does your sweatshirt say peace? 

Angela [00:32:31] It says grateful. 

Jenna [00:32:33] Oh, I like that, too. 

Angela [00:32:35] Thanks. 

Jenna [00:32:35] You’re being very positive in your clothing in 2023, I’m noticing. 

Angela [00:32:39] I should tell you guys, this sweater that I have on I bought probably six years ago at The Gap. 

Jenna [00:32:46] What?! 

Angela [00:32:46] And when I put it on this morning, I said to Josh, I just wear the same old sweaters over and over. I want some new sweaters. 

Jenna [00:32:54] I love this sweater. 

Angela [00:32:55] Thank you. 

Jenna [00:32:56] If you get a new sweater, please don’t get rid of this sweater. 

Angela [00:33:01] Maybe my thing as I age is I just wear clothing with motivational words. 

Jenna [00:33:04] I would love that as a character. 

Angela [00:33:07] Love. Grateful. Peace. 

Jenna [00:33:09] You might have to have things specially made. 

Angela [00:33:11] I know. 

Jenna [00:33:12] All right, So let’s talk about this scene with Gabe. Erin’s on the phone and he just walks up and just hangs up her phone call, and she says they’re just going to call back. But he goes on a whole rant. He says he’s in love with her and he says, You know, I don’t believe in much. I don’t believe in horoscopes. 

Angela [00:33:33] Or Christmas. 

Jenna [00:33:34] Or God. And her reaction to that. She is not happy. 

Angela [00:33:39] Oh, Angela is over the partition as well. Angela is like, excuse me? 

Jenna [00:33:43] Oh, Ben R from Boston noted your scoff in disgust, as he put it. And so Gabe starts backpedaling. It’s very funny. He’s like, I just mean, like, he’s not an old man with a beard. And Erin is still like (GASP). 

Angela [00:34:00] She’s like, Maybe he’s an old man with a beard. Ben, for my head to be that high above the partition, I was standing on an apple box.  

Jenna [00:34:09] You were? 

Angela [00:34:11] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:34:11] So that we could see you scoff in disgust. 

Angela [00:34:14] Yeah. Because otherwise you just would have seen the top of my forehead. 

Jenna [00:34:16] Did you notice that at 8 minutes, Jordan is sitting at Dwight’s desk. She has taken over his desk. 

Angela [00:34:23] Yes, I did notice. Well, now we’re back in Dwight’s office. Dwight has called Jim in because he wants to talk to him because Jo is coming, and he doesn’t want Jim, you know, to cause any problems. 

Jenna [00:34:33] That’s right. 

Angela [00:34:34] No pranking with Jo here. Jim really takes in the room. He’s like, Wow, you know, this is quite the decor. And Dwight starts to point things out to him. 

Jenna [00:34:45] Yes. This is when we learn that the gun on his desk is a Beaumont Adams. 

Angela [00:34:50] Yeah. He thought maybe, you know, Jo might like it. Might give them something to talk about. 

Jenna [00:34:54] Yeah, I guess she collects guns. 

Angela [00:34:55] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:34:56] Okay. Also, this is when he mentions his rescue piranha, as well as his desk, which is, he says, a replica of Uday Hussein’s desk. He read an article in Newsweek. Here’s something I remember about that desk, Angela. I remember that it was made out of wood. It was very light. And they painted it to look like marble. And I would just go in and stare at it because I was so impressed with this painting job. I thought it was amazing. 

Angela [00:35:26] You know what I thought about when I rewatched this episode was if that desk was truly marble and that big, they would not have been able to get it through the door and in the room. You would have to build a room around that desk. Also in the commentary, Justin and Mindy shared that it was Mindy’s idea to have this desk. 

Jenna [00:35:44] Oh, I love it. Well, this was a whole thing, this desk. How they built it. I asked Randy because I told him my memory of loving it, and he said the writers had originally pitched that the desk was like a solid black onyx. But Michael Gallenberg, our production designer, said that that would just suck out all the light in the room. It wouldn’t look good on camera. And he thought it would be more visually interesting if we made it out of marble. So Tim James built it out of lumber, and then we hired this guy Ron Henson, who is an amazing painter, to paint it, to look like marble. 

Angela [00:36:24] Well, you would never know that that was like a fakey desk. It looks so good. 

Jenna [00:36:29] Justin said there was a reason why they over decorated Dwight’s office. And it was because they wanted to, quote unquote, hide the gun. He said that audiences are really smart, that audiences know if you introduce a gun into a storyline, that gun is going to go off. I guess it’s called Chekhov’s Gun. It’s like a writer’s theory? 

Angela [00:36:51] Oh, yeah? 

