Dwight is arguably my favorite character on The Office, but one detail about his life always perplexed me: how is he Phillip's father? Fellow Office lovers, let's dive in.
Angela and Dwight have a messy history, and I would even say it's messier than Kelly and Ryan's. As an example, Dwight and Angela never really stop sleeping together all throughout her engagements to both Andy and the Senator. In Season 8 Episode 13, Dwight has suspicions almost immediately that he's the father of Angela's gigantic and supposedly premature baby.
Angela is quick to deny it, but there are things both the viewer and Dwight can't get past. (The first being the size of Phillip's enormous head and his inexplicable preference for beets.) But most of all, the most damning fact is that Phillip was conceived a month before the wedding — when Angela and Dwight were still sleeping together.
Dwight obsesses (as he does) over proving that he, indeed, is Phillip's father and comes up with an elaborate plan to do so. In the Season 8 finale, Dwight holds a "free family portrait studio." While Jim thinks it's a plot to somehow hurt him or Pam and the babies, Dwight's motive is revealed once the Senator pops in with Phillip against Angela's wishes. Dwight is able to steal a used diaper from the garbage and immediately drives to a clinic while Angela chases behind him.
In a bittersweet scene, Dwight and Angela sleep overnight at the hospital to wait for the results only to find Dwight is not the father. But as we all know, Dwight is the father of the baby. And no, he didn't just grab the wrong diaper. I've cracked the code.
Now, we're going to have to go into the vault for this one. If you look back to Season 3 Episode 4, Dwight tells the camera crew that when he was in his mother's womb, he actually absorbed his fraternal twin. Are you still with me?
Clearly I am not a geneticist, and if you are one, please feel free to call me out, but this is what's called "vanishing twin syndrome." The twin who survives contains their own DNA as well as their absorbed fraternal twin's DNA. Although extremely rare, the living twin's offspring can sometimes be born with two sets of genes: their parents', and that of their aunt/uncle. Genetically, a father can be both a dad and an uncle in these rare cases. If that made no sense at all, just visit this article which explains it way better than I do.
I know it's kind of a stretch, but wouldn't that be an awesome explanation to that huge plot hole?? I've read that the writers of "Free Family Portrait Studio" wrote a dialogue saying Dwight grabbed the wrong diaper, but I can only hope that once the Season 8 Superfan Episodes come out, there's a scene that confirms my theory. Until then, I'll keep rewatching this beautiful, multilayered masterpiece.
What do you think of this theory? Let me know down in the comments!
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