A never-before-seen clip of Jim's final prank from The Office has surfaced on the internet, and has sent fans of the beloved show (most of whom haven't seen new content for the show in years) into an online frenzy.
On January 1, the NBC comedy sitcom found a new home on Peacock, the channel's new streaming site after being on Netflix for many years. Because NBC owns the show and all associated content, they also decided to release bonus footage and deleted scene with the show, to tempt people into joining the premium version of their service.
One of the new scenes unveiled was the unreleased finale opening, which features Jim (John Krasinski) trying to convince Dwight (Rainn Wilson) that he’s in the Matrix.
Before Peacock released the footage, a clip of the cast doing a walkthrough of the scene could be found online. To celebrate the show’s arrival to the streaming platform, Peacock has officially released the never before seen clip for fans to see on Twitter.
The five-minute clip shows Jim and Pam (Jenna Fischer) workubg together to convince Dwight that he’s in the Matrix. They seek help from Hank (Hugh Dane) to dress up as "Morpheus's brother, Dorpheus," and persuade Dwight to choose between the red pill or the blue pill.
For those who haven't seen The Matrix, the "red pill" will expose Dwight to the "truth" about the world outside of the Matrix, and the "blue pill" will keep him in the current reality.
In any other episode of the show, it's obvious that adventure-obsessed, hero-loving Dwight would choose the red pill. Instead, in this final episode, Dwight decides to take the blue pill and "stay in the program," signaling to the audience that he's finally found happiness.
Jim is disappointed that his prank has failed. To save Dwight from taking the blue pill, Jim runs out to stop him. The video ends with a tribute to Dane, who passed away in 2018.
Brian Baumgartner, who played Kevin on the show, discussed this scene with The Office editor Dave Rogers for an episode of his podcast An Oral History of The Office. Rogers shared that the scene was only cut from the finale because there wasn’t enough time for it.
“There’s a cat that walks by and a cat walks by again in Michael’s office, and Jenna goes, ‘It took six months to train the cat,'” said Rogers. “And then we have the security guard walk by, it was the big guy, and he had a twin brother and we used him also, as a glitch. And then [Dwight’s] gonna take the red pill or the blue pill.”
Fans of the beloved sitcom were thrilled to see the unreleased footage, with many feeling a sense of nostalgia seeing new content after all these years. Some fans took to Twitter to express their love for the show and marvel over the comical scene:
The first two seasons of The Office are free to watch on Peacock now. However, the rest of the show, including additional behind-the-scene clips and more unseen footage, is available to Peacock subscribers only.