You really don’t think there “wan” anything in the episode like that?
No there wasn’t. Pam was thrilled she had found friends because after talking to the graphic design guy in the Job Fair episode, she worried she wouldn’t be able to cut it.
But not only are her classes seemingly going well, but she found friends. This is a happy moment. Not the beginning of something that would be a complete 180 for her character.
I was pointing out the douchiness of dutifully including all typos in a response.
I thought her program had just started. And what happens when her program ends and she looks for a job in that field?
It seems to me they are setting the stage for her to get really excited about living in NYC and not want to leave. She’s building a connection with that dude in her class. Now that she is opening up to life’s possiblilities, I think all of a sudden, spending the rest of her life in Scranton with the goofball 28 year old small-town guy who never leaves the state, will never leave Dundar-Mifflin and puts people’s staplers in Jello for fun doesn’t look like such a great deal.
It wouldn’t be done in a mean or nasty way like Angela and Dwight. That’s why her classmate is kind of a “regular guy” and not a pretentious “NYC Dude” like Ryan.
In fact, the entire theme of this season seems to be love triangles:
Michael, Holly and Jan
Angela, Andy and Dwight
Kelly, Ryan and Darryl
and I would bet Jim, Pam and Art School Dude.
I guess I’m a little late in jumping in…
Michael ripping up the tickets was classic Michael Scott buffoonery. I cringed and laughed at his Michael Klump character. I still very much dislike Kelly, and as awesome as it is that she can rub Daryl in Ryan’s face, I hate hate HATE how insane she is when she does it. I want to see more of Daryl’s black man bad-ass attitude though, especially when it’s directed at Ryan. That is pure sweetness! Pam and Jim are always overdone, but this episode was sweet. Jim’s crack about how Pam didn’t want a long engagement… something in her past… with a guy who used to work at Dunder Mifflin. 
Maybe I am expecting Pam to change too much, but the whole last season was about how she was gaining confidence and not afraid to stand up and be herself… but in the first day of class, she realised she was in the wrong room and sat down when the professor told her to instead of speaking up and saying “No.” and keep walking out. And as much as I hate to see it, I KNOW the Michael and Holly plot is going to get dragged out. Michael isn’t going to get her until AT LEAST two seasons from now.
But keep in mind that Pam was in a love triangle from the get-go on this show. It wasn’t physical cheating with Jim, but it was clearly an emotional affair. It broke up her engagement to whatshisname, after all. For Pam to have a similar attachment to someone at her school, which jeopardizes her engagement with Jim, would not be out of character. Although it would tend to suggest that she has a fear of commitment.
She had no fear of commitment with Roy. She stayed with him for FAR too long (four years engaged before he finally set a date). Roy was completely wrong for her, but she stuck it out mostly because of her lack of confidence and inability to pursue the things she really wanted.
With Jim she’s found someone who compliments her perfectly. As a result of being with him (even when they were only friends) she was able to break out of her shell, gain confidence and feel more comfortable in her own skin. She has no need to find that “similar attachment” with someone at school. She’s already got it with Jim.
I thought about that too, but he chose to stay to be with her, when presumably he had a shot at the NYC corporate job (unless Ryan was the shoo-in the whole time). He didn’t stay because he can’t imagine a life outside of Scranton, a la Roy.
It’s only a three-month program, I’m assuming some sort of immersion thing to get started, but not enough to completely change fields yet.
I figured they were hinting at this too, and offended the guy I was watching with by saying Art School Dude is just like Jim, but right there, and men are interchangeable anyway… 
I know I said I don’t make predictions, but… I’m pretty sure that, though there may be some tensions between Pam and the guy she was speaking to, I don’t think SHE would pursue him. Perhaps the other way around. Even though she emotionally cheated on Roy, she restrained herself. I don’t THINK we’re going to see her have an affaire, unless Jim does something incredibly stupid.
I agree about Jim being a bit of douche in general, but you also have to consider how weird his work environment is. He know’s he’s smarter than his boss, practically teaching him how to behave. He has to deal with Dwight being by his side all day. On top of that, there are a lot of people in the office that MUST annoy him on a regular basis.
My friend thought that he was being extremely unreasonable when trying to get out of Michael and Jan’s dinner party after knowing that Pam couldn’t be saved with the excuse he came up with. I see Pam as his equal. I think he knows that too. Which is why she roped him back. He doesn’t always have to be chivalrous because he knows Pam’s very capable. If Pam were to pursue a career that forced her to leave Scranton, I’m sure Jim would follow. The only thing keeping him there seemed to be Pam anyway, as pointed out before.
Michael can be TO stupid at times. It especially bothers me when he makes ridiculous choices as a manager. I swear to god though, I see Michael Scott in myself. Especially with women. I don’t think I could see myself being stupid enough to buy, then tear up the tickets, but I probably wouldn’t have EXPECTED Holly to want to go with me. Which has more to do with self-esteem. When I socialize with people though, often not being very quick-witted, I do tend to say Michael-esc things. I hope Holly, being sort of a goof too, will sort of influence Michael to be a little more grounded, while keeping his corniness intact.
