Parks and Recreation: Born and Raised

Parks and Recreation has one of the best television settings ever: Pawnee, Indiana. Over the course of over three seasons, the town has become more and more fleshed out beyond the world of local government (which has also been fleshed out). From it's insanely racist history of atrocities against the local natives to it's position as the 4th fattest town in America, Pawnee is possibly the greatest fictional town since Springfield. Born and Raised is an episode about Leslie and her roots. But it's also about Pawnee and there are plenty of nods to the show's history, which is why the episode is so good.

Basically, we learn that Leslie has written an extremely detailed book about Pawnee (which I think is supposed to become a real book at some point) for her own reference, but has had it released as part of her campaign. She's going on Pawnee Today, where she's hoping that Joan Callamezzo will add it to her book club (She's hired Tom's company for this reason), which will guarantee it's success. But when word gets out that Joan is going to call out a mistake in the book, she panics and gets everyone to fact-check to ensure accuracy (including sending Jerry to redo every interview in the book.). Of course when she gets on the show, she finds out that Joan has gotten a tip that Leslie wasn't actually born in Pawnee. As a proud Pawnee citizen, Leslie stakes her reputation on her being born there and sets out with Chris and Andy to set the records straight by getting her long-form birth certificate.

This means a trip to Eagleton, the affluent, rival town of Pawnee, where the birth certificates for the county are stored. And when Leslie and Chris are both unable to acquire the documents, Andy springs into action as Bert Macklin ("You thought I was dead. So did the President...'s enemies".), and sneaks into the room where the birth records are, obtaining the birth certificate and some guy's briefcase. This leads to she shocking revelation that Leslie was born in Eagleton, because the Pawnee hospital was infested by racoons at the time (another callback). This mortifies Leslie, who is sure that her political career is finished now. But Chris assures her that she is more representative of Pawnee than anyone else he knows and that it's not where you're born, it's where you're from. So she comes clean and after a speech, cementing her status as a citizen of Pawnee, gets the support of the people and a book club sticker. Though it also has a Gotcha! sticker on the back.

Meanwhile, Tom and Ben try to get that sticker by taking Joan out to lunch. There we get the culmination of a long-time runner (Tom's flirtation with Joan who is married), when it turns out that Joan is getting divorced and desires Tom, which of course is terrifying to him. As she gets drunker, Tom gets Ben to try to stop it by talking about Star Trek, but it only makes Joan want them both, which she expresses in a very-long beeped-out sentence. With her dangerously drunk, Tom and Ben have to take her home, which of course is filled with pictures and portratis of Joan (including at least one nude one). This plot was really funny and continued to give this episode the feel of one recalling past history perfectly, without locking out new viewers.

And in a third story, Ann tries to get one minute of small talk from Ron and April. This wasn't the funniest storyline, although it had it's moments near the end of the episode. It did serve to show that Ann is getting more stories that don't involve her in a relationship or being a foil to Leslie and that was a good thing. It also showed how similar Ron and April are. All in all, this was a great episode of Parks and Rec and a worthy follow-up to last week's fantastic episode.

Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)

Memorable Moments

-The episode also has a great cold open, which expanded on Pawnee's media by introducing the public radio station, complete with Dan Castellaneta as the substitute announcer and a song from  Lesbian Afro Norwegian Funk Duo: Nerfertiti's Fjord. Leslie: "Oh wow. They are terrible." Dan's Character: "Oh yes, they're quite awful. But they are lesbians so..."
-"Leslie, could one say that a book is nothing more than a painting of words that are the notes on the tapestry of the greatest film ever scopted?" "One could say that... but should one?"
-Ron: “Usually I only read nautical novels and my own personal manifestos, but I’m proud to make this exception.”
-Entertainment 720's latest swag: Pillowcases that say "Never Stop Dreaming"- Tom Haverford. Chris: "I never do- Chris Traeger".
-Also in Joan's book club is The Time-Travelers Optometrist: a heart-warming story about a caveman eye doctor who travels to modern day Cincinatti and can see everything except love. Unreadable, but the sticker made it a best-seller.
-Joan's over-the-top Gotcha! journalism, complete with dancers and a theme song was hysterical.
-Joan leaves lunch to powder her nose and other things. Ben stripping the situation of subtlety: "Is she going to powder her vagina?"
-"Who else was born in Eagleton? Voldemort, probably."
-The tag at the end with a proud Jerry half-way done on his fact-checking assignment, even though he missed his daughter's birthday, getting Leslie's go-ahead to complete the job was also hysterical. Leslie: "He just looked so happy".