The consolations of The Office’s alternate ending

A woman who works a day job as a receptionist is invited to participate in a local group art show. She draws the exterior building where she works. Nobody viewing the show appreciates it, and she feels dejected. Then, the manager of her day job unexpectedly visits. In awe of its beauty, he is the only person to recognize the building’s significance, and thus the painting’s and the artist’s. He makes the only offer to buy it. The artist generally dislikes her manager, but in this moment she is moved to embrace him. The office needs it, he declares, and that’s where he decides to hang it up. This is a storyline that takes place in the third season of The Office. Several seasons later, the finale of the show closes with a shot of the artist taking her painting off the wall. The executive producer of The Office had come up with an alternate ending. It was an analogy based on the throughline of the show, which he articulated in the first season: Imagine a completely paved parking lot in an…