Weight Loss

"Weight Loss" (also known as "Summer") is the first episode of the fifth season of The Office. It was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Paul Feig. It first aired September 25, 2008.

Synopsis

The Scranton branch participates in a weight loss competition to see which branch can lose the most cumulative weight, with a prize of three extra vacation days (which later changes to five) for every employee in the winning branch. Although the branch is enthusiastic at first, the competition begins to take a huge toll on many of the employees, particularly Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling), who stops eating and tries various kinds of diets. As a result, corporate sends a memo insisting that the staff need not resort to drastic measures to lose weight.

Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) begins her three-month stay in New York to attend classes in graphic design at the Pratt Institute, leaving Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) to adjust to her being away. Pam is temporarily replaced by Ronni (Dale Raoul), an older woman, but is quickly replaced by Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) who was recently fired by Dunder Mifflin for fraud. Ryan, who is shown to be planning to rise again in the company, tries to make-up with several workers he had treated badly. He apologizes to his former girlfriend Kelly, and asks her out, only to be rejected, and is mocked by Jim when Ryan apologizes to him.

Michael Scott (Steve Carell) successfully continues his casual bonding with Holly Flax (Amy Ryan), with Jim noting that his success is due to Holly being "kind of a major dork". However, when Holly catches Michael talking in his office with a pregnant Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin), she asks Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) to set her up with his yoga instructor. Michael learns of this and gets frustrated with Jim because he did not ask Holly out months earlier, which he wanted to but Jim told him not to. At point, Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey) chastises Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) for improperly accounting for sales numbers. Holly, who thinks Kevin is mentally retarded, yells at Angela for treating Kevin so rudely, but when she refers to him as "mentally challenged", Kevin awkwardly reveals that he is not. Embarrassed, Holly apologizes and walks away.

Phyllis Vance (Phyllis Smith) takes over the Party Planning Committee after catching Angela cheating. Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) makes plans for his wedding with Angela, who irritatedly vetoes all of his ideas. Meanwhile she is revealed to be secretly having an affair with Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson). After Andy gives a heartfelt speech about not caring where they marry because he wants to be with her forever, Angela warms up to him a little. However, later in the episode Angela's disinterest resumes after Andy's persists in bringing his old a cappella band to be their best man, causing her and Dwight to resume their intimate affair.

Jim, having an unsatisfactory summer due to not being able to see Pam, asks her on a last minute lunch date at an interstate rest stop in between Scranton and New York City. At the rest stop, Jim finally proposes to Pam, and she happily accepts. Holly buys Counting Crows tickets as a surprise for the yoga instructor, but he never calls. Michael berates the yoga instructor in front of her for not calling her back, much to her apparent pleasure. He then offers to buy the tickets from her, only to tear them up in front of her.

The Scranton branch loses the competition to the Utica branch, much to the disappointment of the employees. Stanley Hudson (Leslie David Baker), however, is pleased with the fact that he personally lost seven pounds and decides to take an extra five days off anyway. In the last scene, Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) is seen in a hospital in Costa Rica, having broken his neck due to a malfunctioning zip-line harness on the third day of his new life and been subsequently hospitalized for five weeks.

Trivia

The scenes at the Pratt Institute were filmed at the University of Southern California.^[1]
Pam's enthusiastic "What up, 2-1-2", is a reference to the 212 area code used in the Manhattan area of New York City. However, the Pratt Institute uses the 718 area code.
According to Darryl's scale, Pam weighs 126 pounds, not 226 as Kevin calculates.
As of this episode, Amy Ryan is credited as a Special Guest Star.

Connections to previous episodes

In the hospital Toby watches the "hug it out, bitch" scene from Entourage, a scene which Michael re-creates in the episode The Coup.

After Michael asks how the staff can live forever, Jim replies, "Cryogenics. Beer me five." This refers to Andy's use of 'beer me' in Product Recall ("Beer me that disc," and Jim's "Lord beer me strength.")

Amusing details

As Darryl weighs the office staff and finds that they have lost no weight, he eats an ice cream sandwich.
When Holly informs Michael that they lost the contest, she knocks on the door with the opening phrase of shave and a haircut. After Michael invites her in, she knocks the final two notes.

Deleted Scenes

Oscar complains to Andy after turning the heat up.
Ryan's mom drops him off at work.
After mentioning that Michael claimed to have fathered Jan's baby, Jim pulls out and reads aloud a letter from Jan, given to everyone in the office, in which she emphatically insists that Michael is not the baby's father.
Ryan takes a call from David Wallace, who becomes surprised and outraged that Ryan is working for the company again. Over the phone, Wallace proceeds to tear into Ryan with such invective that he begins to cry. In a talking head interview, a still-tearful Ryan says that Wallace is now on The List.

Cast

Main Cast

Supporting Cast

Special Guest Star

Amy Ryan as Holly Flax

Guest Cast

Jim Petersmith as Bearded professor
Dale Raoul as Ronni
Rich Sommer as Alex
Sandra Tsing Loh as Professor Monahan

References

↑ Hey, Look! Pam's Making Some Drawrings, Kristin Dos Santos, Watch with Kristin blog, August 7, 2008.

[eonline_22467-1] Hey, Look! Pam's Making Some Drawrings, Kristin Dos Santos, Watch with Kristin blog, August 7, 2008.

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