Life In The Office

KEVIN MALONE Tracey: I’ll start off with my very favorite part of Kevin: The dude is waaaay loyal. He’s shown time and time again he’s a good friend, and the kind of person who’s childish but pretty easy to get along. I kind of love the Jim-Kevin friendship a lot (him ‘having his back’ re: Roy still makes me laugh). He’s also pretty kind hearted to everyone, though doesn’t seem to have that wonderful switch in his brain that tells him not to say some of the things he’s thinking. It’s that lack of switch that makes me kind of come off as a perv (LOL @ him about Pam and Karen in the finale last season, for example), but not to the point people don’t like him.   

Marty: Kevin’s relationship with Jim intrigues me.  He seems more interested in Jim’s business than Jim.  The two situations cited above (“having his back” and his breakdown of who’s hotter between Pam and Karen) really made me wonder why he’s interested.  He doesn’t really seem too interested in other people otherwise.   Tracey: He doesn’t really come across a super smart guy, either, but at the same time he isn’t an IDIOT either, you know?  

Marty: Where is Kevin’s fiance?  We hear about her, we met her daughter, so she must be real, but have we met her?  There was a mention at some point in time about her being gone for a little while.  I think she was on vacation or something?  I get the impression that she’s not really interested in him and is just kind of using him because he’s a pushover and will do things like take care of her daughter. He obviously hates Angela and does not fear her at all.  He knows that she finds him disgusting and he doesn’t appear to care even though it seems that she is his superior.  He knows that she hates “hateball” (which is how it got named) and doesn’t care.  And the best day of his life was when Angela realized that she had made an accounting error (that was in the webisode if nobody saw it).   

Rachel: The term “passive-agressive” comes to mind. He doesn’t sit and take negativity, but he doesn’t want to be confrontational either. 

Marty: Kevin and Oscar have a very open friendship.  After Oscar came back from vacation (which he was on because he was so offended by how he was treated by the office employees when he was forced to come out) Kevin immediately made a joke about Oscar’s “gaycation” to which Oscar takes no offense.  They seem to be frequently joking around working together to anger Angela. Kevin’s another introvert.  He definetly has some personality that he keeps locked inside.  I say that because we are somtimes surprised to hear of hobbies that Kevin has, mainly because he never talks about what he’s into.  For example, he never talks about basketball, although he’s pretty good at it (so he must play a lot and probably watches).  He also is really into poker, but again, rarely talks about it.  To win a WSOP tournament, especially one of the less mainstream forms of poker (No limit deuce to seven draw) you really have to be into what you’re doing and spend a lot of time playing.  Furthermore, both of those activities generally require other people, though we never hear Kevin talk about his social life.  He’s in a band that nobody knew about until Jim and Pam stumbled upon it for Pam’s wedding.  Kevin (and probably other band members as well) lack the courage or confidence to promote their band as much as they would like to.  Given Kevin’s enthusiasm for playing the wedding, it seemed like they really wanted a gig.  Maybe they’re just no good, but it gives us more insight to his personality if we assume he’s just too shy to put his band way out in the public eye.  

Rachel: Also, Kevin, like the typical introvert, rarely shows deep, profound emotions. One of the few times we see him feel something, it’s when he is waiting for the test results on Michael’s birthday. He tries to put that happy face on, but he can’t get his mind off the fact that he could have a form of skin cancer.

In the same breath, Kevin dwells on this possible skin cancer diagnosis in the same way a person would if he or she were awaiting a possible cancer diagnosis. His fears seem a bit over the top. When his fiance’s daughter comes to the office, he asks Angela if he could be the head of the accounting department for one day, as if that would change Abby’s entire view of him. Kevin’s emotional reactions are a bit more than normal, though he hardly shows it on the outside.  

Tracey : Kevin seems to be into “comfort” things.  He seemed to cherish his Dunder Mifflin robe that everyone got for Christmas.  And speaking of Christmas, he bought himself a foot bath/massager as his own secret santa (this maneuver also showed Kevin as being somewhat secretive), which he started using immediately!  Another comfort item for kevin are his M&Ms.  They are a highly treasured item for him.  So treasured, that he had to hide them from the Stamford folks (though he was sure to let Jim know where to find them, because Jim’s his friend).  His  M&Ms not only provide sustinence, but also entertainment as he trys to fit as many as he can into his mouth for fun.  Creed even recognized Kevin’s love for M&Ms in his blog.  “There’s a fat man that sits by me. He has some sort of jar of multi-colored power beans. I need those beans, man.”

Dear LITO Readers,Thanks for reading. Thanks for sharing.  Enjoy Season 4!

~Elyse~