When will I learn to just sit back and trust The Office? After pouring over the "heartbreak" seasons (2 and 3) of Jim and Pam for the previous post, I started to worry about how huge the episode really was. I dove for the remote every time a commercial came on for it, not watching to spoil a single image. NBC's relentless promotion of the wedding episode ruined my attempts to stay unspoiled, and they added to my worry. I'm not a huge fan of "Stress Relief," the post-Super Bowl episode that NBC made a big deal about last year. It just seemed like a completely different show, and I worried that there was pressure to change since the spotlight would be so bright.
Here we were at the wedding that had been in the making since Jim's first lovelorn look at Pam, and I worried that the episode earned by the dedicated fans would be sold out to the larger audience that might be peeking in. Again, I just need to learn to trust The Office.
Play...
0:01 - I'm always amazed when I pause after the cold open and see that it's only been a minute. They're able to pack so much in. Anyway, THANK GOD FOR ANDY BERNARD! The "Pam throwing up making everyone else throw up," cold open would've had me hiding behind the couch in fear if not for his face when Pam threw up. I may be a comedy snob, but it reeked of the same over-the-top, broadened out un-Officeness that permeated "Stress Relief," starting with a ridiculous cold open with Dwight's fire-drill. This was probably just as obnoxious, but Andy's my favorite character, so I got through it. Plus, I've been close enough to it to believe in chain-reaction vomiting like that. Also, Creed happily eating his noodles made complete sense, since his reaction to the stench of feces in "The Carpet" was to cheerfully inquire if someone was making soup.
0:02 - It was very Michael that he decorated his own car with cans and window paint. I'm not going to get on him about saying it was a big day for him though. I named him the #1 person we forget to thank for this wedding, so I'm giving him a pretty long leash for stuff like that.
0:05 - "Search engined" is a very odd phrase, even for Dwight. I had never really thought about it before. Of course, it's still more reasonable than "Binged." It's nice to see that's still Dwight's first instinct when he encounters a new name though.
0:09 - One of the many advantages of having such a strong ensemble was on show in the scenes of people driving up and checking in. Another show would probably need a bunch of wacky events to befall everyone, here the interactions were all that was needed. I don't know why, but Dwight's narration on the seduction CD he wanted Michael to use gets creepier every time I listen to it. Also, Michael not reserving a room was perfect. People seem to think he got confused about the "block of rooms" set-up at weddings. I say he just simply didn't know. How often do people have reservations in the movies? How often do they get turned away? What does Michael Scott seem to think life is like? I rest my case. Dwight's "dungeon wisdom test" was so smart character-wise. You know Dwight would be THRILLED to spend the night with Michael, except the weekend has been turned into the plot of a teen-sex romp by Michael's expectations. Michael calls Dwight's loyalty and friendship into question, so Dwight gives Michael a final chance to prove himself. Michael is undone by his own selfishness, and Dwight adheres to his moral code. See? All totally within character. Is that so hard HEROES?
0:14 - Easily lost in Dwight's parable to the children about why he didn't get promoted instead of Jim is the fact that he's seated at the kid's table. Nice to see that with all the craziness of planning a wedding Jim and Pam remembered to play a prank on Dwight.
0:15 - I loved Kevin's pained, "Oscar, I would be proud to date you," after Oscar's intense reaction to Pam's sister assuming Kevin was his date. Shouldn't have expected too much from a charter member of the Finer Things Club.
0:15 - Also, this one was a HUGE surprise to me. I loved Meredith busting Ryan's chops as he used his past as the company's youngest VP to pick up women. It's not that I've disliked Meredith as a character, she just seemed flat most of the time. Bustin' chops though? That I can get behind.
0:15 - Poor Andy finding out that Kevin switched seats with Erin. Kind of nice that Jim and Pam would seat them next to each other though. Couldn't have been an oversight.
0:16 - Bah, I guess Dwight was seated at an adult table. Can we just pretend that he traded seats? I'd nominate Creed, that would make sense.
0:16 - And Jim's douchebag brothers make a return appearance! I love how when Michael gets mad and jealous he becomes extremely professional all of a sudden. Like how he found the brother's material "inappropriate" when he'd have probably said even worse.
0:17 - My favorite part of Michael's freestyle stand-up? The fact that he closed his eyes to focus on remembering it.
0:18 - I am going to jump in here for a second to comment on Jim's speech. I thought it was nice, and summed up the story arc of their relationship pretty well, and that it was probably the type of straightforward schmoltz that a lot of people were worried the episode would be...
