Parks and Recreation: Smallest Park

What Happened, Yo!:

-Leslie and Ben have turned an abandoned spot of concrete into Indiana's smallest park.
-Ben informs Leslie that he is going to ask Chris that he doesn't want to work with the Parks Department as much anymore, because he still can't handle being around Leslie.
-Leslie refuses to accept this, and decides that she's going to drag the project out for as long as she can by turning public opinion against the park.
-But the public is surprisingly in favour of the tourist attraction and the forum about it lasts only 45 minutes. Even when Leslie gets them riled up by planning a lengthy list of activities to happen at the park, they're appeased when Ben just cancels all the activities.
-Ben says that Leslie is a steamroller who doesn't care about what anyone else wants as long as she gets her way and asks Chris to transfer.
-Ann tells Leslie that Ben is right and she is a steamroller.
-Leslie apologizes to Ben, and finally understands why he doesn't want to be around her. They end amicably...
-Until she asks him if he wants to start dating again, no matter how bad that will affect her career or campaign. Ben agrees and they kiss.
-Elsewhere Chris gets Tom and Jerry to "redesign" the parks department logo (as in choose the new font.). Tom decides to do some over-the-top redesigns but Jerry just wants to stick to the assignment.
-Tom keeps insisting that he should dream big and Jerry points out that's how he got into trouble with Entertainment 720 in the first place, which gets Tom depressed.
-Jerry tries to encourage Tom by saying the best thing for the job is to do everything the same. When he shows off his original ID badge that he still uses though, it gives Tom an idea to bring back the retro logo.
-Chris likes the idea and Tom gives much of the credit to Jerry. Awww.
-Meanwhile again, Andy is going to enroll at community college for one class and Andy and Ron are helping him pick.
-April encourages him to do something he'll be good at, like Guitar for Beginners, but he gets bored and can't pretend he's no good.
-Ron wants him to challenge himself so he tries Intro to Lasers, but gets upset when he learns that they don't actually get to use lasers.
-Andy picks a class at random and tries Women Studies. He enjoys it but is disheartened to learn that tuition is almost 1000 dollars, which he doesn't have.
-He decides to shine shoes again to try and get the money, but Ron gives it to him because he likes Andy and has the money. Awww again.

I Liked This:

This may be the best episode Parks and Recreation has done all season. All three of the storylines were strong, and all contained plenty of laughs. Pawnee citizens are always good for a laugh and this episode was no exception. Andy continues to be one of the shows funniest characters, and he gets many of the funniest lines this episode. It was also nice to see Tom be nice to Jerry for once (even if being nice to him meant Jerry becoming Tom's number 4 in place of number 3). And of course, Ron Swanson's soft side is always a treat, and him paying for Andy's class was a heartwarming moment. But the big thing this episode had going for it was the Leslie storyline.

As I've mentioned before, it's good that we get these storylines that remind us that Leslie isn't perfect. But this storyline took that one step farther by having Leslie being bluntly and directly confronting with this fact. It then had Leslie recognize this, accept this, and decides to make a change. And that's why this episode is so good. It has our main character realize that she has to improve herself, and it does it in a way that pays off the episodes that came before us. Leslie has reached a critical point in her character arc and it'll be interesting to see where she goes from there. Not to mention, now that she's coming clean, the possibilities of what could happen next are genuinely thrilling.

But...: I literally cannot think of anything I disliked about Smallest Park.

Bottom Line: Smallest Park didn't have as many laughs as Ron and Tammys. But it was a strong character story with some great emotional beats and some honest character growth. And for that I hereby call it...

Grade: Holy BLANK! (Perfect)

Memorable Moments

 -Funniest Citizen Moment: The women who doesn't want a basketball course because it attracts a certain kind of people, who almost straight out says what kind of people she dislikes. With lots of black people around.
-Everyone but Jerry laughing when Chris said Tom could learn a lot from Jerry was great.
-.000003 square miles is a very small park
-Andy: "I did not graduate college because I did not attend it."
-Andy's reaction to learning Intro to Lasers doesn't involve using lasers was classic: "One of the most significant bummers of my lifetime", he says with a sad face.
-Leslie:  "Your quiet supports means the world to me, as well as your tacit endorsement of all my behaviors."
-Andy: "Then it's settled. Andy Dwyer will be taking Women's Lasers."
-Ron: "April, where have you been? Over two phone calls came in unimpeded!"
-Ron: "My first day of college my father dropped me off at the steel mill. He didn't think I should go to college, but I hitched a ride, enrolled, and learned a lot."