At the national conference Leslie runs into Grant (the guy who offered Leslie the National Parks job all those weeks ago), who tells Leslie that he needs to know by the next day if she wants the job in Chicago or not. To try and persuade her, he introduces her to someone very special…
It must work (and how could it not?!), because Leslie soon decides that she wants the job. Yay! Way to make a positive career move Leslie! Back at “Tom’s Bistro” everything is a disaster. Nothing is ready: Ron hasn’t finished building the chairs, Craig’s nose is all stuffy from the sawdust, so his ability to recommend wines is lessened due to his palate being compromised, and Larry has messed up the menus royally. Instead of whatever pictures of tasty food were supposed to adorn the menu pages, Larry accidentally sent the printer pictures of his dog’s rectum. Poor Larry, he tries so hard. Even though they got turned down for free Wi-Fi the first time, Andy and Ben go back to Gryzzl to try again, only to find that the entire staff is playing “Cones of Dunshire.” I was so excited to see this, because I never thought that we’d see Ben’s game again, and that it was just a one episode joke. Nobody believes that Ben actually invented the game, but he challenges them to play him. If he wins, they have to reconsider their stance on giving Pawnee free Wi-Fi. Not surprising to anyone who knows Ben Wyatt, he emerges victorious.
At the national Parks conference, Leslie gives her speech (titled “Merger, She Wrote”) about how the Pawnee/Eagleton merger should be completed within the year. All the other Parks employees from other cities who have overseen mergers essentially laugh in her face and tell her that there’s no way that’s going to happen. Apparently it will take about eight to ten years of intense work, and so Leslie is on the fence again about whether or not to take the job in Chicago. Leslie…I know you love your home town, and they’re lucky to have you, but if you ever want to have a political career on any kind of national level, you need to take this job.
The soft opening of “Tom’s Bistro” is a disaster, and his main investor pulls out. Which seems really crappy. He’s admired his entrepreneurial spirit this whole time, but at the very first sign of trouble he washes his hands of the whole situation? Not cool, man. Tom is really discouraged that yet another one of his business ventures isn’t going to work out.
But April calls a bunch of restaurant reviewers and tells them that it went great, and tells Tom that he’s going to try again the night of the Unity Concert. When Leslie tells Ben that she can’t take the Chicago job anymore because she has to stay in Pawnee to oversee the merger, Ben takes her to see the Golden Gate Bridge and the Redwoods to impress upon her how important this new job is. I actually really loved this. It’s great to love your hometown, but Leslie can have an impact on the entire country, making sure that our national treasures are there for millions of Americans. And thank goodness, she finally calls Grant and tells him that she wants the job. Then we move into the second part of the episode and it’s finally time for the Unity Concert. They’ve been leading up to this thing for like half the season, so it better be good! Tom begrudgingly asks for help form Jean-Ralphio and Mona-Lisa in getting as many VIPs at the Unity Concert to go to “Tom’s Bistro” after. Andy tries to convince Ron one last time that it would be super fun for him to play in the concert as Duke Silver.
When Leslie tells the Parks crew that she took the job in Chicago, they’re all incredibly happy for her. But it’s a little awkward when they show her the new founder statue that they had made in her honor with a direct quote from Leslie that only an idiot would ever live anywhere that wasn’t Pawnee. At the Unity Concert, all kinds of real life famous music people (that I’ve heard of, but had to Google because I’m not really into music all that much) perform, like the Decemberists, Jeff Tweedy, and Yo La Tengo. And Ben got his fanboy moment with Letters to Cleo. But my favorite cameo was Ginuwine, who we know from a few seasons ago is Donna’s cousin. He even dedicated his song “Pony” to Pawnee’s favorite mini horse Lil’ Sebastian. Leslie finds out from Grant that there are two open slots in her new department, and she can hire whoever she wants. She first asks Ron, who responds exactly as we would expect at being offered a federal government job. Andy and April also turn Leslie down.
For the big finale of the Unity Concert, Mouse Rat reunites to lead all of the days performers in a rousing rendition of “5000 Candles in the Wind.” Complete with Lil’ Sebastian hologram! (I died.) And who should appear but Duke Silver! Out there for all to see wailing away on his saxophone. I was not disappointed by the concert at all, it was indeed the big exciting event that we were all promised. If that doesn’t get people on board for this merger, I don’t even know what to say to this town. Afterward at “Tom’s Bistro,” everyone shows up and it’s an enormous success. Barney from the accounting firm, one of my favorite recurring characters, shows up
and gives Ben the copyright for “Cones of Dunshire” that he had registered in Ben’s name. Is Ben going to become a gaming millionaire?! That would be so exciting! We find out that they got all the signatures that they needed in support of the merger, and I honestly forget what this means. Is the threat of succession officially over now, or was this just a “show your support” kind of thing? Anyway, Ron and Leslie have one more “Ron’s Advice and Wisdom” talk for the season, wherein Leslie has an epiphany that she can really have everything she wants. Leslie and company convince Grant that it would be best for the Midwest Branch of the National Park Service to operate out of Pawnee. It’s cheaper, because they can rent out the entire newly renovated third floor of City Hall (the one that Ron renovated himself in order to have some quiet time with his new baby). Pawnee is a town on the rise, and is actually closer to most of the Park sites. Cut to one month later, and Leslie is cleaning out her old office in order to move into the third floor to begin her new adventure. Awww, what a sweet ending, right? Wrong, apparently! Because then we cut to three years later, and Leslie is immersed into this job. We see her handling some kind of crisis and firing Jon Hamm (amazing cameo). Apparently Jerry/Gary/Larry is now Terry, and Ben arrives in a tux for what is apparently his “big night” but he and Leslie have to go find out what a group of people have to say about something very important. And we see the triplets! They have a girl and two boys, and they’re all adorable.
All that worrying I did about a pregnancy story for Leslie was for naught, because they completely bypassed it. Solid move. I should have known that they wouldn’t reduce Leslie to a caricature. But now with the time jump we have no idea what next season has in store! Pretty much anything could be in play for all of the characters. Which I think is exciting, because it’s always a bit of a let down when things happen in a story exactly the way you predicted they would. It’s just not as fun. The higher ups at the show have said that next season of “Parks and Rec” has a pretty good chance of being its last, so I hope the writers are coming up with some prime stuff to make this show end as solidly as it’s been all along. A whole summer with no “Parks” is a sad thought, but that’s what binge re-watching is for.
