Parks & Rec 6×21 & 22 “Moving Up” Recap

This just might be one of the best season finales I’ve seen this year. It was touching, funny, bittersweet, and most of all, it left me feeling like I have absolutely no idea where the show will be when it starts again next fall.

I’m gonna start with some highlights.

Tom’s Bistro opened early to take advantage of the Unity Concert.
There were quite a few gasp-worthy guest stars.
Like everything Leslie plans, the Unity Concert was over-the-top successful.
Ben still doesn’t get the fascination with Li’l Sebastian.
Leslie takes the job in Chicago, then doesn’t, then does, then makes her own proposal.
Ben’s “Cones of Dunshire” goes mainstream.
Ron “comes out” as Duke Silver.
Gary, Jerry, Larry – gets a new name in the future – Terry.
Future Leslie has bangs.
AND…
The last thirty-seconds were AMAZEBALLS and packed with questions about next season.

Some of the guest stars weren’t surprises, but there was one that I had no idea about until he showed up. We had Ginuwine, Michelle Obama, Megan Mullally (reprising her role as Tammy 2), Lucy Lawless in her recurring role as Diane Swanson, Blake Anderson (Workaholics), Kay Hanley from Letters From Cleo, Henry Winkler (reprising his role as Dr. Sapperstein), and the shock of the night, JON FREAKING HAMM as an incompetent aide that Leslie summarily fires at the end of the episode.

So seriously, can you see how brilliant this episode is? It felt like a Series finale, and it really could’ve been. In fact, Mike Schur – in an interview with Alan Sepinwall – has hinted that the seventh season may be the last. I’d hate to see it go, but seven seasons is a good run, and I can see some paths that the show can take to finish it out satisfactorily over the next year.

Honestly, there’s no way I can get into the minutiae with my recap, but I can definitely skim the storylines.

The show starts in San Francisco, where Leslie is speaking at the National Parks Conference where Michelle Obama is the keynote speaker. Grant introduces her to the First Lady, and then lets her know that she needs to make her decision whether to take the job in Chicago or not.

Ben and Andy visit a company that’s donating free wireless to many cities to petition for Pawnee. They initially turn them down, but when Ben decides to go back and convince them to say yes, he finds them playing the game he invented, “Cones of Dunshire”. He challenges them to a game, with the free wifi as the prize. He wins of course, and they bow to him as the “Architect”.

Ben takes Leslie on a walk through Muir Woods to see all the parklands in the area, just like the ones she could be overseeing if she were responsible for them on a regional level. He geeks out over the fact that some of the Endor shots in the Star Wars films were shot there. I had to giggle a little at his fangirling.

Leslie gives her presentation about the Pawnee/Eagleton Merger, and learns from some of the more experienced participants that she may be underestimating how quickly things will be ironed out. She’d decided to take the Chicago gig, but after her interactions with the people at her panel, she questions that decision.

After a lot of gut-wrenching musing, she decides she has to take the new job, but after talking to Ron, she realizes she can have her cake and eat it too. She writes another award-winning proposal to sway Grant and his peers to allow her to stay in Pawnee and run the Regional Office from the newly refurbished third floor.

Meanwhile, Tom wants to open Tom’s Bistro a little bit early to take advantage of the publicity from the Unity Concert. He decides to have a “soft” opening just before that, which is a complete disaster. Everything that can go wrong – does, and he loses his investor. Tom almost throws in the towel, but is buoyed by his friends, and stays on course for his grand opening. After a hesitant start, it’s a success. Dr. Sapperstein is there – mainly to gloat at Tom’s failure. But when the night is hoppin’, he offers his support – to which Tom says he’ll think it over.

The Unity Concert goes off without a hitch, and they double their goal of two-thousand signatures. I loved seeing Ben in his Letters to Cleo t-shirt (see Season 4 Episode 11 – The Comeback Kid), jamming out to Kay Hanley, and the return of Johnny Karate at the kid’s pavillion. Andy muses that he misses being in a band, but lo and behold, his lovely wife has engineered a reunion of Mouse Rat, along with all the other Concert participants – in a rousing rendition of 5,000 Candles in the Wind. Complete with Li’l Sebastian hologram. Because Holograms.

That brings us to the most important scene in all of Parks & Recreation – in my opinion. Just after Leslie packs up her desk to move up to the third floor, we’re catapulted three years into the future. In her new hectic office, she calls for “Ed” – Jon Hamm – who hasn’t done what was asked of him. Leslie fires him on the spot.

Then Andy and April arrive with the toddler-ish triplets, and Ben shows up in a tux, and they part ways so the couple can watch the kids and Leslie and Ben can celebrate his big night. What’s Ben’s big night? Why is Andy’s arm in a sling? How bad can Ed BE that Terry even laughs at him? (and seriously, wouldn’t you keep him around just to look at him?!?).

Let’s hope we get a few answers in the fall. And I’m sure we’ll find out if we continue from the future, or if we get to see what happens in between now and then.