0:20 - ...aaaaand welcome to The Office ladies and gentlemen. I cannot even describe how awkward this felt the first time I watched it. I was literally in the fetal position after Jim's awful attempt to cover up his slip of the tongue about Pam being pregnant, which meant there was nowhere left to go when Michael started talking. Absolute, organ crushing horror.
0:20 - But I loved how he still finished the toast, "to waiting." That would've been such a classically sappy moment, and I think it was wise to stomp all over it.
0:25 - "Can you believe it? He screwed up, not me." - Michael. One of my favorite things about Michael is that he doesn't think he can do no wrong, rather he believes that his mistakes are either fixed by his quick thinking or will be fondly remembered as lovable bloopers. Having Jim screw up wasn't a mere twist in the plot, it freed up Michael to find something else to screw up instead. Uh oh, Meemaw isn't coming to the wedding. UH OH Michael just realized that means a free room!
0:27 - Another thing about Michael is that sometimes, completely on accident, he says exactly what needed to be said. Everyone might have made sure to coddle Meemaw, but when she browbeat Pam who didn't want to say, "it's not 1890 anymore?" Of course, the fact that his inappropriateness can be completely appropriate only encourages him, and that's what is so great about the dilemma he creates. This wedding probably wouldn't be happening if he wasn't the way that he was, but it might end up ruined by the exact same forces of his personality.
0:28 - I hope the GLAAD Media Awards were taking note of Kevin and Oscar's storyline in this episode. How many times have we seen a sitcom where a woman repeatedly encounters a straight man at coincidental moments that make him seem gay? Well here's Oscar having his hair patted by Kevin as Pam's sister walks by, when he's desperately trying to make her understand that he would never date someone like Kevin. Yeah, it makes Oscar seem like kind of a jerk, but it's not even a flip-flop of that old "accidentally seen as gay" cliche. It's the "she's not my girlfriend/he's not my boyfriend" cliche based around a gay character. For a gay character to be normal enough to warrant that cliche on a network sitcom? It might not be overt, but that's what makes it seem so progressive to me.
0:34 - I'm probably alone, but this was one of my favorite jokes of the whole episode: [Michael checks his watch] "It's after midnight! You're married!"
0:35 - I'm just now realizing that, with Andy at the hospital/in Pam's room after his dancing injury, the honeymoon suite was open! Poor Michael, he picked the wrong weasely underling to cast his lot with.
0:38 - Ouch. To shack up with Dwight Schrute only to be called a bumpkin behind your back? By DWIGHT! Who owns a beet farm, uses an outhouse, and...well...does everything Dwight does? Another great thing about Michael Scott? Every weekend around women is supposedly like a National Lampoon movie (the horrible direct to DVD ones, which he probably has a full collection of), but every woman is a path to marriage and children. Hence his balking at Dwight considering his girl to be a one-night-stand.
0:43 - Loved Michael's reasoning that he didn't give them a cash gift (as they requested) because, as their boss, he gives them cash every week. Fits right in with his view of Dunder-Mifflin as a family that he sees paychecks as their allowance.
0:44 - My biggest problem with this episode was that Pam's Mom was played by a different actress than when we saw her first in "Sexual Harassment." Don't know if that speaks more to me being overly involved in this show, or how good this episode was. Probably a little bit of both.
0:44 - Is there a more underrated horrible feeling than accidentally tearing a piece of clothing on a splinter or a nail? I really felt for Pam accidentally tearing her veil while rushing to keep her friend away from Dwight. I tore my Seniors t-shirt from high school on a fence at work one day, still annoys me now as I'm typing it.
0:46 - Earlier I said that Jim's speech was very nice, but that's not what I think of when I think of The Office. This is a show of moments, not speeches. I think that was a tone set by the British version (huge spoilers, in case you ever plan on watching the British one), with characters' actions being so much more important than what they say. This was true of the sequence where Jim cuts half his tie off in solidarity with Pam's torn veil, and she responds by silently, but emotionally, taking one of the "mental pictures" a family member had encouraged she and Jim to take.
0:54 - I still can't get over how perfect the YouTube wedding entrance was. Part of me wonders what they would have done if that video had never existed, but the rest of me knows there was no other way it could've happened. These are the things that keep the universe in order.
