The Target

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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.

Happy Wednesday.

I am very excited because I absolutely love this episode, I love it so much.

I do, too.

I'm so excited to talk about it. This had remnants of the duel for me, I remember loving the duel.

Yeah.

It's great.

I can't wait, too. You know how much I loved all these scenes for the Oscar. Let's get to it.

We are talking about The Target season nine, episode eight, written by Graham Wagner and directed by Brent Forrester. Here is your summary. Oscar isn't sure if Angela knows about his affair with the senator, but in reality, oh boy, does she know. And she has enlisted Dwight's help to exact her revenge.

Can I just say that Pete is the new Jim?

I literally wrote down in the breakdown that I am in love with Pete.

But just how he got everyone to do this activity.

It's Office Olympics, yes.

It's Jim and Office Olympics, yes.

All right, fast. Fact number one Chris Gethard is our special guest star playing Trevor.

He's so funny, I have so many stories.

We got so much mail fan question from Lindsey H. in Tempe, Arizona, who said I just wanted to show appreciation for the genius. That is the character Trevor, played by the awesome comedian Chris Gethard. He did such a great job embodying the sort of dazed weirdo that was Trevor and was so funny. In spite of only appearing in two episodes. And then Wendy B.

He was so great, you know, when you write someone and they respond back right away and are like, Yes, I'm in. Yes, that was Chris.

Well, of course. The first thing we asked was, How did you get your role on the office? And here's what he had to say.

Hi everybody, my name's Chris Gethard and I was really lucky to play a character named Trevor on The Office just for a couple episodes. But sometimes I think people think I was on it more than I was based on the amount that they talked to me about it. But it was a really lucky experience.

Chris, we love a rambly ramble as much as you want.

You know, what I love about that story is that we were still. Oh, Sam, you are so kind.

Did he bring you a tissue so you don't have to use your sleeve?

I was using my sleeve to wipe my nose and all of a sudden it started running. I don't know.

It's the weather.

It is, it's the weird cold, the cold, L.a. it's very what would you call it?

We had frost this morning.

Yeah, it's a weird cold snap that happens in the L.A. winter, and it happens suddenly. And then my nose just runs, Okay, thank you everyone. What I was gonna say was, I love the part of that story. That makes it so obvious that we were still going to New York to find actors like.

Not Alison Jones, No, no.

She's like, I still wanna know who are the hottest people in comedy and improv? I don't care what city they're living in, I need to see them.

Yeah.

That's it, right there, I think. Mystery solved, it's Alison Jones.

It's Alison Jones.

Just doing her job so well.

And then Chris showing up.

Oh well, of course, but half of getting parts as an actor is the access.

The opportunity getting your foot in the door, yeah, you have to be ready.

But it's my old acting teacher used to say success is opportunity meets readiness. You can get all the auditions in the world, but if you're not ready for them, you're not gonna go anywhere. Similarly, you can be the greatest actor in your living room, but if you have no opportunities again, opportunity meets readiness.

I think that's good for just life, because imagine if you're going in for a job interview, it's the same thing, you can have all the skillset. But if you can't get in the room, I wanna be in the room where it happens.

The room where it happens.

We go back to Hamilton, always, always.

You know, Angela, you said that when you emailed Chris, he responded right away and he was so nice and so receptive. I have to share with people that Chris told us that. The reason he was so happy to send an audio clips was because you were so nice to him on set and he never forgot it. He actually shared that you were so nice, that he was kind of confused at first because he only knew you as Angela Martin. Here is how he described it.

I was on season nine and like everybody else in America, I had watched the first eight. So you do forget people are humans, they're well-rounded humans.

Oh my gosh, I love all of that.

I know, I mean, Chris was so lovely and I just remember him falling right into step right away. And I also remember that Rain was so enamored with him, Rain was so tickled by him, everything, he said. Rain would just get the giggles and it was really fun.

Aw, I love that. I'm sure you're gonna have more stories as we break down the episode.

Oh, I do.

All right, fast. Fact number two, I'm calling it the reviews are in.

Oh, your fast fact has a title.

I titled it.

Okay.

We said we loved this episode. The reviewers agreed it was a hit, but there was one thing in particular that was cited in every single review. And Angela Kinsey, it was you.

Oh, come on.

Your performance, and by the way, I love your performance in this episode so much. Oh my god, so much Angela. And so it made me very excited to read all these reviews about your performance. And here they are. Eric Adams, he was the new reviewer at AV Club, gave this episode an A and said it was your plot line with Oscar. That was a season highlight. That's a quote, and he complimented you in particular for your commitment to character.

