Parks & Rec 6×11 “New Beginnings” Recap

After a cute tussle with Ron, Leslie has her job back at Parks & Rec. But things have changed. And as we know, Leslie hates change. She hates the fact that they’ve been running smoothly without her. In this episode it’s personified in two ways, Tom’s new position as Business Liaison, and the team’s fun project where they chose each other’s spirit animal.

Very quickly, Leslie tore down the spirit animals, and turned it into the “Parks and Rec ROO ation” board where they’re all compared to kangaroos. Personally, I thought petty jealousy looked horrible on her.

Where Tom is concerned, his project is to set up a lemonade stand in place of a stew installation where the owner is retiring. It was a done deal, but Leslie feels the need to implement a gazillion step plan and miles of red-tape before anything can be presented. So she decides to convince Stu (yeah, it’s Stu’s Stews) not to retire in order to subvert Tom’s Lemonade plan.

For the first time that I can remember, I didn’t like Leslie Knope. In order to redeem herself at the end, she went back on her word to Stu in front of the board and belittled him. Tom ends up turning in a professional and amazing presentation and wins the bid. The only good thing that came out of the entire storyline is that we found out where Ron keeps his bacon stash.

No wait, there’s also the tag at the end where he receives a plaque as ‘Government Employee of the Month’ and immediately chops it up, burns it, and buries it. Most likely in his continuing bid to stay off the grid.

While Leslie is back at her job, Ben is in his new job as City Manager. As he does sometimes, he tries too hard to be all things to all people. He wants to be the boss, but he also wants to be friends with his employees. Ben’s first attempt is to have a ‘get to know you’ gathering, where he has out plates of cheese he and Leslie brought back from France. He brags they’re unpasteurized, which makes them illegal. *audible gasp*

That gives perpetual troublemakers Donna, April, and Andy an idea to prank their new boss. They send in a couple of cops to apprehend him on ‘possession of illegal goods’ charges – which is probably one of the worst things they could do. As we all know, Ben is terrified of the police, and he *never* does anything illegal. He’s so far out of his comfort zone it’s not funny.

Once he’s at the station and chained to a desk, they find other things to charge him with, like telling him he’s wanted for tax fraud in Colorado when he’s never even been there. Just as it looks like Ben’s about to go ballistic (or pee himself, I can’t decide), the ‘customs guys’ bust in, and it’s Donna, April, and Andy – ready to let him in on the gag.

Ben decides to strike back with Andy’s help, but he can’t go through with his elaborate and what seems like an amazingly dangerous scheme – then Andy detonates squibs which spray the group with fake blood and it endears him to April and we get a lovely happy (??) ending.

In a fairly strange sub-plot, Chris and Ann have another surreal chat with Larry (Jerry/Gary) and he kind of talks them into getting engaged. They take a trip to Ted’s (see Article Two) jewelry store to get a ring, and that leads to several discussions including another young couple also browsing engagement rings.

I’d go into a long and involved recap, but it all boils down to them deciding that they have a very unconventional relationship, and they’re going to keep it that way. They make Ted’s life a living hell, pretty much convince the other couple not to get married (we never see that resolution), and they take a locket instead of a ring and decide to stay an unwed couple.

You may get the point already, but I was so disappointed in this episode it was difficult to write this review. I haven’t disliked a Parks & Rec episode this much… ever. I mean, Season One was pretty rough, but at least they had redeeming qualities. There were a few laughs in this one, usually centered around Ron, but I really kind of hated Leslie. She was petty, short-sighted, and jealous of her co-workers. I’ve never seen her like this before, and I don’t ever want to again. She’s the charm of the show, and it’s disheartening to lose that.