0:56 - Again, that was 2 minutes and it was better than entire seasons of other shows that I still enjoy! I'm sitting here shaking my head with how perfect that ceremony was. Secrets are such a huge part of what makes Jim and Pam what they are: inside jokes, private moments, unshared feelings, and silence. Still, it would've been so wrong if they had simply eloped and left everyone else behind, because they're not anti-social. That's what made the flipping between their secret ceremony on the boat and the public one "ruined" by their co-workers' antics so perfect (I'm using that word a lot in this post, but perfect is the perfect word for so much of this episode). Like I said in the last post, they owe too much of their relationship to others in The Office to abandon them, but they were never a relationship built on publicity. They were each other's best friend, and that removed the typical exchanges of the "will they, won't they" TV relationship. There was no third-party best friend to confide in for either of them. They sometimes tried with various people, but they never completely opened up. So, there was no one left out in their "real" ceremony on the boat. It was Jim, Pam, and the camera; the only thing they ever confided in. Still, the "fake" ceremony had to happen, and it had to be as wacky as it turned out to be. Jim and Pam shaking their heads and exchanging knowing looks and smiles as the madness flowed, just as they had from their desks for all those years. As always, they were kept sane by their secret relationship; in this case, the fact that they were already married.
0:57 - I'll let Jim sum this one up: "I bought those boat tickets the day I saw that YouTube video. I knew we needed a back-up plan. The boat was actually plan C. The Church was plan B. And plan A was...marrying her a long, long time ago. Pretty much the day I met her."
So, Jim and Pam are married. I have three final favorite bits from this episode that I'm going to count as personal, even though I'm sure they're personal to lots of other people.
First, Jim and Pam get married by a captain on a boat. You might have been able to tell from my "6 people we forget to thank" post that "Booze Cruise" is my favorite Office episode ever. I can't even remember how many times I've watched it. People have certain movies they watch when they're sad, but for me it's that episode. There's always something so crushing and terrifying about the way Captain Jack suggests, after Roy has finally set a date for the wedding, that he should marry Roy and Pam right then and there as captain of the ship. It takes this terrible moment that could happen some day, and moves it to right this minute. Luckily, Pam says no because she wants her father to give her away. It just creates such a wonderful symmetry, that their most triumphant moment would occur the same way their most dire almost did.
Second, Michael's smile at the end of the symmetry. None of the bombastic "look at me" yelling of Phyllis's wedding, no stone-faced jealousy, no tears (in his eyes certainly, but not steaming down his face). Like I've said, without Michael that wedding doesn't happen. I'm sure he agrees, even though he might have the reasons all wrong. Still, sometimes Michael is accidentally correct, and his reaction to the ceremony was just so privately joyful. Not joy for himself, but joy for them.
Finally, the final shot (I know there's the stinger with Kevin icing his feet and Michael going back to Pam's Mom's room, but still) of Jim and Pam on the back of the boat with Pam's head on Jim's shoulder. I would consider (and I doubt I'm alone) "Diversity Day" to be the first true episode of the American version of The Office, since the pilot was basically a British script with a few words changed (and was really terrible as a result). In that episode, Jim misses out on a commission he counts on annually because Michael keeps interrupting the procedural sales call. As he sits in YET ANOTHER conference room disaster, Pam rests her head on his shoulder and falls asleep. The meeting ends, everyone can go home, and when the room is finally clear Jim, with some trepidation, wakes Pam up, and she takes her head off his shoulder. Finally, in a "talking head," Jim remarks to the camera: "uh...not a bad day," and smiles. He milked that moment for all it was worth, because who knows if he'd ever get anything like it ever again. Now, standing on the back of that boat, he smiles into the camera; content in the fact that he got that moment back, and doesn't have to ever worry about losing it.
Status: Save until I delete. 100%.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The 6 People We Forget to Thank for Jim & Pam
Well, it's finally here! Jim and Pam's wedding is tonight, and I wanted to do something special for it. So, over the past few days I've re-watched all the episodes leading up to this one in the hopes of creating a list of Jim and Pam's best moments.
Two things struck me when I was compiling the list. #1 EVERYONE will be making the same exact list, and #2 I had a lot of unlikely people to think for my favorite moments. Now, I will say that a lot of this list is probably fueled by my hunger pangs for LOST and its constant questions of the sources of current events, but I'm okay with it.
So here we go, the 6 people we (or, at least, I forget) to thank for Jim & Pam, in order of importance.
#6: Steve
The "jinx" single-handedly makes "Drug Testing" one of my favorite episodes ever because it's such an undramatic show of devotion between Jim and Pam. While Pam playfully taunts Jim throughout the day, one of my all-time favorite moments comes when she accidentally hits a very real nerve and unknowingly lays out the undercurrent of their relationship:
Another win for Steve? In a deleted scene, Pam transfers a call from Brenda, who was returning a voicemail of Jim asking her out, and Jim sticks with the game and remains silent, giving up another available girl for Pam. If that vending machine is fully stocked with Coke, then maybe Jim takes that call, and who knows what happens then?
