EP. 89 — Prince Family Paper

OFFICE-089 – Prince Family Paper

[00:00:04] Jenna I’m Jenna Fischer.

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

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

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

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

[00:00:12] Angela 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.

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

[00:00:24] Angela Hey, Jenna. How’s it going?

[00:00:25] Jenna It’s going good. Are you ready to destroy a small family business today?

[00:00:29] Angela Ugh, Prince Family Paper.

[00:00:31] Jenna The Prince family.

[00:00:33] Angela They’re the sweetest family.

[00:00:35] Jenna Well, we’re going to take them down.

[00:00:36] Angela Guess we are.

[00:00:37] Jenna So awful and cringey.

[00:00:39] Angela Oh, there’s a lot of cringe in this one.

[00:00:41] Jenna There sure is, guys. It’s Season five, Episode 13, Prince Family Paper written by B.J. Novak and directed by Asaad Kelada. Here’s your summary.

[00:00:54] Angela Oh!

[00:00:54] Jenna David Wallace calls Michael Scott on the phone.

[00:00:57] Angela It’s so funny to me. I’m so sorry to interrupt your summary that I acted surprised

[00:01:01] Jenna that I was going to read a summary.

[00:01:02] Angela You’re like here’s a summary. I went, oh. Oh, well, look who sassy pants has a summary. She has one every week, Ange. Just just expect it. OK, go.

[00:01:12] Jenna David Wallace calls Michael Scott on the phone. He wants to get his help gathering Intel on a rival paper company called Prince Family Paper. Michael takes Dwight along as his backup. And meanwhile, the gang debate whether or not Hilary Swank qualifies as hot.

[00:01:32] Angela Yep.

[00:01:33] Jenna Yep.

[00:01:35] Angela All right, I have to say one thing, I just got to get this out.

[00:01:37] Jenna Get it out.

[00:01:39] Angela There used to be a magazine, I don’t know which one, you know who you are. They would do this thing. Who wore it best?

[00:01:45] Jenna Oh, yeah.

[00:01:46] Angela And they would put two people side by side in like, the same dress or a skirt or pants. And there was always one person that wore it best.

[00:01:54] Jenna Right.

[00:01:55] Angela You know?

[00:01:56] Jenna And they would have a percentage, like people voted.

[00:01:58] Angela People voted. And you might have worn it best because you were tall and not five one. OK. And maybe you knew to wear the right kind of heels and someone else wore flip flops with it. I don’t know. I’m just saying to that magazine and people that like to compare who wore it best or who’s hot or who’s not, I say suck it.

[00:02:26] Jenna (Applause) Thank you, Angela.

[00:02:28] Angela That’s all I’m going to say.

[00:02:29] Jenna Well, that was clearly a general comment. Nothing based on personal experience, I can tell. I’ll have you know, I’ve also been the subject of a who wore it best. So I feel that.

[00:02:42] Angela Yeah. You know what? You all wear it best.

[00:02:45] Jenna We all wear it how we wear it. OK, that’s how I wore it. Period.

[00:02:50] Angela That’s my body, that’s how my body wears stuff.

[00:02:52] Jenna How about who wore it. Me. I wore it.

[00:02:56] Angela Yeah.

[00:02:57] Jenna One hundred percent to me for wearing it. I got dressed this morning. You’re welcome. As you can tell this episode might have triggered something for us.

[00:03:06] Angela As you can tell, two gals are sitting here not super appreciating debates on who’s hot or who’s not.

[00:03:12] Jenna Yeah.

[00:03:12] Angela Kevin has a lot of thoughts about it. This might be the most Kevin ever spoke in a whole episode.

[00:03:17] Jenna Yes,.

[00:03:18] Angela I think- is this his most line count ever?

[00:03:21] Jenna Possibly.

[00:03:22] Angela Well, I think we should get to some fast facts.

[00:03:24] Jenna I agree. Here we go. Fast fact number one, new director alert. Asaad Kelada. So our line producer, Randy Cordray had worked with Asaad before, and he told us that Asaad was actually originally supposed to direct an episode in season four, but that season got cut because of the writers strike, and so they slotted him for season five instead. So we could have almost gotten to work with this man earlier. And I tell you what, he is a delight.

[00:03:54] Angela You guys. He’s like television legend. He’s directed everything.

[00:03:58] Jenna Yes. He has directed seventy seven episodes of The Facts of Life and one hundred and seventeen episodes of Who’s the Boss?

[00:04:06] Angela I Know Who’s the Boss. If your name is Angela, you know who’s the boss.

[00:04:11] Jenna What?

[00:04:13] Angela So the female leads character’s name Angela. You guys, the show was out in the nineties. I was in college in the nineties. I cannot even tell you how many people left this on my answering machine. (plays sound bite of Tony Danza saying “Angela” from Who’s the Boss?). I had that on my voicemail, I would say on a monthly basis.

[00:04:31] Jenna That’s crazy. Let me finish telling you a little bit about Asaad. We loved working with him. I found an interview he did where he said this, which I thought was so great. He said that the most essential thing for making a successful comedy is casting. He said that is because, quote, you cannot make the actor be funny. Comedy is all about rhythm, timing, pace and energy.

[00:04:58] Angela I agree.

[00:04:59] Jenna I thought that was so well said. All right, fast fact number two, we got a lot of fan questions about the hot or not storyline. This one comes from Joe S, who asked what inspired the subplot of the debate about whether or not Hilary Swank was hot or not?

[00:05:17] Angela Was it a magazine that said who wore best?

[00:05:20] Jenna It wasn’t. It wasn’t. B.J. Novak did an interview with Indie Week and he said that he was on a flight and two of the in-flight movies were, P.S., I Love You and The Great Debaters. They were both Hilary Swank movies. He was tasked with coming up with a B plot for an episode and he thought, why not debate about Hilary Swank? And then he decided that the characters could debate whether or not she is attractive. We got more questions from Amy J, Rohit R, how does Hilary Swank feel about this episode?

[00:05:56] Angela Oh, wow.

[00:05:57] Jenna Good question.

[00:05:58] Angela Very good question.

[00:05:59] Jenna Well, she did an interview with TIME magazine shortly after this episode came out. She was asked if she had seen the episode and she said this: “I’m not a big television watcher, but definitely everyone made me aware of it.”.

[00:06:13] Angela Oh, jeez.

[00:06:14] Jenna “I think it’s flattering any time someone mentions you, but I don’t think of myself in terms of that” meaning, like she doesn’t lead with if she’s hot or not. Right. Later on in the interview, she was asked about women in Hollywood in general and she replied, “There is so much put on the way we look, which is interesting going back to your Office question, are you hot or are you not? It really does a disservice because there’s so much more to life than looking a certain way.” (APPLAUSE) We love you, Hilary.

[00:06:47] Angela Hilary, well said, well said.

[00:06:52] Jenna Fast fact number three, Hilary Swank is a badass. Would you like to hear a little about her?

[00:06:57] Angela Yes.

[00:06:58] Jenna All right. She was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. She competed in the Junior Olympics and the Washington State Championships in swimming, and she ranked fifth in state in all around gymnastics.

[00:07:12] Angela Wow.

[00:07:13] Jenna All around gymnastics. That’s the one where you have to do all the things.

[00:07:16] Angela Everything. You do all the things.

[00:07:17] Jenna She ranked fifth in the state, OK? Her parents separated when she was a teenager and she really wanted to be an actress so her mom moved with her to Los Angeles when she was 16 years old. And she’s spoken a lot about this. They did not have a lot of money for a while and they lived out of their car. They did eventually find a place to live. She enrolled in school and then when she was 20, so four years after she moved to L.A., she landed the starring role in The Next Karate Kid.

[00:07:46] Jenna Julie Pierce.

[00:07:47] Angela Yeah.

[00:07:48] Jenna Yeah. You know all about this, Ange.

[00:07:49] Angela I do, because you guys, I got really into Cobra Kai this past year. Are you guys watching Cobra Kai? It’s so good.

[00:07:58] Jenna I’m not watching it. Should I be watching it?

[00:08:00] Angela I am loving it. It’s also just major like 80s nostalgia. It’s so good.

[00:08:06] Jenna Is this something I can watch with my kids or is it more adult? I’ve heard it’s a little bit skews older.

[00:08:11] Angela It skews older.

[00:08:12] Jenna Than my kids.

[00:08:13] Angela Yes. I’m not watching it with my kids.

[00:08:15] Jenna Oh, this is your time.

[00:08:16] Angela Yeah, OK. Josh and I watch it together. I’m sure there’s, you know, teenagers that watch it, but Josh and I watch it together. So basically it’s sort of picking up where they are now, right, with the two lead guys. And John Hurwitz, who’s the cocreator, they reached out to me to play one of the kids’ mom.

[00:08:34] Jenna What?!

[00:08:35] Angela Yes. And I wanted to do it, but it was filming in Atlanta. And you basically have to go to Atlanta for a while and I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t be away from my kids for that long.

[00:08:44] Jenna Yeah, yeah.

[00:08:44] Angela You know, it wasn’t like an in and out. But listen, John Hurwitz, if you ever move to Los Angeles, if you ever decide to film, here I am there. People have been speculating, will Julie come back because they’re bringing all the characters back. And this is what John Hurwitz said in an interview: they discussed the possibility of bringing Julie Pierce on the show. He said, In our writers room, we speak about literally every character that has appeared in the Miyagiverse. They call it the Miyagiverse. So it’s obvious we’ve spoken about Julie Pierce as to whether or not she will return to the series. That’s something you’ll just have to wait to find out.

[00:09:22] Jenna Ooh.

[00:09:23] Angela I’m here for it, John. Bring her back. Also, a little bit of office crossover Jen Celotta has directed several episodes of Cobra Kai.

[00:09:32] Jenna Wow.

[00:09:32] Angela Yeah, I would love it if Hilary Swank. Hilary, go back, go do a guest star on Cobra Kai. It’d be so good.

[00:09:41] Jenna And then maybe there’s like some little bit you could do in her episode.

[00:09:45] Angela Yes, Hilary, maybe I could be your best friend.

[00:09:47] Jenna This is it.

[00:09:48] Angela And then I could go just for a week, John. Just like four days.

[00:09:50] Jenna Yeah.

[00:09:52] Angela OK, there we worked it out. Jen Celotta.

[00:09:54] Jenna Jen Celotta directs it!

[00:09:54] Angela Make it happen.

[00:09:57] Jenna Well, Hilary Swank was twenty years old when she was the Next Karate Kid. When she was twenty five years old, she did the lead role in Boys Don’t Cry.

[00:10:06] Angela Wow.

[00:10:07] Jenna And she won an Oscar. She is one of the youngest women to ever win an Oscar. She also won an Oscar for her lead role in Million Dollar Baby.

[00:10:17] Angela That movie destroyed me. I mean, both of those movies, I mean, they’re ugh.

[00:10:22] Jenna There are only 12 other actresses who have won two or more lead actress Oscars. Those are both lead actress Oscars.

[00:10:30] Angela So she’s in a very impressive club there.

[00:10:32] Jenna She sure is. So that’s Hilary Swank, y’all.

[00:10:36] Angela Well, Hilary, we are here for you. We should take a break. When we come back, there is a classic Jim prank.

[00:10:46] Jenna This episode opens with everyone just working at their desks. We’re just working.

[00:10:51] Angela Just a normal day.

[00:10:52] Jenna No biggie. But then Dwight discovers a red wire that’s plugged into his computer. No other computers have red wires. What is it?

[00:11:00] Angela Yeah, it’s a new wire. It’s never been there before.

[00:11:03] Jenna Yeah, well, he starts tearing at this wire.

[00:11:05] Angela Yeah. He wants to know where it’s coming from. In the script it says Dwight pulls the wire off the floor and follows it to the wall. It goes over a doorframe under Phyllis’ desk and Dwight crawls under Phyllis’ desk.

[00:11:18] Jenna Oh, we did it a little differently.

[00:11:20] Angela We did it a little differently. First of all, you can’t crawl through Phyllis’ desk, because there was like a backstop, right? So it doesn’t go all the way through to Stanley’s desk. And in the script Phyllis says, Dwight, get out of there. And that’s pretty much in the episode. And then Dwight would have said, shush, shush, shush! but I think Rainn improvised, shut up Phyllis. So Dwight’s going to follow this wire into the hall.

[00:11:45] Jenna Yeah. All the way outside and up a telephone pole which we can see over Jim’s shoulder in Jim’s talking head.

[00:11:55] Angela Right. And it is a real telephone pole.

[00:11:57] Jenna It’s a real telephone pole. Jim says he got 500 feet of red wire at a flea market for 20 bucks. How long did this take him?

[00:12:06] Angela Jim has a lot of extra time.

[00:12:07] Jenna He gets to work so early.

[00:12:10] Angela I feel like Pam is like, you know what, I know we were going to carpool, but you’ve got that Dwight prank and you’ve got to go at 3:00 in the morning and I’m going to sleep in.

[00:12:18] Jenna Yeah.

[00:12:19] Angela Like what’s the real life side of that?

[00:12:23] Jenna I reached out to Randy to find out how we did this stunt of Rainn up on this telephone pole.

[00:12:29] Angela Right. He can’t climb a telephone pole. That’s not safe.

[00:12:32] Jenna No, because what he told me was that the pole over Jim’s shoulder really is an actual working utility pole that’s embedded in our sidewalk. You know, right out there.

[00:12:43] Angela Folks don’t go climb it for a photo.

[00:12:45] Jenna Don’t climb it.

[00:12:46] Angela You can get electrocuted.

[00:12:47] Jenna Yeah, it carried high voltage electricity. They couldn’t even have a stunt person dressed as Dwight climb that pole. So our production designer, Michael Gallenberg, and his construction team rented a matching utility pole. You can do that, I guess. Where is that?

[00:13:06] Angela I mean, seriously, how do they know these things? This is the crazy part of Hollywood magic. Oh, you know what I’m going to do today? I’m going to rent a fakey telephone pole. That’s huge!

[00:13:16] Jenna Huge. Well, they put it up in our parking lot between the two soundstages and they put like a green padded platform around it.

[00:13:27] Angela In case you fell?

[00:13:28] Jenna Yep. And they put up a big green screen behind the whole thing. And then they brought Rainn out along with like a stunt coordinator and a safety officer, and they had Rainn climb up. It was only a few feet that he had to climb. And then in post-production, they had their visual effects team digitally add Rainn to the real pole over Jim’s shoulder.

[00:13:50] Angela They superimposed like, one pole onto the other.

