| "Lotto" | |||
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| The Office episode | |||
Kevin and Erin get creative in an attempt to move boxes |
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| Episode no. | Season 8 Episode 3 |
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| Directed by | John Krasinski | ||
| Written by | Charlie Grandy | ||
| Production code | 803 | ||
| Original air date | October 6, 2011[1] | ||
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| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of The Office (U.S.) episodes | |||
"Lotto" is the third episode of the eighth season of the American comedy television series The Office, and the show's 155th episode overall. It was written by Charlie Grandy and directed by cast member John Krasinski. The episode originally aired on NBC in the United States on October 6, 2011.
In the episode, the entire warehouse staff quits after winning the lottery, leaving Andy and Darryl to scramble for replacements while several of the office workers get a taste of the warehouse life.
"Lotto" has received mostly positive reviews from critics. According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was viewed by 5.82 million viewers and received a 3.2 rating/8% share among adult between the ages of 18 and 49, marking a slight drop in the ratings from the previous episode, "The Incentive".
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The six warehouse workers win $950,000 in a lottery pool, and quit in a celebratory fashion of running through the office, making a mess and mooning the staff. Darryl was originally part of the pool (with his birthday being the winning numbers) but stopped when he was promoted, and falls into a depression, unable to find any motivation to work and further dismayed when his ex-wife's response to him not winning is to ask for the number of his pool-winner friend Glen. Everyone else speculates how they would spend a hypothetical lottery score, with Jim and Pam ultimately deciding to fuse their two main ideas into one for a lovely brownstone located in the great outdoors.
Andy has a hard time finding any office workers who will step in for the day and make sure that the day's important orders shipped out. Jim, Erin, Dwight and Kevin take over the process, but don't know how to use the heavy-lifting equipment and discover that they are not strong enough to fill the truck by hand. Upon Kevin's suggestion, they create an oil luge to slide the boxes across the floor, which results in a lot of damaged inventory, a failed shipment, and Phyllis losing a large client.
A melancholic Darryl finally assembles a conference room meeting with several potential new hires, but utters several discouraging remarks about the job and exits, leaving Andy alone to take charge of the process. Andy doesn't know what he's doing and all of the workers simply leave. Darryl blames himself for the failure and asks Andy to fire him, but Andy refuses, thinking/hoping Darryl is speaking in code.
Andy finally manages to hire three workers: a bodybuilder from Oscar's gym, Dwight's building handyman Nate, and a PhD candidate who can only work two days a week. Darryl demands anew to be fired, then switches gears: he tells Andy to give him the manager job, saying he deserves it and wants that or a pink slip. Andy then steps up and bluntly tells Darryl he not only isn't going to do that, but Darryl was not the runner-up to Andy in the selection process; as he brings up Darryl's short temper, his hiring of the unqualified Glen, and his loss of interest in taking business education courses, Darryl finally snaps out of his funk and listens to him. Andy tells Darryl that Jo Bennett loved him and saw something in him, and he simply stopped striving after that. He convinces Darryl to stay on board, and they head down to the warehouse, only to find it has become a slick mess.
The episode was written by co-executive producer Charlie Grandy, his 7th writing credit for the series. It was directed by cast member John Krasinski, who portrays Jim Halpert; this was the second episode directed by Krasinski for the series.
The official website for The Office included three cut scenes from "Lotto" within a week of its release. In the first 88-second clip, Jim and the others try to get the truck into the warehouse door, but get the truck stuck.[2] In the second 35-second clip, Dwight tries to use Kevin as a bumper on the oil track.[3] In the third 34-second clip, Phyllis, Toby, and Ryan reveal what they'd do if they won the lottery.[4]
In its original American broadcast, "Lotto" was viewed by 5.82 million viewers and received a 3.2 rating/8% share among adults between the ages of 18 and 49.[5] This means that it was seen by 3.2% of all 18–49 years olds, and 8% of all 18–49 year olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. This marked an 11 percent drop from the previous episode, "The Incentive" which made it one of the lowest rated episodes of the series, slightly higher than the first-season episode, "Health Care".[6][7]
"Lotto" received mainly positive reviews from critics. HitFix reviewer Alan Sepinwall praised writing of the episode writing that "if there's been a consistent element to Paul Lieberstein's work on this show [...] it's that he understands what makes the main characters tick, and is able to use that for real emotional resonance [...] When the show wants to give Jim, or Pam, or Dwight, or now Andy a quiet, emotional moment, it's usually still able to do so very well, and that includes most of Andy and Darryl's interaction here in "Lotto".[8] Despite this, he criticized the warehouse subplot for "selling them [the characters] out for the sake of a joke".[8] The A.V. Club reviewer Myles McNutt called the episode superior to the previous episode commenting that " While perhaps not monumentally better than last week’s outing and damaged by a weak B-story, 'Lotto' had a greater sense of purpose that holds greater value to the season as it moves forward".[9] He also complimented the writers for not focusing too much on Andy.[9] He ultimately gave the episode a B.[9] In a poll taken by an Office fansite Officetally.com, fans gave the episode a 6.43 out of 10 rating.[10]
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