Office Ladies - The Paper Ep 5: Scam Alert!

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

This week on Office Ladies 6.0 Jenna and Angela break down the fifth episode of The Paper, “Scam Alert!” When a catfish starts targeting people on a dating app, the Truthteller team scrambles to uncover the story, while Esmeralda is convinced she’s found true love. The ladies spot some great background details, dig into the amazing Josh Holloway cameos, and share some real-life catfish stories of their own. Plus, they debut their brand new “Around the Town” segment (inspired by Angela’s grandmother’s newspaper column!) and answer a fan chit chat question. So grab a cup of tea (even if you only drink coffee) and enjoy!  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question for Around the Town, Chit Chat and The Paper: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Follow Us on YouTube Follow Us on TikTok 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

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 Lovers podcast just for you. Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews behind the scenes details and lots of BFF stories. We're the Office Lady 6.0. Hello. Hi.

How's it going? It's going so good. It is? Yeah. Same. It's just a beautiful day. I'm sitting across from my friend. And my frowned.

Oh, that's how I would talk to my kitty cat. I know, you're saying my frowned. And also, we're doing something that's kind of touching my heart this morning. I'm so excited. We're finally doing it. Okay, so here's what's happening. We are going to break down the paper scam alert, episode five. But first, you guys, we're going to kick things off with and around the town.

Woo-hoo! This is the segment we've been wanting to do. You guys remember in our breakdown of episode two of the paper, I shared about my grand Mother Lena's hometown newspaper column. She would document little slice of life moments happening in my hometown of Archer City, Texas. And we just loved this idea. I loved it so much. So we decided to make it part of our show. And we asked you all to send in your Around the Town tidbits and moments. And we're going to start sharing them in these episodes as we continue to break down the paper. Yeah. And since this is the first one, we thought we'd kick off the episode with it.

All right, here we go, office ladies reporting for Around the Town. This one is from Kathleen in Newton, Kansas, and Kathleen put her around the town in the newsy jargon. Oh, I love it. Like the way your grandma wrote them. Here is what she said. Miss Kathleen Bergman and her mother, Mrs. Robert Bergman, started the new year with a visit to the Van Gogh experience in Wichita, followed by Lunch at the Dairy Queen. Lunch at the DQ? I love lunch at the DQ.

You too. Are you kidding? Not dinner. Lunch. There's something about eating it at lunch. Well, why is that? Why is it better? It's so great.

I don't know. I love their, any of their baskets. You know, their chicken finger basket and the gravy with the French fries and the toast. Oh. I know. All right. Well, next up, this is from Trista Inn in Alberta, Canada. She says, I live in a small town in Alberta, Canada, called

Moranville. We used to have this beautiful Catholic church that was built in 1907, but unfortunately, it burned down in 2021. Before it was burnt down, the church bells used to ring all the time, and it was just such a cozy feeling. It took some time to rebuild it, and the church bells finally rang once again after almost five years yesterday. It was such a great feeling to hear them ring again. Wow. Isn't that so special? Yeah. I mean, that's That's meaningful. Yeah. That they rebuilt them and to hear them ring.

Throughout the town. It just feels like such a, I don't know, very poetic, symbolic of, you know, rebuilding. Rebuilding. Yeah. All right. Elizabeth P. from Bellingham, Washington said, so we have a lot of large, tall trees along the freeway up here. Someone put a giant sloth way up in one of the trees.

And you could see it from the freeway as you. drive north? Well, the Washington State Department of Transportation took it down. But that did not dissuade the good people of Bellingham from bringing the sloth spirit back. After several back and forths of the sloth going up and WSDOT taking it down, the mystery sloth person somehow managed to get the sloth to new heights so that it could not be brought down. So slothy has been up there ever since and has a spotlight lit up on him somehow at night for all to easily see him from the freeway. Slothy lives on. That is so amazing to me. It's kind of great that I guess the Washington State Department of Transportation was like, well, it's high enough up now. It's safe. They love it.

Clearly, it has its own spotlight. We're leaving it. I guess so. I want to drive by it. Well, thank you guys all so much for writing in your around the towns. We'll keep sharing. sharing these as the weeks go by. Yeah, you can find the folder to share on officeladys.com around the town. I feel like my grandmother would be so proud. Well, now it is time for our chit-chat question of the week, and it's coming from Amy H in Santa Clarita, California. I might have had a hand in selecting this one. You did. Hi, I've been a faithful listener since day one and absolutely loved the show. I used to be up in the middle of the night pumping for my baby girl, and I would listen to the office ladies or rewatch an episode of the office. It honestly brought me so much joy during postpartum and through

COVID. So thank you so much for that. Jenna and Sam, you've mentioned that you both lift weights. What do your workouts usually look like? Thanks again for all your laughs and heart you've put into the show. You all feel like friends at this point. Oh, Amy, Amy, Amy, Amy. I love to talk about weightlifting. You do. You get real sort of, I don't know, like that perky face. Percy face. Percy face. I would love to give an update on my weightlifting. I've been weightlifting for over a year now, and I am so passionate about it. I weightlift with Body Fit by Amy. You're inspiring me that 2026 is going to be the year I waitlift because of you. Really? Yes. I'm so excited. You leave me such great messages about it, and it makes you feel so

empowered. I'm like, I want to get on this train. Listen, after breaking my shoulder and all that cancer treatment, I am stronger physically than I've ever been in my life. Because I used to work out, but my workouts were always, I mean, if I'm being honest, they were all geared toward burning calories, losing weight, maintaining weight. But the weightlifting is about something else. It's about being physically strong and capable in my body. And for me, it's also about, you know, making me have less side effects from my medications because it's been proven that that really helps. And I'm like, I can't say enough great things about it. I love it. And I want to say I have been lifting weights for over a year with no change on the number to the scale. This is really about

strength. This is really about like being capable. Yeah. But I have lost an inch and a half in my waist. Hey. Yeah. So it's like things. are like reforming. Mm-hmm. You're like a transformer. A little bit. A little bit. Disguise.

Sam, what about you? Are you? You're still weightlifting, right? Yeah, still weightlifting, yeah. So I've been doing CrossFit is what I've been doing. And it's super easy to make fun of, and you should because people that do CrossFit are crazy. But it's really, really cool. What's CrossFit?