[00:13:53] Jenna Yes, yes.

[00:13:54] Angela Got it.

[00:13:54] Jenna Even though Rainn was really only a little bit off the ground, they could, like, hike it up so it looked like he was like halfway up the pole. Yeah, that’s movie magic, folks.

[00:14:04] Angela That is some good movie magic.

[00:14:06] Jenna But here’s the thing that gets me about that. That’s like real special effects, kind of like stunty stuff for our little TV show about a paper company. Like I never really thought hard about how much work it took to do that gag until we went to break it down. Right. Like, it’s such a quick little blip. And you’re like that was like two weeks of figuring that out.

[00:14:31] Angela Of prep.

[00:14:32] Jenna Yeah.

[00:14:32] Angela I feel like every week we are learning how much Michael Gallenberg, Kyle Alexander, Phil Shea, our wardrobe department, set designers, how they all made these little moments happen and made it seamless.

[00:14:44] Jenna Yeah, I know so much work goes into these little things.

[00:14:48] Angela It’s amazing.

[00:14:49] Jenna The fruit fly wrangler.

[00:14:50] Angela We had to know their like mating cycle.

[00:14:53] Jenna Craziness.

[00:14:54] Angela It’s crazy.

[00:14:54] Jenna Well, that was the cold open. Now we start this episode. Michael’s in his office. He’s on the phone with David Wallace.

[00:15:01] Angela I feel like David’s really playing Michael here because he dangles out that regional supervisor job. He’s like, you know, I still haven’t filled that slot yet. And Michael’s like, oh, and then he asked Michael to go do this thing.

[00:15:13] Jenna Yeah.

[00:15:14] Angela To go spy on this tiny little paper company.

[00:15:17] Jenna I know. To do some field work.

[00:15:19] Angela Michael’s so excited.

[00:15:22] Jenna Oh, yeah. During this scene I was really struck by the toys on Michael’s desk because they would rotate them.

[00:15:29] Angela They would you guys. Every once in a while there would be some new toys.

[00:15:32] Jenna Here’s what was on his desk. A Rubik’s Cube. Not finished. A tiny pool table.

[00:15:38] Angela Yes.

[00:15:39] Jenna A colorful plastic expanding ball thingy. You know that thingy?

[00:15:44] Angela Yeah. Yeah, that’s a staple.

[00:15:45] Jenna Yes, and also the wind up teeth, those are always there, but the pool table had moved, so he’s clearly played it recently and it’s on top of all the stuff in his inbox. He can’t get to anything in his inbox.

[00:15:57] Angela It’s not important.

[00:15:58] Jenna The pool table is number one of things to do.

[00:16:01] Angela Yeah.

[00:16:02] Jenna Made me laugh.

[00:16:05] Angela A miniature pool table in his inbox says everything you need to know about Michael Scott’s work ethic.

[00:16:10] Jenna That’s right.

[00:16:11] Angela Stanley and Phyllis are going to start having this conversation about whether or not they think Hilary Swank is hot. And the rest of the gang gets involved. I feel like these kind of moments happen in small offices. You sort of start to debate things like you pick a soccer team during the playoffs and people debate about the players and it can become a whole thing. And it’s just a way to fill the boredom.

[00:16:32] Jenna Oh, for sure.

[00:16:33] Angela I have a bone to pick with Jim.

[00:16:35] Jenna Why is that?

[00:16:36] Angela At three minutes, 18 seconds, I titled this moment. What the hell, Jim?

[00:16:40] Jenna What is the moment?

[00:16:41] Angela Jim suggests they put it to a vote in the bullpen. Angela says she isn’t voting and Jim says nobody cares.

[00:16:49] Jenna Oh.

[00:16:50] Angela What the hell, Jim?

[00:16:51] Jenna That’s some Jim sass.

[00:16:53] Angela Jim Sass.

[00:16:54] Jenna Did you notice what Pam said in this scene?

[00:16:56] Angela What does Pam say?

[00:16:57] Jenna Pam says, did you see her with her bangs?

[00:17:01] Angela Ah!

[00:17:02] Jenna And lady, this made me laugh out loud because I have just recently gotten bangs.

[00:17:08] Angela And people have a lot of opinions about it.

[00:17:10] Jenna They do have opinions about my bangs. But what made me laugh was that before I got my bangs, I, of course Googled images of people with bangs. You have to do research. You don’t just you got to look at all the pictures.

[00:17:23] Angela You Googled people with bangs. You texted me, I think I’m going to get bangs.

[00:17:27] Jenna Yeah.

[00:17:28] Angela To which I replied, Oh, no.

[00:17:30] Jenna I said, I think I’m going to get bangs right now because, like, I was getting a haircut in the moment. By the time you replied it was done.

[00:17:38] Angela I know. I was like, oh, I was busy with the kids. I decided we were going to paint. I bought the canvas and all the paint stuff. We’re outside. We’d made this huge mess. I’d set my phone aside so I didn’t get paint on it. And then I just thought I’d check in, see what’s happening. And I see this text from you that’s half an hour old that says, I think I’m going to get bangs now. And I was like, oh, no, I didn’t get to weigh in. But lady, I think they’re adorable. I think they’re super cute because they’re curly.

[00:18:03] Jenna I’m loving it. I bring it up because one of the people I saw in my research was Hilary Swank with bangs. So when Pam said this in the scene, it made me laugh. But I really based my bangs on some, like Mia Farrow from Hannah and her sisters.

[00:18:18] Angela You look very 70s, kind of like beachy wave with bangs.

[00:18:23] Jenna A little bit of Teri Garr. Teri Garr wore some bangs like no one’s business.

[00:18:29] Angela That’s right.

[00:18:29] Jenna But my main inspiration was probably Stevie Nicks. And I will admit that after getting my bangs, I did style my hair in a full Stevie Nicks. And then I took pictures and I put them side by side. I was too shy to post, but.

[00:18:43] Angela I want to see the side by side.

[00:18:45] Jenna You want to see my Stevie Nicks picture?

[00:18:46] Angela Oh my God, do you have it on your phone?

[00:18:47] Jenna Yeah. I mean, I really did this.

[00:18:49] Angela Oh, my God. Jenna, this is amazing! Oh, you kind of do the same mouth expression.

[00:18:55] Jenna I tried to put on the same necklace, I did like a whole thing.

[00:18:58] Angela Oh, you did. We got to put that in Office Ladies pod stories, please.

[00:19:02] Jenna It’s OK. I mean, I’m doing a whole pouty mouth, so I got a little bit like shy.

[00:19:07] Angela You even did the dark eyeliner.

[00:19:09] Jenna I did. I’m telling you, she was my inspo.

[00:19:11] Angela This was a whole afternoon. I thought I knew your life. This was a whole day. I didn’t know what was happening.

[00:19:17] Jenna I mean, I had to take off my glasses for the picture.

[00:19:19] Angela I know.

[00:19:20] Jenna Which actually made it a little hard to take the picture because I couldn’t see very well.

[00:19:24] Angela Honey, tell me about it. I can’t tell you how many photos I’ve taken of Josh and the kids because, you know, when you’re like a family, one parent has to take the picture. And half the time I don’t have my glasses because I’m not good about wearing them. And Josh would be like, babe, these are out of focus. And I’m like, I can’t tell, I just click.

[00:19:41] Jenna I love how we literally could not be more off topic right now.

[00:19:43] Angela We are so off topic. OK.

[00:19:45] Jenna All right. We’ll get back to it.

[00:19:46] Angela Let’s get back on topic. All right. All right, all right. So we are now- oh, God, you guys, we’re about to talk about a scene I absolutely loved. It’s a driving scene between Dwight and Michael. They’re headed to Prince Family Paper. Did you notice how much they bicker in this scene? They’re like an old married couple.

[00:20:02] Jenna I loved it.

[00:20:04] Angela They bicker about who would seduce the fictional daughter. They don’t even know if this person exists. And they bicker about Denny’s and Ihop. They bicker about the clouds. Dwight says, get your clouds right. Michael tells him to shut up. But I have a background catch.

[00:20:20] Jenna What is it?

[00:20:20] Angela Oh, it sent me down a Google path, Jenna. All right. So whenever we have driving scenes, we always look for palm trees, right?

[00:20:29] Jenna Yeah.

[00:20:29] Angela Spot the palm tree. In this one I recognized the street they were on. It’s Chandler Boulevard. It’s a residential street. And guess what else I recognized?

[00:20:37] Jenna What?

[00:20:38] Angela It was trash day. And there were blue recycle bins in every driveway. I took a few photos.

[00:20:44] Jenna OK.

[00:20:45] Angela I’ll put those in pod. So then I thought, is that what the recycle trash bins look like in Scranton? So that took me to the recycling laws for Lackawanna County.

[00:20:56] Jenna Oh!

[00:20:57] Angela Hang with me, because there’s a woman named Barbara who I am now fascinated by. First of all, that is not what recycle bins look like in Lackawanna County. So theirs are like these blue round tubs. Unless they’ve changed, you guys can correct me, ours are these like skinny rectangles with lids.

[00:21:14] Jenna Yep.

[00:21:14] Angela So here’s an article I read from April of twenty nineteen. Barbara Giovagnoli is the recycling coordinator for Lackawanna County. Barbara shared that the recycling center in Lackawanna County accepts plastics and glass bottles and jars, aluminum steel cans as well as newspaper. It is a dual stream system. They have containers, bottles, jars and cans in one and paper fibers separately. They do not accept plastic bags, take out containers, or pizza boxes. And apparently, lady, the recycle centers get all kinds of wacky things. People put all kinds of crazy things in the recycle bins. Barbara has a tip for you she wants you to know. She says there’s an easy way to remind yourself what can and cannot be recycled at the Lackawanna County Recycling Center, quote, Ask yourself, is it a bottle? Is it a jar? If the answer is no, that means it has to be thrown away.

[00:22:10] Jenna I want to meet Barbara.

[00:22:11] Angela I want to meet Barbara. I want to meet Barbara. It’s real simple. Ask yourself, is this a jar? Is this a bottle? No, trash.

[00:22:22] Jenna Wow.

[00:22:23] Angela Mm hmm.

[00:22:24] Jenna We have to meet her.

[00:22:25] Angela We have to meet her. Anyway, this was a random thing I noticed in the background. No palm tree sighting, several recycle bins. Also in this scene, for those of you guys keeping track of how many times Michael Scarn is mentioned in the series, this is one of them because it’s going to be Michael’s alias. And then they get into a real heated argument, I mean, that has history, about Denny’s and Ihop.

[00:22:47] Jenna Yeah.

[00:22:47] Angela They’re going to rendezvous after they get the info Michael says at IHOP. And Dwight’s like, I did not agree to Ihop.

[00:22:54] Jenna Socialist he says.

[00:22:56] Angela Yes. he’s like you socialist. I’m going to Denny’s. And Michael’s like, you are going to IHOP and you will have pancakes and you will like it.

[00:23:03] Jenna What do you like? Do you have strong feelings about IHOP or Denny’s?

[00:23:06] Angela I really don’t. But I would say I’ve had Ihop more because there was one right on campus when I went to college, basically like across the street, and we would walk over there. And there’s also one by my kid’s pediatrician office. So, yeah, I’ve just been to IHOP more.

[00:23:21] Jenna I would say that if I’m looking for a pancake, Ihop is going to come to mind. But I want to say these words to you.

[00:23:28] Angela Oh, what?

[00:23:29] Jenna Moons over my hammy.

[00:23:31] Angela Oh, is that.

[00:23:31] Jenna That’s a Denny’s special and it’s real good. So if I’m wanting more of an egg sandwich, I’m going to have to head to Denny’s.

[00:23:40] Angela Now I’m just craving breakfast.

[00:23:42] Jenna I know. Me too, kinda. Well, these guys do eventually get to their destination of Prince Family Paper. It’s in like a little strip mall, right, and I got a location alert.

[00:23:56] Angela Let’s do it.

[00:23:57] Jenna We rented an empty mini mall near the corner of Laurel Canyon and Victory Boulevard in North Hollywood, California.

[00:24:04] Angela We rented a whole mini mall?

[00:24:06] Jenna I guess we did because Randy said our location manager, Kyle Alexander, had to find a location where we could have some sort of office front that had all windows because we assumed that if they were going undercover, they couldn’t bring a documentary crew with them.

[00:24:24] Angela Oh, that’s so smart. I didn’t even think about that when I watched. Every single shot is through the glass.

[00:24:28] Jenna Yes. And so they had to be able to have a total glass front on this office. But then we also needed this giant parking lot. So he was able to find all of that in this little empty mini mall.

[00:24:44] Angela I want Kyle to come on the show.

[00:24:46] Jenna Me too.

[00:24:47] Angela He’s like the master of every amazing location.

[00:24:50] Jenna So good. Get this. We had to bring all those cars. And did you notice the fakey snow residue? We put fakey snow residue on all the cars.

[00:24:59] Angela They’re still dirty from last week.

[00:25:01] Jenna I know. And then our production designer, Michael Gallenberg, had to create the entire Prince Family Paper offices from scratch.

[00:25:08] Angela Michael, we want you on too. Michael and Kyle, we want you on.

[00:25:12] Jenna We’re coming for you. So they’re in the car and Dwight’s got a little pair of binoculars and they’re coming up with their plan.

[00:25:19] Angela Dwight’s binoculars are like industrial looking. They look like they have night vision.

[00:25:23] Jenna Yeah. And then here is my question. Through this whole scene, they are eating. What are they eating? Is it a giant can of nuts? I tried to zoom in. What is it? Did you see it?

[00:25:38] Angela I did. I did take a picture. I actually love the blooper for this scene so much that I filmed the blooper and I sent it to Rainn and texted him and I was like, what are you guys eating? And he was cracking up. He said, Ange, I am pretty sure those were smoked almonds.

[00:25:55] Jenna Yeah, they looked like almonds, but they had like stuff on them.

[00:26:00] Angela Yeah. He said he was pretty sure there were smoked almonds. And while they’re eating these almonds, they decided on a signal that they need to give each other if there’s danger, they need to get out of there. And Dwight says you got to lick your lips and Michael does a quick lick. Meanwhile, they’re eating these almonds the whole time. And Dwight goes, no, like this and does this big like (MAKES NOISE) thing.

[00:26:19] Jenna Yeah.

[00:26:21] Angela And in the process of doing this, they started laughing. And when they did, Rainn in his laughter, in his guffaw, he spit like projectile allmond. It like flew and hit Steve in the face. I have the blooper clip.

