Office Ladies - The Job Part 2

Episode Date: November 18, 2020

This week we finish breaking down The Job. We start off on the streets of New York with Jim and Karen and get some great background catches, and Angela does a fun deep dive on the "bar that used to be a Church" mentioned by Jim. Then, we discuss the very funny scene's back in Scranton where Pam accepts Dwight's offer to be the Secret Assistant to the Regional Manager and we get the introduction of the Schrute Bucks. Finally, we chat about those hilarious scenes with Jan leaving corporate, that iconic moment when Jim interrupts Pam's talking head, and Jenna reveals there was an alternate ending of this episode. Thank you for finishing season three with us, you served the podcast with great dignity.

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. Hello and welcome back to Office Ladies. This week we are breaking down the job part two. It's the season three finale second half written by Paul Lieberstein and Mike Shore, directed by Ken Quapas. Last week, we interviewed Paul Lieberstein, aka Toby, about this episode. It was great. So fun. So fun to talk to him. Well, this week we're going to break down the second half. And I've got a summary to catch

us up. Well, Jenna, you know, I can't wait to hear it. So I know. Now, do you really like my summaries, Angela? Or is this? I actually really do. Now, that probably sounded like I was being some BFF sass to you. But I actually really do because you're so good at summarizing them. I think you might have missed your calling as like someone who writes the caption for movies, you know, like the little slogan comes up on your TV guide. Yes. Yes. I think you could have been that person, except for look who's talking. That made me laugh out loud. I know, I got you. Okay, so give us a summary.

All right. Last week, we discussed how Michael got back together with Jan after she revealed her breast enhancement. He named Dwight as his successor to Dunder Mifflin, because he was so sure he was going to get this job at corporate. But I have just pause one second here. Is that even Michael's decision to make? We did not talk about this. I mean, if Michael gets the job at corporate, is he allowed to just say who gets the manager job at Dunder Mifflin Scranton? No, no, absolutely not. I'm sure that's like a corporate decision, where they like have an overview of all and you know, all the employees, I'm sure Michael gets to put in his recommendation as someone that worked in that branch. But ultimately, that would be David Wallace's

decision. Thank you. I feel like we failed to discuss that last week and I needed to bring it up. Well, I got you. Done and done. All right. So also last week, Dwight interviewed Andy to be his number two and Jim and Karen left for New York. Mm hmm. This week, Ham is going to become Dwight's secret assistant to the regional manager. We will see Michael, Jim and Karen all interview for the position at corporate, and we will ultimately find out who gets the job.

Yes, there's some relationship stuff thrown in there, too. But you know, there's a little bit isn't there a relationship stuff. All right. Fast fact number one, fan question from Maddie Jensen. I noticed that Ken Quapas directed the finale for season three, along with the finale of season two. Both episodes are crucial to the Jim Pam plotline of the show. Was this an intentional decision to have the same director in charge of these important episodes? Or was it just a happy accident? Well, this was very intentional. I'm so glad you said that because I was sitting here and I wasn't sure I was I was like,

what is she going to say? And I was like, I hope it was thought out because Ken was so caring about the different dynamics and relationships on the show. He had been with us since the pilot. We had such a trust for his vision. And if you were about to say, it was just a scheduling thing, I was going to be like, no. No, I traded some emails with Kent Zabornak, and he told me that he and Greg always wanted Ken Quapas to direct milestone episodes. So season openers, season closers, or any episodes with big story movement, especially if they involve Jim and Pam, he wasn't always available. But that was the intention. And if you look back, and you'll see that oftentimes it was

Ken Quapas, Greg Daniels, Paul Feig or Paul Lieberstein, who would direct these big milestone episodes, which makes sense because those guys were kind of the original team of visionaries for the show. And they were with us since the first season. Yeah. So they knew every character's journey. And I think that was super important. That was sometimes a learning curve for new directors. If they hadn't seen every single episode, they would come in and maybe not understand why a character was making a certain choice. And I remember the cast would sometimes just bring them up to speed. Oh, I did. I remember I was in the scene. I forget who the director was, but they were like, so let's

have Angela over there like cutting the meat or something. It was like a party episode. And I was like, oh, she wouldn't touch that meat. She's vegetarian. She wouldn't. She wouldn't go near it. Yes. And they're like, oh, okay, I guess I'll put you over there by the bag of chips. I'm like, yes, that's better. Exactly. So this created a really nice sense of consistency for those big episodes to bring people back who knew us all so well. All right. Fast fact. Number two, this is a fan question from Beatrix Smith, Brooke B, Amelia C, Erica P, and Supa Nanduri. Did the conversation at the beach between Jim and Pam that we see throughout this episode? Did it have to be recreated like the kiss on Casino Night? Or was it a

deleted scene that was added later without audio? What's the story? Well, guys, this was a new scene. But we knew about it when we were shooting beach games. So we shot this during the beach games shoot. We did not have to go back to the dam. Oh, yeah, we couldn't get that location again. So they shot it while we were there. And Jenna, I remember that they brought Ken Quapas to direct that. So and that was actually very common. That wasn't like anything weird to Harold Ramis. That was really common on a show if you had a crossboard moment where you had a scene that was in another episode, the director of that episode would come and direct that to sort of complete their story. So Ken came back and Jenna, I read

that this was supposed to be in the beginning of the show, like the cold open. Yes, just like that jump from Casino Night to Gay Witch Hunt, we were going to originally open this episode. The cold open was going to be watching this scene between Jim and Pam on the beach. I'm so glad it wasn't that way. I think it creates so much more tension. Yeah. To leave it until later as a flashback. And you know, Jenna, it really did add to the tension because now we know as the audience that they had had this moment. And so when Pam is saying goodbye and good luck and all of that, it's layered with this moment that they shared at Beach Games. And I love that our show did this. Our show didn't always just spoon feed

