Office Ladies - Second Drink: Dwight’s Speech

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

This week we're breaking down Dwight's Speech. Jenna hits up The Office Line Producer, Kent Zbornak for some behind the scenes info on who exactly is in the audience during Dwight's speech. Then the ladies track the thermostat fight, Pam's wedding invites causes some "Ryan Sass", and Angela tries to explain Lord of The Rings to Jenna. Finally, the ladies dive deep into the big speech from it's historical inspirations to how many takes it took Rainn to nail it, and they explain that wizard appearance. Don't worry Brad Pitt will be just fine after this episode.  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Episode Transcript To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, lady, you know that Lee was just shooting his movie in Oklahoma City. And the movie gave him a place to stay because he was there for months. Right. But for two of those weeks, me and the kids came out to join him and the place he was staying in that the movie provided. It was just too small to your whole family. We're a whole family. He went on Airbnb, got us the most beautiful, spacious place to stay. With the nicest host. Well you know if you're planning a trip or you're working

somewhere and you want to stay at an Airbnb, I think you guys got to check out their guest favorite because those are the most loved homes on Airbnb. Oh! We were a guest favorite! We were in a guest favorite! You scared me! So sorry, it's true! You're so excited! I was. Well, yeah, I mean, you're actually getting a home other people have stayed in, and you know it's been well reviewed. Well, listen, we are huge fans of Airbnb for so many reasons.

So for your next adventure, consider Airbnb. With the Fizz loyalty program, you get rewarded just for having a mobile plan. You know, for texting and stuff. And if you're not getting rewards like extra data and dollars off with your mobile plan, you're not with Fizz. Switch today. Conditions apply. Details at fizz.ca. Welcome to your second drink of Dwight's speech.

We had a fan mail flurry after this episode aired. Yep, we did. And it was all about our off topic banter that we had about Lord of the Rings. Yep, might have said something wrong. People reacted to it. They did. And I guess you said,

Modor? Mm-hmm. Instead of Mordor. Sounds like me. Yep. Okay. Well, it drove people crazy. Yep, it did.. Sounds like me. Yeah. Okay. Well, it drove people crazy. Yeah, it did.

I didn't notice. Well. Nikki S wrote in to say, your Lord of the Rings discussion was hilarious. And Samanovo said, oh God, the whole breakdown of Lord of the Rings cracked me the hell up. The butchering of the names made me cringe. I'm sorry. But it also made me laugh so much. Yeah. Guy S wrote in and said, Angela, it was driving this Lord of the Rings nerd crazy.

To which Becky replied, oh, so painful. I'm sorry, Guy. I'm sorry, Becky. I'm sorry, every Lord of the Rings fan. Sometimes I like leave out a letter in things. It happens. Well, Ange, apparently I also drove people nuts because of my inability to pronounce Swarson. Oh, now you're doing it again. You're doing it again. Sauron. Okay.

Iamtarth said that it is Sauron in all caps. And Audrey wrote in to explain that Mordor is a country. It is a country of pure evil and destruction, full of monsters, lava and evil. Lots of lava. Lava? Lots of lava. Okay. And I guess it is also the land of the Dark Lord of Sauron. That's right.

Okay. So before you re-listen to this episode and hear us butcher all of these names and places again, we just wanted to let you know that we hurt you. We are so sorry. Yes. We apologize in advance. Also, you guys, a while back, the folks over at Cartooner Radio, they did animated clips of some of our podcasts. They did this one, the Lord of the Rings conversation. Those guys are so talented. So if you missed those clips, you can find them at the link in our bio on Instagram. But Jenna, before we leave the Lord of the Rings conversation, I do have one more letter.

Tamra wrote in to say, Jenna, I really think you would like the Lord of the Rings. The movies are based on a task, getting the ring to a place just like the movie 1917, but with hobbits. They are amazing. Tamara, I love that you know that I love a movie with a task. I really, really do. And during our breakdown of The Edge, Sam said that Lord of the Rings was similar to The Edge.

So I am very intrigued. Okay. I might watch this one. Oh, so I am very intrigued. Okay. I might watch this one. Oh, I would be so happy. I feel like this would be a good family movie night movie too. Am I right? Yeah. For the whole family?

Yes. Okay. Yes. All right. The orcs are scary. Are they scarier than something in Harry Potter? Are they scarier than the thing in Harry Potter that is like spooky? How old are your kids?

10 and 13. It's perfectly fine. It's okay? Yeah. Okay. The orcs scare me. They do. But I also don't like zombies and I don't like scary movies.

It's the one part of Lord of the Rings that's very scary to me. Okay. Just orc warning, Sam. Orc warning. This is a good orc warning, yes. I need a Lord of the Rings we watched to happen with you both so badly. Well, moving on. Another big discussion we had in this episode was about Pam's wedding color being lavender.

Yeah. And I guess I said something about, I'm gonna go check her wedding photos and confirm that her bridesmaids wore lavender. But lady. What? Mary B. wrote in to say, what wedding photos? Roy and Pam didn't have wedding photos since they didn't get married. There are none, of course. Well we also had some really good fan catches from this episode.

At 42 Wallaby Way wrote in and said, I noticed that when Jim spins the globe to decide randomly where he'll go on his vacation, his finger lands somewhere in Africa. But at the end, when Pam asks where he's going, he says, Australia. Mm-hmm. That was a good catch. Callie M. wrote in to say, at eight minutes and six seconds, you can see the reflection of the boom guy in the conference room window. Busted. And Aaron T. wrote in and said, you talked about the wizard in the crowd at 20 minutes

and 25 seconds, but what about the alien at 19 minutes and 42 seconds? We got a lot of mail about that. Yes, Angela. I saw that comment too. They even sent in a photo. There is a full alien at 19 minutes and 42 seconds. Well, there you go, everybody. That is your second drink of Dwight's speech.

And now here's our breakdown. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch podcast just for you. 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. We're The Office ladies. Good morning, Office ladies. I see what you're doing there. You see what I'm doing. You're tipping your hat a little to this episode, which is... Dwight's Speech Season 2, Episode 17, written by Paul Lieberstein and directed by...

Action! Charles McDougall! Wow, I've blown up my voice already. Someone driving right now is like, that's not the only thing you blew out. I know. Three sentences in. Thanks, I was driving when you were like, good morning, Office Ladies. All right, I'll tone it down.

Look, I'll get real, I'm going to NPR it now. Oh. NPR voice. I'm going to do my summary, but I'm going to do it real gentle. Like that? Yeah. NPR voice? Yeah.

Hi, welcome to Office Ladies. I'm Angela Kinsey. I'm Jenna Fisher. We're best friends, and we're breaking down an episode of Dwight's speech from the office. Here's a summary. All right, I'll stop it now. Dwight is named salesperson of the year.

It's a big honor. It's a huge honor. Yeah, and as a result, he has to give a speech in front of a thousand people and he's really nervous. So he goes to Michael for advice. Then he goes to Jim for advice. Eventually he goes to the conference.

But meanwhile, Pam is doing wedding prep at work in front of Jim. So he decides it's time for a vacation. A vacay. Also there is a thermostat war going on. Yes. Yes. Thermostat war. Now I had told some of our writers about the thermostat war that we had.

Because you had one. We had one at 1-800-Dennis that resulted in a lock box over the thermostat. Oh dear. With a key. It got serious. It got serious. So I have no idea. What were you? Were you a colder or a hotter? I with a key. It got serious. It got serious. So I have- What about you?