Sam, can I say that I used to meet a group of friends for brunch and we'd be having like the biggest pancakes and bacon and mimosas and the cross-fit group in the valley would go running past us, like holding like tires and shit. Yeah, so it's super brutal. It's one of those like, how do I describe it? It's definitely geared towards single guys in their 40s. But it's like a lot of cardio and weightlifting together. So it's like sets of things.

You'll do five sets of running a mile and then 100 burpees and then 50 sit-ups. You'll do that five times. Oh, my God. What? Yeah. That's intense. I once did a burpee challenge where you're supposed to do one burpee each day, but then you increase by one for 30 days. So you start with one. Who challenged you to do this? The internet. Oh, Lord. Social media. Oh, my gosh. And by the end of the challenge, you know, by the end of the month, you're doing 30. I feel like I've told this story before. I threw my back out on day three. Did three burpees and I was done. That was it for me. Oh, my God. But I wonder, could I do? I'm afraid to try. Don't mess with it.

Just keep lifting my heavy dumbbells, kettlebells and things. I told Josh, I was like, Jenna's really inspired me to weightlift. And he was like, son of a bitch, I've been telling you how healthy it is and how good it is for you. He's very physically fit. And he has a very structured weightlifting thing that he does. He does legs. It's leg day. He does arm day.

He does this every day, no matter where we are. Well, here's the thing with weightlifting, too. Does Josh eat like a ton of protein, Sam? Are you like, like I can't with the protein? I don't even understand. He does. All I eat is chicken breasts, broccoli and brown rice. Yeah.

It's disgusting. Josh eats so much protein. And sometimes I'm like, I need a break. Give me some shrimp. Does shrimp have protein? Yeah. But you know what I mean? I need a break from the chicken.

Yeah. The chicken, the chicken. Yeah. I found these protein. shakes. They're mega protein. I think they have like 32 grams per shake or something. How do they taste? I like them. They were very low rated on a shake tasting article I read. Sure. But there are complaints about the shake were all the things I liked about it. They're like, it's a little thin and watery. And I'm like, easy to drink. I like it. I don't want like a super thick dairy shake. This is a

non-dairy plant-based protein. They said it tastes a little chalky. It's a little chalky. It's doesn't bother me. Okay, we'll have to share it. You want some of my watery chalky shake? No, I don't. But someone listening might, Amy might like to know about it. Yes, Angela, will you put my shake in stories? Your watery chalky shake? Yes, I love personally. I like both the vanilla and the chocolate. And speaking of people named Amy, I want to give a plug to my trainer, Amy, who I now work out with in person, but for like four years, I just did her videos on YouTube until I was hiking one day. And she was like, Jenna, I'm Amy.

I'm body fit by Amy. You post my videos on your Instagram. And I was like, what? You live here? She's like, yeah, I live here. She's like, do you want to come work out with me sometime? I know this story, but I love it every time you tell it because it was so meant to be. It was so meant to be.

And I love her. And she's just so like, I mean, half of our training sessions are just her, like, deprogramming my negative brain thoughts about your body. Yes. Yeah. You know, like she's like part therapist and her whole Instagram and all of her YouTube videos, they have that same energy. I adore her. Well, I'll share her account as well. And I don't weight lift, but I do run my ass off every week because I play a lot of tennis. Yeah. And I do squats. So one of the ways I warm up is I will do squats like the length of one side of the court. Yeah. And then we just run.

We just run a lot because we're really aggressive. That's where your legs are so nice. Thanks, lady. Angela has great legs. Oh, thank you. She always has. Oh, thanks. Thank you, tennis.

Well, look at that. I just want to note that I've made it into stories twice, and we haven't even taken our first break yet. My shake and body fit by Amy. Jen, I want you to know forever that we podcast. You can be in stories anytime you want. Well, I'm trying, in the new year, I'm trying to contribute more to our stories. All right.

It's a little goal of mine. All right. All right. We'll take a break and we'll be back. We're breaking down season one, episode five, scam alert of the paper. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. You know, just because it's a new year, that does not mean you have to be a new you. But maybe you want to be a less burdened you, a clearer you.

Not a totally new you, but maybe like you just want to hone in. You want to refine. Yeah. I like that. Refine. Well, therapy can help more easily identify what is weighing you down, what might be holding you back. You can better understand your relationships, your motivations, your emotions. I'm trying to let go of just sort of stressing about the small things. Mm-hmm. Because those really just add up. Mm-hmm.

And they're going to be just fine. Well, and you might need help identifying what are. small things, what are big things. BetterHelp therapists can help. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10% off at betterhelp.com slash office ladies. That's better, H-E-L-P.com slash office ladies. I'm Emigreed, host of Aspire with Emigre, a podcast where I sit down with people who don't just dream big, they build big.

From culture-shaping voices like Mel Robbins to leaders redefining success like Tracy Ellis-Ross to game-changing entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban, Aspire is about mindset, ambition, and doing the work that actually moves the needle. If you're ready to raise your standards and take charge about the life and career you're building, Aspire is where you start.

Follow and listen to Aspire with me, Emma Greed, an Odyssey podcast available wherever you get your podcasts. We are back and like we said, we're doing season one, episode five of the paper, scam alert. This episode was written by Mo Welch, who also plays Kimberly on the show. Mo, hilarious writer-performer, and we got to exchange messages with her. She's so fun. Yes.

We reached out. She was very quick to give credit to the whole room of writers for helping to shape this episode. She said the room is very collaborative. Everyone has a hand in the final script. She specifically shouted out fellow writer Ben for, helping to provide a window into online dating. That's a big part of this episode.

Yeah. She said, quote, I'm a married lesbian. Sorry to expose you, Ben, but he was a big help. Is Ben hitting the dating apps? I guess so. Writer Ben on the apps. This episode was directed by Taspa Chavez. Okay, this was a big get.

I am so impressed. Taspa is the co-exec producer of Reservation Dogs for which she received an Emmy nomination, a Peabody Award nomination, as well as two WGA Awards. There are lots of connections to office folks. She was a writer on Ed Helms' series, Rutherford Falls. And she directed the Sex Lives of College Girls and now the paper. Oh, that's very office-centric. So we've got kind of a powerhouse here with our writer and director of this episode.

