The Paper Ep 9: Matching Ponchos

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Okay.

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Mm-hmm.

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I'm Jennifer 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 VFF stories where the office ladies 6.0.

Hi there, Angela.

Hey, good morning.

Good morning.

You were telling me a tale as I was warming up my coffee this morning about…

Your mascara.

Well, here's the thing you guys.

I walked in, say good morning to Sam.

Good morning to Jenna.

Hi to Matt on Zoom.

I go to use the restroom.

I have a massive mascara clump on my cheek.

Mm-hmm.

Nobody.

I didn't know.

I was in my own world getting my coffee ready.

Did you know?

No, apparently I didn't look up for my phone when you came in, apparently not.

But also, I guess Josh didn't notice when I said goodbye to him.

I always give him a kiss goodbye.

No giant black clump and mascara on my cheek.

But pretty much this morning has been a little bit of a get ready fail.

I slept with my hair wet so you know what I woke up to.

Your hair looks great for having slept with that wet.

I tried to tame my hair all morning.

It looks great.

Well, it's underneath.

Don't look at the back.

Okay, whatever.

Let it go.

Let go of the back of my head a long time ago.

But then also, I will hold on to make up way past the time you're supposed to hold onto it.

Like my powder compact right now is just one tiny square that's left

most of it is broken off.

And then I will smush what's left of the powder.

And then it like I'm not throwing that away.

Well, I was doing this with my blush as well.

And I it had I had dropped it once.

So I had a crack through it.

And it was getting a little precarious.

But I still kept finding a way to use it.

And this morning I'm rushing because my hair is crazy.

And I grabbed that blush out of the drawer.

And I opened it and all the inside of it has crumbled like a fine paper.

And it went all over.

He's just like blushed and fanny all over the sink all over the counter.

I had to change my top.

So I don't know what the lesson is you guys.

Maybe just like when things are past their due date, let them go.

You know, this sounds like my New Year's resolution about like little fixes big wins.

Like if you fix that problem,

yeah, it won't explode on you later.

Maybe it's okay to toss that very old blush.

I think it's three years old.

Well, you know, lady, my problem is that now I can barely see without my glasses.

I cannot read it all.

You know, I already worry about the apocalypse.

Sure.

I'm worried that I'm going to lose my glasses during the apocalypse.

And then I'm not even going to be able to read a book during it.

Oh, that'd be horrible.

Can you imagine?

No, I worry that I'm going to be barefoot during the apocalypse.

And it's going to be like die hard where he's running around barefoot trying to fight the bad guys.

This is another one of my worries.

Yes, shoes and glasses, very important.

Well, I can't see my face when I put my makeup on anymore.

And it doesn't matter if I use one of those magnifying mirror things.

It's not enough magnification.

So every morning, when I do my makeup, then I put my glasses on and I see what I've done.

And it's never great.

Do you have to tone it down?

It's not the toning it down.

It's that like the eye liner is in any way straight.

It looks straight to me when I put it on in a blur.

Right.

Or I will have like gobs of mascara underneath my eye.

And I can't see them until I put my glasses on.

So I have to do my makeup, then put my glasses on,

and then go in with like a wet q-tip and like fix everything.

I wonder what we're going to look like when we're old ladies.

Like legit old ladies.

Like I think I'm going to have too much blush.

Yeah, too much blush, too much lip.

And you're going to have like a lot of mascara gobs.

Yeah.

I can't wait.

I can't wait.

I feel the same way.

I don't mind.

All right.

Should we get into our fan chit chat question of the week?

Yes.

Should we also say what we're here to discuss today?

I mean, we can.

You guys, we're going to get to it.

We're doing episode nine of the paper.

It's called matching ponchos.

But first, let's have a chit chat.

This one's coming to us from Alexander G in college station, Texas.

Howdy, Jenna and Angela.

I'm Alexander G from college station, Texas.

My question for you guys is if you guys have not pursued acting,

what would just career be?

Very curious to know.

Can you guys answer to this question and love the pod?

Thank you guys.

All right.

Thank you, Alexander.

I know.

I thought that was such a thoughtful question.

I've thought about this.

Yeah.

I know my answer.

Well, you should go.

I think I would be a vet tech.

Oh, you'd be such a great vet tech.

You have such a heart for animals, Jenna.

Yeah.

I mean, those were the two choices I was weighing when I was younger.

I thought, do I want to become a veterinarian?

Do I want to become a vet tech?

Do I want to become an actor?

Right before I got my job on the office,

I had just started doing rescue work with kitten rescue.

And they teach you like a lot of vet tech kind of stuff,

you know, giving medications, giving fluids,

giving vaccines, being able to spot illnesses,

things like that.

There's a lot of that in the rescue stuff.

And I really loved it.

So I called my manager Naomi and my acting coach Robert

and I said, you guys, I think I might want to make a change.

If something doesn't happen this pilot season,

I think I want to take some time off.

I want to go to two years of vet tech school.

I just, the acting thing is feeling like

just eight years of rejection.

I'm just like, oh, that's no joke.

It has worn me down.

Yeah, it can be a real beat down.

Yeah.

And this other thing is giving me purpose.

It's making me feel joyful.

I feel needed and I feel good at it.

And I want to pursue that.

And then I'll know, like, should I go back to acting,

but I might need to take like a sabbatical.

Well, as we know, I ended up going out for the office

and then everything sort of changed and that path was the one chosen for me.

But I've continued to do the animal rescue work.

I mean, I'm fostering kittens right now.

I mean, that's one of the first things I learned about you in our friendship.

Yeah.

You were fostering kittens the first time I went to your house.

Oh, is that true?

Yes.

Oh, my gosh.

That's right.

We had a screening of the pilot of the office and I had foster kittens.

Yeah.

I remember that.

I've been fostering and socializing little

feral kittens for over 20 years now.

And I love it.

So I think if I wasn't an actor, that's what I would do.

And I think if I hadn't gotten cast on the office,

I very well might be doing that right now.

And I'm kind of doing it.

Kind of doing both.

Yeah, you are.

You've found a space for both things in your life.

Yeah, what about you, Sam?

Growing up, I really wanted to own a comic book store.

But I was alive when everything went to Amazon.

So like, there's no real physical print media anymore.

So you can't read it.

There's like five existing comic book stores left in Los Angeles.

There's one in the valley our son has been to.

Yeah, the ones that have been there have been going for like 30, 40 years now.

But yeah, that's what I want to do.

Sam, have you been to secret headquarters?

I have.

Yeah, that's my home shop.

I love secret headquarters.

And so we're like, yeah, shout out to secret headquarters.

It's a what all can you find there, Sam?

Everything.

They're really well stocked.

They're up to date.

They're really knowledgeable and really nice.

Sam, I could really see you running a comic book store.

I could too.

I could also see you back in the day running a video store.

Yes, I can see that.

I know about like all the movies and being able to suggest a movie.

Yeah, like the local one, like I know growing up the town

where I would go visit my grandparents.

Yeah, they didn't have blockbuster.

But they just had a guy that had started a collection

and had his own little like store where you could go rent movies.

