I finished watching The Office all the way through for the fourth time recently, so like any fan of the series, I decided to start it all over again. This time as I go through each season, I am putting together a ranked list of each episode in that season in order from my least favorite to my favorite. Keep in mind that these are MY opinions, which means they are 100% correct. Just kidding. Sort of. I’ve already ranked the episodes from seasons 1-4, now let’s get to another great season, Season 5.

28. New Boss: Episode 20

I’ve never been a fan of this episode and I’ve never been a fan of Charles Minor. I understand his importance to the show that influences the storyline to take a wild turn, but from a purely entertainment standpoint, he gets on my nerves. The office is all about nonsense, and Charles Minor has a no-nonsense policy. So, when he comes into the office and starts asserting his management style right away, it makes the office seem like a strict and boring place to work. Essentially, his character doesn’t allow the rest of the characters (which make the show so great) to be themselves, especially Michael and Jim. However, the episode is important for upcoming episodes which, if you know what’s ahead, is a pretty drastic turn of events. If you don’t know what’s ahead, you get the feeling that something important will happen. In my opinion, one of the worst episodes.

27. Two Weeks: Episode 21

Almost just as bad as the previous episode “New Boss,” this one has the exact same feel. Charles Minor is still working at the Scranton branch, which means the office still isn’t entertaining. Charles’s “wet blanket” management style just takes away so much from the show. But like “New Boss,” the episode is important for the fact it sets up big changes. You know for certain that Michael is indeed quitting and is planning on starting his own paper company. That alone draws quite a bit of intrigue for viewers wondering what will happen next. I like how Pam decides to join Michael at the end and I like the beginning where it shows Michael goofing off all day at work because he’s given his two-weeks notice. But that’s about all I like from this episode. I especially hated Michael being escorted out of the office and not being able to give some goodbye words to everyone because of Charles.

26. Lecture Circuit: Part 2: Episode 17

I was close to ranking this one in front of “Baby Shower,” but at least that episode had a few moments that made me laugh. This one didn’t. It’s sort of a downer with a large majority of it dealing with Michael finding out Holly has a new boyfriend after being forced to move back to Nashua (until the end when Michael gets a glimpse of hope). Like I said in Part 1, the lecture circuit just wasn’t entertaining. Back at the office, Jim and Dwight are still making amends for forgetting Kelly’s birthday, which isn’t an interesting storyline either. It’s just dull. And Angela on the computer monitor with her cats for Oscar and Kevin to see was just weird.

25. Baby Shower: Episode 4

Not one of the better episodes in my opinion. Jan bringing in her baby that Michael wrongfully, and knowingly, calls his sets up so many scenes that are just weird. There’s nothing funny about those scenes at all. It’s also weird and dumb how Michael treats Holly so bad in front of Jan. And lastly, Jim and Pam’s disconnect over the phone is sort of frustrating. The best thing about this episode was Dwight “testing” Jan’s $1,200 baby stroller by trying to destroy it. It’s a slow-moving episode that overall is just not that appealing, but at the same time is necessary to bring about the show’s overarching theme of an ordinary workplace.

24. Blood Drive: Episode 18

An episode dedicated to loneliness and despair, this is not one of my favorites. The “Michael misses Holly” narrative is continued and Michael organizes a Valentines Day mixer at the office for all the single people. The mixer was a good opportunity for some laughs, but it just didn’t deliver, and instead was pretty boring. Meanwhile, Michael waits for a woman to show up whom he met giving blood, but she never did. Jim and Pam went out to lunch with Phyllis and Bob Vance, which was an odd combo and rather boring. And Andy was not featured. Not a memorable episode.

23. Crime Aid: Episode 5

Holly and Michael’s relationship continues to build and on the night of their third date, they stay late at the office and forget to lock the doors on their way out. The employees find many things missing the next morning, so Michael decides to hold a Crime Aid fundraiser to pay to replace missing equipment. There were a few parts during the fundraiser that were comical, but nothing laugh out loud funny. There also weren’t too many memorable moments in this one. Dwight is shook after his ultimatum with Angela didn’t work out and Jim still misses Pam in New York. Not one of the funnier, exciting, or more memorable episodes.

22. Weight Loss: Part 2: Episode 2

There weren’t many really funny parts in this one, but it will always be considered an important episode for the sole fact that Jim proposed to Pam. I liked how the proposal followed the same idea of the actual show itself, which is “there is beauty in ordinary things.” The funniest scene was the appearance of Michael’s recurring character of Michael Klump, where he dressed himself over his blown up sumo-wrestling suit and pretends he’s a fat guy. “I say, I say, I say I’ll sit on you!” The episode leaves open the possibility of Michael and Holly possibly getting together in the near future, which creates some intrigue for follow-up episodes.

