NBC's The Office featured a number of romantic couples throughout its nine year run. Two of its most notable relationships were Jim and Pam, and Dwight and Angela, both of whom were heavily "shipped" by fans of the series.
Other couples that received a decent amount of attention were Andy and Erin, Jim and Karen, and Ryan and Kelly. While these were prominent relationships in the series, they were typically hit-or-miss with audiences, with many viewers actually being against these couples. However, the most infamous and widely hated relationship in The Office had to be between Michael and Jan.
There are very few Office fans out there who will attempt to argue that Michael and Jan were right for each other. Right when their relationship started to take off in season 2, it was abundantly clear that these two were not a right fit, but the relationship still carried on through season 4, and even a little bit in season 5, before the two characters finally parted ways.
Even though Michael and Jan were surely the worst couple in The Office, this doesn't mean that they aren't one of the most entertaining. In fact, "Dinner Party", which is essentially the climax of Michael and Jan's relationship, is widely considered to be the best episode of the entire series.
Though these two certainly don't go well together, the horribleness of their pairing became one of the best aspects of the series.
With this in mind, here are the 20 Things That Make No Sense About Michael Scott And Jan's Relationship.
20. Jan Was Completely Rewritten After Season 1
When Jan first appeared in The Office, she was Michael's cold boss who was very to-the-books and gave no concern about emotions in the workplace. However, about halfway through the show's second season, Jan's character was completely changed, making her an unlikely romantic interest for Michael Scott.
While Jan's sudden change of character was briefly explained due to her recent divorce, looking at her change as a whole makes the situation seem a bit nonsensical. Even when Jan was being professional in the second half of season 2, and throughout season 3, she was drastically different from how she acted at the beginning of the series. While the changes made to Jan were certainly for the better, making her more interesting of a character, it makes viewers scratch their head when they go back to rewatch the first season, where Jan acts and talks like a completely different person.
19. No One Tried To Help Michael After He Got Back With Jan
Toward the end of season 3, many of the female of The Office tried to help Michael when they realized he was in an awful relationship, and successfully pushed him to end the relationship. When Jan came back a couple episodes later to try to win Michael back, they once again stayed by Michael's side and (unsuccessfully) urged him to not get back with Jan.
However, beyond this point, Michael's coworkers did not really try to help Michael get out of the relationship. Jan made him sell his car, he "declared" financial ruin, and she would regularly visit the office, despite being fired, in order to misuse their supplies. Despite Michael being obviously distraught and unhappy, nobody stepped up to help him until the episode "Dinner Party", when Michael and Jan finally broke up. Even then, it was a police officer who pushed Michael to leave, rather than one of his friends.
18. Why Did Jan Want Michael In Astrid's Life?
One of the most surprising twists in The Office occurred at the end of season 4 when it was revealed than Jan was pregnant, but with an inseminated child rather than with Michael's. This story arc continued through the first few episodes of season 5, where Michael ignored his feelings for Holly because he felt as though he needed to be loyal to Jan and her daughter Astrid.
While this entire scenario was humorously nonsensical, the part that made the least sense was the fact that Jan was actually open to Michael being in her daughter's life. It was clear that she didn't want Michael to be the father of her child, yet she was seemingly comfortable with Michael being a part of her daughter's life after birth. She let Michael attend many of the parent counseling sessions before the pregnancy, and was okay with Michael being a part of raising Astrid.
17. Packer's Opinion Of Jan Completely Changed
There's no doubt that Michael Scott thinks highly of Todd Packer, the obnoxious travelling salesman that has a history of demeaning women. However, as soon as Michael started seeing Jan, Packer's commentary about Jan drastically changed. In the first season of The Office, Packer spoke up about how much he despised Jan a couple of times, which almost got Michael in trouble at one point. However, as soon as Michael revealed to Packer that he had gone on vacation with Jan, Packer's tone of voice implied that he was actually jealous, and started to see Jan as a catch.
While some may argue that Packer's sudden change of opinion could be to his friend who had bad luck with women up until that point, this isn't really in his character. When Michael later got engaged to Holly, Packer actually tried to talk Michael out of the relationship, proving that he isn't really that ive of a friend.