[00:26:36] Rainn Wilson We’re going to need a signal to bolt out of there at the slightest sign of danger. That signal is lick your lips. Let me see. No, no, no. Like this. (LAUGHTER) Oh no! Oh dude, I’m so sorry! Oh (BLEEP) oh (BLEEP) I’m so sorry, dude.

[00:26:42] Steve Carell That’s okay.

[00:27:00] Angela He sprayed the side of his face with wet half-chewed almonds.

[00:27:04] Jenna I mean, you can hear it come out of his mouth. You really can.

[00:27:08] Angela And then Rainn felt so bad that he grabs like a tissue. He starts in the moment just reacting. He just starts wiping Steve’s face.

[00:27:17] Jenna Oh, my gosh. It’s so good. It’s so good. Michael then has a talking head where he says that in nature there is a food chain where the bigger shark eats the littler shark and so on.

[00:27:31] Angela Until it gets to the single cell shark.

[00:27:34] Jenna Exactly. And basically, you know, that’s what they are. They’re sharks. And then as he’s getting out of the car, he’s doing the whole Jaws theme.

[00:27:43] Angela (SINGS JAWS THEME SONG). Yeah.

[00:27:43] Jenna He goes into Prince Family Paper. He introduces himself as Michael Scarn, and he sits down and he starts having just the most wonderful conversation with Mr. Prince. Michael’s doing a kind of a good job.

[00:28:04] Angela He is. And, you know, he completely terms Mr. Prince.

[00:28:08] Jenna He does. He’s a lawyer who knows a lot about paper because he is a genius.

[00:28:14] Angela Yes.

[00:28:15] Jenna About some things, but not everything.

[00:28:17] Angela Not everything.

[00:28:17] Jenna What’s this? Is this a phone? Is this a phone?

[00:28:20] Angela Mr. Roger Prince can’t get enough of it. He’s cackling, laughing. He also learns that Prince Family Paper is a three person operation; Mr. Prince, his wife Linda, and his son.

[00:28:27] Jenna Yes.

[00:28:31] Angela And his granddaughter Rebecca sits in the corner.

[00:28:33] Jenna Angela, I did a guest star breakdown for the members of Prince Family Paper.

[00:28:40] Angela Oh, great.

[00:28:41] Jenna So Roger Prince, the father, was played by Dan Desmond. And I found this really interesting. From 1990 to 2001, he was in five different episodes of Law and Order and he played a different character each time.

[00:28:58] Angela Let me tell you, I love Law and Order. And they do that. They bring people back. One time you’re a police officer, the next time you’re a judge.

[00:29:06] Jenna I was literally just watching Law and Order marathon and I swear Jeremy Sisto was like just a guest star, like a guy. And then in the next episode, he was a police officer and like a series regular.

[00:29:20] Angela No, I don’t dount it.

[00:29:21] Jenna Did that happen?

[00:29:22] Angela I feel like the rules of Law and Order are sort of like a soap opera. You can come back in many different forms.

[00:29:28] Jenna Well, they loved Dan Desmond over at Law and Order. He was also in the movie Bruce Almighty and most recently in the mini series Little Fires Everywhere.

[00:29:36] Angela (SINGS)Gung gung.

[00:29:40] Jenna Roger Prince Junior was played by Dan Bakkedahl, you might recognize him for his recurring roles on Veep or The Goldbergs or Space Force. He was also a regular on Life in Pieces. He has also been on Law and Order. But just one episode.

[00:29:58] Angela OK.

[00:29:59] Jenna Linda Price was played by Sharon Blackwood, who recently appeared in two episodes of Ozark, has never been on Law and Order. None of them have been on Monk.

[00:30:10] Angela What?

[00:30:11] Jenna None.

[00:30:12] Angela Craziness. OK, wait, I have a Law and Order story.

[00:30:16] Jenna What is it?

[00:30:17] Angela It’s one of my more embarrassing audition stories.

[00:30:20] Jenna You auditioned for Law and Order?

[00:30:21] Angela I did. Shocker. Didn’t get it. You’ll know why. You guys, I was so excited. I love Law and Order. I would watch the marathon on TNT. I loved it.

[00:30:33] Jenna Yeah, same. I still watch the marathons.

[00:30:35] Angela I still watch it. If it’s on, I’m watching it. All right. I got an audition. I was so excited and I was very new to auditioning. I’d only booked a few commercials. It was to be a real estate agent. You know how the guys at the top of the show would, like, interview people while they were at work.

[00:30:55] Jenna And they’re always too busy. I gotta get somewhere! Like this murder you’re investigating is a big inconvenience to me. I have to show a house.

[00:31:03] Angela Yeah, exactly.

[00:31:04] Jenna Are we done?

[00:31:05] Angela Are we done. Exactly. I had just watched an episode where they were questioning these guys that were loading trash into like a garbage truck. They did not stop loading their trash. They’re going to keep- they’re- they’re annoyed. I’m busy here. I got to keep the truck moving.

[00:31:19] Jenna Always.

[00:31:20] Angela Always. I had this in my brain. In the script it said they question a real estate agent as she is setting out her signs for the day with the little flag, her showing signs. Right. You know those things.

[00:31:34] Jenna Lady. I’m not even joking. I think I literally just saw this episode.

[00:31:38] Angela Are you kidding?

[00:31:38] Jenna Yeah. There was a blond woman and she had to be blond because that was part of the plot. By the way. And she was talking to them while putting out the little sign for selling the house.

[00:31:50] Angela OK.

[00:31:51] Jenna Oh my God. I saw the part you didn’t get.

[00:31:53] Angela OK, so I go in there and I’m like, OK, I got this. So it’s the casting agent. She’s sitting across from her desk. I was so nervous, but I was like, I got this. I got this. Literally, it’s three lines. It’s like three or four lines. That’s it. All I had in my brain was, you will not interrupt me from putting out my real estate sign.

[00:32:12] Jenna Yeah.

[00:32:12] Angela That’s the energy. Jenna, in this woman’s office I moved two chairs out of my way- her chairs. Her chairs.

[00:32:21] Jenna You had to put up your sign.

[00:32:22] Angela I moved them. And then when we started the scene, I am setting things out. Setting it out. Moving things.

[00:32:28] Jenna Busy.

[00:32:30] Angela Busy. I’m moving things. And it must have been really distracting. She said, you know what, I’m going to stop you.

[00:32:36] Jenna Oh no, you never want to hear that.

[00:32:38] Angela No, she was like, you’re doing too much, OK? You’re doing too much. Stop moving things around and just deliver the lines. And I said, OK. This went into my brain as don’t touch her chairs, but do some great space work.

[00:32:54] Jenna Yeah, mime it.

[00:32:56] Angela Now, I mime putting out real estate signs. Mime, mime, mime, mime, mime, mime. I must have just looked ridiculous.

[00:33:03] Jenna Yeah.

[00:33:04] Angela I didn’t get the part. I did too much business.

[00:33:06] Jenna You know who’s been on Law and order?

[00:33:08] Angela Who?

[00:33:09] Jenna Rainn Wilson. He plays a creepy janitor.

[00:33:13] Angela Oh I need to see it.

[00:33:14] Jenna During one of my marathons I was just sitting there and I was like, oh, it’s Rainn! Rainn! There he is. You know who else has been on? Jackie Debatin.

[00:33:22] Angela Oh!

