Roy's Wedding

Plot

In the cold open, Pam Halpert (Jenna Fischer) creates a chore wheel after the office janitor is on vacation, but after everyone else in the office notes that the wheel is no fun, Pam changes the wheel so that it barely relates to chores or work at all, which goes over well.

Pam and Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) are invited to Pam's former fiancé Roy Anderson's (David Denman) wedding, which takes place at 8 AM before work. They are both surprised by Roy's beautiful home and the elegant wedding details, and Roy tells them he runs a very successful gravel company. During his wedding toast, Roy stuns his lovely bride by performing "She's Got a Way" by Billy Joel on the piano, saying that he told her he was taking boxing lessons as a cover for learning some music for her instead. Pam and Jim, convinced they already know everything about one another but stunned by Roy's transformation, try to find things about themselves the other does not know. This is exacerbated by Jim's frequent calls about a new business he is starting with a friend, because Jim and Pam agreed that the venture was not right for them, but Jim then signed onto it without telling his wife he'd done so. Pam tries unsuccessfully to bait Jim to find out what the secret is and becomes increasingly annoyed that her husband is lying to her.

Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson) reacts to Nellie Bertram's (Catherine Tate) mandatory charity initiative by maintaining that he will donate the money he raises to the Global Relief Foundation, a front for the Taliban. Nellie then makes Dwight sign a contract in "a ridiculous font" to live by Taliban rules in the office. Subsequently, Nellie steals Dwight's pen and challenges him to cut her hand off for doing so, hoping he will capitulate and pick a legitimate charity. Dwight spends an inordinate amount of time preparing to do so before the two end up watching 127 Hours together upon the advice of Darryl Philbin (Craig Robinson).

Clark Green (Clark Duke) hits on Erin Hannon (Ellie Kemper) by dangling a fake newscaster job. After receiving some not-so-helpful advice from her coworkers—especially Andy Bernard (Ed Helms) and Darryl, who is now assistant regional manager—Clark invites Erin to his apartment for the fake audition. However, Pete Miller (Jake Lacy), who has come to dislike Clark, invites himself and Andy along under the pretense of helping with the audition, ruining Clark's seduction plan. Andy ends up throwing himself into the fake plan and more or less dismissing Erin, who in turns goes out for dinner with Pete and appears to be enjoying time spent with him.

Production

"Roy's Wedding" was written by co-executive producer Allison Silverman, marking her second writing credit after joining the series the previous season and writing the episode, "Pam's Replacement". The episode was directed by series cinematographer Matt Sohn, marking his sixth director's credit for the series. This episode sees the return of David Denman as Roy Anderson. Roy was a regular character in the show's first three seasons. Denman's character was written out of the show near the end of the series' third season, although he did have small cameos in the fifth season episode "Crime Aid" and in the seventh season episode "Threat Level Midnight". On Twitter, Denman later called the episode "Roy's best episode!" The episode's subplot was announced by showrunner Greg Daniels early on via a press release; he noted that Dwight would be trying to spite Nellie by trying to donate to the Taliban.

The official website of The Office included several cut scenes from "Roy's Wedding" within a week of the episode's release. In the first 57-second clip, Darryl talks about his relationship with Roy and Pam talks to Roy's parents, who make subtle barbs about her lack of loyalty. In the second 84-second clip, Oscar (Oscar Nunez) notes that he is supporting a charity that supports the "homo-hispanic community", and Toby (Paul Lieberstein) notes that he wants to support a charity that helps "inconspicuous creatures" like moths.

Ratings

"Roy's Wedding" originally aired on NBC on September 27, 2012. The episode was viewed by 4.13 million viewers and received a 2.1/6 percent share in the 18–49 demographic. This means that it was seen by 2.1 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds, and 6 percent of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast. The episode stayed consistent when compared to the season opener "New Guys". The Office finished fourth in its time slot, being beaten by an episode of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) series Grey's Anatomy which received a 4.4/12 percent rating; an entry of the CBS drama Person of Interest, which received a 2.9/8 percent rating; and an installment Fox series Glee, which received a 2.4/7 percent rating. "Roy's Wedding", however, finished ahead of repeats of the The CW show The Next. The Office was also the highest-rated NBC television program of the night.

Critical response

"Roy's Wedding" received moderately positive reviews from critics. Many applauded the emotional drama in Pam and Jim's storyline. However, many reviews gave the episode's two subplots mixed reviews. The A.V. Club reviewer Myles McNutt praised the Jim-Pam storyline and Daniels for using the previous seasons of Jim and Pam's "boring storylines" to create greater drama for this episode and for the season as a whole. He also complimented the change of dynamic the episode caused, saying that by "allowing Jim and Pam to serve as the point of dramatic interest, the rest of the characters are loosened up to simply riff off of one another, a dynamic that felt bogged down by Andy’s ascension to the leadership position last season". He ultimately rated the episode a "B". New York writer Michael Tedder praised the writers for going back to the show's early style of ongoing plotlines and the suspense in the Jim-Pam arc. Mark Trammell of TV Equals wrote that the episode "was not as good an episode as the premiere [but] the seeds were being sown for other payoffs down the line in the season." Bonnie Stiernberg of Paste was not so positive, saying the whole episode and season storyline was "predictable" and a "wasted opportunity", and that it ultimately didn't live up to the producers' promise to "shake things up in Scranton". Stiernberg later rated the episode a 6.8 out of 10.

The episode's subplots, however, received mixed reviews. McNutt wrote that, while Tate had given a "rather subtle and charming performance", the Nellie-Dwight subplot felt like "a leftover idea" from the previous season. Tedder, on the other hand, liked the Dwight-Nellie subplot for its silliness, concluding that "ongoing plotlines are great, but it's still the little things on this show". Trammell felt that the joke involving font was "cute", but he did not enjoy the rest, writing that "the resulting antics just weren't that funny".

McNutt was not pleased with the characterization of Andy in the episode, calling him "insufferable" and "plain unlikeable". He also noted that Clark and Pete's prominence in the subplot, while enjoyable, seemed "weird for one part of the show to be invested in exploring characters' lives when another part of the show is deploying newly introduced characters". Tedder complimented the Erin-Clark subplot, for examining and introducing Pete and Clark further, and called Clark the "New Ryan". Mark Trammell enjoyed Duke's acting, writing "few do nervous geek-ery better than [him] these days. Well played, sir." Stiernberg, on the other hand, considered the whole plot to be "too icky and unfunny" and that the aftermath of Pete and Erin's dinner together was "predictable".