Thank you.

That's not all. The paste writer called it Your best performance of the year. Wow, Michael Tedder praised the writers for giving your character a chance to shine. And this was also rated the fifth best episode of the season, according to fans on Office tally. And again, the comments cited you.

I don't even know what to say, it makes me. That just warms my heart. When you're part of a show like The Office and there's such a deep cast of amazing people. When you're a supporting actor, you just have to be patient and hope that someday you get your turn. And Kate Flannery and I used to talk a lot about that. She would say, Ange, we're not the meat, we're the seasoning, but the seasoning has their day. And I was so, so delighted by the storyline, and I have such fond memories of getting to do it.

Well, lady, if you thought I was finished, I'm not. There's more of this fast fact. Oh okay, mm-hmm. In addition to reaching out to Chris Gethard, we also reached out to the director of this episode, Brent Forrester. I have an audio clip from Brent just for you.

Jenna, you mentioned that when you rewatched this episode, you were struck by how grounded the performances of the actors are. And I actually believe that the actors saved this episode because the premise is potentially so crazy. Especially for a show like The Office, which is famous for having the most realistic tone of any show in the history of network TV. How do we get away with an episode in which one of the characters is threatening to assassinate the other character in the office? Well, the answer is the performances of the actors. Somehow, Rainn, Oscar, and especially Angela, managed to find some kind of emotional reality in the performances that ends up redeeming this zany premise. So that at the end, after all this frenetic activity, when Angela says to Oscar you were supposed to be my friend, there's a feeling of real emotional tenderness there within this crazy setting. I don't know how they did it, and I wish you would ask Angela how she pulled this off.

I think that's a really good analysis of why this episode works. Angela, how'd you pull it off?

Oh gosh, that's such a big question. Well, Brent, thank you so much. You're always so generous and kind, really. Angela Martin was a real person to me, she was.

I mean, I think everything you just said is so emotional and real and grounded and relatable. And that is why this premise doesn't get zany, because you grounded it in all that realness.

You know, it was really hard, though, because I wanted to jump in and be silly, but I couldn't like, we'll get to it. But the scene in the van with the receipts, oh my gosh.

Oh yeah.

But I had to play it as honest as I could. Yeah, even though there was a little bit of Zany happening around her, she was still very hurt and angry. Those were real emotions, so I had to play them real.

I just loved it so much.

Thanks lady, thanks everybody.

All right, moving on to fast fact number three. Angela. Last week you had a mailbag moment which I loved, and I thought I might like to have a mailbag moment this week. Okay, so this will be a mailbag moment with Jenna.

Yes, at what was like a bachelorette party.

Yes, okay, here is what Chris posted after that episode. I had a good laugh at this week's podcast regarding the penis cake and gummy straws. Remember, we had that big conversation? Yes, yes.

Are there pictures?

There's pictures, lady, and they're amazing. So what these ladies have to do is you have to make a cake using the penis pan, but it's not a penis.

Right, so it's like, a I don't know what, is it, a spaceship here? They are a flying saucer.

She posted a bunch of pictures.

Oh my gosh, oh, one is balloons.

Like a little basket.

One looks like, Is that a I have to put my glasses on?

I think it's like a wizard with a tall hat. Oh yeah, okay.

Oh, flowers.

Yes, so the, you know, the testicles are like a flower pot, and then the top they decorated to look like flowers. What is that one?

Not the. The testicles aren't the flower pot, the tip of the penis is the flower pot.

Oh, yes, I'm so sorry.

And then the testicles are the flowers.

Yes.

But what is this? is this a spaceship?

You know what that one got me? It really looks like a penis. Is it a lighthouse, is it a spaceship?

Oh, you know, you're right.

It's a lighthouse. That's what the jelly beans are. I'm gonna put these in storage.

I mean, I was hoping you would. This one is very funny, right? It's a monster.

It's a one-eyed monster. Oh, and then there's corn on the cob.

And there is an actual spaceship as well.

Yes, and then a fruit medley, okay?

I was so tickled by this, it was the cutest idea to me.

How fun.

I love that these ladies do this. I was so happy that someone made me aware of this post.

Thank you, thank you, Chris.

For sharing, Thank you Chris, and I hope you don't mind, though. We've now talked about it on the podcast and we'll be posting your penis cake photos that are not penises.

Oh my gosh, well, on that note, I think we take a break and when we come back, Oscar is very anxious. He's waiting for Angela to show up to work.

This is such a great opening to an episode like you don't need to have ever watched this show before and I'm hooked.

Yeah, talk about starting in the middle, right? There's no backstory explanation. Well, Angela's gonna arrive, and I think Oscar should have known right away when she asked him about the thermostat. This is such a friendly, small talk, I think, What do you think?

Well, except it's a half complaint.

Okay, okay.

She's a little annoyed. And so I do think that when Angela talks about something that's not work, it's probably a complaint, or like she's irritated about something.

Slightly irritated or very irritated? Yes, probably is her small talk. Well, Oscar is so relieved. Oh my gosh, he's so relieved.

Oscar is very good in this episode. The two of you are such a good team.

I would like to point out in the background of the scene, that Kate Flannery is making some major solitaire moves. She's moving things around. Things are shuffling.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, she was crushing it that day.

Well, now Oscar's gonna have a talking head and he's thrilled. Yeah, Angela doesn't know. It's great. However, then we see over his shoulder in the background, Angela just glaring at him, gripping some scissors.

This is how it read in the shooting draft. The camera finds Angela over Oscar's shoulder, glaring at him with murderous intent.

You did it.

I remember doing this a few times and they were, like Angela, even meaner, glare, more glare, meaner. I'm like, I don't know, I've given it all I got here. Also, you might've caught that Stanley is not at his desk during Oscar's talking Head, which is very rare. Stanley's almost always at his desk. Well, I have a little call sheet tidbit for you.

Please.

We filmed this scene on the first day of filming, on Monday, October 22nd, 2012.

Oh, pleasant.

There's your weather report. One other little thing on the call sheets this week is in the top right corner. There was a little pumpkin with a countdown to Halloween.

So cute.

Those are my call sheet tidbits, but I also have a big reveal from the shooting draft.

A big reveal?

Yes.

What is it okay?

Do you remember the holiday that we have always said was missing on the office?

Thanksgiving.

Yes, lady, there was a whole Thanksgiving cold open.

Oh, because we were shooting this in late October, but it would have aired around Thanksgiving.

Yes, and we actually filmed a Thanksgiving cold open that didn't make it. A lot of it is in deleted scenes, but I wanted to read you how it started in the shooting draft.

I remember this.

The staff-.

It's so funny.

And then it says the staff all applauds itself. We're very pleased with what we've donated. But then Daryl starts looking at what all the people brought in to donate. It is so funny, he starts calling people out.

Yes, I so remember this.

And then Toby gets upset. He says, You know what? I have a solution for your poor participation in this canned food drive. Instead of going home early today, we'll be having a little Thanksgiving feast of our own, made with your canned food. And Kevin, at first was like, Yes.

Happy Thanksgiving.

And remember.

You did this to yourselves.

Aw Toby.

So we did have a Thanksgiving episode, this would have been it.

Wow, our only nod to Thanksgiving and it got cut out.

That's right.

Well, I think there was just too much good stuff in this episode.

Yeah.

That we just didn't have room for, we didn't have room for a cold open. We start right with the plot.

Yep, but there's a bunch in deleted scenes, so if you have the DVDs, you can go watch them.

Well, now Pam and Jim are going to arrive to the office, and Pam is wearing her painting clothes because she's going to finally start on the mural in the warehouse.

Meredith has such sidebar sass, she goes queen of the primer, this one.

Yeah, she asked Pam, are you sure you don't want to put another coat of primer on it? Queen of the Primer? We had a fan question from Colleen S in Chicago who said, Do you have any stories behind Pam's painting clothes?

It also looks like a very cozy sweatshirt.

Oh, I loved this outfit.

I bet.

You got to wear jeans, jeans.

I can't believe you wore pantyhose for nine years.

I know.

Or tights? I didn't wear them one day.

Every time you say it, it hurts me every time.

I just shoved them aside and no one said anything.

I don't know I'm a rule follower.

You are Jim and Pam are now gonna have a joint talking head. And Jim explains that he has to ask David Wallace if he can start working part-time because his sports marketing team really needs him. He also shares in his absence, they named the company Athlead.

While he wasn't there, yeah, he was like, I could have prevented that if I had been there.

Yep.

I guess Jim doesn't like the name. I like Athlead, I don't. I think it's terrible.

Oh, really.

It's so well chosen that it's a bad name. It's hard to say Athlead, I don't like it. Athlead sounds like athlete's foot to me.

There must've been so many.

I asked Brent, he said. There were so many names, he said. Writers love riffing on dumb names, and here are a few. Winnovate, okay?

That's funny.

Gosh, I don't even know how to say this one. Jockatagon. What can I see it? Yeah, I think it's like octagon, but it's jocktagon.

Like a jockstrap.

I don't know, I think like, jock like athlete.

Oh, like an athlete.

Jocktavon.

There's no V in it, lady, it's jocktagon.

Oh jocktagon.

Yeah.

Did I say von every time?

That last time you did?

Yeah, I did the last time. Jocktagon like octagon. Mm-hmm, yeah.

I like Champlify. That, to me, would have hit the joke harder than Athlead, but maybe it's too ridiculous.

Well, Athlead is a better name than Champlify, yeah, but Champlify is very funny to say.

It is.

Lady, I have a tangent that just popped into my head. It is in no way related to this episode, in fact, it's related to an episode of The Crown.

Oh, I take, Do you mind? I don't? Are you kidding? The crown? I don't mind, I'm taking off my glasses.

Okay, this is totally unplanned.

Okay.

It's not in my document, I know it's not okay. The other night, Lee and I were watching The Crown, the latest season, the final season, yeah.

Yeah.

Have you ever done a beer bong? Because I haven't. And as I was watching it, I was like, who wants to do that? It looks awful, it looks like torture.

No, I've never done it. The closest I've come to that is in college. I played on a co-ed softball team. And at second base, they had a pony keg, and if you made it to second base, you could do a keg stand.

What's a keg Stand?

You do a handstand.

Oh, this is worse, this is getting worse.

On top of a keg, and then there's a little hose and they put beer.

You have to drink upside down.

Yeah, I did a keg stand anyway. I've done that, but it just basically it just goes all over your face and you're just like, this is stupid. But I was in college, I have not done what's it called?

A beer bong?

Oh, bong, a beer pong beer, bong bong. Why would I think it was beer pong?

Well, there's a game called beer pong. Oh, I've done that, where you try to get a ping pong ball into a thing of beer and then you have to chug it.

I did that, but on a TV show. And they were like, Angela, we want you to toss this ping pong ball into the cup of beer. And they were like, we'll roll a few because you probably won't get it right away. I got it on the first take.

Was it real beer? was it like a reality thing? No, it was Fakie. Oh, it was for a scripted show.

Yeah, it was the show I did with Kate Walsh, bad judge.

Okay.

But I made the ping pong in the Red Solo Cup on my first try, I think I could be good at it.

So wait, when you play beer pong, you throw the ball and you're trying to get it in the cup so that you can chug it. No, the other person has to chug it.

I think it's the other person.

Right, because if I were playing that, I would just always miss, because I would never want to chug the beer.

So I fake played beer pong, but never played it in real life. I have done a keg stand playing softball, but I've never done a beer bong. It looks difficult.

When I was a freshman in college, like the first two weeks of school, me and some of the other gals on my floor at my dorm, we got invited to a frat party.

Oh, gosh.

I went to it for less than an hour and never went to another one again. My entire I was like, I don't get it. This is not for me. I am confused by all of the activities, none of them seem fun.

Okay.

And I was like, I've never done. There's nothing from the time I was born in my DNA that could get myself to do this activity.

Yeah, no.

And it's very popular and many people do it and I guess are enjoying it and having fun. But I can't, I don't get it, I don't get it.

I've never done a beer bong, I've had no desire, I've seen people do them around me. My college didn't have sorority and fraternity houses, so a lot of that like kind of big frat party thing wasn't part of my college. But I do notice that, like, if I do have a story, it's around like a sport, it's like softball or a football game, but I don't like chugging stuff.

I don't like speeding up the getting drunk process, right, like I don't. I haven't gone out for the purpose of getting drunk super fast.

I probably shouldn't have told you I brought shots for us today.

No kidding.

Shots, shots, shots, shots, shots.

No, okay, sorry for that tangent, it just popped into my head.

I doubled down on your tangent. I could have just said, No, I've never done one and we'd be done with this conversation.

Well, let me tell you what I would love to do as an activity at a party is build a giant card wall. I would too.

I would love that.

That's my jam.

They're really hard to do. I've tried to do it with a deck of cards before and they're real slick. you need an old deck, what?

What?

I don't know, lady, I don't know that, just the.

It's just the just like the earnestness and authority.