Jenna [00:36:52] Okay. So he thought that if he did everything he could to make the gun feel just like a minor prop among other ridiculous props, maybe, just maybe, the fact that Dwight fires the gun later would be a surprise. 

Angela [00:37:06] Well, I think he did a good job because he put it in a glass box. I didn’t think it was going to get used. I thought it was just another one of Dwight’s swords and daggers and armor. 

Jenna [00:37:15] Yeah. 

Angela [00:37:16] Justin said on the commentary Jenna that they broke down this episode so many times. It was a bit of a puzzle trying to figure out how to make Dwight the manager and what that would look like. But then also where would it go? And it was the writer Steve Healey’s idea that Dwight would become manager and screw it up all in one week. 

Jenna [00:37:35] Oh, that’s fun. 

Angela [00:37:36] So you had to have a big thing that would, like, sabotage him being manager because he was probably going to be pretty good at it. 

Jenna [00:37:43] Right. Well, in the next scene, Dwight’s going to open up a package, and inside is a gun holster. 

Angela [00:37:51] From his Uncle Hank. 

Jenna [00:37:51] Yes. And he’s so excited. He’s so touched. Well, Dwight immediately takes his gun holster. He puts his gun in it, and he starts parading around the office. Everyone’s like, Dwight, what are you doing? You can’t just walk around with a gun in the office. 

Angela [00:38:09] And he’s like, But my Uncle Hank made this for me. This is so special. 

Jenna [00:38:13] Yeah. He’s like, You can’t, like, just walk around without a gun in it. You have to put the gun in it. And everyone’s, like, pitching ideas. Well, why don’t you put your phone in it? Why don’t you put a banana in it? 

Angela [00:38:24] I would have loved to seen him walking around with a banana in that holster. 

Jenna [00:38:27] I thought it was a good suggestion. Actually. I have to say. Pam is going to threaten to call Jo, and that’s when Dwight is like, fine. And he does a little twirly thing with the gun. He’s going to put it back in the holster, but instead it fires right onto the ground right next to Andy’s ear. 

Angela [00:38:46] Mm hmm. And Andy grabs his ear. On the commentary, they were like, This was a really strong cutaway because that was the act break. 

Jenna [00:38:55] That’s a pretty strong act break. Well, we got a lot of questions about this moment. First of all, Dash P from Connecticut said, Did Rainn fire a blank or was the flash and gunshot sound added in post? No, that was not added in post. Rainn fired a blank. That was a real working gun. Randy explained that a blank is a cartridge that contains no projectile. It just has gunpowder in it. We used what was called a quarter round, which holds about a fourth of the amount of gunpowder, I guess. But still, firing a blank can be really dangerous. And even a quarter round makes a very loud noise. It produces that muzzle flash. So in order to do this, the crew held multiple rehearsals without any cast on set. We had a full safety meeting, I remember that. And they handed out those special shooters earplugs for us all to wear. It was a very loud noise. 

Angela [00:39:54] It’s a very loud pop. 

Jenna [00:39:55] And Randy said we did it in one take. 

Angela [00:39:58] Well, one of the things they talked about on the commentary was the idea that Dwight does something that’s definitely going to get him removed from acting manager, but also making sure the way they shot it, it was very clear that no one was injured. 

Jenna [00:40:12] Mm hmm. We also got a fan question from Zack T in Illinois who said, Regarding Dwight’s gun, after doing some research, it seems that the gun that Dwight used resembles a Remington 1875 American made revolver. However, Dwight refers to it as a Beaumont Adams, which was a British service revolver from the mid-late 19th century. That actually looks very different than the gun that was used in this episode. What gun was used for the prop, and how did the writers decide on calling it a Beaumont Adams despite the fact that it looks nothing like a Beaumont Adams? Well, Zack, good catch. That was not a Beaumont Adams. So we hired an armorer for the scene, and he informed us that there are no credible working replicas of a Beaumont Adams. It couldn’t be found. He said we could have one built, but it would take months. 

Angela [00:41:11] Oh, wow. 

Jenna [00:41:12] So the producers decided to go with this Remington 1875. It was a modern day build of a classic revolver. And because this was not some sort of antique gun, but a modern made gun, it was considered safer to handle. It could really fire a blank. So we went with that. But the writers chose to keep the Beaumont Adams reference just because they thought it was funny and that it sounded like something that Jo might recognize and appreciate. 

Angela [00:41:41] Mm hmm. 

Jenna [00:41:42] Justin said Internet gun aficionados have called them out on this cheat before. You know, Angela, I remember. It was loud. Do you remember that? 

Angela [00:41:51] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:41:51] I mean, we didn’t have to pretend to jump. 

