Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episode 16 of the Office Ladies podcast.
It took nearly fifteen years, but we finally have some tea on the teapot that Jim gave Pam in The Office’s first Christmas episode.
On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, former co-stars Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey talked about Season 2, Episode 10 of The Office, which holds some of Jim and Pam’s most memorable moments.
In the episode, titled "Christmas Party," the group plans to have a Secret Santa holiday party, but after Michael receives a handmade oven mitt from Phyllis, he forces everyone to play Yankee Swap instead. In a series of unfortunate events, Dwight winds up getting the teapot (filled with sentimental inside jokes and a revealing card) that Jim bought for Pam as her Secret Santa. Jim spends the majority of the episode trying to get it back, and after Pam finally convinces Dwight to swap presents with her, Jim swipes the card from the box before she has a chance to read it.
For the next seven seasons, fans wondered what Jim wrote in Pam's Christmas card. And at long last, Fischer has revealed the secret. Well, sort of.
Dedicated fans that kept watching the show after Steve Carell left know that the teapot card reappeared in Season 9, Episode 22. "There’s a scene where Jim has the documentary film crew put together footage of their romance, and he shows it to Pam. Pam sees that there was a note Jim steals back, then he hands it to her and she reads it," Fischer recalled.
What fans don’t know, however, is what was written in that note. "I’m going to say something that I’ve never said before, I also feel like I’m maybe going to cry, sort of," Fischer told Kinsey on the podcast. "I'm the only one who knows [what was written in the note] and John knows."
"In that episode in Season 9, I believe Greg [Daniels] suggested to John that he write a personal message from himself to me just saying what our time together on The Office meant to him, because we were wrapping up filming," she said as her voice cracked. "We were wrapping up the series and we were all so emotional at that time, you know? And so that was his goodbye."
Fischer said that the emotions on her face in that scene were absolutely real, because she genuinely had no idea what she was about to read.
"So I’m on camera and I open up this note that John’s written me and I just start crying, I just start bawling. The first take was probably not usable," she said. "It was the sweetest note and you know on camera Pam says, 'I’ll never say what it said but just know it was perfect?' Well I’ll never say exactly what John wrote, but I will say just know it was perfect."
Fischer went on to compare the genuine emotion in the card-opening scene to another memorable moment from the Season 7 episode, "Goodbye, Michael."
"Very similar to when we filmed that scene with Steve where I said goodbye to him at the airport and Paul Feig told me, 'just run up and say goodbye to your friend Steve,'" she said. Kinsey then reminisced on her own emotional end of series scenes, and noted that "Greg Daniels was such a master at beautiful callback moments."
Over the years, Fischer notes, that simple teal teapot that she selected out of a variety of colors and styles has become a symbol of affection among fans.
"They nailed it right? I mean, this teapot is famous... all the time people are using this teapot idea to propose to their loved ones. I see it on my Instagram. People are always tagging me and it’s always charming to me," she said.
The rest of the podcast episode is full of even more teapot tidbits, deleted scene discussions, and an extremely important Bob Vance introduction you won't want to miss.
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