The Office Season Finale!

Well, I had an entire blog entry typed up for today, but after watching the season finale of The Office, I just had to share my thoughts on the episode.

(Warning: Mega spoilers to follow!)

This episode (entitled The Job) was at least as good as last season's finale (Casino Night), if not slightly better! Ok, who am I kidding? The ending alone makes this finale a heck of a lot better than last year's!

(Call me sappy, but seeing Pam's smile at the end of the episode was great.)

From Jan's "big" surprise--LITO reported that Melora Hardin, in an interview, said there was going to be a "big" surprise between Michael and Jan--and her subsequent actions after finding out about her pending termination (was it just me, or was Jan acting a lot like Michael once she found out that she was going to be fired?) to Dwight's taking over the branch for a day, to Michael's usual hijinks, to Ryan's acceptance of the corporate job and his subsequent breakup with Kelly, the episode was probably the best Office episode to date.

(Of course, there was also that little storyline about Jim and Pam.)

Some thoughts about tonight's finale:

• I really wish the producers of the show ended the episode before the scene where David Wallace formally offered the position to Ryan. It would have left us wondering if Jim got the job or not; for all we know, he could have asked Pam out on a date just to break the news to her (not likely, I know).
  
• What will happen to Karen? It's pretty clear that Jim and Karen are through, but is it safe to assume that she will quit her job? Again, had the producers cut out the very last scene, it would have left open the possibility that Karen got the corporate job, and who knows what would have happened? Maybe she could have screwed around with Jim.
• HTH is Ryan qualified for a corporate job? My sister thinks that Ryan wasn't offered Jan's old job, but another job at the corporate office. Assuming that she's wrong, I hope that doesn't mean Ryan will be written out of the show. I love his character, and I hope he still appears on the show, even if it's in a limited capacity. Maybe he'll start getting back at Michael (remember Business School?) By the way, the way he non-chalantly broke up with Kelly was absolutely hilarious.
• With the members of the Scranton branch unchanged (save for Karen?), Jim and Pam can now go back to picking on Dwight. I hope we also get to see more Office-related "functions" that involve the whole cast, like the gambling that happened in Safety Training.
  
• The best thing about this episode is that it leaves so many avenues that the show can move on to for next season. I've always said that one of the great things about The Office is the fact that the show is so open-ended; this episode ends one storyline (now that Jim and Pam are together), but it leaves so many other possible storylines. Will Karen return? Will Jan remain in Michael's life? How long will Jim and Pam last? What about Dwight and Angela?

(By the way, I love seeing Angela's character develop in recent episodes; I wonder how she took Dwight's "demotion").

The one major drawback of the finale? I gotta wait four months for the next episode!

(By the way, reports have it that The Office will be moved to 9PM starting next fall. WTF is NBC thinking, putting up The Office against CSI and Grey's Anatomy????? I hope this doesn't lead to the eventual end of The Office).