The Best Michael And Dwight Moments From The Office

For nine seasons, "The Office" made us laugh, smile, and cringe — sometimes all at the same time. The show still stands as one of our all-time favorite sitcoms, and we'd also go to bat for it having one of the best-ever ensemble casts. The series features a ton of great relationships, but one of the best and weirdest is the oddball hero worship Dwight offers Michael ... and the fluctuating tolerance, disdain, and affection Michael gives him in return.

These two have a lot of great moments, and we had trouble narrowing them down. We gave the task the same devotion Dwight gives bears, beets, and "Battlestar Galactica," and we dove into multiple seasons of interactions with the naïve confidence of Michael Scott. What we eventually wound up with was a selection of scenes that run the gamut from the funny to painful to sweet. They don't just encapsulate the best of Michael and Dwight, they're also a tour of some of the best episodes "The Office" has to offer.

Emotional intelligence isn't always Michael Scott's strong suit, to put it mildly. Sometimes, though, he can muster up exactly the right gesture.

That comes in handy in "The Fight" (Season 2, Episode 6), when he needs to mend fences with Dwight after humiliating him in a dojo showdown that basically degenerated into schoolyard bullying and slap fights. (Why does Michael pin Dwight to the ground and hammer his fingers into him in a "typewriter" move? We don't know, and we suspect he doesn't either.) It's so embarrassing that it affects even Dwight's usually unshakable loyalty, and he slinks into the office to request that his emergency contact information be changed so that Michael is no longer listed.

Michael reaches out to him by the end of the episode, pretending that the fight was really just an elaborate test to see if Dwight is ready to be promoted from "Assistant to the Regional Manager" to just "Assistant Regional Manager." Good news: He is! Just don't expect to see any paperwork on that, Dwight, or any salary increase or official acknowledgment. It's almost like Michael made it up to make him feel better.

When Dwight wins a regional award for best salesman in "Dwight's Speech" (Season 2, Episode 17), Michael isn't really focused on celebrating his friend's victory. He just wants to remind everyone that he once won the same award two years in a row. He longs to be back in the spotlight. And at the awards ceremony, he gets his chance. Dwight gets stage fright, and Michael seizes the mic, but his speech leaves the audience bored, confused, and even offended.

Dwight pulls off an unexpected and hilarious triumph — one that involves channeling dictators — and Michael can't take watching his number two guy succeed where he failed. He slinks off to the hotel bar. When Dwight finds him there afterwards, Michael regales him with a barely formed anecdote ... and finds that Dwight is riveted and happy to listen. His eager attention gives Michael the boost he needs to restore his (slightly delusional) sense of self-esteem.

There's one Michael-and-Dwight scene that we can't think about without laughing, and that's in Season 4's two-part "Dunder Mifflin Infinity," when Michael decides to take his GPS directions absolutely literally, even when it means driving into a lake. It's a rare chance for Dwight to be the voice of reason, frantically trying to explain the concept of "bearing right" to his willfully obtuse boss, and we always love it when characters' usual dynamics get temporarily upended.

Let's face it, while Michael's social skills might be marginally better than Dwight's, Dwight's survival skills are absolutely better than Michael's. Sometimes that means he knows what to do in case of bear attacks, but more usefully, it can mean knowing not to drive your rental car into a lake, especially when you don't have all the insurance paperwork in order.

The later seasons of "The Office" are often broader than the earlier ones, and while there are times when that doesn't work for us, this isn't one of them. This is just comedy gold.

In "The Coup" (Season 3, Episode 3), we get a rare example of Michael being intimidating: That's what happens when you find your most devotedly sycophantic employee has gone behind your back to try to steal your job. After learning that Dwight's "dentist appointment" was really a covert meeting with Jan, Michael goes in for some downright devious mind games. He even fake-promotes Dwight for the day — fooling the whole office — and only yanks the rug out from under him after Dwight insults Michael's beloved company car.

Our favorite part, though, is Michael's not-so-subtle interrogation of Dwight after his return from the "dentist." Michael persuades Dwight to eat some peanut M&Ms and then asks in faux-confusion how that isn't causing problems with the crown Dwight had put in, and Dwight improvises with an explanation about a new kind of sealant. Not bad. He does less well when Michael asks about his dentist's name. We can practically see Dwight's mind go blank as he finally claims it's "Crentist."

It's an unbelievably fun scene, with Steve Carell getting the rare chance to act sinister and Rainn Wilson perfectly channeling Dwight's deer-in-the-headlights attempt to power through his own lie.

"The Injury" (Season 2, Episode 12) is one of the funniest episodes the show has to offer. It's hard to top Michael accidentally cooking his foot in a George Foreman grill. Michael takes his grilled foot very seriously, but no one else does ... except, of course, for Dwight, who rushes off to rescue him the moment he hears Michael needs help. He peels out of the parking lot so fast that he crashes into a pole and winds up with a severe concussion.

Michael doesn't reciprocate Dwight's devotion and care in this episode, and the most he can do is grudgingly accompany the woozy Dwight to the hospital and then try to stick his foot in the MRI while Dwight is getting a CT scan. Not your finest hour, Michael. (At least not to us — in Season 3's "Branch Closing," Dwight brings this hospital visit up as one of his favorite memories.) But Dwight's flailing attempt to save Michael from his seared and bubble-wrapped foot is just plain sweet, and we love that the concussion makes Dwight so loopy and amiable that he even pulls off one of Michael's signature "that's what she said" jokes — much to Michael's chagrin.

Michael may snub Dwight occasionally, but the one time it looks like Dwight is really gone for good, his absence hits Michael hard. He starts to realize the key difference between Dwight and Season 3 Andy Bernard: Dwight loves him, and Andy doesn't.

That's why it's so appropriate that Michael winning Dwight back from his new job at Staples plays like a scene out of a romantic comedy, with the two of them awkwardly meeting for the first time after a break-up. Michael admits that he was in the wrong, and as soon as he apologizes, Dwight starts extending some olive branches of his own. He points out that his job at Staples isn't exactly perfect: His boss isn't funny (i.e., not nearly as funny as Michael), and he can't wear any of his ties (oh no!). He's setting Michael up to ask him to come back, and Michael does — he even maybe allows that Dwight won't have to keep doing his laundry as penance for his actions back in "The Coup." 

When they celebrate with a high five and Dwight strips off his Staples polo on the way to the door, it's a triumphant moment for us all. The team's back together again, and all's right with the world.

Dwight has a hard time dealing with Michael's decision to move to Colorado with Holly — especially since Michael didn't recommend him as his replacement. At the start of "Goodbye, Michael" (Season 7, Episode 22), he's still testy about it, and he's in no mood to be mollified by the recommendation letter Michael has written for him. When he reads it aloud for the cameras, he even pauses to sneer at the salutation, "'To whom it may concern.' Good, real personal. Thanks, Michael."

As he keeps reading, though, his face changes, and he starts getting more and more choked up. So do we. Michael's explanation that Dwight not only fulfills the dictionary definition of "supreme" but that he does it "as a sales executive, as a leader, as a man, and as a friend" makes it hard not to get emotional. For several seasons now, Dwight has fawned over Michael, and Michael hasn't always done much to show he reciprocates their friendship. This letter goes a long way towards making up for all that.