the audience. It just had them like sort of pick up in the middle. And I just loved it. Me too. Me too. It was during the editing process that they decided to take it out of the cold open and put it later. Dave Rogers said in the DVD commentary that it was Mike Scher's idea to make it a flashback later in the episode. I love that. I know. He's so smart. He's such a smarty. Fast fact number three, Angela, I'm staying consistent today. It is a fan question from Faye B, Kayla Moffitt, Tiffany L, Breanna K, and Rowena C. Did John and Rashida actually film in New York and how much of the crew was with them? Yeah, guys. Yeah. They went to New York for one day of filming. We were so envious whenever anyone

got to go anywhere because we, we never got to go on big trips, but this was a skeleton crew. And they went to New York. Yeah, we actually wrapped filming in Los Angeles on March 28th, 2007. They did not go to New York to pick up the Jim and Karen scenes until April 19th of 2007. So we had been wrapped for the season for a little while. Wow, I didn't know that. That was from Kentopedia. Of course, he's going to give us those details. He's Kentopedia. Well, the people who went were Greg, Paul, Mike, Sher, Kent, Randall, RDP, our camera assistant, Chris Workman, and our sound mixer, Ben. Now, they talked about this a little bit on the DVD commentary about how they had to sort of do that gorilla

shooting, you know, like they were sort of sneaking around filming in little spots where they could. And John jokingly called Greg, covert Greg, because like Greg, Greg would have a note, but he wouldn't want to talk directly to him. So he'd be like, like he would act like he was passing by, or he would send Kent Sabornak with his kid. Kent's kid was with them. And they would walk across the street and nonchalantly kind of tell John a note. And then so it looked like they were just people, pedestrians in Manhattan. Amazing. Because they, I guess they didn't want people to notice that they were filming because all those people became background people. They didn't want to draw attention to John and

Rashida, I guess. They had seen what happened when people like realized Steve was being filmed, right? Yeah. Well, they had a tight day. Kent told me they filmed in nine different locations around New York City, all in that one day. And they hired a local crew to fill out the production for hair, makeup, wardrobe grips, electric drivers, craft service and set production assistance. They had to come up with a little mini New York crew. But that's how we did it. I love it. I love it. Here's one other little piece of trivia. Rashida and John said that

they wore their own clothes for all the scenes in New York City. That makes sense to me. Yeah. I also thought they looked really cute. And I was like, oh, I like Rashida has great taste and John is cute. They look like normal people, not like, you know, the Dundramiflin folks. Here's some tidbits. Ready? Okay. Kinsey tidbits. Kinsey tidbit from the DVD commentary. John said that there was like this kind of drunk

guy while they were filming in the restaurant. And he kept coming up to them and he's in a white shirt. So if you see it in 1934, there's a guy standing there sort of next to John. And he was like, what are you guys doing? And John sort of was like trying to keep it like, you know, he didn't want to draw attention to it because they were filming from like across the street, you know? Yeah. Through the window. Yeah. So he was like, oh, you know, man, we're just doing a scene. He's like, oh, you're doing a scene. You're doing a scene. He was like, buddy, come on.

Oh my gosh. So they were, and he said that he like, this guy like heckled them through that whole moment. That is crazy. I know. Listen, lady, should we take a quick break? And then when we come back, we can start breaking down the job part two. Yeah, let's do it. All right, we'll be right back.

Okay, we are back. And Jim and Karen are arriving in New York. They're getting off the subway. And oh my God, Angela. What? Do you have a story about Astor Place? I do not. I want to know, did you see the lady with the baby stroller who gives major side eye to John and Rashida? No. Is she by as they come out of the subway station? As they come out of the subway station, there is a woman with a baby stroller. She is clearly

not with us. Yeah. She's just a lady walking her kid. Living her life. It's at 18 minutes, 29 seconds. I need to know who this woman is. I need to hear her story. I need to see her face. I need to see it. I took a picture.

Oh, good. Show me. Show me. We'll put it in our Insta stories, guys. Office ladies pod. Office ladies pod. Okay, lady. I found it. Here she is. She's so annoyed. I love her. She's so over it. She is so over it. Oh my gosh. So over it. Lady with stroller. Please contact us at office ladies pod. Lady with stroller. We're sorry.

Yes. Please email us at officeladiesatearwolf.com. What is she going to say? She's prominently featured in an episode of the office. Is she an office fan? What does she remember about that day? Did she recognize them? Because her response is like, who are these guys? Well, Jenna, she wasn't the only one who was ticked off that day because at 20 minutes, 34 seconds, there is a girl and clearly like a party dress and she's hailing a cab. She was not an extra. And I guess they had to make her stop hailing her cab because she

was so featured and sign a release and she was really annoyed because she like Mr. Cab or something. They talk about it on the DVD commentary. She was like, I just, you know, I'm sure she's like, I just want to go to my party. What are these forms? Maybe she's like me, Jenna, she doesn't like a lot of forms. Okay. Woman with baby stroller, woman hailing a cab, email us and party dress in a party dress. We want to hear from you. Okay. Before we move on, I have a little mini deep dive. Please. Okay. So Jenna, at 1943, Jim mentions that he went to a bar that used to be a church and I was like, I know exactly

what they're talking about. What? The limelight. Remember? I don't know the limelight. No, I don't know this place. It's on 6th Avenue. Okay. So when I was interning on Conan O'Brien, you guys, I was, you know, I was a bit of a sad sack. I never went out. New York was so expensive. I didn't know anyone. And a gal I worked with, Debbie Wunder, kind of took me under her wing and she was like,

Angela, you got to get out. I was like, wha. And she said, there's a great band we're going to go listen to tonight. Jen, I'm pretty sure I wore my gap denim dress on some kids because I knew what New York fashion looks like. Oh, yeah. We show up. By the way, I went with Debbie and her boyfriend, So High Third Wheel. We show up to where the band is playing and it is inside a Gothic cathedral that is a bar. And Debbie's like, this is a famous New York bar. And I'm like, lady, that's a church. I can't go inside it because I'll get in trouble with my mom. You can't have a bar in a church.

