‘The Office’ Quietly Connected Jim Halpert and Pam Beesly Before They Dated, and Most Fans Missed It
During season 2 of The Office, the writers carefully moved the flirty relationship between Jim and Pam forward, but there was always a delicate balance with the characters. In the “Valentine’s Day” episode, Jim and Pam barely spoke to each other, but there were subtle ways the two crossed paths that fans might not have noticed.
Jim and Pam barely talk in ‘The Office’ ‘Valentine’s Day’ episode
The flirty Jim and Pam moments were paused for The Office “Valentine’s Day” episode but the show still found a way to connect the two. During the April 1, 2020 episode of the Office Ladies podcast, hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey discussed the purposeful ways the two characters were in the background of one another’s scenes.
Fischer shared that Pam’s talking head is about how she likes Valentine’s Day in the office. Her opinion changes, however, as Phyllis gets an abundance of gifts from Bob Vance and Pam gets nothing from her fiancé Roy. Jim explains that he broke up with the woman he’s been dating so the romantic day will be low-key for him.
“She talks about how last year Jim gave her a card, a hilarious card with Dwight’s face on it,” Fischer said of Pam’s talking head interview. “But then she says that her and Roy are saving money this year for the wedding. So she told him not to get anything too big.”
“She still wants something,” Fischer explained.
‘The Office’ episode places Jim and Pam in each other’s scenes
Interestingly, though Jim and Pam have very little direct interaction in the “Valentine’s Day” episode, they are still subtly connected.
“Well, I have a few little background things for this talking head,” Kinsey noted. “So behind our talking heads was normally you could see Leslie David Baker, who plays Stanley, or Phyllis. Right?”
“You would never see Jim behind you during a talking head because his desk is over, closer to Pam’s at reception,” she continued.
Fischer asked, “Is Jim in the background of this?”
Kinsey pointed out how Jim and Pam could be seen in each other’s scenes in the episode. “Jim is in the background of your talking head. He’s like sitting over there talking to Creed. You can see him in the distance.”
“And, you know, I was listening to the DVD commentary and one of the things that Greg [Daniels, the episode’s director] and Mike [Schur, the writer] talked about was in this episode — Jim and Pam barely speak,” she continued.
“But they’re always in the foreground or background of each other’s shots,” she added. “That was sort of a conscious thing. When they could have one of you in the background, they would.”
The former co-hosts explained how subtle this detail was. “That is so interesting because I noticed that in the background of Jim’s talking head later, Pam is delivering Phyllis a little piece of candy,” Fischer said.
