#Watch The Office Finale Matrix Prank Cut from the Episode – /Film

When The Office series finale aired back in 2013, it began with a little recap of what happened to the employees of Dunder-Mifflin in the year since the documentary camera crew stopped following them. But the last episode of NBC’s hit workplace sitcom almost went back to their cold open staple of a prank played on Dwight Schrute, and you can finally see it in its entirety.

Originally teased in the cast’s table read for the series finale (a bonus feature that’s been available for some time), the original cold open finds Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) playing an elaborate prank on Dwight (Rainn Wilson) inspired by the 1999 sci-fi action blockbuster The Matrix. Find out who offers Dwight the choice between the red pill and the blue pill in the never-before-seen The Office finale Matrix prank below.

The Office Finale Matrix Prank

Taking several cues from  The Matrix, including the experience of déjà vu with a black cat and the delivery of a cell phone, Dwight finds himself recruited by Hank the security guard (the late Hugh Dane, honored at the end of the clip), who happens to actually be Dorpheus, the brother of Laurence Fishburne’s character Morpheus from the movie. He explains that the movie was created by his team in order to prepare people to accept that The Matrix is real, and now he needs Dwight’s help to fight against the machines. You’ll have to watch the full clip to see how Dwight responds.

While I do like bringing back the classic prank cold open, this clip illustrates the shortcomings of the last few seasons of The Office. Though the final season was able to get back to what made the series so great to begin with, this cold open is far too elaborate of a prank to be believable. Part of the charm of The Office was that the cast felt like real people in the real world, but as the series went on, it started to lean into farfetched sitcom formulas, especially with Jim’s pranks. So while this clip is entertaining, it’s clear why it got cut.

Peacock released this never-before-scene cold open from The Office finale to celebrate the arrival of the series on the NBCUniversal streaming service. The show has been a streaming staple of Netflix for years, but now it’s exclusively available at Peacock, and they’re also offering extended cuts of various episodes that haven’t been consistently available in streaming or reruns since they premiered during the show’s original run. However, if you want to see any episodes past the second season, you’ll have to sign up for the premium version of Peacock instead of the free version.

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