The Office – Season 9 Episodes Ranked

We’ve finally made it – after months of my life and countless hours of comedy, I’ve finally finished all nine seasons of The Office. Was Season 9 an improvement from the lacklustre Season 8? We’ll get to that …

Before I rank all twenty-three episodes, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

23 – The Farm

Rating: D

It’s well-known these days that “The Farm” was an attempted backdoor pilot to a Dwight spin-off, and I don’t think it worked at all.

Todd Packer drugs some cupcakes, the Schrutes hold a funeral for Aunt Shirley, but there are too many characters introduced and too few jokes for it to be a passable episode.

22 – The Boat

Rating: D+

“The Boat” was the beginning of the end for Andy’s character. Ed Helms needed to leave the show temporarily to film “The Hangover: Part Three”, so the writers concocted the shallowest excuse possible.

Andy’s family becomes broke so he leaves on a boat (there’s a connection there but it’s paper-thin), Oscar kissed the Senator, and Dwight holds a fake radio interview – the latter was one of the cringiest pranks of the whole show, and not in a good way.

21 – Work Bus

Rating: C-

The episode that nearly killed the entire cast, so points deducted for that.

Office radiation levels means Dwight forces everyone onto a temporary “Work Bus”, but it’s not that funny. Nelly also gets a letter of recommendation from Andy, but their feud is more petty than it is engaging.

20 – Couples Discount

Rating: C-

Jim and Pam have a marriage crisis, and the office try to make use of a “Couples Discount” at a local salon.

What holds this episode back is Andy’s return – his character turns into such a douche for the rest of the season, and he acts like a baby when Erin dumps him.

19 – Customer Loyalty

Rating: C-

Dwight is desperate to stop Darryl from leaving, Jim misses Cece’s recital, and Pam cries so the boom guy has to comfort her. I don’t want to see Pam crying, let alone her relationship to Jim falter!

The Holy Grail cold open in “Customer Loyalty” was probably the highlight, but its ending was a little underwhelming.

18 – Vandalism

Rating: C-

Jim and Darryl prove to be bad roommates, Oscar / Kevin / Angela go to the Senator’s party, and a warehouse worker vandalises Pam’s mural.

That latter plotline leads to an attempted assault that the boom guy has to intervene in. It’s a bizarre, fourth-wall-breaking plotline, but I guess it was exciting.

17 – The Target

Rating: C-

Angela wants Oscar dead after finding out about his affair with the Senator, so she hires a hitman. You can tell the writers were running out of ideas by this point.

“The Target” also involves a complaint tower and the beginning of Pam’s mural, neither of which are that exciting.

16 – Suit Warehouse

Rating: C

Now that Jim is absent, Dwight needs a new partner for sales. In the end, he gets Clark to pretend to be his son.

Darryl also interviews at Jim’s company and kills their fish, and the office all go crazy from drinking espressos.

15 – Here Comes Treble

Rating: C

I don’t know why, but The Office Halloween specials never seem to hit as hard as the Christmas ones. “Here Comes Treble” is no exception.

Dwight wears a pumpkin head and finds Nellie’s pills, Jim hosts a lunch for Stanley and Phyllis, and I was disappointed when Steven Colbert was cast as Broccoli Rob and then had all his scenes over videocall!

On the bright side, we do get one of the all-time great Creed lines: “It’s Halloween … that’s really good timing“.

14 – Junior Salesman

Rating: C

Dwight needs to look for a replacement for Jim, but “Junior Salesman” is nowhere near as entertaining as the likes of “Search Committee”.

I guess it’s fun seeing all of the Schrutes and friends of the Schrutes come in to interview, but they’re too weird for my tastes.

13 – Paper Airplane

Rating: C

“Paper Airplane” is a thin attempt at recapturing the magic of episodes like “Office Olympics”, but in fairness it works in places – like when Angela refuses to accept Dwight’s pity victory.

Elsewhere Jim and Pam had therapy, Angela has a new apartment, and Andy acts in a bizarre science safety video.

12 – The Whale

Rating: C

Dwight can’t sell to women, so the women in the office teach him how. When he reaches the client, however, everyone’s horrified when it turns out to be Jan.

Angela and Oscar “investigate” the Senator’s affair in the meantime, and I really like Toby’s newfound Movember confidence. Smile if you love men’s prostates!

11 – New Guys

Rating: C

The Season 9 opener, and one of the most mundane of the lot.

Andy still hates Nellie, Jim starts a business with his friend, Angela has to put her cats up for adoption, and Dwight starts a feud with a rope. Oh yeah, and the “New Guys” themselves fail to make an impression.

10 – Roy’s Wedding

Rating: C+

It was great seeing Roy’s redemption from drunkard slob to genuine husband, but that highlight only takes up a small portion of an otherwise standard episode.

