Tom is looking for a sommelier for Tom’s Bistro, so in order to find the best one in the area, he goes to an event where a bunch of wine experts are going to be in a competition to get their certification. He asks April and Donna to come, but Craig wants to come because he loves wine, Ron decides to come because there’ll be alcohol, and Ben tags along because he’s done work for the day. April decides it’ll be fun to mess around with all the pretentious wine people, and it definitely is.
Ben is upset with his parents because they’ve sold the family’s vacation house without telling him, and in order to get him to stop talking about his feelings on the matter, Ron gets him drunk on blueberry wine.
I’m a fan of Craig and his completely insane freak outs, so I liked this story. He wants to be the sommelier at Tom’s restaurant, and once he proves that he can tone down the crazy a little bit Tom gives him the job. I might have more to say about this story in a different week, but super big things are about to happen for our girl Leslie, so let’s move things along…
Andy and Leslie have to go try and get Chipp McCapp to headline at the Unity Concert after he agrees to do it, but then backs out. (His latest song “Beautiful Like My Mom (Support the Troops)” has like 2 million hits on Youtube.) But Leslie is sick, believing that she caught the flu from Larry even though they quarantined him, so she goes to the drug store first to get some medicine (and something yummy for Andy).
The pharmacist tells Leslie that it doesn’t sound like her nausea is the flu. So what else could it be? What else?! Leslie catches sight of a display of pregnancy tests (Womb There It Is!). She takes the test and from the little smile on her face we can tell: LESLIE KNOPE IS PREGNANT! A LITTLE KNOPE-WYATT BABY IS ON THE WAY. OMG. She tries to call Ben to tell him the good news, but he’s super drunk at this point on the blueberry wine, and he drops his phone in a muddy puddle. Plus, Chip turns out to be a huge jerk, so Leslie and Andy forget about getting him for the concert and leave. While they’re at a diner talking about life and all its challenges Andy gets really prophetic and really touching. And then it swings back to such an Andy direction, and I love it so much.
I’ve loved Andy and Leslie’s friendship from the very beginning of the series, so I wasn’t too upset that Andy found out about the baby before Ben. Andy and Leslie decide to get a great old band called Land Ho to reunite for the concert. They go to the lead singer’s house to convince him and he ends up agreeing and everything is great but I have to say, I didn’t really care about any of that because Leslie is going to be a Mommy and Ben is going to be a Daddy.
Meanwhile, Ben is trying to make his way home from the wine tasting to try and get in touch with Leslie, and Ron is following him so Ben doesn’t die. And they run in to Eagleton Ron! I didn’t think we’d actually see him again, so this was a pleasant surprise. The “Drunk Ben by the Fire” scene was all amazing. The yelling into the sky, Eagleton’s Ron’s hippie ways, and finding out that Ben’s Spirit Animal is a baby snow owl. The blue stains all over his mouth from the wine. All gold. I can throw up as many gifs and screen caps as I can find, but it has to be watched in order to appreciate its full glory. It’s just……I can’t….
Drunk Ben is my new favorite Ben by far. When Ron shares with Ben that he loves going home to Diane and their kids at the end of the day, Ben realizes that the reason he was so upset about this vacation house thing is because he always imagined going there with his wife and kids one day. So he goes inside and tells Leslie that he wants them to start a family, and Leslie smiles at him and tells him she has big news.
And that’s it for that episode!! We didn’t even get to see her actually tell him or see his reaction!! As exciting as I find this Knope-Wyatt baby news, I have to admit that I’m a little nervous. I usually hate pregnancy story lines in sitcoms. They get so cliched and stereotypical, and things went that way a little bit with Ann’s pregnancy. Since’s Leslie’s the main character of the show, and since she’s so career driven, I’m hoping against all hope that they don’t turn her into some hormonal pregnant lady just for some laughs. I’m cautiously optimistic though, since I don’t see Amy Poehler letting them go too far with it. The pregnancy is obviously going to play a big role in Leslie’s decision on whether or not she wants to take that job in Chicago, and will be a big part of next season. Overall, I can’t wait. Personally I’m hoping for a girl. There are so many amazing women that Leslie will want to name her after!
