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Lovely story! I like that Pam didn't blindly justify her husband's behavior and could call him out on his action, but at the same time - remained a supporting and loving wife and friend.
And further discussion was also great. I like it when Jim and Dwight could be... well, not actually best friends forever, but on good terms and allies. Thank you!
P.S. I watched this episode just once, and my brain mercifully erased most of the episode from my memory, leaving only a soft and fluffy JAM gift exchange. Maybe, that's for the better.

Author's Response:

Thank you very much!

Yeah, it was... not a fun one.  But that, Erin and Jada made up for it.  And as much as I hate the prank... good Lord, Dwight had some great moments during that.

As much as Dwight postures that they're enemies, they're technically allies, and I'm really happy that shone through in this.  Also, I doubt Pam would in canon either.  She's the only one not laughing and is actually shocked by Jim's actions in that scene, and I wanted her to call him out on it, albeit gently.

Thanks for the review!

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Okay, fic first, episode thoughts later.

I love the touch about Dwight not being able to restrain himself from coming down and gloating in person, Bond villain style - very, VERY Dwight.

And Pam's car talk with Jim was important and in character. We rarely see Pam push back on Jim's pranks, but we do get the impression she feels that way a couple times - I think it makes a lot of sense that she might be saving some of those talks for a) key moments where Jim has clearly crossed the line and b) some legitimate no-cameras no-coworkers privacy. And it's also very Pam that she brings it back around to the real deep-seated reasons WHY Dwight has so much trouble letting stuff go - which I think are on point, and it makes a lot of sense that Pam has an easier time seeing them than Jim. (It's always struck me in trying to make sense of the Dwight-Jim relationship that they by and large get along better when Dwight is happier... and that for all his protestations to the contrary, he spends a lot of the series not being especially happy.)

The ending is genius. Uniting Jim and Dwight against a common enemy is always high comedy, and honestly, that mutual enemy probably should've been Andy more than it was in canon. And this is very Andy - he WANTS to be included, but he doesn't quite get that the moment has passed.

Re: end notes. I wouldn't quite put myself in the "I wanna Watch Scott's Tots instead" camp (if only because I can't get beyond the part of Scott's Tots where they sort of suggest that Michael did a good thing????), but I'm with you on Classy Christmas being pretty uncomfortable viewing. The snowball fight is just too harsh to be funny, and while yes, Michael has a point, it's kind of hard to imagine the vastly more mature Holly marrying the dude who does this like a few months from now.

I have mixed feelings as to whether or not Jim deserved the comeuppance - I hate watching it, but I do think there's a certain logic behind it. Jim gets almost all the wins in Jim vs. Dwight, but when Dwight does get a rare win it tends to be correspondingly big - physically harmful or legitimately financially damaging like in Diversity Day, as opposed to annoying. In that way, there's a sort of balance. I'm not on board with it, but I get it, and I think it fits with Dwight's character - he's a guy without much of a sense of proportion.

Unrelated: that was a fun moment for Pam to break out the vaudeville, but is there any explanation for Pam's weird forays in vaudeville humor in Seasons 6 and 7? I mean, it produces some good moments, but on my last rewatch it kinda struck me as out of nowhere.

Author's Response:

This reply is gonna be all kinds of disorganized, LOL.

That's the thing about "Scott's Tots", I don't have the *highest* cringe tolerance, but my favorite episode is "Dinner Party" so there you go.  It's an episode one can watch if they have a high tolerance.  ("They're lithium!" kills me every time.)  However, no one except Pam and Erin are the least bit likable in it (and Jada but she's a little girl).  When you've previously seen the characters evolve and become better over time, only to see them become so nasty to each other IN THE CHRISTMAS EPISODE is just... sad.

I 100% agree with you on how perfectly in-character Dwight's snowball war is.  Jim deserved a comeuppance, and Dwight serving it means that he just doesn't know when to stop (as Jim says traumatized).  Dwight's "war general" mentality is what makes him think that it's okay to make someone fear for their lives, or take away a huge portion of their wages, because he believes he's just making a jab.  What I wanted to present here is he's grown to have *some* self-awareness and can be humbled to the point where he can realize "Oh shoot, that was a bit much, wasn't it?"  Besides, the talking head Dwight scenes are just pure gold.

As perceptive as Jim is, I feel Pam is as well, just in different ways.  She's known Dwight for longer and better at picking up one's emotional state.  That's why she was so shocked and annoyed when Jim threw the snowball: Jim is not this unjustly mean, and Dwight's response isn't justifiable, but nonetheless inevitable, because she knows how he'd respond emotionally.

On Dwight again: he's often had the mentality that emotion is weak, so when he actually expresses himself to Jim, he starts to understand him better.  Dwight slowly becomes a more empathetic person, which benefits Jim because he can easier express his own emotions as well.  That's how they become a dream team.  Poor Andy's not quick on the uptake, and that can get the better of him.  Jim and Dwight are in a different stage after the snowballs were thrown, which gives them a reason to ban together once again.

Lastly, my assumption with Pam and vaudeville is that she's a big fan of old Hollywood.  She came in dressed as Charlie Chapman at Pratt in S5, so that's an indicator that she loves black-and-white movies.

Thanks for the review!