Parks & Recreation 6×5 Preview – “Gin It Up!”

What a lovely surprise to get another Parks & Rec Season 6 episode to preview! In this case, I was allowed to watch “Gin It Up!” the season’s fifth episode which will air Thursday October 17th.

The main story involves Leslie’s fight to retain her council seat. Her two detractors – Councilmen Jamm and Dexhart – are dead set and determined to get her thrown out no matter what. She’s on the brink of losing the battle when someone from her office makes a mistake that jeopardizes her entire career.

The member of the Parks department the writers chose to make the misstep is brilliant – this person is doing something they’ve always done, but the writers manage to turn it around to bite Leslie and the whole Parks dept. in the butt.  The situation also allows Jamm and Dexhart to riff on things inspiring some pretty funny gags.

Secondly, the lovely Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) arrives at City Hall wishing to reserve park space – and she runs up against Tom and April. Tom is immediately smitten, and sabotages her permit to keep her around long enough to notice him. April doesn’t really help him, but her snarky comments while Tom continues his stalling techniques are vintage Mean!April. In the end, Tom has a plan to get a date with Tatiana’s character – Nadia, and ditches it at the last minute so he can blame someone else for his idiocy. April jumps in to save the day, and the two women have a conversation right in front of Tom that made me laugh out loud. I wish she could come back as a recurring character, because she and April really spark off each other in a great way.

The remaining story concerns Ron and his legacy. Ben urges him to make a new will now that he’s married with a family, and Ron is against it until Ben mentions that all of his assets will go to the state if he doesn’t make his own plans. This plot-point doesn’t take up a lot of the episode, but of course, since it’s based around Ron and his nebulous wealth vs. his hatred of Government – it’s really well done.

I know I’ve said this before, but the writing on Parks & Rec is unbelievably good. If you like the show, you’ll dig this episode. It doesn’t disappoint! On a side note, seeing April’s influence on the signs throughout City Hall as the episode progresses is HILARIOUS.

Favorite Lines:

Ron: “Literally everything is a weapon, son. That folder in my hands is far deadlier than this bow in yours.”
Ben: “Oh, that’s… probably true…”

Councilman Jamm: “This will be blown WAY out of proportion, you have my word on it!”

April: “So, you’ve gone insane… that’s fun.”

Lawyer: “Mr. Swanson. Let’s begin by filling out this form listing your assets and liabilities.”
Ron: “Nice try. I’m not telling you how much money I have, where it’s hidden, or which precious metals and/or gemstones it may or may not take the form of.”

Councilman Jamm: “Sadly, due to your intraxidence…”
Leslie: “Not a word.”
Councilman Jamm: “We may never find out what happened.”

Ron: “Another word for ‘Joke’ is ‘Lie’, I do not lie, therefore I do not joke.”

Ben: “We need to talk.”
Ron: “That has never been true.”