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Good Secrets, Bad Secrets, and Privacy in Relationships
When to share, and when it’s better to keep it to yourself.
I hate romcoms. But one of the things I love most about The Office is the love story between Jim and Pam. The awkwardness and roadblocks make it a much more believable tale than most formulaic love stories in the movies.
For example, Jim and Pam end up keeping good secrets that boost their relationship and bad secrets that threaten it.
When Jim has to go to Florida with some coworkers for several days, he ends up in an awkward encounter in his hotel room with Cathy. Cathy is the interim office coordinator hired to replace Pam during her maternity leave, and she aggressively hits on Jim.
He wriggles out of it with several hilarious maneuvers involving Dwight and never tells Pam about the whole ordeal.
Should he have told her?
In a prior episode, a very pregnant Pam is feeling unattractive and concerned that Jim won’t admit to her that Cathy is pretty. He refuses to admit it to avoid triggering Pam’s insecurity.
Thus, it makes sense that later when Cathy hits on him, he decides not to share it with Pam.
