Parks and Recreation: Citizen Knope

What Happened, Yo!:
-Leslie is sneaking into the office at night to try to get work done, but Chris stops her and won't let her do any, as she is suspended.
-She also finds out that she can't do any campaigning until her latest poll numbers come in.
-To fill her time, she starts the Parks Committee of Pawnee (The P.C.P. acronym is intentional) in order to do work, while not in the office.
-Her committee causes a bit of a rucus in town forums and to get what they want, she sends them after Chris.
-Leslie confronts Chris who tells her to stop it with the P.C.P. She says she'll continue her crusade, but not before she gives him his thoughtful Christmas gift.
-Leslie meets with her campaign managers who tell her that while they were expecting a drop, they were hoping her numbers would go to around 15% from 26%. Instead, they've dropped to 1%. Not believing they can recover from this, both of them quit.
-Meanwhile the Parks Department wants to get Leslie a Christmas gift as thoughtful as the ones she gave them and decide to make a candy gingerbread version of the office. Ron is not very good at it and eventually gives up at trying to help.
-Leslie apologizes to Chris, who gives her her Christmas gift: early reinstatement.
-She goes down to the office where she gets her present along with something more: pledges from each and every member of the Parks department that they will help out with her campaign and get her elected onto City Council.
-Meanwhile, Ben is looking for work after having resigned in disgrace. He's up for a job as an in-house accountant for an accounting firm, but is encouraged to branch out and follow his heart, as he really doesn't want the job.
-He interviews for a job for Dennis Feinstein and gets it, but backs out when he sees that Dennis is a crazy, horrible person who apparently has hunted people for sport.
-After an encounter with Jean-Ralphio who encourages him to follow his dreams, he turns down the job at the accounting firm.

I Liked This: First off, sorry for the super lateness of this post. Assorted shenanigans and whatnot. Anyways, Citizen Knope was the perfect way for Parks and Recreation to end 2011. It showed the real fall-out of Leslie and Ben having an illicit relationship, showing that the anti-dating rule was more than just a minor roadblock between Leslie and Ben. At the same time, it also led to one of the sweetest scenes in the series where Leslie's workers choose to stand by her and help her, just showing how far we've come since season 1. And of course, it was really, really, really, funny. Jean Ralphio is always a treat and I was delighted by the surprising return of Dennis Feinstein. And I'm pretty sure the head accountant Ben interviewed with is the Rec Centre Teacher from Leslie's House, which is nice continuity. Citizen Knope was a delightful way to end the first part of season 4 and I'm excited to see Leslie's campaign take the forefront of the storyline moving forward.

But...: I'm posting this too late to come up with any But's.

The Bottom Line: Citizen Knope provides a great endpoint for the first part of season 4 and takes the story in an exciting new direction. With Community gone for a while, I'm glad that Parks and Rec can fill the void with great comedy.

Grade: Zounds! (Almost Perfect)

Memorable Moments

-Apparently, a boring pair of socks are the most thoughtful thing Leslie could think of to give Jerry. He liked them though, so it's all good.
-Leslie combines Salt and Sugar to make Sulgar. Perfect for Butterscotch pudding.
-My favorite P.C.P member was the women who kept on suggesting a letter writing campaign.
-Leslie giving Chris his present in the middle of their stand-off was gold. Especially Leslie's response when Chris thanks her. "My pleasure! See you in hell."
-Dennis Feinstein makes his current CFO sit in the room, while he interviews for his replacement. “Don’t talk to Eddie. Treat him like you would treat a person in another country that you paid $25,000 to hunt.”
-Jean-Ralphio: “Let me get this straight, you would be an accountant  for accountants? So at this accounting firm, you would have the boring job?”
-Leslie goes from PCP to LSD. The Leslie's Sorry Division.
-Leslie: “Giving Christmas gifts is like a sport to me, finding or making that perfect something. It’s also like a sport to me because I always win. This year, though, my friends won. In fact, I got my ass handed to me.”
-Jean-Ralphio trying to work in the accounting firm and getting almost immediately fired was also really funny.
-Sorry for the lateness once again. I should be on time for the rest of the year. Probably.