Recap / The Office USS 5 E 14 Stress Relief Part 1

Dwight leads the branch through a fire drill...that involves real fire. This gives Stanley a heart attack.

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• Apocalypse Anarchy: Small-scale version, but the office completely breaks down during Dwight's drill. Michael throws the projector out the window and screams for help. Kevin raids the vending machine. Oscar tries to climb through the ceiling. Jim, Andy, and Toby smash the copier trying to use it as a battering ram.
• Armour-Piercing Question: Michael wants to let off Dwight with a warning. David Wallace vetoes that and points out that nearly killing a coworker is not a warning-level offense. He asks if either of them would have wanted Stanley's death on their hands. Michael later talks about it to the Confession Cam.
• Artistic License – Medicine: Dwight's organ procurement demonstration is completely unethical and inaccurate. Yes, organs from a donor body have to be harvested quickly, but it has to be done in a clean environment by professionals and the organs can't just be placed in ice, since the ice would ruin the organ tissue. Of course, this is all Played for Laughs and Dwight is a overzealous Know-Nothing Know-It-All who thought it was a good idea to cause a garbage fire in order to teach fire safety, so something like this is expected from him.
• Big "WHAT?!": Jim does this when Dwight reveals he started the fire to test the office's preparedness.
• Brick Joke: Michael breaks a window in an attempt to call for help and Kevin breaks into the vending machine to steal all the snacks. Later, the window has been patched up with a pulpboard and the broken vending machine is shown.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • During the CPR training, Michael asks why they're bothering saving someone with no arms or legs.
  • Michael gets Stanley a wheelchair, and tells him to get in it until he is back on his feet. Stanley is standing at the time.
• Cut Phone Lines: One of the many things Dwight did in his fire simulation.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • Jim likes a good prank, but even he goes You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me! that Dwight would start a real fire as part of a "simulation". His pranks are usually limited to messing with one person.
  • David Wallace and Michael usually tolerate the office antics. They have to intervene when Dwight's fire drill causes property damage and Stanley to have a heart attack. When Michael says he'll let Dwight off with a warning, David says that's not happening and that Michael has to penalize Dwight. David bluntly tells Dwight that he could have burned down the building and killed his coworkers, or made them liable if Stanley wanted to file a lawsuit for emotional damages. Stanley also could have died from a heart attack, and David asks if either Michael or Dwight want that on their consciences.
• Hope Spot: During the CPR training, Rose is nodding approvingly as everyone starts singing "Stayin Alive"'s chorus while Michael practices compressions. It seems they actually get it. Then the coworkers start singing the lyrics and dancing, missing the point. As Rose puts it, their guy died because they cared more about having fun than learning the proper procedure.
• Hypocritical Humor: At one point during the drill, Dwight mockingly derides the panicking staff for not following procedure by calling 911... except it's also been revealed that he's sabotaged the phone lines, making it impossible for them to do so (and furthermore, he ignores the fact that Pam actually does try to call 911).
• Jerkass Ball: As well-intentioned as the fire drill was, there was no need for Dwight to light fireworks and discreetly toss them into the middle of the bullpen (since he already started the fire), unless he just wanted to sow extra chaos.
  Andy: The fire is shooting at us!
• Jerkass Has a Point: To an extent. Although Dwight's "live" demonstration is ridiculously out-of-line, it did prove his point that the rest of the office did not know any of the safety procedures at all and would be woefully unprepared if an actual fire broke out in the building. However, it's worth noting that Dwight has clearly stacked the decks against them; most of the panic only sets in because Dwight has cut off, blocked, or heated the handles of every possible exit point, cut the main phone lines, and started setting off fireworks in the office.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: While the rest of the office panics during the fire drill, Kevin opts to smash the glass in the break room's vending machine and raid the snacks inside.
• Never My Fault: Dwight refuses to accept any responsibility for the disastrous fire drill or any suggestion that his actions were ill-thought-out, out-of-line and harmful. He's defiant and dismissive of everyone's preparedness when called out on it, his only response to being informed that someone had a heart attack and could have died was to blame the victim, his apology is reluctant and perfunctory at best, and he has to resort to tricking people into signing the form stating they forgive him rather than actually acknowledging he could have been in the wrong.
• No Sympathy: Dwight's reaction to Stanley having a heart attack is to berate him for having one as a result of a simulated fire. David Wallace calls him out for this, pointing out Stanley could have died.
• Oh, Crap!: Everyone's extremely freaked-out reaction to seeing smoke billowing out of the hallway.
  Michael: OH MY GOD! Okay, it's happening! Everybody stay calm! Everybody stay calm! STAY FUCKING CALM!!!
• Shout-Out: For no pragmatic reason, after Dwight dissects the CPR dummy, he wears its face and mutters "Clarice?"
• A Simple Plan: Michael actually comes up with a good idea for safety training: hire a CPR instructor and a training dummy because that's a useful procedure to teach his staff. Rose is a Reasonable Authority Figure since it's her job to correct everyone on how to do it properly. The problem is that everyone goes Comically Missing the Point about doing compressions to "Stayin' Alive" and Dwight cuts up the dummy.
• Smart Ball: Compared to the actions of Jim, Andy, and Oscar during the fire (as noted below), Michael breaks a window open with a projector and calls for help, which is somewhat more effective than trying to ram the door or climb through the ceiling.
• Sticky Fingers: The CPR dummy has no wallet. Creed checked.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Stanley is told that stress is detrimental to his health, and continuing to work at the Office is driving it up.
  Stanley: I'm going to die.
• This Is Reality: Rose is disappointed that no one is taking the CPR class seriously. She says that if this were a real emergency, their guy would have died because no one dialed 911 or maintained chest compressions. David says something similar when he points out that the dummy is coming out of Dwight's paycheck.
• Smash Cut: As the CPR class devolves into chaos, we abruptly jump to another disciplinary meeting.
  David Wallace: Can you tell me why you had to cut the face off the dummy?
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • After everyone ignores him during a fire safety meeting, Dwight lights a small fire and sabotages all the normal exits (so everyone would have to use the emergency exits), thinking that everyone will listen to him since their lives are in danger and he knows how to get out. But Dwight fails to realize that when people think that their lives are in danger, everyone's going to be panicking and want to get out as quickly as possible. So when everyone finds out that the doors don't work, they stop listening to Dwight (just as he was about to mention the emergency exits), start panicking, and try to find their own way out.
    • Jim and Andy try to break down a door with a copier and Oscar attempts to get help by going out through the crawlspace, but the copier shatters after being rammed against the much stronger door and Oscar breaks through the ceiling because of his weight.
  • After the fire drill incident that caused Stanley's heart attack and the subsequent hijacking of a CPR class that led to Dwight destroying an expensive training dummy, he ends up getting in trouble with David Wallace, gets docked pay for the damages, loses his "title" as office safety officer, and is forced to apologize to the office, then have everyone sign a paper saying they forgive him so he won't get fired. After saying a half-assed apology to everyone, it's not surprising that nobody wants to help Dwight, especially Phyllis, who's a friend of Stanley and knows that Dwight really isn't sorry. So then, Dwight is forced to do favors, like buying cookies from Toby's daughter or resort to trickery, like getting people to sign his sheet under the guise of an attendance sheet.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Michael, when he finally realizes that he is the source of Stanley's stress.
  Michael: So it wasn't Dwight after all. Looks like I am the killer. You never expect that you're the killer. it's a... great twist.
• Ultimate Job Security: By all means, in another office, Dwight would have been fired if not arrested for causing a false emergency and nearly killing a coworker. The only reason that he isn't is that Michael tries to ameliorate the situation by taking charge of office safety procedures.
• Wham Line: "Michael, I think you're what's stressing everybody out."
• What the Hell, Hero?: David Wallace lets Dwight have it for endangering his coworkers, and Michael for wanting to give Dwight a slap on the wrist. He rightly points out that Dwight nearly killed Stanley, who could sue their company and caused a lot of property damage. He then asks the men if they want Stanley's death on their hands.
• Worst Aid:
  • Michael's idea of helping Stanley after he has a heart attack is yelling at him that he's black and that Barack Obama is president, then he attempts to shove a wallet in his mouth because Michael thinks that he'll choke on his own tongue. He ends up getting restrained by Jim, Toby, and Kevin.
  • Likewise, Michael thinks that Stanley can perform CPR on himself if he has another heart attack. Even Stanley knows that's not how it works.

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