Last Day in Florida

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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.

It's true, it's true.

This is a very rare occasion for us.

It is I actually want to start off by saying, thank you, and I might get emotional right at the top. But I had a medical emergency with my mom and I flew back home to Texas. And I just want you guys out there to know that Jenna and Cassie and Sam and everyone at office, ladies, pod and earwolf, just let me.

And we were fine.

And there were no questions. You guys were just like, get home to your mom. And it just meant so much to me to have that support. That I could do that and I could go there and be with her and everything's okay now. It was a scary few days, but I'm just so thankful for you, Jenna, and I'm so thankful that we get to do this podcast because family comes first.

Well, Angela, I think I speak for everyone when I say that. It was our pleasure to make that space for you and we're so glad that you were able to be there with her. Because family does come first.

Yes.

And ..?

We're recording in the afternoon so I could have an extended time with her. Yeah, and what are we talking about? Well, today, I'm so out of it.

We are talking about last day in Florida. Oh, right.

Yes.

It is season eight, episode 18, written by Robert Padnik and directed by Matt Zohn. And here's your summary. As their time in Florida comes to a close, Jim tries to warn Dwight about Robert California's secret plan to sandbag the sabre store and fire him. Meanwhile, Daryl and Toby compete to sell girl Scout cookies, and Erin decides to stay in Florida and be Irene's live-in helper.

I love almost every single thing, Irene has to say.

She's wonderful.

She's so great.

Her deliveries are great.

I wanted Irene to come back to Dunder Mifflin.

That would be perfect. But this was an episode that had three very distinct storylines in three different locations. So we had to kind of keep toggling back and forth between all these different places. Fast fact number one James Spader, aka Robert California is back. You guys might remember that. We shared early on, when James Spader was contemplating whether or not he wanted to join our show. That he had this opportunity to shoot the movie Lincoln, and he said, I will come.

Right?

That's where he was, that's where he's been, why we haven't seen him in a while. And so Lincoln wrapped, and now here we are. And we also shot this episode in January 2012, it was right after our holiday break.

We were rested, right?

All right.

Fast fact number two Guess what else was happening at this time?

Well, I know, because I went in my digital clutter.

Yes, you shared the other week that Greg Daniels congratulated us on our SAG Award nomination, and now here it was time to go. This was our fifth time attending the SAG Awards. We had been nominated as a cast every year since 2007. And this one was a particularly memorable one for me. Because I was four months postpartum and I was really nervous about getting on a red carpet.

And remember, I told you about the coke closet where they let me pump?

And I brought my pump with me and I pumped at the SAG Awards. I remember walking down the red carpet and they asked me who I was wearing, so I did a little bit that my handbag was my pump. If you see pictures of me from this red carpet, you can tell I need to pump. I am falling out of my dress.

Yes, a little bit. I thought you looked so radiant and beautiful, and I loved the color of your dress.

Oh, thank you, lady. I was so nervous. And this designer, Max Azria Atelier, offered to make me a custom gown, designed it for my postpartum body. Because I don't know if people know, but when you borrow a dress, they have something called sample sizes. Sample sizes are very, very small, and oftentimes, even before I had had a baby, I couldn't fit into sample sizes.

Also, sample sizes don't fit short people, so there's that.

But sometimes they would be able to take out the seams a little bit on the sample sizes and I could get myself into one. But I had a hard time borrowing a dress and this designer made me one from scratch. And oh my gosh, I remember getting there, I remember running into John and Emily, I remember running into you, running into Brian.

Oh, yeah, I wore a vintage dress.

It looked like old Hollywood, Grecian. it was light blue. The way you did. Your hair was kind of like this nod to old Hollywood. I felt like it was so gorgeous, it was a great look.

Thanks, it was true vintage. I'd never done that before and I did the soft waves. I was going really hard for L.A. Confidential.

Yes, yes, that's kind of what it seemed like. Well, we had a great night that night, we had so much fun.

So much fun. I sat next to BJ and I was really hungry and there's not a ton of food, and BJ gave me all of his breadsticks. And I'll never forget it.

Why do I think I remember this?

And then, guess what else I did? I will always get my words just a little bit off, you know, and my, we know.

We've been there with you.