Pam’s chore wheel gets out of hand, Nellie comes up with a charity scheme, Erin wants to be a news anchor, and Jim and Pam know each other too well … apart from Jim’s secret business.

9 – Stairmageddon

Rating: C+

The Dwight and Stanley scenes in “Stairmageddon” turn an otherwise mediocre episode into quite a funny one at points.

Stanley getting tranquilised and then sliding down the stairs is a highlight of the season, but the other plotlines of Jim and Pam considering couples’ therapy and Andy yearning for stardom don’t work as well.

8 – Andy’s Ancestry

Rating: C+

“Andy’s Ancestry” has one of the most legendary cold opens / office pranks – Jim and Pam gaslight Dwight into thinking Jim was Asian all along, and it’s glorious.

The rest of the episode – namely Andy thinking he’s related to Michelle Obama, Nellie’s driving practice and Erin learning Dothraki – are quite forgettable.

7 – Promos

Rating: C+

“Promos” was the beginning of the endgame – a trailer for the upcoming documentary is released, and the office are shocked by how many of their secrets got captured on film.

The only other plotline I can remember is Dwight dating the sprout farmer, which was a bit random.

6 – Lice

Rating: C+

Jim woos a potential new client in Philadelphia, but that’s not what I’ll remember “Lice” for.

The lice outbreak in the office leads to three scenes I loved – Meredith going bald, everyone applying mayonnaise to their hair, and Dwight bug-bombing himself multiple times. These good moments are spread thin across the episode, but when they came up I enjoyed them.

5 – Dwight Christmas

Rating: B-

Office Christmas episodes are always a highlight, and I’m surprised it took them nine seasons to focus one on Dwight.

“Dwight Christmas” is another great showcase of weird Schrute customs. Jim also leaves the party and makes a triumphant return, Pete flirts with Erin, Darryl gets drunk and Toby and Nellie have a fling.

4 – Moving On

Rating: B-

I’m not exactly sure why “Moving On” needed to be a two parter, but that does mean it’s full of plotlines to talk about.

Pam interviews with Michael Scott 2.0 (played by the legend that is Bob Odenkirk), Dwight and Angela help his aunt, Toby meets the Scranton Strangler, Andy hates “Pete” but can’t remember who that is since Pete goes by “Plop” in the office, and Gabe and Pete come face-to-face with their exes.

3 – Livin’ the Dream

Rating: B+

The final three episodes of The Office are a cut above the rest. First of these is “Livin’ the Dream”, where all the pieces start to fall into place.

Dwight gives a great Karate demonstration and finally earns the title of manager, Andy quits and burns all bridges in the process, and Angela gets evicted.

2 – A.A.R.M.

Rating: B+

The penultimate episode of the series, and one of the most heartfelt of the lot.

Dwight ends up picking himself as assistant to the assistant regional manager (because of course he does), he proposes to Angela and learns that the baby really is his, everyone dances with Darryl, and Andy becomes a viral sensation after a disastrous acapella competition performance.

This might be a hot take, but I wasn’t a fan of the video Jim showed Pam. Not only did it act as yet another mini clip show, but I’ve already seen them kiss and make up a hundred times by this point in the series so the effect was lost.

1 – Finale

Rating: A

Considering how lacklustre the past fifty episodes were (barring a few gems) I didn’t have high hopes for the series finale. I was proven wrong in the best way possible.

The bachelor parties were really funny, the office hosts a panel and Erin meets her parents, Creed faked his death / sings a song / gets arrested, Ryan and Kelly get back together, Jim and Pam decide to move to Austin, and Michael Scott comes back for the wedding to deliver a zinger of a line: “I feel like all my kids grew up and then they married each other. It’s every parent’s dream.“

In the end, it was Andy of all people who really tugged at my heartstrings. “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.“

Season Rating: D+

Season 9 was a slight step up from Season 8 (mainly due to the strong set of final episodes), but otherwise this was yet another season to forget.

Let’s look at the stats for the season:

• 1A (4%)
• 4B (17%)
• 16C (70%)
• 2D (9%)

And now that I’ve finally reviewed all 185 episodes, here are the stats for the series as a whole:

• 13A (7%)
• 79B (43%)
• 86C (46%)
• 7D (4%)

It’s a shame there ended up being so many C-Tier episodes in the last two seasons, as it means the A/B : C/D ratio (in other words, good : meh ratio) effectively balanced out (92 A+Bs to 93 C+Ds). I’ll still remember The Office fondly for its high points, though, and its early seasons remain some of my favourite TV comedy.

Aaaaand that’s my list! I’m planning a laundry list of Office-related rankings, so stay tuned … until then, you can check out some of my latest blog posts below: