Parks and Recreation: End of the World

Earlier this week, I purchased the Parks and Recreation book Pawnee: The Greatest Town in America. It was hysterical with lots of laugh-out moments and information about the town I'm not ever sure will make it into an episode (at one point in time, the town confused the news with a radio drama and petitioned for the death of Bessy Truman, leading to a brief time of martial law.), but made for great reading. One section of the book talked about the cult that enslaved Pawnee in the 70's: Reasonablism. So when last night featured the "Zorpies", I was on the lookout to make sure they stayed accurate to the book (only because the book boasts complete accuracy), and sure enough they were true to what they had already stated. This attention to detail helped make for another great episode that was less about the Zorpies and more about the characters thinking about where they want to be/what they'd want to do at the end of the world.

The premise is simple. Every couple years the remaining Zorpies, who are all old men predict the end of the world and have an all-night vigil in one of the parks. While this is going on, Leslie gets panicked when Shauna Malwae-Tweep takes an interest in Ben, April decides to help Andy with his bucket list and Tom decides to throw one last big party before he and Jean-Ralphio lose E720. We also drop in on the vigil from time to time as Ron, Ann, and Chris spend time with the Zorpies.

The three main storylines worked pretty well, as they all kind of reflected on the idea of "the end of the world" without much direct contact with the Reasonablists (although Leslies story starts at the vigil and has it's big emotional revelation at the vigil.). The funniest one in terms of jokes was April and Andy's, as we got to see exactly what Andy wanted to do before he died. This included things as simple as holding a thousand dollars in his hands and as crazy as wanting to be an action star. The action star scene, which involved Andy actually jumping through a sliding glass door to rescue April from evil Russian Jerry, while April's sister filmed it, was probably the funniest of these, especially with the return of Bert Macklin and Janet Snakehole. And the end of their story with them driving out to see the Grand Canyon was a beautiful ending, topped by Andy wondering where all the carvings of heads of presidents were.

Tom's storyline also had laughs, coming through the over-the-topness of this final party Tom is throwing. It also had a good story for Tom in it, as he kept hearing what an amazing party he had thrown, but kept feeling it was missing something. Then old flame Lucy drops in from graduate school in Bloomington and they reconnect, and even kiss. Tom may not know where he's heading, but he sure knows how to throw a party (and he'll probably land back at the Parks department before too long). And this story also had a nice moment when Tom and Jean-Ralphio embrace because Jean-Ralphio invited Lucy, only to immediately have it undercut by Jean-Ralphio admitting to the cameras that he forgot Tom and Lucy had dated and was planning to make a move. Classic.

Leslie's story isn't as funny as the other two, but it's a good story with the first significant Leslie/Ben interaction since they broke up. Leslie's jealousy over Ben possibly getting together with Shauna was good and her trying to claim that an abandoned gas station was owned by Mick Jagger was quite funny. But ultimately the story is about Leslie realizing that the romantic part of her relationship with Ben is over, but they can still be friends and that part of the story is effective, especially Leslie's talk with Ron after Ben tells her he doesn't think the two of them can be alone anymore.

Overall, End of the World wasn't the strongest episode of Parks and Recreation this season in terms of laughs, but it was still a solid episode with a lot of heart. Just the way I like them.

Grade: Totally Awesome! (Great)

Memorable Moments

-Leslie: “They have an all-night vigil in the park. It's super-annoying. Turns out when you think the world's ending, you don't aim so carefully in the porta-potties.”
-Leslie: “Ben and I don't hang out that much these days. Big deal. Lots of people don't hang out. Jerry and April. Obama and Madonna, probably? We're in good company.”
-Jean-Ralphio: "You had me at '…every dime we have left.' "
-April: “Yeah, I'm trying to find a way to be annoyed by it but I'm coming up empty.”