My mom does this, my mom will say, Have you seen office? It's not the office, right? And basically, I'm turning into my mom in this way. So at that time, the president of NBC was Bob Greenblatt, and he had been a big champion of this new show.

Yes, yeah, no, no.

Don't say the name, don't say the name. And he was messing with the lead. It was about Broadway. I had watched the pilot episode and I liked it.

It's a whole other show, it's about just a bunch of drunken 20-year-olds.

Is any wonder I haven't been on another NBC show? The president was like, get rid of that idiot. And then the other thing I remember from this night is we were at these really long tables. And BJ and I were at one end, sort of towards the stage and way.

Yeah, they went up to your thigh if you set them on the ground.

Yeah, they were kind of like decorative, but yet you could open them and drink them. So John, his side of the table, hadn't opened theirs yet. And Matt Damon walked by and said hi to John and Emily, and they were chatting.

Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Well, I do know that I didn't stay out too late after this one, so I don't really know what happened after the awards. I had a good time at the awards, but I was tired and I knew my baby was going to be up early in the morning.

Oh my gosh, so tacky.

So tacky.

Tacky.

I don't think we should have worst dress lists, period. Why are we commenting negatively on people's appearance? We are adults now, right? Yeah, and have we not learned anything?

Nobody cares.

No, they suck, they suck, and they're unnecessary.

And they're tacky.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, put her on my tacky list.

Yeah, I know her name, don't think I have forgotten, I know.

I know Aria Stark.

Well, moving on to fast fact number three. Have you heard of a blog called Ask a Manager?

No.

Okay, it's run by this woman named Allison Green. she's a manager, okay, and she answers questions like business questions, business advice questions.

Dear office ladies,

I wondered what Allison would think of the advice we gave.

Did you ask her? I didn't? Can you type it in? No.

I didn't ask her, but I was pointed to her blog because an office fan named James G from Olympia, Washington wrote in to Allison and asked a kind of cheeky question.

Okay.

Here's what the letter said. How many employees can a workplace have before it needs a dedicated HR person? If, say, you had a branch location of a mid-sized paper company with 20 people combined in the office and a warehouse, would you need a dedicated HR person on site? So clearly, it's an office fan asking her if Toby needs to be in the office, yes.

I mean, add that to also three accountants and also a temp who went to Florida and a receptionist that went to Florida. Plus, they hired Ryan back after he pretty much....

After he's embezzled from the company, right?

So someone in hiring isn't making super great choices.

Well, James, maybe you can write to Allison next and ask her if a midsize paper company with 20 employees needs three accountants. We'll see what she says.

Yeah.

Well, that's all I got, lady.

Well, I have a little something to share. A while back, I was trading emails with Robert Padnick and, as you know, he wrote this episode and I asked him about it. And he said it was a really challenging point in the season because there were so many characters and plots to juggle, especially with all of the Florida storylines. And he shared with me a few moments that stand out and I'm going to sprinkle them throughout the episode. Oh, great. And he also shared with me some of his very first outlines, and there was a Pam storyline that he had in his outline.

This is going to be a good episode, yeah.

All right.

We'll take a break and be right back.

Well, the episode's going to start. Andy gets off the phone and he comes out to the bullpen to share terrible news that Dwight is no longer with us. And everyone was like, What happened? and Andy's like, No, no, well, he took the job in Florida.

Yes, and now he's in a better place. Well, this makes everyone wonder if they can open up his treasure. I guess he left behind a treasure chest.

Yeah, he did.

And who would be insane enough to open it?

Yeah, not sure. Maybe the guy that grows mug beans in his drawer.

Maybe.

Oscar has a talking head that says. When the team left for Tallahassee, Dwight told everyone not to touch his treasure. Obviously he wants us to obsess about it, there's nothing in there, which is obviously what he would want us to think, making it the perfect place to hide a treasure. Oh God, I'm Wallace Shawn in the Princess bride, mm-hmm.

I loved that talking head.

Lady I have something in common with Oscar, what I also portrayed, Wallace Shawn.

Oh, yes, I remember this.

Here's a fun fact for you guys during the pandemic. Jason Reitman, who, as you guys all know, has directed several Office episodes, reached out to Brian, Oscar and myself to be part of a Princess Bride reenactment to raise money for World Central Kitchen. Basically, everyone got a few lines, he reached out to a whole bunch of actors, and you just delivered your line. At home, your family member would film you with a cell phone.

