Phyllis' Wedding
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| The Office episode |
| "Phyllis' Wedding" | |
 Michael begins his "40-minute journey" through the lives of Phyllis and Bob during "Phyllis' Wedding". |
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| Episode No. | 43 |
| Prod. Code | 316 |
| Airdate | February 8, 2007 |
| Writer(s) | Caroline Williams |
| Director | Ken Whittingham |
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The Office Season 3 |
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| List of all The Office episodes... | |
"Phyllis' Wedding" is the fifteenth episode of the third season of the U.S. version of The Office. It aired on February 8, 2007.
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Jim feigns exasperation with his PC and says he must "restart... again." He then offers an Altoid to an enthusiastic Dwight. In a re-creation of Pavlov's experiment, Jim has spent several weeks conditioning Dwight to desire a mint when he hears the default Windows "unlock workstation" sound.
Michael says he's been asked to be a part of the wedding party in Phyllis' upcoming wedding to Bob Vance of Vance Refrigeration. Michael will push her father's wheelchair down the aisle, which he likens to "co-giving away the bride." Phyllis reveals she gave Michael a role in order to secure six weeks off to enjoy her honeymoon, a branch first.
Michael says he has attended only one other wedding, that of his mother to his stepfather when he was 10. In a darkened conference room, Michael plays a video of that ceremony, in which he wet his pants while serving as ringbearer, only to scream "I hate you" to his stepfather and run away. A poorly trained dog serves as an alternate ringbearer before urinating everywhere.
The wedding invitations are strikingly similar to the scuttled nuptials of Pam and Roy, as pointed out by Pam, who holds both up for comparison. Even a stylized P & R logo is identical, though in this case referring to "Phyllis & Robert". Pam says receiving the invitation felt like being invited to her own wedding, to which she "was, like 'didn't I already call this off?'"
[edit] The ceremony
In the church, Dwight expresses dissatisfaction with the large crowd, wondering "Who are these people?" and hoping the world is overcome by a new plague. Jim suggests many of them are likely wedding crashers and confirms that Dwight has seen the film of the same name. In an interview, Dwight says he saw Wedding Crashers accidentally when he entered the wrong theater after purchasing a ticket to Grizzly Man, only to watch half of the Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson vehicle before determining his error. Dwight decides to become a bouncer to extricate anyone crashing Phyllis and Bob's big day.
Michael approaches Phyllis — whom he says looks "as beautiful as the first day you worked at Dunder-Mifflin" — as her friend helps with her makeup. Michael tells her it is OK to vomit, and that he already did. He begins to offer words of wisdom, but his train of thought is disrupted by pungent flatulence of unknown origin. He ends the chat trying to adjust her hair "to cover that bald spot".
Kevin congratulates Toby on his very attractive date, but does not believe Toby met her at the gym. Kelly asks Meredith to scoot off of her dress, which Meredith criticizes as it is all white, a wedding taboo. In an interview, Kelly defends her "emergency", saying "I look really good in white". As Phyllis enters the chapel, Pam exclaims "That's my dress!"
During the procession, Phyllis walks quickly, and Michael pushes her father to catch up, weaving and running the chair over the hem of Phyllis' dress until the old man pulls the brakes on the wheelchair and rises to his feet to escort his daughter to the altar. An irate Michael exclaims to the camera "This is bull—!" He then tries to walk the chair, with its locked wheels, down the aisle before dragging it to the front and forcibly inserting himself into the line of groomsmen in front of a confused audience. In an interview, he explains that her father stole the show. Michael's antics only get worse when he enthusiastically announces Bob and Phyllis' names as the new couple, only interrupting their nuptials and confusing the audience more.
Mid-ceremony, Creed arrives and places his card on a gift from another guest, tossing the original card in the trash.
[edit] The reception
At the reception, Dwight confronts Phyllis' Uncle Al after witnessing him buttering a bread roll and stuffing it into his jacket pocket. Al is unable to say the names of the happy couple, and is evicted.
