The Office - "The Injury" Alternate Ending

The Office episode “The Injury” is probably one of my all time favorite episodes of the series. In the beginning of this episode we discover that Michael has accidentally burned his foot on a George Forman Grill while he was attempting to cook bacon. As he explains, “I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon, sue me. And since I don’t have a butler, I have to do it myself. So… before I go to bed I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman Grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill, I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon…. Today I got up, I stepped onto the grill and it clamped down on my foot.” (Schur/Gordon, 2006, 00:48-01:20). Since he is being very over-dramatic and claims he is too injured to drive, he calls Pam to come get him, but after she refuses Dwight runs to his rescue. In the process, Dwight crashes into a pole outside the office building, resulting in him getting a concussion.

When Michael and Dwight arrive back to the office Dwight is a much nicer person than he normally is, especially to Pam (which is a result of his concussion), and Michael continues to be over-dramatic about his injury, acting very much like a baby and asking his employees to take care of him in fairly absurd and unnecessary ways. Despite Michael’s wishes, his employees are not being compassionate towards him as they don’t see his injury as that big of a deal; at the same time, they realize that Dwight is acting strange but have not yet figured out that he is suffering from a concussion. Michael becomes upset that nobody in the office really cares that he is hurt, so he invites their property manager Billy Merchant (who is paralyzed and uses a wheelchair) to come to the office and talk about what it is like to be disabled. Billy (who assumes he was invited to the office to talk about business) quickly leaves after Michael makes some offensive remarks and after he implies to Billy and to his employees that his foot injury qualifies him as disabled.

Soon after, Jim finally realizes that Dwight has a concussion and decides to take him to the hospital. Michael, who is Dwight’s emergency contact and who believes that his foot injury is more serious than a head injury, decides to tag along. Right before Dwight leaves for the hospital, Pam (who has quite enjoyed the new, nicer, Dwight) tells “new” Dwight “goodbye” and is a little sad about the fact that next time she sees him he will be back to normal. Once they arrive at the hospital, the doctor orders a CAT scan for Dwight. Michael, who is in the room with Dwight, decides to try to put his foot in the CAT scan machine (even though, moments before, the doctor told him not to). In the end, it is revealed that Dwight will be okay and will be back to his normal self the next day.

I personally love this episode just the way it is and wouldn’t really change anything, but if I had to change the ending it would be in the following way. As Dwight is getting a CAT scan and Michael attempts to put his foot in the CAT scan machine, a doctor immediately tells him to stop and, fed up with the way he is acting, tells him off, making it clear to him that he is not disabled nor is his foot injury worse than Dwight’s concussion. Michael, feeling defeated and embarrassed, doesn’t say anything and remains silent for the rest of the time they are at the hospital (pouting much like an upset toddler). The doctor, after reviewing the results of Dwight’s CAT scan, then tells Jim that Dwight’s injury is slightly more serious than they expected and that he will continue to be the nicer, more likable, Dwight that he has been all day for the next couple of weeks. This is good news for everybody in the office as they are bigger fans of the good-natured Dwight than they are of the “normal,” annoying, Dwight.

For the next two weeks, Dwight treats everybody in the office with kindness, something he never really had done before. In the meantime, Michael becomes extremely jealous of all of the attention Dwight is getting. As a result, Michael becomes even more obnoxious than he normally is, doing and saying outrageous (yet, for the audience, fairly hilarious) things in order to get some attention. Because he is acting worse than normal, Jim decides to pull a prank on Michael (something he has been itching to do since he hasn’t been able to pull one of his normal pranks on Dwight because of the state that he is in). Jim, favoring the nicer Dwight over the annoying Michael, somehow convinces Michael that corporate is demoting him and making Dwight the new regional manager of the office. Michael is, obviously, fairly upset while Dwight is ecstatic and begins to run the office in a far more efficient, and kinder, way. A couple of days pass and Dwight begins to act like his normal arrogant self, having little sympathy for his co-workers and starts to implement some very strict rules. Jim, realizing that his prank has taken a very bad turn, tells Michael the truth. Michael, although upset, knocks Dwight down a peg and regains his power as the manager of the office, but at the same time realizes that maybe he would be a more effective manager if he was a bit kinder to his employees.

Kaling, M. (writer), & Gordon, B. (Director). (2006). The Injury [Television series episode]. In M. Schur (Producer), The Office. Los Angeles, CA: Deedle-Dee Productions.