The Office: Who Ends Up With Whom?
After Steve Carell left "The Office," the show continued for two more seasons... and years after the fact, a lot of fans still think it probably should have come to an end as soon as Carell's Michael Scott left Scranton behind and hopped a plane to Colorado. For better or for worse, though, the rest of the cast of characters carried on without Michael, and the show refocused on Jim Halpert (John Krasinski), Pam Beesly-Halpert (Jenna Fischer), Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), and the rest of the employees of the Scranton branch of the Northeast paper company Dunder-Mifflin. By the end of the ninth season, though, the show feels like it's gotten back to its roots, and if nothing else, the series finale — as well as the episodes that lead right up to it — does the show justice.
So what happens to all of the major couples on the show? Sure, "The Office" is, by definition, a sitcom about a workplace, but embedded within that story is a collection of love stories between people who met and fell in love while working at Dunder-Mifflin. Whether the love is meant to be or totally dysfunctional, here's how some of the show's major couples and characters closed out the series and got the endings they deserved.
Jim and Pam get their happily ever after
At the beginning of "The Office," it doesn't seem like Jim and Pam will ever just figure out they're completely in love and get together, but thankfully, they finally start dating in Season 4. From there, their love is pretty much unstoppable, and after they date for a while, Jim proposes while Pam is away at art school in Season 5; they ultimately get married in Season 6 and have two children together.
In the last few seasons, though, the show seemed strangely determined to drive multiple wedges between the couple. First, Jim goes on a business trip with other Dunder-Mifflin employees in Season 8 and is immediately pursued by Cathy (Lindsay Broad), a younger employee who's had Jim in her crosshairs for a while. Nothing happens — thanks to some quick thinking from Jim and unwitting help from Dwight — but it's still an odd trajectory. There's even more trouble, though, when Jim starts a new business in Philadelphia, leaving Pam to handle work and their kids by herself, and the two find themselves truly at odds.
This is "The Office," though, and they're Jim and Pam, so everything works out. In the finale, Pam surprises Jim by making arrangements for the family to move to Austin to continue expanding Jim's new business, and the two are happier than ever as they embark on their new adventure away from both Scranton and Dunder-Mifflin.
Dwight and Angela finally tie the knot
Angela and Dwight are definitely the weirdest couple on "The Office," but their happy ending is actually one of the sweetest plotlines in the series' final episodes. The two initially start dating in complete secret, hiding it from their coworkers — there's no rule against it, per se, but as we mentioned, the two of them are both just weird — and they even carry on when Angela gets engaged to Dwight's fellow salesman Andy Bernard (Ed Helms). After the two men duel over her, they both basically give up, but Angela finds love again... kind of.
At the start of the eighth season, Angela is pregnant and married to Senator Robert Lipton (Jack Coleman), but all isn't as it seems. Eventually, the Senator reveals that he's gay, and Angela finds out that he was also having an affair with her co-worker and close friend Oscar Martinez (Oscar Nuñez), sending her into a total spiral. After she and her young son Philip are evicted, they move in with Oscar, but before long, Dwight starts getting suspicious; is Philip his son, and not the Senator's?
He's right, as it turns out — and once Angela admits that she just wanted Dwight to love her and not feel obligated to marry, the two finally reunite. The entire series finale centers around the pair's wedding, which is flat-out adorable, even though Angela's legs are too numb for her to walk (thanks to a bachelorette party kidnapping) and the two marry standing in their own future graves.
Michael moves out of Scranton for Holly
Michael Scott's story officially ends in Season 7, when Carell left the show. After proposing to Holly in the office, he tells everybody that they're moving to Colorado to be closer to Holly's family, as her father's health is steadily declining. His send-off is incredibly touching; after telling his employees that he's leaving the following day, Michael quietly tries to leave the office without fanfare, an act that shows just how much he's grown as a person since the show began. Jim catches onto his gambit, and the two share a truly touching moment in Michael's office... second only to the one shared between Pam and Michael when she follows him through the airport, buys a ticket to get through security, and says an emotional goodbye to him at the gate.
Carell's cameo almost didn't come to fruition, but he did reappear in the finale to serve as Dwight's "bestest mensch" at his wedding, delivering a pitch-perfect "That's what she said" to herald his return. He also gets to share a few moments with Pam in the final, where he shows her photos of Holly and their kids. There's no question that Michael, who spent the better part of his life alone and wishing for love, gets to end the show as happy as possible — and it's lovely to see. He's so happy, in fact, that he has two phones... just so he can store as many photos of his kids as possible.
Kelly and Ryan remain as dysfunctional as ever
If there's one couple on this list that shouldn't end up together, it's Kelly Kapoor (Mindy Kaling) and Ryan Howard (B.J. Novak). Played by two of the show's main writers, Kelly and Ryan are a collective trainwreck whether they're dating or not. Kelly is a vapid, grudge-holding, serial liar with basically no moral compass, and Ryan is a... vapid, grudge-holding serial liar with basically no moral compass. On second thought, they're probably perfect for each other.
This all comes to a head at Dwight and Angela's wedding, where Kelly and Ryan reunite — though Kelly is dating Ravi (Sendhil Ramamurthy), a handsome pediatrician. Ryan has a baby with him — and when you think about it for too long, you're stuck wondering why he has a baby and where he got it — and he gives it an allergic reaction on purpose so that Ravi will go away and he can talk to Kelly privately. Kelly, naturally, thinks this is the most romantic thing she's ever heard, and the two literally run away together, dashing out of the wedding and leaving both the baby and Ravi behind. Based on their past, though, it's safe to say things don't end as happily as they do for the other couples who close out the show.
"The Office" is available to stream on Peacock.