'The Office' season finale recap: Team (and Family) Building

Holly and Michael continued to brainstorm ideas, while romantically laying opposite each other, giggling and exchanging seductive looks. Ryan was totally radiant in all these H/M scenes, but Steve Carell completely killed me with the subtle, heartbreaking reactions. Michael is usually so loud, so garish, so panicked — seeing him in a state of repose was both jarring and a relief.

The would-be lovebirds performed their sketch about the history of the company, ''SlumDunder Mifflinaire,'' enthusiastically but horrendously. The Slumdog Millionaire reenactments aren't even the worst part — it was more how committed they were to the awfulness that really makes the lameness of their bit resonate.

Cut to Stanley, serenely sipping a tropical drink. ''I usually don't enjoy the theater,'' he said, ''but this is delightful!''

Back on stage, Michael and Holly's act revealed that DM was closing one of the other branches and that branch's assembled employees are understandably livid. David Wallace berated Michael for letting such catastrophic news emerge in a skit, but there's part of me that wonders if David Wallace didn't — maybe just subconsciously — tell Michael about the Buffalo branch closing in the particular hopes that Michael would spill the beans. Isn't Michael, like, the worst secret-keeper ever? Doesn't David totally know that?

Either way, our Scrantonites were wondering if it was even appropriate to go on with their volleyball game against corporate. ''People need volleyball now more than ever,'' Dwight noted sincerely, and Oscar agreed. Meredith...drank a beer. On the court, Charles trash-talked Jim, while on the sidelines, Rolf continued to scold Angela for her infidelity.

Pam slipped while chasing down a ball, and Charles insisted that she couldn't continue playing, despite her saying that she was fine. Dwight strategized with Jim: Take her to the hospital to get a doctor's okay, and let Dwight take care of stalling the game til the star player returned. Jim picked Pam up and hustled off, while Dwight punted the volleyball into the woods. Teamwork!

Michael and Holly were off together to do a post-game analysis of their disastrous performance, when Michael realized that this was his perfect moment to confess his love — but that he wouldn't do it. Again, Carell let Michael have a surprising maturity here; he's so different around Holly, and in a fleeting moment of self-awareness, he decided to preserve that. ''We're one of those couples with a long story,'' he told the camera. Lord, I hope so.

Dwight's stalling had reached the point where he was just counting out loud.

At the hospital, Jim called in for an ''update,'' and suddenly the scene went silent and we just saw Jim react to the news that...OMG OMG OMG...Pam is pregnant. I let out an actual ''aaah!'' the first time I watched that scene, especially because John Krasinski is so charming and natural — he was shocked, he hugged Jenna Fischer (seriously, what a great season for her), and he got all choked up but positively aglow. Aaaahh x 2. Hilariously, Jim ducked outside to call Dwight and tell him to ''send in the subs,'' then went back into the hospital room where he and Pam embraced. The end.

Uh, WOAH. It's not completely shocking that the season would end on such a pivotal moment for PB&J, but I didn't really see this one coming; I genuinely thought this finale might shift some of the emotional heavy lifting off Jim and Pam and let the show's other sane-ish characters carry part of it. A pregnancy is a game-changer on any show, but The Office is uniquely intimate and realistic; they won't be able to get away with the kinds of never-see-the-baby bullshizz other TV comedies can. I'm truly curious but ultimately very hopeful about the direction for next season, largely because this season was so excellent. I missed Kelly and Creed tonight, and we didn't get enough Ryan on this episode for my taste, but those are minor quibbles compared to how well the big deal stuff played out.

Officers, I'm going to be mulling this finale over for the rest of the summer, so trust me when I say I cannot wait to see you back here in the fall. What did you think?

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