Angela [00:41:53] No, all of our reactions were very real. 

Jenna [00:41:56] For sure. 

Angela [00:41:58] At 11 minutes and 26 seconds, Oscar is going to examine the gunshot hole that is in the floor. Right? 

Jenna [00:42:05] Yes. 

Angela [00:42:06] And he’s going to say, Look at that. Hardwood floors underneath this carpet. All along. I would like to point out that while Oscar is examining the damage to the floors, you can see that John had a heater under his desk. 

Jenna [00:42:20] What? 

Angela [00:42:21] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:42:21] John? 

Angela [00:42:22] All this time, I thought it was just us, but John has a heater under his desk. I took a picture. 

Jenna [00:42:28] I am like, I am shocked right now. 

Angela [00:42:31] I was shocked as well. I know I should be, like, focusing on the episode and this big plot point just happened, but I couldn’t get my eyes off a heater under John’s desk. 

Jenna [00:42:40] Wow. 

Angela [00:42:41] Check it out. 

Jenna [00:42:43] And it’s on. 

Angela [00:42:44] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:42:45] The little red light. 

Angela [00:42:46] Red light’s on. 

Jenna [00:42:46] Is on. Well, Toby’s going to come in to see what’s going on. Kelly’s going to say that Dwight went on a shooting spree. 

Angela [00:42:54] Background catch at 11 minutes, 45 seconds. Did you guys catch that Dwight hands his gun to Creed? And I guess Creed is going to get rid of it? 

Jenna [00:43:03] Yeah. I mean, if anyone knows how to get rid of a gun in this office, it’s probably Creed. Don’t you think maybe this isn’t the first gun he’s gotten rid of? I’m just saying. 

Angela [00:43:12] I mean, he lives under the desk. He has a whole other life in Canada. 

Jenna [00:43:15] We don’t know. 

Angela [00:43:16] We don’t know. 

Jenna [00:43:18] Well, Oscar wants to look up some of Andy’s symptoms on WebMD, which gets some great snark from Angela. 

Angela [00:43:24] This is one of my favorite Angela Martin lines of all season seven. In the script, it was written like this, and we shot it exactly as it was written. Oscar says, I’ll look on WebMD. What are your symptoms? Angela, in parentheses, sarcastic, Oh, everybody, Oscar found a reason to look on WebMD. I love the assumed history of these two characters. I love knowing that he looks on WebMD so much that it has driven her crazy for years. 

Jenna [00:43:53] I think it’s lines like this that really made this feel like a nostalgic old Office episode and also like the stuff at the copier we just brought back I feel like some of that mundane office work kind of stuff. 

Angela [00:44:05] Early days. Yeah. 

Jenna [00:44:07] And relationship stuff. 

Angela [00:44:09] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:44:10] I want you to know that when Toby gets excited to go get his new safety binder, I really felt that. I would be excited to use a new binder. You know, I have a lot of stuff in my house that is for various emergencies, and I’m not saying that I want a zombie apocalypse or that I want any kind of apocalypse or end of times, but if it happened, I would be so excited to grab my expired medications book bag. You know, I would just be like, I knew it! 

Angela [00:44:41] I really can’t wait for you to meet the character of Bill in The Last of Us. I need you to meet Bill. 

Jenna [00:44:47] Okay. 

Angela [00:44:47] I’m not going to say anything else. 

Jenna [00:44:48] All right.

Angela [00:44:49] But speaking of Toby and how excited he was, you know, to have his emergency binder… Jenna, do you remember when we were filming this, when Paul came out to say all that, he had addressed the bullpen? 

Jenna [00:45:01] Yes. 

Angela [00:45:01] And he mumbled so badly we couldn’t understand him? We even improvised, What are you saying, Toby? 

Jenna [00:45:07] Speak up! 

Angela [00:45:09] We started laughing so hard. And I don’t know if it was Paul or Paul being Toby, but he really struggled getting that line out. 

Jenna [00:45:16] I feel like that made it on to the bloopers. It definitely made it on, you know, they would do blooper reels and stuff for our end of season cast parties that we would have, and I remember it was definitely on there. Yeah. 

Angela [00:45:29] It’s somewhere out there. Yeah. Dwight is now going to do his best Michael, which is where he calls a conference room meeting and creates a character to cover up his screw up. 

Jenna [00:45:37] Gun safety Dwight! 

Angela [00:45:39] Yeah, I’m the rootinest toot- and he just can’t do it. He bails immediately. 

Jenna [00:45:44] He does. 