With which you have given us this tip on how to build a successful card tower. You need an old deck.

They can't be shiny or slick. I noted that Pete used these complaint cards and I looked at them and they are like the rougher card stock, They're not the slick paper, I'm just saying.

More successful tower.

That's right.

Well, let's tell you why Pete is going to start a tower, he's not starting it yet, but he has a talking head. Where he says he's been tasked with entering customer complaints into a computer, and then after that he has to fill out a comment card. He asked Andy, Why do I have to do this? They're already in the computer.

And then went on a big boat ride, yes.

So he's decided that he's going to use the cards, he's going to give them purpose, and he's going to build a paper tower, yeah.

He says, Don't give me a pointless office chore because I will build a little paper house. Let's fight the power. I love him, I do too. Angela now approaches Dwight. Ooh, sabotage in the break room.

Sabotage in the break room.

She says, Meet me at the old place in five minutes, I need you.

And then she goes down to their warehouse spot and she opens up that door and he is completely naked nudie.

He is naked.

With his leg up and his bits dangling.

Oh yeah, she says, Dwight, please put your clothes back on. It's not that kind of meeting. And then she says, I need someone who can operate outside of the law, and Dwight says, Nope, you lost those privileges.

Yes, we should have asked Brent about that. That's a really funny line.

It is Angela then confesses to Dwight that her marriage is in danger. She doesn't know who she can trust, Dwight says. You know, I know just the guy, the former cop who was kicked off the force. And then he says, I'm gonna SMS text him to set up a meeting.

Gets back to him right away, no problem, he's free anytime. Yeah, well, now Jim is on the phone with David Wallace. He's doing this phone call at his desk because Jim doesn't know how to make phone calls more private.

No, he doesn't.

We learned that.

No, he's not gonna have a private conversation.

And Jim is like, Listen, it'll just be a couple days a week that I would be in Philly. I'd be in Scranton the other days. And you know, what do you think? And David Wallace is kind of like, I don't know Jim. It kind of seems like, what if something goes down? I need someone there in person to deal with it.

Yeah.

So Jim lies in the moment he says, Oh, Phyllis and Stanley offered to cover for me.

And David's like, Oh well, if that's the case, okay, I will point out. I think David Wallace might be the most lax boss ever.

Yeah.

And he's off on a boat, no problem. Yeah, Jim's like, I wanna only be part-time, but pay me the same. He's like, Okay.

Yeah.

We should all work for David Wallace.

No kidding, we had a fan question from Emily J in Ohio who said, Is Pam not a salesman at all anymore? Why does Jim need Phyllis and Stanley to cover? Can't Pam cover? Emily? Made a good point.

Oh, I thought she was done, I thought she created a new position and she was no longer part of the sales team. That's how I saw it.

I couldn't remember, but let's say, like, sure, she does still do a little bit of sales. I think the question is, do you want Pam covering for you? She was the worst sales person. I'm not sure David Wallace is gonna let Jim go to Philly a couple of days a week if the backup is.

But like this is. But sales are not her thing.

Sales were not her thing. We don't have to all be good at everything all the time. No, we don't. It's okay. Pam. Yeah, we love you.

Well, now we go back to the break room. Stanley and Phyllis are there, and Jim comes in and really wants them to help him. He says, Hey, we're friends, right? and Stanley's like, we're not friends.

Yeah, Stanley's like, If we were friends, when's my birthday? Jim? and Jim is like, When's my birthday? and Stanley says, I have no idea because we're not friends. You know, every single person wrote in about this to remind us that. In season eight, episode 10, Jim says he got Stanley tickets to a comedy show for his birthday.

So Jim knows Stanley's birthday.

Or he's certainly celebrated it before. He must have a general idea of when it is.

Well, Jim is gonna offer to take them to lunch to discuss it further, and now they're in, they're up for free lunch. Yeah, yeah. Outside, Dwight and Angela are walking down the sidewalk when Dwight shoves Angela into a van and we meet Trevor.

Wow, right?

Trevor says Is it safe to talk? Dwight says Well, this documentary crew has been following our every move for the past nine years. But I don't see him, so I think we're good. Angela's gonna ask, Trevor, what are your credentials? And this line made me laugh so hard. I broke when he said it the first time.

I lost it.

He pulls out a receipt, he says, read the receipt. And Angela's like, What? You don't carry it with you? And he's like, It's expensive. Someone could steal it, and then Dwight says, You have no idea how many guns Trevor's had stolen.

Were there more receipts?

Chris started improvising, you saw how many papers he's holding in his hands.

Yes.

He just started improvising all the different things he has receipts for.

Oh my god.

I was crying, I was laughing. I was so hoping that I would find them in the Bloopers or something. I know they're out there somewhere, but oh my gosh. We did a lot of takes and each time he had more receipts for things.

Well, you know, one of the things he shared with us was that when he runs into people who recognize him, they always say, check your receipts, and he's always like, Wait, what? oh, oh.

Yes, check your receipts. Is his safe bandit? Or don't throw garbage at me. Exactly that's what perfect strangers say to him as he's walking through an airport.

Well, now we're gonna go to the warehouse. As Pam prepares to start painting, she's up on this big. What do you call that thing, like a scaffolding?

Yeah, it's like a scaffold thing.

Yeah, and she's put a grid up in pencil, and she's looking at her sketches, she's getting prepared, she's gonna start this, she says. You know what? If I mess up, I can just cover it with a shrub.

Yeah, this talking head of PAM's was actually longer by one sentence, and it cracked me up. Here's how it read in the shooting draft. I guess if I make a mistake, I can just cover it up with a shrub or something. But I always think less of paintings that are full of shrubs, I'm only allowing myself one shrub. And then here's the line that she would have said.

Nice.

I thought it was so cute from down below. Hide is watching, and Pam is just like, go back to work. It's like she feels this pressure, that he's just watching and watching. He says. He'd prefer to wait. Well, guess what?

It's a lot of pressure. People work in this warehouse every day and I don't want them to look up and say, Boy, that Pat really screwed up this one. A lot of the people who work in the warehouse think my name is Pat. I thought that was so funny.

So funny, they all think your name is Pat, and then Hide has a talking head. he has some insights on Pat, so many things.

Pat's afraid of pat, Pat is afraid of pat. Listen, that's what stops most of us most of the time, yeah.

It's just the fear, the fear of failure, the fear of things not turning out the way you hoped. Pat is afraid of Pat.

You know, when I gave myself permission to do things imperfectly, my career started to take off. Isn't that a weird thing? It was like, I found that, by the way, artist's way.

Artist's way.

Can I do it imperfectly?

Yeah.

Can I finish it? And it might be crap, that's a thing. The first thing you write, the first time you do the scene, it's gonna be crap. You know what? I mean, It's like, you're not Rembrandt with the first painting.

That's right. I even look at these scenes, you know, this episode as we break it down. And I just remember how many times we would have to do things to get it right.

Oh yeah, that's the kind of cool. Magic of film and television is that someone watches the final performance and you don't know how long it took to get there.

That's right, and they use the best take.

Exactly back in the van, Dwight tells Trevor that he'll be paid half now and half upon completion of the job.

Obviously off the books.

Nice, no taxes, yeah.

Angela hands him an envelope with all the pertinent information.

But what's the job?

Murder?

Murder?

Yeah.

This is even too much for Dwight, right? He pulls Angela aside. They're on the sidewalk. He says. You cannot have someone murdered. And she explains to him that the target is sleeping with her husband. And he says, I'm so sorry, but this is just crazy.

Trevor's up for it, Trevor's like, I think I can do it.

It's so crazy.

I know, I know.

Dwight says, Listen, there are different ways to get revenge, like defecating in a paper bag. Trevor quickly says I've been on the receiving end of that a few times and it's devastating. So that's another line that made me laugh. What they decide on is that Trevor is going to damage Oscar's kneecaps.

Yeah, and kneecapping.

Yeah.

Hit him in the kneecaps.

It's gonna happen at 4 p.

That's right. Fan question from Jenna F. In Los Angeles Angela Chris talked about being in the van all together with you guys shooting these scenes. Can you please share about doing these?

I mean.

How did you get through these?

Almost everything he said made me laugh because he said it with such earnestness. This character, Trevor, is such like a funny guy. But there was one moment that really got me. And it's actually in deleted scenes. I'm not gonna play it, Jenna, because it's more of a sight gag.

Oh, okay.

But I have to share it in stories, I have to. So there's this very serious moment in the van. And Angela Martin says to Trevor, What do you do if you get caught? And then he says, I slip through people's fingers. And then Dwight tries to grab him, and he does this hand move and Dwight's like, I can't get him.

Oh my gosh, I wish that was in the episode, that sounds so funny.

Imagine Angela trying. We were like tussling, like I'm trying to grab him, and he's like swatting at me, but we're seated in a van.