I think they were just trying to psyche the viewers out, like they did with the earlier season premier where it initially appeared that Pam and Jim fizzled out after just a couple of dates. The episode covered a seven-week period and Pam’s art program is only three months long, so she’ll be back in Scranton soon. I think she’s unlikely to have a fling with someone at school immediately after her boyfriend proposes, and I think the writers realize the viewers would be furious if anything like that happened.
I thought this episode was clearly setting up a lot of romantic tension for other couples on the show so that the burden of providing relationship drama would no longer need to fall on Jim/Pam. The Andy/Angela/Dwight love triangle is a disaster waiting to happen, and meanwhile Michael/Holly have the unresolved romantic tension angle covered.
You also have to ask at what point does Jim get his life and career in order and look for something more than his comfortable job selling paper in a company full of retards.
Oh I just assumed he was horsing around and had no real intention of abandoning Pam.
acsenray, please tell **MyFootsZZZ **which version of to/too/two to use.
“beer me five”
Umm… because the show wouldn’t be the same without him!?
I don’t know. I do love the show, but that bothers me as well. He wont be able to use Pam as an excuse anymore. I stock bread for a living at a grocery store, if had the ‘faculties’ Jim had, I would leave and never look back. The only argument I can find to explain why Jim’s staying is that he’s afraid to leave or he’s afraid of change. But I don’t think that applies to his character. Maybe he secretly likes being in a place where he knows he’s top-dog? But yeah, I don’t know.
I thought that perhaps with Ryan getting fired, and Pam attending classes in NY, that Jim may try for the position in NY again. I wondered if that may have been the premise for the spin-off that was rumored. In hindsight, I don’t think that would have worked at all.
You might be right, but I didn’t see it that way.
This is why I mostly participate in Cafe Society discussion. I love lurking the entire message boards, but I have a difficult time expressing myself. Dyslexic fool. But I really do put in a lot of time with my posts. I can read it six times over and still make mistakes. I apologize in advanced for any further problems with this. My comprehension if fine, but I do make a lot of mistakes. 
I dunno. I think Jim might be just fine where he is.
There are people in the world who have a job, not a career, and are happy that way. I can see Jim being one of those people. His job at Dunder Mifflin provides security and a regular paycheck. He’s good at it. I think, on some level, he enjoys it. And sure, he works with a bunch of whacko nutjobs, but they’re his whacko nutjobs. Especially Dwight.
I think Jim’s the type of person who will look outside his job for his main source of fulfillment. Pam. Maybe some kids. A hobby. As long as he has those things to come home to, he won’t really care where he is from 9 to 5 so much. Which means that if Pam’s career takes off, he can follow her wherever without any angst.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
And I’ve put way too much thought into the lives of fictional people.
Yeah. I think by this point in the show, Jim actually does like Dunder-Mifflin, and not just for Pam. He likes Michael, to laugh at but also sincerely as a friend. He likes tormenting Dwight. He’s good at his work, and his career at D-M is on an upward trajectory. Why would he want to leave?
Most telling is last season when Ryan threatened his job. He was pretty scared for a guy who hated his job. Jim buckled down, and when that proved insufficient, he got angry. If he just needed a paycheck, I don’t think he would have made the effort or shown that much emotion.
I remember that after Ryan threatened his job, Jim said something to the effect of “… and this would be a really bad time to lose my job, since I want Pam’s parents to be super excited about me.” I think that maybe it’s more about the paycheck than the job, but as others have noted, he’s clearly comfortable at DM and he may be a person for whom a job is just a job and not a career.
I just found out that Jenna Fischer and her husband split up a year ago. Normally, I don’t pay attention to celebrity personal lives, but for some reason, this news has rocked me. I guess I associate Fischer so closely with Pam Beesly that now I can’t shake the thought that she’s going to end up dumping Jim once she reaches a degree of professional satisfaction.
Jim did leave the Scranton office to go work in Stamford, CT for a season. The point isn’t so much where he goes, but how his character develops in his job.
I mean what would Jim Halpert’s “dream job” be? He’s not a super ambitious over-achiever like Ryan (although, one must ask if Ryan is so smart and ambitious, why was he working as a temp at D-M while going to some nth rate business school?) or retardedly passionate like Michael or Dwight. Jim’s kind of the typical “kind of smart but directionless guy who doesn’t really like what he does but can’t think of anything better”.
It was really more of a dig at **acsenray’s **pedantic proofreading from earlier in the thread.
I wouldn’t worry about it. Plenty of grammar and spelling fanatics on this board. Pay no attention to them.
Typos are typos, but I’ll just note that your posts show that my point has been made.