Were you a colder or a hotter? I was a Jenna. I mean, for our listeners who might not know that you're wearing a puffy coat as we record this podcast. Right now, I have a t- Guys, literally, she's wearing a puffy coat. That's not a joke. I have a t-shirt on, a sweatshirt with a hoodie,

and then I have an enormous puffer over that. I also own a sweatshirt that says always cold. It was a gift to me. I didn't even buy it for myself. People know you. People know me. No, I was always cold. And for whatever reason, where I sat on the phones

is where all the air went, like our wing, and the guys in the IT department, no air went to them. So they were like the sweatiest. They were always annoyed. They would come over really sweaty and like shove the thermostat down. And then they'd walk away. We'd get cold and we'd crank it back up. Wow.

They hated our corner. The IT guys hated our corner. Fast fact number one. We had a lot of questions about the convention center, the convention itself. A lot of curiosity. For example, fan question from Mary Ann Lodens and Grace D and Mel Ahsako, where was the speech filmed? And then Sue Potts asked, did we hire a bunch of extras or did we just use existing hotel people? Well, I reached out to our line producer, Kent Zbornak.

So a line producer is the person who gets the script and figures out all of the practical stuff that you need to do to make an episode happen. So whereas Greg Daniels is in charge of all the creative aspects of an episode, Kent Zbornak would be in charge of the practicals. And the logistics. How do I get people there?

Where are we filming? What does it cost? Yes. How do we make this work with our budget? All that kind of stuff. Yes. For example, he would be a person who would give Phil Shea a budget for 13 fitness orbs. He'd be like, here's your fitness orb budget.

So he's in charge of all those numbers and things. He said that we filmed for only one day at the Universal Studios Sheridan Hotel. Now I had written in my blog a while ago that we had 500 extras, but Kent said we did not have 500 extras. We had 400 extras. Yes. And 100 dummies. Bodies? Yes. Fake bodies. Torsoes with no arms and legs, dressed up in suits. Yeah.

And five dummy wranglers, people who carried them around the room and put them in different places, depending on the shots. I mean, that is crazy town. That is crazy town. I did have in my notes that we had about 400 extras and it's the most extras we had ever had. Yes, this is true.

So Kent said that the dummies were mostly in the back and on the sides. Yes. He said, if you pause and look, you can find them, but I went frame by frame and I could not find any. I mean, I really looked. So there were only three cast members that went to the convention and it was, you know, Rain, obviously, Dwight Speech, and then Michael and myself.

The room was actually really big. And if my memory serves, they had the dummies sort of way towards the back. So it just looked like the room was filled all the way to the back. I wouldn't think that you could catch it. I think that'd be pretty hard. He mentioned that Charles McDougall was really worried that you were going to see these dummies. And so the Wranglers really moved them around a lot. The dummy Wranglers. The dummy Wranglers.

What's interesting to me- Is that our book, the dummy Wranglers? No, that's Kent Subornat's book about dealing with us. Yeah. There were a lot of extras. It was the most I'd ever seen. We had never really had to provide lunch for that many people.

I remember when it came time for lunch, the catering was way, it was like Sergio, plus all these other extra guys, that was our catering company. So it was kind of interesting to see how we managed that many people. And I was glad we only had to do it for one day. He said that we did 47 camera setups in a 12-hour shoot day. Now, let me break that down for you guys. When you do scenes, you might do like one scene at reception,

but it's three or four different camera setups. So you'll do what usually like four to seven takes per camera setup, because, you know, and then you move the cameras and you do it again, but that blew my mind. He said that we started at 7 a.m., wrapped around 7.30, and managed to shoot seven and four eighths pages,

which I guess is a fancy way to say seven and a half. Fast fact number two, Rainn Wilson was very sick for this episode. Very, very sick. So we just explained to you everything Rainn Wilson was very sick for this episode. Very, very sick. So we just explained to you everything that went into planning this workday. We had to- Guess what happened? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Go. We had to, they had it all scheduled and then they had to cancel it and reschedule it for a different day by a week. Not just cancel it like a few days ahead. Basically, Rain was sick the beginning of the episode and then the day this was scheduled, if I remember it was sort of like on a Wednesday or Thursday, we'd already done some office scenes in the bullpen and we were going later. I think it was a Wednesday. Yeah. I reached out to Kent about this as well. And he said he always liked to put these location shoots

on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Yes. And go ahead. That's what I remember too. It was like a Wednesday, but we'd already been filming in the bullpen Monday, Tuesday, like the main office building. And I remember we only had the hotel for one day.

It was a big deal because they had to reserve this room and everything. Yes. And then we had all the extras hired and everything. I woke up Wednesday morning and I got a call from our second AD and they said, Angela, the hotel's been canceled. Rain is too sick. He's too sick. Like his doctor said, you cannot go. And I was like, oh my gosh. And so they were sort of scrambling now to figure out what Wednesday was going to look like. Well, I got a call at home, Jenna, the hotel has been canceled. You need to come into work. We're going to be shooting back

in the office now. So I got the day off and I was suddenly had to work. Yes. Well, I actually called rain about it. And he said that it is the only time in 10 years of working on the office that he was not able to come to work for a day. But he had a fever over 102. He said a doctor came and said, you cannot go to work. Rain has a fantastic work ethic. And I don't doubt that for him to miss. He was very ill. Well, we had a fan question from Chris Bodnar who kind of clocked it. He said was Rainn Wilson sick during this episode because his voice sounds like he might have a cold and rainn said actually that the voice thing is because he was screaming during the speech and he kind of blew out his voice. But you can actually hear in the conference

room before we ever moved to the hotel. You can tell he's coming down with it. I could really tell. I heard his voice in the conference room. That's before we went to the hotel, and he sounded legit sick. So I agree with you, Chris. I wonder if he got a phone call from Greg Daniels telling him

it was his finest performance, because he's really good in this episode. He's really, really good in this episode. But yeah, I mean, the other thing too, you should know is that Rain really didn't want to miss work because he knew how much went into that day, the extras, the hotel, the location shoot. So I think he was- The dummy wranglers.

The dummy wranglers. I think he was really trying to power it out and then his body just couldn't. Yeah. All right. Fast fact number three. This was a little bit of trivia that I found on Dunderpedia. Dunderpedia guys is the Wikipedia of the office. It's great.

It's just all office facts. It's great. And I found this charming. So this episode aired in the United States on March 2nd in 2006. However, in Canada, it aired the day before. Oh. It aired a day early, and this was due to a scheduling conflict with the season finale of Skating with Celebrities.

So in the United States, we aired on NBC and Skating with Celebrities aired on Fox, but in Canada, they both aired on the same network, this global television network, and the finale of Skating with Celebrities was at the same time as this episode, so they had to air us one day early. So everyone in Canada got to see this one day early. Well, how about that? Yeah. Who was on Skating with Celebrities? It only ran for one season. Did people get injured? I don't remember a bunch of injuries, but I weirdly remember the show. I don't. It only went for one season. So it wasn't a hit. I guess it's way good. I'm kind of like it wasn't it didn't take off. Okay,

so here I'll give you the cast of skating with celebrities. I'm really curious. They matched a celebrity with a pro skating partner. So Kristy Swanson, Gillian Barbary, Bruce Jenner, Dave Coulier, Debbie Gibson, and Todd Bridges. Kristy Swanson won. Hey. She defeated Gillian Barbary and her partner to win the show's first and only championship. Wow. Yeah.

Oh, here's something interesting. The very next day, it was announced that it was canceled. Oh, no. So it's like, I won. Canceled. Canceled. I want bowling with celebrities. I'd do it.

I would do it. You know, I got four strikes in a row the other day, Angela. I got like, what is that? That's more than a turkey. You know, I got four strikes in a row the other day, Angela. I got like, what is that? That's more than a turkey. I just like the idea of like some kind of reality championship where I can have beer and like a slice of pizza while doing my activity.

Bowling with celebrities. Bowling with celebrities. What's that thing where you throw bean bags into a hole in your backyard? Cornhole. I love cornhole. Cornhole with celebrities. Cornhole with celebrities.

I already do that all the time. I mean, I'm not, I'm sort of, you know, not major celebrity, but. Is cornhole also a phrase for something dirty? Probably, it has to do with your butt, maybe, Sam? Beavis and butt head, didn't they say? You don't have to look to me for every. Is that a reference for your butt hole?

Yes, it is. So maybe no cornhole with celebrities. It's still really fun. I mean, here's the thing. Here's my bowling strategy. I can't wait to hear it. Don't cut this. Every time I walk up and I just try to line up with that little center triangle.

The arrow? Uh-huh. Yeah. And then I try to look at that and then I roll it down. The ball goes super slow. Okay. Cause I usually bowl with like a 10 pound ball. I'm like going fighting the kids for their balls. It's fascinating.

And the ball goes super slow, super slow. And then I get like a strike, but it's like, it takes like five minutes. It's like dunk, dunk, dunk, dunk. And then I think cause the ball's going so slow, I usually there's like one or two left. I come really close to getting a strike. So that's how I bowl.

Don't stop talking about it, Angela. Keep telling me more details. I either do that or I just get a gutter ball. I would have pegged. So it's interesting to me. I will say now I'm very you. So it's interesting to me. I will say now, I'm very interested. It's very interesting to me that you take the time to line it up and you do the thing. You know, you go for the arrow because I might have pegged you as a person.

Willy nilly. Not Willy nilly, but where you're like, I'm going to just chunk it. I'm going to chunk it real hard. I did it for you so you'd understand what I meant. Oh, shut up. You shut up. It's time for a break. Oh, if anyone is still wanting to listen, we're going to get into the episode. There's some really good stuff. I have a lot of fun things to say. I do too. And it's not even going to be about bowling. Might be. Might be. All right, we'll see you after the break. because therapy should feel accessible. And with online therapy, you get quality care at a price that makes sense. And with over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform

and has served over 5 million people globally. And it's convenient. You can join a session with a click of the button and it helps you to fit therapy into your busy life. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. Your wellbeing is worth it.

And if you are thinking of starting therapy, you can give BetterHelp a try. Visit betterhelp.com slash office ladies today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E- e l p dot com slash office ladies. This is a Reese's peanut butter cup sound experiment. We're looking to find the perfect way to hear Reese's so you'll buy more of them. Here we go. Reese's. Reese's. Reese's. Reese's. Reeses. Reeses.

Reeses. Hey, get out of here, you little stinker. Reeses. Reeses. Reeses. Peanut butter cups. That breathy one sounded very creepy, am I right? Let's get started with this episode.

Let's do it. We have a cold open. Michael and Dwight are throwing a football while they discuss some dilemma at corporate. It's not important. I don't think it doesn't even mean anything. I will never forget. Okay. This cold open.

Oh boy. Do you want to know why? Tell. Okay. So Jim steals the ball. He tosses it to Phyllis. Yep. Phyllis tosses it to Creed, Dwight runs over,

and only the way that Rainn Wilson would do, Rainn is, he goes full out guys. If the script says tackle, shove, you're going to go flying. Because Rainn as Dwight is like all in. So like he tackles Ryan to the ground, He shoves the heck out of Creed. And then he runs towards Leslie David Baker, who is standing by accounting. What you cannot see is there is a petite blonde person standing behind him. Oh. Mm-hmm. Rain runs at Leslie and like heismans him basically. Yeah. Really gives him the stiff arm shove. Leslie was not expecting it.

Oh dear. It wasn't really in the script that he was going to shove Leslie. We had a stunt coordinator that day. We planned this out like super duper. Let me tell you something. Leslie was not ready for that shove. Okay. We planned this out like super duper. Let me tell you something. Leslie was not ready for that show. Okay. I think maybe, maybe with the stunt guy, he got a brisk little like tap or something.

But rain came at him full throttle and like shoved him. Leslie went flying. He lost his- You can see it in the episode. He lost his balance completely. He went almost butt overhead. Okay, yeah. But there was someone directly behind him. Tiny blonde.

A tiny blonde person. So when Leslie lost his balance, he started steamrolling back and I was under that. Wow. Mm-hmm. I was under that. Well, it's crazy because I remember that we practiced that forever. And I kind of remember it because all I do is sit at the reception desk and I had thought

to myself, did I need to be here for the two hours? That's what I thought. That's what I thought. That's what I thought. They said, you know, definitely they didn't want me seated at my desk. They wanted me to come out a little bit to the edge of accounting. Sometimes they would have us do that. If there's a scene in the main office bullpen and they want to get reaction shots of everyone, they would kind of have Kevin and my character come out.

So they could see you better. So they could see us better. So they could see us better. Of course. And so they had us come out, but Leslie did not think he was going to fall. He did not fall in any of the rehearsals. He wasn't shoved that hard. Yeah, well, he wasn't being shoved by Rainn Wilson yet. No, he wasn't.

So Leslie went flying and collided into me and then rolled backwards on top of me. And after the take, everyone was like, oh my God, Creed, are you okay? Creed. And then they were like, oh, BJ, are you okay? And then they're like, oh my God, Leslie. Cause Leslie really went down hard. They're like, Leslie, are you okay?

They pulled Leslie up. And Oscar goes, oh my God, Angela. Oscar was like the only person that saw me. I was like, yeah. And then I don't know if you notice, but all of this happens at one minute. If you look at the time code. Now go to one minute, five seconds.

Leslie is no longer there. Oh, like he was take, did he only do the first take? I don't know, Jenna, how it went down, but I think he got knocked down and then got up and was like, nope. Well, I don't know if you notice at 20 seconds when Michael tosses the ball and he knocks over Jim's stuff on his desk,

it all kind of falls forward onto this pile of boxes that's in front of Dwight's desk. If you look at 42 seconds, Michael tosses the ball to Oscar and all those boxes are missing. They were cleared and not returned. Oh, look at us. Little continuity catch. Little catches there in the background. I did want to throw out to Rihanna Royer, who had written in to ask if the football toss was planned. And so we answered that question, but I do thank you for writing in. Yes, no, that was all planned.

Although Leslie's. That part wasn't planned. Angela's getting squashed was not planned. All right, so now we move on. Dwight is sitting at his desk and he is talking about, oh, a sale on TiVo. He's gonna buy something special for himself because he is salesperson of the year. Hold up, this is an old tech alert though. TiVo. TiVo.

He talks about a CD burner. We also find out that Jim came in ninth place. Ninth. And all he's getting is Cagino's pizza. Yeah. But you guys, do any of you have TiVo's? Did you have a TiVo? I had a TiVo.

Yeah. OK, young people, TiVo was like a VCR. It was like one of the very first digital video recordings where you could record your show. Yeah, it's the same as what you have now on your DirecTV or your cable. But we didn't have that. We didn't have that.