16. Nothing Ever Came Out Of The Photo Of Jan In Jamaica
In season 3, after Michael and Jan had a secret vacation to Jamaica, Michael accidentally sent an indecent image of Jan from the trip to the warehouse, who then sent it to many of the other employees of Dunder Mifflin, including Todd Packer, who didn't even work in the office anymore.
The events of the episode made it seem like Jan was going to find out about the image, yet this never occurred, with Jan only arriving in Scranton to say she wanted to date Michael rather than to discipline him. This left many viewers thinking that Jan never found the image, and that the entire situation had merely breezed over. However, in season 4, the image resurfaced in Jan's court case, revealing that Jan did indeed know about the photo of herself. For reasons that seem absolutely out of her character, Jan never brought this up to Michael or used it as a means to discipline him.
15. Toby Didn't Report Them
Michael and Jan's relationship broke a number of rules regarding relationships made by Dunder Mifflin. Not only were both of them corporate level employees, but Michael was also Jan's subordinate, which in almost any workplace would be strictly against company policy. Michael and Jan dated on-and-off for over a year before they disclosed the relationship to corporate, but it wasn't unnoticed. Everyone at the Scranton branch knew about it, yet Toby never did anything about the matter.
Toby briefly told Michael that he needed to disclose the relationship, but when Michael refused and the relationship continued, Toby continued to do nothing, which was grossly against his job title, as their relationship was clearly a dangerous breach of company policy. To make matters worse, Toby still did not speak up about the issue when Jan attempted to sue Dunder Mifflin, even though he had information about their relationship that would have helped the company's case.
14. Michael Wasn't Too Concerned About The Possibility Of Jan Poisoning Him
In "Dinner Party," when all of Michael and Jan's guests were finally sitting down to eat, Michael whispered to Pam that it was possible that Jan was attempting to poison them with the food. However, this was the only time that Michael brought this up.
For someone who genuinely believed that he was going to be poisoned, Michael really didn't seem to care, as after this point, he continued to eat his food without any concern. While this is semi-excusable, as it was merely an aside joke, it still seemed like a rather drastic change of view in the context of the story. Granted, in today's society, it would be rather far fetched to accuse somebody of poisoning someone else, but at the same time, it wouldn't seem too far fetched to imagine Jan poisoning somebody, making this entire situation a bit confusing.
13. Jan's Relationship With Hunter
One of the most surprising, yet subtle, revelations about Jan was that she was having a secret affair with her assistant in New York, Hunter. Unlike Jan's relationship with Michael, Jan's relationship with Hunter took place directly at corporate. Considering that Jan didn't do too great of a job hiding her relationship with her young assistant, it seems unlikely that none of the other corporate employees caught onto what was going on, and it seems even more unlikely that none of them would have reported the affair for being against corporate policy.
Not much was revealed about Jan and Hunter, but that's probably for the best. At the end of the day, it's probably a good thing that we don't know what those two did together, but we sort of get a glimpse of it in the song Hunter wrote and sang that was played in "Dinner Party."
12. The Documentary Footage Wasn't Used In Jan's Court Case
When Jan attempted to sue Dunder Mifflin for wrongful termination, most of the evidence in the case was hearsay, with there only being a few written documents that helped to track Jan's relationship with Michael, which became an important aspect of the lawsuit. For the past four years, however, the documentary crew had been recording almost everything that happened at the office, including how unethical Jan was being. They certainly had enough evidence to disprove Jan's accusations and help defend Dunder Mifflin.
While it's likely that the documentary crew refused to show any of the footage in order to remain neutral, it seems unlikely that Dunder Mifflin did not at least attempt to strike a deal, and that they would continue to allow the documentary crew to remain with their company if they did not help them when they were being sued for millions of dollars.
11. Jan Wouldn't Have Acted In Threat Level Midnight
In the show's seventh season, viewers of The Office finally had the opportunity to witness Threat Level Midnight, Michael's action-packed home movie that he had been working on for over a decade. Much of Threat Level Midnight had been shot throughout different seasons of the show, which allowed numerous cast who were no longer with the show to return.
One character who played a role in Threat Level Midnight was Jan. While Jan's appearance was a fun cameo, as she had not appeared in the show in about a year, it didn't really make much sense. Even though Jan was dating Michael, she was never ive of anything that Michael wanted to do, so it didn't really make sense that Jan agreed to act for Michael in his movie. The cameo was surprising for sure, but it was also incredibly forced.
