Jenna Fischer Explains Why Pam And Roy Were Engaged For So Long ...

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One of the worst couples on The Office was, without question, Pam and Roy.

The two characters (played by Jenna Fischer and David Denman) were high school sweethearts, which is cute, but when the series began they'd already been engaged for three painfully long years. They were also horrible communicators, and Roy had clear anger issues, which viewers catch glimpses of as the show progresses.

While Pam's co-worker Jim Halpert (John Krasinski) grew increasingly charming, Roy was consistently shitty, so many fans of the show racked their brains trying to figure out why Pam stayed engaged for that long. Well, more than 15 years after the show first premiered, Fischer is offering a bit of explanation.

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On the latest episode of the Office Ladies podcast, she and her former co-star Angela Kinsey chatted about the fifth episode of The Office, "Basketball," and gave some much-needed insight into Pam and Roy's backstory.

SEE ALSO: Everything ‘The Office’ fans ever wanted to know about Dwight’s famous box scene

The episode's main focus is on a basketball game between the office employees and the warehouse workers, but Michael raises the stakes by declaring that members of the losing team will have to work on Saturday. It's also a somewhat challenging day at work for Pam, because as Fischer explains, she's caught between rooting for "her office crush Jim and her actual fiancé" Roy, who works in the warehouse.

Before the game Jim and Pam are seen engaging in some flirty banter, and when they discuss weekend plans Pam says that she knows Roy will win because they're supposed to "take the WaveRunners to the lake for the weekend." Jim says that when he wins he'll be spending Saturday at an outlet mall, and extends the invitation to her, as he's confident her fiancé will be working.

The details of the conversation might not have held much weight with viewers in 2005, but Fischer explained that the WaveRunner storyline is actually a key part of the backstory she wrote (in essay form) about Pam and Roy.

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"I remember trying to justify just for myself why is Pam still engaged to Roy after three years," Fischer said. "In this episode you find out they’ve been engaged for three years — her little toaster oven that they got at her engagement party is broken — so I asked myself, 'Why? Why are they not married yet... what is the reason?'"

"In my head I came up with the reason that they’ve been saving money for the wedding and about a year into their engagement, without telling Pam, Roy spent the money on a pair of WaveRunners with his brother," Fischer continued. "And Roy was like, 'we're going to have so much fun with these' but it broke Pam's heart, and I told Greg [Daniels] this story... and he was like, 'Oh my gosh I love that. We've gotta put that in — the WaveRunners.'"

"I remember trying to justify just for myself why is Pam still engaged to Roy after three years..."

Roy absolutely sucked, but if he hadn't foolishly blown his wedding fund on WaveRunners he might have actually married Pam. So way to go, dude. And despite his character's flaws, Denman, who plays Roy, has a great relationship with Fischer in real life.

"David and I really hit it off... especially in this episode," Fischer said. "It was weird because I think I had spent a lot of time talking to John Krasinski between scenes and now I was talking to David. He became a really good friend of mine outside of The Office, and I think it was probably a weird thing for people to imagine that one of my best connections on the show was... my jerk boyfriend Roy."

SEE ALSO: Rainn Wilson recalls an early scene in 'The Office' that's so funny the cast fully broke

Fans saw some literal competition between Jim and Roy in this episode, but Fischer and Kinsey revealed that the memorable scene in which Roy elbows Jim in the nose wasn't actually scripted. Turns out Denman accidentally knocked Krasinski hard during the game, and his nose really started to gush blood.

Your browser does not support the mp4 video codec. Via Giphy

"We had to pause and ice pack him," Fischer said. "I was worried John broke his nose," Kinsey added.

Though Jim and Roy were definitely not fans of each other in the show, Krasinski and Denman are tight in real life. They've acted together in the Michael Bay film 13 Hours, and recently reunited during the Stanley Cup final to troll Fischer. Ah, we love a lasting office friendship.

You can stream episodes of The Office on Netflix and follow along with the podcast every week on Earwolf, Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher.

Topics The Office Celebrities

Mashable Image Nicole Gallucci

Nicole is a Senior Editor at Mashable. She primarily covers entertainment and digital culture trends, and in her free time she can be found watching TV, sending voice notes, or going viral on Twitter for admiring knitwear. You can follow her on Twitter @nicolemichele5.

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