You had to hook it into your cable box. These were the days where if you had a VHS player, you could record one of your cable. But we didn't have that. We didn't have that. You had to hook it into your cable box. These were the days where like if you had a VHS player, you could record one of your shows. But like this changed it because it digitally recorded things and you could like plan out your records. You didn't have to like run home and hit the record button. I feel like this is like my mom trying to tell me about what life was like without a microwave. I'm like, I don't care. I just want to heat up some soup. Tevo was a game changer. It was. I was so excited to have Tevo.

There was one moment in February of 2004 that Tevo had the most watch recorded and replayed moment in Tevo history. What was it? It was Janet Jackson's Super Bowl, halftime with Justin Timberlake? The boob slip. Where her boob came out.

Yes. That was the most watched, recorded, and replayed moment in TiVo history. The folks at TiVo said the audience reaction charts looked like an electrocardiogram. Oh my god. It was like, chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug. I mean.

That is crazy. That is crazy. So you know when Jim says he just wins a Cogino's Pizza? Yes. This is the second time Jim has mentioned Cogino's. He also brought it up in a deleted scene from The Client where he says his worst first date took place at Cogino's Pizza. This is a real Italian restaurant. It is in Dunmore, right outside of Scranton. It's actually

at 107 East Drinker Street in Dunmore. They do serve pizza, but I could not find a website for them or an online menu. But guys, it's a little family-owned business, Cagino's Pizza. Put it on your The Office Tour, because when I was looking up stuff for this episode, I found these websites that you can do sort of like a little travel vacation where you hit all the stops of the office. Yeah. So go get some pizza at Cugino's. Guys, I want to present to you at two minutes, 31 seconds a complete tongue twister.

Okay. Ready? Yeah. I want you guys, Sam, wake up in there. I want you guys to try to say this 10 times fast. Okay, ready? Yeah. It is literally the highest possible honor

that a Northeastern Pennsylvania based midsize paper company regional salesman can attain. How? Oh, that's from Jim's talking head. Yes. But like- How did he memorize that? But how did he get it all in like one sentence? That is not easy.

That is not easy. All right, applause, John. Well done, John Krasinski. Jim tongue twister. Okay, where are we at? Well, speaking of Jim, we are finally in the kitchen with Jim and Pam, and they are finally bantering again like old times.

They're flirting. Ah, they're so cute. Nice little back and forth. There's been this drought. They've been a bit estranged, and it looks like things are gonna thaw until Phyllis comes out of the bathroom and asks Pam about her wedding dress.

Oh, awkward. And Jim makes kind of a quick exit. At 2 minutes 40 seconds, there's a shot of Jim's coffee mug. And it says, quote, together we build a better Scranton, restoring the pride. And Dunderpedia pointed out that this was the motto of a downtown Scranton revitalization project. And you will see Jim use this mug

throughout the entire episode. Way to go. That's Phil Shea putting some local props in play. But also good catches there. Yeah, local pizza place, local mug. So now we go to Pam's talking head and she says, listen, I just, I have to do my wedding planning at the office, you know, but it can get weird sometimes and she's worried about people getting offended like Angela.

Look what I wrote on my card. What? Leave me out of it. Leave me out of it. This has nothing to do with me and your scandalous emotional affair you're having. Leave me out of it. All right, so now Dwight is feeding himself grapes at his desk and Michael enters and says,

that's what she said, because grapes, seductive. And he asked Dwight if he's ready for his big speech. Well, I have real beef with Michael on this episode. Talk to me about it. He does not want Dwight to succeed. He doesn't. He is flat out mean to him. He's psych want Dwight to succeed. He doesn't. He is flat out mean to him. He's psyching him out.

Yeah. He's negative. He's putting him down the whole episode. So Angela, the Angela Martin in me, is like, you're not being nice. No. Then Jim goes on to sabotage Dwight. Like, why?

Why is everyone coming down on Dwight? Well. Is it because he's a little bit rubbing it in everyone's face? I think Jim had motivation because Dwight's rubbing it in his face. That's fine. They have that back and forth. But Dwight just adores Michael

and hangs on his every word and isn't rubbing it in his face. Michael is just, I think, jealous that someone else has the spotlight. He's like a little bratty kid. He also puts himself in this position of expert. So he's got this talking head now where he explains that he won salesman of the year

twice before consecutively. I know. Twice in a row. But one year he got a plaque, the other year he just got a certificate. Well, they stopped making plaques. Right. Can we talk about where this talking head takes place?

In his cabinet. Inside his, like, man armoire. Yes, in his office. Yes, at four minutes, one second, you get a really good shot of it. Did you look and see what all's inside? You know I did. You know you did.

OK, let's trade some stuff. Break it down. Is that Jan on the cover of the Dunder Mifflin newsletter? Yeah, did you see that her name is still listed as Gould? Oh. So how long has that been there? He saved it for a bit. It's pre-Gould.

Okay, he's got a mirror, he's got a mini fridge, but on the top shelf of his mini fridge is a fancy silver tea set. Yeah, it's not a mini fridge, that's a safe. That's a safe. He has a safe that he has gotten his plaque and certificate out of. And then the top shelf of the safe, there is a tea set.

This makes a lot more sense. I mean, kind of, it's still strange. I was like, why is he refrigerating this? Why is he chilling the whole tea set? Yeah, like why is this? And then also why is he chosen to chill a plaque? But they hung two other plaques. They're not worthy of the mini fridge, safe.

Well, he also has Pepto Bismol deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, and a can of something. A can of something, and then what are those two squares? What, like a couple of items, like wrapped in mesh? It looked like it. With some twine? It looked like it. We don't know. We don't know. It was weird.

He had a change of clothes, a dundee, two mounted plaques. It looked like maybe a silver shot glass and a blue cup. There you go, Michael's credenza. Mini fridge. Which is a safe. I really need to start watching these episodes with my glasses on. Clearly.

Clearly. Look at that mini fridge. It's a safe Angela. Guys, at four minutes, 23 seconds, Dwight has this great talking head where he talks about losing his sixth grade spelling beat for not being able to spell the word failure. That was an improvisation. Rain improvised that part of it, that the word was failure. That is fantastic, Rain.

That's good. I think you can really start hearing that he's sick, and that talking head. And then later in the conference room scenes, I really heard it. OK, so you know the scene in Michael's office where he's telling Dwight, I'm going to mentor you. I can teach you enough so you don't embarrass yourself

during this speech. If you look in the background over Rain's shoulder and you can see reception in the background and it's me and Kate and we're back there. And here is something that's very interesting. Whenever I did background work with Kate, we stayed in character the whole time. You can see us crouching over Pam's computer, and we did a whole runner about our frustration

with the new computer system that won't allow us to enter both alpha and numeric codes into the sales orders, and that it was a huge problem. And I wrote about it in my diary, and I said that we stayed in character the entire two hours that they shot in Michael's office. By the way, that's the smartest Meredith was written in the whole series. Was in our background improvisations.

Yeah. That's the most competent Meredith has ever sounded. They were the most fun to me. We always had the best time, Kate and I, because we would come up with these, it was always something we were annoyed with. It was always some new office procedure. And we would kind of complain about it and try to figure it out.

Yeah. Oscar and I would do bits like that. We would totally stay in character. But what we were talking about would be absolutely ridiculous. He would very seriously pass me papers, important payroll papers, but he would have attached a post-it note that would say, will you please file these in your butt? And then he would draw a little cartoon with it, and it always cracked me up. Well, I just thought it was really sweet because I, you know, we go back to our diaries and

we read what we wrote and I had written all about how much fun I had on this episode filming with Kate in the background of that scene. That's so cute. I love that. I know. All right. So next we cut to Pam's desk and she is on the phone with her mom and she says, Mom, I don't, I know you guys are paying for the wedding,

but I don't want orange invitation. Orange invitation. Orange invitation, Pam's mom. I mean, you know I've had some frustrations with Pam's mom. What is happening? Add that to the list. Why are you getting married? Orange.

I know. Orange. I mean, crazy. Pam, you know, her wedding color is lavender, by the way. It's not orange. I wrote that in my diary. That's not even revealed in this episode. Pam's wedding color.

I wrote it down in my journal. And I was curious if that was true or if it was a character choice. And I went and I looked at the wedding photos and all my bridesmaids are in lavender. Yeah, no. That, yeah. And when I think about it, I think I have a memory of Phil Shea giving me something that had lavender on it,

like the Save the Date card had a little lavender ribbon or something. And so it was picked for me, I didn't pick it. But it was in your brain. It was in my brain. Well, you know, poor Jim overhears this and he's like, that's it. I'm out. He's calling a travel agent.

I'm going on a trip. This sort of dates our show a little bit too because I know travel agents are still out there, but a lot of people now just go online. Yeah. Although I did use a travel agent recently for a trip and it was very helpful. I did too.

I did too when I went to Europe, but I did, you know, we did a lot of it just online. Yeah. Yeah. You can't, well, now you can compare airline prices online using Expedia or Orbit. Not getting paid to say that. Not getting paid. So now we're going to really clock into this thermostat war. It seems to mainly be between Angela and Oscar.

Oscar says that he purposely gets to work early to set the thermostat at 66 degrees. What a sneaky sneak. 66. 66. I just need everyone to clock a little bit of my Angela Martin look, because this is the first time you see me kind of nice and close up. Do I look tan?

Because I'm tan. Are you still tan? I'm still tan. This mystic tan that lasted like three weeks. You guys, I'm so tan in this episode. Also, Kim Ferry outdid herself with this really intricate braid. That's all my actual hair.

Look at the back, it's like a bun, but it's like a braid that goes like zigzags back and forth. So she's really, she really went for it. In the cold open, I have a different outfit on, different hair. Different look. Different look, different day. Different day. But in the main episode of Dwight's speech,

I'm incredibly tan and I have this fantastic Kim Ferry braid. Well, we had a fan question from David Hurtweck. What was the actual temperature in the office area when we were filming? Freezing. Probably like. 65. I was going to say 64, 65 degrees.

Yeah. It was very, very cold. We kept it very, very cold, mostly for Steve, who runs hot, and he would have to wear the suits. And I mean, all the guys actually were always in suits. And the lights do warm up the stage, but they cranked the air down so the guys wouldn't get sweaty in their suits.

But the gals were in these little silk blouses and skirts and we all froze. Yeah. So I would wear Ugg boots under my desk. We all had little heaters. I sometimes even had a blanket over my legs. I had a blanket and a heater and I would like sit at my desk, like huddled under my desk trying to stay warm. All right. So now we move into the conference room and Michael is ready to start giving Dwight

some speech training. Yes. He says, what is the difference between a salesman and a saleswoman? Vagina. Vagina. And Michael is like, oh, yes, congratulations, Dwight. That's the difference between a man and a woman. I love Dwight goes, but I'm right. Yeah, but I'm right. Right. But then Michael says, no, the difference is boobs. That's what he wants him to open his speech with. It makes you wonder how Michael's speech went those two years in a row.

How it really went. How it really went. Yeah. Because Dwight says, can I just have a copy of your speech? And Michael's like, no, no, they'd remember. It's legendary. I couldn't possibly let you read parts of my speech. It killed.

It killed. And then Michael gives Dwight some advice. He's like, it doesn't really matter what you say as long as people care about what you're saying. And he's going to show him an example of that. Yes, please tell us the example. OK, well he runs out to the bullpen and he says that they had done so well this quarter

that corporate is going to give everyone a $1,000 bonus. Everyone. Everyone. I mean, people are thrilled. It's so excited. Stanley gets right on the phone and tells his wife to order the new curtains. The wallpaper.

Oh, it's wallpaper. Yes. He's like, go ahead, wallpaper the new curtains. The wallpaper. Oh, it's wallpaper. Yes. Yeah. He's like, go ahead, wallpaper the ceiling if you want to. Oh, amazing. So they go back into the conference room and Dwight's like, oh my God, that's amazing. And Michael's like, what? It's not true.

I was just talking. But in that moment, I had him. I had him. I had him. Oh my God. So Dwight tries it. Dwight goes out into the bullpen. This is so funny.

This scene made me laugh so hard. So hard. It made me laugh on the day. I remember shooting this. The thing that made me laugh on the day is Kelly's line, but I'll get to that. Yeah. You mean just Mindy. Mindy.

We still have full Mindy. Mindy. We still have full Mindy. Dwight announces that there has been a major car accident on the interstate, major. Car slid off the road into the railing. People were injured. Terrible. And Pam says, did we know anyone in the accident? And he says, Brad Pitt.

Brad Pitt. And Mindy asks, did he die? And he's like, he'll never act again. No, but he'll never act again. And then he goes, Oh, also, there's no bonuses. And the branch is closing. And then she's like, this is because of Jen Aniston. It's karma. And we're like, wait, and we're like, are we out of jobs? Like, what is happening? Insane. I remember that. I remember shooting on that day. That was a really hard one to get through,

and it was a complete joy to watch. All right, so Michael says, everybody go in the conference room. Just go in the conference room. He's going to teach everyone how to give a speech. Pam says, Pam has a sign, like Toastmasters. And Michael says, Pam, I'm public speaking. Stop public interrupting me.

I don't think that's a GIF, but it should be. I did a search to see if there is a GIF of someone of Michael saying, I'm public speaking. Stop public interrupting me. Am I wrong? Am I wrong? There's also a deleted scene.

Please, you guys, if you have a chance. Phyllis stands up in the conference room and sort of shares and it is absolutely amazing. What does she share? I remember she had a hard time getting through it. What is it? Because we were cracking up. She starts, it's she, you know, Michael wants everyone to get up and sort of say a toast. Yeah. Phyllis gets up and she's like, well, you know, I'm having one of the best years of my life. I'm in a relationship, I've met a nice person and I really thought that that part of my life was over

for me, that that wasn't gonna happen. And I'm not gonna lie, I've had some really dark thoughts. And she goes down this road and Michael's like, and really, really just brings the room totally down, but really earnest and Michael's like, Oh, okay. All right. Just sit down. Well, Jim gets up in the conference room and announces he's going on a trip and he would like some suggestions on where to go. So Kevin suggests he go to hedonism. He says it's like Club Med, but everything is naked. I did not Google that. I didn't want to know. Did you?

I did. Oh my God. I did. You did? I did. Is it a real thing? It is a real resort in Jamaica. And everyone's naked?

is a real resort in Jamaica. And everyone's naked? Yep. Well, OK. Their website describes it as, quote, a lifestyle-friendly clothing-optional resort. Also described as the sexiest place on Earth where you can be as mild or wild as you like. What does that mean?

