Most of the relationships on The Office have some toxic elements, with a couple of exceptions, but the worst relationship of all might be Kelly and Ryan’s. They are both people who are rather self-absorbed and difficult, and they have a very tumultuous relationship over the course of the series.
In many ways, they are awful together while in others they deserve each other. They aren’t good people and they might not be good people with a good relationship, so it’s hard to deny that some things about their relationship just don’t make sense.
Why Ryan thought he was so much better than her
Ryan was extremely narcissistic, and he thought very highly of himself. Even if the evidence would show he wasn’t that great, he believed he was smarter and better than most people.
While these tendencies got even worse as the series went on, even at the beginning, he seems to think he was much better than Kelly. While this might be in line with his character, it was still difficult to watch because they were really on a similar level.
How Ryan was always using Kelly for money
Part of the reason why Kelly and Ryan’s relationship is so toxic is that Ryan is able to manipulate Kelly. She clearly wants to be with him more than he wants to be with her, but he’s also happy to use her over and over.
While maybe it’s not surprising that he would try to do this, Kelly’s low self-esteem seems a bit unrealistic. While she clearly has some issues with being clingy, she let Ryan use her too much.
Ryan’s creepy thing for Erin
Ryan is shown over and over to not be very loyal to Kelly. While he can’t stand when she is with other people, such as Darryl, he has no problem hitting on other women. Later in the series, he starts to have a rather creepy crush on Erin.
He asks her inappropriate things at work, including that he wants to have a threesome. What’s most confusing about this, however, is that Kelly doesn’t seem to mind much even though Erin is her friend.
The fact that they were allowed to fight at work all the time
There are many things about Dunder Mifflin that just don’t make a lot of sense. Many of the characters do and get away with things at work that just aren’t acceptable at all. Ryan and Kelly were often fighting, or making out, while at work.
There were never any repercussions of this, and Toby didn't’ do anything about it even though he sat right next to Kelly in the annex.
The fact that they got married
One rather shocking moment between these two was when it was revealed that they got married. The only reason their co-workers knew this is because they announced that they were getting divorced.
While this kind of move has Ryan written all over it, it seems like Kelly wouldn’t have let this happen. She loved being the center of attention, and she always wanted a huge wedding. So, a small wedding like that doesn’t make sense.
That their divorce only was mentioned in one episode
After announcing their divorce, it would make more sense if this became a longer storyline. While at this point in the series these two characters weren’t appearing as often, it was still a weird one-off moment.
Kelly and Ryan both loved drama and attention, so it’s hard to imagine that they would just bring up taking sides once and then leave things be.
That Ryan was allowed to come back to Dunder Mifflin at all
This might not be a point that’s exclusive to their relationship, but it’s worth bringing up since it impacted their ability to be together. After Ryan was fired from the corporate for committing fraud, it makes no sense at all that he ends up back at the company as a temp.
While this was clearly a way for the show to include the character again, it just didn’t work. By that point, he wasn’t really needed anyway. It's definitely something about Dunder Mifflin that makes no sense.
They had little in common
While Ryan and Kelly are both toxic, they don’t seem to have a lot in common. They might both know more about pop culture than their other co-workers given that they are a little younger, but they don’t like the same things.
Ryan is an insufferable hipster type who looks down on Kelly’s interests while Kelly loves things like celebrity drama and pop music. So, it’s hard to imagine how they would ever even enjoy spending time together.
That Kelly went with Ravi
Given how much Kelly and Ryan always get back together and can’t seem to resist each other, it didn’t make sense for Kelly to leave him to go to Ohio with Ravi. It wasn’t really in line with her character.
The real reason for this is that Mindy Kaling was leaving the show for a while and needed to be written off, but this doesn’t mean it made sense for the actual show and characters.
Ryan’s son
Ryan did a lot of horrible things on The Office, but the worst thing he ever did was to leave his child with a man he barely knew. Ryan has an infant named Drake that he had with another woman.
But, he abandons his son to run away with Kelly, and Kelly is totally fine with this. While these two characters are awful, this was a real curveball that was rather disgusting to watch.