Are you ready for a summary? I live for it. Here it is. In this episode, Ned pursues a juicy, catfishing story only to discover that Esmeralda is one of the victims. Oh, poor Esmeralda. Oh, my God. She's so good in this episode.

She is. The team scrambles to expose the scam while Esmeralda stubbornly insists that this guy is real. She keeps sending him money. Meanwhile, Detrick and Nicole are still figuring out their relationship status. And Mayor helps Ned with his online dating profile. They're very cutesy in this episode. They are. Mar and Ned.

Yeah. Things are heating up. Yeah. There's a simmer happening. I'm going to say a simmer. Oh, I like that. Yeah? Yeah.

That's a good description. Okay. I have my single fast fact for this episode. You never know if I'm going to do it or not. Oh, that's your new thing. That's my new thing. You might get one. You might not.

It's like that surprise gift. No. The surprise gift at Christmas, you know? Oh, yes. Like, I mean, my dad used to put little gifts in the tree. We never knew. Is there going to be something tucked away? in the tree? Yeah. It's the old like, oh, wait, do I see something there under the piano bench? There's

something you missed. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's what this is today, everybody. This is your extra gift. You're going to love it. Are you ready? Yeah, you're really selling it. Well, I don't know. I found this interesting. This episode is one of the fan favorites of season one of the paper. Oh. There are like a gazillion Reddit threads that are dedicated to the paper and they all rave about this episode. According to seriesgraph.com, this is a website that just makes graphs of different TV series and their most popular episodes. This one got a rating of 7.8. That's very high. There's two other episodes rated that highly.

And then the season finale, that one got an 8.6. That is the like everybody's like in love with the series finale. I can't wait. I know. I'm not there yet. Yes. Also on IMDB, this was the second highest rated episode of the 10. episodes of the paper. Congratulations, Moe, and Tasba. Yeah. Well, why don't we get to this breakdown?

I want you guys to know in the Peacock version, which is the extended version, there is a very funny cold open. It is not in the NBC broadcast version, but I want to give it a shout out. Basically, Esmeralda is in charge of planning Pride Month, like what they're doing for it. Are they going to have a float? Ken wants to have like rainbow toilet paper that. they're going to sell. Everyone pitches themes for what their float's going to be. It's very funny, cold open, but one of the reasons I wanted to bring it up is that Mo specifically talked about how obsessed she is with cold opens when we chatted with her. And I loved this perspective. We love a writer's perspective. She said because she's a stand-up comedian, she feels like cold

opens are like doing a set. It's like you get to do a stand-up joke as part of your episode. And she said for this particular episode, they did not have a cold open written on the day of the table read. And she had to be in hair and makeup at 545. So I guess she quickly wrote two cold opens and then Greg picked the one that ended up in the show. And it didn't even change. It just was the way she wrote it. Oh, my gosh. You know what that's bringing back memories of?

It's bringing back memories of Paul and Mindy and BJ and hair and makeup in the morning's writing. Yes. While they would be getting their hair and makeup done. They would be pitching, writing. I mean, I remember Mindy wrote half her book. In hair and makeup. Yeah, on her lap in the mornings at 5 a.m. She would have these like stretches of writing while she got her hair done.

Amazing. Amazing writers. Mo, I loved that story. And if you guys want to check out that scene, it's in the extended version. Well, the broadcast episode opens with Detective Arnold from the Toledo PD. Yeah. He's come by to visit. Right at the top, there's a couplet of dialogue between Ned and Detective Arnold as they addressed the bullpen.

And it gave me such Dwight Michael flashbacks. Yes. I mean, literally, Ned says the detective has been briefing me about a very important public safety matter. He's made me kind of a deputy. And Detective Arnold says, nope, not a deputy. And Ned's like, but I have been deputized. And Detective Arnold's like, no, you have not. And Ned's like, but I have been briefed.

And the detective is like, sure. But isn't that so like Dwight wanting to be like the deputy sheriff and the volunteer sheriff? I think very much. Well, ultimately the detective is going to share with everyone that there is a catfisher, praying on women online. And there's some great details in the background of this scene, lady. I wrote down a few. Okay, 54 seconds.

Did you see the two softy employees who are sitting at their desk the whole time? They're right behind Travis. And they're just there, typing away. No. I mean, amazing. I miss them. It reminded me of like Devin and Creed in the background of those early seasons. Did you notice that Esmeralda is holding a yo-yo? A red yo-yo. One minute, eight seconds. It matches her dress. What is that about?

Did you see the piece of paper taped behind mayor that's on the wall? It's a piece of paper and it says the five Ws. Yes, I did see that. And then also one minute, 21 seconds. Shout out to the half-assed power strip that's kind of hanging off the column, balancing on part of the partition with wires coming out of it. It looks so janky. I just was like, I don't know. I love that. Well, let's give a shout out to Isaac Stephen Montgomery, who played Detective Arnold. You might have seen him in Chicago Fire, NCIS, and the movie The Grey Man starring Ryan Gosling. He's very funny. He plays it straight. It's really good. But I do have one comment about this

whole scene. I wrote, this was a meeting that could have been an email. This is a lot of effort. He came down to tell them like two sentences of information. Well, Ned is very excited. He came in person. He's now going to gather everyone in the conference room and he's borrowed the whiteboard from Softies. I know. Travis is like Kimberly is not going to like that. I have a background catch from Cheska C in Montclair, New Jersey. Cheska wrote in and said, I am way too excited because I generally never catch stuff like this, but I'm watching the paper for the first time

and I just saw what I believe to be a continuity error. I've never been so excited about an error, exclamation point. They really are fun to catch. I know. During the scene where Ned is writing about the catfish scheme on the whiteboard, the box under DM's originally reads, Desperate for a Daddy.

Then at one point, the same square in the same location reads, call me daddy. It then changes back to desperate for a daddy. Wow. That's a good background catch. Really good background catch. Yeah, Cheska said later, when the whiteboard is wheeled out, we'll get to it. It has gone back to desperate for a daddy. Great catch. Well, Ned is going to explain, here's how the scheme works. There is somebody on these dating apps who claims to be from Toledo, but they are currently stationed in Germany. Yeah. They are in the military. and they're struggling to afford to fly home for Thanksgiving.