Angela [00:45:45] He does give a pretty great speech, though. He says, Managing you for this last week has been the greatest honor of my life. And if you ruin this, I will burn this office to the ground. And I mean that figuratively, not literally, because you guys are so, so important to me. I love you guys. But don’t cross me. But you’re the best. 

Jenna [00:46:03] Rainn said that that final monologue at the end was really hard for him to get through. And it was really in that moment that he realized everything Steve went through leading those conference room meetings. 

Angela [00:46:15] Yeah. I thought he did such a great job, though, because he had to turn on a dime back and forth back and forth. 

Jenna [00:46:19] Many times. 

Angela [00:46:20] Yeah. Andy and Darryl are going to come back from the hospital. Andy’s got like a little bandage on his ear and he shares with everyone that he ruptured his eardrum. 

Jenna [00:46:30] That’s right. And he has temporary deafness in that ear. I have a deep dive on burst eardrums. 

Angela [00:46:40] Wait for before you- before you go on this deep dive, I have to tell you one thing Justin said on the commentary. He said they were so worried that people were going to get grossed out by this injury that they were trying to find different ways to word it. And at one point in the script, they had Andy saying, My ear don’t work so good. 

Jenna [00:47:00] Oh? 

Angela [00:47:01] My ear no do work. They had all these different phrases, but ultimately they had to say, you know, that he’s going to have this injured eardrum. And I just feel like I have to bring that up because I don’t know what to expect from this deep dive. But they were worried, a group of writers who had researched it, that people were going to get grossed out. 

Jenna [00:47:19] I’m not going to explain everything that happens when you have a burst eardrum. 

Angela [00:47:24] Thank you. 

Jenna [00:47:24] Except to say that the symptoms that Andy complains about are symptoms of a burst eardrum. The ringing in the ear, the hearing loss, the pain, all of those things. What I got curious about was, can a loud noise burst your eardrum? Is that true? Is that possible that this gunshot sound burst his eardrum? 

Angela [00:47:47] Sure. I’m going to say sure. 

Jenna [00:47:49] The answer is yes. You can get a perforated eardrum, which is a burst eardrum, from a loud sound, a foreign object in your ear like a Q-Tip, head trauma, an ear infection or rapid pressure changes like. 

Angela [00:48:07] On a plane. 

Jenna [00:48:08] Or going down into the ocean. You know if you dive down too fast. 

Angela [00:48:13] Or a submarine. 

Jenna [00:48:14] Or a submarine. Sure. 

Angela [00:48:15] Just gonna yell different modes of transportation at you. 

Jenna [00:48:18] Sure. To either up high or down low. 

Angela [00:48:20] Exactly. 

Jenna [00:48:21] But getting back to this idea of your eardrum rupturing from a loud noise, I wanted to know, like, how loud does the noise have to be? And according to Better Hearing of Austin, it would have to be 165 decibels or more. And that would be consistent with a gunshot at close range, fireworks, or extremely loud music. So, I mean, I had to keep going here. How loud of the music? You know, my son plays in a rock band. 

Angela [00:48:55] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:48:56] He wears headphones. But I’m like, What? You know? So the average decibel level of a rock concert is 100 decibels, so well below. However, there have been several rock concerts that have registered levels of up to 130 decibels. Do you know who they were? These are the loudest rock bands on record. There’s four of them. 

Angela [00:49:22] Metallica? 

Jenna [00:49:24] No. 

Angela [00:49:25] Oh. 

Jenna [00:49:26] Good guess. Here they are. Led Zeppelin. ACDC. 

Angela [00:49:32] I was going to say ACDC! 

Jenna [00:49:34] Yeah. Motorhead. And Ted Nugent. They’re all very loud. 

Angela [00:49:40] I was about to say ACDC. I really was. I was going to say ACDC or Metallica, so I kind of got one on the list. 

Jenna [00:49:47] Sporting events have also recorded very high decibel levels, and the loudest one on record belongs to a certain football team. It was a home game. It came in at 142.2 decibels. 

Angela [00:50:01] Okay. This would have to be a team that plays in some kind of a dome, right? To contain the sound. 

Jenna [00:50:07] I don’t know anything about where they play. 

Angela [00:50:08] I bet it’s a team with a dome. That’s what I’m going to say. 

Jenna [00:50:11] They’re very topical right now. 

Angela [00:50:14] The Philadelphia Eagles? 

Jenna [00:50:16] Nope. The Kansas. 

Both [00:50:17] City Chiefs! 

Angela [00:50:19] I know it’d be one of them. 

Jenna [00:50:20] Loudest one. They took the record away from the Seahawks. I want you to know that just for some perspective, 142.2 decibels is louder than if you were standing under a jet airplane flying 100 feet above your head. 

Angela [00:50:38] Wow. 

Jenna [00:50:38] That’s how loud that was in the stadium. 

Angela [00:50:41] I’m looking up their stadium. 

Jenna [00:50:43] You want to know if it’s a dome? 

Angela [00:50:45] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:50:46] Well, those Chiefs fans are loud. 

Angela [00:50:49] It’s not a dome! 

Jenna [00:50:51] That’s how loud they are. Open air. 

Angela [00:50:54] Wow. 

Jenna [00:50:55] Yep. 

Angela [00:50:56] I did say hi to Patrick Mahomes once. 

Jenna [00:50:58] You did? 

Angela [00:50:59] I did. I just said Hi, Patrick. He said, What’s up? 

Jenna [00:51:01] What are the circumstances of you meeting him? 

Angela [00:51:04] I was on the field at a Broncos game and he was warming up and I walked past him and I was like, Oh, that’s Patrick Mahomes. So I said, Hi, Patrick. He said, What’s up? 

Jenna [00:51:12] Oh, what a pleasant exchange. 

Angela [00:51:14] I think I slightly embarrassed my kids because I think I just was so casual. Hi, Patrick. Like, I was his neighbor. 

Jenna [00:51:22] But he was very nice. 

Angela [00:51:23] He was nice. 

Jenna [00:51:24] You know who I just ran into on a hike who was, like, a total blowhard? 

Angela [00:51:28] Oh, you’re going to tell this story? 

Jenna [00:51:31] I ran into a very famous musician who was walking his two dogs on the same hike that I was walking on, and he mansplained me about dogs. And then I said something to Lee about it, and Lee said, Oh, yeah, he’s a famous mansplainer. 

Angela [00:51:44] Who was the famous musician mansplainer? 

Jenna [00:51:48] I don’t know. I’ll tell you after. 

Angela [00:51:51] Give me one hint. 

Jenna [00:51:56] I don’t know how to give you one hint. 

Angela [00:51:57] Breather. Heavy breather. 

Jenna [00:51:58] No. He’s very tall. 

Angela [00:52:00] That was just you sighing. 

Jenna [00:52:01] How about that? He’s very tall. 

Angela [00:52:03] Oh, everybody’s tall to me. 

Jenna [00:52:04] Well, guys, we’ve got another episode of Office Ladies Burn It to the Ground. 

Angela [00:52:10] He clearly pissed you off on this hike. 

Jenna [00:52:13] Because I didn’t say anything to this person. 

Angela [00:52:16] He just started talking to you. 

Jenna [00:52:17] He just started in. 

Angela [00:52:19] I’m just tall. 

Jenna [00:52:20] And I’m just going to mansplain to you about dogs. I didn’t ask for advice. I didn’t even say, what kind of dog you have? I gave no indication that I even wanted to be spoken to. 

Angela [00:52:33] I’m sure you gave off the body language I know that you have sometimes, which is don’t talk to me. 

Jenna [00:52:39] That I have sometimes? That’s my default. I almost never want to be talked to. I am an introvert. 

Angela [00:52:46] I was trying to be nice. 

Jenna [00:52:47] I just want to walk my dog on a hike. 

Angela [00:52:49] And be left alone. 

Jenna [00:52:50] Exactly. 

Angela [00:52:51] Leave me alone, tall people. 

Jenna [00:52:52] What’s so hard about that? My dog had to stop and get a drink of water. That was not an invitation to talk to me. It wasn’t.

Angela [00:53:00] Back to the episode. People are catching on now that Dwight doesn’t want Jo to know about this, and they start making demands of him. 

Jenna [00:53:10] Yes. 

Angela [00:53:11] Kelly asked for a day off to audition for American Idol. Phyllis wants an extra vacation day. Angela wants Pet Day back, no dogs. Kevin wants everything back in the vending machine. 

Both [00:53:23] Except the fruit. 

Angela [00:53:25] Pam once tried to get rid of all of his weapons, including the killer fish. Jim wants Dwight to work in the phrase “shagadelic, baby” into conversation with Jo and do jazz hands any time Jim coughs. But there was more. 

Jenna [00:53:40] There were more demands that we didn’t see? 

Angela [00:53:43] Yes. That we filmed because they were in the shooting draft. First of all, Dwight is going to offer to pay for Andy’s medical bills. 

Jenna [00:53:50] Okay. Fair. 

Angela [00:53:52] Fair. Yeah. And then Andy says, But you know what? I also can’t go to my swimming class at the Y, and I already paid for those. So Dwight’s going to have to pay for his swimming classes. 

Jenna [00:54:01] Reimburse. Okay. 