OK, so here's the deal. I really looked into it. So there are clothing optional sections of the resort and then there are nude sections. So like you could be going down the buffet. That you cannot do. Like getting your pancakes, scrambled eggs. No, for health reasons you must wear a cover up in the lobby and around food. Well thank you for that. But if you're in the nude pool or the nude beach, you have to be nude. But if you're in the clothing optional part, you can wear sort of the suggestion is like, you know, go sexy.

You wear a little something. But here was one thing I found interesting. If you enter a nude area, you've got a 10-minute grace period to disrobe. And they're like... Then you got to get out. You're not here to look-see-look-see. That's right. We're going to give you 10 minutes to take off your stuff, but there's more. You thought there wasn't, but there is. No, I actually figured you had something else coming. I'm cringing. I'm waiting.

They have a playroom. Oh god. For couples, single women and invited single men. Oh lord. It's open from 10 30 p.m. to 3 a.m. You go wrestle with your friends. I don't know. Most people who stay at the resorts are couples, but they do have single person rates available. A few more facts. There is no tipping allowed. Who are you tipping? Your wait staff, but it's all inclusive. Oh, okay. So I mean, I think that that is an important thing to know

because where would you put the money? Oh. You're naked. You're naked. So don't let it stress you out. There's no tipping allowed. Yeah. Don't worry about where you're carrying the extra cash. Yeah.

Not a problem. One of the frequently asked questions is, are there irons and ironing boards? For what? I don't know, but the answer is yes. So yes, they do have irons and ironing boards. So also you can renew your vows there. Okay. All right. Toby suggests that Jim go to Amsterdam. He says he went there after his divorce for a week or maybe a month. He can't remember. Toby. Creed says he should go to Hong Kong.

Creed also calls John Jimmy, and I feel like you can see John about to break. He's like, Jimmy. And I swear John has this like, he's kind of got this side smile. Well, at nine minutes, 29 seconds, Creed has a talking head. For anyone wondering, Creed is speaking Mandarin. Yeah. And he says, Hello, my Chinese friends. That's what he's saying in Mandarin. I reached out to Creed. Yeah. Because we had a fan question from KKPL Watson. He said, at various times Creed has spoken Japanese and Chinese on the show. Does he really speak either? So I texted Creed. Oh, I can't wait. What was his response? Here's what he said. Did he say, who are you? No. But again, I wasn't sure.

He said, when I was in Germany in 1964, I conversed in a rudimentary fashion because I'd studied a year in college. But he said he hasn't used it since. He says he does not speak Japanese or Mandarin or Cantonese, which is actually the language they speak in Hong Kong, mostly, not Mandarin. But he said, I do have a made up language that I've been trying to get accepted. That I believe.

But he's been meeting resistance and he used it during his stint as manager for that week at Dunder Mifflin. Oh my God. This is Creed, guys. That's Creed. This is Creed. This is Creed. Are you crushing your bills?

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Visit rbc.com slash ion cards. All right, at 9 minutes 57 seconds, my character smiles. This doesn't happen very often. And Jenna, I did one of our little dorky actuary things where I gave myself a backstory. For this little smile? For this little moment. So it wasn't scripted, but in the conference room, Dwight is going to now do his speech for us. He has his note cards, right?

And I just sort of gave myself this backstory that he had probably practiced this in front of me, that we had worked on it together. And so I just really beam as he gets up there and I look around to make sure, is everyone watching? Cause I'm really proud of him. So I just had this little thing I gave myself, I didn't tell anyone, but Randall and Matt,

our camera operators, they caught it and it made it in. And they would often do that. Randall and Matt would sort of catch these little moments that we did in the background that weren't part of the script and they were so great about sort of finding those moments and making sure that everyone saw them. I just like that all of us all the time, we were so invested in our characters

and how our character would react to a moment or to a story that even if we hadn't been directed or didn't think the camera was on us, we would stay in our characters and react in the moment. Yeah. And that's an example of one of those that made it in. Yeah. And I remember Matt saying,

Ang, I see what you're doing. Oh. I'm gonna clock it. I caught it. That was always so fun when they would notice our little choices. Yeah. Aw, I love that. Yeah.

Well, then we go to Jim and Dwight's desks, Angela, and Dwight is talking all about the, he's gonna go to New Zealand. I don't know, he tells Jim he should go to New Zealand and walk the Lord of the Rings trail. Okay, I did not understand any of that. Did you understand that? Of course I did.

So Jim- You knew what all that stuff meant? I knew what all of it meant, Jenna. But Jim is like, Dwight, where would you, if you could go anywhere, and Dwight was like, I can go anywhere and I will. But one of the places he would like to go is New Zealand because he wants to walk the Lord of the Rings trail

to Modor. I don't know what that is. Is that a place? Modor. Modor is a castle? It's a place. Is it a castle or is it like something hidden under a rock in the ground?

It's a place. Is it a village? Modor is where Sauron rock in the ground? It's a place. Is it a village? Mordor is where Sauron is. Yeah. So where, sorry, what is? Sauron? Sauron. The Eye of Sauron.

Is that a thing or a person? I don't know how to describe it. It's pure evil. How can you not describe it? How do you describe the Eye of Sauron? It's like, it's like a, it's like a, like an evil spirit. But it's not a person. Sam, how do I explain Eye of Sauron?

I think it was a person. It was a person. And he's gaining his power back. If he gets the ring, then he can be a person again. Then he can be fully complete, and he will reign pure hell all over the land. So your difficulty in explaining it to me is why I don't like to watch it.

Well, I'm not because it's like, I don't know convoluted. I'm not as versed in Lord of the Rings. Okay. So that but I do know that the trail to Modor and why would you want to go there? Why are people trying to go to Modor or not trying to go? You don't want to go there. So why does there's like lava fields and all this kind of craziness. And then hike Mount Doom.

I think Dwight is like a huge Lord of the Rings fan. He basically wants to be one of the Lord of the Rings. He wants to be on this journey and adventure. Let me ask you this. But it's filmed in New Zealand and it's gorgeous. So I would love to go. Are they the Lords of the Rings because it's their job to keep the rings from the eye of Swarzen? Oh, good God.

Or because they want to get the ring to him, so he turns into a regular person again. No. First of all, are you trying to say it wrong? No, I don't. Swarzen? Swarzen? Swarden.

Swarzen. Swarzen. This is like Carl all over again. Okay, moving on. Moving on. 11 minutes, three seconds. Jim does a prank on Dwight. Yeah.

Without Pam. Yeah. This is one of the first in a while. Normally they do pranks together. This is a good point. They're in cahoots. This is a Jim solo prank. He's like had it with Dwight sort of shoving this

in his face that he's like gonna be like the salesman of the year and Jim decides, you know what? I'll give you advice. I was a speech major in college, which is totally not true. Not true. Not true. And he's like, you've got to wave your arms and pound your fist. And he gives them, you've got to wave your arms and pound

your fist. And he gives them a copy of Mussolini's speech. Yes. He says, here are some things that might help you in your speech. I'm going to help you out. I found on Reddit, there's an office fan on Reddit, and the person's sign is the underscore fungible

underscore man. OK. And he said, he looked it up, and it's paraphrased and the person's sign is the underscore fungible underscore man. Okay. And he said, he looked it up and it's paraphrased from a speech Mussolini gave in Parma on December 13th, 1914, advocating for Italy to enter into World War One against Germany. Wow. Blood alone moves the wheels of history. Now I think there are some other famous dictators quotes peppered in as well. It is.

It's like the hodgepodge a little bit. Mostly Mussolini, I believe. Yeah. Well, when Dwight leaves with Michael, Angela shouts, the very best of luck to you, Dwight. I know. Well at 12 minutes, when it pans back to Angela at accounting, Oscar has his coat over his shoulders like he's cold and Kevin is blowing on his hands. But remember, wasn't it Oscar who says he likes the cold?

It was. So why is he pretending to be cold now? I don't know because also Kevin has a talking head that says he goes and puts it to 69. Exactly. All right, so we move into the conference room and we have Pam, Kelly, and Ryan sitting, addressing Pam save the date cards. So here's what we find out. Her wedding is going to be June 10th.

We already knew that from the booze cruise and the reception is going to be at the VA Yeah, Pam says it's nicer than you think. Yeah, and we find out she is inviting Jim. Yeah You're all like what there is a great deleted scene and it is really the beginning of what I like to call Ryan sass That's gonna really kick into effect later in this episode. There's a deleted scene Where right before you go into the conference room to assemble your invites, you're at front reception. And Ryan comes in and you're like, oh, did you get my stamps? And he's like, yeah. And he hands them to you and you're like, I wanted the love stamps, you know, the love

stamps. Yeah. And he goes, yeah, I didn't, I don't know. I didn't find them. I just got you the regular ones. Yeah. And he goes, yeah, I didn't, I don't know. I didn't find them. I just got you the regular ones. And you're like, oh. And then he's like, does it matter? And you're like, yeah, it doesn't really matter.

And he goes, I didn't think so. Oh, Ryan Sass. I know. Wow. All right, so next Dwight and Michael arrive at the convention center. You guys, it's huge. It's insane.

It's full of people. It's an enormous convention room. Way bigger than Michael remembers. Right, and what is playing as they walk through? It's... Y'all ready for this? Yeah, play it, play it. Play it, Sam.

Y'all ready for this? Okay. We're also watching the music video. We're watching the music video. It's a lot of keyboard. It's by 2 Unlimited. That's the band. And I have to say, that song kind of pumps you up.

Super catchy. They play it at a lot of sporting events. They do. Or Salesman of the Year. In Scranton, Pennsylvania. In Scranton. That's right. So, I mean, Dwight kind of starts panicking.

He is. He's having a minor panic. He's having a minor panic. He's having a minor panic attack. And Angela back in the office is pretending to be sick. I know. She's coughing and sniffling. All of a sudden, she says she's feeling under the weather. She needs to go home.

Yeah. And by the way, still very tan in this shot. Not pale. Not pale at all. So they call Dwight's name and he chokes. He chokes. He's choking. He can't go up. So Michael runs up on stage and we'll bleep this out. This is what I wrote in my note. He shits the bed. Yeah. He really does. So during all of this, of course, I'm trying to look for the dummies that Kent told me about. I'm like, where are the dummies?

I did not notice any dummies. However, at 14 minutes, 19 seconds, there is a shot of the audience and it is, I don't know how to describe it, it's like flipped. It's like it's a mirror image. If you look at the name tags, in every other shot, they are on the right side of everyone's shirts. But in this shot, they're suddenly on the left side and the names are written backwards. What is happening? What is happening?

What? We also had a fan question. Two people asked this. Luke Maslow and Scoot Venenmeyer both asked how much of Michael's speech was improvised. I believe he did improvise quite a bit. However, I have a very strong memory. You know that part when he does Michael Winslow and he does all the different sounds? This is a car starting. Yeah.

Michael Winslow was this famous actor from the Police Academy movies who could do all of these truly incredible sound effects that sounded super real. And so Michael's trying to do his best Michael Winslow impression. I remember from the table read that that killed. So I feel like that was at least in that was scripted. Were you there for when Steve was doing his portion at all, Angela? Like, do you have a memory?

I was waiting to go on. Okay. So I was there. In some takes, they just had me there just in case. And I remember that the audience, the extras, the 400 extras kept getting tickled at Steve. And they had to tell them, you can't laugh. You can't laugh.

You can't react, really. You have to hate this speech. You have to hate it. It has to be crickets. So I do remember that. Oh, that's very interesting. Well, finally Dwight runs up on stage, right? Yeah, he gets his courage.

He gets out his speech. He starts pounding his fists. And we had a few fan questions. Mary Kay Jones and Sarah Hyland asked, how many times did it take for Rain to get through that speech? So I asked Rain, and he said he thinks he did it about four or five times. Kent told me that on the first take, the background went absolutely wild. Yeah.

Like hooting and hollering and it was like... The extras guys, the 400 people sitting there. Yes. And that they... Kent said it was kind of phenomenal. Like it was this amazing moment. But the problem was that Greg and Charles McDougall really wanted a buildup of the crowd reaction.

They did. That the crowd was kind of too instantly with Dwight. They wanted it for the audience to be unsure whether Dwight was gonna be a hit or not. Yes. How is everyone taking this in? So Kent said the first take was pretty unusable. Rain said that he remembers at one point he went off script and he improvised,

but then he was directed not to do that again, that they really wanted him to stick to the script. And we had a fan question from Kayla Ardent, did Reign actually have the speech written on that paper? And Reign said yes. He said he did because he thought his character would. Angela, we've talked about that you were there and here's why because you're taping the speech in the background. I'm filming it for him. With your little hat on. I'm filming it. So, so Dwight's speech starts to catch on and Michael can't take it.

Yeah. Michael's like, oh my God, they like him. He clearly can't handle Dwight having a moment of success. He leaves and as he leaves, he walks past my character kind of hidden in the crowd filming Dwight and I'm wearing a hat. So you know how there was a big conversation about your hair and Valentine's? Yeah. Well, Wardrobe and I had a huge conversation about this hat because

it was very camera specific. I had to look like I was being incognito, but you had to be able to see my face. So was it written in the script that you're wearing a hat and then Wardrobe had to come up with hat choices? Yes. So we had about, I don't know, five or six hat choices that I had to try on and they took pictures of me in the hat and they showed them to, you know, everybody involved. And then, and then also like on the day I had that hat and I think one other hat and that one showed my face better.

Okay. So they went with that one. It didn't have too big of a rim. So that's the hat that we went with. I love that little touch that she's gone to record her fellow's speech. Me too. She's so proud of them.

You know, they're sort of meant to be the kind of funny relationship, but they have a really good relationship. They're supportive of one another. They clearly care about one another. It's moments like this that make it so that it's not just a joke. It's not just a joke relationship. These are the moments that ground it and make it real. Listen, Dwight and Angela make perfect sense to me.

Yes. They really do. Just like Jim and Pam made sense to me when I read that relationship. And obviously they're going to go through some hills and valleys, but they are meant to be together. I like how Jim's advice ends up being kind of helpful. Well, Jim actually says something to Dwight. He's like, just stay true to yourself.

Yeah. And that's actually really good advice. This is who you are. Yeah. You're an authoritarian. Yeah. This is how you're going to be most authentic. Yeah.

And he kills it. He kills it. We have to go back to the office because there's some Ryan sass happening. Oh, yeah, back in the conference room. Back in the conference room, they're doing Pam's wedding invites. And Kelly says she wants a June wedding and she asked Ryan, would he like a June wedding?

And he's like, yeah, I'm never getting married, not really doing it. And she leaves the room and then Pam is like, you know she likes you. You could be a little bit more sensitive. And he looks at you and he's like, I know what I said. I know. Sass. I know. He and he's like, I know what I said. I know. SAS.

I know. He's like, no, I know what I did. Ryan SAS. Yeah, Ryan SAS. This is also when Oscar tells Jim that his time share in Key West might be available. But then Ryan says, I don't think Jim will ever really take a trip.

Wait. But then Ryan says, I don't think Jim will ever really take a trip. Wait, this is my third Ryan Sass card. At 17 minutes, 34 seconds, he says, you really think you're going to go? Send me a postcard. What is happening? I don't know. Ryan is being such a, you know what? He really is. A lot of fans wrote in and asked if Jim ever takes the trip.

Now Paul Lieberstein, who wrote this episode, he did an interview once where he said, yeah, I think Jim did eventually take that trip, but he moved the trip. So he, well, I guess we'll get to that later. I sort of felt like he never took the trip because he just ends up transferring jobs. Yeah. And that's how he gets away. Yeah. But I think he never took the trip.

I think Ryan's right. I don't think he ever goes. No, I don't think so either. I guess he lost all that money. For the plane ticket. Yeah. All right. So back at the convention, you know, Dwight's speech, we said it's really

starting to kill and Michael leaves. He goes to the bar. Yeah, he can't take it. He can't take that Dwight is doing so well. I bet probably people never reacted like that to Michael's speech. Like people were not like hooting and hollering. No. Yeah. So Michael, he's sitting at the bar, eventually Dwight comes out and he finds him and he starts telling him a story about some woman who sat there who didn't have her ID. But Dwight's so into it. Dwight immediately clicks into Michael's story. Yeah.

And Michael has this quote where he says, listen, I captivated the guy who captivated a thousand guys. So like, who's the winner today? Who's the winner? Okay, so, Anne, I had a fan question from Madeline Ethington. Okay. This, I've never loved mail more than this mail. Okay, Madeline, wow. Madeline wrote and said, I have been waiting for this episode to ask this question.

What is it, Madeline? At 20 minutes and 25 seconds, when Michael and Dwight are sitting at the bar, you can see a man in the background dressed like a wizard. Why is he there? Why? Was it planned? Was it an accident?

And then she just wrote again, who is that wizard? I know the answer to this. I do too. But I didn't know. I went, I was like, this is the strangest question. I went to 20 minutes, 25 seconds, and I laughed out loud. Can we see it? Full head to toe wizard.

Well. I took a picture. You have to show me. I know why, but I know why because I watched the deleted scenes. Oh, I know why because I asked Kent Subornak and Paul Lieberstein, why is there a man dressed as a wizard in the background? Okay.

So you tell me what you found out and I'll tell you what I found out. And here he is, Angela. Yeah. He's got a name tag on. Okay. Well, obviously I don't know Kent and Paul's answer, I found out. Here he is, Angela. He's got a name tag on. OK. Well, obviously, I don't know Kent and Paul's answer, but I watched the deleted scenes.

And there is an extended scene of them walking through the hotel where the convention centers are. And they go up to the very first one they see, and they walk in, and it's the wrong one. And it's just some random convention. and then they go into a second room and it's like all of these cosplay people who are dressed like characters from things. Oh. And Dwight's like oh I wish I wanted to go to this it has like a whole name damn it I'm forgetting the name but Dwight was like I would I would have gone. And then he's like, I really hope

I see the gal from Battlestar Galactica. Oh my god. She's so hot. OK, this must have been improvised because Kent told me that their location agreement with the Sheridan allowed them to shoot basically anywhere on the property, but the only room they were allowed to shut down and control was that ballroom. Yeah.

And otherwise, they just had those signs up that said, if you walk in this area, you might be filmed for a TV show. And by walking in this area, you give permission to be on the TV show. I don't know if you guys outside of LA, you see these signs a lot around town. Like you go to a restaurant and there's like a sign and you're like, oh, they're filming on the street and I'm going to be in the background getting my coffee, I guess. So they had these signs up and he said that they just had to allow public access while they were rolling and there was an anime expo in one of the other ballrooms. Yes.

With people dressed up. So I guess, I guess then Rain and Steve improvised this whole thing that it was like a cosplay convention. They must have. And Rain was really, really bummed, well, Dwight was really bummed because he had wanted to go to it. And supposedly there was a Battlestar Galactica cast member

that was gonna be there and he was like really excited. Oh my gosh. Well, both Kent and Paul said a version of the same thing, which was they really tried to avoid getting the dressed up people in the shots, but this one wizard managed to get on camera. And maybe they had to film that little improv to justify it if they,

like too many of them showed up at one time. Yeah, that's amazing. The hotel in the show is supposedly the Radisson at Lackawanna Station Hotel. OK. I have stayed there. Oh. We stayed there for the convention.

There was an office convention in 2007, and that's where the whole cast stayed. And it's a lovely hotel. It used to be a train station. Yeah. And like 1908, it was a train station. And they have fixed it up and made it into this hotel and it's really nice.

So if you're in Scranton, I recommend the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel. Well, when the finale happened, a bunch of us went to Scranton for a big parade and we stayed there as well. So I've also stayed there and I concur. It's a great hotel. Great hotel, super charming.

Super charming. So now Dwight and Michael are sort of having this great moment at the bar. They're laughing and it's all wrapping up. But guess who's the last person to touch the thermostat back in the office? Who? Creed.

Why did I miss that? Creed goes over there and adjusts the thermostat. He's the last one. I missed that. Creed goes over there and adjusts the thermostat. He's the last one. I missed that. Well, at the very end of this episode, Jim is passing by Pam's desk and Pam says, oh, I've always wanted to go to Australia. And he says, well, I'm going.

I bought a non-refundable ticket. And this is when he tells us he bought his ticket for June 8th. Oh, the look on Pam's face. Her wedding is June 10th. I mean, this is so telling. I mean, Pam, if Pam had any doubts at all that this was hard on him, she can't deny it anymore.

Yeah, he's leaving. He has basically said to her, I'm sorry, but I cannot be there when you marry someone else. I can't be there. In fact, I have to be on basically the farthest spot on the earth from your wedding. Yeah.

I'm going to go halfway around the world. Yeah. To get away from your wedding. I mean, I just, it just gutted me. And I just, I just wanted to shake Pam and be like, if you don't know now, then you'll never know! He loves you! But I think it's more than that.

I think what's happening is Jim is saying, I'm not sure how to even be your friend now that you're getting married. Like, I know we're best friends at the office, but I'm not going to come to your wedding. And when you're married, I'm not going to hang with you. I think what he's finally admitting is they're not best friends. Yeah, they can't. How can they be? They've crossed this line.

They've had that moment on Booze Cruise. They've had these moments now, and the line has been crossed. Yeah. And now they're in this uncharted territory of, what do we do now? What's next week's episode? Take Your Daughter to Work Day, I think. Yeah.

Oh, boy. This is when you guys, I was wrong. OK, I used the shredder. Oh, okay. All right. So I'll get the time code for that so I can really lay into myself. Yeah, Take Your Daughter to Work Day

is coming up next week. All right, you guys, that was Dwight's speech. Thanks so much for tuning in. Bye. Bye, see you next week. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies' Second Drink. This episode was initially created in collaboration with Earwulf. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins and our audio engineer

and associate producer is Daniella Silva. Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Weis-Berman and Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies is mixedber Tree by Creed Bratton.