Yeah, they're hitting up people on this dating app called latch. The more Ned explains this person, the camera starts to push in on Esmeralda, and you can just tell that she's getting catfished. Her acting is so good. The realization that just washes over her, and there is also this little detail, and I loved it so much, she's holding a glass of water, and it is just covered in her red lipstick stains. Well, Ned is going to list the names that the catfisher uses on his marks.

I loved this list so much. I loved his delivery of the list. I loved the list. I wrote it down. Sweet cheeks, baby babe, cookie princess, baby baby, baby, and babe, and sometimes just baby. These are the, this is the sweet talk you're going to get from the catfisher. Yep. I know we haven't gotten very far.

far, but I did more Googling already. What? What now? Are we going to have to say our affectionate names we call people? No. We might have to give this one an MA. M.A. Mature audience only? Yeah. If you're listening with your kids, you might want to fast forward. I got stuck on cookie princess. I got stuck on cookie princess. And then I thought, I think cookie is slang for vagina. I mean, Angela says to Dwight, no cookie. Yeah, it is. It is slang. It means pussie.

So, by the way, when I said that line on the office, I thought it meant hanky-panky. No hanky-panky. I didn't realize I was saying no pussie. Yeah, I think so. And I went down a rabbit hole. Food is a really common slang for sexual innuendo. And I have a list if you want it. I mean, I'm not surprised by that.

No. What's your list? Okay. Other terms for vagina are peach, muffin, and oyster. Okay. For penis, it's eggplant, sausage, pickle, and cucumber. I thought peach was a butt. Sam?

Is peach a butt? Is peach a butt or peach? Your sweet peach? Don't you eat a sweet peach? I've primarily heard Peach be a butt. Oh. Mm-hmm. Okay.

Okay. Wow. Is that why they eat the peach in that movie? Yeah. What movie? Timothy Shalame, where he eats the, it's literally the sexiest peach eating I've ever seen in my life. I've heard of this thing, but I don't know the movie. What's the movie? Call me by your name. They're in Italy. There's bicycling in the countryside. It's a love story,

and he eats this peach. It is particularly sexy. Oh my gosh. Total smut. Watch it. Okay. Now, I did not know this one. Hot dog is like term for a penis. Okay. But do you know what hot dog? dog in a bun means. Is it a hot dog wedge between butt cheeks? Nope. Well, that was, I thought a bun is like, No. What? In a bun means uncircumcised. Why? It's, well, it's still in its bun. Oh, God. Yeah, all right. Oh, no. I don't, this might be information I don't need to know. Okay. Here's a term I had not heard. Fish Market. Do you know what a fish market is?

It's a 19th century term for a brothel. Okay. The terms flog the sausage, slam the salami. Masturbating? Yes. Yes. Great job. Do you know what?

I can't wait to write home and tell mom. Do you know what corn on the cob is? No. It's having sex while you're still partially or fully dressed. What? No. I think it's a British term. Who says?

That says that. Yeah, a lot of these seem made up. Who says I just got... The internet. I... What internet? What part of the internet are you on? I hooked up with a guy.

He was a hot dog and we did the little corn on the cob. Yes, you could say that. I would know that he was circumcised and you had sex with your clothes on. I'm circumcised. No, no. Hot dog in a bun means uncircised. It's still in the bun. Oh, right, right, right.

Just a hot dog. Okay. I had a hot dog with a bun and some while while we were corn on. the cob. Yes. Sounds great. Clean way. Well, everyone, you can start listening with your kids again. Esmerelda is going to leave this meeting and go in her office and shut her door. She rushes out. Yeah. And everybody clocks it. Everyone knows that she's being catfished. Yeah. Nicole and Adalola are incredibly happy about

this. They are sick and tired of Esmeralda, and they're delighted. Yeah. Nicole has a talking head where she lists off this beef she's had with Esmeralda for a long time. Well, Ned is so excited when he realizes, oh my gosh, we have someone on the inside who has dealt with the catfisher. We got to get her to tell her story. He wants it to be a six-part series. He thinks it could be award-winning. He's very excited about this possible news-breaking article that he can write.

Kimberly now is going to come in. She's pissed off because they have her why. whiteboard, and she's going to pull it the F out. Yes, Kimberly, played by writer Mo Welch. I got very obsessed with her sweater. Did you notice at five minutes, 29 seconds, she's wearing this, like, black short sleeve, and there's a small little gray sheep on her left shoulder. Did you clock that?

I had to take a screen grab of it. Is it a brand? I wanted to know. I Googled where can I buy this shirt with one sheep? You can't. You get lots of sheep. You get a black sheep. no one gray sheep.

So I reached out to the costume designer for the paper. Oh! Kathleen Felix Hager. Her resume is so impressive. She has done the costume design for hacks, VEP, Space Force, Dexter, so many other shows. And I said, Kathleen, can you please tell me about this little gray sheep t-shirt? And she said, first of all, I want to share that Greg and Michael really let me have fun with the characters and the cast is so lovely. and amazing to work with.

As far as the sheep sweater, that sheep is actually the logo for the Softies Company. Oh, so she had to design that. She made various sweatshirts and polos for all the Softies employees and a special purple jumpsuit just for Kimberly to wear

with the sheep logo embroidered on it. And then I was like, well, Kathleen, while I have you, can you share with me about any of the other characters? They have such specific looks. For example, Mayor has all these cardigans. And then, of course,

Esmeralda, right? Yeah, with her snake belt. I know. So she said for mayor, she really leaned into that character's military background, and she has this tomboyish vibe. She said the sweaters are all vintage, our resale finds. She wanted

all of her looks to feel really lived in and real. They do. Isn't that great? Yeah. She wrote, Esmeralda exclamation point, wow, what can I say? Sabrina is a whirlwind of energy, and I had so much fun collaborating with her on the creative looks as Marelda wears. She said Esmeralda has a taste and style of her own, but there is always something a bit off our wrong in a wonderful way.