Yeah, I also grew up in a real small town in Wisconsin.

So I didn't have that big of dreams.

I distinctly remember seeing the movie clerks and being like,

oh, I could do this.

Like I could work an a menial job forever.

But a creative way.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, Matt, what about you?

I think high school history or English teacher.

I think I might still want to do that one day.

It's just like big shout out to teachers.

It's such a grind and so hard and so kind of thankless.

But I would love to do that one day.

Oh, Matt, my mom was a history teacher,

middle school history teacher for over 35 years.

Yeah, I think middle school would be tough.

Yeah.

And Jenna's sister is a teacher and my sister's a teacher.

Yeah.

Lots of love for teachers here at office ladies.

All right, Angela.

What about you?

Well, you know, growing up in Indonesia,

a big part of my life was the ocean.

And we'd go out to the thousand islands.

And it was my real happy place.

I love to explore.

I just loved it.

And my love for it has never stopped.

And so often on for years,

I thought maybe I would go into some type of marine biology.

And then, you know, I always had the acting bug.

But those were my two loves.

And then since being out in California,

I started working with Oceana, which is a non-profit,

trying to help save our oceans and protect them.

But ocean preservation is really meaningful to me.

So I think I'd do something with that.

Something about protecting these very fragile marine ecosystems.

And we need the ocean, you guys.

We need it.

We need to take care of it.

So yeah, I think doing something like that.

Yeah, that's cool.

I could see that.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's interesting always to think about like your parallel

universe life.

Like, you know, the movie sliding doors.

Like, what's that other version of you somewhere?

I can see you somehow being a mascot for the ocean.

For ocean cleanup,

with like the six pack rings on you,

like you cutting them.

I could see you like teaching kids

through song to cut those,

or straws go in turtles noses.

Yeah, exactly.

Don't throw away that plastic bag.

It looks like jellyfish.

Exactly, yeah.

Oh, it's already begun.

There it is.

You're mixing your improv performance

with ocean preservation.

There it is.

And I did.

I did a trip to Belize.

You guys know with Rashida Jones.

I've talked about that and to sort of highlight

the barrier reef there.

So yeah.

Well, thank you, Alexander.

We love getting to talk about all that.

I love that conversation.

Why don't we take a break?

And when we come back, we'll discuss

Episode 9 of the Paper Matching Punchos.

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All right, we are back from break.

It's time to talk about episode nine,

matching ponchos written by L.E.

Korea and directed by Dave Rogers.

Yes, Dave Rogers.

And he gave us the best tidbits about this episode.

Such good ones.

I mean, listen,

everyone we reach out to in the office

universe has always been so amazing.

But for like super specific details,

Dave Rogers is like AltStar.

100%.

Give us a summary, Jenna.

All right.

Ned and Mayor embark on a road trip

to interview a possible cult leader.

Meanwhile, Oscar seeks to confront his online troll.

And Esmeralda has fallen under the spell

of a young photo of Barry.

This is, I think, my favorite episode.

I think it's mine too.

There's so many moments that I was like,

I love this moment.

Same.

All right.

We're going to start with a cold open.

Kin and Travis are manning a softy,

toilet paper slash ice cream truck.

Kin is dressed as a milkman.

Travis is dressed as Santa.

And they're handing out what looks like

to be ice cream cones.

Did you see what was on the side of the truck?

No, what?

I mean, it was painted with the softies logo and all that.

It was painted pink and white with the softies logo,

like the softies lady that we've seen.

But there was some signage huge on the side.

I had to freeze on it.

It said, quote, by touching a cone,

I wave any legal claims or rights.

Oh, wow.

So I kind of have to call BS on the parents

that are letting their kids take these cones.

And they all bite into them thinking they're ice cream.

They look like toilet paper.

They are toilet paper.

They're little mini rolls of toilet paper

on an ice cream cone.

They smell like mint,

which is just what you want to wipe your sensitive areas with.

What?

Yeah.

This whole thing is their sort of like goodwill way

of trying to get the community to forgive them

for the giant sewer clog that they caused.

Yeah.

And Marv put Ken in charge of this sort of brand

rehabilitation effort, right?

I have questions.

Oh, yeah.

Number one, how much money did this company spend

on this custom painted ice cream truck

and these tiny toilet paper rolls

that fit on top of ice cream cones?

Like, this was a lot of money.

I mean, I'm just going to go out on a limb here

and say, I don't think Ken always has the best idea.

Marv, maybe you should take a look

at Ken's budget for things.

Also, why is Travis dressed like Santa Claus?

Is it December?

Is this their nod to Christmas?

Is this their Christmas episode cold open?

Listen, we don't know the answer to this question,

but in my mind,

the character of Travis is like,

Oh, we got to dress up.

Okay, I have a Santa outfit.

Yeah, I'm going to see kids.

Kids love Santa.

And Ken's like, I'm going to dress like an ice cream dude

and Travis is like,

well, all I have is a Santa suit.

I don't know.

Because it looks like somewhere outside to me.

Like, it looks warm.

The kids are not wearing coats and scarves and stuff.

It doesn't look like winter in Ohio.

It looks like at best early autumn.

Well, what it made me realize is that

in season one of the paper,

there was never a holiday episode.

There was not a Halloween episode.

There was not a Christmas.

We have not seen this group celebrate a holiday.

I would just put this out there.

Season two writers.

I feel like a holiday episode would give lots of stuff

to write in the paper.

I know.

And we, personally, we loved getting to shoot them.

So yeah,

Mary could listening.

Mary could go report on the Christmas festival

of lights.

There you go.

There it is.

It writes itself.

It writes itself.

Well, just what you guys for it.

Writing pitches for us.

Well, what's going to happen in this cold open?

Like we said, as the kids start to eat it,

they realize it's toilet paper.

They get really angry.

The parents get angry.

They start throwing the toilet paper rolls at the truck.

And then Ken and Travis have to peel out of there.

And I just call BS on the parents.

If I walk up to a truck that says by touching a cone,

I wave any legal claims or rights.

I might be like, this is not the ice cream for us.

Yeah.

Also, if it's not Christmas time and there's a man dressed as Santa

inside of an ice cream truck,

I'm going to steer my children in another direction.

Turn around.

We did ask Dave Rogers about the scene.

And this is what he said.

He said one thing that was super tricky was the kids all

wanted to throw the toilet paper cones as soon as we shot take one.

But they only had a limited amount.

So Dave needed these kids to wait before they could throw them.

And I just can't imagine that.

Cause like you tell a kid they get to throw something.

They're just going to go all out immediately.

Well, we used to do stuff like that on the office.

Like I remember there was a scene where a cake got destroyed.

But we only had so many cakes.

So we would shoot the top of it over and over and over again.

And then we just shot the destroy the cake part at the very end.

Yeah.

Dave said needless to say cones would accidentally get thrown.

So there'd always be one kid who couldn't resist.

Well, now the episode begins and we find out

Mayor has been approved to go investigate

if this, I guess, what is it?

A farm is actually a cult.

Yeah, it's a farm that's three hours south of Toledo.

And she's pretty excited to get to the bottom of this.

