5 Best Jim And Pam Episodes Of The Office, Ranked

Slow burn romances used to be a really big thing during the heyday of network television, when shows had more room to breathe than they tend to now on streaming; think Ted Danson and Shelley Long's Jack and Diane from "Cheers" or Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer's Rachel Green and Ross Geller on "Friends." During the run of the American version of "The Office" spearheaded by Greg Daniels, which was a smash hit on NBC from 2005 to 2013 and spanned nine seasons and 201 episodes, the "slow burn romance" crown indisputably belonged to Pam Beesly and Jim Halpert, two of the show's main characters played from the beginning to the conclusion of the series by Jenna Fischer and John Krasinski.

When we first meet Jim and Pam, Jim is an unsatisfied salesman at the Scranton, Pennsylvania branch of the paper company Dunder-Mifflin and Pam is the office's beleaguered secretary, with both of them constantly befuddled and frustrated by their well-meaing but buffoonish boss Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and Jim's fellow salesman Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson). Throughout "The Office," we watch as Jim and Pam fall in love, deal with obstacles and hurdles that keep them apart, get married, have two children, and then overcome further obstacles and hurdles that end up making their marriage that much stronger. Thanks in large part to Fischer and Krasinski's natural chemistry and committed performances, Jim and Pam joined the pantheon of great TV couples. 

So which episodes show Jim and Pam at their best, most romantic, or both? From an unexpected confession of love to a drunken kiss to a wedding where everything goes so wrong it's right, here are the five best Jim and Pam episodes of "The Office," ranked.

Season 1 of "The Office" has a weak start (the pilot episode is almost a shot-for-shot recreation of the British version, which just doesn't do the adaptation any favors) and does manage to pick up steam by the time it reaches its sixth and final episode — astonishingly, "The Office" was a mid-season replacement before becoming one of NBC's most successful and beloved shows of all time — but Season 2 is where it really gets good. That's evident in the Season 2 premiere, "The Dundies," where Michael forces all of his employees to participate in the titular annual tradition where he gives out little bowling trophies to his employees for made-up categories. Pam, by way of example, usually wins "Longest Engagement" thanks to her endless engagement to warehouse employee Roy Anderson (David Denman), much to her chagrin; B.J. Novak's confused temp Ryan Howard is freaked out and baffled when Michael gives him "Hottest in the Office Award."

After Roy decides to skip the Dundies, which are held at a Scranton Chili's, Pam gets very, very drunk during the "ceremony," which just takes place in a corner of the chain restaurant and invites heckling from crowds at one point. It all ends happily, though, and is weirdly a turning point for Jim and Pam. Not only do they stick up for Michael against the hecklers, but after Pam wins "Whitest Sneakers" instead of "Longest Engagement" — a change that Jim previously urged Michael to consider to cut down on Pam's sheer humiliation — she's so giddy that she kisses Jim full on the mouth, leaving him surprised but delighted. Plus, as a perfect kicker, this episode ends with Pam being banned from all Chili's locations for life for being so drunk, which is just a great piece of canon.

The second season of "The Office" is pretty unimpeachably perfect, and cleverly, it's bookended by two big Jim and Pam moments. In the Season 2 finale, "Casino Night," Michael decides to throw a massive casino-themed party in the warehouse, despite objections from HR representative Toby Flenderson (Paul Lieberstein) over the fact that it's ostensibly a fundraiser for a children's charity but serves alcohol, is centered on gambling, and is catered by Hooters. Undaunted, Michael not only forges ahead with the casino night but invites both of his potential love interests — his realtor Carol Stills (Steve Carell's real-life wife Nancy Walls Carell) and his boss Jan Levinson (Melora Hardin) — only to be completely befuddled when they both show up.

So what are Jim and Pam up to? Pam is happily planning her wedding to Roy — halfway through Season 2, Roy finally sets a date for their nuptials — and as Jim helps her sort through videos of potential wedding bands, it's clear that he's trying to come up with ways to avoid watching the woman he obviously loves marry another guy. After we see Jim admit, in a confessional, that he's considering transferring to the Stamford, Connecticut branch of Dunder-Mifflin, he breaks down after Roy leaves casino night in a huff and tells Pam he's in love with her. Though Pam turns him down initially because she's engaged, the episode's final scene shows just how conflicted she is. After calling her mother from the office as everyone parties in the warehouse, she sees Jim, and the two passionately kiss ... before the credits roll on Season 2.