Yes you can. And this church has the most cool, amazing story. Okay. I'm going to walk you through it really quickly. So it was built in 1844. It was this Gothic revival church. Huge, beautiful structure. It looked like a medieval church, like from England, you know. And it has the main big church, right? I'm talking cathedral ceilings, the big stained glass. Oh, yeah. It's got a rectory. It's got a sister's house for the nuns. It's got a parish house, a chapel and a garden courtyard. This is huge. Wait, wait. Is this the one on 6th Avenue with the red door?

Yes. Yes. I do know what you're talking about. Okay. It's beautiful, right? It's beautiful. Okay. So I guess, you know, it was a very happening church for a long time. But then in the 60s, the neighborhood kind of took a turn. People started moving out to the suburbs. All of a sudden, this big, gothic structure, you know, it was hard to maintain the heating and the repairs and all of that. So they had to sort of repurpose it. At first, they made it into a cultural center and that sort of went on for a bit. That makes sense, right? Cultural center. Yeah. Yeah.

They couldn't keep up with the cost of running the place. So this famous sort of New York like bar owner bought it and people were furious. They were like, you cannot make this church a bar. You can't. Well, he did. And he like tricked it all out. Like he made the sister's house, I guess, into like the shampoo room, you know, like where you get shampoo room. I didn't know what it was either. But I guess that's like a party where you get sprayed with foam. I don't know. It sounds horrible. I know. I would get it in my eyes. How can you not? But he made it this big, big, like hipster bar scene. Andy Warhol opened it up

on the opening weekend. It was like this big place for music and events from the 80s through the 90s. Then in the 90s, I guess things took a turn. I think crime got bad again. And lady, this party promoter named Michael Alec murdered and dismembered this guy at the limelight. What? Yeah. He murdered a guy. And so then they're like, okay, they close it down. Then they try to like give it a new reopening. They call it the Avalon in 2003. That doesn't really work. People are like, done. They're like, you know, get your bar out of the church. We're done. 2007, it permanently closed its doors, which is interesting to me because

we filmed this in 2007. Wow. Yeah. Them mentioning that they went to this bar, if we had filmed the following year, they couldn't have done it. Yeah. I think the writers all knew about this bar, right? It was famous, a bar inside of a gothic church, right? All the writers knew about it, I think. But here's the interesting thing. Guess what it is today? Not a bar. You're not going to be able to guess. What is it?

Well, first of all, the people that bought it restored all of it. It really meant a lot to them to restore the integrity of the structure, the stained glass, but it is partly a gym called the Complete Body Limelight, so you can lift weights inside the church. And then the chapel is a modern dim sum restaurant called Julan Club. So you can go work out and then get some dim sum. Let's do it. Let's do it. I love that. I just found it fascinating because as soon as he said that, Jenna, what do I ever know about any bars or pop culture stuff? Never. Never.

Never. You know nothing about them. Not only did I know, but I had been there. That's pretty badass. I know. I went with Debbie and her boyfriend at the time who was a exterminator. Oh. Yeah. And Debbie, it's okay if I say this right. In the cab ride home, you and him started making out and I had to sit awkwardly looking out the window.

That sounds like they had a good time. They had a great time. Mom, I'm sorry I went to a bar that was inside a church. Mom, I'm sorry. Well, listen, Ange, also during this talking head, Jim says that they think they saw Lorne Michaels. Yeah. And we got a lot of fan questions about that from Angela A. Alley S. Kirsten O. Tyler N. Heather C. And many more all want to know is the man that walks behind Jim Lorne Michaels?

Was that a little cameo joke? No. No. It's not Lorne Michaels. I zoomed in. It's definitely, definitely not Lorne Michaels. I like to think that Jim is someone who thinks he recognizes famous people places, but they're just, just normal folks. I feel like, I feel like my sister Tina does that. You know, she'd be like, that's Angelina Jolie. I'm like, why would Angelina Jolie be in the mall in our hometown right now?

Yes, exactly. You know, another thing that happens here is that Karen kind of confronts Jim. Yeah. And she says, what is going to happen to our relationship if one of us gets this job? If I get this job, will you move to New York to be with me? And Jim is clearly uncomfortable. He's making jokes. He's trying to make jokes. Yeah. But Karen brings it around and she's like, actually I'm, I'm kind of serious. Like after what happened on the beach, do I have a future with you? Because I don't feel like I have a future in Scranton, but I'd like to have a future with you.

Well, she just says there's one too many people in Scranton. Yeah. You know, she was like, I was at the beach and I don't know. He just sort of jokes it off and then grabs her hand and they cross the street and I'm sure deep down she knows that, that he's on the fence. She's got to know it. She's trying to practice good self-care. She is trying to take care of herself here. She's being assertive, but then she's not really reading the signals, which I think are super clear. You don't ever read them when you don't want to see them though. That's true. Put that

on a t-shirt. All right. So now it's the next morning and it's interview time. Karen, Jim and Michael are waiting in the lobby. I should own the fact since I was snarky about the lobby, just having a bunch of brown sticks, that there is also a big plant on the other side of it, a big potted plant, everyone. Hey, a little bit of green in the corner. There you go. Well, that is nice. It is nice. And I'm sorry. I was so snarky about your big brown sticks. Well, back at Dunder Mifflin, Dwight has appointed Andy as his number two officially and Andy has accepted.