[00:33:23] Jenna Yeah. She was just on in the marathon I watched.

[00:33:25] Angela Jackie. Well, if I ever get to audition for Law and Order again, I’m not going to do a lot of business.

[00:33:31] Jenna Don’t do it. Finally, Rebecca Prince, the little girl, was played by Emily Evan Rae, and she’s going to come back in a couple of episodes, actually. Emily recently produced and directed a documentary called Stop the Bleed about the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

[00:33:48] Angela My gosh.

[00:33:49] Jenna Emily was born and raised in Parkland, and she made the movie to give a voice to the family, friends and the community who were affected. She won the audience award at the Fort Lauderdale Film Festival for best documentary.

[00:34:03] Angela Wow. (APPLAUSE).

[00:34:04] Jenna Yeah, that’s what she’s been up to.

[00:34:06] Angela That’s amazing.

[00:34:07] Jenna Yes. Well, on that note, I think we should take a break and then we’ll be back to join the group at Dunder Mifflin because they have more to say.

[00:34:14] Angela There’s a big debate going on. Well, we’re back in the bullpen. And the debate is still going on, the hot or not, there’s a whole debate about what is attractive hot.

[00:34:27] Jenna Right.

[00:34:27] Angela Kevin has a lot to say.

[00:34:29] Jenna The most ever. But first, Jim is going to comment that, you know, sometimes we forget to think of celebrities as real people. Kevin sort of says it’s a gut thing. Right. And then Jim gets all up in Kevin’s ear and gives like a husky whisper.

[00:34:48] Angela Like a sultry paints a picture of Hilary Swank coming up to him.

[00:34:52] Jenna We got so much mail about John Krasinski’s husky voice to Kevin in this episode. It was like just I was too shy to put it in my document.

[00:35:05] Angela Oh, come on. Give me one nugget. Something you remember someone saying. One nugget.

[00:35:11] Jenna Basically, this woman said…

[00:35:13] Angela What?

[00:35:15] Jenna John Krasinski could debate anything in my ear if he uses that voice. It was so funny to me. But I did write down this one because Laura B needed a soapbox moment, so I thought I’d give it to her. OK, Laura. Laura says this: it always bothers me that when Stanley asks why they’re making a distinction between beautiful and hot, Kevin says, quote, A painting can be beautiful, but I don’t want to bang a painting. But later in the episode, Kevin turns around and tells Jim to respect the game after Jim narrates the saucy scenario with Hilary Swank. And Kevin says, no, it’s is she hot? Not would you bang her? But he just used the same phrase to explain why he wouldn’t bang a painting.

[00:36:08] Angela Kevin, you can’t use the same argument on different sides.

[00:36:11] Jenna That’s what Laura B says. She says, YOU respect the game, Kevin!

[00:36:16] Angela Yeah, Kevin.

[00:36:16] Jenna Laura, we hear you.

[00:36:19] Angela Angela has been over in accounting. She hasn’t wanted to participate, but she can’t take it anymore. All right? Kevin holding court like this, she’s had it. She gets up and she says, OK, I wasn’t going to dignify this discussion by getting involved, but I don’t even get the discussion. Hot is a temperature, people. But Kevin deserves to lose for what he said. So, yes, she’s hot. She’s hot as heck. She’s a female Boris Becker. I love that Boris Becker is it for Angela Martin. Who knew?

[00:36:51] Jenna I know. I didn’t even realize Angela Martin was a tennis fan.

[00:36:55] Angela Clearly.

[00:36:56] Jenna Yeah, well, y’all, Boris Becker was a German tennis player who shot to stardom when he won the Wimbledon men’s singles title in nineteen eighty five. It was significant because he was only 17 years old and he was the first unseated player and the first German to win the Wimbledon singles title, as well as the youngest ever male Grand Slam singles champion.

[00:37:23] Angela It was huge. I watched it with my mom. My mom’s a big, big tennis player. She’s phenomenal. She was ranked by the USTA by her age group. I spent my whole childhood on a tennis court.

[00:37:32] Jenna Wow.

[00:37:32] Angela Yeah. My mom is like-.

[00:37:33] Jenna I did not know that about your mom.

[00:37:35] Angela My mom’s a bad ass tennis player. We’re big tennis family, guys. There are two things that are always on at our house, either the weather or tennis, because my mom has the tennis channel.

[00:37:44] Jenna Yeah.

[00:37:45] Angela And we’ll watch old games. Oh, I’d love it when Boris Becker would play Stefan Edberg, because my mom had shown me old games of Bjorn Borg and he was the other big Swede. There was Stefan and Bjorn Borg and Bjorn Borg would play John McEnroe, speaking of, Boris Becker played John McEnroe and it’s one of the longest games in tennis history. It was the Davis Cup. It was six hours and something minutes. Can you imagine playing tennis for six hours?

[00:38:08] Jenna No.

[00:38:09] Angela Unbelievable.

[00:38:09] Jenna I can’t imagine playing tennis for six minutes. So.

[00:38:12] Angela Anyway, Boris Becker does it for Angela Martin.

[00:38:17] Jenna I think we should go back to Prince Family Paper, lady. We forgot to mention that Dwight has come in. He’s going to pretend to get a job there. He says, fire your son, I’ll be your son. You can visit him on the weekends.

[00:38:32] Angela I know he comes in like a bull in a China cabinet.

[00:38:36] Jenna And he’s going to explain to Mr Prince just how awful his current boss is, you know, because he says, why are you looking for a new job? And he’s like, well, my current boss is cruel. Terrible. Meanwhile, Michael is kind of walking around. He wants to get a photograph of their kind of territory map over there by Mrs Prince. And then he offers to help her granddaughter with a math problem. I have to say, when I was watching these scenes, I was just so impressed with the detail that went into this little set.

[00:39:13] Angela I know. Well, I was emailing with Michael Gallenberg about this particular set and he said everything you see, they had to bring in.

[00:39:20] Jenna Crazy.

[00:39:20] Angela Crazy. I loved all the details, too.

[00:39:23] Jenna Well, I noticed on that little girl’s desk- did you see it? She had her own nameplate.

[00:39:28] Angela I know.

[00:39:28] Jenna It says Rebecca.

[00:39:29] Angela I know.

[00:39:30] Jenna And also on the desk are all of these little, like, hand painted ceramic animals, like the kind that your granddaughter would give to you. And also, I noticed on the wall there was one of those photo collages of framed photos. They had clearly asked the actors to bring in some pictures and all of those details to me, just like really set this up as a family business. And it made the whole storyline even more heartbreaking.

[00:39:58] Angela No, they had a whole family photo wall. I zoomed in. One is like a wedding photo. And then there’s like your grandson and his baseball uniform holding his baseball bat. And then there was a big painting like your kids do at preschool, where they take their hands and put it in paint and then they make their handprints into flowers.

[00:40:16] Jenna Yes.

[00:40:17] Angela Just like the most amazing details, I feel like this is Michael’s true dream office because it is a real family.

[00:40:25] Jenna Yes. Angela, you’re so right. He wants his office to be his family. And this office is a family.

[00:40:33] Angela I know. Well that’s going to weigh on his heartstrings.

[00:40:37] Jenna Well as he wraps up his visit, he gets Mr. Prince to just hand him a list of their top clients.

[00:40:45] Angela Oh, Mr. Prince, he’s just so trusting. He’s like, listen, if you want to see we do a good job, here’s all of our references. Here’s all of our clients.

