The Office: Finale (9x24/25)

And so it ends. You know, I dedicated a lot of my life to The Office, and I can't say I regret it. Yeah, there have been some missteps in the later season, but this finale reminded me why it's a show I always want to come back to when I'm in need of a pick-me-up. This finale, if judged by an impartial critic trying to analyze what qualifies as "good" television, is not the best. But I think the point is that no one watching The Office is partial about it anymore. Nine years is a long time to grow attached to something, and as a young woman, a good portion of my teen years were spent knowing and loving these characters. The finale, while faulty in a few aspects, was still exactly what the show needed for a proper sendoff.

Here's why it worked: it was really sad to see all of the members of the office moving on and doing new things, but it was so satisfying. If we know that these characters have moved forward and are finding new ways to be happy in life, we can move forward as well. Nobody is stuck in a rut, so we don't feel like we're leaving any of these characters with unresolved plot points (that being said, the resolution of some of these plot points was a bit sloppy and/or unnecessarily sentimental, but I'll get to that in a minute.)

The most important thing was that this episode knew that it was okay to be sappy as all hell. What are we supposed to expect from the finale to a nine year long sitcom that got its humor from examining the different relationships between people?

On the level of plot, two things were going on here. One, Angela and Dwight got married. Two, the documentary has stopped airing, but there's a panel going on to follow up on everyone's lives a year later. Impressively for such a big ensemble cast, they actually do a good job of letting us know where everyone's at in their lives.

Oscar is running for the state senate, and he is godfather to Angela and Dwight's son, Phillip.

Stanley retires and moves to Florida, to a remote location where no one can bother him. Phyllis, still working for Dunder Mifflin, gets to have a nice moment with him. I really think that these two have an amazing friendship, and it was one of the many side-character plots that got a nice little nod in this finale.

Kevin and Toby are both fired by Dwight, and Kevin buys a bar while Toby moves to New York, where he has six roommates, who are "better than friends, 'cause they have to give you one month's notice before they leave." In short, Kevin, the lovable idiot, is actually doing alright, while Toby, the sad sap, is not. I actually found that this works pretty well. While Toby is in some respects just like Jerry from Parks and Recreation, Toby does actively interfere in the lives of the other office members in such a way that their general dislike of him makes sense. However, we are not left feeling too bad for the character, because at the end they all encourage him to come to the after party, and his character is thus given a spark of good human companionship.

Nellie is living in Poland, and by the end of the episode she has gotten herself a kid, but I'll get to that in a moment.

Daryll is still successful and working away with the company, and he actually shows up in a limo.

Creed apparently faked his own death and has been living in secret at the office. At the end of the episode, he actually plays a song that the actor wrote and it sort of sends everyone out. It was an oddly touching end to such a crass and strange character, even if the last shot of him is him being taken away by the police.

Dwight has been a very successful manager and he is excitedly planning his wedding to Angela. Angela is also thrilled.

Andy's plot line was actually one of the best here, which is not something I've been saying a lot lately about Andy. The video of him crying during his audition has gone viral, and it actually ends up with him getting a great job. Andy also has my favorite line in the whole episode, as he talks about how he always missed his old friends when working at Dunder Mifflin, and now that he has this great new job, he misses his friends from the old one. He says: "I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them."

Erin also had a ridiculously sweet plot line, as during the panel a woman comes up to the microphone and asks about her search for her birth mother. She answers the question, but then slowly realizes that the woman talking is indeed that mother. She runs into her arms, and her father is also in the room. While this was of course ridiculously cheesy, it was still heartwarming to see.

Jim and Pam get a strange treatment at the panel. While everyone loves Jim and thinks he's just the best husband ever, they are hard on Pam about their recent marital troubles. Pam is sort of flummoxed by these attacks, and Jim tries to defend her. In the end, it turns out that Pam has been secretly trying to sell their house so they can move to Austin and Jim can work with the company. Jim finds out, and the two agree to start a new chapter in their lives. One of the saddest moments in the episode is when Dwight excitedly mentions having a meeting with Jim and Pam, and the two of them take him aside to tell him the news. We don't get to see that conversation, but it looked like it would have been heartbreaking.

I'll now talk about my least favorite element of the episode: Kelly and Ryan. It was such a shame, because I was so excited to see them back for the finale, but they were basically a wasted opportunity. Ryan has a kid and Kelly has a boyfriend, but that of course does not stop them from making out at the first chance they get. They run off together, and Nellie basically steals Ryan's baby. Which is sort of stupid. The only good thing to come out of this was a few funny lines from Ryan, the best of which came as he and Kelly were running away: "I finally mastered commitment!"

And then there's the best part of this episode by far: Jim has been chosen best man for Dwight's wedding, and he kicks ass, giving him such surprises as letting him shoot off a bazooka, helping him repair his relationship with Kevin (whom he fires at the start of the episode), and, best of all, getting Michael to show up and step in as best man.

This was, quite honestly, the perfect reappearance of Michael Scott. When Jim told Dwight he couldn't be his best man because he was younger than Dwight, I felt a smile start to come across my face. Jim had done everything he could to be the best best man he could be, and I just knew that the ultimate gift for Dwight would be if Michael showed up to his wedding. And he did.

But they didn't throw in Steve Carrell all the way - he really only had two lines in the whole episode. The first was in response to "I can't believe you came!" and was, predictably and adorably, "that's what she said." Then, later, watching everyone at the wedding, he says "I feel like all my kids grew up. And then they married each other. It's every parent's dream!" Basically, we got our final dose of Michael Scott without overshadowing the importance of the ongoing characters on the show. It was a brilliantly executed appearance.

I'm going to end my review with the last quote from Pam, because it's nostalgic and cheesy and basically sums up my feelings on this episode and the show. Was this episode perfect? No. It had a lot of missteps, some jokes that fell flat, all of that stuff. But it was an episode of television that was commemorating a very special show, and it did the memory of The Office a great honor. I'll send you out with the words of our favorite former receptionist...

"I thought it was weird when you picked us to make a documentary. But all in all I think an ordinary paper company like Dunder Mifflin was a great subject for a documentary. There's a lot beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?"

8/10

As this is the final episode ever, I just feel the need to nostalgically review it as a whole.

This show really did help to mold my sense of humor and my appreciation of good television, good characters, and good writing. It was definitely time for it to end, but it will always hold a place in my heart! Overall, The Office was an exemplary sitcom.

10/10