The Office – Recap & Review – Niagara

photo: nbc

The Office
Niagara

Original Air Date: Oct 8, 2009

Shannon – Associate Editor
shannon@thetwocentscorp.com

There’s a wedding! Yay! What a crazy episode this was. We had your standard Michael Scott antics, Andy cracked some nuts, Dwight nails a hot bridesmaid, and Jim and Pam get hitched. Hang on to your satchels, folks!

Pam wants the office to basically change their hygiene and eating habits because they make her throw up. Dwight continues peeling his hard boiled eggs at his desk with a defiant look on his face in Pam’s direction which makes Pam pick up her garbage can and throw up in it. Her puke sets off a domino effect in the whole office so that everyone is puking.

Everyone’s set to travel to Niagara Falls for the wedding and there’s a meeting in the conference room where Jim and Pam ask that no one mention the pregnancy at the wedding because Pam’s very old fashioned and very old grandmother wouldn’t take the news well. Yeah, that’s gonna work out well, I just know it.

Michael didn’t make a reservation and the hotel in Niagara Falls is all booked. No one will let Michael stay in their room so he’s got no place to sleep but the vending machine room. Now, really, why wouldn’t Michael make a reservation? Maybe he was hoping to make a love connection?

Michael is feeling very put out at not being at the head table at the rehearsal dinner so he stands up and does a little freestyle comedy and it’s super lame. Jim saves the room by telling his story about meeting Pam and making her fall for him. Jim flubs by saying that everyone should raise their glasses but Pam. Conservative Grandma (Meemaw) asks why Pam can’t drink and Jim hems and haws and throws out Pam being an alcoholic (because that’s better than being pregnant to Meemaw I guess. Meemaw has some pretty wacked out priorities) and Michael comes to rescue talking about how Jim and Pam live together and how Pam’s knocked up Meemaw gets upset. Pam is about to sink through the floor.

Meemaw is so mad, she’s not coming to the wedding and is leaving in the morning. Pfft, I would say good riddance if she’s gonna be like that. Michael goes to talk Meemaw out of leaving by telling her that they’re going to name the baby after her. Sylvia if it’s a girl and Silvio if it’s a boy. Which is a total lie, of course. She still doesn’t come to the wedding. I didn’t miss her, did you?

There’s a party down in the bar. Dwight has on the three wolves shirt which is all kinds of awesome. Andy throws a party in his room and Meredith dances like a freak, because she’s Meredith. Andy does a split and breaks his, well, his stuff by landing on his keys and tearing his scrote. Andy knocks on Pam’s door to have her drive him to the hospital. Thank you, Andy, for bringing the funny this week. Here’s your gold star, sweetie.

Pam calls Jim to take Andy to the hospital but Jim is far too drunk. Pam and Andy argue in the car about whose fault it is that Andy hurt himself. Andy says it was her job to make sure everyone had fun. Pam says her job is to get married in the morning.

While she’s getting dressed for the ceremony, Pam accidentally tore her veil and she wigs out. Jim cuts his tie in half in a show of solidarity. Pam says everyone is driving her crazy and asks why they invited all these people in the first place. Jim gets the look in his eye and they sneak out the back.

While they’re gone, everyone waits around and speculates on why Jim and Pam aren’t there and Michael and Pam’s mom bond over lost love.

Jim and Pam finally show up for their own wedding. Jim’s brothers, the pranksters, change up the wedding march and made it a dance number like the one on YouTube a couple months ago. All of the office crew dances down the aisle and Jim and Pam give each other meaningful looks and basically look completely happy and adorable.

So, where was the happy couple all that time? Jim and Pam decided to do a little sightseeing on their impromptu tourist jaunt. They tour the falls on the Maid of The Mist boat. They had the captain marry them on the boat in front of the falls and that’s why they were gone so long. Now that’s sweet and unexpected. All that footage worked in to the song and dance number so they cut back and forth in a montage.

At the very end of the episode, we see Michael and Pam’s mom duck into her hotel room. So, I guess we’ll be seeing a bit more of that in the coming weeks.

And that’s the episode we’ve been waiting for. What did you think of it? Here’s the thing, I know everyone but me loved the dance montage and I understand why they do. Is it something that the office folk would do? It absolutely is. My problem is that I really, really dislike that YouTube video for my own reasons so I’m having a hard time getting past it. I’m probably just a crotchety old hag. It’s ok, you can say it. Leave a comment and call me a sourpuss if you want. Or you can just tell me how happy you are for Jim and Pam and Baby Halpert.