Prior to a set by Scrantonicity, drummer/vocalist Kevin announces a very serious situation: Uncle Al is missing, and he is described as "old, with brown eyes and dementia." As Kevin rips into "Roxanne," a look of concern washes over Dwight's face. The viewer then witnesses the cameraman standing by as Uncle Al wanders part way into a darkened four-lane street, before heading back to the curb.
During the toasts, Michael snags the microphone, introduces himself several times, and announces that "for the next 40 minutes, I'll be your tour guide through the lives of Phyllis and Bob." His attempt to use a clichéd dictionary definition of "wedding" goes awry as he reads the definition of "welding" and says the couple are like gold medals. After saying Phyllis' matronly looks belie her high school nickname — "Easy Rider" — Bob Vance throws Michael out over his objections that he is owed a speech after Phyllis' dad upstaged him during the ceremony.
Pam and Jim meet at the bar and Jim encourages her to show off her dance moves. Pam notes that she is a pretty bad dancer, but Jim then says that he thinks it's "cute." Roy approaches Pam as she sits alone and starts a conversation about the roses on the table, as they were the same color as flowers he gave to her at their prom. Pam tells Roy that Phyllis borrowed all of Pam's wedding ideas for her own ceremony and reception. Roy admits he wasn't very involved in the planning of their scrapped wedding.
Michael is seen through a window hopping up to get a quick glance inside the reception. Bouncer Dwight refuses to let Michael back in, calling him "a real-life wedding crasher." Michael pleads that he simply wants to sit, eat cake and dance to one song. Ryan deflects the bouquet away from Kelly into the hands of Toby's date, who celebrates by giving a big kiss to an elated Toby.
[edit] Guests make their exit
Jim stops short of admitting to the camera that he would date Pam if she expressed any interest (by dismissing the premise as "hypothetical"). Roy pays the band $20 to play Jewel's "You Were Meant for Me" and asks Pam outside to dance. Nearby, Dwight and Angela are swaying to the song, and Michael sings along by himself. Roy and Pam decide to leave together. As he witnesses the two leave together, Jim reinforces to the camera his happiness with Karen, who belts out Police classic "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" with Scrantonicity.
Michael is chatting with Uncle Al about how a wedding ceremony requires a great team. The mention of great teams reminds Uncle Al of the Boston Celtics, but Michael tells him to "keep it together, I listened to you for, like, a half an hour, and most of it went over my head." Phyllis and Bob emerge, followed by the guests. Michael apologizes to Phyllis, but she thanks him for finding Uncle Al, kisses Michael on the cheek and the newlyweds ride into the night in a huge Vance Refrigeration van trailing aluminum cans.
In a flashback to the reception, Michael inserts himself into Phyllis and Bob's cake-cutting moment, tells Phyllis she looks like a clown and asks to have cake smeared on him. He ultimately smears frosting on himself.
[edit] Trivia
- For a list of songs featured in this episode, see List of songs featured on The Office (US TV series).
- This episode marks the fourth time an expletive has been censored.
- Oscar is seen, albeit briefly, in a few scenes with Gil, including a moment where Michael is giving his speech about Phyllis.
- The name of Kevin's Police cover band, Scrantonicity, is a portmanteau of Scranton, Pennsylvania and the 1983 Police album Synchronicity.
- Stanley and his wife bring a toaster as a wedding gift. This is most likely the toaster they originally bought for Pam and Roy's called-off wedding ("Gay Witch Hunt").
- In the NBC promo for this episode, Jim tells Pam to "give the people what they want." In the episode, Jim is referring to "those famous Beesly dance moves," but taken out of context the remarks are a sly reference to Jim and Pam's ongoing semi-relationship.
- The wedding was filmed in a church in Studio City, CA, about two blocks north of CBS studios. Coincidentally it is also located around three blocks east of Steve Carell's character's house in the movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
- In an episode of The Simpsons written by Office co-producer Greg Daniels, Homer makes a mistake similar to Michael's when trying to read a dictionary definition of "marriage." Homer mistakes the word for "weeding," while Michael mistakes it for "welding."
[edit] References
- NBC (2007-01-10). NBC PRIMETIME SCHEDULE FOR SUNDAY, FEB 4 2007 - SATURDAY, FEB 10 2007. Press release.