21. Business Ethics: Episode 3

When Holly holds a business ethics meeting in the office, things get pretty funny when Michael urges her to open things up to make the meeting more interesting. That’s when different people start telling of things they’ve done around the office that were unethical and Meredith’s story shocks everyone. Holly believes she should be fired while Michael tries to defend her and sweep the situation under the rug. The rest of the episode isn’t great after things turn tense between Holly and Michael. It is pretty amusing watching Dwight trying not to waste a single second of the work day by skipping the restroom and opting for the 2-liter jug while he kept on working.

20. Heavy Competition: Episode 24

You would have never thought it would happen, but Dwight and Michael square off against each other in competing for the same clients. It started out as Dwight trying to help Michael, but everything changed when Charles Minor told Dwight how much he envied his focus and wanted to give him more responsibility around the office. Mr. Schofield, the big client that Dwight’s had for years, decided to switch to Michael Scott Paper Company, which sets up some interesting things for the future. There were a few moments that were a little funny in this one, but that’s about as far as it goes. Jim pranking Andy into pitying him wasn’t that funny. I think what this episode misses more than anything is screen-time from secondary characters such as Creed, Kevin, Stanley, etc.

19. Dream Team: Episode 22

Charles Minor is still in the office, but finally some funny parts come out of it. It’s funny seeing everyone trying to impress him when they find out he likes soccer, and Jim getting roped into playing a soccer match with everyone after he lies and says he’s “more of a player” than a fan. But most of this episode centers around the Michael Scott Paper Company trying to get on its feet, which I enjoy. I like the fact that Ryan is back and I love the fact they get an office space in the same building as Dunder-Mifflin. It makes you really eager to see what comes next with the two companies sharing a building.

18. Golden Ticket: Episode 19

When Michael has a great idea to place Willy Wonka-inspired golden tickets in random shipments of paper, it backfires when the company’s largest client receives five of them, each providing 10% off. With the company set to lose thousands of dollars, David Wallace is furious with Michael. That’s when Michael wants Dwight to take the blame for the idea and potentially get fired. Most of this episode centers around that storyline. I didn’t care a lot for Michael wanting Dwight to take the blame, and as ludicrous as Michael’s character is, this is the kind of Michael personality I don’t like. But it all worked out when it turned out to work in Dunder-Mifflin’s favor, and Dwight stuck with claiming the idea, which I loved. I also loved the knock-knock joke that Dwight tells in this one about the KGB. Classic.

17. Customer Survey: Episode 7

This is a decent episode that centers around Jim, Dwight, and Kelly after the customer survey results come in and they were horrible for Jim and Dwight (after Kelly intentionally sabotaged the results). It was hilarious when Michael made Jim and Dwight walk through a practice sales call and Jim turned it against Dwight with “Mr. Buttlicker.” It was also funny when Dwight found out his suspicions were right against Kelly and he does his karate moves in the office, fake-kicking Phyllis. The rest of the episode is rather dull, with Jim and Pam using an earpiece to communicate with each other throughout the day and Andy settling for Schrute Farms as the wedding site for he and Angela.

16. Employee Transfer: Episode 6

The beginning of this episode is great, which helps bump it up a few spots. The best part of the 2-minute Halloween introduction is Creed, Kevin, and Dwight all dressing up as the Joker, but Creed’s costume being spot on, just like his voice imitation saying, “Let’s put a smile on that face.” It was also hilarious that Stanley wore that hideous mask just so he could take naps at his desk without anyone noticing. The rest of the episode had some ok parts. Holly and Michael breaking up was sort of a down moment after Darryl drove them to move Holly back to Nashua, even though there were some funny moments in those scenes such as Darryl and Michael singing the blues. The Dwight-Andy Cornell back-and-forth at the office was pretty funny, but I never got into the prank scene that involved Pam and Jim’s brothers.

15. The Duel: Episode 12

When Andy is finally told about Angela and Dwight 17 days after everyone else found out, he confronts Dwight and the two declare a duel in the parking lot for Angela. What sounds serious, is made childish and comical when Dwight and Andy use unordinary methods of fighting and dumb insults. Some parts are a little funny, but overall I feel like they could’ve done more with the situation. Besides neither guy wanting Angela by the end of the duel, not a whole lot else really happens in this one to make it memorable. Michael is out of the office in New York for a meeting with David Wallace, where we find out the Scranton branch has been killing it while other branches are struggling.

14. Lecture Circuit: Part 1: Episode 16

There’s nothing real special about this episode, but it did give us the classic “It is your birthday.” sign. When Dwight and Jim are put in charge of the party planning committee after the Phyllis-Angela fiasco, they forget Kelly’s birthday. And that was the wrong birthday to forget. The half-blown up brown and gray balloons by Dwight are hilarious, along with the birthday sign he made. Michael and Pam hit the road so Michael can give a lecture to the other branches who are not performing as well. This one shows the two going to Utica where Karen is branch manager. There wasn’t anything that funny about the lecture circuit, but Pam did get closure about Karen’s situation, leaving Michael to want the same with Holly.

