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Parks and Recreation – Love and death in the season finale

Leslie and Ben are good enough at hiding their relationship that Leslie's mom hits on Ben, but they're bad enough at hiding their relationship that Ron nearly gets his face burned off. It's a tough time on the 'Parks and Recreation' season finale.

- Season 3, Episode 15&16 - "The Bubble/Li'l Sebastian"

If there’s one common theme in all of my Parks and Recreation reviews from this season, it’s my obsession with Adam Scott and his hotness. He is amazing in general, but for some reason, more so in this role than any of his others. So imagine my shock when, in the season finale, Parks and Rec somehow managed to effectively (albeit temporarily) kill my Adam Scott boner. You guys, that political foreplay (please God, don’t let it have gotten past foreplay) was horrifying. Ruth Bader Ginsburg? Ben’s Reagan impression? There are no words.

Despite that atrocity, he and Leslie were adorable as usual, pawing each other like teenagers all over City Hall. I loved, loved Pamela Reed making a reappearance as Leslie’s mom. The scene in which she hit on Ben was especially fantastic, because she and Amy Poehler had the same exact mannerisms and facial expressions when they were sitting on the couch together. It made an already uncomfortable situation that much funnier. Plus, Ben’s stammering reaction during his first meeting with her was probably the funniest moment of the first part of the finale.

Chris’s crazy plans to redo the Parks department were great for many reasons, including the fact that we got to see more of Donna and Jerry than we usually do. Retta has actually gotten some fun scenes as of late, and her fight with the keyboard was hilarious. It may have even been funnier than Tom’s fantastic foray up to the fourth floor. I love seeing him out of his element, and you don’t get much more anti-Tom Haverford than the fourth floor. That is no place for shirts from Theory.

The second part of the season finale is the one that brought the surprises. I really though Li’l Sebastian would be around for a while, popping up here and there in episodes. Instead, we got a lavish funeral that allowed basically everyone to shine outside of their current jobs: Andy got to show off his music to the entire town, who loved him, Tom produced the funeral with Jean-Ralphio and may have a completely new job, while Leslie may be running for office.

Obviously, Leslie’s bit of news is the most interesting. At first, I thought it was the solution to Leslie and Ben’s Chris problem, but it quickly became clear that it wasn’t going to be that simple. Sure, there’s the potential that they won’t be working in the same office any longer, but that’s still a long ways away, and as we’ve seen, Leslie and Ben are terrible at keeping secrets. Plus, it’s kind of a scandal, and Leslie’s already lied about it right off the bat.

Leslie’s wanted a political career forever, but will she really choose it over Ben? It doesn’t seem likely, but then again, neither does Leslie letting Ben stand in the way of her dream. I’m really not sure how it will play out, but I will fully admit that I’m completely bitter that the season’s already over after only sixteen episodes.

However, we do have another thing to look forward to: Tammy 1. If she could strike that amount of fear into the terrifying Tammy 2, then she’s sure to bring some fun next season.

Photo Credit: NBC

3 Responses to “Parks and Recreation – Love and death in the season finale”

May 21, 2011 at 6:32 AM

I really don’t want to know what a Poloski kiss is like. That is the stuff of nightmares right now.

However, Adam Scott is still hot. HOT.

May 21, 2011 at 2:40 PM

Aw, you didn’t like the political foreplay? Not exactly hot, but hilarious, and it seemed perfect for those two, that she’d want to role play powerful women, and that he’d be into it. The fact that no one else would be into it pretty much reinforced how perfect they are for each other.

Re: “not working in the same office”–mayor or city council member of a small city is not usually a full-time job (it tends to come with just a stipend of a few thousand dollars), so chances are she’d keep her regular job (as long as there’s not a law on the Indiana books preventing that). Also, even if she left her parks job, she’d basically be Ben’s boss instead of the other way around, so I don’t know if that would change the situation at all.

May 22, 2011 at 4:54 PM

But Chris is also looking at a coworker as a romantic prospect, so…

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