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Pam is able to escape the ugly scene to the kitchen (the archetypal female haven) with Jan and Angela, but, in a good to bad REVERSAL, she is erroneously confronted by Jan about dating Michael. The awkwardness of the party game (caused by M and J’s passive aggressiveness) leads to a parallel reversal. REVERSAL: the party seems to be progressing toward its conclusion (how much longer could it last?), but Jan reveals that the dinner won’t be ready for hours (good to bad).Īt the midpoint of the episode, Jim seems to have resolved the entire conflict by faking a flooding, but in a good to bad reversal, neither he nor Pam (who comically betrays him) gets to leave. In the Act One climax, Andy and Angela arrive. We see this develop throughout the party, and we can all see that this relationship is over. In Act One, Jim and Pam get a tour of the condo, which sets up the ready-to-boil-over antagonism between Michael and Jan, demonstrated by their growing passive aggressiveness. At the end of Act Three, two cops arrive. They all literally cross the threshold, which signifies a change or entry into a new world. Dwight and that lady arrive about two-thirds of the way in (end of Act Two). Andy and Angela arrive about one-third of the way in (end of Act One). In fact, all of the Act divisions are marked by the arrival of a new couple. This is the INCITING INCIDENT (at minute 1).Īct One begins with Jim and Pam’s arrival at Michael’s condo. In this one, Michael elaborately tricks Jim into revealing that he and Pam have no plans that night, forcing Jim to agree to come over for dinner. Often, these are separate from the main plot, but not this one. Like most episodes, it begins with a pre-credit opener.
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The Office Season 4, Episode 9: “Dinner Party” I asked for 24 hours, came home, watched the episode, and here’s the answer, delivered to the student the following morning: Her reason for asking, she reported, was that she had been thinking about it and the episode seemed to be all bad she couldn’t place the reversals to good fortune. One of these Office devotees raised her hand and asked, quite earnestly, if this could be applied to “Dinner Party” from Season Four (yes, she cited the season and episode title). They play Office trivia.Ī few weeks ago, near the beginning of a unit on Oedipus the King, we were discussing Aristotle’s Poetics and applying three-act structure and reversals to the novels we’ve read (plus a couple of movies we’d all seen). They paint portraits of Dwight in art class. But here’re these fifteen and sixteen-year-olds who are obsessed with The Office and who, like this forty-year-old, have seen every episode. When I started teaching, it was Twilight. Usually I don’t know anything about the things they are interested in. I’ve been teaching tenth-graders for thirteen years now. My tenth-grade students-all of whom had my wife last year, but independent of our influence-are watching The Office.
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We’ve seen every episode, multiple times.Ī strange thing has recently happened, though. And thanks to Netflix, we can watch it at any time.