I remember they were some of the first people on the ground in Ukraine. Yep, they showed up in Maui after the fires.

Yes, if there's anywhere that's been hit with a hurricane or anything, they are there. I think they've served something like almost 300 million meals to people in need. Wow, it's a pretty amazing organization.

He has very good arms.

He didn't fall inconceivable.

You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

That's it.

Oh my gosh, I love all the extra sound effects I know now. Were you pretending like you were looking over the side of a cliff?

Yes, but really. I was just standing on a ladder on the side of my house and we tried to find a tree that looked like shrubbery or something.

Oh my gosh, that's pretty cool. Well, now, Andy is standing in front of a whiteboard. They're clearly having a conversation as to whether or not they should open the treasure and what the treasure might hold.

I wish we could have seen more of this conversation because people have been making suggestions. Look at that dry erase board behind Andy. Here are a few shrute bones.

Mm-hmm.

Star Wars stuff.

Mm-hmm nudie mags.

Rosebud type scenario photos with our toothbrushes up his butt. Actual gold trap. These are everyone's theories.

They're not bad theories.

They're really not.

Although I might change Star Wars stuff to Battlestar Galactica stuff.

Mm-hmm, yeah, well, everyone decides Creed should open the box, and when he does, it's a photo of everybody.

Yeah, a really nice photo, mm-hmm.

And then a dart flies up, almost hitting Creed, and goes into the ceiling.

We had a fan question from Lily R in El Salvador who said, Please tell us the story behind that photo. You all look so happy and out of character, especially Rain, and Angela and Mindy are holding hands. It's really cute. I zoomed in on the picture, Lily.

Yeah.

But we don't look in character, for sure.

We're not in character, but we're all in costume.

Yeah.

Yeah, I wonder if it was a photo that we took on set for the new season. I wish I had it. I really like it.

It's really cute.

Dwight is going to have a talking head now where he's like, Are you kidding me? Who would put a poison dart? Not that he knows for sure that it was a poisonous dart? But they probably shouldn't have been opening someone's treasure chest.

Mm-hmm.

I want to point out a lovely bird of paradise behind Dwight during this talking head.

Oh.

So.

All right, so this episode starts on the golf course Dwight, Nellie, Jim and Robert California are playing around a golf.

Cringe fest.

Oh, gosh.

So cringy.

Well, Robert just loves the chemistry between Dwight and Nellie, mm-hmm. and Nellie is thrilled that they're going to be working alongside one another. I mean, they're a regular Archibald and George, mm-hmm.

Not a real English duo, she says. No.

No, she really made Robert look like the Goat of Dover.

Goat of Dover also not real.

Made up mm-hmm, I decided to google some famous English duos.

Okay.

And I thought, why don't I throw some names at you and you tell me if you think they're real or fake?

So you've mixed in some fake ones, mm-hmm with real ones.

Correct.

Okay.

Cannon and ball, real or phony?

Real yes.

Max and Dolly.

Fake.

Yes, oh my gosh, Thompson and Grover.

Fake.

Yes, oh my goodness, I am just you're good, I'm trying.

Here's what I'm doing, that thing where you play the player, I'm trying to think of, oh, how you would position real or fake, okay?

Flanders and Swan.

Real.

Yes, Murray and Mooney.

Fake.

Real.

Real yes.

There's your quiz.

Okay.

You really made me look like the Goat of Dover there, I thought I was going to be able to trick you.

Dwight is really, what's that expression? I had an uncle used to say? He's really showing his ass, you know, like he's being an idiot.

Oh yeah.

He's showing his ass, he's celebrating too soon.

Oh, yes, we have this conversation when we watch football all the time.

Don't celebrate too soon.

No, it's not a touchdown until it's a touchdown.

That's right anyway. He's really being annoying, and Jim's like, everyone chipped in. Got you a gift, you know? Since you're going to be staying here in Florida, he whacks it with the golf club.

Doesn't open it.

Doesn't open it. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, we had a fan question from Kate F. in Austin, Texas, who said What was the gift that Dwight teed off on the golf course? Kate? The script never said.