[00:40:53] Jenna Oh, well, Dwight and Michael immediately start licking their lips.

[00:40:57] Angela Yeah (MAKES NOISE).

[00:40:57] Jenna It’s  time to get out of there.

[00:40:59] Angela Time to get out of there.

[00:41:00] Jenna Dwight says, sir, can you give me a ride home? Michael’s like, Yeah.

[00:41:05] Angela And then they sprint. They walk, hurry, hurry, hurry to the car. Get out, peel out, peel out. Because they know they got all the info.

[00:41:11] Jenna Yes. Well, as they’re trying to flee, Michael runs over like the parking curb. It’s so funny.

[00:41:19] Angela He runs over the bumper. That cement block.

[00:41:21] Jenna Yeah I don’t know what you call that thing.

[00:41:21] Angela What do you call that. It’s like a partition. It’s like the cement block so you don’t go into the other spot.

[00:41:27] Jenna I’ve done it.

[00:41:28] Angela I’ve done it. But I haven’t backed back over it.

[00:41:31] Jenna No, of course not.

[00:41:31] Angela Once you realize you go over it, keep going.

[00:41:33] Jenna Just keep going. Well, I asked Randy, how did we do this stunt?

[00:41:39] Angela What did he say?

[00:41:40] Jenna He said we had two different identical cars, one that was totally normal and one that was pre rigged with a damaged bumper. So Steve never damaged a car. And if you notice, the camera stays inside the car on Dwight and Michael. So what Steve was actually driving over were just a couple of sandbags.

[00:42:02] Angela Well, it totally sold it.

[00:42:03] Jenna It did. And they had to add all that kind of crunching effect in editing. So, yeah, fakey cement thing was actually sandbags and sound effects.

[00:42:14] Angela The Prince family hears this commotion and they come running out. And of course, Mr. Prince, because he’s so sweet, offers to fix the bumper. And they’re like, no, no, no. Well, wait, no, please let us we’ll get a tow truck. And he’s like, oh, no, they’re too expensive. I got it. And, Jenna, this scene made me think of my dad.

[00:42:31] Jenna It made me think of my dad, too. Because of the duct tape.

[00:42:33] Angela My dad would fix anything with duct tape.

[00:42:36] Jenna Same!

[00:42:37] Angela My dad did this with my first car. The handle on my glove box broke. My dad duct taped it.

[00:42:44] Jenna You know what it’s making me think of?

[00:42:45] Angela What?

[00:42:46] Jenna Josh’s duct tape is zip ties.

[00:42:49] Angela All over the house.

[00:42:50] Jenna Your husband’s zip ties it. Our dads would duct tape it.

[00:42:53] Angela Yeah, my dishwasher tray has been zip tied for four years. It finally fell apart. We had to get a new dishwasher.

[00:43:01] Jenna But you can pretty much fix anything with duct tape.

[00:43:04] Angela Pretty much. Including a whole bumper. So now they’re in the car. They’re going to head back. Dwight still is celebrating. He wants to do high fives.

[00:43:13] Jenna He calls them the sucker family.

[00:43:15] Angela I know. Dwight is that like young kid on the soccer field who doesn’t know when to stop.

[00:43:20] Jenna Yeah.

[00:43:20] Angela Like you scored the goal. Now stop taunting. All right?

[00:43:23] Jenna Exactly.

[00:43:24] Angela Michael is having some regrets.

[00:43:26] Jenna Yeah. Dwight tries to high five Michael and Michael’s like not having any of it. So back in the office, Toby is studying Hilary Swank.

[00:43:36] Angela Pam is going to make a speech. She’s going to appeal to the ladies of the office.

[00:43:41] Jenna Yeah. What, are we going to let the Kevins of the world decide things for us? And then Oscar projects this picture of Hilary Swank’s face with all this grid on it, right? And he talks about koinophilia.

[00:43:54] Angela The symmetry, right, of the face?

[00:43:56] Jenna Yeah. So koinophilia is this- stay with me here- evolutionary hypothesis for explaining why certain animals seek mates that look a certain way. And it proposes that animals, including humans, find the symmetry of features most attractive. I read all about it. I barely understood it. It was very wordy. But in ancient Greece, they created something called the golden ratio of beauty or phi, it’s a mathematical equation and it says if your face possesses a specific set of ratios of distance between the different features on your face, they believed it could be mathematically proven that you had a perfect face. This equation is what Da Vinci used when he was creating his Vitruvian Man. That is what Oscar I think really talking about. I think he’s talking about ratios. I don’t think he’s really talking about koinophilia.

[00:45:08] Angela Stanley is going to address the group and he makes a really moving speech about how he’s trying to be more optimistic in life. And in years past, he might have been critical, but he’s not going to be that person anymore.

[00:45:19] Jenna No, I liked this speech.

[00:45:22] Angela I did, too.

[00:45:23] Jenna You know, he’s saying, why are we doing this to one another? Let’s just live our lives, basically. Yeah. Andy calls for a final vote on Hillary Swank’s hotness. It’s another tie. We discover like this is what happens, people just argue their position, they don’t listen.

[00:45:43] Angela That’s what Oscar says.

[00:45:44] Jenna Yeah, no one’s moved.

[00:45:45] Angela No one’s moving.

[00:45:46] Jenna But Michael gets back to the office during all of this.

[00:45:51] Angela He’s clearly worked up. He goes in his office with Dwight. They shut the door. He doesn’t want to go through with it. Dwight knows that Michael is bailing. So he’s going to try his best to convince Michael that what they did was right. And of course, he’s going to use the one argument that will clearly point this out to Michael, which is a Lord of the Rings analogy. Dwight says there was a terrible war. So many died, far too many died. But if Frodo hadn’t destroyed the ring, then goodness itself might have died.

[00:46:23] Jenna I didn’t understand that. I was Michael. I have questions. I wrote them down.

[00:46:30] Angela OK, I thought you might. Listen, I am not a Lord of the Rings expert. I don’t want to get mail guys. I just am a fan. I’ve seen the movies multiple times. I’ve read some of the books. It’s a big commitment to get through them all. OK, I have not gotten through them all.

[00:46:44] Jenna OK, well here’s my first question. Who is the Lord of the Rings? Is it Frodo?

[00:46:50] Angela No.

[00:46:50] Jenna Is it the guy with the beard.

[00:46:51] Angela No, it’s not like a one person.

[00:46:53] Jenna What is the ring?

[00:46:54] Angela Well, it’s called the one ring, right. The one ring to rule them all.

[00:46:59] Jenna OK.

[00:46:59] Angela Oh Lord. OK, all right. Where do I even start? First of all, here’s what I want to say. I know the battle that Dwight’s referencing. I’m pretty sure it’s the battle of the blackgate. Right. Which is the big major battle for the war of the ring. They fought it right in front of the gate and they were trying to distract the eye of Sauron because the Eye of Sauron tracks whoever holds the ring. And Frodo had the ring and Frodo was trying to get to Mount Doom to drop it into the lava lake thing. Right. That’s the one place it can be destroyed.

[00:47:28] Jenna Why do they have to get rid of it. Why is he destroying it?

[00:47:30] Angela OK. Because it’s innately evil. I’ll explain.

[00:47:34] Jenna OK, so it’s called the Lord of the Rings, but it’s one ring, so it shouldn’t be. Why? It’s not called Lord of the Ring? I mean.

