The Office Finale

This is a sad day for me. I am a massive, MASSIVE Office fan, even though, let's face it, it has gone massively downhill. Apart from occasional episodes, I don't think its managed to reach the high level of humour and quality it had in seasons 1 to 4, and who doesn't miss Michael Scott? Still, this finale was heart warming and fun and wrapped up all the loose ends.

One Year Later...

The episode opens one year after the documentary aired (can't believe we are supposed to pretend a crew dedicated 9 years of their lives filming a documentary 24 7 about a paper supply company, but who cares). It opens with my favourite character....Dwight!! The documentary crew are back, getting 'bonus footage'. Oscar is running for state senator! Dwight is getting married tomorrow! There is a panel for the documentary crew actors. There is a flash back to a few months ago, where Stanley retired, and Dwight fired Kevin by giving him a thickly frosted retirement cake with 'Get Out' iced on it. 'The cake has spoken Pam, sorry'. Toby is also fired. Poor Toby. One of my favourite quotes was when Michael called him an 'Evil Snail'.

After the cold open, the next scene begins with my second favourite character...Jim! He bikes to work now (a flashback to the third season, I guess?) and Pam has painted a (shit) wall mural. I can't even describe how much I love John Krasinski, so I'll let this picture speak his cuteness for me:

Dwight is imitating Japanese business practises. Creed faked his own death after the documentary aired. By the way, the actor who plays Creed is 71! Whaaat? Phyllis is trying to fatten up the 'new' Stanley. Jim is Dwight's 'bestesch minch' (best man). Sorry for firing random information but its being fired pretty rapidly on the show. It seems Jim wants to be a nice best man, to make up for all his Dwight pranks. Darrell and Andy both show up at the airport. Darrell avoids Andy; when did Darrell turn into such a douche? Andy talks about his audition from the last episode. His crying fit went viral as 'Baby Wah Wah'. The Office has massively strayed into the unbelievable now, I liked it better when it was more realistic. Catherine Tate is also back. Toby is also back! Someone asks Pam how she is and she says 'We're fine!' and it really annoys me. Be an individual, Pam! Darrell says Austin is 'awesome'. Pam looks sad and Jim tries to act casual about it. Okay, laying the ground work is done.

Bachelor / Bachelorette Parties

Dwight:  Dwight gets to play with a bazooka, he's great at aiming it. I bet Rainn Wilson had some fun with that. Andy reveals he has a job at the Cornell admissions office and no one believes him. Dwight mistakes a stripper for a waitress, and asks for an 'onion roll' and a list of their 'hardiest soups'. Oh, and a 'twice baked potato'. Must be an American thing. He has eaten 'too much bone marrow'. The four most Dwightiest foods I could imagine.

Angela: Angela has a perky, pretty blonde sister who seems a lot more fun than her. A stripper arrives and it is Meredith's son. Ewwww. Meredith loves it and is in her element. I find Meredith hilarious, but also the most uncomfortable character to watch.

The definition of a normal mother-son relationship

Angela gets kidnapped by Mose, Dwight's cousin. He has apparently pulled off a ceremonial bridal kidnapping, where Dwight has to find him at a pub, and buy everyone drinks to get Angela back. Considering this is about the Schrutes, it seems surprisingly normal.

But...Kevin is the bar tender! He says 'well, well, well, well. That's six wells'. HE IS NOT FUNNY. Eurrghhh. Kevin and Dwight make up. So far its an okay episode but not great. Angela has been locked in a trunk and swears like a demon. Jim looks into the camera with world weary eyes. I'm glad he is back to his old, adorable self.

Saturday Morning Panel

 The panel is in a massive church that looks like a medieval monastery and which I definitely didn't know existed in Scranton, which has always been portrayed as some sort of suburban wasteland.

Stanley rocks up from Florida. Nobody is in the audience, apart from a smattering of people. Andy thinks it is because people hate him due to his viral video, which has been autotuned into a surprisingly catchy little number. Andy goes to leave but, surprise surprise...THERE ARE CROWDS AND CROWDS OF PEOPLE. Why did those people have to queue, and the previously mentioned smattering not? Anyway, questions questions. The characters are now being questioned by the audience, who are loving on Jim, because, who wouldn't? Pam is asked what romantic thing she did to pay back Jim for leaving Athlead. Erm, she didn't. Jim says 'She pays me back everyday by being my wife'. Awwww his cuteness steals the show yet again! Pam is also asked, what was in that teapot letter? She wants to keep it private. Boooo. I don't think the audience likes Pam very much. Meredith defends her drunken behaviour by saying she was getting a PHD and the documentary crew didn't show it. Pam describes her romance with Jim. 'It's better than a fairy tale. It's like a long book you never want to end, and you're fine with that, because you never ever ever want to leave it'. Hmmm. First not completely logical, annoying thing Pam says this episode. Also, 'fine with that' doesn't sound super enthusiastic. This scene ends with Erin finding her birth mother, who is the head teacher from School Of Rock.

