When the American version of The Office premiered on NBC in the spring of 2005, not much was expected from it. Sure, it had Steve Carell, a correspondent from The Daily Show and a hilarious costar in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, but outside of him, there wasn’t anyone else of big-name value. On top of that, it had the negativity tied to it being an American cash-in on a popular British series. Ricky Gervais‘ original version of The Office seemed impossible to recreate. Though the American version of The Office struggled at first due to its trying too hard to duplicate the original, it soon found its own voice and arguably became even better than Gervais’ version.
For almost seven seasons, the quirky workers of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company gave us some of TV’s best characters. Carell’s Michael Scott might have been a self-absorbed dolt, but underneath that was a lonely man who just wanted to be loved. Rainn Wilson‘s Dwight Schrute was a borderline sociopath at times, but he’d also do anything for his friends. Jim and Pam’s (John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer) will-they-won’t-they love affair was one of TV’s best romances. And then there was the supporting cast, from cat-obsessed Angela (Angela Kinsey) to the dumb but lovable Kevin (Brian Baumgartner). The great times couldn’t last forever though. At the end of Season 7, Carell left The Office. It struggled without him for two more years, but a decade ago, the series found its former glory and gave us one of the best series finales ever made.
Michael Scott Surprises Dwight at His Wedding
At its core, beyond all the high jinks, The Office was about love. It might be sappy, but it’s true. The painfully lonely Michael found someone to love him for who he is in Holly Flax (Amy Ryan). Jim and Pam found each other, lost each other, and found each other again, with the passing seasons seeing them getting married and starting a family. And then there was Dwight and Angela. Those two were so wrong and yet so right for each other. The Office series finale, simply titled “Finale” was a two-part goodbye with its focal point being Dwight and Angela’s wedding at the Schrute farm. It’s been a year since the documentary that was being filmed for almost the past decade was released. Dwight and Angela have gotten engaged and now is the day they become one.
A sweet moment finds Jim as Dwight’s best man, or “bestest mensch.” The friends have come so far, with them seemingly almost hating each other for several years, before growing to respect one another. The big tearjerker scene comes when Jim tells Dwight he can’t be his best man. Turns out, according to him, that the Dwight family tradition says you can’t have a best man younger than the groom. It’s his last, most heartfelt prank. With tears in his eyes, Jim says, “Dwight, I can’t be there for you. I’m sorry. I just really wish there was something I can do.” Dwight looks crushed, but as the camera pulls back, the moment fans had hoped for arrived. There stands Michael Scott in the doorway. A shocked Dwight says, “Michael, I can’t believe you came.” With Michael on the verge of crying as well, he gets in one last perfect, “That’s what she said.” They hug and Jim tells the camera, “Best prank ever.”
No one knew if Steve Carell would show up for the finale or not. And while he is here, the episode doesn’t become The Michael Scott Show. Carell gives us a sweet cameo, but he already had his good bye, so he wisely appears, but then takes a backseat so everyone else can have their moment. His only other speaking part comes after Dwight and Angela’s wedding, where the new couple stands in their own dug graves (how romantic!). Following the nuptials, with everyone sitting at their tables outside, Michael looks at his former coworkers and then speaks to the camera. “I feel like all my kids grew up, and then they married each other.” He cries, overcome with emotion. “It’s every parent’s dream.”
Jim and Pam Leave Dunder Mifflin
In every TV series finale, it seems like there’s a wedding or someone moving away. The Office gives us both. No offense to Dunder Mifflin, but Jim and Pam have always felt stuck. They stay because this is where they found each other, and it’s where all of their friends who are now like family are, but they’ve also yearned for more for so long. Jim tried that, helping to start his own sports marketing company in Philadelphia called Athlead, but the intense travel caused a strain on his marriage so he gave it up for Pam. He’s content to stay in Scranton at Dunder Mifflin, but Pam knows he still wants more. She does too. For so long, Pam was the character so afraid to ever take a risk. Now she takes a big one.
After the wedding, Jim and Pam stop at home. There, Carol, Michael’s ex and a real estate agent, played by Steve Carell’s real-life wife Nancy Carell, is showing off their home to prospective buyers. Jim is dumbfounded, but Pam tells him she’s secretly been trying to sell it for months. Athlead is now in Austin, Texas and she wants to move there with Jim. The couple looking over the home makes the Halperts an offer right then and there.
They weren’t the only ones going through change. Everyone sees a resolution. Darryl (Craig Robinson) has been with Athlead and will be going to Austin too. Toby (Paul Lieberstein) loses his job but moves to New York to become a writer. Erin (Ellie Kemper) meets her birth parents. Kevin gets sacked like Toby, but he opens his own bar. Stanley (Leslie David Baker) retired, left his wife, and moved to Florida. At the wedding he gets to reunite with his longtime desk mate, Phyllis (Phyllis Smith). Oscar (Oscar Nuñez) is running to be a state senator. Meredith (Kate Flannery) is still the same, but she is so proud of her grown son, who is now a stripper. And Ryan and Kelly (B.J. Novak and Mindy Kaling) run off together at the wedding, with Kelly leaving her new boyfriend behind, and Ryan leaving behind a baby that he’d been taking care of. Thankfully, Nellie (Catherine Tate), who has yearned to be a mom, adopts him.
Dwight Becomes the Boss and Grows as a Person
It’s Dwight K. Schrute who undergoes the biggest change, however. There’s more going on in his life than his wedding to Angela. An even bigger dream of Dwight’s has come true. After pining for it for years, Dwight is the regional manager of the Scranton branch of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. He doesn’t handle it so well at first, cutting the likes of Toby and Kevin. But Dwight has been all about growth, slowly but surely, these last nine years. It doesn’t mean that he turned into a big softie. He’s still eccentric and full of himself, but he loves more than just himself now. He loves more than just Angela. He loves his co-workers.
That can be seen in him choosing Jim to be his best man. It’s seen with him at Kevin’s bar, where he approaches him and makes up with the guy he so heartlessly let go. Two more moments in the finale show just how much Dwight has grown. When Jim and Pam come to him in his office and tell Dwight that they’re leaving Dunder Mifflin, he fires them both. For a second, your heart sinks. No, Dwight is regressing. Not at all, actually. He’s doing it out of love. If Jim and Pam are fired, they can get severance. It’s his parting gift to them. At the end, everyone on The Office gets one more interview on camera. Dwight goes all out on his. He talks about what each of co-workers means to him, sounding almost like Michael would. He ends with Pam, the friend who always believed in him, and who helped him grow. “And office administrator Pamela Beesly Halpert is my best friend.”
There was no great premise for The Office. It was a group of people working in an office. It’s been done so many times. It’s so ordinary compared to the wild ideas so many shows come up with, but as Pam tells the documentary crew in the final episode, “There’s a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn’t that the point?”