Angela [00:54:02] Darryl wants Dwight to honor the night school that Deangelo had promised him. 

Jenna [00:54:06] Also fair. 

Angela [00:54:08] Erin wants a new nameplate that doesn’t say receptionist. 

Jenna [00:54:12] Oh. 

Angela [00:54:12] I know. Stanley has the best one of the bunch. Ready for this? He says, I want to start telecommuting from home because I am concerned for my safety in this office. Dwight agrees. 

Jenna [00:54:25] Oh, my gosh. 

Angela [00:54:27] And lastly, Creed wants Dwight’s eyes. Not now. Once he is dead. He lets them know that. 

Jenna [00:54:35] Okay. 

Angela [00:54:36] There you go. Those were everyone’s demands. 

Jenna [00:54:39] Well, in the next scene, Dwight is going to be exiting the men’s bathroom. He’s holding an empty fish tank. It’s very clear that he has, I guess, flushed his piranha down the toilet. Kevin enters. Fan question from Madison B in Melbourne, Australia. The short scene in which Dwight dumps his piranha into the toilet, leading to Kevin discovering them has to be one of my favorite moments in the whole show. It causes me to cry from laughter every time I rewatch it. Kevin moves so fast out of there and is so shocked. Madison, I loved Brian Baumgartner’s performance in this short moment. It is perfection. 

Angela [00:55:17] It’s so believable. Like, I fully believe that Kevin just completely like lost it because he was about to sit on a fish. 

Jenna [00:55:27] I am assuming everyone out there knows how standards and practices felt about Kevin’s F-bomb. We got the usual bleep full word, blur lip flap or stage off camera. Stage off camera is always my favorite note. They always throw that in there as if we’re just going to- it makes no sense. 

Angela [00:55:42] My favorite is when they say, As previously stated. 

Jenna [00:55:45] Yes. You know, I did do another deep dive here and I wasn’t going to bring it up. I didn’t even write it down. 

Angela [00:55:53] Wait. On possibly what, fish in toilets? Did you deep-

Jenna [00:55:56] Yeah. 

Angela [00:55:57] Come on. 

Jenna [00:55:57] I did. I did. 

Angela [00:56:00] I was like, Wait, wait, what could she deep dive right here? What? 

Jenna [00:56:04] I deep dived what really happens when you flush a fish down the toilet? 

Angela [00:56:09] What happens? 

Jenna [00:56:10] Most of them die. 

Angela [00:56:12] Aww. I mean, aren’t they dead usually? 

Jenna [00:56:16] Yes, but after the movie Finding Nemo came out. 

Angela [00:56:20] Yes. 

Jenna [00:56:21] I guess there were some kids, there was a trend that happened where, like kids wanted to set their fish free. 

Angela [00:56:29] Oh, no. 

Jenna [00:56:29] But, you know, not all toilets lead to the ocean. 

Angela [00:56:32] Yeah. 

Jenna [00:56:33] So most of them die. But this trend of kids freeing their fish down the toilet, I guess it caused a little bit of a problem because some of the fish did live and they did make it all the way to these other reservoirs. And there’s a picture of a goldfish that is giant. It’s like a a 15 inch goldfish because it was introduced into this ecosystem and it started eating everything. And it completely took over because I guess goldfish don’t belong in that ecosystem. And it was a whole thing that there are these like wild domestic goldfish, very similar to like the flock of domestic parrots that fly around L.A., you know, that have all found each other? 

Angela [00:57:21] Yeah. Or all the hippos in Colombia because of Pablo Escobar. 

Jenna [00:57:27] What? 

Angela [00:57:28] Oh, yeah. 

Jenna [00:57:29] There’s a bunch of formerly domestic hippos that have formed? 

Angela [00:57:33] I don’t think they were ever domestic. He just like I think he, like, built a zoo. He collected a bunch of animals. He had hippos. And then after he died, no one could maintain the zoo. And these hippos just went like, you know… 

Jenna [00:57:45] So they were they were, though, not domesticated, but they were what do you call that? 

Angela [00:57:50] He, like, made a zoo. 

Jenna [00:57:51] Right. 

Angela [00:57:51] He made a zoo. And then after he died, they couldn’t maintain the zoo. And I guess hippos really get busy. 

Jenna [00:57:58] Hippos are very dangerous. They’re on the list of animals I said that kill humans. The top ten animals. 

Angela [00:58:03] I know. But they also get busy. 

Jenna [00:58:05] Bom chicka bom bom. 

Angela [00:58:08] And there’s lots of them now. And they’re like, I think there’s like a whole documentary about it. About Pablo Escobar’s hippos. 