Also her neighbor's son, I guess, is at the cult

and missed his mom's birthday.

So she's like, I'm going to investigate.

She was supposed to go with dead trick.

But when she goes to grab him to get on the road,

he says, I can't go with you.

He's afraid he'll end up joining a cult.

He had a dream about it the night before that he joined.

So quickly, Ned comes out and is like, I'll go with you.

And he's super excited about it.

So now the two of them are going to take off on this adventure.

Well, he loves buying his squash from this farm community

at the farmer's market.

Yeah.

He's like, I'd love to see where they grow it.

Yeah.

Up next is my favorite as Moralda storyline

in the whole first season so far.

Really?

Yes.

Okay.

I liked it more than her and Ken and Kahoot's.

Okay.

Yeah.

We might vote for her and Ken and Kahoot's,

but I did like this one.

I thought she shined.

Oh my god, Sabrina is so good.

What we learn is this first talking good is so funny.

She found in the archives of the paper

an old picture of Barry when he was 30 and he was very handsome.

He was very handsome.

Very handsome.

Well, that image really stuck in as Moralda's mind.

And then I guess basically she has a sexual fantasy dream

about Barry when he was in his 30s.

But as Moralda, of course, that's not how she like shares about it.

She says, Barry did something very inappropriate

because he came into my dreams and he had his way with me.

And she said, listen, if that happened once, fine.

Okay.

I was willing.

There was some mutual attraction.

But she's like, Barry is now coming to me every night.

Okay.

I have needs maybe more than other people.

But I mean, then I come into work and he pretends

like nothing happened.

How dare he?

As if Barry is going to know

that she is having sexy time dreams about him.

Lady, this happened to me.

What?

I had a sex dream about a coworker once.

Is it anyone I know?

Yes.

What?

It was, yeah.

And I couldn't look at him for three days.

I couldn't look at him.

You know what?

I think I know who it is.

It was so weird.

Are you going to say who it is?

Can I guess?

I'm having a memory.

I'm having a memory shoot.

I forget who it was.

But it wasn't who I anyone would expect.

Yes, I will only say this.

I'm not going to say who it was

because I don't want any clickbait articles about it.

But it was during my time on the office.

It was while I sat at reception

and this person sat in the bullpen.

Like you could see everybody from reception.

So I'm including everyone in the bullpen.

Except not really the accounting nook.

I could see the accounting nook if I wanted to.

Okay.

You're trying to whittle it down and I won't let you.

But it's not who all the clickbait people would want it to be.

Correct, correct.

I'll just, it wasn't John everybody.

There.

Yeah.

But someone entered my dream

as happened to Sabrina.

And we had hot sexy time.

Oh my god, lady.

And then I couldn't look at them for three days.

I was so embarrassed.

Well, I wonder if you had to do a curse.

We'll get to it.

Angela, has that ever happened to you?

Like have you ever had a sex dream about a co-worker

or somebody who then you have to see?

I haven't.

Oh.

I'm sorry.

I haven't.

I mean, every once in a while I'll watch a movie

and then it's maybe like I have a dream about someone in the movie.

Like that I found super attractive.

Sure.

That's so lame.

I'm kind of lame.

I think it worked though.

It's like, I don't know.

I just always, I don't know, I don't know.

I mean, I think it really surprised me because usually, you know,

I just dream about someone like Brad Pitt giving me soup.

Right.

You know, like I dreamed that Ryan Gosling ran errands with me.

And it was super hot.

You did?

I was driving and I was fastened or speed.

And I was like running.

I was like going through the list of places we needed to go.

But I was so attracted to him and I was like, play it cool.

Play it cool.

You're just running errands.

Oh my god.

I feel like our love languages are so clear.

I know.

Run errands with me or make me soup.

Well, next up, we're going to get to the scene that you and I saw being filmed in person

when we visited the set of the paper.

It is this scene that begins Oscar's storyline, Oscar's delicious, wonderful storyline.

He gets a comment.

A little comment pops up on his computer.

He's written a review of South Pacific and someone has commented on it.

Someone named Go Mudheadens 10 and they're insulting Oscar.

They say, geez, how many more adverbs can you use?

And they call him an ass hat.

Yes.

I love the term ass hat.

I do as well.

It makes me ass hat and dipshit.

Always bring me joy.

Those are your two faves.

Yeah.

Adelola is going to have a talking head where she explains sort of the trend that's been happening.

This troll will pounce on anyone that gets any tiny mistake wrong.

But they use weirdly dated internet memes to insult everyone from probably circa 2012.

Well, there was a runner in the extended peacock version where Travis,

DeTrick and Adam read some of the outdated ways that Go Mudheadens 10 comment on things.

And I just, it cracked me up.

I wanted us to hear it.

Wow.

Your third article about BrookTrout this week.

It's a Maze Balls how you refuse to broaden your scope.

Irmer, girl, dangling modifier alert.

I don't, I don't understand any of that epic fact check fail.

This is funny.

Go Mudheadens 10 is funny.

Yeah.

This has made me laugh like a Maze Balls Irmer, girl.

And like, fail.

It's as if like maybe me or you were stuck in that time too, I think sometimes.

We are.

Well, now Ned and Mara are going to get on the road.

Ned goes to open up the door to Mara's car.

She's going to drive and a bunch of trash falls out.

So much.

I took a screen grab.

There's all these take out containers, rappers, water bottles.

Like, it's all over the place.

I was curious, you guys.

Is your car tidy?

I want to do a poll in stories.

Are you a mayor?

Are you like tidy in your car?

Um, I feel like I'm between mayor and tidy.

Like things don't fall out of my car when you open the door.

Like mayor feels a lot more in the world of Michael Scott.

Yeah.

When Michael and Brian are cleaning out his car, blue blast.

Blue blast.

There's still some night swept on the stick.

And the like the fish sandwiches.

Yes.

Sam, what about you?

Are you mayor or you tidy?

I'm obsessively neat and tidy with my car.

I get to wash every week.

Oh my goodness.

All right, Matt.

I've become very tidy.

My wife, I don't know.

She's pretty organized in general,

but just treats the car like a total trash dump.

And like, put trash in pockets and little side holders.

And I'm like, why?

So I cleaned it out now.

But I wouldn't be like that normally.

But it's a reaction to her.

You know, so I'm always been pretty tidy with my car.

But there was a chapter of my life when the kids were little

that I just had to like turn the other way.

Yeah, that's it.

There were those goldfish crackers everywhere in Cheerios.

And there'd be like some kind of sticky something on something.

And I just was like, this is what this car is.

This car is like a human people mover.

It's a traveling high chair.

Yes, that's why I feel like take,

like we'll be at a party or something.

And like, she'll have a paper play and doesn't want to throw it out there.

And then we'll take it and then like put it in our car.

I'm like, you're taking trash into our car.

That doesn't have to be there.

That's hilarious.

I do have good friends where the wife is similar.

And one time in prom two, I asked her to give me a ride.

We were leaving a thing at the school.

And I was just like, oh, hey, could you give me a ride to my car?

I had a part far in the look of just like sheer terror that came over her face.

She was like, I was like, it's just a few, do you mind?