[00:47:41] Angela OK, OK. OK let’s just. OK, so Bilbo Baggins, right?

[00:47:46] Jenna Oh, my God.

[00:47:46] Angela He found the ring. Gollum had been hiding it. This is a really bad overview from me. Anyway, he gave it to Frodo. And, you know, Gandalf realized that Bil Baggins, like when he had the ring, it kind of made him a different person. So Gandalf was like, something’s up with that, you know? But.

[00:48:05] Jenna So many names.

[00:48:06] Angela There was this inscription when you take the ring and you put it in the fire because just fire can’t kill it. Dragon Fire can’t kill it.

[00:48:12] Jenna Not even Dragon Fire?

[00:48:14] Angela No, no, it won’t melt the ring. But when you put it like in the fire, it has an inscription and it’s written, I think, is it in Elfish, guys? OK, don’t write me.

[00:48:23] Sam I believe so.

[00:48:23] Angela Thank you Sam. When it’s translated, the inscription says and I did look this up so I got it right, one ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness, bind them. So the ring is essentially evil in nature because it’s an extension of Sauron, OK. And Sauron’s like bad. He’s bad, bad. But anyway, Frodo ultimately, you know, puts it in the lava lake thing and it finally is destroyed.

[00:48:53] Jenna So lava is hotter than Dragon Fire?

[00:48:56] Angela Well, no, it had to go to Mount Doom specifically.

[00:48:59] Jenna It’s a special lava.

[00:49:00] Angela Because that’s where Sauron made it.

[00:49:02] Jenna Oh, so it had to go back to where it came from, sort of.

[00:49:05] Angela Right. Yeah.

[00:49:06] Jenna It could only sort of melt into its original source material.

[00:49:12] Angela Yeah, I think so. Here’s a cool thing. You know-.

[00:49:15] Jenna Can I just – before- I know we’re talking about the ring, but at the end of this, are you going to tell me who the Lord of the Rings is?

[00:49:22] Angela No, because it’s it’s not one Lord. It’s not one lord. Sam?

[00:49:27] Sam OK, so originally they make a bunch of rings.

[00:49:30] Angela Yes.

[00:49:31] Sam There’s like nine for them, like men, some for the elves, some of the dwarves. Then the one ring can rule them all. That’s what makes it so dangerous.

[00:49:40] Angela Right.

[00:49:41] Sam And I guess I mean, technically, the Lord of all the Rings would be Sauron who made it.

[00:49:46] Angela Well, because he made the one ring.

[00:49:48] Sam Yes. If you were to get this ring, you would be the Lord of all the rings but it will corrupt you and make you evil and that’s what happens.

[00:49:57] Angela It damages people.

[00:49:57] Sam Smeagol to Gollum. It’ll cripple you.

[00:49:59] Angela And the humans, the humans. It makes them like, yeah, it makes crazy.

[00:50:02] Sam It makes you insane and murderous and jealous and awful.

[00:50:05] Jenna I mean, that sounded good actually. Sam, that was you made that interesting.

[00:50:09] Angela Oh, my God. I’m sitting right here.

[00:50:12] Jenna I mean, if I was like while I was listening to that I was like, huh this sounds like really Shakespearean and sort of like maybe I’d like it.

[00:50:19] Angela Maybe read the books. Maybe you’d like the books better than movies because you lose interest when things get fantastical. And you could just flip a few pages past that.

[00:50:26] Jenna I don’t know. Well, Michael is not moved by Dwight’s Lord of the Rings logic.

[00:50:33] Angela Yeah, like you he’s like, no, I don’t, OK, whatever.

[00:50:37] Jenna I mean, you know, he’s going to sprint out of the office with the piece of paper. He’s going to destroy it. I assumed he was going to run to the shredder.

[00:50:49] Angela Yeah.

[00:50:50] Jenna No, he’s runs all the way outside to his car, but shoot, he forgot his keys.

[00:50:57] Angela Meanwhile, Dwight is chasing him, trying to get it from him. He gets his keys and then goes back out.

[00:51:03] Jenna And we know how elaborate it was to shoot that because all of those places, the stairwell, the hallway, they’re all in different locations. In different buildings.

[00:51:12] Angela Oh, yeah.

[00:51:13] Jenna So they would have to reset up and then make those guys run and then move and set up and make those guys run. They did such a good job of selling how tired they were because they only ever really had to run for short distances.

[00:51:25] Angela Right. Right.

[00:51:26] Jenna It was not actually all tied together.

[00:51:28] Angela In the end, Dwight is like, Michael, you have to do this because of if we don’t do this, someone will do this to us. It will happen.

[00:51:37] Jenna Yeah. Did you see the piles of fakey snow outside in the parking lot? Nice touch, guys.

[00:51:43] Angela I did. Nice touch. Ultimately, Michael agrees to call Wallace and give him the Prince Paper client list and he realizes he’s not a shark.

[00:51:53] Jenna No. It broke my heart that he gave him the list.

[00:51:56] Angela I know.

[00:51:57] Jenna I was really rooting for Michael to destroy the list.

[00:52:02] Angela There’s going to be a callback to it. It’s brutal.

[00:52:05] Jenna Brutal.

[00:52:06] Angela Michael has a talking head. He shares it’s a bittersweet moment. There was an alt talking head. I have to play it, guys. It’s in deleted scenes. The last line of it made me spit out my iced tea as I was watching it.

[00:52:19] Jenna OK.

[00:52:22] Michael Scott I’ve always been intrigued with the idea of ruling with an iron fist, and it is good for ruling. But you know what it’s not good for? For caressing the face of a child. Or making love to a woman with your hands. Or thumb wrestling. Or hanging out in the rain… Or if you walk through a magnet store, you get covered in magnets. Oh… Well, I’m done. No more iron fisting for me.

[00:53:09] Angela He is so ridiculous.

[00:53:12] Jenna How did Steve get through that?

[00:53:14] Angela I don’t know.

[00:53:15] Jenna How did he get through the line about walking through a magnet store?

[00:53:17] Angela I don’t know. All of it. It’s so ridiculous. It made me laugh. I was like, everybody needs to hear this.

[00:53:24] Jenna How would they pick? How would they – all of these are so good. How do they get in the editing room and they have to pick one. We have to ask Greg about that some time. I want to hear more about how they pick things. I mean, I know they would bring us in sometimes and ask our opinion, but I feels like every episode they were having to make these decisions.

[00:53:42] Angela Well, Michael ends up ultimately being the tiebreaker. So we do have a winner.

[00:53:46] Jenna Yes. He very casually says she’s hot.

[00:53:49] Angela Yeah.

[00:53:49] Jenna And then our team wins.

[00:53:51] Angela Our team won. And we had a lot of tangents in this, guys.

[00:53:55] Jenna We did. We hope you enjoyed it.

[00:53:58] Angela This is just a window into our search history, guys. You’re welcome.

[00:54:03] Jenna We will be back next week with Stress Relief Part One and an epic cold open that I can’t wait to talk about.

[00:54:10] Angela Save Bandit!

[00:54:11] Jenna I can’t wait.

[00:54:12] Angela We’ll see you next week.

[00:54:13] Jenna See you next week. 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.

[00:54:33] Angela Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

[00:54:36] Jenna For Ad free versions of Office Ladies, go to Stitcher premium dot com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code: Office.