13. Weight Loss: Part 1: Episode 1

This is the first part of a two-part series, and also the Season 5 opener. In an attempt to be the branch that loses the most weight over a certain time period to gain three extra vacation days, the Scranton branch pulls out all the stops including having fruit at Stanley’s birthday party, going on diets, Stanley taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and Kelly doing extreme things that wind up causing her to pass out. The group trying to lose weight leads to some funny parts. We also see Pam leave the office for a few months to go to New York City for art school. It’s a solid episode that leaves you ready to watch the second part of this two-part series to see what happens next with the weight loss competition, Jim and Pam, and Michael and Holly.

12. Casual Friday: Episode 26

There’s two main storylines in this one. The first deals with the return of Michael, Pam, and Ryan to Dunder-Mifflin. They expect to keep the clients they stole from the Dunder-Mifflin salespeople while at Michael Scott Paper Company, but the Dunder-Mifflin salespeople expect to get their longtime clients back. Like always, Michael is not very good at making decisions that will upset people, so he really struggles. He also struggles with determining whether to make Ryan or Pam full-time and the other a temp. The other storyline is more entertaining and it deals with casual Friday. It’s pretty funny to see how everyone interprets casual Friday and how upset certain people in the office get at others dressing the way they did. Meredith’s “casual” Friday wear was the clear winner of this episode and Kevin’s famous chili at the very beginning of the episode is a classic scene from The Office. “The trick is to undercook the onions.”

11. Business Trip: Episode 8

I’ve always really liked this episode that mostly takes place outside of the office. When David Wallace sends Michael on a business trip to Winnipeg, he brings along Oscar and Andy to accompany him. Unlikely as it may seem, Oscar and Andy end up being the ones who make this episode with their antics at the hotel, especially when a drunk Andy called up Angela. The scene on the plane was funny, with Michael raving about his first class seat, Oscar bringing egg-salad sandwiches, and Michael getting his leg ran over by the flight attendant’s drink cart. As excited as Michael was to go on the trip, he realizes that he missed Holly at the end and told David Wallace how he felt about him sending her away. Back at the office, the scene where Darryl comes strutting out of the warehouse after Kelly breaks up with him is hilarious. Kelly is back with Ryan which you know will bring funny things in the future. And Pam finally came back from New York at the end is very nice to see.

10. Broke: Episode 25

This episode is all about revenge and taking back “what is yours.” For that reason, I’m a big fan of it. The Michael Scott Paper Company has been undercutting Dunder-Mifflin’s prices to customers, stealing them one by one, causing Dunder-Mifflin to panic. But at the same time, the Michael Scott Paper Co. finds out they are going broke fast by offering such low prices. Without knowing that, David Wallace offers to buy out Michael Scott’s company to get their clients back. I love how Michael leverages the situation and gets his, Pam’s, and Ryan’s jobs back at Dunder-Mifflin. It’s one of those episodes that proves Michael is very smart in business situations. I also very much love the ending when Charles is leaving the office and prepares to say some goodbye words, but Michael cuts him off and says, “Nope, you’re gone,” the same way Charles did to him. I hate Charles so much, so the revenge that Michael got on him was sweet. And the line of the episode (and one of the more memorable lines from the show) was Michael’s, “Well, well, well, how the turntables…”

9. Café Disco: Episode 27

This is a fun episode once it really gets going. It’s a little slow at first, while Michael is desperately wanting his employees to join him downstairs (in the old Michael Scott Paper Company office still under lease) for some coffee, disco music, and dancing, and they don’t want to. But once Kelly and Erin start dancing and others follow, it becomes fun to watch as Michael’s café disco dream comes alive. I’ve always enjoyed the Kelly/Andy dance-off scene, especially. There’s also so several little parts that first-time viewers might not catch that add to the café disco scenes and are great. Overall, this is a lighthearted episode that shows the best sides of some of the characters.

8. Frame Toby: Episode 9

This episode contains two classic scenes. The first is Michael Scott’s “No! God No! No!” reaction when he discovers Toby is back at the office. It may very well also be The Office’s most popular meme on the internet. The other classic scene is the closing moments when Dwight describes his perfect crime in such strange detail. The mess in the microwave storyline isn’t all that funny, but Michael trying to set Toby up throughout the episode to a potential firing is very funny. We definitely have classic Michael Scott in this one, and seeing him trying to buy weed from the Vance Refrigeration warehouse guys was hilarious.

7. Stress Relief: Part 2: Episode 15

The second part of a two-part episode isn’t nearly as good as the first part. But that speaks more to how good the first part is than anything. This episode is a pretty good one overall. Easily the two best parts are the two roasts. Michael organizes an after-work roast of himself because he thinks his employees are intimidated of him. As you can imagine, this gives way to plenty of funny moments as he gets roasted. Then Michael comes into work the next day to roast everyone as payback and those one-lined “Boom Roasted!” jokes are funny as well. The best part is when Stanley starts laughing uncontrollably. You can’t help but laugh a little in response to that.

6. Company Picnic: Episode 28

The season five finale is a pretty good one that takes place out of the office at a company picnic, which features all the branches of Dunder-Mifflin. Like all season finales of The Office, there’s a lot going on and it leaves you anticipating the next season. A lot of this episode is pretty light-hearted comedy, centering around the company volleyball tournament. The volleyball scenes were hilarious. And Dwight’s friend Rolfe, even though he wasn’t featured much, had the funniest lines in this one, especially when he was talking trash to the corporate branch’s volleyball team. I wasn’t crazy about the Michael and Holly comedy sketch because I thought it was just so cringy, but Michael did show some maturity in how he handled meeting up with Holly again. Lastly, like I’ve already mentioned, the episode leaves you hanging when it’s heavily assumed, but not stated, that Pam is pregnant. It’s a good episode that has a little bit of everything, which is exactly the way a season finale should be.

5. The Surplus: Episode 10

This is a great episode because the entire office is featured throughout it in comedic fashion. When Michael is informed the branch has a surplus, everyone in the office argues over whether to spend it on new chairs or a new copier. It’s great seeing everyone form into teams and try to flatter Michael all day. Pretty much every scene in this one provides lighthearted comedy, even when Dwight shows Angela and Andy around Schrute Farms as they prepare for the wedding and Andy keeps stepping in manure.

4. Moroccan Christmas: Episode 11

The Office is famous for its Christmas episodes and this is one of them. Even though it’s not in the top three Christmas episodes for me, it’s still a very good one with a lot going on. The most important aspect of it is everyone in the office (except Andy) finding out that Angela has been cheating on Andy with Dwight after Phyllis decided to spill the beans. I wasn’t totally crazy that the episode was so centered around Meredith, simply because she isn’t that strong of a character, but it did give way to some funny parts with her hair catching on fire and the intervention. Dwight and the Princess Unicorn dolls was hilarious. And maybe the funniest part of the episode was when Toby bought the last unicorn doll from Darryl, extremely marked up in price, just to find out it was a black doll and pretending like he still loved it.

3. Prince Family Paper: Episode 13

I love this episode. For one, it features the entire office staff, which is always a good thing. And the two main storylines are very funny. The first storyline features Michael and Dwight going out to an unknown, small paper company attempting to steal their clients. Whenever Michael and Dwight are teaming up, it’s always great. They provide many laughs in their quest to uncover all the info they can from the small paper company. The second storyline takes place back at the office and features the rest of the staff. They find themselves in a debate over whether Hilary Swank is hot or not, and form into debate teams to attempt to break the 5-5 tie. The whole debate was hilarious, but Kevin especially shines in it. There’s just so many funny moments in this Office episode.

2. Michael Scott Paper Company: Episode 23

This one is definitely among my favorite episodes. From beginning to end, it has so many funny moments. The opening scene is hilarious with Michael pulling up in his PT Cruiser, top down, blaring “Just Dance,” and telling the camera, “It’s Brittney, bitch.” And then he can’t parallel park in a huge opening…it’s so funny. I also enjoy seeing Michael, Ryan, and Pam experience the ups and downs of their first day in the new office, especially when Pam makes the company’s first sale. Upstairs at Dunder-Mifflin, we are introduced to a new character, Erin, who I love for this show. She’s so goofy that she fits into The Office perfectly. Meanwhile Andy and Dwight are both vying for her attention, but end up becoming best friends. Finally, this episode has one of my favorite scenes throughout the entire series, which is where Dwight and Andy are playing John Denver’s “Country Roads” on the guitar and banjo in the breakroom. I love it and I love this episode.

1. Stress Relief: Part 1: Episode 14

Easily one of my favorite episodes from the entire series, this one packs in non-stop laughs. The episode opener is the best one from any episode, where Dwight’s fire drill has everyone losing their minds thinking they might die. “Today, smoking is going to save lives,” is a classic line. Then the scene where the CPR instructor comes to the office provides so many laughs as well, from Andy singing “Stayin’ Alive” to Dwight cutting up the CPR dummy and wearing its face as a mask. The only thing that I don’t particularly care for is the “Pam’s parents going through a tough time” situation. To me, it just doesn’t fit in well with the rest of the episode with its non-stop laughs. But overall, this is one of the best episodes throughout The Office’s nine seasons.

Garett

The Office: Season Five Episodes (Ranked)