The Office: 10 Classic Moments In “The Injury”

After it became clear that simply emulating the original series, which only lasted for 14 episodes, wouldn’t work in the long run, the second season of the U.S. remake of The Office marked a major turning point for the show. Michael became more sympathetic, the characters all started being a little nicer to one another, and Steve Carell was allowed to make the role his own and become a really likable lead.

One of the best episodes from season 2, possibly the most memorable from the whole season, is “The Injury,” in which Michael burns his foot on a George Foreman grill and then makes it everybody else’s problem. The episode has a handful of the show’s most classic moments.

10 Michael Reports His Injury

It’s not often that the cold open in an episode of The Office relates to the actual plot, but “The Injury” dives right into the conflict as Michael calls Pam to report his injury.

Jim puts the call on speakerphone, so everybody can hear Michael describe how he stepped on his George Foreman grill and burned his foot. Steve Carell’s flustered performance is hysterical.

9 Dwight’s Own Injury

Being the loyal Sancho Panza-esque sidekick that he is, as soon as Dwight hears that Michael is injured, he runs out to his car and speeds out of the parking lot to come to his aid.

However, he’s a little too eager to get to Michael and he crashes his car. The whole office watches as he stumbles out of his car, dazed by a possible concussion, and vomits on his own bumper.

8 Michael Explains Why His Grill Was On The Floor

When someone says they burned their foot on a George Foreman grill, the first question is obviously going to be: how did that happen? Why was the grill on the floor and switched on?

Michael explains this to the camera: he likes to wake up to the smell of sizzling bacon, and since he doesn’t have a maid, he has to get up early and turn on the grill himself, then go back to bed. On this particular morning, he got out of bed and stepped on the grill with his bare foot.

7 Dwight’s Symptoms Set In

The symptoms of Dwight’s concussion start to show throughout the day as he says things that don’t make sense. Now, with all his talk of bears, beets, and Battlestar Galactica, Dwight doesn’t make sense a lot of the time.

But his nonsense goes overboard when he says things like, “Huggy-hugs,” “See you later, Pan,” and “You can’t fire me, I don’t work in this van!”

6 Billy’s Conference

In order to educate his staff about disability rights (because he believes grilling his foot makes him disabled), Michael brings in Billy Merchant, the building’s wheelchair-bound property manager, to give a conference.

As soon as he realizes Michael’s intentions, he leaves. Billy is an underrated character, because he always took the high road in dealing with Michael’s inappropriate behavior and even gave an office space to the Michael Scott Paper Company.

5 Michael Falls Over In The Men’s Room

Throughout his hellish day on crutches, Michael goes into the bathroom and takes a nasty fall in one of the stalls. From off-screen, he shouts out into the kitchen, asking for Toby to send in Ryan.

Ryan stands by, silently begging Toby not to let Michael know he’s out there, as Michael asks him to come into the men’s room to pick him up off the floor and clean him up with a wet towel.

4 Dwight And Pam’s Friendship Develops

One of the sweetest friendships to develop between the characters of The Office was between Dwight and Pam. It wouldn’t get into full swing until around the seventh season, but the seeds were planted in season 2’s “The Injury.”

Dwight’s concussion made him a lot more mellow than usual, which made him friendlier to Pam, and they developed a bond that would continue to grow for years.

3 Riding In Meredith’s Minivan

Michael and Jim take Dwight to the hospital in Meredith’s minivan to have his concussion treated, and there are a ton of great character moments along the way.

Whenever Dwight gets out of line — like when he tries to drink from Meredith’s alcohol stash — Jim squirts him with water from a spray bottle.

2 Reason For Visit

When Michael and Jim get Dwight to the hospital, Michael has to fill out a form in the waiting room. Jim is surprised to discover that he knows Dwight’s middle name. Michael asks Jim what he should write under “reason for visit,” and Jim gives him the obvious answer: “Concussion.”

Jim asks Michael what he wrote in that section and an embarrassed Michael confides that he wrote, “Bringing someone to the hospital.”

1 Dwight’s “That’s What She Said” Joke

When Dwight is about to go in for an MRI, with Michael accompanying him as a friend (and then trying to jam his foot into the machine), he makes a “that’s what she said” joke, much to Michael’s chagrin.

The doctor asks, “Does the skin look red and swollen?,” and Dwight slyly looks at the camera and says, “That’s what she said.” What makes Michael even madder is that it makes the doctor laugh.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
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Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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