Cut to the next episode, and it looks like we’re not going to get Ben’s reaction to finding out that Leslie is pregnant. Which is sad, because that would have been so fun to see. But instead we get Ben and Leslie about to leave work to go to the doctors. But first they want to make sure that Andy hasn’t said anything to anyone about the baby. He hasn’t so far, but he’s TERRIBLE at keeping secrets and he’s afraid he’s going to blow it. Which gets severely tested when Craig has the idea of auctioning off a personalized Johnny Karate song to raise money for the concert. When Andy goes to fit it into his schedule (write it on his arm) April sees that he’s written down “Don’t Tell Secret!” and demands to know what it is.
But at least for now, Andy holds strong. At one of Andy’s Johnny Karate gigs, April still tries to get the secret out of Andy. He panics and tells her that Larry is sick, which causes her to feel guilty enough to be super nice to him. She gets SO mad when she finds out that Andy is lying. Which he keeps doing. Poor Andy, he’s trying so hard.
Ron asks Donna to help him when he goes to volunteer at his daughters’ school, and Donna agrees as long as Ron agrees to keep her away from her ex-boyfriend Joe, who is a music teacher there. Apparently he makes Donna nuts. Ron agrees, because then it’s less like a favor and more like an exchange of services. Of course Ron would be more comfortable with that. At the school, Donna and Ron do indeed run into Joe, and he seems like the nicest, friendliest man in the world. But surely there has to be something about him that will make us hate him later, right?
In the lobby of Dr. Saperstien’s office, Leslie is freaking out because they still have so much more money to raise for the Unity Concert. Ben tells her she needs to relax, since she’s “stressing out for two” now. But Dr. Saperstien tells Leslie that even though her body is going through changes, there’s no reason not to be herself. Then it’s finally time for the sonogram:
OMG. OH MY GOD. Leslie and Ben are having triplets. So many babies. All at once. Holy crap, I flipped out. (Plus, it was an amazing callback to this moment from Season 2.)
Almost instantly the stress tables turn, and Leslie is super excited,
while Ben flips out. And I’m kind of with him. Seriously, what do they do?! Three babies at one time? When you’ve never had one before and have no idea what you’re doing? It seems like crazy odds, but apparently it’s actually 1 in 8,000. Dr. Saperstein tells Leslie that since she’s getting older, her body releases multiple eggs so her uterus having a “going out of business sale.” But it also makes him take back what he said earlier, and he tells Leslie that she really does need to take it easy and relax so she reduces her stress.
Bless them, they try their best.
Back at the school, Donna’s ex Joe kind of seems like he might be the most considerate guy in the world, and Ron starts to be won over by him a little bit. Especially when he’s able to quiet down the kids like it’s nothing and offers the use of a woodworking jig that he made himself. My favorite scene of the episode is between Donna and Ron, where Ron tells Donna that he actually really likes Joe. And then Donna lists all of the reasons why she didn’t like being with him.
Go Ron. Donna is awesome and she deserves happiness, and she could miss out on someone really great if she keeps going like this. She must take Ron’s words to heart, because she goes up to Joe and tells him that they need to make some compromises in their relationship, and he agrees. I hope we actually get to see how this plays out for her, I think this has a lot of potential as a story for her.
At the auction for the concert, Leslie tries to stay calm even though it goes terribly. And Ben is trying to keep Leslie calm, too. (“Honey, why don’t you take a whale sounds break, okay?”) But he loses his mind when a bid over a guitar signed by the Red Hot Chili Peppers goes wrong. For once Leslie is totally chill about the whole situation.
Aww.
When Ben and Leslie make their baby announcement, everyone immediately contributes all the things that they can pitch in to help them, like clothes and strollers, cribs, preschool recommendations, and babysitting services. So see Ben, you’re all going to be just fine, because all your friends will be there to help you!
There’s only one episode left in this season, and then we have all summer without “Parks and Rec” goodness. I’m expecting big, exciting things for the season finale!