And Jenna, we do that really cool thing, except now it's Dwight where we start on him and we reveal Andy in the corner. Yes. You know that's my favorite thing. I know. I know. Andy has this talking head and it's at 21 minutes, 54 seconds. He's saying, you know, three months ago I was a Cornell grad in anger management, but look at me now and he's washing out, you know, Dwight's mug. Jenna, can you hear that sink? Yeah. I couldn't not laugh because you and I know it's a fake sink and it had that weird tinny

sound because the water was going underneath into a bucket. Yes. They had a little pump that would pump water through that faucet, but then it just came down the drain into a bucket. Yeah. There's no plumbing there. And then it would recycle. There's no plumbing. That's right. They would set it up and take it away. So something you could not do is improvise turning on the sink because nothing would come out or pour anything down the drain because it would just

hit the ground. Correct. Correct. Well, now we have the scene where Dwight pulls Pam aside. He explains he's very impressed by her co-walk and he would like her to be his secret assistant to the regional manager and she accepts everything about the scene was delightful. I loved every single thing about it. I loved Dwight's bravado and Pam's just like, uh-huh, uh-huh, like what an idiot, but I'm going to go along with it. Well, I think this is her way of staying connected to Jim. He's all the way in New York,

but she has this talking head where she says she learned from Jim, if Dwight ever asks you to accept something in secret, you reply, absolutely I do. So I think throughout this whole episode when Pam is doing this little bit with Dwight, she is imagining how she's going to get to tell Jim all about it. Oh, for sure. For sure. Well, here's Dwight's team as he sees it. Dwight is the regional manager. Dwight is also the assistant regional manager. Andy is his number two because it's political. Pam is the secret assistant to their regional manager. And guess what? In a deleted scene, we find out that Angela is the spy in charge of the secret assistant

to the regional manager. Oh, and what does that mean? Well, as soon as Pam says, yeah, absolutely I do and agrees to be the secret assistant to the regional manager, she leaves. And when she does, the scene plays out. Dwight calls Angela and says, keep an eye on Pam. And Angela's like, done. And then immediately, my little head pops over the partition between accounting and reception. And I just start spying on you. Oh, that's amazing. I'm watching you. I'm watching you. Oh, I wish they'd left that in. I know. It's a fun detail, right? I love that detail. Well, now, lady, we go back to

corporate and Michael's interview has begun. Andy Buckley is so fantastic in this scene. I mean, Steve is always fantastic. But to watch Steve as Michael because Michael's so ridiculous, play off someone who's so believably a corporate person. It just was so fun to watch. So my favorite part of this scene with David and Michael is when he asks Michael where he sees room for improvement. And Michael's suggestion is that they rename the company altogether. Here, do you know his three names, right? His three suggestions?

I wrote them down. Yeah. Here are the names. Paper great. Great papers are passion. We're great. Super duper paper or just super duper. Yeah. Any of those. Any of those could work. Well, we had a fan question from Rebecca W. She said, were the suggestions Michael gave for a change of name of the company improvised? I checked the script. They were all in there with the exception of super duper paper and super duper. Those were. But there was also way more to this interview scene. And I have to ask you, Angela, are they in the deleted scenes because they were so funny?

There are so many deleted scenes for this particular episode. And this scene has several and they are hilarious. One of my favorite ones is that David says, what do you see in the future? But he's meaning about the company. Where do you see the future going here? And Michael goes, he goes on about all this stuff. He goes on about how many kids he's going to have and all this stuff. But then he says, also, I think there could be one vitamin that you take for all of these other vitamins, but it's just one. I don't know. And David Wallace goes, you mean a multivitamin? And Michael's like, I don't know what they're going to call it. I don't know. It is so funny, but they're great deleted scenes for this

episode. That multivitamin thing was in the script and it made me laugh out loud when I read it. It is hilarious. He's like, I don't know what they're going to call it, but that's the idea. And David Wallace's look to him is just like, okay. And he's like, thanks for coming in, Michael. So, you know, Michael feels like he's had a pretty great interview. He's on his way out and he says, oh, you should know that Jan and I are dating again. So I'm going to need to fill out one of those love documents. And David Wallace is like, well, you should know that this job you're interviewing for

is to replace Jan. And all I could think of was like, no, you can't tell Michael this kind of information. There is no way this man can hold on to that. You know what it made me think of Angela is when he says I need to sign another one of those love documents, I was like, it reminded me in dinner party when Michael explains he's had a vasectomy but then had it reversed and then had a vasectomy and reversed. I was like, how many of these documents have they been signing? It's like, we're on, we're off, we're on, we're off. And I wonder also if they had dramatic ripping in half of the document.

Yes. I have so many questions about the love document, but I agree with you. This news to Michael that the job he's applying for is Jan's job and she doesn't know yet that she's going to be let go. This is a secret that you should not allow Michael to hold. You can't tell Michael any secret. You couldn't say, hey, don't tell anyone, but I have toe fungus. Forget it. The next thing out of his mouth would be, I'm so sorry you have toe fungus in front of everyone. Yes.

Yes. I don't have toe fungus. I was just trying to think of something. I have fungus on my toenails. I know, but you treated it and it's all better. It came back. It did. Yeah. You know, if you wear nail polish long enough and your toenails don't get a good amount

of oxygen, you can get, you know, by the way, everyone, toe fungus is just like on your toenail. It's just like a little white spot. Yeah. That's what those white spots are, everyone. If you're like, what are these white spots on my toenails when I take off my nail polish? That's toe fungus, y'all. And you can get a special like oil and polish to put on there to get rid of it if you care. Well, my mom always would say, everyone's will just take your toenail polish off and let your toenails breathe.

It's good advice. It's not pretty. You're going to have a week of like funky looking yellow toes. Sorry. All right. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Where are we? Well, we need to go back to Dunder Mithlin because Dwight would like everyone to gather in the conference room. He needs to discuss and introduce the Shrewtbuck reward system. That was so funny to me. You know what I loved about this? First of all, at 25 minutes, three seconds, Angela's so proud. She's so proud. She has this look.

Yes. Dwight is calling his first conference room meeting. She is, can't believe it. But I love how he leads everyone in. He's like, no more meetings, right? Michael had all these useless meetings. Instead, we're going to have lectures. Yes. And Pam, Pam can't wait. She's like, what is he going to do? I can't wait. I can't wait to see what's about to happen. Well, we get in there and we start getting our first lecture. And it is about the origin of papermaking. Yeah. He starts with a bunch of Tupperware tins full of soil, different types of soil.

And he asked the question, what would you say is the most important element in the production of above ground leafy growth? You probably think it's phosphorus. And then Angela secretly shakes her head. No, I improvise that. And our camera operator caught it and was like, Oh, that's so good. Ken loved it. And he told me to keep doing it. Like I loved it. Like I obviously knew this speech that Dwight had practiced it for me. I used to love having those moments.

I'm sure he practiced it for you. And he's killing it. According to you, you're like, he's killing it, crushing it. By the way, the answer is nitrogen per Dwight. Lady, I had to know. Did you look it up? Did you look up phosphorus? You know that website Quora? Yeah, it's where you you post a question about something and then experts on that subject weigh in. Did you post the question? I didn't post the question. I got real excited.

But years ago, someone posted that exact question. The wording was exact. Exactly what Dwight says. There was an office fan years ago that was like, Wait, is this true? So it's really amazing, the back and forth from all the people who are not realizing that this is a direct quote from an office episode. It is just soil scientists weighing in. There's charts. There's pages and pages of these scientists debating what is the most important element in the production of above ground leafy growth. And the consensus is nitrogen.

How nitrogen way to go Dwight way to go. Jenna, do you remember filming the scene because I remember the smell? Can we talk about it for a second? We can. There was an earthy smell. Now, you know, this room had no real windows. So it's like sitting in a box. Now, it didn't didn't have a full ceiling, but we were sort of trapped in there with smells. Oh, yeah.

And there was a real dirt smell. And then it's in the deleted scenes. You guys don't get to see it. But Dwight actually starts by dumping a whole bunch of trash on the table. I remember that. To talk to everyone about recycling. So we had some earthy trashy smells going. Yeah, it was intense. We also have the great moment, which is one of my favorite moments where Stanley does not want to participate. He won a Shrewt book, but he doesn't want it. No, he doesn't want it. He does not want to participate in any of this. And Dwight is

like, you don't want your Shrewt book. And he's like, no. And then he offers him like a thousand Stanley Nichols to leave him alone. A billion, a billion Stanley Nichols. If you never speak to me again. Yes, thank you. It's brilliant. And Dwight's response is he would like to know the conversion rate between Stanley Nichols and Shrewt books. And it's the same as leprechauns to unicorns.

Yeah. And then, Jenna, you must have had so much fun because then everyone starts to be like, I'm out of here. I don't want to do this. And Pam is like, hey, pay attention. Lady, when I heard that delivery, now this was before I had children. But when I heard my voice, I was like, oh my gosh, that's the voice when I have to lay down the law with the kids. When I'm like, listen to me, I've asked three times to brush our teeth. It's time to brush teeth now. Hustle, go to the bathroom. I was like, oh my gosh, that is my mom voice.

That's my mom voice. My mom getting line voice. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. For sure. I was shocked. You had it in you all along. I did. It was meant to be.

Well, there's a nice little moment that I think Phyllis just improvised. And we often did things like this in the background. We just sort of made up our own story if we didn't have dialogue of how we would react to these moments. And she's sleeping. I know. 27 minutes, 29 seconds. I thought that was an amazing choice. Yeah. An amazing choice.

Well, listen, lady, we're about to go back to corporate. We're going to see Karen interview with David, but I think we should take a break. I think we should take a break and come back because Karen is crushing her interview. We need to get to it. She's doing really well. Yeah. All right, we'll be right back. Okay, we are back from break. Karen is being interviewed before we get into that. Jenna,

I had to look up the limelight one more time because I was pretty sure. And in fact, this is correct. There is a documentary about the history of the limelight, this huge part of New York's culture. I'm sorry to go on and on about it, but I think I want to watch this documentary. Number one, I will be watching that documentary tonight. Number two, you do not need to apologize for your interest in the limelight or for the interesting facts that you shared with us because lady, I want to say something. We got this really nice letter from a fan. And in it, she said, I just need to tell you that you guys do not need to apologize for

going off subject. You guys always apologize for it. And I love it. It's a great part of the podcast. And you know what, lady? It got me thinking. That is a thing. Hold on. Soapbox coming out. That is a very common thing that women do. Women apologize all the time for things they don't need to apologize about. And I think we do not need to apologize for our deep dives. We do not need to apologize for the things that interest us or for our banter that comes to us in the moment while making this podcast. I don't apologize. I like how by the end of that speech, you had like an affected way of talking. You're like, I don't apologize. I don't apologize for that either. Well, you know, that has been something

I've sort of struggled with, I guess my whole life. I don't know. I think I used to say I'm sorry about everything. I don't know. Like I would say I'm sorry about the most ridiculous things. Like my chair would squeak. I'd be like, Oh, I'm sorry. Or I'd reach for a glass of water at the same time someone else would. I'd be like, Oh, I'm sorry. And um, yes, or like how many times have you been walking down the street and someone bumps into you and you say, Oh, sorry. What? I'm sorry for taking up the space. My body requires to walk down the street. You walked into me. Why am I apologizing? It's a thing that women do. We do. I mean, it's not just women, but there's this. I just I noticed it when we

got that nice letter. I thought, This is the coaching I needed. This is good. Well, I appreciate that letter. I think, I think I probably had read a comment that probably wasn't healthy where this guy said we talked about appetizers for eight minutes. Anyone to drive his car into a pole. And I was like, Oh, no, but you know what, you know what I want to say to that man? Listen, mister, I'm sorry. Sometimes we're going to talk about appetizers and we're going to talk about bars that used to be in a church and pockets and Clementine Paddleford. And you know what? I really want to encourage you to do with love. Hit fast forward. Angela, you are right. You don't have to listen to anything you don't want to, but we also