#5 Josh Porter
#4 Toby Flenderson
Let's get the obvious one out of the way: Toby kept all of Dwight's complaints against Jim in a box under his desk, which probably prevented Jim from being fired.
Now, far less obvious? Toby had Angela for Secret Santa. How about this for an unforeseen progression:
#3 Phyllis Lapin
Phyllis does two major things to help Jim and Pam become a couple. The most obvious is her remark to Karen on their sales call:
Oh! Plus Roy attacking Jim can be traced back to Phyllis meeting Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration. Phyllis admitted that she never thought she'd get married before meeting Bob, and living vicariously through Pam's wedding gave her the insight to steal every last idea for her own big day. That depressed Pam enough to get back with Roy long enough to tell him about kissing Jim, which lead to Roy's freak-out, the final nail in the coffin for "RAM," and Roy's attempt to attack Jim.
Sweet, innocent Phyllis Lapin is essentially responsible for the destruction of BOTH Jim and Pam's romantic rivals. No wonder she was able to backstab her way to the top of the Party Planning Committee.
#2 Andy Bernard
Yes, Dwight was the focus of the pranks that allowed for so much of Jim and Pam's friendship, but the cell phone prank on Andy proved to be one of their most important. It was really their first return to form since Jim's return to Scranton. Sure, there was Pam's Christmas present for Jim of the CIA prank on Dwight, but that was conceived and executed by Pam alone. Taking Andy's cell phone, hiding it in the ceiling, and calling it all day was a team effort that brought Jim and Pam back to their glory days, and threatened Karen in a whole new way.
Even more important, believe it or not, was Andy's intense desire to replace Dwight as Michael's #2. This led to his pitch to Michael that the salesmen should team up for a day of sales calls so he could bond with Michael and deploy some anti-Dwight propaganda. Phyllis's revelations to Karen came about because of their being teamed up, and Dwight was forced to quit thanks to Andy's meddling. Andy took over Dwight's desk, annoyed Jim with his ringtone, and became the architect of his own, rage-induced, destruction (and Jim and Pam's reunion).
#1 Michael Gary Scott
Yes, Michael's "friendship" with cool Jim kept the disruptive slacker from being fired, and his affection for hot Pam prevented her from being replaced with a modern phone system, but it goes deeper than that.
I was originally going to write a post dedicated to Michael Scott's role in Jim and Pam's relationship, because I think it's wildly overlooked. Let's start with the small stuff.
Michael's 05/05/05 party used up their one party for the year, leaving no budget for The Dundies. Everyone has to pay for their own drinks and food, Darryl and Roy leave leading him to argue with Pam, she returns to the party, gets drunk, and kisses Jim. (Sidenote: Jenna Fischer busts out possibly the most incredible performance of a drunk person in television history. Her excitement over the ice in her glass melting to create a "second drink," over-the-top laughing, and the nodding right before she falls down. I'm sorry, I had to point it out.)
His friendship with Todd Packer leads to his carpet being ruined in "The Carpet." Michael takes Jim's desk, and Jim is exiled to the annex leading to the moment that made me a fan of The Office.
Disclaimer: I was one of the people who ate up the British version and HATED the American pilot. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with this sorry rip-off, and openly wondered why, if they were going to basically read the scripts verbatim, they didn't just put on the British version. In my defense, I thought Coupling was a great show and NBC had created an AWFUL remake of that too.
My partner on this blog (my Tivo) obviously knew something I didn't when it recorded The Office, obviously based on the three thumbs up rating I had given the British one. So, I watched "The Carpet" and was able to follow along with my basic understanding of Michael/David, Dwight/Gareth, Pam/Dawn, and Jim/Tim. Of course, due to Jim being in the annex there's little to no Jim-Pam interaction until the verrrry end. Jim, after feeling neglected and forgotten all day, checks his voicemail before heading home, and:
It was so perfectly heartbreaking and heartwarming that I instantly knew that Greg Daniels and his team completely understood the British version. I soon learned that the pilot was an executive-induced disaster, and fell in love with everything afterward. Michael Scott is the reason a lot of people watch The Office, but he's indirectly the reason I got into it. So, while the voicemails may not be a major part of the Jim and Pam story, I still consider them to be one of the show's finest moments.
Corporate gave Michael a big Christmas bonus for firing Devon, what did he spend it on? A video iPod for Ryan, completely blowing the ceiling off the Secret Santa spending limit and off his own expectations of what to receive as a gift. Phyllis's appropriate gift of a homemade oven mitt send him over the edge; Secret Santa dissolves into Yankee Swap, Pam ends up with the iPod and Dwight gets Pam's gift from Jim. This leads to another great Office moment, when Pam trades Dwight for the teapot and Jim reveals all the inside jokes he had placed within. More importantly? The delay gives Jim a chance to pocket the card that was included; the card that supposedly revealed how he felt. You might say then that Yankee Swap impeded Jim and Pam's relationship, but remember that this was before she even found out Jim had a crush on her. If expressing his feelings on Casino Night didn't work out, do you think it would've gone much better at Christmas? Especially when he didn't have his Stamford escape plan in place.
That was the small stuff, I'm serious. There are two big moments and they are going to blow your mind. I'm so sure of that, I'm just going to go right ahead and tell you the two most important moments in Jim and Pam's relationship. Michael chooses "leaderSHIP" as the metaphor for his motivational speech, and Michael moves he and Jan's meeting with Lackawanna County from the Radisson to Chili's. Don't believe me? Well, here we go.
First, Michael chooses to base his motivational speech in "Booze Cruise" around the the word ship being "hidden" inside the word leadership. As Oscar points out, last year's speech was "BOWL over the competition!" which meant a trip to a bowling alley. This year they're on a boat for an episode I have watched...around 20 times. Maybe that has caused me to dig too deeply into this episode, but bear with me.
The location leads to Roy, Darryl, and Katy's increasing intoxication and yelling which drives Jim and Pam up to the deck for the famous "28 seconds of silence." Being on the boat also introduces Captain Jack into the fray, giving him the opportunity to inspire Roy to set a date for the wedding. STILL, the most important part is that Michael's boat metaphor leads to his speech being about the metaphorical boat sinking, which causes a panic, and lands him in "the brig" aka being zip-tied to a railing out front. This is where Jim retreats after Pam and Roy's good news, giving him the opportunity to have the most underrated exchange in Jim and Pam's relationship:
But wait! Here is, for me, the craziest one out of all of these scenarios of serendipity: Michael moves the Lackawanna County meeting from the Radisson to Chili's.
Directly, this move causes the meeting to run very long. When they're leaving the office, Jan says she doesn't expect the meeting to take more than an hour but Michael expects it to take all night. Michael proves to be correct, as his joke-telling, baby-back ribs ordering, and generally unconventional salesmanship turn the sales-pitch from straightforward to endless (but effective). This allows time for Jim and Pam's first "date" on the roof after the employee performance of Threat Level Midnight, the screenplay that Pam found in Michael's desk. Indirectly, this move leads to Jim and Pam becoming man and wife (assuming that's what happens tonight, but I doubt they'd pull something like that....right? Did I just jinx it?).
The meeting runs long, Jan gets drunk, Michael pulls off the sale and saves the branch. He also earns Jan's misplaced affections. He may not be the only part of her downfall, but he's certainly a MAJOR part of it. In the end, the slide that began at Chili's ends with David Wallace searching for her replacement. This is the job that Jim, Karen, and Michael all end up interviewing for in "The Job."
Ready for this? Josh forces Jim back to Scranton after Toby provided an avenue for him to leave. Then, a combination of Phyllis's revelations and Andy's antics leads Karen to snidely ask Pam to make a dozen copies of her and Jim's sales reports for an interview for the position opened by Michael's actions. Jim opens his sales reports to find a gold medal from "Office Olympics" and a note: "Jim, don't forget us when you're famous. - Pam." Jim drives back to Scranton, asks Pam out on a date, and here we are getting ready to watch their wedding.
Maybe I'm crazy, but there they are! The 6 people (or 5 and Steve to be quite honest) we forget to thank for Jim & Pam. Enjoy the wedding!
Two things struck me when I was compiling the list. #1 EVERYONE will be making the same exact list, and #2 I had a lot of unlikely people to think for my favorite moments. Now, I will say that a lot of this list is probably fueled by my hunger pangs for LOST and its constant questions of the sources of current events, but I'm okay with it.
So here we go, the 6 people we (or, at least, I forget) to thank for Jim & Pam, in order of importance.
#6: Steve
Dwight: Yeah, well, I'm not paying for my own stuff, okay? I know you did this, because you're friends with the vending machine guy.Steve the vending machine guy provided a classic prank and I'm giving him credit for one of my favorite moments in The Office. First was the "hey, let's put all Dwight's stuff in the vending machine and have him buy it back with nickels" prank that we all know and love. I am also going to give him credit for the soda machine being out of Coke when Pam called "jinx" on Jim, preventing him from saying a word for the rest of the day.
Jim: Who, Steve?
Dwight: Yeah, Steve, whatever his name is.
The "jinx" single-handedly makes "Drug Testing" one of my favorite episodes ever because it's such an undramatic show of devotion between Jim and Pam. While Pam playfully taunts Jim throughout the day, one of my all-time favorite moments comes when she accidentally hits a very real nerve and unknowingly lays out the undercurrent of their relationship:
Pam: What? [Jim shakes his head] Did you want to tell me something? You look like you want to tell me something. [Jim shakes his head no] You look like you have something really important to say and you just can't for some reason. [Jim smiles] Come on, you can tell me. Jim, you can tell me anything. [Jim stops smiling and looks down. Pam wonders what that means]
Another win for Steve? In a deleted scene, Pam transfers a call from Brenda, who was returning a voicemail of Jim asking her out, and Jim sticks with the game and remains silent, giving up another available girl for Pam. If that vending machine is fully stocked with Coke, then maybe Jim takes that call, and who knows what happens then?
#5 Josh Porter
Jim: Say what you will about Michael Scott...but he would never do that.This one is simple. The Scranton branch is going to be closed, and even Stamford absorbs them there won't be room for another receptionist. Enter Josh Porter and his slimy move to get a senior position at Staples due to his offer from Dunder-Mifflin. With Josh gone, Jan focuses on keeping Jim, Scranton absorbs Stamford, and Jim goes back to being a few feet from Pam. The rest was just academic from there.
#4 Toby Flenderson
Let's get the obvious one out of the way: Toby kept all of Dwight's complaints against Jim in a box under his desk, which probably prevented Jim from being fired.
Now, far less obvious? Toby had Angela for Secret Santa. How about this for an unforeseen progression:
- Toby gets Angela for Secret Santa and gives her a poster of babies playing musical instruments in "Christmas Party," because she loves those posters.
- In "Conflict Resolution" Oscar complains to Toby that the poster completely freaks him out, Michael overhears and takes it upon himself to solve this and all other office conflicts in one day.
- This leads to Dwight finding out that his weekly reports on Jim's "malfeasance" aren't being sent to corporate and he decides he can no longer work with Jim.
- Dwight researches other jobs, finds the opening in Stamford and suggests it to Jim since he expects Michael to side with him and fire Jim.
- Jim is able to escape his situation with Pam without leaving the company, which leads to his return to Scranton.
#3 Phyllis Lapin
Phyllis does two major things to help Jim and Pam become a couple. The most obvious is her remark to Karen on their sales call:
Phyllis: I'm so glad you're with Jim. He was hung up on Pam for such a long time. Never thought he would get over her.Remember, Karen and Pam were kind of friends at this point. In "Back from Vacation" she even thanks Pam for intervening in her and Jim's relationship:
Karen: I think I owe you one.Well that all stops the moment she finds out about Jim's history with Pam, and we start to see jealous, paranoid Karen emerge. The five nights of long talks that Karen later says Jim may have hated even more than Roy attacking him? They all came right after this moment.
Pam: Sorry?
Karen: For talking sense into Halpert. The Day's Inn room 228 was starting to get really depressing.
Pam: Oh, yeah, no. Don't worry about it. I mean, he was being ridiculous.
Karen: Yeah, but... thanks. Seriously.
Pam: Sure.
Oh! Plus Roy attacking Jim can be traced back to Phyllis meeting Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration. Phyllis admitted that she never thought she'd get married before meeting Bob, and living vicariously through Pam's wedding gave her the insight to steal every last idea for her own big day. That depressed Pam enough to get back with Roy long enough to tell him about kissing Jim, which lead to Roy's freak-out, the final nail in the coffin for "RAM," and Roy's attempt to attack Jim.
Sweet, innocent Phyllis Lapin is essentially responsible for the destruction of BOTH Jim and Pam's romantic rivals. No wonder she was able to backstab her way to the top of the Party Planning Committee.
#2 Andy Bernard
Yes, Dwight was the focus of the pranks that allowed for so much of Jim and Pam's friendship, but the cell phone prank on Andy proved to be one of their most important. It was really their first return to form since Jim's return to Scranton. Sure, there was Pam's Christmas present for Jim of the CIA prank on Dwight, but that was conceived and executed by Pam alone. Taking Andy's cell phone, hiding it in the ceiling, and calling it all day was a team effort that brought Jim and Pam back to their glory days, and threatened Karen in a whole new way.
