TVSquad

(S06E04 / S06E05) The one thing you knew going into this episode was that Pam and Jim were going to be married at the end of it. There wasn't any big mystery; no old lovers were going to come back to interrupt the proceedings; Jim wasn't going to say Karen's name instead of Pam's.

Nope, that's been the beauty of the Jam pairing from the minute they got together; they just continue being a solid couple in the background while the craziness spins around them. Even when one of them gets sucked into the craziness -- Pam defecting to the Michael Scott Paper Company, Jim becoming co-manager -- the pairing is still solid.

That's what made this hour-long wedding episode so enjoyable. It wasn't the fact that Pam and Jim got married, it's that they had a memorable, very PB & J-style wedding despite the presence of the crew from Scranton.

Because of the hour-long format, here was probably about ten or so minutes of material that could be considered filler. As funny as the scene was, did we really need to know about Kevin's toxic shoes, for instance? But it was definitely better than most of the hour-long Offices that have aired in the past. What really made it work well for me is that we had all the little storylines from the folks at DM-S (Dunder Mifflin-Scranton for the uninitiated):

• Michael putting undue pressure on everyone by saying "this is a very important wedding for the company... at least until my wedding,"
• Stanley bringing Cynthia instead of his wife to the wedding,
• Michael stupidly not pre-booking a room, and having to stay with Dwight (more on that later),
• Dwight hooking up with a hot bridesmaid -- for all his dorkiness, he seems to get the women, doesn't he? -- then completely ignoring her because she's a dental hygenist,
• Jim taking pains to make sure everyone keeps Pam's pregnancy away from her über-conservative MiMa (she hates that "awful" Charlie Rose, for example), then blowing the secret himself during his rehearsal dinner toast,
• Michael making a toast that no one laughs at except for one of Jim's idiot brothers,
• Michael's "different sensation" speech. He didn't dig as deep a hole with it as he usually does, but it was still pretty mortifying,
• Andy tearing his scrotum after doing a split to impress Erin (more on that later, too),
• Oscar being completely offended that someone thought Kevin was his boyfriend ("You thought I was dating this?"),
• Meredith enjoying her afternoon cigar,
• Michael's and Dwight's awful gifts (a cartoonish painting by Michael and a turtle pot complet with live turtles from Dwight),
• The entire DM-S branch dancing with the wedding party down the aisle to "Forever," a tribute to that dopey video on YouTube.

It was just one of those episodes where you saw a little bit of everyone's personality in it. Even those whose parts weren't as big had some good tidbits: Creed hovering just behind all the conversations at the rehearsal dinner; Kelly monopolizing Erin's attention in the back of Andy's car; Ryan trying to brag to a female guest that he was the youngest executive in DM's history. It was all weaved into the fabric of the episode quite nicely.

But let's get back to the scrotum tearing for a second. It seems like that's the sort of thing that would happen to Andy; he always takes things one awkward step too far in his efforts to fit into the group. And given his doubts about his sexuality (and the way he dresses -- striped bowtie? Tangerine sweater and pink pants?), a torn scrotum is the last thing he needs. Though hearing him yell that predicament to Pam was simultaneously the biggest laugh and loudest groan of the episode. But in tearing his scrotum, he may have finally gotten the attention of fair young Erin, so hopefully he wasn't grotesquely injured in vain.

Now on to Michael. He wanted nothing more than to hook up with someone at this wedding. In fact he was desperate, because he still had lingering thoughts of Holly on his mind, as he said to Pam's mother (Linda Purl, by the way...). As he was talking to the ex-Mrs. Beasley in the church I had a feeling they were going to hook up later; Michael just loves the older ladies. Heck, I thought he was going to hook up with MiMa when he went up to her room after the rehearsal disaster. But given his current bad feelings over his grandmother's new "friend," maybe that wasn't to be.

The hookup might be the only really bad consequence of the wedding. How horrified is Pam going to be if she knows that her mother is seeing her dorky boss? He already thinks he's family, to the point where he tied filled beer cans to his own car and soaped "Going to a wedding" on his windows. Now he may be even more horrifyingly involved in her life.

OK, now finally on to Pam and Jim. It was all cute, wasn't it? Jim cutting off his tie in solidarity with Pam and her torn veil, the terribly sweet toast he made to her at the rehearsal -- at least, right up until the point that he said "Not Pam, for obvious reasons" -- and the Plan C he had concocted as soon as he saw that dopey video on YouTube. Because of their Maid of the Mist marriage, they could just stand there at the church and smile, knowing that they had "their" wedding. It was the perfect way for these kids to finally get hitched.

Some more fun stuff:

• Can't leave without mentioning the cold open, where Pam's unreasonable demands set off a puke-fest amongst the entire office. The only one unaffected is Creed, who just keeps eating his noodles as the office turns into a vomitorium.
• How does Dwight get women? And he was joking about Burger-on-the-go... right?
• MiMa couldn't work the TV, so she had to sit while the movie Brüno "happened" to her.
• "I love finding a good set of twins." - Dwight
• That nude portrait of Pam and Jim in Michael's house... too funny and creepy all at once. Cartoon nudity is bad enough, but when it's cartoons of someone you know? Ewwww...
• Kevin takes his tie off to pee. Does he tie his ties long or is he just that stupid?
• More Kevin, as he cooled his tissue box-clad tootsies in the ice machine: "I got six numbers... next time, I might get all seven."
• If someone can let me know what it said on the office Do's and Don'ts list for the wedding, I'd appreciate it. I know "Cry" was under "Don'ts."
• Jim's dad was played by none other than Robert Pine, former CHiPs star and father of young Captain Kirk himself, Chris Pine.
• How gorgeous was that shot of Pam and Jim staring at Niagara Falls as the episode closed? A fitting end, especially considering the episode started with all that puking.

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