get to talk about what we want. Right? Yeah. Without apology. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. And good day to you. And now Karen is crushing her interview. 28 minutes, 58 seconds. I thought she was going to get the job. Well, she should get the job. I mean, really, it was between her and Jim. I think it was theirs to lose. And David Wallace clearly has like a man crush on Jim. Well, we noticed this back when David threw his party and he wanted to go shoot hoops with Jim. I mean, I'm I don't want to get my soapbox out again so soon. But this happens in the male corporate culture. There's all these ways and activities that men have to bond between men. And it's been difficult for women to, you know, get in there. They've

got their golfing and they're shooting of the hoops. And, you know, yeah. Well, while this is going on, these interviews, I just said I was sorry to get out my soapbox. Oh my God, I did it again. I just apologized. I can't stop it. We can't stop it. We will stop. We'll try. We'll try. Okay. So listen, while Karen is interviewing, Michael goes to Jan's office. Nope. Nope. He should have just kept on walking. He immediately tells her that she's going to be fired. She's being replaced. So of course, Jan storms in to Karen's interview and starts yelling at him. She says, Hey, you son of a bitch. Like just right away. And David is so calm. We talked about this last week with Paul, where Paul really admired

David for being so pointed and calm during this moment. And he says, Jan, this is long overdue. Long overdue. You've shown no interest in your job lately. We can never get a hold of you. Very erratic behavior. Like, like your head's not here. You're not here. He calls her unstable. Yeah. And then Michael's like, you're unstable. And then David's like, I'm, I'm sorry. What? And Michael's like, never mind. We're all unstable. What's happening? Michael also insists he didn't tell her. Yeah. It wasn't me. While hiding behind the partition. I didn't say anything. Well, Jan asks if this is because of her new boobs. Because Michael loves them. And she doesn't care. Yeah. He loves them. That's all that

matters to her. Well, then she's being escorted out of the office. She's got a bunch of stuff. She hugs Hunter. Her whole scene with Hunter is brilliant. She's like, good luck with the band. Don't let them change you here. It's so good. Well, she drops a bunch of her stuff on the ground and Hunter and Michael are trying to help her pick it up. And lady, did you know that was not supposed to happen? I did know that. I did know that because they talked about it in the DVD commentary. Malora said she had this box full of like, what was Jan's belongings, right? And it was sort of a awkward, different shaped items and a few things spilled out. And Ken did not yell cut. He just let the scene play out. And Michael and Hunter,

everyone just stayed in the moment. They're trying to help her put things back. And Malora said they actually had a hard time getting everything to fit back in. And that's why that played out so long. But everyone's reactions are perfect. David's like, what's happening? And then you have Jim and Karen. That was all unscripted. I love stuff like that. I love that. And you know, it reminds me, Angela, when I've had to do scenes where I have to carry a lot of stuff. A lot of times they'll give you like a suitcase that's empty, or they'll give you a bag and it doesn't really have much in it. And I had to shoot this scene where I was coming through the door and I had all this junk. And I said, will you make

it real? Because I think that if I'm really struggling with it, if I'm not pretending to struggle with it, it'll just be better. And I swear every time I would do the scene, some other insane thing would happen. And it was so much better than if I was faking it. And so because these are the moments, right? This was a real life moment and everyone enrolled with it. And it was so funny. It's so funny. But you're right. Those real moments that the camera captures when we're playing make believe. I always think about that famous scene on Friends where they're trying to get that sofa up the stairwell. And Ross is yelling pivot, pivot. And they're all holding the sofa. Like these are these moments I love

because it's like real life. But Milora did say one thing. She said, if you notice, if you watch the scene, the whole time we're picking up items and putting them back in the box, you do not see my face because I bent over as far as I could. So my hair would hide my face because I am laughing so hard. I love that. I'm going to go back and look at that. Yeah. Well, Michael then tells David, hey, just let me know about the job. Let me know when you know. David is like, you're not getting the job. Yeah. And so then, of course, Michael is like, I withdraw myself from consideration.

Do you accept my withdrawal? David's like, yeah. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. And then Michael's like, but do I get to keep my job at Scranton? And David's like, yes. And he goes, good, because that's all I ever really wanted. Well, speaking of Scranton, Michael's going to be in for a surprise because Andy and Dwight are painting Dwight's new office, Michael's old office, soon to be office again, black. They're painting all the walls black. Well, Michael's going to be really surprised because he also in a deleted scene told Dwight, don't do anything to my office for one month out of sort of like mourning, like don't touch anything for one month to honor my absence. And Dwight immediately starts painting it

black. We had a lot of questions about how we did this. They did not paint the real walls. They brought in other fake walls that were black. Yeah. So we did not paint the walls that were Michael's office. They made dummy walls. And then they could take them down. Yes. And the walls were right behind. Yes, very easily. But they were really painting. Yeah. And they had different panels of these fake walls that they would paint throughout this scene. But yeah, it was very easy to reset it back to the original Michael's office. Well, Jenna, back in New York, one of the things we didn't talk about was Jim and Karen's reaction to

Jan's big meltdown. I mean, Karen's like, wow, that was really self-destructive. And Jim is like, I kind of feel bad for her. Yeah. Karen does not feel bad for her. Yeah. Karen's like, I don't know. I think she's not having any sympathy for Jim. No. Karen is done. She is done with these folks. Well, speaking of done, Jim still has to go into his interview. And I thought this was interesting. Jim was like, hey, you know, if you want to take off, I can just, you know, meet you later. And Karen kind of jumps on it. She's like, yeah, actually, I wanted to meet some friends downtown for lunch. Do you mind? Bye.

