Just Another Day At The Office Retro 06.06.08: Health Care Review
Posted by Seth Roy on 06.07.2008
Michael is tasked with selecting a health plan, which he delegates to Dwight, who selects the worst one possible. Hilarity ensues.
Today, we’re looking at the third episode of season one of the Office, “Health Care.” Let’s just jump into it.
Cast:
Steve Carell ... Michael Scott
Rainn Wilson ... Dwight Schrute
John Krasinski ... Jim Halpert
Jenna Fischer ... Pam Beesly
B.J. Novak ... Ryan Howard
Melora Hardin ... Jan Levinson-Gould
Leslie David Baker ... Stanley Hudson
Brian Baumgartner ... Kevin Malone
Kate Flannery ... Meredith Palmer
Charlie Hartsock
Mindy Kaling ... Kelly Kapoor
Angela Kinsey ... Angela Martin
Paul Lieberstein ... Toby Flenderson
Oscar Nuñez ... Oscar Martinez
Phyllis Smith ... Phyllis Lapin
Creed Bratton ... Creed Bratton
Health Care: Michael really cares about his employees. He pays them. He feeds them. (Indirectly.) And, today, he’s in charge of picking a new health care plan for them. “Does that make me their doctor? Um. Yes, in a way.”
In the meeting with Jan, Michael tells her he is going with the best. The one with acupuncture, etc. Jan does not approve. (It is Gold: She doesn’t even have gold!)
Jan busts his bubble by telling him that the company is just looking to save money. He doesn’t want to give bad news to the employees.
Michael wants Jim to pick the health care plan for the office. Jim declines, and suggests Dwight for the job. “Any time that Michael asks me to do anything, I just tell him that Dwight should do it.” (Gee, Jim, maybe THAT’s why Ryan wants to fire you. In the future. When he’s not just a temp and is your boss.) “Right now, this is just a job. If I advance any higher in this company, then this would be my career. Well, if this were my career, I’d have to throw myself in front of a train.” (We’re still waiting for this, I suppose.)
Dwight accepts, and immediately wants to fire people. And he demands an office. Michael says he can have a temporary workspace. Dwight accepts, after some haggling, and grins sideways at the camera.
Michael: “If Dwight fails, then that is strike two. And good for me for giving him a second chance.”
Dwight slashes benefits to save the money. “In the wild, there is no health care. In the wild, there is, ‘Ow, I hurt my leg, I can’t run. Then a lion eats me, and I’m dead.’” Dwight isn’t dead. He’s the lion.
The employees aren’t very happy about Dwight’s plan. Michael calls Pam from his office to see how things are going, then tries to shake her when she talks about the plan. She knows he isn’t getting a call.
Pam and Jim barge into Dwight’s Workspace to talk to him about the plan. Jim asks Dwight if he wants a good health plan. Dwight: “Don’t need it. Never been sick.” He has superior genes because he’s a Schrute. Also, he has superior brainpower. “Through concentration, I can raise and lower my cholesterol at will.” Pam asks why he would raise his cholesterol. Dwight says so he can lower it.
Oscar and Kevin talk about Michael, and that he won’t come out of his office. Kevin: “He’s gotta come out sometime…to go to the bathroom.” (Yes! Kevin!) Angela scowls.
They finally corner Michael. He orders Dwight to find a plan that will work for them. Michael also tells everyone there is a big surprise at the end of the day.
Dwight emerges later with a suggestion about the plan. He wants everyone to write down their diseases so he can make sure they are covered. Jim informs Dwight that diseases are confidential. Dwight says it can be anonymous.
Jim tells Pam not to write ebola on her disease form, because he is suffering from it. They invent Spontaneous Dentalhydroplosion, or something like that.
Dwight is angry that people forged medical information. Jim asks how he knows. Dwight: “Uh, leprosy? Flesh-eating bacteria? Hot dog fingers. Government created killer nano robot infection.” He blames Jim. (Of course, it was Pam), then says he’s going to interview everyone in the conference room.
Transcript of Dwight’s interview with Jim:
Dwight Schrute: The problem, Jim, is that people who are really suffering from a medical condition won't receive the care they need because someone in this office is coming up with ridiculous stuff. "Count Choculitis?"
Jim Halpert: Sounds tough.
Dwight Schrute: Why did you write that down, Jim? Is it because you know I love Count Chocula?
Jim locks Dwight in his workspace. Dwight calls Jim to let him out. Pam calls him and he hangs up on Dwight. So, Dwight calls Jan Levinson-Gould. She asks why he is “acting manager.” He tells Jan that he is picking the health care plan. She isn’t happy about that.
Dwight then reads everyone’s conditions aloud to see if they are real. Stanley asks about confidentiality, which Dwight says was forfeited.
Dwight: “Number one. Inverted penis.”
No one does anything until Meredith raises her hand and says, “Could you mean vagina? Because, if you do, I want that covered.”
Dwight: “I thought your vagina was removed during your hysterectomy.”
Meredith: “The uterus is different from a vagina. I still have a vagina.”
Later, Dwight thinks “anal fissures” is fake. Kevin informs him that anal fissures are real, and kind of looks around awkwardly.
PB&J: Jim talks to Pam about the show, “Trading Spouses.” Flirting! Michael interrupts them. (Then, there’s their interactions about the health plan, too. If I were Roy, I’d probably get pretty angry.)
Big surprise: Michael, of course, has no clue what the “big” surprise his. He did it just to boost morale. (Remember the last time he boosted morale, when he faux-fired Pam?)
Michael takes the cameras on a mission. For “meetings.”
He goes to a travel agency, and is looking for a free weekend trip.
Michael calls the Lackawanna Coal Mine, and finds out it isn’t all that fun.
The big surprise is ice cream sandwiches. He throws them at people. Phyllis misses hers, in a funny moment. Stanley says it’s not the big surprise, right?
At the end of the day, Michael gets accosted by the office about the plan and the surprise. He asks for a drum roll. Of course, there is no big surprise. He just stands there and doesn’t talk. Everyone starts to leave as a Michael talking head talks about his improv skills.
(Question: Why wasn’t Toby doing the health care plan?)
End of the episode: Dwight informs Michael that Jan wants him to call her.
Thoughts
This is actually a pretty good episode, too, and features a lot from the secondary characters. The health care plan storyline is pretty funny, especially once Pam and Jim make up the diseases and Dwight gets angry.
The “big surprise” storyline falls a bit flat, but it does show Michael’s need for acceptance and overall lack of creativity.
It’s also hard to see, from here, how Dwight and Angela eventually would get together. I mean, they’re both sticklers and whatnot, but she is pretty annoyed with him here.
Dwight’s insistence that he is manager for a day, and that he wants to fire people, is pretty funny, too. It’s also crazy to see how farm Jim and Dwight’s relationship has come from the first season to the fourth, as Jim doesn’t mind Mr. Schrute so much in the third and fourth seasons, and Dwight eventually softens up, too.
But, focusing on Health Care. It’s a decent episode, and rides one joke for the whole show. It’s better than a lot of the first season, and probably ranks as second or third-best of the short season. (Behind “Diversity Day” and maybe “The Alliance).
The 411: Pretty good episode for the first season, and the disease-related stuff was very funny. Jim and Pam's relationship continues to grow, as Dwight and Michael's characters continue to get more defined. Also, Kevin talks a couple times. And Kevin is awesome. Dwight and Meredith's conversation, also, is quite funny.