I felt like in this episode it was that butterfly hair clip. Really? Yes, it was just odd, in the right way. That red dress is gorgeous. And she wears this gold belt around it, even though it goes over the zipper in the back. Yes. I did ask her about the belts, and she said the belts were all costume house finds and sourced from vintage and resale a lot of the real real online. Do you know this, the real real real? Of course the real real. I know. I buy things from the real real all the time. And then she said, I also want to share about Ned. Donal is super collaborative and he loved all the textures and subtle patterns we mixed and matched. Did you notice his color palette? It's intentional. Is it like some olive greens and stuff? She said, we stayed in the blue,

gray and green color palette for all of his looks. Yeah. And then I went digging and I found this great article on femstella.com, and it's all the outfits and where you can get them all online. It's really a great article. I'll share it. Oh, great. Well, next up, Ned is going to go in to check on Esmeralda.

He says, I noticed you had a very strong reaction to the catfish story. Oh, my gosh. Esmeralda has the best response. She always has such great one-liners. She said, I react strongly to everything. Life is strong, and I'm a strong woman. I know. Ned is kind of like trying to get her to talk about this new online love that she has and finds out his name.

His name is Jarsen. I mean, it's a common American name. Very common. Jesus. Jason and Jared combined. I did want to point out at 5 minutes, 49 seconds, there is a plant that is dying on Esmeralda's death. There is. Yes.

That's pretty amazing. By the way, do you know why it's called catfishing? I don't. Is this another weird term? No. So this thing where you go online and you end up being scammed by someone who's pretending to be somebody they're not, it ended up being called catfishing because there was a 2010 documentary called Catfish.

I saw Catfish. Yeah. It was so good. It's so good. Like, watch this documentary. It's incredible. So in this documentary, they tell this story of how fishermen keep cod active in their tanks after they've been caught by throwing a catfish in there. Because what they were finding was like, if you just try to transport the cod in a barrel or whatever you transport them in, I don't know.

In my mind, it's a wooden barrel like ye olden days. They're just lazy. And then they just sort of, you know, they don't do anything. And then they don't taste as good. But if you throw a dye or something? Does the catfish keep them active? No, they just get mushy. They get like mushy.

But if you throw a catfish in the barrel, it keeps them swimming around and active and like alert. And then when they get to shore, the cod is going to taste better. Huh. So this guy says, listen, I think this person's a little bit like a catfish. They're just keeping life interesting. It's sort of like didn't like, I don't know, is it so bad to be a catfish in a bunch of cod? And so that's where the term for the movie came from.

And then it, like, blew up from there. Yeah, it is a great documentary. It's kind of making me want to watch it again. I know it made me want to watch it again, too. Well, back in the conference room, the staff are now taking bets on how much money as Marilda has been sending Jarsen. They're really kind of tickled by all this. Also, they've decided to all make online dating apps as well on this latch site so they can try

to find Jarsin on their own. Yeah, they're hoping to get catfished so they can write their story. So Mare asks, does anybody already have a latch profile? Yeah. A few people raise their hands, including Nicole. Yeah. And Detrick is kind of like, wait, what? Yeah.

He has a talking head where he's like, me and Nicole have hung out a few times in this last week. And I deleted my app after the first hangout. Yeah. When he has his talking head, they flash back to the two of them making out. They're outside of the Buckeye Ball Bar and Grill. I zoomed in. Can we just talk about this makeout for a second? Well, we talked about it last week.

I know, but now we see more of it. Okay. He's sitting on a stool. She's standing as a makeout grabs his leg and wraps it around her. Yeah. Things are heating up there is all I'm saying. I don't know what you call that. It's not quite the corn cob, but it's pretty spicy.

Yeah. I mean, this makeout has really, you have homed in on this. You talked about it a lot last week. Well, I'm sorry, but that's the first. first time they kiss and she grabs his leg and wraps it around? I know. They are very close to a corn on the cob. They are.

They really are. I'm sorry if that is sort of like jaw dropping to me. I'm like, dang. Yeah. I mean, I guess I'm thinking back. Like, has my first kiss ever led to that sort of thing so quickly? I don't know. I think it's a bold move.

Okay. The first time you kiss someone, you grab their legs. off a bar stool and wrap it around you. All right. Anyway. Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, this is where Nicole is going to say, like, why don't you have a latch profile?

And he's like, well, I deleted it. And she's like reactivated. Yeah. And then she says in a talking head, you know, we're having fun, but he's still in my phone as, quote, Dettrick work. Yeah. And Dettrick looks hurt by this, by the way. He looks bummed out.

Can I say something? Say it. I know it. I know what you're going to say. What is he seeing her? She's not very nice to him. No. She's not. And he seems like a catch. He's a really nice guy. Yes. And he looks like he's ready to be. In vested. He wins her a bird. I mean, he just seems like he is open to intimacy, to commitment, to monogamy. I don't know. Those are the things I was looking for when I was Dating? Nicole might just want the leg wrap. She kind of does. I think that's where she's at. But he's dazzled by her. I know. I mean, and that happens, right? Like, sometimes, like, if you're steady and kind of like a homebody, you get into a little bit of wild. Maybe that's what's

happening here. Yeah. Okay. I was trying to think of a term for it, but I could come up with one. A food term? Yeah. Maybe you like a little pretzel. A little popcorn. You know, it's popping. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's more of a, I don't know, what's comforting? Soup. He's the soup and she's the popcorn.

They don't quite mix. They really don't, do they? I don't know. Some chef has put popcorn in soup before and it's been wonderful, but, you know, it's rare. Ned sees the betting board and he thinks that Esmeralda is probably out at least 4,000. 4,200 if there's nudes. Well, we know there's nudes because she throws him out of her office and she says, I need to send Jarsen's nudes. Get out of here.

I know. Well, lady, why don't we take a break? And then when we come back, we are going to discuss how Esmeralda gets a video from Jarsen and plays it for the group. Oh, yeah. It's clearly a cameo. So we are back. Ned has brought Esmeralda a cup of tea. And this is one of my favorite lines in the whole episode.

I loved it so much. Esmeralda says, thank you. Such a nice idea for someone that drinks only coffee. I asked Mo what it was like working with Sabrina, and she said episode five couldn't happen without a powerful comedic powerhouse like Sabrina. She went on to share that at the end of the episode, there's this dance sequence that Sabrina does. It's in the peacock version.

She's like, if you haven't seen it, go watch it. They love writing for her. She's so game and up for everything. The character of Esmeralda is very divisive on the Reddit threads. People either love her or hate her. Oh, yeah. Like, it's very divisive. My brain cannot comprehend not loving her.

She is such a supreme comedic talent. Also, English is not her first language. And yet, the way she delivers lines, I can't even wrap my head around it. The way she throws things away, the way she will single out a certain word that creates a rhythm. It's like a comedy marvel to me. And when we met her, I just could not get enough of her. Yes. She shared with us, and we have this interview.

We played on the podcast just about her journey to being here. And she's just such a fascinating person. And she brings all of that richness and vibrancy to Esmeralda. She's a true artist. Esmeralda is going to just charge out into the bullpen and loudly confront everyone that's been laughing about her. She knows that they're talking behind her back. And she shows them a photo of Jarstead. Look, he's real.

Here he is. And it's Josh Holloway. Yes. From Lost. It's a picture of Josh Holloway holding a picture of Esmeralda. And this is the proof. And it's clearly been Photoshopped. And it's Josh Holloway.

Oscar's like, he lives in Hawaii. Yes. He's from Lost. Lady, do you know about the woman who believed she was communicating? with Brad Pitt? Did you see these articles? A French woman? Oh, lady, lady.

She sent Brad Pitt, who she thought was Brad Pitt over $850,000. No. Yes. No. Yes. That's horrible. Here's how it went down. She said it started with somebody posing as Brad Pitt's mom.

So fake Brad Pitt's mom reached out to her on social media and said, My son could really use a woman like you. Wow. And then she said, my son is Brad Pitt. Then she put the two of them in touch. So fake Brad Pitt's mom puts this woman in touch with fake Brad Pitt, probably the same person, right? And she starts communicating with this person for like 18 months.

She got poems. Eventually, he sent her a marriage proposal. Did he speak French? This is a really good question. I think they were letters that I don't think I didn't get that there was any ever like audio. But still, in this scenario, Brad Pitt is proficient in French. There's a great AI photo that goes along with this too. This is what I was going to get to.

Okay. No, no, don't be sorry, Sam. Yes. So here's how he first gets money out of her. He says, I want to send you a very expensive purse to show my love. but you're going to have to pay a customs fee of $9,200. What? So that's the first time she sends money.

Did she get the purse? I don't know. It wasn't in the article. I had that same question. So then he starts to say, I've been diagnosed with kidney cancer, and I need money for hospital treatments because my bank accounts have all been frozen in my divorce. Is this Jennifer? Aniston divorce or Angelina Joe Lee divorce?

Angelina Jolie divorce. Okay. Did that matter? I mean, I did reset. They have that rosé. The winery? Yes, they have a winery and it's been very heated about it. Yeah, but I'm still not believing he has no income.

But also like, he has a lot of very rich famous friends. He can't ask George Clooney for money for his hospital treatments. Yeah. His agent can't front him some money if his stuff is frozen. Whatever, this woman wasn't thinking like that. He starts sending photoshopped photos of himself from the hospital. Her name was Anne, and one of the pictures is a picture of Brad Pitt holding a sign that says, I love you, Anne.

Oh, my gosh. But Brad Pitt does not look sick in any of the pictures. He's like always smiling. His, wait. Sam. I need to see this picture. What is, how old is Anne? She's 53.

Oh, God. She's our age, lady. Oh, no. Let me see. I feel so bad for Anne. Does she tell any of her friends? I mean, one of the pictures is like from surgery. Like he literally has two surgeons over him.

Here. Oh, honey. Oh. His head doesn't look right on his body. No, and then there's also just like a weird, like, hospital gown on top of him. Yeah, there's one picture where the surgeons are fully in all their gear with little glasses on, and they're operating on him. Yes. But he looks like he's fresh off the red carpet.

Yes, in all the pictures. Oh, no. Where were her friends? Didn't she tell people? Wasn't there someone who was like, Anne? I don't think it's Brad Pitt. I don't, because this went on for 18. months. Wow. And they never found the scammer. No. Yeah. No, she came out. The reason she started speaking

out was to prevent other people from being scammed. Did she ever get to meet Brad Pitt? I don't think so. That'd be a nice thing for Brad Pitt to do. You know what he could do. My dream, bring her some soup. She'd be so delighted. Or maybe not. Maybe it'd be triggering. Maybe it would. Maybe she can't watch any Brad Pitt movies anymore. you imagine. But also like, how was that, he's always in the news. He's always making movies and on red carpets. Like, was there ever anything like, hey, how did you do that F1 movie so fresh out of the hospital? Yeah. I'm sure he was like, I'm not telling anybody about my kidney cancer except for you. And they never caught the person. No. Wow. Yeah. Okay. Esmeralda is totally getting catfish.

like Anne. And she is not at all accepting that this is Josh Holloway and actor. She's like, no, it's not. It's Jarsen. And then she has this talking head because, you know, Maher and the other gals are snickering

and she thinks they're jealous. I want you to hear her talking head. When there is a group of single women and one woman finds happiness in love, the other single women try to take that happy woman down.

You know, like in a bowling pot of lobsters, you know, lobsters? Do you know that the male lobsters all lazily accept their fate while the female lobsters try to get out, but, you know, clowing down each other during the process? They will not clow down this lobster. It's so good. When she says they're clawing each other down, she literally starts batting her head. Yeah, she starts like clawing. Her hair.

This talking head was so intense. She's so good in it. But I had to know, is this lobster trivia true? Did you look it up? Because I really wanted to know. I did. And I did not Google it. Okay.

Here's what the... I had Googled so much already. Here's what the Internet has to say about it. Okay. Lobsters have a nervous system and are widely believed to be capable of feeling pain and experiencing distress. The idea that male and female lobsters react differently when placed in a pot of water is a myth, often circulated in pop culture and used as a metaphor, but does not have any scientific fact behind it. In reality, lobsters of both sexes react to the painful stimulus of boiling

water by struggling and trying to escape. And screaming, I think. I have something about that, too. The sounds heard are typically from steam escaping the shell and not screaming. screams. Oh. But due to the strong evidence that lobsters are sentient and can fill pain, some countries, including Switzerland and New Zealand, have banned the practice of boiling them alive and require that they be humanely stunned or killed first. But both male and female lobsters, they just went out of the pot, of course. Yeah. Well, now out in the bullpen, we're seeing different coworkers set up their latch profiles. Adam is swiping through a bunch of ladies and sees one.

It was like a woman he had a crush on, Alyssa, and his wife Summer told him that Summer had died. Yeah, it was like his high school crush, but his wife said she died and they sent an edible arrangement to who? I guess her family. But here's the thing. We're learning that Adam's wife Summer might be a tad. Possessive? Controlling, possessive. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Oscar has a talking head where he says this is why he keeps everything private and doesn't mess with dating apps. But as he says this, his phone just starts dinging with notifications. I read online, I don't know if this is true. That notification is the grinder notification. Oh, it has its own special ding? I don't know. That was a fan theory.

My Instacart has its own special ding. It tells me there's been a change to my groceries. Anyway, it would make sense if that is true because, that really, like, calls Oscar out that he's being hypocritical. He's definitely on dating apps. But also lets us know his relationship status. Mm-hmm. Yeah. He's single. Well, now Ned is working on his own dating app profile. He's really trying to make it attractive to this Jarsen Catfisher person. Yeah. He asks Mayor, what's some military terms I can put in my profile? And she says, well, you could say you like squids, which means the Navy. And then she's like, but I want to see your whole profile.

Hand it over here. And she reads out loud, I may be six foot three, but I still like being the little spoon. And she starts laughing. Yes, what? No, I just thought it was cute. I thought it was cute, too. It was. She also sourced through all his photos, and she's like, you look rich in almost all of them.

You look rich or you look like Diane Keaton. Yeah, she's like, what is it with you in headwear? That just cracked me up. I know. And then she's like, what? What is this sport? Is this pickleball? Do you have your own pickleball court?

And he's like, no, no, no. My uncle put in platform tennis. In fact, that's what he used on his whole like mayorial campaign is that we're middle class. And she's just like, okay. Well, listen, another thing that has happened is that Detrick is going to approach Nicole and say, well, I've reactivated my latch profile. Gosh, I have a lot of messages, including one from the weather gal at WN. NWO.

And Nicole's like, you should hang out with her. And he's like, really? I don't know. She wants to hang out tonight. Am I seeing you tonight? Nicole's like, nope. You're not. She's so dismissive of him.

She's just writing this email. What she's doing is she's sending this massive email basically exposing the fact that Esmeralda is being catfished. It's a snarky, passive aggressive email. I looked. She's sending it to 433 people. Yeah. I don't understand.

how that doesn't get you fired, but that's okay. Yeah. She just wants everyone to know. But she's doing this snarky email, takedown of Esmeralda, and at the same time, just being an a-hole to Detrick. This is my point. I know. This is my point. Like, in addition to the way she treats him, she's not very nice. I know. I don't know what's up with Nicole. What's up with her? She's not a nice person. I actually found an interview that Ramona did with nerds of color. It was a great interview. Ramona plays Nicole. Yes. Thank you. And she talked about why she thinks Nicole is so fickle with showing her feelings. Okay. And here is her backstory. She said, Nicole doesn't come from the best examples of love in her past. And the fact that she was previously in love with someone who was married really weighed on her.

And so that is something that she thinks is keeping her from trusting herself and getting back out there. They also asked her to pick three words to describe her character, and these are the three words she picked, steady, calculated, and sensitive. And I found the sensitive one was very curious to me. So I'm going to want to see more of that. Yeah. I want to see that. It's been established that Esmeralda has not been nice to Nicole, and she's probably just been waiting for a moment for something to turn, right? Yeah.

And so maybe that happened in this episode. All right, so now Esmeralda is going to come back out to the bullpen. Guess what? Jarsen has sent a video. And it's pretty amazing. It's also pretty clearly a cameo video. I feel like we should play it. Oh, let's.

I have an announcement. Jarsen just sent me proof his love for me. He's real. Hey, darling. This is Jarson to let you know just how adored you really are, Esmeralda. Oh, me too, I love your mother. See? Now I hope this proves to your office friends

that Jarsen is real. Jarsen is not scamming you, and Jarsen loves you. So, my sweetie just proved that his love for me is real, and he just looks like that Josh Halloween person. It's a cameo video. He's speaking in the third person. Yeah, and Oscar kind of calls that out, and Esmeralda's like, people do that all the time. Yeah.

Esmeralda thinks you guys are all stupid if she said something like that. We got a fan question from Renata C. Hi, Renata in Tampa, Florida. She's written in before. Renata wants to know, how did they get Josh Holloway to play himself and where did the storyline come to use him as the catfish person? Well, Mo said Josh Holloway was just perfect for Jarsen. When they were in the writer's room, they thought of him because they wanted to find a famous

person who had played a famous person. who had played a famous character, but if you happened to have not watched that show, you might not recognize them. Right. And she said that was true for her. She said, I had never watched Lost. And probably Asmerelda never has either.

So they were like, this is amazing because he's so famous for Lost. And yet if you never watched the show, it is believable that she might not know. Yes. And so that is how they settled on him. And that Josh Holloway was just game from the beginning. He was amazing.

And he's so good in it. He's perfect. Really, really good. We also got a question from Martina B in Denver who said, I was wondering if you all had any catfish stories. Or was there ever a time when a friend of yours was like, oh, I saw someone pretending to be you catfishing other people. Well, you know, that's interesting, Martina.

I feel like we both have had people pretend to be us on Instagram. I've had that before. Like a fake account? Yeah, but it doesn't say it's a fan account. It says that's you. And they find photos of you and post them. Yeah. And everybody has always been really nice.

Like, if someone comes across that, they tell me. And then I can be like, hey, guys, that's not me. So I have had that. But we asked Mo, the writer, if she'd ever been catfish because she wrote this episode. And she has, you guys. She said, I have been scammed so many times. She says, I'm just a dumb girl from normal Illinois. She actually highlighted one scam that happened to her and her wife, Samantha.

I guess they got pulled into this frozen yogurt scam in West Hollywood. It happened when they were first dating, but this scam, this yogurt scam, ended up taking them all the way to Vegas. Yes. And she says she has a nickname for her wife. She calls her Scamamanta. Yes. Well, Mo went on to say that she has been trying to find a place to force the storyline into something. and she was so glad she got to put this catfishing idea into an episode.

My identity has been used to try to catfish someone. And I'm actually happy that I can talk about it because I haven't known how to let people know. This person let my manager know that they had received an email. And here's what the email said. It said, hi, I hope you're doing well. My name is Liam Carter and I manage Jenna Fisher. This is not true. My manager's name is Naomi Odenkirk.

Nobody named Liam Carter. Represents you. Represents me in any way. Listen to what they said in their email. Liam, fake Liam, says, we're excited to invite you to be a guest on Jenna's podcast Office Ladies, which she hosts with Angela Kinsey.

Oh my gosh. This is a paid opportunity. We will offer you $2,000 for your participation. The interview will be conducted virtually via Facebook and run approximately 30 to 45 minutes. So this person sent this email to someone and then... Yeah, so they did it to another person too. And what they're doing is they are targeting writers of books.

I think probably lesser known authors. They're going out and they're saying, Jenna loved your book. And she wants you to be a guest on office ladies. But then they say that the interview happens on Facebook Live. That's another thing. I don't have that. Yeah. We don't have Facebook.

No. Yeah. We might get Facebook, but we're not on Facebook right now. Yeah, we might someday have an office lady's official Facebook, but we don't. I know. It's just bandwidth. But what's confusing to me is they're offering to pay the author $2,000 to come on the podcast. And I'm like, what?

I don't understand. What's the catch here? I know. Oh, also the email address. that these are coming from is a Gmail address. So I also just want to say to everybody out there, if someone who says they're representing office ladies or me personally, they're not going to have a Gmail address.

They're going to have an Odyssey email address, or they're going to have a William Morris Endeavor email address. All of my representatives have their own whatever those are called. Like a server. A corporate. server. Yes. Exactly. I mean, they got specific. They sent a letter to another author that said Jenna admires your heartfelt storytelling and would be honored to host you for a virtual Facebook Live podcast between July 22nd and 30th at 8 p.m. Eastern. What happens if these people show up to the

Facebook Live? What's waiting for them? That's what I said. We're not there. What's Liam doing with this? I don't know. I had my lawyer look into it. it. We looked into it and it never really made any sense to me. I didn't understand the end game here. But everybody, it's not me. And also, that's not how we do things. But I'm looking at the emails and they look very professional. They look very official. So weird. I know. So yeah. My identity has been used. Yeah. Which bothers me. I don't like that. I don't like that. I don't like that either. We've talked to a lot of friends, even our fellow castmates and different projects we've worked on, and a lot of people do have people posing online as them at some point. Yeah, and DMing people. Yes, DMing people. Yes.

It usually ends up with the person somehow receiving money, and that's what's going to happen in this next scene. Esmeralda is going to keep sending money to Jarsen. So much. It made me so uncomfortable. That scene where she just, keeps clicking send, and she's sending him 50 bucks at a pop. Oh, and Ned is like, please, stop, stop. I was with Ned. I was cringing. She sent him $450. I counted the dink. Yeah. So much money in like the course of 12 seconds. She thinks that this is how she's taking care of him. This is how she's rationalizing it. You know, I know he needs me and I'm caring for him and this is going to make him happy. And he makes me happy. Well, one of the things Nicole's been busy doing is,

is she has bought a cameo from Josh Holloway. And she's going to play it for everyone. This is her final takedown of Esmeralda. Let's hear it. Hello, Esmeralda. It's me, Josh Holloway, from Lost, Yellowstone, in that underscenes show colony anyway. Your co-worker, Nicole bought this for you on cameo

so you could hear it from me. I'm not Jarsen. I'm Josh Holloway. I'm not your boyfriend. I don't know how our wires got crossed. I just say what they tell me to say on here. But we're not in love. I'm in love with my wife, Jessica.

I'm sorry. Mahalo. I did love that the camera quickly panned to Oscar when he said Mahalo. Yeah. Oscar's like, I knew it. I knew it. Esmeralda is just visibly shaken by this. She is convinced.

Thank God. She's like, oh. Yeah. And she's humiliated. Yeah. And this episode is going to end with Esmeralda up on the roof. She's watching Lost. And cursing.

She's saying a bunch of stuff in Italian. I don't know what, but she's not happy. Yeah. Annette is going to go up there. He's going to say, I'm really sorry. He might also drop a lost spoiler. Maybe we won't say it in case you guys haven't watched Lost. And then he gives her a huge hug.

Yeah. And he says, you know what? We're going to run the story, but we're not going to expose Esmeralda. We're going to leave her out of it. We're going to protect her. He says the award can wait. And there you have it. Very touching moment.

And mayor really did help him with his profile, so much so he got asked out, which seems to bump mayor, but then he doesn't go out with the lady. No. He says he's busy. Yeah. He actually, I believe he says he doesn't like pizza. She invites him to pizza. He's like, no. I think there's more coming up for mayor and now.

Ed, I'm just going to say I did jump ahead. I've watched the next two. Oh, yeah. You're ahead of me. It's getting good there. Really? Yes. Okay.

I'm like rooting for something that I hope happens in the finale. We'll get to it, you guys. We want to give a big thank you to Mo Welch for chatting with us about this episode. I did ask her if we're going to see more of Kimberly in season two. And she said, yes, Kimbo is back for more in season two. Spoiler alert. She's going to be emotional. I do look forward to that. Me too. She said playing a toilet paper salesperson comes really naturally to me.

Cracked me up. I also want to say thank you to Kathleen Felix Hager, the costume designer for this show. I loved all those details. And she said we can hit her up if we have any questions for the rest of the series. And also, thanks to all of you, please keep your letters coming. Reach out to us. You can go to officeladys.com. You can find the folders to submit a chit-chat question to submit your around the town info and also to send us any questions you might have about the paper we love hearing from you guys and we hope you have a good one see you next week thank you for listening to office ladies office ladies is a presentation of odyssey and is produced by jennie fisher and angela kensi our executive producer is cassie jerkins our audio engineer is sam kefer and our associate producer is annesley bubicosey's executive producer is lea rice dennis Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Shultz.

Our theme song is Ruppertry by Creed Bratton.