"Finale" is the series finale of the American comedy television series The Office. It serves as the 24th and 25th episodes of the ninth season, and the 200th and 201st episodes of the series overall. The episode was written by series developer and executive producer Greg Daniels and directed by Ken Kwapis, who directed the series' pilot episode. It originally aired on NBC on May 16, 2013, preceded by an hour-long series retrospective.
The series—presented as if it were a real documentary—depicts the everyday lives of office employees in the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. In the episode, which takes place a year after the previous episode "A.A.R.M.", present and past employees of Dunder Mifflin gather for the wedding of Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) and Angela Martin (Angela Kinsey), during which Michael Scott (Steve Carell) returns to serve as Dwight's best man. In addition, Pam Halpert (Jenna Fischer) and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) finally decide to pursue Jim's dream of working in sports marketing. Finally, everyone comes together for a final round of interviews and goodbyes.
The initial idea for the finale, involving the Q&A, was thought of by Daniels during production of the third season. The episode features the return of many recurring characters, as well as Carell, whose return was kept secret for many months and went uncredited. B. J. Novak and Mindy Kaling, who departed the series after "New Guys", are again credited as stars for reprising their roles as Ryan Howard and Kelly Kapoor. Many members of the show's crew—such as episode writer Daniels—made cameos in the episode as various background characters, and then-Saturday Night Live stars Bill Hader and Seth Meyers appear as themselves.
The episode was viewed by an estimated 5.69 million viewers and received 3.0 rating among adults between the ages of 18 and 49, making it the highest-rated episode of the series since the eighth season episode, "Pool Party". "Finale" received critical acclaim, with many critics complimenting the writers for wrapping up the storylines for most of the characters. Critics also praised Carell's cameo, with many arguing that it was perfectly executed. This episode received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, and won for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series.
Plot Background At the end of the previous episode, "A.A.R.M.", the in-universe documentary The Office: An American Workplace aired. Subsequent to this event, Dwight Schrute has been promoted to the regional manager of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch; he and Angela Martin have also agreed to be married. Andy Bernard, after being humiliated with his talent show audition tape going viral on the internet, has found a job at his alma mater Cornell University. Darryl Philbin has helped Athlead (now named "Athleap") open a branch in Austin, Texas. Stanley Hudson is enjoying retirement in Florida, and Kevin Malone, after having been fired by Dwight, now owns a bar. Toby Flenderson has moved to New York City to start a career as a writer, Nellie Bertram has moved to Poland, Creed Bratton has faked his death, and Oscar Martinez is preparing to run for a Pennsylvania State Senate seat.
Events One year after the documentary has aired, the film crew has returned to shoot footage for DVD bonus features. Dwight and Angela are arranging their wedding, and Jim Halpert has been appointed the "bestisch mensch". Jim plans a series of "güten pränken" for Dwight's bachelor party, and the party consists of most of the current and former male employees. The group has Dwight fire a bazooka and receive a lap dance from Elizabeth the Stripper, but Dwight remains oblivious to the stripper's identity, to Jim's delight. At Angela's bachelorette party, the attendees also hire a stripper for entertainment. However, they are horrified to see that the stripper is Meredith Palmer's son, Jake. Later, Dwight's cousin Mose kidnaps Angela as part of the Schrute tradition and takes her to a bar owned by Kevin. Dwight tracks down his fiancée and, upon being confronted by Kevin, tells him that his firing was not personal but based solely on his poor job performance, which cheers Kevin up.
The following day, a panel comprising the office workers is held so that audience members can ask them questions. Dunder Mifflin CEO David Wallace expresses his distaste for the documentary, and Pam Halpert is pressed with questions about why she did not allow Jim to follow his dream after he has paid her so many romantic gestures. At the panel, Erin Hannon also meets her birth parents, who had put her up for adoption.
On the day of the wedding, Jim tells Dwight that under Schrute tradition, he is not allowed to be best man as he is younger than him. In an emotional moment, Jim surprises him with the arrival of Michael Scott, who came all the way from Colorado for the wedding; when Dwight expresses his surprise that Michael "came", Michael replies with his iconic "that's what she said" line. The wedding proceeds in Schrute tradition with Michael as Dwight's new best man. When Jim and Pam briefly return home, Jim is surprised to find Carol Stills showing their house to another couple. Pam admits that she has been showing the house for two months. She wants to repay Jim for all his romantic gestures and says she wants him to go to Athleap in Austin, at which point the couple seeing the house make an offer.
Jim and Pam go to an after-party at the warehouse where they inform an elated Darryl of their plans. Pam then unveils a new painted mural depicting the history of the Scranton branch. A final picture is taken with the employees and the camera crew before the employees go back up to the office for a final toast, where they find a wanted Creed has secretly been living out in hiding. Jim and Pam tell Dwight they are quitting, but Dwight fires them instead so he can give them hefty severance packages, as a last gesture of friendship. The employees give one last round of interviews before parting their separate ways; Creed being apprehended by the police. The episode concludes each of the characters reflecting on their time at the office, with Pam taking her watercolor of the building (that Michael bought from her in the third-season episode "Business School").