I have a guess.

What do you think? It was? a watch, It seemed watch-sized.

Feels like a gift you give people at work, like, congrats, thanks, here's your watch.

It could have been a prank, no, but it seemed sincere.

It did. Jim has a talking head where he says it's a weird feeling knowing that this is the last time he's ever going to see Dwight. It's not bittersweet.

Yeah, what is it? What's the word sweet? yeah?

Well, Daryl's going to enter Andy's office, He's taking his girl scout cookie orders for Jada.

Yeah, Andy's down for a box of whatever you know, just whatever you choose Daryl. So Daryl chooses trefoils, and Andy groans. He's clearly disappointed.

Why did he let Daryl choose, I know?

I have some girl scout cookie stats for you.

Ooh, someone else might have gone to their website as well. What you got? oh?

Well, I know what their highest-selling flavor is nationally.

Thin Mints.

Yes, do you know what number two is?

Samoas.

Is this because you went to their website?

Yes.

Do you know what their least popular cookie is?

I stopped there.

The trefoils, oh, the shortbread.

Looks like our writer's room went to the website too.

I like the trefoil, I like a shortbread cookie. We've discussed this, I like it too.

I like a Tagalong.

Oh, Tagalongs are number three, mm-hmm, followed by Adventurefuls. A cookie I'd not heard of. Nope, I guess. It's kind of a brownie, and it has like a caramel cream thing on top.

Go to their website.

Yeah.

Well, Toby's going to enter, he's doing the same thing this year. It's his first time ever he's taking cookie orders for his daughter Sasha. Ah ah ah, ah ah ah ah.

Anna Mary S. from Scranton, Pennsylvania, and many others would like to play a bullshit card.

Oh, let's play it.

I have a catch for this episode involving the cookie storyline. In this episode, Toby tries to sell cookies by saying that it's Sasha's first year. However, in stress relief, Toby makes Dwight buy cookies from him in exchange for signing his apology letter.

Good catch, good catch.

Very good catch. But anyway, he says, it's Sasha's first year and Daryl's a little bit like, Dude, this is my territory. You can't just—I've been selling cookies here for years.

You can't just come in here.

No.

They ultimately settle with this. Daryl says. You know what, you can have the whole entire office, just give me accounting. Toby's like, Hey, that sounds like a good deal.

How did Toby not realize what Daryl was doing right away?

I don't know.

I mean, come on.

It's Kevin, it's Kevin. Kevin buys more cookies than anyone else combined. That's really who you want.

Well, now we're going to check in with our third storyline of the episode, which is Erin, Yep. And she is now working for Irene, the elderly lady that she met at the store opening. Mm-hmm, she's been grocery shopping.

Kind of running her errands, doing her odds and ends, mm-hmm.

We had a fan catch from Erin W. in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who said I spot Harvey's supermarket bags.

ErIN So did I. Did you know that? Harvey's supermarkets were established nearly a century ago by Iris and J..M. Harvey?

In 1924.

Yeah.

And I think we read the same website again because their son, Joe, took over in 1950.

They are spread out through Florida and Georgia.

Although in August of this year, it was announced that Winn-Dixie and Harvey's were going to be acquired by Aldi. Yeah, and so some are going to stay Harvey's and some are going to be Aldi's. Well, I'll have, you know, that I texted with Phil Shea about these grocery bags. Mm-hmm.

I love that.

Also, if you zoom in on the medicine bottles, there's a montage of Erin doing these chores for Irene. Yeah, the little pill bottles, I guess. he had labels printed with Irene's name on them.

Phil Shea Y'All.

Phil Shea.

He does not mess around.

It's all in the details.

So I have two favorite lines in this episode, and one of them is in this scene. Irene wants to introduce Erin to her grandson. Yeah, and Georgia Ingle delivers this so perfectly, she says. When can I introduce you to my grandson?

It's so brilliant, I thought that was so funny.

Erin says today's not going to work because she has to tell Andy she's staying in Florida. I'm going to play a bullshit card.

Okay.

Really, she's already left under Mifflin, she's no longer working for them, she's been living with Irene, running her errands. I don't know how many days now.

I know, but it's Erin, I know, but it's true. Has this not gotten back in some official manner?

Like, has she not shown up for things?

Right on the saber side.

She's just disappeared at all Saber meetings and moved in with Irene. She's mentioned it to Ryan, who I guess supposedly put it in his Tumblr.

You know what, I know, that's in an upcoming scene, and Lady, I was like, What is Tumblr? and I went on.

Is it just where you update people?

I needed to learn more, I created a Tumblr account, stop it just because I needed to understand what it is more.

Is it photos or are you just type things?

It looked like a combination of Twitter and Instagram.

Okay.

So, like, you could write a much longer thing.

Okay.

But you could also put a picture.

All right.

Sam Cassie, Have you guys ever tumbled?

Oh yeah, I had a Tumblr for a long time.

Am I describing it correctly?

Yeah, I'd say it's like a personal blog.

But it's mini because it shows up like a scroll.

Yeah.

It's not like a website.

No, you're scrolling through a lot of different blogs at once, like Reddit or Instagram.

Okay, I don't even understand Reddit, I don't understand how you post on Reddit, I don't understand what a subreddit is compared to a regular Reddit.

A regular reddit.

Do you?

No.

I don't understand any of it.

I appreciate people out there on Reddit because you and I sometimes come across some cool information.

Yep.

I don't understand it.

Do you have to have an account?

Oh my gosh, we're a hundred. Yes, you do.

Okay, and what's a subreddit?

I actually don't know, I don't know, I did learn what LOL really means.

Oh, no, Ang, we didn't want to tell you.

Everyone's been tagging me in that, asking why I didn't interject, like Cassie and I. You guys were so sweet, why we didn't interject. And I just wanted to let you have that moment.

I was talking about my dad.

It was such a nice story, yeah, but it's laugh out loud, but not lots of laugh.

But I think you knew that, right?

I think I did, I think I confused it in the moment, in the moment.

But when you text me, Lol, you mean laugh out loud, right?

I think I just mean, I'm laughing, I'm laughing real hard.

L-r-h laughing real hard.

L-R Yeah, that's what I'm doing, okay, anyway. Back to this scene, Robert Padnick, our writer, shared with me that he wrote a joke for this scene that was one of his favorite ones in the episode.

I almost boiled some gatorade and drank it just to see how awful it would be, but I didn't. I want you to know, I did a lot of kind of like, hands-on experimentation for this episode. Sounds like it. I have a big one coming up that I have yet to share, but I mean, I started my own Tumblr.

What did you do? I'm playing the scenes in my head, Oh my gosh, what did you do?

It's a big tangent, you'll have to wait for it. Okay, I hope you like it all, right.

Well, now Nellie is going to get some very hands-on golf instruction from Robert.

Super cringy.

Super cringy.

You know, we had a fan question from Alex F. in Larkspur, California, who said, My dad and I were watching the golf course scene. And we were very adamant to point out that that is California, it is not Florida. Do you have any idea what course they're playing on? Well, Thanks to Steve Burgess, I do know what course they were playing on.

Yes.

They have hosted the Virginia Slims and the Davis Cup. They have a lot of different memberships. If you're interested, you can do full golf, limited golf, racquet sports or social. Full golf gets you everything you can golf anytime.

Is this what you did? Did you go there and try out the club?

I joined the club just so I could talk about it on the podcast. I was like, it seems like you learned a lot about it, I did, did you really?

That's insane.

I charged Earwolf, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

Jenna is kidding you guys.

I did not join this club, but if you want to join, you can join. Like I said, they don't say on the website what the fees are. I had to dig a little deeper, so that's approximate. But you have to pay a ton to join, and then you also have to pay per year after that.

They are so expensive.

I'm clearly not a member of any.

Yeah, me either, but that's some cha-ching, cha-ching, you know what? I secretly hoped.

What?

I've always read about how people play golf in Florida. And an alligator will just walk on the what do you call it? field.

Course, golf course.

Yes, golf field. What is wrong with us today? I don't know, I have had no sleep.

This is turning into happy Gilmore now. Oh my God, it is.

If you have an alligator in the back.

An alligator walk on.

Back at Dunder Mifflin, Daryl is going to walk over to accounting. It's time to sell Kevin some cookies. Kevin has a talking head that I really feel like we need to hear. In the shooting draft script, it said. Kevin has an 80s style rap energy.

Yes, this is his way of expressing his enthusiasm for the cookie season. Yeah, oh, the springtime thinks that it's the best, and Falltime thinks that it's the best. Coldtime has kind of a strut.

He's ready.

He wants his cookies.

Our writer Robert shared with me that in one of his early outlines for this episode, he had written A runner for Pam and Kevin. Oh yeah, so Pam loves thin mints. they're her favorite, and Kevin overhears her ordering her two box of thin mints.

Oh, I like this, I like this little Kevin-Pam thing that never happened, I know.

But it was interesting to me and they sort of would have had a bonding moment, which Pam and Kevin hardly ever have.

Yeah.

So it didn't make it in, but I love that Robert Padnick shared it with me.

Well, I did love when Pam and Kevin had their moments. When they did. They were rare, like you said, but, you know, remember? They had second breakfast, yeah, and second lunch and everything.

Did you bring girl scout cookies?

Nope, it's not cookies.

I know you just said that, all right, we'll be back.

All right, we are back. And Kevin is getting ready to make his cookie order. Okay, Daryl's standing there, you know, and Kevin is scratching the cookie sheet and smelling it.

The order sheet, yeah.

Yeah, remember this, and Daryl's like, it's not scratch and sniff.

And Kevin's like, Sometimes you can get something.

Well, this small moment in this episode prompted Amy E. from Nova, Scotia, Canada, to write in, and it made my day. This is right up my alley, Amy.

Amy from Nova Scotia What you got?

Amy said I have been waiting for this episode to share a bit of a fun deep dive that I think you'll appreciate. When Kevin is trying to scratch and sniff the cookie order form and claims quote, you still get a little something. There is clearly a power of suggestion at work here, and every time I watch this scene, I'm reminded of how the power of suggestion when it comes to smell swept an entire nation and how it still lives on today. In myth and infamy, myth and infamy.

The drama, an entire nation. Okay, let's hear it.

Amy went on to explain. In 2011, Canada switched to plastic $100 bills, and shortly thereafter, dozens of people started reaching out to the Bank of Canada to ask if they had embedded a scratch and sniff on the $100 bill. Because they swore, they noticed that their $100 bills smelled like maple syrup.

Everyone agreed. Maple syrup.

Maple syrup word got out about this alleged maple syrup-scented money, and Canadians across the whole country started reporting that they, too, smelled maple syrup. In the $100 bill, Amy said, As a Canadian myself, did you bring a $100 bill from Canada?

No, oh.

So sorry, I did not fly to Canada. Well, I don't know.

You can go to a bank and maybe exchange, I don't know currency anyway. You didn't, it's okay.

I didn't continue, continue, I wish I had.

I'm trying to guess what you did, oh.

You'll never guess it's completely unrelated to-.

Scratch and sniff.

Sort of we'll get there, okay, we will get there.

You know how I am with surprises, I can't take it. You're a guesser, I'm a guesser.

I should have just surprised you, but I set it up and now you want to know.

Now I'm guessing.

Yes.

Okay, okay.

Anyway, Amy said that as a Canadian myself, I can confirm that I have tested this. And I also think that the $100 bill had a hint of a maple syrup scent, Amy said. The Bank of Canada reports that it did not include any maple syrup scent. It was not added. And a professor from McGill University, who specializes in olfactory perception, told ABC News that it is possible to smell a smell that's not actually there. Although it is uncommon on such a large scale, like across an entire country's population, so this professor, Dr.

I get it, I get it.

Yeah, so, Amy said. I hope you enjoyed this little deep dive and fun fact. NPR reported on the Canadian maple syrup money phenomenon in 2013 and then did a poll asking Americans what they thought a good scent would be for the American dollar bill. And the winner was the apple pie, followed by bacon, which I just thought was really funny.

Was he looking up skittles? he was probably looking up skittles.

But here is what it is. Skittles come in five colors, but they all have the same taste formula. And I said, No, they don't. I know that a red skittle tastes different than a yellow skittle.

And he said, No, there's nothing in the color enamel, there's no taste in the color enamel.

No, here's what it is.

You brought us skittles, I brought you skittles, now you can relax. Okay, you figured it out?

Because we ended up buying skittles and doing this taste test at home, and I thought maybe we would enjoy doing it here. But what it is is, they do have different colors and different fragrances. So it is your olfactory senses that are tricking you into thinking you are tasting something, but you are not.

This is very interesting because a few years ago I got Covid, you know, like part of, like the OG strain of Covid. And my husband and I both lost our sense of taste and smell. I could cut a lemon in half, I could lick it, I could bite into it.

I mean, these two things are so linked, your smell and your taste.

And it was depressing, it took all the joy out of eating and cooking because you couldn't smell anything.

Well, I guess the Skittles people are using this fact to their advantage. This link between the olfactory senses and the taste. Because it's way more expensive to manufacture five different insides than it is to just put a bit of fragrance and a color. But the sight is another part of it. I want to say I have another study for you. There was a study done in England where this guy named Charles Spence gave a bunch of British students clear beverages and clear bottles. All the different beverages were actually flavored, different flavors he had orange, grape, apple and lemon.

Right, yeah.

All right, so are you ready? Sam Cassie? Would you all like to come in here and eat some skittles as well?

Skittles Challenge.

Let's see how it goes.

Because they're scented.

Because they're scented. Yeah, okay, so I'm going to give you all the same one, okay?

And we're just supposed to eat it, and now are we plugging our nose? you have to plug your nose, okay?

Show everybody what it was.

I don't know, can you see it?

The color they are eating is-.

Orange It's hard to chew and you can't breathe.

Yeah, I'm so sorry, you can't breathe through your mouth.

I'm trying while I chew, but it's difficult.

Okay, Sam, now did you know what it was before you unplugged your nose because you're still chewing?

Oh, am I supposed to unplug my nose now?

Now you can try. But what did you think it was?

Orange, orange.

Cassie.

I thought it was cream.

It was orange, Oh, very good, nice, very good.

My chance to redeem myself, okay?

The color they've been given is-.

Purple.

So now you're chewing it, your noses are plugged. Do you have any sense of what it is? No, no.

Grape, grape, grape.

Everyone. You can try it at home. Here's some extra skittles if you guys wanna enjoy. Well, I have to thank my son for that because he's the one who told me about it and we had a lot of fun. Yeah, that's a really fun family thing to do. Yes, we love any kind of like taste test sort of experiments at home.

Well, not related to that at all. But when I was home, my mom saves everything and she had my old book of stickers. And they're scratch and sniffs in there, and they still smelled.

That's amazing after all these years.

I mean, that scratch and sniff book is older than some people listening to this podcast. And they still smelled.

I had a scratch and sniff sticker book when I was a kid, too. Ange It's fate we were best friends.

Well, Toby is now gonna realize Daryl's real plan, and he is gonna be like, Hey, what the heck? Daryl, Yeah marches over to accounting. And now they start arguing over who gets to have Kevin. Daryl says, Kevin, do you wanna buy cookies from me? and Kevin says, Oh, I definitely do. The next two lines of dialogue were improvised the day of.

Well, eventually, Toby is gonna suggest that they split the order, but Kevin says, No. I'm gonna pick one of you and I'm gonna decide who it is. After I've been wined, dined and 69ed. Metaphorically, well, Jessica N, from Rochester, New York, wrote in and said, I cannot wait to hear what notes Standards and Practices had for Kevin, saying he wanted to be wined, dined and 69ed. They allowed it to be in there, but are they the reason that Kevin had to say the metaphorically part?

I mean, I feel like Todd Packer has thrown this out there before.

I feel like Todd Packer has said much worse in the last few episodes. Or at least comparable. Steve Burgess says he went back, he looked through all of the standards and practices. Notes For this episode, there was no mention at all of Kevin's line.

What about Packer's doggy style?

No mention, no mention. I don't know, maybe was there a change over at standards and practices?

Were they on vacation?

I don't know, but Steve Burgess did say this line was not in the table draft. That's the one that they send to standards and practices. But, he said, they are also required to send the network cut. And the final locked cut of the episode after we filmed it. And there were no notes on any of those either.

No notes.

He said Maybe they missed it or figured we'd said much worse things in the past. But Steve said he was surprised that we didn't have to fight about it.

