They’ve been trying to catch something for weeks. Jim and Pam try to play it off like, What’s there to catch? Except, they were there. The camera caught it all. His triumphant return, his date planning and her beaming in the aftermath.
But, he’s visiting reception a lot, like he did before, and she’s always his accomplice -first choice- to his pranks, and he’s moved desks, and on the rare days that Michael’s not in the office, she’ll wear her hair down and he compliments her on it, and they always eat lunch together, even when a sales call runs late. Something, yeah?
One afternoon, Pam fesses up in one of her talking heads.
“We’re okay. Just…um…getting everything back to the way it was and settling into something because…it’s different now. We’re different." Pause. "We’re good.” And she shrugs, and rolls her eyes at herself because she feels a little repetitive with her words, and she smiles, no grinning, no special light in her eyes, just a smile that says she’s happy things are going well.
She doesn’t once say they are just friends getting along well.
The crew finally works up the nerve to just ask Jim about the date. He says:
“It was nice to catch up on everything we’ve missed in each other’s life. We’ve kind of been doing that all summer. Catching up.”
He doesn’t utter the word friends either.
Something has to be going on, right?
It’s 5:18 on a Thursday when one of them looks up from the break room to see Jim exchange a glance with Pam. It can't mean anything. But, for what seems like the first time in too long a time, the two prepare to leave at the same time, as if they’re leaving together.
But if they know the cameras are there, nothing will happen, right? It’s then that Pam and Jim share a grin, look at the cameramen in the break room and continue on their way out. So, taking their chances, the camera follows them out.
And the pair step onto the elevator like it’s any other day and they catch something as the doors are closing.
Jim takes Pam’s hand as she leans her body into his side, tilting her head to rest against his shoulder. They catch a little of her laugh.
They just caught gold.
