What Happened, Yo!:
-Ron wants Leslie to take time off from the parks department, because although City Council is only a part time job (showing she could still stay with the department if she wins), running a campaign is a full-time job and with Leslie working 100 hours a week (50 at the Parks Department and 50 at her campaign) plus her volunteering at Wheels For Meals On Wheels (They fix Meals on Wheels vans) stuff is starting to fall through the cracks. Leslie insists she's fine though and won't take any time off. When she finds out she forgot Jerry's birthday (Who is born on February 29th and only gets one real birthday every 4 years), Leslie plans a surprise party for him at Donna's family lake house. But she forgets to invite Jerry so she and Ron set out to retrieve him.
-On the way to the party (With Jerry), she finds out that her latest campaign signs have been screwed up, because the sign guy printed the URL to the design she sent him as a sign instead of printing the design. By the time she corrects the problem and gets Jerry to the lake house, everyone has gone to sleep or is out looking for Champion (more on that in a sec). She throws a bit of a party of Jerry and then falls asleep on him, forcing Jerry to stay in the same spot all night. Later Ron tells her about the time he tries to work two jobs and finish middle school, and says it's better to full-ass one thing than half-ass two and Leslie decides to cut back her hours at the Parks Department to 10 hours a week.
-Meanwhile Tom is upset when he finds out Ann doesn't know who Ginuwine (Who is apparently Donna's cousin) is because a lack of knowledge of 90's R&B Stars is on his list of no-no's for women he dates. He confides to a reluctant April (who has found herself the confidante in their relationship since she fixed them up) that he might break up with Ann over this. Ann gets upset when she hears this. April gets really drunk in order to stand helping Ann and Tom and in her drunken state, she breaks the two of them up for fighting over stupid reasons. This causes Ann and Tom to make up and give this thing another try, much to April's disdain.
-Meanwhile Chris has spent the last few days watching Champion while Andy and April were out of town and has grown attached to the dog. He gives Andy things he's bought Champion and gives Andy plenty of advice. At the lake house, Andy begins tiring of Chris' advice and lets Champion off the leash, where he runs into the woods. They go looking for him and Andy admits to Chris that Chris is much better with the dog than he is so maybe Chris should have Champion. Chris refuses, saying that Champion belongs to Andy and that he'll probably come if he hears Andy singing. Andy tries it and Champion comes running, but we see that it's because Chris had a dog whistle which Andy was unaware of. Chris seems fine, but at the party we can see that he's bothered that others have something special in their lives and he's alone.
I Like This: Sweet Sixteen was a good episode that showed us that even Leslie's rampant workaholic tendencies have limits and handled it well, having her realizing that maybe she shouldn't work over 100 hours a week.. I enjoyed how it interfered with Jerry's party (Of course he's born on February 29th. That just makes sense.) and that whole story was fun. I also liked how the story used Leslie and Ron's relationship. His speech to her at the end explaining why he feels she should take time off was very nice and also funny, staying consistent with Ron's history. I also liked Andy and Chris' storyline, which once again humanized Chris greatly and made me feel bad for the guy. Hopefully things pick up for him soon. The scene where he assured Andy that Champion was his and made it look like Andy found the dog was again, funny and sweet. And of course, super drunk April is always funny.
But...: I didn't care that much for Tom and Ann's story this week. There were funny moments (Particularly when April got involved), but it didn't live up to the potential of the two of them dating. Hopefully this'll change though, because I'm still looking forward to a Tom/Ann relationship if it's played right.
The Bottom Line: Sweet Sixteen was a solid episode of Parks and Rec, getting Leslie to work less and giving us plenty of good Jerry moments. I just hope Tom and Ann's couple stories are better handled in the future.
Grade: 82%
Memorable Moments
-Leslie: "Oh Ann, you beautiful rule-breaking moth."
-Leslie starts to plan Jerry's party. April: "The usual. Cake and pop?" Leslie: "No, April. The unusual." April: "Fish and pop?" Leslie: "No." April: "Cake and fish?" Leslie: "No! No fish."
-I enjoyed that Ann's hat said Tommy's Girl, and Tom's hat just said Tom, because no one owns him.
-April: "I was getting kind of sick of listening to Tom and Ann talk about their relationship, but then I remembered that alcohol existed. Thank you, alcohol."
-Jerry: "We didn't get to the drugstore for my liver medication." Leslie: "Well you should've thought of that before we dragged you out of the bath, Jerry!"
-Ron says something nice about Jerry for his birthday: "Jerry’s work is often adequate".
-Ron: "Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing."
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