Jenna [00:58:15] Huh? Okay, Well, anyway. Well, there’s my deep dive. I don’t even remember what websites I read. I didn’t write it down because I wasn’t going to bring it up. And then I did. 

Angela [00:58:24] Well. I can’t believe so many kids tried to flush their fish. 

Jenna [00:58:28] I know. 

Angela [00:58:29] Oh, my gosh. 

Jenna [00:58:30] It was, I guess, a thing. Well, speaking of wild animals, how’s that for a segue, Jo is going to arrive with her two dogs. 

Angela [00:58:37] Her Jack Russells. Speaking of wild animals, they are Cornelius and Bobo. 

Jenna [00:58:43] Fan question from Ted N in Virginia and Alania B from Salt Lake City, Utah. What happened to her Great Danes? It has always bothered me that Jo shows up with different dogs. 

Angela [00:58:54] Well, she still has the Great Danes. 

Jenna [00:58:57] I guess. 

Angela [00:58:58] I mean, I would think so. I feel like Jo is someone that has a ton of animals. In the DVD commentary, Justin said he thinks that Jo has different pairs of dogs to accessorize different outfits she wears. Jo has like a kennel somewhere in Florida. 

Jenna [00:59:13] Well, I hope Jo doesn’t die or there’s suddenly going to be a bunch of dogs roaming around. You know what I’m saying? 

Angela [00:59:20] Jo is going to point out that Jim was the only man to have ever said no to her. And then Jim coughs and Dwight has to do jazz hands. The scene was bigger. In deleted scenes Andy tries to cover for Dwight. And we also find out who is Jo’s favorite in the office. 

Jenna [00:59:40] Wait, let me guess… Oscar? 

Angela [00:59:43] Let’s hear the clip. 

Jo Bennett [00:59:46] Where’s my favorite? Where’s Angela hiding? 

Angela Martin [00:59:49] I’m not hiding. 

Jo Bennett [00:59:50] Girl, you are very small. It’s fun to look at you so small. 

Jenna [00:59:54] Oh, my gosh. Okay, now that you played that, I remember shooting that. 

Angela [00:59:58] Angela was her favorite! 

Jenna [01:00:00] My gosh, that is funny. Can we please talk about this incredibly elaborate and cringey under the jacket massage? 

Angela [01:00:09] Oh, my gosh. 

Jenna [01:00:10] That Dwight gives to Kevin. 

Angela [01:00:12] 17 minutes, 52 seconds. I don’t even know how Rainn was able to do that with his body. How was he able to, like, suspend himself, like, bracing his feet on the file cabinet? Leaning into Brian, we talk on the commentary that when he first put all his weight on Brian’s back like that, it made a popping noise. 

Jenna [01:00:33] Yes. You know, Rainn shared that it was Mindy’s idea for Dwight to climb up the file cabinets like that. He said it was a huge workout for his core. 

Angela [01:00:43] I bet! 

Jenna [01:00:44] I texted Brian about this because I was like, I can see Brian, like, pushing back so hard into Rainn’s body, like these two forces at work. Brian shared that he was sore for days after the scene. He said of all the pratfalls, slipping on oil in the warehouse, spilling the chili, this was the stunt he felt the longest afterwards. This stunt. 

Angela [01:01:12] I believe it. 

Jenna [01:01:12] Me too. 

Angela [01:01:13] If you watch the scene, his face is bright red. Also, look at me and Oscar. I was really, like hearing Brian’s body, like, like he was at the chiropractor. It was like pop pop pop!

Jenna [01:01:26] Well, Rainn also said that at this time, I guess Brian had a shoulder injury. And one of the things was that they could do the stunt, but he could not get anywhere near that one shoulder. And that made it even more challenging because there was this whole area of Brian’s back that he could not touch. 

Angela [01:01:42] The two of them are so brave. Whenever they do anything, they just go for it. And it was really hilarious and also super cringey. Well, Dwight has almost made it through this day with Jo being there and her not finding out, but then he just can’t take it anymore. He can’t do it. 

Jenna [01:01:58] He’s tired of people holding this over his head. So he confesses. 

Angela [01:02:02] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:02:03] And he says, You know, I hope that I can still keep this job. And Jo is like, Of course you cannot keep this job. 

Angela [01:02:09] Kathy Bates is so funny in this. She just looks at him and says, No job. No job. 

Jenna [01:02:15] Also, she has a line that again, I just want a whole line of mugs that are Jo phrases. Here’s the line: Stop asking yourself easy questions so you can look like a genius. 

Angela [01:02:28] That is really good. 

Jenna [01:02:29] Love it. 

