Kevin Malone (Brian Baumgartner) owning a bar in The Office makes no sense, but a cut storyline makes the idea way more plausible. Over the course of nine seasons of The Office, Kevin managed to carve a permanent niche in the hearts of viewers. Kevin was a beacon of lightheartedness in the often tumultuous environment of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch. With his slow speech and signature chuckle, Kevin was unmistakably the lovable goof in The Office cast, whose role in the accounting department was often marked by errors and an obvious lack of finance knowledge.
Nevertheless, the trajectory of Kevin’s character in The Office took a surprising turn in the series finale. After a long stint at Dunder Mifflin, where his simple-mindedness was both a source of amusement and concern, Kevin was shown to have taken a bold leap into entrepreneurship as the owner of a bar. Given his well-established history of bungling financial matters, getting fired by Dwight, and his low salary in The Office, Kevin becoming a bar owner was a puzzling and unexpected development. This mystery lingered and lived in fans’ heads for years until a cut season 9 storyline came to light in 2021 during an interview on the Pardon My Take podcast.
A Cut Story In The Office Season 9 Reveals How Kevin Bought His Bar
While neither Kevin’s finance skills nor his business acumen would have helped the character come to owning a bar, Baumgartner revealed that there was a storyline that was actually shot for The Office series finale that logically explained everything. The actor explained that the bar was Kevin’s local, and he had amassed a huge credit at the bar as a result of other customers buying him drinks. Given the massive credit, Kevin used that as leverage to get the keys to the establishment.
While there was so much confusion surrounding Kevin and his random bar ownership, the cut story cleared everything up. The final episode was so long that this story wasn’t the only thing cut from the two-part Office finale. Along with Kevin’s bar story, a five-minute scene of Jim pranking Dwight by making him believe he’s in The Matrix was cut too. However, unlike Kevin’s cut story, the Matrix prank has been made available online. Hopefully, NBC will release Kevin’s final story arc at some point as well.
Was Kevin Fired In The Office Because Of Insider Trading?
One of the lingering The Office fan theories surrounding Kevin’s dismissal is rooted in the darker realm of corporate malfeasance. There’s speculation among fans that Kevin’s departure from Dunder Mifflin wasn’t just about his inefficiencies, but also insider trading. It’s been argued that Kevin’s occasional flashes of inexplicable wealth, coupled with his role in the accounting department, could have positioned him to gain inside information. There are moments in the series where Kevin’s knowledge about financial dealings seems way too informed for his otherwise lackluster cognitive skills, hinting that he could have been acting the whole time.
The theory also speculates that Dwight fired Kevin to prevent him from being arrested. But while this would add a layer of depth to Kevin’s character, the show itself provides little concrete evidence to support it. Dwight Schrute, upon becoming regional manager in The Office, had a clear mission to streamline the office and make it more efficient. His decision to let Kevin go was explicitly shown as a reflection of Kevin’s longstanding incompetence in his role. Additionally, if Kevin had been dabbling in insider trading, a simple firing would not have been the solution, and legal consequences would have followed.
