In the end I felt satisfied and slightly disappointed. As an episode of The Office it was terrible, as a series finale it was alright. There were few jokes in the episode, and even fewer than I laughed at. Everything about Kelly and Ryan was unnecessary, and I thought that Ryan leaving the baby was crossing some line somewhere. Bringing them back just to do nothing with the main cast, and then have them run off together with no real indication that this time will be any different for their on again off again relationship was just a giant waste of time. When Michael came back I got all emotional. Sure, I would have liked it if he had more to do, but I'm not going to complain. All of the resolutions for the other characters were nice, especially Erin's. Anyway, like I said the episode itself left me wanting more, but since it was the conclusion to such an important series, I can forgive it just because of what it is.
There were a couple lines in the episode that were pure gold and good life lessons, like Andy's about the good days. That one really hit home for me, there were others but I can't think of them at the moment.
So yeah, it was alright. Some progression, some regression, but at least its over before it got worse.
I'm meh on it. I didn't find any of it particularly funny (save for Michael's entrance and everything that came out of Kelly's mouth). I personally love Mindy Kaling and the Ryan/Kelly relationship was one of my favorite parts of the show, I was really unhappy with the way the two were written out so I was actually glad to see them back together. I do think it was an unnecessarily large part of the episode though, I agree with you on that. Ryan leaving the baby was unbelievably scummy (but then, it is Ryan), I was very happy to see it go to Catherine Tate though the moment was marred by the whole "uhm that is actually not legally possible).
Erin, to me, had one of the best resolutions. The others felt really random (Kevin owning a bar? Really? Why not bring back Scrantonicity?). I still kind of wish Erin had turned out to be Phyllis's long lost daughter but meh, that was defeated earlier (though what was with the Phyllis/Stanley action??).
I did like Andy's line even though I hate Andy.
Michael returning was terrific, I kind of knew it was coming the moment Jim brought up the age thing, but his entrance was perfect. I was disappointed it was such a small part of the episode, though.
I HATED Jim and Pam moving to Austin though. I refuse to believe the two would happily move out of their hometown, from Dunder Mifflin, out of Jim's parents' house... just for the company. It was dumb, to me.
I never cared for Kelly or Ryan, though Ryan did start to become a character I enjoyed towards the end. I didn't like how they were written off so quickly either, but given the circumstances I can understand why they were. Yeah, I did think it was kinda nice seeing the baby go to her, but I didn't find it enjoyable either because I was still just in shock/slightly disgusted by the whole situation.
I agree with everything you said, though.
I especially hated Jim and Pam moving. For the same reasons you gave, as well as it felt like everything the two had gone through (wtf happened to the end of the last episode, it's like they completely forgot that) was for nothing. And it was done so quickly as well. There was no build up. As soon as we find out that Pam is trying to repay Jim we find out that the people want to buy the house. Also, earlier in the episode when the people were being interviewed Pam was asked how she was going to repay Jim for quitting his job. She said she had something in the works, but (unless I completely misinterpreted that scene) she clearly has nothing going on. I'm not convinced that selling the house was not something she does in response to that question and feeling guilty for not repaying him, but the way the scene where we find out she's selling the house plays out she acts like it's something she's been planning for a while. It's bad writing, it doesn't work either way, and it seems like both were written with two different intentions. It seems like an afterthought that they tacked onto the end to quickly resolve characters that were already resolved in the last episode. I suspect that they weren't comfortable giving Dwight and Angela the focus of the last episode, given that Jim and Pam had undoubtedly become the main characters once Michael left.
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