Now I didn't, I didn't see that as like weird. But that seemed like what, you know, if she's just sitting in a lobby, just waiting for him and she does have friends who are eating, like, couldn't she go meet them? And then he come after? I don't know. I'm just imagining, like, if Lee and I had gone to New York and we were both going for an important meeting in the same building and my meeting was first and he had to wait for me, I would just be like, I'll wait for you so that I'm the first face you see after your meeting. And you can tell me all about it. That's so sweet. That's so sweet. That's so sweet. That's so sweet. Clearly, I'm like,

okay, meet me for lunch. I'll be having my moussins. Bye. Good luck, babe. See you on the bed. I don't know. I just sort of like, if I don't have anywhere that I have to be. Now listen, I do get it. She's in New York for a brief period of time. Maybe this is her only chance to see these friends. That's what I thought. I thought, you know, she had friends there if she never gets to see and they're like, when you're done with your interview, meet us for lunch. And she's like, Oh my God, yeah. But now, now Jan has had this whole meltdown and maybe things,

the timing of the interview has got pushed back a little and she's going to miss lunch. And I, Maybe. I don't know. But I mean, think about that. I'm like thinking forward. Like, so now when Jim gets out of this big interview, he's not going to have Karen alone. He has to walk into a restaurant with her and all her friends. And how'd your interview go? Good. We can't talk about it right now, though.

I don't know. This is a big deal. It's a big interview. I think there's, there's room for like intimate support. I don't know. Well, they're clearly not meant to be together. Well, I don't know. I think Pam would have waited. I think Pam would have waited too. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. And I think Jenna Fisher would have waited. I would have waited too.

Angela's on the fence. Angela's on the fence. It depends on the restaurant and how bad you want the job. Well, listen, now we cut to the car ride back to Scranton with Jan and Michael. And lady, this reminded me of Jan's car moment in cocktails. She falls apart in a car ride, guys. What is it about car rides and Jan? They're, you know what? Is it because the cameras are tiny and Jan forgets that she's on camera and she, this is like her confessional is

the car? Best stuff comes from Jan in a car. I think it's a couples thing. I really do. Cause I think you hold it together while you're at the party or the school assembly or the soccer match or shopping at IKEA, wherever you are and something goes down. You hold it in and then you get in the car and then you either let each other have it or you start laughing or one of you cries. Like that's the moment where you're like, oh my God. You are right.

We used to. Yes. I had a group of friends when I was like starting out here in comedy and like if we were out somewhere and we saw a couple kind of have a little tiff moment, like at a bar or something, we'd all whisper car ride home, car ride home. Like it is not going to go well. Well I love it. I can't get enough of Jan in the car. I can't get enough. She starts crying. She's like, it's these painkillers. They gave me after my boob job and then she's like, oh wait, this could work. Like her emotions are

going up and down. She's like, I could wear stretch pants and wait for you to come home at five 15. Yes. She invites herself to move in with Michael. Yeah. And Michael is like, what? Oh, well he, come on. He walked himself into that. He's like, I guess you could move in with me and my condo. I guess I could get it back. I'd probably get a negative review on my eBay account. But it's like at the beginning of this episode, he asks all of the ladies to help him not get

back together with Jan and it ends with them moving in together. Yeah. And she doesn't have a job and she's spiraling. That's a lot. Well, Michael comes back into the office. He announces he has withdrawn his name from contention. He notices that his office is now painted black. I liked this bit. He tells Ryan to go get him a coffee and Ryan said he doesn't do that stuff anymore. And he says, no, it's for me. Bimbo. Kids.

Yeah. I know. Oh, Ryan is about to have his moment. And this is when Pam asks, did Karen get the job? Hmm. Yeah. I don't know. Someone's real curious. Michael has a whole speech here that is sort of heartbreaking.

He says, yeah, so I'm going nowhere, never going to leave. This place is going to be the hospital where I was born, my house, my old age home, my graveyard for my bones and the camera pans across everyone's faces. Like, this isn't good news for anybody. Yeah, it's true. And then Dwight's back at his desk. This is a sweet moment. I love these sweet moments between Pam and Dwight where he thanks Pam for serving with great dignity and she salutes him and he salutes her back. Yeah. It's kind of their version of the air high five.

Well, you know, Dwight goes on to say eventually that Pam is his best friend. Yeah. You know, it's so sweet. Well, this is something that probably most people didn't catch, but at 35 minutes, 34 seconds in the background and accounting, Brian is Kevin sort of improvises this moment when Michael's saying that he's back and he's like doing all that weird stuff. He's like, I'm back. Right.

Yes. Yes. It's good. I'm back. Anyway, Kevin sort of leans over to Angela and Brian improvised this. He was like, so wait, I need to get the job and I just shake my head. No. And you can't hear what he's saying. I just remembered these little moments like that. And we just were having our own scene back there.

I love those. We're always acting. You never know what the camera is getting. You never know. Well now we go to Jim's interview. He's a shoe in. David Wallace is like falling all over him. Yeah. I mean, David Wallace should have started the interview by saying you're hired. David Wallace should have started the interview by saying, will you be my best friend? It's so true. Everybody wants Jim to be their best friend.

He's a very likable guy. He's a good best friend. Yeah. He's a great guy. Yeah. So David's asking him a few questions and he says, what is your favorite thing? What do you like most about the Scranton office? And it's right at this moment that Jim opens up his little folder and there is like a note of encouragement from Pam along with a little

yogurt lid that she has saved since office Olympics. You know what that note says to me? What? I would have waited for you until after your interview. I wouldn't have gone and met my friends for a boozy lunch somewhere. Exactly. Thank you. Angela, thank you. You matter and what happens to you matters to me.

