Ro's Recz

I wrote about the brilliance of The Office in a previous post, but I would like to go into a bit more detail about some of my favorite episodes. In total, there are 188 episodes of The Office; I plan on sharing about 10-15 of the best episodes out of these 188.

While the final three episodes of The Office are some of the most emotional and memorable of the series, Season 7 Episode 21 comes close to matching these in terms of importance and emotion. In this episode, called “Goodbye, Michael“, it is the last episode with Michael Scott as a full time character. As I mentioned before, Michael Scott is considered one of the most popular and important characters in TV history, so his leaving was not an insignificant moment.

Although the episodes leading up to “Goodbye, Michael” already make it clear that he will be leaving the show, it is still stunning to see him leave. The episode does a really good job of making him leaving the show seem organic and not forced. “Goodbye, Michael” also does a good job of giving Michael Scott an opportunity to say goodbye to all of his colleagues. These are people that have worked under him for the last 7 years, so obviously everyone is very emotional to see him go.

“Goodbye, Michael” is both funny and touching in the good bye talks that Michael has with each individual character. He brings up a lot of past inside jokes, while also wishing them good-bye (without them knowing though). When it is finally time for him to leave, no one knows that he is actually leaving, which makes the scene that much more sad to see.

Overall, just like the finale did for all of the characters, I thought “Goodbye, Michael” did the character of Michael Scott justice. It was his last shining moment, and he was on the screen for almost the entire episode. After this, he does not appear in the show again (except for a brief cameo in the finale), but his legacy is felt throughout.