So many sitcoms have it, that will-they-won’t-they trope between two characters. We can see the moments coming from a mile away, but we couldn’t care less, because we love it. We’re suckers for the romance. A sitcom has to make sure that the storyline is done right, though. If the two destined lovers are written to be together way too soon, kissing and becoming an item in Season 2, then all the tension and drama has been removed. If show runners keep teasing it, but then wait years to pull it off, or worse, have the couple fall in love, fall apart, and get together again (we’re looking at you Ross and Rachel), it turns the romance into something audiences grow sick of.
The Office found the perfect middle ground. When viewers first met Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) it was obvious they were meant to be. In a world full of weirdos at Dunder Mifflin Scranton, they were two normal people with great chemistry, and they were best friends. There was only one major issue that stopped them from being together: Pam was engaged to a man named Roy (David Denman). We watched every episode of The Office, anticipating that this would be the week when Jim and Pam told each other how they felt. When that moment finally came, fans rejoiced, but there was a victim in their happiness. Jim had found a great girlfriend named Karen Filipelli (Rashida Jones). She didn’t deserve anything that happened because of Jim and Pam.
Karen Filipelli Was a Good Fit for Jim Halpert
When Jim reveals his romantic feelings to Pam in Season 2 of The Office, only to get shot down, he moves on. Literally. Jim can’t stay in Scranton with the pain of seeing the woman every day who has rejected him, so he transfers to the Stamford branch of Dunder Mifflin. One of his coworkers there in Season 3 is Karen. Jim and Karen aren’t a couple right away. Instead, we get to know Karen first. It’s easy to see that she likes Jim, and immediately many fans hated her for it. She was the obstacle in the way of Jim and Pam. It should have been the timid Pam fans were upset with, but instead the disappointment was taken out on the new girl.
Karen wasn’t a rebound for Jim though, and she wasn’t a stereotype of the “other woman” either. Karen isn’t mean and controlling, but a kind, sweet, and funny person. She’s similar to Pam actually, as we see her having fun searching for chips with Jim, rather than thinking it’s stupid. She loves to help Jim pick on Andy (Ed Helms), just like Pam would help Jim with his prank war against Dwight (Rainn Wilson). Jim doesn’t just fall for any woman who pays attention to him, so when he starts dating Karen we know she’s special. She’s perfect for him, actually. Whereas Pam doesn’t believe in herself, Karen is a confident woman who wants Jim as a romantic partner and isn’t scared to go for it.
Things are actually going well for the pair. If this wasn’t a sitcom, where we know Jim and Pam are destined to be together, we could believe that Jim has moved on, and just maybe Karen is the one for him. He seems happier, but then through the gossipy Phyllis (Phyllis Smith), Karen learns about Jim’s feelings for Pam. She badgers him about it incessantly, not angry, not judging, but showing that she, too, is scared and is afraid of losing him. That vulnerability makes Karen more real, but it pushes Jim away, and he is kind of in the wrong for being overwhelmed by it. It’s probably something he should have told her from the beginning, but it became something he seemingly hid because he was trying to ignore his feelings for Pam.
Karen Tried To Get Along With Pam on ‘The Office’
Karen and Jim are thrown a huge curveball in Season 3 of The Office when the Stamford branch is closed and Jim is sent right back to Scranton, a place he’d just tried to escape from. To make everything more tense, Karen is there too. She almost immediately becomes the odd woman out, even though she’s the girlfriend, as Jim starts to revert to his old life. Karen is actually the sympathetic character here, however. She has uprooted the life she knows for one of uncertainty with a new boyfriend, only to find out that he still cares for the woman he ran away from. No amount of personal confidence can withstand that.
Still, Karen is a good person. She doesn’t go crazy with jealousy, screaming and making scenes, but rather, she’s a woman in pain who’s trying to keep believing that the man she loves truly loves her back, and not someone else that’s a few feet away from them. Karen even tries to rise above the doubts by befriending Pam. It had to be horribly awkward for both of them, but Karen made the best of it. She could have ignored Pam, and that would make sense, but instead, the two form the Committee to Plan Parties and work together to put on the superior Christmas party. If there was no Jim in the picture, it would be easy to see these two becoming best friends, which is what Pam needs more than a man.
Karen is even brave enough to go right to Pam and ask her if she has feelings for Jim. Shockingly, Pam confesses, and while it hurts Karen, and she’s taken aback, there is no awful “cat fight” stereotype, or two women going to war against each other over a freakin’ man. There is pain shown, like in a confessional with the documentary crew where Karen says, “Pam is kind of a bitch,” but as unkind of a thing as that was to say, it made sense, as this came right after Pam made a scene in front of everyone at the beach about how she called off her wedding for Jim. Who wouldn’t be angered and threatened by that? Karen would have to be dead inside to not react at all, yet she stays as mature as possible despite the humiliation.
Karen Didn’t Deserve To Be Treated That Way on ‘The Office’
Jim is the ultimate good guy on The Office. He might tease Dwight incessantly, but he doesn’t act like he’s better than anyone. He’s humbled by a job that’s beneath him, yet he never comes across as above his co-workers. He’s kind, but his unrequited love for Pam makes him a selfish coward at times. His true feelings come out in an unflattering fashion when, at Phyllis’ wedding, he starts to confess that if Pam was still hypothetically into him, he’d be interested in her. How messed up is that to tell on camera?! For a moment, it’s like Jim forgets that he has a great, loyal girlfriend in Karen. She is sure about her love for him, but we know Jim doesn’t love Karen back. He doesn’t deserve her.
If it’s not Jim’s attitude, it’s the non-stop gossip at work Karen has to put up with. There’s always some reminder of Jim and Pam’s past, sometimes blatant, such as the time Pam’s ex, Roy (David Denman), tries to attack Jim. If that wasn’t bad enough, dimwitted Kevin (Brian Baumgartner) asks Karen how she feels about it. “I feel great,” she sarcastically tells him. There is exhaustion in that comment as well, as if Karen reminds herself over and over every day that she feels great until she believes it.
Jim Dumps Karen in the Cruelest Way Possible on ‘The Office’
Everything comes to a head in the love triangle at the end of Season 3 of The Office when Jim and Karen are both going for a corporate job in New York. For Karen, it represents hope. If she gets it, she and Jim will move away, leaving the pain of Scranton behind. For Jim, however, it’s scary. When he finds an encouraging note Pam wrote for him, it’s enough to get him to change his mind right there at the interview. Did Pam know what she was doing when she did this? Even though there was nothing romantic in her words, she may have been crossing a boundary. Jim ditches New York, drives right back to Scranton, and immediately asks Pam out. Fans rejoiced, but hello, what about his girlfriend, who he just ditched?!
The beginning of Season 4 has Jim telling us that he broke up with Karen before leaving, but still, it’s heartless to dump someone and then immediately ask someone else out. It’s as if Karen meant nothing to him, and he’s relieved to be rid of this woman who moved to be with him. Any rude behavior toward Jim (or anyone in the office) after that would be totally warranted, but instead, like the confident woman she is, she picks herself up and transfers to Utica, leaving her hopes behind. She later becomes the Regional Manager, gets married, and has a baby. Karen didn’t let Jim and Pam’s story be about her own worth. She took the hits and powered through. Happily ever after, hopefully.