And she was like, uh, and then when I walked up to her car,

I was like, I think she saw my face of like, oh, my God.

I was like, you know what? I'll walk.

It's fine. It's fine.

There was so much.

You couldn't see the front seat.

There was so much stuff.

Wow.

Wow.

Okay.

Well, did you notice Ned's Ziploc bag full of snacks?

I did.

For the car ride.

I did.

It warmed my heart.

It made me remember when we went on our work retreat up to Santa Barbara

last year when we met Kendra.

Yeah.

You drove ange.

Do you remember what I ate?

It's all I ate.

I was still in during my treatment.

And I would get really nauseous in the car, especially.

I mean, I would just get, I was just spent a year nauseous, basically.

But all I could eat was saltines.

Yeah.

I was going to say crackers and they got everywhere.

Everywhere.

I just ate sleeves of saltines, the whole car ride.

And I didn't understand how many little salty

cracker particles could like travel.

I found them all over the place.

I felt so bad.

Like when we finally got home and dropped your car off,

I was like, I apologize.

Like, please, I'm so sorry.

It's okay.

It's okay.

Well, we're back in the office now.

Esmeralda's in the kitchen with Nicole.

And she's explaining these sex dreams.

Yeah.

That she's having about him.

It did correct me up.

Nicole was like, wait, I'm confused.

Are these like a nightmare?

And Esmeralda's like, oh, no, he was wonderful.

Okay, very surprising.

I can't complain about that.

But then she says, it's just now I think maybe he's an incubus.

Like he's like a sexual demon.

And Nicole's like, maybe you should talk to a professional about that.

Well, I was curious what is an incubus.

So I looked it up.

First of all, it's a rock band.

Oh, yeah, that I knew.

Yep.

But it is also a malevolent, mythological demon believed to sexually

prey on women while they sleep,

causing nightmares and sleep paralysis.

Incidentally, you can also be haunted by a succubus,

which is a female demon who comes to men in their dreams

to seduce them and drain them of their energy.

And according to the National Library of Medicine,

studies indicate that 11 to 12% of people in the general population

have reported being visited by an incubus or a succubus.

Come on.

11 to 12%.

It's more common in students and psychiatric patients.

In that group of people, it has happened 41% of the time.

Huh.

Yeah.

But it's not considered a nightmare.

It's an actual like haunting from a demon that enters your dreams

and has sex with you.

Huh.

Well, we did get a letter.

Not about that, okay.

Very different, but I found it interesting.

Trish from Chicago, Illinois wrote in to say,

hi there, longtime listener of office ladies,

and I couldn't help but think of Angela Martin

with this blouse that as Marelda is wearing.

Did you ladies see all of those buttons?

Oh, did you notice the blouse?

Now that you say that,

I know.

I saw that comment and I went and looked

and it is like oldy blousey blouse

with those tiny little like satin buttons

that go all the way down and down the wrist as well.

Yeah.

But I can tell you who would not want an incubus

and that's Angela Martin.

This is true.

She would be like, get the behind me, Satan.

I feel like she would know what to do.

She would.

Well, now some really amazingly delicious,

hilarious car driving scenes are going to start.

It's Ned and Mare in the car.

Actually texted Chelsea and I said,

I just want you to know we are going to be singing your praises

because those driving scenes were amazing.

I sent her the same text.

Did you really?

Well, the driving scenes start with Ned and Mare

kind of wondering, would they be

prey to a cult?

Would they easily fall into one, right?

And as they're talking,

they go past like a meadow and there's sheep

and he's like, oh my gosh, that sheep looks like flossy.

He had a sheep growing up and then he tells Mare,

but then, you know, it had to go live on this farm

and Mare is like, oh my god.

No, that sheep died.

They just tell you that.

It's the animals going to go live on a farm.

Yeah, she's also like,

wait, how did you have a sheep growing up?

What are you, a Hungarian prince?

That's what she says.

And he's like, oh, I went to a petting zoo

and I fell in love with this one sheep.

And so then my parents bought it for me

and let me bring it home.

But then it wasn't house broken.

So then it had to go live on the farm.

She's like, there's so many things

that you've just said that are so unrelated.

It's a very funny scene.

And we got a fan question from Sheena P.

in Austin, Texas who asked

how much of the flossy conversation was improv.

Well, I asked Chelsea.

She said it was all pretty much scripted.

She also said that her and Donald

were just saying, because you know,

they're back shooting season two now.

They were just reminiscing about season one

and saying that this day of shooting these driving scenes

was one of their most fun days to shoot.

Well, I had some questions for Dave Rogers

about these driving sequences.

I wondered where they filmed them

because it looked like real farm community.

And we also had a question from Caitlin P.

in Wakeman, Ohio who said was mere actually driving.

And here's what Dave had to say about all of that.

Dave said, okay, let me start by saying

that the things we used to do in the office

when we'd have the cast actually driving the cars

is now a thing of the past.

Lady, that's probably a good idea.

I mean, I can't believe I drove the car

when Dwight ran me off the road.

Yeah, I can't believe that Catherine and I

were driving when I'm teaching Nellie to drive.

And she's eating a salad.

I mean, do what are we thinking?

Yeah, craziness.

Dave goes on to say,

they actually don't let you free drive anymore.

Even if we have precision drivers on the road

as background cars,

we shot a lot of scenes on the office with cast driving.

And I'm a fan of it as it looks real

because it is real.

But I think all television shows have stopped

allowing that because of safety reasons.

So mayor was not really driving,

but the car was also not on a trailer.

Because that's the other way we would do it.

Sometimes we weren't really driving,

but they would put the car onto the back

of this big trailer and they would tow it.

So it looks like you're driving,

but you're just being towed.

Yeah, but you're really out on the road.

Yeah, but that was not the case here.

No, Dave said, because of the amount of driving

scenes and the earlier sunset times

that come with daylight savings,

combined with a patch shooting schedule

that included shooting numerous other scenes

on the same day, Dave described that there were

these plates that literally wrapped around the car,

the front, sides, and back.

And there were also screens in the front of the windshield.

And here's what that looks like, you guys.

Jenna and I have both done this.

Like I did a driving scene

for the television show Better Things.

And when they have plates around the car,

it had like scenery on these big like screens.

Was that your experience, Jenna?

Well, he's calling them plates because that's the industry term,

but I think it's more accurate to say,

they're like giant green screens

that surround the car.

And then they project the road to it,

the moving road onto these screens that surround the car.

Yeah, they were like these huge squares

on stands that surround the car.

And then they can put whatever they want

on those big squares to show wherever you are.

So my driving scene was in a city,

they're in the country.

Yeah, I did this for that television show I did in London

called Ume and the Apocalypse.

And it was crazy because like in this episode,

there's going to be a moment where like

Donald puts the window down,

Ned puts the window down,

and then like all this air comes in.

And so they have, it's like old-timey fans.

And also like truly there's just some dudes in the back

just like rocking the car.

Yeah, I did find it kind of surreal

because I'd only ever done driving scenes on the office

where we were actually on the road.

So the things I looked out the window

were real trees I was passing and stuff like that.