Yeah. And Jim looks at that and he says his favorite thing about the Scranton office were the friendships. And that's when David asks him, where do you see yourself in 10 years? Well, Jim is rattled now. He had all these answers ready to go. I'm sure he had prepared for this interview, but now Pam is there with him. Yeah. And we flash back to the beach. And we hear Jim tells Pam why he left Scranton. He acknowledges he's never really come back. And then Pam, talk about some PAM sass. I thought this was super ballsy. She's like,

well, I wish you would. Yeah. Well, now we sort of hear Jim's interview. We hear like he's distracted. He's making jokes. We cut to a PAM talking head where she explains she hasn't really heard anything. Jim probably got the job. You know, there's no reason for him not to get the job. And she's she's really like, you can see her trying to process it and stay really positive. She's all day. She's been trying to stay really positive about this and convincing herself that her and Jim are friends. This is in the past. The beach was just closure. That was

closure. And, you know, she says, we just never got the timing right. And that's okay. And then Jim walks in the room. I mean, she's so surprised to see him. Yeah. He interrupts the talking head and asks her if she wants to have dinner. She says, yeah. And then he's like, it's a date. Jenna, many, many people have talked about how great you are in that moment. And you are, you are, you are so good in that moment. So many emotions go across your face and your eyes tear up. Ken Quapas said you made him cry. Well, here's the thing. I owe that moment to Ken Quapas. And I'll tell you why. A lot of people wrote in and wanted to know what was going through my head during that scene

when Jim finally asked him out. It's, it's crazy because Ken Quapas, he was a type of father figure to us, right? Angela, when he was on the podcast, he explained that his technique is to love people into their best work. He's just a very gentle, kind soul. He's so, so kind. I'm going to cry just thinking about it. I think, and I don't know, but I think we got that on the first take. I think what you are watching is the first take because we had kind of planned it out with the camera when it was going to swish over and when it was going to come back to me. So in that moment, when the camera swishes back to me, I was

actually looking at Ken Quapas and he had tears in his eyes and that made me tear up. And we just shared this moment, this, this private moment of acknowledgement for this journey of this character and he smiled at me in a way that a parent smiles at you when they're proud of you. Listen, if Ken Quapas looked at me with tears in his eyes smiling, I would disintegrate because he's just, it's like your dad looking at you like that. Yes. Yes. Like you did it, kiddo. You did it. Yes. Yes. And I don't even know if that performance could have been there with any other director. Oh, I don't think so. I mean, that was a moment between Ken and I. That was about so much about my

personal Jenna journey with Ken Quapas on this show. From the very first day. Yeah. Well, it was a beautiful, beautiful moment. And I have one question for you and all the fans out there. What? Did Jim freaking leave Karen in New York? They rode together. He drove back alone. What the F? Well, I'll tell you. So first of all, there were actually two versions in the script for the ending of this episode. There was this version with Jim interrupting my talking head. And then there was a second version, which we shot. And in the script, it says shoot both versions. It's not in the deleted scenes. What is it? Okay, it's not in the deleted scenes, but we shot it. So in the second version, you

hear voiceover of Jim throwing his interview with David, but it's even more. It's like he's really cracking jokes. He's not taking it seriously at all to the point that David actually says, do you even want this job? Oh, that would have made me uncomfortable. Yeah, it really tips it a little bit more than what you see. Meanwhile, while all that's happening, you see Pam leaving for the day. She doesn't do a talking head. She's just leaving for the day. She gets in the elevator. She goes down the elevator. And then when the elevator doors open, Jim is standing there. And she says, you're back. And he says, yeah, do you want to go to dinner? And Pam says, yeah, I do. And she walks out of the elevator

and Jim pushes the camera back into the elevator. And as the doors are closing, they walk off together and he puts his arm around her and they smile at each other. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't like it. I don't like it. I like the way it is. Well, I touched base with Dave Rogers, who said that that scene exists, that alternate. He's like, I have that in an archive. He's like, I think we should throw that up sometime. You could see it if you want. But he also said that it was never ever part of the cut of the show. They always had the one in that you see now. And then they would play the alternate for people. Everyone voted for what you see. But they also shot in New York, an

ending where you see Karen crying because Jim broke up with her. And I'm sure Dave Rogers has that. I picture Dave Rogers having this hard drive and a vault and it's like Mission Impossible. It's like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. With all these codes and traps, because he's holding on to some serious office footage. Well, listen, now we find out who does get the job. We know it's not Jim. We know it's not Michael. We're assuming it's Karen. But guess what? Someone else interviewed and they had an MBA.

Yes, an unknown MBA. Masters of Business Administration, is that right? Don't know. Not sure. Masters of Business, something with an A. Guys, it's Ryan. Ryan the temp will not be getting your coffee anymore. He's going to corporate.

Well we talked about this last week with Paul because a lot of people wanted to know why does Ryan get the job? And you know lady, Dave Rogers told me they did shoot an alternate scene where Karen gets the job. Where she's crying in New York and then the phone rings and they offer her the job. So I just think it's a very, very interesting how they left options on the table for this big finale. I think maybe in some cases they were still debating who gets the job, how do Jim and

Pam get together? Well yeah, it seems like they wanted to give themselves some choices but we also know what was going on at this time which is that Rashida booked her role on Parks and Rec. And she was going to be starting that job so A, they needed you know, finally Jim and Pam to be together without any kind of distraction and also Rashida just got a great new job. Yeah, so she can't be Michael's boss at corporate. No. She's going to be over at Parks and Rec and I think there were a lot of story endings

that had wrap ups that didn't make it to air because it was such a big episode. One of them I loved was there's a scene where Jan is moving in. It's moving in day, there's a moving truck, there's like guys and she's barking orders at them in front of the condo and Michael's just watching it all in horror. He's like, oh crap, what have I done? And it's such a good scene. Oh my gosh. They had to rent that location and shoot that scene and then it didn't even make it in the

episode. Yeah, I know, I know but boy is it going to set up some good stuff like dinner party. Oh yes, dinner party. I am so excited for that episode. I'm so excited for season four. I just watched the dinner party bloopers and it got me so excited because we laughed our butts off. Oh I can't wait to talk about it.

Well guys, this rounds out season three and we will see you soon with season four, empat. That's four in Indonesian, katra. That's four in French. Do you want me to say four in Spanish? Sure. Quatro. Empat, quatro, katra. Did I say it right in French?

You did. That's four in Roman numerals. See you in season empat. Bye guys. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Irwin, Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher. Our sound engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubakow.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad-free versions of Office Ladies, go to StitcherPremium.com. For a free one month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code, OFFICE.