I mean, amazing, amazing.

It was such a fun day.

Well, there was another thing that Chris shared with us that I found so relatable and so charming. This was about just a memory he had of being on the office. Here's what he said.

Another thing I remember is that the office got me glasses to my actual prescription. And I think in my entire career of acting, that's the only time that a set has gone above and beyond like that. It's really, really thoughtful to do. I get a lot of parts as guys in glasses, like weird guys in glasses, and sometimes they make me wear my own glasses.

Well, Angela, we know who that is, we know who did that.

Phil, That's Phil, yeah.

And I'm gonna get choked up, I know, because I know, you know, we lost Phil last year.

To think of him, Yeah, yeah, me too.

And with this story, and with the Card Tower, that was Phil, Yeah, you know, and.

The sandwich with the pipe in it, it's coming up. Phil, that's Phil.

But you know, Ange, when I was on Splitting Up together. They wanted my character to sometimes wear glasses, but not my glasses, and originally they just gave me some glasses with glass in them. And every time we would finish a scene, I would have to be like, Do you know who has my real glasses? Do we know where my real glasses are? And I ended up losing my real glasses several times?

But how to his point? Lovely that they did it for a guest star.

I know.

That was your show, I know you were a series regular and you didn't have glasses till season two, yeah.

It was just one of those things where it was like, Hey, we just realized we could put my prescription in these glasses. Everyone's like, Oh, yeah.

Oh yeah, now you can see.

But, you know, Phil being Phil.

He thought of it, thought of it right away. Yep.

Should we go to crazy lunch with Jim and Stanley and Phyllis?

Oh my gosh, this is hilarious. Talk about at the top of their game, Leslie and Phyllis in this scene. First of all, Stanley is in no rush to talk and he just wants to order surf and turf with an extra side of surf. They're gonna really run up this bill. Phyllis wants to know how much wine they have.

How much? Yes, well, location alert. We shot this at Delmonico's on Ventura Boulevard. I think this is the same place that Michael ordered his gabagool.

Oh.

Same Restaurant and the Waiter was played by guest star Noah Blake. And I think what this scene tells us is that Jim has an uphill battle here.

It's gonna be a long lunch.

It is.

Oscar now brings Angela a cookie and she calls him an angel. All right, come on, Oscar, fine. I get it that maybe her complaining about the thermostat didn't tip you off, but Angela just called you an angel. Come on.

Yes, I think normally if you handed Angela a cookie that large, she would comment on it, right? Yeah, she'd be like, Thank you. Why is it so big?

Or she'd say, Why are you giving me a cookie? You never give me a cookie?

I don't want this. Exactly When did they start making cookies like this?

I don't like it, it has nuts. There'd be something, there'd be something. But she calls him an angel, and as he walks away, she crushes the cookies into her hands.

Which Dwight notices?

Yes, he's putting all the pieces together because up until this point, he didn't know who this person was that Trevor had to take out.

Well, Angela, we got a fan question. People wanna know How many cookies did you have to smash? do you remember?

I don't remember, but it was, I think we did more than one take, so it was probably three or so. I'm sure Phil had a whole basket of them standing by.

Exactly.

And the one thing they wanted is for me to crush it and for it to just kind of fall off my hands into the trash. That was all scripted, and that was, I would say. Of all the scenes that I had to do for this episode, that was the hardest one for me to ground in reality.

Crumbling the cookie, Yes.

Because I just thought Angela wouldn't wanna get her hands messy like she'd be like.

Oh yeah.

She'd be like, Oh, I'm very annoyed at you. In fact, I'm incredibly pissed off at you, but I'm not gonna get this crap all over my hands.

I guess that tells you how incredibly pissed she was, she was willing to dirty her hands.

Yeah, she's super pissed.

Well, now we're in the stairwell and Oscar, the secret stairwell, the secret stairwell, the secret stairwell where Jim could have taken any of his business calls.

Nope, Jim's not gonna go there, but Oscar is.

Yeah, and he's on the phone, he's assuring the senator that they are a-okay. Yeah, Angela doesn't know a thing.

Dwight, of course, is lurking and has overheard the whole thing he now knows. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

Well, lady, I think we should take a break and when we come back, I have some tower stats for you.

Oh, I love tower stats. I don't even know what a tower stat is, but I'm so excited.

All right, we are back and Pam is gonna walk into the annex and see everybody building this giant tower. And there's all this camaraderie. And you can tell she's kind of like, I think she's maybe looking for a reason to not have to work on her painting right now.

I think she's procrastinating.

She is, but she's also very excited, but she's also very interested in this group activity. That looks like a lot of fun.

The tower is getting taller and taller. And Kevin wants to put two cards at the tippity top. And everyone's like, Kevin, be careful, be careful, and you can guess what happens. He knocks the whole thing down.

But they vow to start over, they're gonna go again.

Yeah.

Well, we got a lot of fan questions about this tower, Allison M, from Shelby, North Carolina, said. Please explain how the Tower of Complaint Cards was made. How did you get the tower to stay put? How was it reconstructed between takes?

They had to have been glued together.

They were.

Yeah.

This was such an elaborate prop, actually. Kudos again to Phil Shea. Steve Burgess said that we had about six different versions of the tower in various stages. And then when I was talking with Brent, he reminded me that they built it in layers, so there would be like the bottom layer that was all glued together.

I do remember that that they would carry them in on almost like this, I don't know. Like a tray, like a big, flat piece of plywood, they would carry in a layer at a time.

Yes, and Steve Burgess actually sent me a bunch of pictures of us posing around the towers so you can put those in stories, Angela. But Brent said there was one exception. You know, the scene when Kevin has to knock the tower down? That was a real tower of cards.

Shout out to Brian Baumgartner because this is yet another time where he has to get it. Basically, in one take, he had to spill that whole pot of chili in that one little area.

And then now he has to knock down this tower of cards.

And not mess it up.

Yeah.

You know, like, what if he, like, hit the middle by accident, or, you know?

Yes, if it hadn't fallen correctly, we would have had to wait for them to build the whole thing again in order to get the fall right. And then, of course, the subsequent takes afterwards.

Way to go, Brian.

Way to go, Brian.

I would like to share that someone is really noticing how sweet Pete is.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, when Kevin knocks it all down and everyone's upset at him, Pete says, You know what, he made a mistake. And isn't that what that whole tower is about anyway? And he gives Kevin a fist bump and he says, Let's get back to work. Aaron is all smiles, and there was a deleted talking head where Aaron talks about Pete. And I want you to hear it.

Pete really sticks up for the underdog, and in my book, that's the best dog to stick up for. The little dog that's underneath all the other dogs, way at the bottom. So yeah, good guy, this Pete, I like this guy.

There's a little tiny one underneath all of them, at the bottom.

Gotta get him out of there, you know? Another thing that Pete says is, come on, who in here hasn't gotten a complaint or made a mistake? And Pam raises her hand. She's never had a complaint against her, not ever.

With all the pranks she's done with Jim over the years, Dwight hasn't filed a complaint.

Well, I think it's customer complaint, right?

Yes, yes, yes, okay, okay, yes.

I'm sure there's been files of Dwight complaints.

Oh yeah, you're right.

So now the tower has been rebuilt and it is almost up to the ceiling.

Yeah, and they've run out of cards.

There's no more complaints, they just need one more complaint to make it to the ceiling, so Pam is gonna volunteer to get a complaint.

Meredith doesn't buy it. She says, You know what, Pam, she wouldn't fart on a butterfly, and then Jenna, the way you, as Pam said the line. I can't even relate to that impulse. It was so funny the way you said it.

Well, one thing I remember from this particular scene was that the first time we had the what was gonna be the tallest tower, Greg said, it wasn't tall enough.

What?

Yeah, he said. I want the top card to touch the ceiling. He's like, that's when they know they've done it.

I have to say I agree with that. That feels like, okay, we've literally reached the ceiling. Yes, well, Pam is definitely part of the camaraderie now, because everyone is chanting, Pam, Pam, Pam, Pam, except maybe someone in the warehouse would be chanting.

Pat, pat, pat, true, very true. Well, back at Jim's lunch, Phyllis is, what would you call it? She's looking at her hands.

She's seeing the passage of time. I thought Phyllis was so brilliant in this scene, she says. You know what? I don't know where the years went, because sometimes when I look at my hands, I don't even recognize them. And she goes, Whose hands are these?

You know what this scene made me think of? I remember, I think I must've been in, like my mid 40s. One morning, I looked down at my hands and I got, like, immediately emotional, because my hands looked just like my mother's hands.

Oh yeah.

And I thought, one day she's not gonna be here anymore, but she's always gonna be in my hands. I'm gonna see her, and I do see her when I look at my hands, even now, it's so special to me.