And when I did my scene on better things,

I'm in the backseat and we hit a bump.

But it's kind of distracting

because there's just like three men right outside.

Yeah, like kind of raising the car.

David said while there are pros and cons

to using this technique,

ultimately he felt like it looked pretty realistic

and allowed them to have more shooting time.

And that took away a lot of pressure for everyone.

And I think you see them having fun.

I think it really paid off.

They tricked me.

So I watched it and my question was the same.

Where did they do these driving scenes?

And when we got this information from Dave,

I went back and re-watched it.

I can't tell.

I, oh, same.

I literally thought they took a road trip

to like some part of Northern California

where it's farming community.

Same.

Well, I had another question for Dave

about how they shot these scenes,

especially now knowing that they weren't really on the road.

You know, and my family is re-watching the office.

It's my kids first time seeing the show.

It's been really fun.

But something I'm noticing is how

when we had driving scenes on the office,

you know, we used the little lipstick cameras inside the car.

Yeah.

There is a real degrade in quality.

Like if you see us in the office

and then it cuts to people in the car,

I didn't really notice it before.

Like originally when I watched the show,

but now in this re-watch,

I'm really seeing it.

And I asked Dave like,

this looks really clear.

Like I'm not seeing that degrade in quality.

Were you using lipstick cameras?

Like how did that work?

And Dave said that the lipstick cameras

that we use in the cars shooting the office,

they did not have the same quality of resolution

or lenses that our regular cameras had.

He said, but that was the style for documentaries back then.

That was what happened on reality shows

when you got in the car.

And that they sort of saw that as part of the storytelling.

They liked it.

Yeah.

They embraced it.

He said, but now, you know,

we're several years from the office ending

and he believes the documentary crew

got some newer equipment.

They still use lipstick cameras,

but now lipstick cameras can get you a sharper image

and listen to this.

They can be controlled remotely.

You can zoom.

You can pan.

We couldn't do any of that stuff.

Our lipstick cameras were fixed in one place.

That's all you got and you only saw what their lens saw.

So he said they used three in the car,

but they could pan.

They could zoom.

He said it was amazing.

He said he positioned one as a wide shot

and then he did two that kind of were cross-angled.

He wanted to be able to see the actors,

but he also wanted to see out the side windows.

Well, you got me.

I thought it was amazing.

Really well done.

Well, now we go back to the Toledo Truth Teller

in the bullpen.

Oscar is really spinning out

over being called an ass hat.

He has a rant.

Jenna and I both texted Oscar Nunez

about how amazing he is in this rant.

I mean, eventually he's going to come on

and we're going to talk to him all about it.

But this was my chef's kiss moment

of the episode.

I think we should hear it.

Oscar, do you have the order number

for this?

Just such an unforgivably stupid word.

Another adverb.

Okay, well, it's a vital thing to call someone.

But all I'm saying is how stupid it is.

Because what?

So in this scenario, what?

I'm a little hat worn by an ass.

An ass wears a hat.

Or am I an ass shaped hat?

What do you see what I'm saying?

You just, I want to find them.

I want to find them and grab them and just

explain to them how funny it is.

The whole scenario, how amusing it is to me.

That's all because you can't, but you can't,

because it's computers and it's internet.

So you can't tell them because you can't find them

because there's no way out.

You could track down their IP address.

IP address?

Yeah, it's traceable.

I can track them.

No, no, Oscar, look at me, dude.

Revenge is a very dark road and it can be

surprisingly expensive.

Okay, but if you do want to go down this road,

you'd call IT and the number is three,

two, seven, one.

Lady, I love the journey that Oscar goes on.

Yeah.

Angry, but then he's like, but it's funny.

It's funny to me.

Yeah.

And then also a little bit that this dates all of us

where of a certain generation that you're like,

but you can't find it.

It's computers.

Yeah, there's no way you'll ever know.

And they're like, actually, it's just,

you can track down the IP address.

We should mention that Oscar was nominated

for a Critics Choice Award.

That's right.

That's right.

Supporting actor in a comedy.

And this is why, guys, this is it right here.

Watch the scene.

He does this very funny thing too,

where he does like a little tiny hat like on his head.

He's like, am I an astronaut?

Look, it's, it's great.

Oscar's just brilliant.

Well, why don't we take a break?

And when we come back, there's a spider in Mayor's car.

Sorry, I'm laughing about it.

I know because it's so good I watch this scene so many times.

We need to break it down.

We'll be back.

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We're back in its time for...

Our first one is from Sarah T.

in Burlington, Wisconsin.

Sarah wrote in and said,

every winter my town puts an old car

on the ice of the lake downtown.

There is a contest for whoever can guess the day

it falls through the ice.

It just recently made its yearly appearance.

Sam, so many questions.

So many questions.

I actually googled this after I read it.

This is a whole thing.

Yeah, this is right where I grew up.

I remember this, yeah.

They put all kinds of things on the ice.

Yeah, they do refrigerators,

all sorts of things.

I saw one where they made a giant kind of like,

look like a paper mache statue of a person.

Like to see when he slowly sank in.

When did they get the stuff out?

I don't know that they ever do.

No, they have to drag it out.

Cars and refrigerators at the bottom of the slake.

Look, I'm going to assume so.

Oh, no.

I hope they've dragged them out.

Who's going to drag them out?

Who's responsibility is that?

I don't know.

Also, the contest, what do you win?

Just bragging rights?

I'm going to sue meat or beer or cheese.

That's Burlington, Wisconsin.

Sarah, we have questions.

Sarah, we have questions.

I also know winter really drags on up there.

And you kind of need to make some entertainment for yourself.

Yeah, I'm on board with this.

Next up is Kristen A from Shenandoah, Iowa,

who said, I run a small dealership in Southwest, Iowa.

We were just named the Iowa nomination for the national independent

quality dealer award.

Hey, congratulations, Kristen.

The winner will be announced in June at the National Convention.

It's based on industry involvement,

business operations, and community involvement.

It's huge for our town and huge for women,

thriving in a male dominated industry.

So wish us luck.

Good luck.

Good luck, Kristen.

Next up, we have Beth S.

from Columbia, Maryland.

Beth says, proud mom, reporting from Howard County, Maryland.

High school actor and avid, the office fan,

Luke is now assistant stage manager of

this spring's production of Cinderella, the musical.

After over 10 years of acting in youth theater programs,

Luke has decided to explore other aspects of theater

and begin training to be stage manager

acting as assistant stage manager this season.

He hopes to continue in this role as he continues high school

with some acting should the perfect role come around.

Luke, thank you so much for exploring stage management.

It is such an important part of the theater experience.

I mean, you're the Kelly Cantley.

Yes, the show.

You're the first AD.

You keep it going.

You keep it scheduled.

Yes, the props.

You call the show.

You call the show.

None of it happens without you.

Without a great stage management team.

So I love it.

And also keep performing, Luke.

Yeah.

All right.

Our last around the town from Jenny L.

and Big Piney Wyoming,

Miss Camilla R, a senior at Big Piney High School,

became the first female and only second wrestler in school history

to win the statewide wrestling tournament, Ron Thon.

In Wyoming, this means you are the best wrestler in your weight class

in the whole state because they do not break into school-sized classifications.

Congratulations, Camilla.

Yeah.

Wow.

That's a huge accomplishment.

Way to go.

I loved hearing about these young people

who are out there doing what they love and just crushing it.

Thank you so much for writing in and sending you around the towns.

It just makes me so happy and I think of my grandmother every time.

Keep them coming.

You can find the folder for your submission on officeladies.com.

All right.

Let's get back to this paper breakdown, Angela.

Like we said, we're going to be back in the car with Marin Ned.

Yeah, it starts with Mayor eating a bag of chips,

which she then just throws over her shoulder to the backseat.

And then Mayor gets a call from a writer from Cleveland Today magazine

who was very impressed by her article on the sewer clog.

And while Mayor is talking to this writer,

she spies out of the corner of her eye a pretty big black spider

crawling alongside the window next to Ned.

Yeah, so she kind of motion.

She's like, could you get rid of that spider?

And he's like, oh, he is completely under by the spider.

He does so many hijinks trying to basically get this spider into a cup.

He's got like a piece of paper.

He's got an old paper cup.

He's trying to shove it in.

And Mayor is like, just smush it.

Just smush it.

And Ned's like, I have a system.

And it's humane.

He's going to try to get the spider out the window.

And he tries to throw it out the window.

It does that thing where like the web sort of connects

to the cup and then it swings in his face.

And it blows back into the car,

but he can't find it.

Is it on him somewhere?

He panics.

He like makes up this noise, which is hilarious.

He's like, ah, it's all the while.

Mayor is trying to have this very serious conversation with this writer.

And it is hilarious.

We got a question from Christine K and Dublin Ireland

who said, hey, ladies, I'd love to know everything about the spider in the car scene.

Was the spider CGI?

How was it choreographed?

How much was improv?

It just cracks me up every single time I watch it.

The physical comedy is brilliant.

Mr. Bean level.

Well, we asked Dave.

Dave said the spider was CGI.

They rehearsed and guided the actors on exactly where the spider would be

and what it would be doing.

Dave said, Donald just really sold it.

He did.

He sold getting hit in the face with it,

trying to get it off his body.

He said the visual effects team did an amazing job making it all feel real.

Dave said at one point in pre-production they did talk about having a real spider.

They even talked about having a real spider walk across one of the lipstick cameras.

But Dave said he thought it was kind of unnecessary.

He was afraid that it wouldn't register as clearly.

I mean, this is just reminding me of how when we did that fruit fly scene

in the break room of the office, it was real.

They brought in a fruit fly wrangler.

There's so many things I'm noticing that we did on the office.

We were really driving.

We brought actual fruit flies in.

And now they can do it with all of this technology.

I think about what Greg said when he was on our episode

breaking down the booze crews.

That they went to such effort to have this boat go out into the open ocean

at night so you could see that we were on the ocean at night.

And he said it just looked black.

He said we could have very easily been on a sound stage.

And probably if we were on a sound stage,

they could have made us look more like we were out at sea.

Because you're right.

I remember that.

He said we pointed the cameras out and you could see nothing.

Nothing.

It was just night.

And then they wouldn't have lost four actors out to see.

I mean, they were trying to get to shore.

But then we wouldn't have had all these fun stories.

We wouldn't have all the stories.

And people wouldn't have actually really gotten nauseous,

which is what happened.

Yes.

Well, I couldn't help but think this is so random.

But I was watching the scene and I'm cracking up about the spider

and sort of like the two types of people.

Like Mara's like just smush it.

And he's like, no, I want to help it get back to nature.

Lady.

Josh and I went to look at tile.

Okay, we have a leak in our sun's bathroom in the shower.

They're going to have to bust open the tile.

Anyway, we're going to have to replace the tile.

So we go to this tile store together.

We open the door and walk in.

And there's like this kind of little lobby way.

But only in the way that a tile store would do a lobby,

which means that the lobby itself, the tile features all kinds of different tiles.

Yeah, I know what you're talking about.

So you walk in and there was a woman kind of sitting behind a computer and

she's like, do you guys have an appointment?

And I was like, we do.

And we had just stepped in.

We're like two steps into this tile store.

And then this other woman walks past us.

In front of us, she's got a clipboard.

She works there and all of us at the same time.

Four strangers.

Clock.

This huge spider crawling across their tile lobby.

And this woman doesn't even skip a step.

She just strolls past us and spawn steps on it.

Smushes it as a big spider.

It's a big spush.

And then she just keeps on going.

Leaves the spider carcass.

And me and Joshua like,

is anyone going to do it?

What do we do here?

Do we tidy up this thing?

Do we just go about our day?

It was so odd.

It was so like just a weird moment between four strangers.

I mean, I would find that unnerving.

I must scoop it into the cup person.

I must scoop it into the cup person too.

I'm like, let's try it.

Like I was playing Tennessee the other day.

There was a bee on the tennis court.

I'm like, wait, wait, wait.

I went and got a stick.

I tried to get the bee to crawl on the stick.

And then I took the bee on the stick over to the bushes.

I mean, listen, we need to protect our bees and spiders.

They're actually really important.

You know, they eat mosquitoes.

Well, thankfully Ned did not squish this spider

because we would have missed out on this hilarious scene.

Yeah.

Well, now I think maybe one of my favorite moments.

I mean, there's so many in this episode.

Next to the whole spider storyline,

we're back with Esmeralda.

She is going to give Barry a gift, a quote-unquote gift

she found in the mail room.

And really, this is her taking the advice of her psychic

on how to break the curse.

She has a talking head about all the steps she's taking

to break this curse.

And I really want us to hear it.

I'm trying to be rational and practical

about this barrier situation.

Of course, I spring all salt on my doorstep

and on my window seals.

That did nothing.

Now, my psychic told me that there is another method

that is scientifically proven

that is going to break the incubus.

Oh, wow.

That looks nice.

Hello.

I think you should wear it for seven days

and seven nights without showering

and then bury it under red rock with a full moon.

So, yeah, she's given Barry the necklace.

And it's got garlic in it.

He just smells it is like, uh,

and he tosses it in the trash.

Esmeralda is so pissed.

She walks past and she throws a chair in the floor.

She's like, damn it, Barry.

This did make me be a lady that Googles.

What's your Google?

Different ways to break a curse.

Oh, what'd you find?

Well, have you ever heard of any of these?

I'm just going to throw out a few.

The uncrossing bath.

You take a bath with ingredients meant to uncross you.

Such as salt, rue, sage.

I don't know.

Egg cleanse.

You roll a raw egg over your body

to absorb the negative energy,

but then you have to dispose of it far from your home.

Salt protection.

As Marelle dimensions this,

you put salt under your dormats in the corners,

put it around your house to remove negative influences.

Then there's protective herbs.

Then there's a thing with a broom.

Have you heard of this lady?

You placed a broom upside down

behind the door to ward off negative visitors.

I mean, it goes on and on.

There was a lot.

Well, I also Googled.

Oh, I was a lady who Googled.

What did you Googled?

Well, I Googled how to rid yourself of an incubus.

Well, that's very specific.

That's good.

I bet there's no broom involved.

There isn't.

Because the thing is, you know,

all of these rituals, like the ones you're naming,

they're usually tied to a specific type of haunting

or bad luck or issue.

And there are very specific rituals

to rid yourself of an incubus.

So, as Marelle does psychic,

needed to get more specific with her.

Yeah, because it doesn't include anything

with garlic or salt.

Right.

Or burying something under a red rock with a full moon.

I don't know where her psychic got this.

If you find yourself with an incubus,

everybody, here's what you can do.

You can start with prayer.

Hmm.

Exorcism.

You can cleanse your space with sage,

incense, holy water, or blessed salt.

I guess the salt has to be blessed.

Because this is a demon.

Right.

An incubus is a demon.

So, you've got to get spiritual.

Correct.

You can also take a bath in the blessed salt.

Some folklore suggests that you should put a piece of cold iron

such as scissors or a knife under your bed.

I saw the iron thing in my list.

Also, place your shoes facing away from the door.

Don't know why.

Okay.

This one I was confused about, I guess,

an incubus is afraid of their own reflection.

So, if you surround your bed with mirrors,

it won't come into you at night while you're sleeping.

That sounds kind of empire-y.

I know.

Finally, use a dream catcher,

but get a big one.

A real big dream catcher.

And maybe it'll catch the incubus

before it can get into your dream.

Have you ever done anything like this?

I've saged my place before I've done a sage.

When I bought my house,

I walked around and I saged it.

I still have a ghost,

but she's friendly, so I'm okay with it.

I've had hippie woo-woo friends come over

and sage my places for me.

Yeah, same, Sam.

One of my friends came over when I bought my house

because it's an older house,

and she's like, well, first of all, we're going to sage it.

So, she did that.

A week later, my mom and sister came out.

They prayed over the house.

Uh-huh.

So, I've got everything covered.

Yeah, that's good.

Yeah, I think everywhere I live,

I'm going to do both things.

Yeah.

Might as well.

Might as well, right?

Good energy only here, people.

Agreed.

So, we're back in the car,

and Mary is finishing talking to this writer

from the Cleveland paper,

and it really bumps Ned.

Because basically,

Mary says to the writer,

how hands-off Ned is as the editor,

that she can just basically do whatever she wants.

And he starts to say something,

but then Mary is done with the conversation,

hangs up the phone.

I mean, she's intending it as a compliment,

because the writer is like,

I'm surprised that with your paper's

affiliation with softies

that you were able to write this article,

and she's like,

oh, no, no, my editor.

He's very hands-off.

She makes a comment where she's like,

I mean, I think the readers

read the article before he did.

That's what really gets them.

Yeah.

Because then he doesn't seem hands-off,

like letting his reporters really have integrity,

then it seems like he is just half-assing it.

Yeah.

So, they stop at a diner on their way.

They haven't gotten to the cult place yet.

They stop at a diner and Ned decides,

you know what, I want to review your questions.

He's decided suddenly to take an interest

in these questions, she might ask.

Because he had no interest before.

Exactly. He was like, I trust you.

Well, now he gets out a pen, a red pen,

and he's like marking up the document.

Mm-hmm.

Mary does have a throwaway line here

where she looks out the window and says,

I think my dad took me to a pencil sharpener museum around here.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, come on.

A pencil sharpener museum?

Wait, is that real?

It's real.

Stop everything.

It is real.

Yes, I had to be a lady who Googled again.

This is so fun.

There's a pencil sharpener museum in Logan, Ohio.

And I went to the website.

Here's what it says.

Stop by the Hawking Hills Regional Welcome Center

and visit one of the more unique museums you will see.

The Paul A. Johnson pencil sharpener museum.

Reverend Paul Johnson began his collection

more than 20 years ago.

It has over 3,400 pencil sharpeners

featured in national magazines.

It's reputed to be the largest collection in America.

And recently they added Frank Parade's collection.

And with those combined collections,

there's an estimated 5,000 pencil sharpeners.

And there's pictures.

You wouldn't believe the different types of pencil sharpeners.

It's fascinating to me.

I am actually feeling angry right now

that I am 52 years old almost.

And I'm only just learning about this pencil sharpener museum.

Like what?

I need to go there.

Like soon.

Do you love a pencil sharpener?

No, I have museums of tiny things like pencil sharpeners.

I like pencil sharpeners.

The randomness of this collection.

There's pictures on the website.

You guys, I'll share it in stories.

Well, now Ned and Mayor are going to arrive

at the fertile soil farm collective.

And the camera crew can't come with them.

They have to stay back.

Yeah, Mayor says, quote,

the cult dude is kind of secretive in an on-brand way.

So they walk up, the camera stay back.

But you can see people are all kind of doing yard work.

They're raking and they're all wearing these red ponchos.

Yeah, matching ponchos.

I noted that Ned still has his yellow backpack

from when we first met him in the first episode.

I thought that was a nice callback.

I have a missed opportunity alert here.

Okay.

How great would it have been if just one of the people

in a red poncho was creed?

Yes.

Come on, right, Sam?

Thank you.

Yes, yeah.

We don't hear from him.

He's still with the beard from the last episode.

Just a quick cushion.

Yeah, he doesn't even have to say anything.

He's just raking some leaves with the other people.

Exactly.

Yeah.

That would have been great.

I asked Dave Rogers, where did you shoot this?

And he said it was the magic of filmmaking.

They shot it on the universal back lot at a place that was a house that had some good trees

and some good brush around it.

He said the art department did a great job making it look like a farm.

And I can't believe that this was shot on the lot.

This is like just blowing my mind.

I know we're kind of a broken record here.

But you guys, when we went to shoot farms, we went to a freaking farm

an hour outside of LA.

We had to have a rattlesnake wrangler

because there were rattlesnakes everywhere.

We had to leave our houses at 4.30 in the morning.

I mean, I guess that's what you get when you shoot on a big time real deal,

Old Hollywood Lot, which is amazing.

They have all these different nooks and crannies that look like New York City

or an old town square or a farm.

And we just shot in this tiny soundstage in Van Eyes.

So we had to travel.

If we had to show any part of the world, we had to get out.

We had to load up in a van and go on the road

and watch out for rattlesnakes.

Or a B in John's eggs.

Correct.

Well, back at the truth teller, Oscar announces he has discovered who the troll is.

I guess he called the IT department after all.

He did.

Guess what?

It's coming from inside the building.

It's coming from Anne Putnam's office.

A Marv's assistant and sister-in-law, Anne.

They cannot believe this.

But Oscar has a talking head that's great where he says it makes sense.

Let's hear it.

I see it often in people over 50.

They get trapped in the year that they joined Facebook.

It's as if the technology sends their brain into shock

and their online personalities get frozen in time.

So Anne is basically a snarky millennial

trapped in the body of a boomer.

That is such a funny description.

I think there's some real truth in it.

There might be.

And look, I know my sister Janet listens to the podcast.

But Janet, the emojis you use are very telling to me

when you started having like the smartphone thing.

Why?