Even more important, believe it or not, was Andy's intense desire to replace Dwight as Michael's #2. This led to his pitch to Michael that the salesmen should team up for a day of sales calls so he could bond with Michael and deploy some anti-Dwight propaganda. Phyllis's revelations to Karen came about because of their being teamed up, and Dwight was forced to quit thanks to Andy's meddling. Andy took over Dwight's desk, annoyed Jim with his ringtone, and became the architect of his own, rage-induced, destruction (and Jim and Pam's reunion).
#1 Michael Gary Scott
Yes, Michael's "friendship" with cool Jim kept the disruptive slacker from being fired, and his affection for hot Pam prevented her from being replaced with a modern phone system, but it goes deeper than that.
I was originally going to write a post dedicated to Michael Scott's role in Jim and Pam's relationship, because I think it's wildly overlooked. Let's start with the small stuff.
Michael's 05/05/05 party used up their one party for the year, leaving no budget for The Dundies. Everyone has to pay for their own drinks and food, Darryl and Roy leave leading him to argue with Pam, she returns to the party, gets drunk, and kisses Jim. (Sidenote: Jenna Fischer busts out possibly the most incredible performance of a drunk person in television history. Her excitement over the ice in her glass melting to create a "second drink," over-the-top laughing, and the nodding right before she falls down. I'm sorry, I had to point it out.)
His friendship with Todd Packer leads to his carpet being ruined in "The Carpet." Michael takes Jim's desk, and Jim is exiled to the annex leading to the moment that made me a fan of The Office.
Disclaimer: I was one of the people who ate up the British version and HATED the American pilot. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with this sorry rip-off, and openly wondered why, if they were going to basically read the scripts verbatim, they didn't just put on the British version. In my defense, I thought Coupling was a great show and NBC had created an AWFUL remake of that too.
My partner on this blog (my Tivo) obviously knew something I didn't when it recorded The Office, obviously based on the three thumbs up rating I had given the British one. So, I watched "The Carpet" and was able to follow along with my basic understanding of Michael/David, Dwight/Gareth, Pam/Dawn, and Jim/Tim. Of course, due to Jim being in the annex there's little to no Jim-Pam interaction until the verrrry end. Jim, after feeling neglected and forgotten all day, checks his voicemail before heading home, and:
I think everyone can identify with Jim's loneliness in the episode. Glances that go unnoticed, waves that aren't returned, all the incomplete interactions that somehow make you feel even more forgotten and lonely than if you had no chance for contact at all. Then, at the very end, he finds out that she's been thinking about him the entire time, and missing him.Jim's voicemail: You have seven unheard messages.
Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Hey, Jim. It's Pam. I keep looking up to say something to you and then Michael's there and it's horrible. Anyway, I'm bored. Come back!
Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Hey, guess what? I moved my computer so I can't see Michael's head. It's working. I think I can have a career as a very specific type of decorator.
Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Sudoku. Level moderate. 18 minutes. Suck on that, Halpert.Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] I'll transfer you. Dunder Mifflin, this is Pam. Hold, please. Dunder Mifflin, this is ... okay, sorry. Michael was standing at my desk, and I needed to be busy or who knows what would've happened, so thank you.
Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Hey, what's that word we made up when you have a thing stuck in your shoe? Anyway, I have a thing stuck in my shoe.Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Hey, I have a chance to sneak out of here early, and I'm not messing this up, so I'll see you tomorrow.Pam: [voicemail message for Jim] Calling from my cell phone. I don't know if you guys figured out who did that to Michael's carpet yet, but I have a theory that involves an inter-departmental conspiracy. Everybody in the office. We need to talk.
It was so perfectly heartbreaking and heartwarming that I instantly knew that Greg Daniels and his team completely understood the British version. I soon learned that the pilot was an executive-induced disaster, and fell in love with everything afterward. Michael Scott is the reason a lot of people watch The Office, but he's indirectly the reason I got into it. So, while the voicemails may not be a major part of the Jim and Pam story, I still consider them to be one of the show's finest moments.
Corporate gave Michael a big Christmas bonus for firing Devon, what did he spend it on? A video iPod for Ryan, completely blowing the ceiling off the Secret Santa spending limit and off his own expectations of what to receive as a gift. Phyllis's appropriate gift of a homemade oven mitt send him over the edge; Secret Santa dissolves into Yankee Swap, Pam ends up with the iPod and Dwight gets Pam's gift from Jim. This leads to another great Office moment, when Pam trades Dwight for the teapot and Jim reveals all the inside jokes he had placed within. More importantly? The delay gives Jim a chance to pocket the card that was included; the card that supposedly revealed how he felt. You might say then that Yankee Swap impeded Jim and Pam's relationship, but remember that this was before she even found out Jim had a crush on her. If expressing his feelings on Casino Night didn't work out, do you think it would've gone much better at Christmas? Especially when he didn't have his Stamford escape plan in place.