Production
Writing and filming "Finale" was written by series developer and showrunner Greg Daniels, making it his second writing credit for the year, after the season debut "New Guys", and his 12th writing credit overall. It was directed by Ken Kwapis, who had originally directed the series' pilot episode. Daniels joked that Kwapis was "the country vet who birthed this puppy" and had come "back to put it down". Prior to directing "Finale", he also directed the fifth season episode "Company Picnic". The initial idea for the finale was thought of by Daniels during production of the third season, described as "a reunion show", in the fashion of the reality show cast discussions common on reality shows like Survivor. Daniels, at one point, approached Jeff Probst, the host of Survivor, to appear in the finale as a moderator for the fictional reunion, although he declined. The initial table read for the episode took place on March 4, 2013. Filming commenced on March 6. According to Jenna Fischer, the episode took nine days to film, with the cast devoting 12 hours a day to the episode. The finale was described as "ambitious", featuring multiple location shoots, including one in an AT&T Office Building, which stood in for the Scranton Cultural Center. Filming for the episode and series as a whole came to an end on March 16, 2013. Wilson later tweeted a picture of the empty set after filming had completed.
Originally, the episode was supposed to be the 23rd and 24th episodes of the season, which would have meant that the series aired exactly 200 episodes. However, the series' penultimate episode was elongated into 2 separate episodes, resulting in "Finale" being the 24th and 25th episodes of the season. This meant that the last part of "Finale" is the series' 201st episode. Once filming finished, Daniels, in an interview with TVLine, expressed his hope to expand the episode, stating, "I was very excited with the footage we got ... It's very big. I'm going to beg NBC to super-size it or extend it." Daniels later commented that when the editors cut together the first act, it was 23 minutes long; this is much longer than a normal first act for an hour long episode of television. In response, OfficeTally—the largest fan site for the series—started an online petition to supersize the finale, similar to the petition to expand the second-season finale, "Casino Night". By May 2, the petition had received over 20,000 signatures. On May 7, it was announced that NBC had extended the episode by 15 minutes, meaning that the episode would air in a 75-minute time slot. The episode is approximately 52 minutes in length.
Casting
The series finale guest stars Rachael Harris, Dakota Johnson, Joan Cusack, Ed Begley Jr., and Malcolm Barrett. The episode features the return of several of the series' actors and actresses, including former series writers and stars B. J. Novak and Mindy Kaling, as well as Andy Buckley, Robert R. Shafer, Michael Schur, and Matt Jones. Other minor recurring characters also make appearances, such as Nancy Carell as Carol Stills (who played the recurring role as Michael's real-estate agent and short-time girlfriend), Sendhil Ramamurthy as Ravi (who first appeared in the eighth-season episode "Angry Andy"), Eric Wareheim as Gabor (who first appeared in the earlier ninth-season episode "Junior Salesman"), James Urbaniak as Rolf (who first appeared in the fifth-season episode "Company Picnic"), Jackie Debatin as Elizabeth (who first appeared in the third-season episode "Ben Franklin"), Devon Abner as Devon (who was a former Dunder Mifflin employee fired in second-season episode "Halloween"), and Spencer Daniels as Jake Palmer (who first played Meredith's son in the second-season episode "Take Your Daughter to Work Day"). The episode also features Bill Hader and Seth Meyers playing themselves.
Many members of the show's crew made cameos in the episode. The documentary crewman's voice that speaks to Dwight was played by camera operator Matt Sohn. The "frat boy" who mocks Andy at the restaurant was Greg Daniels' former assistant, Jonah Platt. Jay Falk, a script editor for the series, and his wife stood in for the couple buying Jim and Pam's house. Jennifer Celotta, a series writer and director, makes an appearance at Dwight's wedding. The episode's call sheet listed her character as "Jen Celotta Schrute". Producer and writer Graham Wagner also makes a cameo in both Mose's group, as well as at the wedding. Many of the individuals who asked questions were writers on the show: Brent Forrester asked about seeing their lives on TV, Amelie Gillette asked the question regarding Jim giving up Athlead, Steve Burgess asked if the camera changed the characters' behavior, Steve Hely asked if life has no meaning, Allison Silverman made the statement that Jim is attractive, and Dan Sterling asked what was in the teapot. Daniels' wife, Susanne Daniels, was the Q&A moderator. Daniels himself appeared during the documentary after-party along with executive producer Howard Klein, editors David Rogers and Claire Scanlon, script supervisor Veda Semarne, first assistant director Rusty Mahmood, prop master Phil Shea, and casting director Allison Jones. The remaining extras in the scene were members of the crew of The Office.