I only use a handful of emojis.

And I think it's because early on there were only a few to choose from.

And now there's so many.

I only use face palm, heart, and like the person who's crying while they laugh.

See, I think that shows when you joined

the sort of smartphone thing, right?

Sam, what about you?

I am partial to the guy giving this salute.

Oh, it's a good.

I've heard your sentence.

And I want to not give input to the conversation.

Wrap it up emoji.

I, I use the smiley face.

It has the like straight line smile of all teeth.

Like, oh, yeah, yeah.

Angela, I'm constantly using that one because I always feel that way.

Or I use the lady in the red dress running.

Yeah, you love that one.

That one for that's like party.

I think it's just like, I'm a badass.

I run in my dress.

And isn't she dancing?

I think she is.

But like my sister Janet will do like,

like the hand emojis that's like thumbs up.

Then I love you.

Then peace fingers.

And then like a hamburger, glass of wine,

champagne, things.

Well, the thumbs up just reads is passive aggressive.

That's like technical.

No, but she's not passive aggressive.

I was just reading how people want to cancel the thumbs up

because people think it's passive aggressive.

And I was like, oh, no, that's my most common one.

Oh, I do thumbs up all the time.

And I'm not used to me.

Me and my dad wouldn't talk if we didn't do thumbs up emojis.

Oh, yeah, it's a, it's a perfect dad and son emoji.

I'll give you that.

Okay, yeah.

I don't know.

Maybe it's time to throw some new ones in our emoji

resume, guys.

You know what?

I want to put this out there in our office ladies text thread.

Feel free to try on new emojis.

No judgment.

Yeah, okay.

It's our safe space to try new things.

I can't wait.

I can't wait.

Well, now we're going to go back to fertile soil.

They're leaving.

They're getting in their car.

And Ned has decided they're not a cult.

Mayor thinks they are a cult.

Mayor's like, you didn't let me ask any hard-hitting questions.

And they get into car and they're just annoyed with each other.

Yeah.

And this back and forth about whether or not they're a cult

or not follows them back onto their drive home.

It did make me wonder could the right cult get you?

This was a question Ned asks early on.

Right.

Because I kind of joined a cult once on accident.

And being your friend all these years,

I want to say this is really on brand.

I think when people first meet us,

Sam, maybe you would think I'm the one that would fall prey to a cult.

No, not at all actually Jenna.

Well, this is also how I accidentally joined a call girl ring.

Yes, because I thought I had joined a singing group.

You're oddly like very susceptible to these groups.

I am.

Yeah.

And you're such a critical thinker.

I know.

And yet I also believe a ghost lives in my closet, lady.

I don't know.

Well, lady, if you ever get sucked in by a cult,

I'd come and get you.

Thank you.

I know that you will.

You're welcome.

That's best friendship.

Well, now as they're arguing and driving down the road,

Mary gets a flat tire.

Yes.

They're going to have to change this tire.

Mary is going to change it.

Ned's just like sitting in the back of the trunk.

Like, do you know how hard it is to ratchet up your car in the first place?

And he's just sitting in the back.

Oh, yeah.

What the heck, Ned?

What the heck, Ned?

I do have a wardrobe catch here.

What is it?

15 minutes, 25 seconds.

I absolutely loved the boots that Mary's wearing.

So I had to Google them.

I went on to one of the websites I used to check costume and wardrobe stuff.

ShopyourTV.com says they are the six-inch classic mock

women's short boot and black boundary leather by Red Wing.

Oh, are they expensive?

They retail for $319.99.

But they are really cool looking.

You want to see?

Yeah.

Oh, those are super cool.

I know.

Yeah.

Those are really cool.

I know.

I kind of want to pair now.

If I were Chelsea, I would ask to take those home at the end of the season.

I hope she gets them.

Well, I asked Dave Rogers where they shot this and guess what?

Also on the universal back lot, they found a street on the lot

just right around the corner from that house that was being the farm.

And I mean, this is crazy.

This street on the universal back lot had a hill

because Mary's going to get mad at Ned and she's going to roll the tire

down this hill and make him chase after it.

I can't believe that was on the universal back lot.

I can't either.

That's what is huge, though.

It goes on and on.

Well, this is true.

Well, now here's a moment of truth.

Oscar and the rest of the gang are going to go confront Anne

about her snarky comments.

And the character of Anne could win a little Oscar here.

She really could.

She's like, what?

Who would do such awful things?

And then she's like, oh, dang it.

Marv has told me I need to set a password.

And I just thought, who would ever just come on my computer

and do something like that?

I just feel horrible.

And they're just like, oh, no, it's okay.

It's okay.

They believe they shouldn't give people my age these machines.

Yeah.

She completely convinces them that she had nothing to do with it.

And they all leave.

And then she has this talking head where she says, you know what?

Whoever the troll is probably just wants to hold the truth

tell her to a high standard of quality.

Marv has invested a lot of money.

So they need to make sure it's awesome sauce.

So it is Anne.

It is Anne.

Do you think she'll keep doing it?

Yeah.

I do.

I do too.

Well, Nat and Mayor have changed their tire.

And they're stopping at this diner again on their way home.

Ned tries to make a peace offering to Mayor.

He gets her this ice cream float.

But he only buys one and it's only for Mayor.

And so they get in this crazy weird fight

about who should eat this ice cream soda

and go back and forth about it.

It's very childish.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dave shared that there was a fun bit of improv

during this scene that he wished would have made it in.

There was this moment, I guess, where Donald

improvised actually eating the ice cream float.

Like he's like, fine, Mayor, I'll eat it.

And he downs it in like four spoonfuls.

And then Mayor is shocked.

And then he continues to try to make his case with her.

But he has to stop because he has brain freeze.

Dave said it was such good improv.

He thought it was so funny.

He put it in his director's cut.

But ultimately got taken out.

Aw, but he loved it.

Maybe they'll get to do superfan versions of the paper.

Superfan versions of the peacock version?

Yes.

They can add even more.

Yeah.

Well, Ned and Mayor are still bickering

and they're back in the parking lot now.

They're going to get in the car to drive back home.

When Ned gets a phone call,

it's detrick calling to tell them they were nominated

for the Ohio Journalism Awards.

Yes.

Mayor is nominated for her softies clogs Toledo story.

But the entire paper is up for the overall excellence

in journalism.

And they are just elated.

Yes.

They do a little happy dance in the parking lot.

So I guess all is forgiven there.

I mean, this is very exciting.

Big news.

And you know, the next episode,

the season finale is the Ohio Journalism Awards.

We're going to see how this all plays out.

But this episode is going to end with

Esmeralda walking into the office.

And she just walks over to Barry's desk.

And she just gives them a big kiss on the lips.

Yes.

And then she says this whole speech where she's like,

you have been kissed on the 17th day of the month.

I command you to forsake me.

Set me free.

Set me free.

Set me free.

And then she's like, the spell is broken.

And Barry's like, okay.

I loved it.

One last thing I want to share from Dave Rogers.

I thought this was so sweet.

He said one of the highlights of the week of him directing this episode

was that they got some very extra special VIPs that came to set.