That was the small stuff, I'm serious. There are two big moments and they are going to blow your mind. I'm so sure of that, I'm just going to go right ahead and tell you the two most important moments in Jim and Pam's relationship. Michael chooses "leaderSHIP" as the metaphor for his motivational speech, and Michael moves he and Jan's meeting with Lackawanna County from the Radisson to Chili's. Don't believe me? Well, here we go.
First, Michael chooses to base his motivational speech in "Booze Cruise" around the the word ship being "hidden" inside the word leadership. As Oscar points out, last year's speech was "BOWL over the competition!" which meant a trip to a bowling alley. This year they're on a boat for an episode I have watched...around 20 times. Maybe that has caused me to dig too deeply into this episode, but bear with me.
The location leads to Roy, Darryl, and Katy's increasing intoxication and yelling which drives Jim and Pam up to the deck for the famous "28 seconds of silence." Being on the boat also introduces Captain Jack into the fray, giving him the opportunity to inspire Roy to set a date for the wedding. STILL, the most important part is that Michael's boat metaphor leads to his speech being about the metaphorical boat sinking, which causes a panic, and lands him in "the brig" aka being zip-tied to a railing out front. This is where Jim retreats after Pam and Roy's good news, giving him the opportunity to have the most underrated exchange in Jim and Pam's relationship:
Jim: What a night.It's an episode that exposes Michael's complete lack of motivational skills...until the very end, when he inspired Jim to stick with his impossible dream. Really, it might be the only situation where Michael is qualified to give advice. Hopeless, brainless, shameless romanticism is the essence of Michael Scott, and it was that push that kept Jim going to Casino Night, which started Pam on the path to "Beach Day," and finally to their wedding tonight.
Michael: Well, it's nice for you. Your friend got engaged.
Jim: She was always engaged.
Michael: Roy said the first one didn't count.
Jim: That's... great. You know, to tell the truth, I used to have a big thing for Pam, so...
Michael: Really? You're kidding me. You and Pam? Wow. I would have never have put you two together. You really hid it well. God! I usually have a radar for stuff like that. You know, I made out with Jan...
Jim: Yeah, I know.
Michael: Yeah? Yep. Well, Pam is cute.
Jim: Yeah. She's really funny, and she's warm. And she's just... well, anyway.
Michael: Well, if you like her so much, don't give up.
Jim: She's engaged.
Michael: BFD. Engaged ain't married.
Jim: Huh.
Michael: Never, ever, ever give up.
But wait! Here is, for me, the craziest one out of all of these scenarios of serendipity: Michael moves the Lackawanna County meeting from the Radisson to Chili's.
Directly, this move causes the meeting to run very long. When they're leaving the office, Jan says she doesn't expect the meeting to take more than an hour but Michael expects it to take all night. Michael proves to be correct, as his joke-telling, baby-back ribs ordering, and generally unconventional salesmanship turn the sales-pitch from straightforward to endless (but effective). This allows time for Jim and Pam's first "date" on the roof after the employee performance of Threat Level Midnight, the screenplay that Pam found in Michael's desk. Indirectly, this move leads to Jim and Pam becoming man and wife (assuming that's what happens tonight, but I doubt they'd pull something like that....right? Did I just jinx it?).
The meeting runs long, Jan gets drunk, Michael pulls off the sale and saves the branch. He also earns Jan's misplaced affections. He may not be the only part of her downfall, but he's certainly a MAJOR part of it. In the end, the slide that began at Chili's ends with David Wallace searching for her replacement. This is the job that Jim, Karen, and Michael all end up interviewing for in "The Job."
Ready for this? Josh forces Jim back to Scranton after Toby provided an avenue for him to leave. Then, a combination of Phyllis's revelations and Andy's antics leads Karen to snidely ask Pam to make a dozen copies of her and Jim's sales reports for an interview for the position opened by Michael's actions. Jim opens his sales reports to find a gold medal from "Office Olympics" and a note: "Jim, don't forget us when you're famous. - Pam." Jim drives back to Scranton, asks Pam out on a date, and here we are getting ready to watch their wedding.
Maybe I'm crazy, but there they are! The 6 people (or 5 and Steve to be quite honest) we forget to thank for Jim & Pam. Enjoy the wedding!
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