The Office S2 Ep2: Sexual Harassment
Email forwards & monkey business
"I am the king of email forwards." - Michael
Breaking down Jim & Pam’s love story in The Office one episode at a time…
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Beginning
“Exsqueeze me?” - Todd Packer
This episode lets us in on Jim and Pam’s sense of humor.
To start, a flash of Jim’s computer screen shows three emails from Pam: “Look at your IM,” “RE supplies,” and “RE last minute changes.” Jim and Pam talk all day and send each other messages.
Todd Packer arrives and tells jokes loudly. Jim mocks Todd in a talking head and says he hates him. Pam makes an annoyed face in reaction to one of Todd’s jokes. Jim and Pam are on the same page about Todd’s sense of humor—they don’t like it.
While other guys in the office watch “monkey sex” email forwards, Jim tells Pam he is excited to meet her mom, who is visiting that afternoon. It’s a sweet moment. Pam says her mom wants to meet everybody, but I have a feeling there is just one employee she wants to meet.
Middle
Michael ventures down to the warehouse to ask the guys for a joke. Roy’s sense of humor, however funny it may be, is more about making fun of Michael than being witty. Michael is the bud of the joke and uncomfortable.
“What does the female vagina look like?” - Dwight
Toby finishes the office’s sexual harassment training and Meredith asks about office romances. Toby says they should be avoided. Jim has a talking head announcing his office romance with… Michael’s sex doll. We see that when Jim jokes around, he includes himself in the bud of the joke. He’s winking at the audience and inviting us to laugh along with him.
Michael and some of the warehouse workers watch sexual harassment prevention videos in the conference room with the door open. To them, the idea of sexual harassment training is a joke in and of itself. Michael asks Jim if he wants to join and he declines. Meanwhile Roy is the one holding the remote.
The guys notice that Darryl slept with the actress in the video, “that girl from that thing,” and they view her as a hypocritical contradiction. She plays a character who disapproves of sexual harassment in the workplace and has sex??
Pam looks disgusted when Michael announces Darryl “banged” the actress. Probably because it reminds her that when Roy and Darryl go out, at least one of them is flirting with and going home with girls. Roy laughs loudly. He doesn’t seem aware of how Pam feels.
Right on cue, Jan walks in.
"This is my lawyer, Mr. James P. Albini. I believe you may recognize his face from the billboards." - Michael
End
Now, it’s Jim’s turn to joke with Michael about sex.
“The only thing I am worried about is getting a boner.” - Michael
After a dressing down from Jan, Michael announces to the office that he is retiring from comedy. Including email forwards! Jim sets him up: “That’s really hard,” “Do you really think you can go all day long?” and “Well, you always left me smiling and satisfied.” After a nod of approval from Packer, Michael yells out “That’s what she said!” Jim allows himself to be part of the joke, lets Michael say the punchline, and doesn’t pick on anyone. Jim’s humor sets Michael up, while Roy’s brings Michael down.
Pam looks worn out at her desk. It’s pretty significant that she and her fiance don’t have the same sense of humor. If they don’t laugh together, what do they have?
Earlier in the day, Pam was looking eagerly at the door every time someone walked in. Now she keeps her head down. Her mom arrives and she doesn’t notice at first.
Jim builds up the nerve to go over and say hi. But Roy walks in. Jim’s face drops and he immediately turns back to his desk, unnoticed.
Roy is dressed up, complete with combed hair and a librarian sweater. He is charming to Pam’s mom, showing he can filter his behavior when he wants to.
Which means when Roy ignores Pam, it might not come from a place of unawareness. He might not care about Pam’s feelings, her feelings could be inconvenient to him, or maybe she is easy to ignore. Or he’s following general expectations of how men should treat their girlfriends. Pam reinforces this dynamic by never asserting her dissatisfaction directly.
Jim is the opposite. He picks up on the subtle signals of how Pam feels and acts on it. He looks to her, in what seems to be a sign of empathy, when the men catcall her and pose sexual scenarios about her during the training. When Jim connects with Pam emotionally, it shows that he sees her as a person, not just as a woman. Like when he tells Pam he’s looking forward to meeting her mom. I doubt Roy expressed interest that morning in seeing Pam’s mom. I also doubt Pam will tell Roy that his behavior at work today made her uncomfortable.
The audience can form their own opinions of Roy and Jim. But, we don’t get much insight into Pam’s opinion until the end of the episode.
As soon as Roy leaves the reception desk, Pam’s mom whisper-asks which one is Jim. This means Pam tells her mom about Jim. So much so, that her mom knows to ask after Roy walks away. We have proof that Jim is not just a coworker, but someone special. Even Pam’s mom can see it. Plus, Pam is too bashful to point him out. Why not introduce him if he’s just a coworker?
We know Jim likes Pam. But Jim and the audience need these little reminders that Pam likes him, too—a whole lot more than she lets on.
Jim overhears the exchange between Pam and her mom and his smile shows the little bit of hope he gains.
Bonus romance
We get our first hint of Dwangela! Dwight asks Toby about female anatomy. It seems he has a particular woman in mind when Toby responds, “Maybe when you get more comfortable with each other, you can ask for that.”
Jan
Throughout the series, Jan’s character shows the struggle of balancing womanhood with a high-ranking job. The other women in this episode (Pam, Angela, Phyllis, Meredith, Kelly) are low-ranking employees with no immediate ambitions for promotion. Sex in the workplace is sometimes a nuisance for them, but it doesn’t prevent them from performing their jobs. For example, when Michael talks about Pam hypothetically making out with her hypothetical lesbian lover in the office, it’s humiliating and demeaning, and it gives the green light for other men in the office to harass her (looking at you Kevin), but it doesn’t stop Pam from being able to answer the phones.
Jan shows that when women move up the ladder, not only do they still have to deal with misogyny, but they also have to manage it in order to perform their jobs. How can you supervise employees who see you for your sex first, profession second? For corporate-level women like Jan, sex becomes an impediment, not just a nuisance.
But then again, maybe this is what keeps individual contributors like Pam and Angela from reaching for more at work. The higher they go, the more their womanhood becomes a factor.
Next: The Office season 2 episode 3
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"Let's just act everyday like Pam's mom is coming in." - Toby
