Parks and Recreation Recap: The Treaty
Parks and Rec, I can't take this. I have been through many a so-damn-cute-but-can't-be-together-for-some-contrived-reason TV couples in my day. Jim and Pam made me both squeal and sob during the Office glory days. Of all the bright and twee aspects to Pushing Daisies, I loved Ned and Chuck the most. Hell, I endured three whole seasons of Gossip Girl just for Chuck and Blair. And now you come along with this Leslie and Ben fiasco. Well I won't have it. Not the heartbreaking glances, not the adorable high fives over Model UN, not the jokes about Kathy Ireland...oh, who am I kidding? You've got me, you sadists.
After last week's blowout, Ben and Leslie decide to hang out at the local high school's Model UN meet. Both were, unsurprisingly, huge Model UN nerds back in the day. They take on the countries of Peru and Denmark, and are having a great time paling around. That is, until Leslie gets dragged away for a photo op in the middle of a crucial team moment. Ben finishes the plan without her, prompting Leslie to declare war on Peru. (Luckily, she has Andy's fleet of lions on reserve.) The pair's squabbles completely derail the meet and result in them getting kicked out. When they have a much-needed talk, it plays out like this: they want to be together but they can't, being friends is hard but they need to be in each others lives. Sigh. My poor fan girl heart aches for these two.
To make things up to the kids, Ben and Leslie let them sit in some fancy chairs in city hall, buy them pizza, and promise them a bigger, fancier Model UN meet.
Back at the office, Ron, after interviewing a series of terrible candidates to flatter Tom's ego, convinces the former mogul to take his old job back. Chris calls Ann, Donna, and, of course, Jerry together for a conference on why Millicent hasn't returned his calls. It leads to a discussion of his and Ann's former romance.
The Ron and Tom and especially the Model UN parts of the episode worked really well, but it's becoming increasingly apparent that the writers of the show have no idea what to do with Ann or Chris. That's not to say that either of them ever had great plot lines -- they didn't -- but this season, the most exciting things they've done are help Ron with household repairs and grind up on Jerry's daughter in a Sherlock Holmes costume, respectively. Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe have worth, so it'd be nice if the show started acknowledging that.