In The Office, Toby Flenderson is a quiet, harmless HR representative at Dunder Mifflin. However, there is a staggering amount of evidence that suggests he could have an alternate persona, the infamous Scranton Strangler, a masked criminal who runs around Scranton, strangling people to death. This theory has been speculated by fans for years, because of details such as the timing of the Strangler’s attacks lining up with setbacks in Toby’s personal life, Toby’s mysterious absence from the office when the Scranton Strangler is being chased on TV, and his obsession with the innocence of George Howard Skub, who was convicted of being the Strangler. There’s a chance that all of these are wild coincidences, but most signs point to Toby’s secret identity being none other than the Scranton Strangler.
It is very clear that from season three, Toby is in love with Pam, Dunder Mifflin’s receptionist, and is extremely jealous of her relationship with Jim. Toby took many actions to act upon his jealousy, outing the couple’s secret relationship, being gleeful when they were late to their own wedding, and even trying to get Jim fired. The extremities that he took could even be called psychopathic and make his character fit the mold of the strangler even more. In season 4, episode 15, the Dunder Mifflin staff is locked in the building. While they are waiting for someone to unlock the gate, Toby affectionately grabs Pam’s leg and then looks embarrassed. He awkwardly announces that he is going to quit his job and move to Costa Rica, and jumps over the fence and sprints home. Toby had never displayed a burst of athletic behavior like this before, and it proves that he is physically fit enough to be the strangler. After he finally moves to Costa Rica, he is written out of the show for a few episodes, but the audience learns that he suffered a neck injury a few days into his new life, and moves back to Scranton seven episodes later. Since his dream was to move to Costa Rica, and it was ruined by having substantial injuries to his neck, some fans believe that Toby snapped and made it his mission to destroy the dreams of others by giving them neck injuries. The Scranton Strangler is mentioned in 14 episodes of the show, first brought up two years later, in season six, episode 14, the episode where Jim and Pam have their first child. Andy is seen holding up a newspaper that says “Scranton Strangler Strikes Again.” During the episode, all of the Dunder Mifflin employees are gathered at the hospital to celebrate the birth of Pam’s child. However, Toby is the only one who isn’t there. It’s suspicious that the first-mentioned Scranton Strangler attack lines up with the biggest moment of Jim and Pam’s relationship, and it suggests that Toby is taking his anger about Jim and Pam’s happiness out on the citizens of Scranton, by doing exactly what ruined his happiness in Costa Rica: breaking necks.
A lot of the evidence for Toby’s incrimination comes from season 7, episode 8, in which the Scranton Strangler is in a televised car chase with the police. In the episode, everyone in the office is gathered at Toby’s desk, watching the news, where a SWAT team has an apartment building surrounded, with the Strangler assumed to be inside. It then turns into a car chase that drives right by the Dunder Mifflin building. This two-minute scene has many key points in the case against Toby. First, while the whole scene takes place at Toby’s desk, Toby himself is nowhere to be found. Later in the episode, the staff has a Glee viewing party, and Toby is once again missing. Before the car chase starts, and the SWATs are surrounding the apartment, Toby’s work phone, next to his desk, rings. Kelly cancels the call, not wanting to be distracted from the TV. While it may seem insignificant, this phone call may be the most compelling evidence against Toby. All calls dialed to Dunder Mifflin are routed to the receptionist. Because Toby’s phone rang instead of the receptionist’s desk on the other side of the room, whoever was calling knew the direct number to the landline. Even assuming that a Dunder Mifflin client knew a direct transfer number, it would most likely be a number for a salesman, never for an HR representative like Toby. The most likely solution is that Toby himself is calling the phone because he would be the only one who knew the direct phone number. Fans theorize that he is calling the office to confess to his crimes or ask for help escaping from the SWAT team. After being divorced from his wife and seemingly having no other friends, his co-workers would be the only people he could turn to. There’s one other huge piece of evidence in the scene that may prove Toby’s guilt. The Scranton Strangler’s car in the chase is the same as a car that’s parked in the Dunder Mifflin parking lot every single day. It’s never outright confirmed to be Toby’s, but the audience knows what kind of car that many other characters drive, such as Dwight and Meredith, so the chances are high. Between Toby’s absence, the phone call, and the Strangler’s car, this scene alone provides ample evidence that Toby is the Strangler, but there’s more.
Three episodes later, we learn that it is not Toby who is convicted of being the strangler, but someone named George Howard Skub. In what is either a shocking coincidence or a cunning cover-up, Toby is placed on the jury for his case. He votes guilty, along with the rest of the jury, and Skub is thrown in jail. However, later in the season, Toby says that he is not so sure that the Strangler is guilty. He doesn’t mention this again until two whole seasons later, when he starts to become outwardly more obsessed with whether or not Skub is truly guilty, and starts investigating. It’s possible that Toby’s guilt for letting someone else take the fall for his crimes finally caught up to him. The very last mention of the Scranton Strangler is in the 16th episode of season nine. Toby’s fretting about Skub’s innocence reaches a climax, and he decides to go visit Skub in prison. While the interaction between Toby and Skub is never actually shown, Toby leaves the prison in a neck brace, and it is inferred that Skub strangled him. Fans who believe Toby is innocent think this scene is enough evidence to prove that Skub was the Scranton Strangler all along. However, there are many theories as to what happened in the prison, off-camera, that led to Toby’s strangling. The first is that Toby confessed that he was the strangler to Skub out of guilt, and Skub, ironically, strangled him out of anger. The second, more plausible theory is that Toby’s belief in Skub’s innocence was an act, and he strangled himself at the prison in an attempt to eliminate doubt about the case’s verdict.
There are many other moments from the show that don’t directly reference the Scranton Strangler but still serve as examples of Toby’s suspicious behavior. He makes a lot of strange, malicious comments towards Michael, his boss, who hates him. When Michael calls him the “silent killer,” Toby stares and responds, “You’ll see.” In the episode before the big car chase, everyone in the office is invited to Jim and Pam’s daughter’s christening. Toby is very hesitant to enter the church, claiming that he and “The Big Man” have a history. He enters the church, yells at the cross, and then runs back out. The timing of this incident is suspicious because it takes place one episode after the first recorded strangler attack. Toby’s hesitance to enter the church could be fueled by his guilt about his very recent strangling attack. But the strongest evidence that Toby is the strangler comes from NBC itself. On the official YouTube channel for The Office, a mockumentary titled “Making A Strangler” is posted, a parody of the show “Making A Murderer.” The mockumentary compiles clips from the show that confirm Toby was the strangler all along. If all of the hints during the show aren’t enough to convict Toby, flat-out confirmation from the show’s official social media platform must be.
Was Toby really the Scranton Strangler? There is a scary amount of evidence that could very easily put everyone’s favorite HR representative behind bars. The showrunners for The Office won’t confirm or deny it, so it’s up to fans of the show to decide if they buy into this theory.
