The Secret (The Office)

"The Secret" is the thirteenth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series The Office and the show's nineteenth episode overall. It was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and directed by Dennie Gordon. The episode first aired on January 19, 2006 on NBC.

The series depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. The main characters change depending on the episode, however typically include Jim, Pam, Or Michael Scott, the boss of this particular branch; of which there were nine at the time^[2].

In this episode, Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) is forced into spending time with Michael Scott (Steve Carell) so that Michael will not reveal Jim's feelings for Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer). Meanwhile, Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez) takes a sick day and Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) investigates whether he is actually sick. The title for the episode is vague for a reason, referring to Jim's hidden feelings for Pam, Dwight and Angela's relationship, and Oscar's homosexuality.

"The Secret" was written in roughly 26 hours and was the fastest episode written for the series at the time. It is also the first episode where many of the actors not credited in the opening sequence are credited directly afterwards instead of as guest appearances. The scenes at the Hooters restaurant were filmed relatively early in the day, and a majority of the scenes were improvised by Carell. "The Secret" received largely positive reviews from television critics and was watched by 8.7 million viewers, ranking as the forty-fourth most-watched television episode of the week.

Jim Halpert realizes that Michael Scott mistakenly assumed he was making his feelings for Pam Beesly known to everyone. He tells Michael that he meant this to be a secret between the two of them. Michael concludes from this that he and Jim are friends, which leads to an awkward lunch at Hooters paid for with a corporate credit card. When Toby Flenderson refuses to authorize this expense, Michael claims that he had to treat Jim to lunch because his productivity was down due to emotional distress, and "reveals Jim's secret feelings" "openly." Kelly Kapoor overhears and spreads the gossip around the office. Not wanting Pam to hear about it from a third party, Jim confesses his crush to Pam himself, although he tells her that he got over it three years ago. However, Michael later tells her that he learned of the crush during the recent "booze cruise", leading her to suspect Jim is still infatuated.

Meanwhile, Dwight Schrute investigates Oscar Martinez's claimed sick day from work, learning that Oscar is actually taking time off to ice-skate. Dwight presents Oscar with this information, saying he owes him a favor in return for not revealing his unauthorized leave-taking. He then watches a movie with Oscar and Oscar's "roommate" Gil; the implication and assumption on the part of the audience, being the realization that Gil is actually Oscar's boyfriend. This new information for the audience provides an answer to the title "The Secret," showing that Oscar is a homosexual man.

"The Secret" was written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky.^[3][4] The episode was written in roughly 26 hours and was the fastest episode written for the series, at the time.^[5] This was a turning point achievement for the show, given that it almost did not get off the ground, as "the first season was not all there," needing a lot of work. The idea to make the entry the "spring cleaning episode" was "throw[n] in at the last minute" because the writers were "desperate". The subplot was inspired by a friend of Eisenberg's, who suggested the story after he was forced to undergo spring cleaning at his office.^[3]

The title for the episode is purposely vague. During the commentary, the cast revealed that there are actually three "secrets" in the episode: Jim's hidden feelings for Pam,^[6] Dwight and Angela's relationship,^[7] and Oscar's homosexuality.^[8] Stupkitsky later joked that there are "actually nine secrets in the episode".^[4] The cold opening – wherein Michael tries to tell a joke where the punch line is "What's up dog?" – was inspired by the same prank being pulled on Stupnitsky.^[3] The original cold opening for the episode featured Michael playing golf in his office, but it was cut.^[3][4]

Jenna Fischer felt that Krasinski's performance in the episode was "really great" and called "The Secret" her "favorite John Krasinski episode".^[8] Krasinski said that Creed Bratton's line, "Which one is Pam?" was his favorite moment "in the entire show, ever".^[6] Fischer, in turn, said that her favorite moment was when Jim confesses that he does not have a crush on her, due to the emotion involved. Fischer later admitted that, after the shot was filmed, she cried because it "broke [her] heart".^[8]

"The Secret" was directed by Dennie Gordon, who would go on to direct the season two episode "Boys and Girls".^[7][8] Tom W. Chick portrayed Gil. The cast were particularly impressed with his acting; Fischer called him a "great casting" choice.^[8] Lindsey Stoddart, who plays one of the Hooters waitresses, was an improv acquaintance of Martin's.^[9]

The shots at the Hooters restaurant were filmed relatively early in the day, and a majority of the scenes were improvised by Carell. In fact, Carell decided to play the penis game – in which two or more people shout the word "penis" at varying levels in an attempt to out do each other – which Krasinski called "the craziest thing I have experienced".^[6] John Krasinski later noted that he was impressed that the director and cameramen were able to successfully get the shot.^[6] The sequence featuring Michael and Jim talking in the break room was made of two composition shots, because Krasinski was laughing "the entire" time. Michael buying Stanley a peach ice tea and telling him that he will "hate it" was entirely improvised.^[6]

The Season Two DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include the cut cold opening of Michael playing with his new putting toy, Dwight expounding on his thoughts on dust bunnies, Michael surveying his "worker bees", Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak) finding an unfinished People Magazine crossword puzzle from 1999 in Michael's office, Michael describing his college fraternity experience, and Michael buying Jim a Hooters T-shirt.^[10]

Within the writing of this show, the second season is where it truly hit it's stride. Since it surpassed it trial-like first season, this episode opened the door for character arcs that would continue throughout the rest of the seasons. The audience is drawn in with the idea of learning "the secret," being shown that this show might have more to offer than simply following the everyday lives of some office workers. The "worker-cameraman" relationship is introduced and expanded on, providing a new perspective, for this show as well as others, since this show was one of the first to try out the "mock-documentary" style of a television series.

Michael attributes the 1981 song "Our Lips Are Sealed" to The Bangles, when it was really sung by The Go-Go's. Michael and Jim go to Hooters, a company whose waiting staff are primarily young, attractive waitresses usually referred to simply as "Hooter Girls" whose revealing outfits and sex appeal is played up and is a primary component of the company's image. At the restaurant, Michael makes several breast jokes. Near the end of the episode, Michael makes reference to a nonexistent Cinemax movie called More Secrets of a Call Girl.^[11]

"The Secret" originally aired on NBC on January 19, 2006.^[12] The episode was watched by 8.7 million viewers. This marked a slight decrease in viewers from a lead-in episode of "My Name is Earl", but more than a follow-up episode of "ER".^[13] "The Secret" ranked as the forty-fourth most-watched episode for the week ending January 22.^[14]

M. Giant of Television Without Pity awarded the episode an "A".^[11] Brendan Babish of DVD Verdict gave the episode a moderately positive review and awarded the entry a "B".^[15] He wrote that while it was ""a solid episode" it "lacks any of the belly laughs the show frequently elicits".^[15] Michael Sciannamea of AOLTV called the installment "a terrific episode" and wrote that "Michael Scott […] was at his obnoxious best […] in this episode".^[16] Furthermore, he highly praised the story, noting that "the Jim/Pam scenario has definitely taken a more interesting turn".^[16] During the filming of "The Secret", the cast of the show discovered that Carell had been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Fischer later noted that it was "fun that ['The Secret' is] the episode that airs after his win".^[17] Fans of the show often note how difficult it must have been for the actors to get through some scenes, considering how hard it would be not to break character in Carell’s and others funniest scenes.

• "The Secret" at NBC.com
• "The Secret" at IMDb
• "The Office" at Collider.com
• "The Secret" at tvtropes.org
• "Talking To Strangers" at digitalcommons.liberty.edu