By the time we get to the fifth season of "The Office," Jim and Pam are happily dating except for one pretty glaring problem: Pam is reconsidering her entire career and decides to attend a graphic design program in New York City, far away from Scranton. In the two-part Season 5 premiere "Weight Loss" — which earns its title thanks to a company-wide weight loss initiative that drives the Scranton branch into a frenzy as they desperately try to lose enough weight to win the grand prize of extra vacation days — Jim is really feeling the distance between them as he and Pam spend their days in different states chatting online and trying to remain in near-constant contact while he's stuck at their Scranton office without her.

That's when Jim impulsively, on a rainy day, asks Pam to meet him at a gas station that's exactly halfway between Scranton and New York City. Because of the "mockumentary" format of "The Office," we watch, from afar with the documentary's camera crew, as Pam and Jim meet by some gas pumps in the pouring rain he drops to one knee, pulling a ring box from his pocket. It's sweet, unexpected, romantic, and spontaneous, and it's easily one of the best moments between Pam and Jim throughout the entire run of "The Office."

Season 3 of "The Office," to provide some context, opens with Jim in his new job at the Stamford branch and a newly single Pam navigating her very changed life without Roy in Scranton. After the Stamford branch unexpectedly closes due to budget cuts within Dunder-Mifflin, Jim heads back to Scranton with two of his Stamford colleagues — Karen Filippelli (Rashida Jones) and Andy Bernard (Ed Helms), but by the time he does return, he's happily dating Karen.

This all changes in the two-part Season 3 finale "The Job." When Michael is invited to interview for a corporate position in New York, both Jim and Karen decide to apply as well after speaking to CFO David Wallace (Andy Buckley). Thanks to an unexpected confession from Jim to Pam during the season's penultimate episode "Beach Games" where she admits that she misses her friendship with Jim, Karen is firmly on edge and tells Jim they don't have a future together in Scranton, clearly hoping that they'll both move to New York no matter who gets the job.

The entire interview process turns into a disaster — Michael and Jan are, at this point, in a horrifying relationship, and it turns out that the job in question is Jan's and she's being fired for inconsistent and bizarre behavior — but Jim seems to be making good headway with David when he sees a gift Pam left in his sales reports: a "medal" made out of a yogurt lid (from the "Office Olympics" episode) to wish him luck. Jim leaves his interview, goes back to Scranton, and asks Pam out on a date in the episode's final moments while she films a confessional; when she turns back to the camera with happy tears in her eyes, it's genuinely beautiful.

After their engagement in the Season 5 premiere "Weight Loss," we finally get to see Jim and Pam's wedding in Niagara Falls in the two-part Season 6 episode "Niagara" — and as you can imagine, it's sort of an enormous disaster. Pam and Jim find out they're expecting a very unexpected baby in Season 5, complicating things, and they're trying to keep it a secret from Pam's extended family at the wedding; somehow, Michael isn't the one to accidentally reveal the secret, but Jim spills the beans after starting a toast at the couple's rehearsal dinner.

This is all before the big day, and on Pam and Jim's wedding day, Pam is upset; her pregnant belly is popping out of her dress, Jim cuts half his tie off to make a point about perfection, and her veil gets torn. Jim, thankfully, has the world's most romantic solution and whisks her away to Niagara Falls proper, where they're married by a ship captain. "Niagara" was written and released right around the time that a viral video called "JK Wedding Dance," which showed a wedding party doing a coordinated dance to the Chris Brown song "Forever" down the aisle, was making the rounds, and in the world of the episode, Jim tells the camera he booked the tickets to the falls the very second he saw it. Naturally, when Jim and Pam get to the church, the entire staff of the titular office recreates the dance (none of them are in the actual wedding party, like that matters) while Jim and Pam merely look on, amused, their hair still damp from the waterfall. It's one of TV's best wedding episodes, and it's also the perfect Jim and Pam episode of "The Office."

"The Office" is streaming on Peacock now.