Back in Florida, at the golf course, Jim and Dwight say their final goodbyes. Dwight's just really gloating. He's being really obnoxious. He races off in his golf cart. First one to the clubhouse wins, you know?

Yes.

And Robert says to Jim, You know what? Let Dwight have his fun now because I've decided to tank the sabre store.

Yeah, he says, when Dwight does his presentation for the board with Nellie, he's gonna reject their proposal and he's gonna fire them on the spot, basically. And he said he couldn't do it sooner because Joe endorsed the idea, but it's a horrible idea. Ultimately, he says, Have you seen our product? We can't sell it in stores, it's a piece of crap.

Yeah, people can't hold this in their hand, they've gotta order it. Sight unseen.

It's the only way we're gonna sell these things. Well, we got a fan question from Allison H. in Louisville, Kentucky, who said, I have a question, Why did Robert California insist on Jim coming to Florida? If he knew that he was gonna kill this project in the end, and that any of the people tied to it would likely be fired. My conspiracy theory is that he was hoping Jim would get the VP job and he would have a reason to fire him. Because maybe he's still a little bitter at Jim for laughing at his misery in the pool party episode.

Listen, if his plan was to fire everyone involved in the Sabre Store launch, Dunder Mifflin would have been downsized. Maybe in the way it was supposed to be all along.

True, but I thought Allison made a good point, which is that Robert was kind of like wanting Jim to come work on something that he knew he was never gonna approve.

Yeah.

Not a cool thing to do to a guy you supposedly like.

Yeah.

Take him away from his wife and newborn baby.

It's clear he didn't care about that.

Well, we know that already.

Now, Nellie and Dwight are practicing their presentation in front of Todd Packer and Gabe and Kathy. And Jim shows up and he says, Hey, you know what, Dwight, I need to talk to you privately. This starts Dwight and Packer just pretty much going off on Jim making fun of him. Well, this scene was bigger, and in the shooting draft, there's a slight nod to how Kathy might feel about Jim these days.

Very interesting.

So Kathy is the new VP's assistant.

Well, this is very interesting, Angela, because. Allison H. from Louisville, Kentucky, wrote in a second letter about this episode, and Allison said, This is the last time we see Kathy. With zero explanation of what happened to her. Is there a deleted scene or anything in the script that explains her disappearance? Was she fired with Packer?

Well, if she's the new VP's assistant, when he gets fired, she gets fired.

Yeah.

Also, in an early outline of the script, it says that Kathy gets fired. Oh, okay, and also a lot of people that worked in the Saber Store are all fired now. Some of them weren't regular cast members, but pretty much Robert California gets rid of everyone. So oh my gosh.

What?

If that were true, then Erin would have been fired.

But she already quit, right? We don't know, we don't know. She's working for Irene.

It would mean that Erin, Gabe, Kathy, Dwight, Packer and Jim were all fired. And Stanley?

Oh, yeah, and Ryan, but Stanley left. Where's Ryan in this meeting? he left.

He got freaked out, Oh, that's right.

In the last episode, Yeah, okay, wow. So basically, all the people who abruptly leave this project that they were working on. You would think those would be the people who would get fired from a company because they abandoned post. But no, they saved themselves somehow.

And Robert's thinking they were smart enough to leave the sinking ship.

Hmm, well. We also had a fan catch from Aidan W. in Portland, Oregon, who said, Oh my gosh. Dwight cracks a joke about Jim's hair and everyone laughs. And then Gabe tries to high five Kathy and she totally rejects it. It was a hilarious background choice.

It says that over and over again.

Every time Dwight or Packer give an insult, the script says, people laugh, obsequiously, obsequiously. How do you say it?

What does this mean?

I don't know I'd have to read it obsequiously.

Obsequiously.

Yeah, obsequiously.

Do you know what that means?

No, I mean, Robert Papnick loves obsequiously. It's a very specific adjective. Are you googling it?

Yeah, I googled it, and it means in an obedient or attentive to an excessive degree.

Oh, so, they're laughing at what their boss says is funny, not anyone else, only the boss is funny. Yes, it's such a specific direction.

And I think I know exactly how to laugh at something if I knew what that word meant. But you know that you have to laugh because you're pleasing your boss.

It's the kiss-ass laugh.