Angela [01:02:29] I know. They wrote so well for her. After this scene, in the shooting draft would have been a scene between Erin and Gabe in the breakroom. It would sort of wrapped up their storyline. I’m going to call it cringiest in the break room. He writes her a poem. 

Jenna [01:02:46] Oh no.  

Angela [01:02:46] I want you to hear it. 

Jenna [01:02:47] No. God. 

Gabe [01:02:48] You charm me with a smile, a wink. And make me laugh like Monsters Inc. We’ll go and eat some ratatouille. I sure hope it’s not too chewy. I’m Nemo in the great blue seas. I’m Woody. Be my Jessie, please. 

Erin [01:03:04] Gabe… 

Gabe [01:03:04] Please go out with me again, please. 

Jenna [01:03:07] You know, bless his heart for referencing her favorite films, finally. But Gabe, maybe, maybe if you had done that earlier. 

Angela [01:03:15] Yeah. 

Jenna [01:03:15] Things wouldn’t have gone south. 

Angela [01:03:17] He binged all the Disney movies she loves. He also goes on to say, I’m sorry that I said you spend too much money on stickers. He really makes a big apology. But she’s she’s done. 

Jenna [01:03:28] She’s done. This episode ends with Jo in the conference room. She’s meeting with Gabe, Jim and Toby, and she explains, You are my search committee. You are tasked with finding her a new manager. And until that time, the person with the most seniority will be the new acting manager. Who is that? Who is it? Who has the most seniority? 

Angela [01:03:48] The looks they give each other because they all know it’s Creed. So priceless. The episode will end with a tag. And it is Angela, Darryl, and Kevin back at the copier. This was not in the shooting draft. In fact, the tag in the shooting draft was Ryan and Andy helping Kelly with her American Idol audition. 

Jenna [01:04:11] Okay. 

Angela [01:04:12] Justin shared in the DVD commentary that this whole tag with us by the copier was completely improvised. That’s exactly how I remember it. It was so much flippin fun. They literally just put the cameras on us and let it roll. 

Jenna [01:04:27] Wait, so you were just listing numbers and then Kevin says, Oh, sorry, I did a three instead of a two?

Angela [01:04:34] I literally was just reading out numbers. I had like just written a bunch of numbers on a piece of paper. 

Jenna [01:04:39] Okay. 

Angela [01:04:40] When Craig jumps in, that was improvised. When Oscar jumps in, improvised. How I react to Oscar, improvised. All of it improvised. I want to play it. 

Jenna [01:04:50] Please. I love it so much. 

Angela Martin [01:04:54] 4. 1. 7. 1. 

Kevin [01:04:58] Another one? 

Angela Martin [01:04:59] Yes! 

Darryl [01:04:59] Yes. 

Angela [01:05:00] Seven. 

Oscar [01:05:01] Could you turn the volume down on the beeping? 

Angela Martin [01:05:03] Two. Six. Nine. Shut up, Oscar. Eight…

Darryl [01:05:09] Nine first. Put the nine. 

Angela Martin [01:05:18] 9. 8. 5. 

Kevin [01:05:09] Thank you. 

Angela [01:05:10] 3.0.0. Again 0. 4. 6. 

Kevin [01:05:30] Nice. 

Angela Martin [01:05:31] 2. 1. 

Kevin [01:05:33] Oh I hit 3. I hit three instead.  

Angela Martin [01:05:22] God!

Jenna [01:05:27] What I love are the multiple zeros in a row because I’ve had those where you’re trying to explain maybe it’s your credit card, maybe it’s a pin number or something, and you have to make sure that the person knows you mean another one. 

Angela [01:05:41] Yeah. I just love too when Craig was like, No, no, hit nine again, and I’m like, And then eight, and then Oscar’s like, You guys, the beeping. And I keep going four, two- shut up, Oscar- nine. We had such a good time, we could have done it all day. And I love that they left it in as the tag. 

Jenna [01:05:58] Well, guys, that was Dwight K. Schrute, Acting Manager. Next week, we’ll be back with Search Committee, Part One. We’re getting to the end of season seven. 

Angela [01:06:10] Where is the time going? This is flying by, Jenna. 

Jenna [01:06:13] I know. 

Angela [01:06:14] It’s cuz we’re having so much fun. 

Jenna [01:06:15] It is. 

Angela [01:06:16] Thanks, you guys so much for listening and rewatching with us. We’ll see you next week. 

Jenna [01:06:19] See you then! Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. Our show is executive produced by Codi Fischer. Our producer is Cassi Jerkins. Our sound engineer is Sam Kieffer. And our associate producer is Aynsley Bubbico. 

Angela [01:06:41] Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For Ad free versions of Office Ladies go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code “office”.