Wedding!

Dwight and Angela's wedding day has arrived! Everyone brings real life cats as a present, ha. Kelly Kapoor is back! Amazing, I love Mindy Kaling. Aside from being a great actress and writer, she is also a very dedicated instagram uploader. And she (Kelly) is with Ravi, eg. the scientist off Heroes. Ryan is back! B.J.Novak (B.J.? hehe) and Mindy are my favourite celebrity on off couple / best friends. Ryan has a baby called Drake, 'a mix of Drew and Blake'. Kelly calls premature babies 'total ugos'. Ha. Anyway, Jim can't be Dwight's best man because he is younger than Dwight. So...MICHAEL SCOTT IS HERE! Ahhhhhhh!!! I'm SO HAPPY he came back for the finale! Steve Carroll is such a nice man!! and...also very, very grey? How has he aged this much in two years? What has Holly being doing to him?

Who cares, because, Michael's back! Dwight whispers, 'I can't believe you came'. Michael whispers, 'That's what she said'. Awwww.

Wedding ceremony time. Phyllis carries Angela on her back down the aisle, Angela and Dwight stand in shallow graves. Michael is completely silent throughout the wedding and looks content and mature, a far cry from weddings in the past...remember Phyllis's?

Ryan gives his baby an allergic reaction to talk to Kelly. Ryan and Kelly run off together and...leave the baby??? With Catherine Tate?? Whaaattt? Ravi says, 'The baby will be better off in foster care than with Ryan'. Wow, slightly dark story line. Probably true, though.

Michael has kids! And he has two camera phones to show the photos of them. Very cute. Toby starts sobbing. This is almost as dark as the baby story line. Things lighten up when Phyllis and Stanley dance and he makes her a whittled bird. Michael is sobbing with happiness. 'I feel like all my kids grew up and married each other. It's every parents dream!' I think they handled the Michael return really well, they managed to totally wrap up his storyline without having him overshadow everything.

Pam and Jim rock up at home and...Pam is selling Jim's family home as a grand romantic gesture without telling him. Ha! Pam! So Jim and Pam are moving to Austin. The next scene is back at the warehouse. Pam has painted yet another mural. She has painted 'The history of us. All of us'. Hmmmm.

The next couple of minutes focus on Pam. Pam goes behind reception and answers the phone in a nice twist. I do really like Pam, but this is the cheesiest, most awful speech I've ever heard on The Office. 'It would be great if people saw this documentary and learned from my mistakes...it would make my heart soar if someone out there saw this and said to herself be strong, trust yourself, love yourself, conquer your fears, and go after what you want, and act fast, because life just isn't that long'. MAKE MY HEART SOAR. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Pam and Jim tell Dwight they are leaving, and he fires them to give them severance pay. Awwww. There is a great final Dwight speech, where he asks if he gets along with his 'co-workers', which he quickly changes to 'subordinates'. He calls Pam his best friend. Awwww. Andy also has a nice ending as it is revealed he does actually have his dream job at Cornell (if his dream job was to work in the administration office). Oscar is pissed off the documentary crew never showed his origami. Everyone is looking sad and a bearded Creed (who was actually in a famous band in the 60s) plays a song on his guitar. I reckon this is to promote the actual Creed Bratton's new album. 

Jim says, 'Imagine seeing a tape of your life...you guys gave me an amazing gift'. Phyllis says the office Olympics were fun. Creed still has his medal. Kevin is...gay? No, Kevin is not gay. Creed is singing again. Emotional flashbacks. Erin says, 'How did you do it?? How did you capture what it was really like?' Pam takes her painting of the office (remember when Michael bought that and she started crying? Awww) and Creed gets arrested. Everyone is happy and hugging. Jim says his first line from his first episode, 'My job was to speak to my clients on the phone about quantities, and types of copier paper'. He says, 'everything I have I owe to this job'. And what is so adorable is I know John Krasinski said that in an interview about The Office, because that's how he met his wife Emily Blunt. D'awwww. The episode ends with Pam saying, 'There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?'

End

I thought this was a good finale. It was never going to reach the comedic heights of the first seasons (my favourite episode is either 'The Injury' or the one where Andy punches through the wall), and put emotions in front of laughs, but it was a nice send off to an amazing show. I'm going to miss so much about this programme; Jim's pranks, Jim and Pam, Michael Scott, Dwight in general, all the other office workers, the randomness, the musical numbers, the sarcasm, the on going jokes. Here is one of my all time favourite moments to see you off: