The Office – Season 7 Episodes Ranked

After another long break, I finally got around to watching Season 7 of The Office – Michael’s farewell season. Is it an overall improvement from the steadily declining quality we’ve seen so far? And how would I rank all 24 episodes?

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

24 – Christening

Rating: D+

The office come to Jim and Pam’s baby’s Christening. It’s just as tedious as you’d expect.

Jim overreacts when he thinks he’s lost the baby, Michael and Andy leaving for Mexico is an odd development, and the only remotely funny part is Toby trying to reason with god.

23 – Todd Packer

Rating: C-

Some Office characters can be a little hit-or-miss with fans, and others like Todd Packer are universally loathed.

Any episode with him in usually suffers for it, and his demands of a desk job were only ever going to go one way. Elsewhere the rest of the office want new computers, but nothing much happens there either.

22 – Andy’s Play

Rating: C

Andy is starring in a new play, and Michael was sure that he deserved a part in it. Yikes.

Erin babysits Jim and Pam’s baby, Dwight and Angela bond, none of it really hooked me.

21 – WUPHF.com

Rating: C

The office invests in Ryan’s new start-up, “WUPHF.com”, except we’ve already seen this kind of storyline a dozen times by this point.

Jim hits his sales limit, Angela starts dating the senator, and Dwight hosts a hay festival – the clear highlight of the episode.

20 – The Seminar

Rating: C

After a strong opener with David Brent, the rest of “The Seminar” starts to spiral pretty quickly.

Erin plays scrabble, Jim avoids a childhood friend, and the titular seminar is really drawn-out and boring. At least Andy manages to have a stand-out moment when he “closes”.

19 – The Inner Circle

Rating: C

The first post-Michael episode, so “The Inner Circle” was always going to suffer.

Ryan pretends to be Kelly’s boss, a new divide appears in the workplace, and Deangelo needs to prove that he’s not sexist. I love Will Ferrell, and his juggling routine was admittedly funny, but he can be a little much here – and his basketball accident was very broad and contrived.

18 – Viewing Party

Rating: C+

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Michael go full-on douche mode, but his pettiness against Gabe started to grate on me during “Viewing Party”.

Andy also dislikes Gabe, the office try to watch Glee, and the best part is definitely when Dwight forces Jim to beer him. Slowly.

17 – The Search

Rating: C+

I remembered “The Search” being a fun episode when I first watched it, so I was disappointed on my re-visit to find it consists mostly of walking and talking.

Holly, Erin and Dwight set out to find Michael after he’s abandoned by Jim, the office hosts a caption competition, and Michael and Holly finally kiss.

16 – Costume Contest

Rating: C+

The Office’s Halloween episodes are usually nowhere near as good as the Christmas ones, and nowhere is that divide greater than Season 7.

Pam hints at a history with Danny but it goes nowhere, and Darryl goes behind Michael’s back. At least the costumes are some of the best in the series.

15 – Training Day

Rating: C+

The first of the Will Ferrell / Deangelo episodes. It’s alright.

Andy is put under pressure when Deangelo assumes he’s the office funny man, everyone in the office sucks up to the new boss, and Ferrell delivers easily the best line of the episode:

“That baby could be the star of a show called ‘babies I don’t care about’“.

14 – Ultimatum

Rating: C+

Holly must decide whether to stay with her current boyfriend, and Michael can’t contain his excitement and eventual disappointment.

Pam sets up some New Year’s Resolutions for the office, and Darryl, Andy and Dwight go skating.

13 – Dwight K. Schrute, (Acting) Manager

Rating: C+

After Deangelo’s unfortunate basketball accident in the previous episode, it only made sense for Dwight to take the reins. Things fall apart quickly.

His adjustments to the office are funny, and him firing a gun is a fairly believable dismissal, but it’s not as uproarious as I wanted. Gabe also still wants to win over Erin again, and the title of “Acting Manager” is handed over to the longest serving, which ends up being Creed. Oh boy …

12 – Nepotism

Rating: C+

“Nepotism” starts with a huge cold open to kickstart the season, but the rest of the episode ends up being only average.

Dwight now owns the building and gets stuck in the elevator, Gabe and Erin are now dating, and Michael has hired his nephew as an intern. The spanking is a little weird, but it sets up the next episode nicely.

11 – PDA

Rating: B-

After Michael and Holly show their affection a bit too publicly, the office indulges in some “PDA” training.

The discussion about the various closets to assign is lots of fun, and Jim and Pam getting drunk is a side to them we don’t usually see.

10 – Sex Ed

Rating: B-

It may get a little gratuitous and childish at points, but the premise of “Michael gets an STD and has to contact past lovers” was always going to lead to funny moments.

Andy also provides a “Sex Ed” course for the rest of the office, maybe foreshadowing his role in the later seasons.

9 – Counseling

Rating: B-

There are three plotlines in “Counseling” of varying quality, but they’re all passable at the very least.

Pam being the “office administrator” goes nowhere in this particular episode, Dwight “Pretty Woman-ing” the mall had a good payoff but took a while to get there, and Michael and Toby’s petty counselling session is the clear highlight of the episode.

8 – China

Rating: B

Two great plots in this one – Michael and Oscar have an intellectual battle, and Dwight’s ownership of the office building leads to a tyrannical new status quo.

What makes “China” stand out, though, is its ending – Pam fighting against Dwight and winning is satisfying in its own right, but the reveal that Dwight let her win in a fascinating character choice that I really appreciated.

7 – The Sting

Rating: B

After a solid cold open where Michael tries Oscar’s new bike, we’re treated to one of the most uproarious episodes of Season 7.

“The Sting” follows the office as they try to crack Timothy Olephant’s (Danny’s) sales tactics, and every scene in that regard is fantastic. Andy’s B-plot of starting a band isn’t as notable, but it serves its purpose.

6 – Michael’s Last Dundies

Rating: B

It might not have been as solid across the board as the first Dundies, but “Michael’s Last Dundies” had enough highs to do the premise justice.

Erin dumps Gabe publicly, Deangelo is terrible at hosting, Dwight’s recorder / sound board were lots of fun yet again, and the “9,986,000 Minutes” song is one of the most heart-felt scenes in the show.

5 – Search Committee

Rating: B

Season 7 went all-out with its two-part finale “Search Committee”, so brace yourself for a tidal wave of recapping:

Creed is the memorable temporary boss, Angela gets engaged to the gay senator, Erin still likes Andy, we get iconic lines like “Shut up about the sun!” and “They’re the same picture“, and Will Arnett / Robert California / Darryl / Andy / Ray Romano / Dwight as a “burn victim” / David Brent / Nellie / Jim Carrey all interview for the regional manager position.

The jokes don’t all land, and sometimes it feels like too many quick celebrity cameos interviewed for the job (it took a while to type all the names, that’s for sure …), but overall it was still a really fun season finale.

4 – Garage Sale

Rating: B

The “Garage Sale” premise seemed a bit odd and desperate at first, but I really liked the plot the writers spun with it.

Jim swaps magic beans with Dwight, Darryl / Andy / Kevin all play an improvised version of Dallas, and Michael proposes to Holly and subsequently announces his plan to leave. A rollercoaster of emotions if ever there was one.

3 – Classy Christmas

Rating: B+

The Office’s Christmas outings have been steadily declining in quality as the seasons have gone on, so I was dumbfounded when “Classy Christmas” ended up being my favourite festive episode of the lot.

Holly returns, Michael demands two parties, Darryl gets some wholesome moments with his daughter, Dwight shows off his collection of office-inspired wigs, and Jim and Dwight’s snowball feud is one of my favourite prank wars in the series.

2 – Threat Level Midnight

Rating: A-

It’s stupid. It’s non-sensical. Sometimes the jokes and punchlines can be a little too much. But I still enjoyed the hell out of “Threat Level Midnight”.

It’s the silliest possible execution of a premise that had been set up many seasons ago, and I loved almost every moment. A highlight was definitely Dwight’s “robot” butler, who ended up actually being a robot all along.

1 – Goodbye, Michael

Rating: A

The showrunners had the monumental task of sending off Steve Carrell and by extension Michael Scott – one of the best sitcom characters ever – in a satisfying way, and I don’t think they could have done any better than “Goodbye, Michael”.

Michael giving out presents was very funny, and him leaving a day early was the perfect, understated end without any unnecessary showmanship. His farewells to Jim and especially Pam at the airport had the tears welling in my eyes.

I was going to give this episode an “A+” grade, but Deangelo and Andy scrambling for clients is a bit of a meh plotline. Can’t win ’em all, I suppose.

Season Rating: C+

Season 7 had far more highlights and memorable episodes than Season 6, but the lows were still pretty bad.

Let’s look at the stats for the season:

• 2A (8%)
• 9B (38%)
• 12C (50%)
• 1D (4%)

And the stats for the series so far:

• 12A (9%)
• 73B (53%)
• 51C (37%)
• 2D (1%)

Aaaaaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: