"Gettysburg" is the eighth episode of the eighth season of the American comedy television series The Office and the show's 160th episode overall. It was written by Robert Padnick and directed by Jeffrey Blitz. The episode aired on NBC in the United States on November 17, 2011. "Gettysburg" guest stars Lindsey Broad as Cathy Simms.
The series—presented as if it were a real documentary—depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. In this episode, Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) takes some of the office staff on a field trip to Gettysburg for inspiration. Meanwhile, the rest of the office, under orders from Robert California (James Spader), are tasked with coming up with a new business idea for Dunder Mifflin. Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) proposes several vending machine ideas that capture California's imagination.
"Gettysburg" is the last episode to feature Jenna Fischer before her maternity leave. The episode received mixed reviews, with commentators mainly criticizing the episode for recycling jokes. According to the Nielsen Media Research, "Gettysburg" drew 5.50 million viewers, and ranked first in its time slot and was the highest-rated NBC show of the night.
Synopsis
Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) thinks that a field trip to Gettysburg will boost the office morale. Andy is unhappy at Gettysburg with the lack of morale and belief in his leadership and attempts to make an analogy between running a paper company and fighting in the Civil War. Andy starts to lead a haphazard tour, and eventually most of the office members sit down to rest. Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson) follow Andy after he presses on, and eventually tell him to stop trying to impress the office. They explain that no one is responding to his analogies because they are not true, and reinforce the fact that his co-workers like him the way he is.
Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) argues with Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nunez), during the tour, about what he claims is the northernmost battle of the Civil War: the Battle of Schrute Farms. Dwight maintains that its absence from the history books is an example of re-writing history. Oscar maintains that the battle is a fictitious creation. Oscar is annoyed even more when Dwight attempts to convince Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) that the Battle of Schrute Farms is real. Dwight and Oscar learn that the Battle of Schrute Farms did take place, after tracking down an archivist. The "battle" was really a code term. Schrute Farms was a safe haven for artists and poets (and, as heavily implied, homosexuals), during the Civil War. Oscar finds this fascinating, and Dwight leaves in disgust. Gabe Lewis (Zach Woods) is sidetracked by people of another tour group who assume that he is an Abraham Lincoln impersonator. He acquiesces and delivers an improvised but applauded performance.
Half of the employees opt to stay at the office. Robert California (James Spader) makes a spontaneous visit, and he asks the remaining people to come up with Dunder Mifflin/Sabre's next big idea. The remaining office people fail to impress Robert with their ideas. Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) details an idea that he has about cookie placement in the vending machine. Robert gets the impression that he is extremely clever and is speaking only in metaphors. The employees try to offer analogies to Kevin's words, but Robert gives credit to Kevin. Ryan Howard (B. J. Novak), has been annoyed by the idea of Kevin being creative during the entire day, and with the fact that Robert has been rejecting his ideas. Ryan later tricks Kevin into explaining an idea that Kevin has involving the Big Mac, and Robert realizes that there was no subtext to Kevin's ideas.