Parks & Recreation Recap: “Operation Ann”

I truly wish I could be one of Leslie Knope’s gal-pals. If I could just get an invite to her annual “Galentine’s Day” dinner. *sigh* I believe my pillow would read: “Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (34) was killed in a jet crash.” Not incredibly romantic, but there ya go. Unfortunately for Ann, Galentine’s Day highlighted the fact that she’s all alone this year. Not to worry! Leslie is always there for her! Her mission in this episode entitled, “[easyazon-link asin=”B00751J23S”]Operation Ann[/easyazon-link]” – is to find Ann a man.

Leslie and her posse introduce Ann to various men at a dance sponsored by the city. Not only are they all duds, the process depresses Ann even more than she had been. It doesn’t help that Chris is deejaying the dance by playing depressing chants and didgeridoo music. Leslie hands the task over to Tom, and he finds several candidates to introduce to her. Again, they’re all awful.

This is where P&R (that’s what the cool kids call it) throws a little U-turn into the mix. Leslie gives Chris a pep-talk and reminds him that he once dumped Ann – and that means there must be someone out there for him (it made sense at the time). He then gives Ann a little wave, and the next scene shows him dancing joyously to the new music being played by Donna. This is where the viewers are supposed to think that Chris and Ann will reunite because Ann begs off and leaves the party. Leslie sees Ann putting on makeup and curling her hair out in the parking lot, and comes to the conclusion that she’s off to meet Chris for an undercover date.

Leslie decides to follow Ann – mostly because she’s angry that Chris would break the rule that she and Ben changed their lives to avoid breaking. April does her best to dissuade her by telling her that Ann would never do anything to hurt Leslie, and that it’s not her business.

Meanwhile, Leslie leaves notes all over town for Ben – in a Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt. In true Knope fashion, she has made the clues incredibly intricate, and Ben enlists the help of Ron and Andy to solve the puzzles and find Leslie’s meeting place.  Little does he know that Ron is not only a closet puzzler, but he’s amazingly quick to get the answer to each clue. When Ben finally figures out that there are twenty-two clues left to find, he suggests they split up and look for the slips of paper wherever they think Leslie may have hidden them.

In a fun little cameo – and a wink of the eye reference to Adam Scott’s wildly popular show, “Party Down”, he encounters a deadpan fun sucker working at the snowglobe museum – played by his “Party Down” co-star, Martin Starr.

Ben finds three clues, Andy finds two AND a weird stick, and Ron finds a whopping nine clues. However, none of them has found the last clue that will lead to the endgame location. The three of them do a little brainstorming and figure out that her path is leading Ben to the statue of L’il Sebastian, since he ‘came around’ to love him as much as she does (he doesn’t).  She finds him waiting there for her, despite being nervous that he won’t figure out the clues.

Before they leave for their romantic dinner, she tells Ben that Chris and Ann are on a secret date, and they agree that they should go catch them ‘in the act’. When they find Ann at a restaurant, they find out that her date is with Tom. April noticed that the only person that made Ann smile all night was Tom, and convinced her to ask him out for a drink. While Ben and Leslie are trying to wrap their brains around the odd-coupling, they share a smooch in the picture window. Tom and Ann have a drink, and even though he still tries to play his love games, we’re left with the knowledge that at least she’s still smiling.

I think my favorite part of the whole half-hour is watching Ron try to use reverse psychology on Leslie. He reminds her that she knows about his uber-secret birthday, and that whatever she does, she should NOT plan a scavenger hunt for him. He absolutely does not want to solve a series of riddles and clues – each one more intricate than the last. Nope. That’s not for Ron Swanson. No way, no how. Except yeah, he really does want that. The sidle around her door to ask her ever so nicely to do that for him was priceless.

My Favorite Quotes:

Donna: “I have several men in rotation. One’s waiting for me out in the car. Don’t worry… I rolled down the window.”

Ron: “Thank you all for being here… let’s get started.”
Leslie: “Wow. Great Attitude Ron.”
Ron: “Sorry, I was talking to these ribs.”

Tom: “Quick question about Ann – does anyone know if she has any Indian in her?”
Leslie: “No-one respond. No-one say anything.”
Tom: “Why? I’m just curious if Ann has a little Indian in her.”
Leslie: “Silence…”
Jerry: “I don’t think she does.”
Tom: “Would she like some?”

Ben: “How do you know what a Cryptex is?”
Andy: “I know what things are.”

Ben: “I’ve tried every five letter word that has anything to do with our third date.”
Andy: “Have you tried *bleep*?”
Ben: “That’s a four letter word.”
Andy: “Add an ‘s’?”
Ben: “I really don’t think it’s that.”

Ron: “Wait. Leslie loves romance, but she also loves being right.”

Ben: “Screw romantic dinners… let’s go rub it in their face.”
Leslie: “God I love you so much.”

Parks & Recreation airs Thursday nights on NBC. Thursday February 16th sees Louis C.K. reprise his role as Leslie’s ex-boyfriend in “Dave Returns”.