Before going their separate ways permanently, the gang teams up to help a citizen of Pawnee fix a broken swing in one of Leslie’s parks. As they say goodbyes to each other, we get a flashforward to 2019 and beyond, where the gang continues to be intertwined together though time in different but important ways.
In “The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show”, Andy faces the final episode of the Johnny Karate Super Awesome Musical Explosion Show with aplomb; and as we get a sample version of a full episode, we watch as many of Andy’s friends come to town to see it off.
Our little Pawneeans are growing up fast and furious, which naturally involves a thousand stops and starts on the way to maturity. In “Ms. Ludgate-Dwyer Goes to Washington,” April and Leslie head to Washington to stabilize federal funding for the National Parks Department and to ensure long-term funding for the new park they scored two weeks ago back in Pawnee.
As Donna and Joe’s wedding approaches, Maid of honor April is tasked with the duty of keeping the perpetually-feuding Meagle extended family from tearing into each other.
Nostalgia and personal space loom large in this week’s set of Parks episodes. In “Gryzzlbox”, Leslie and Ben’s case against Gryzzl finally gets the ammunition it needs when the company starts using drones to deliver Gryzzlboxes – aka unwanted packages loaded with personally-selected gifts to homes selected via information gleaned through datamining.
The past collides with the future in this week’s Parks installment. In “William Henry Harrison”, Leslie tries to strengthen her case for the Newport land parcel to be turned into a park via opening the floor to Pawnee’s Citizens – much to her everlasting eventual regret.
Welcome to the final season of Parks and Recreation! We rejoin Leslie and the gang on the other side of a three-year time jump, and the future’s got a lot of twists and turns in store for our Pawnee favorites.
In the first half of the episode, Tom pushes up the opening of his restaurant to coincide with the unity concert, creating a comedy of errors and forcing him to manipulate his suppliers into helping him; he teams Donna and Craig up as wine tasters, ends up with menus artistically detailed with photos with the end result of Larry’s dog’s colonoscopy, wrangles a surly April and clumsy Larry as a waitress and bartender, and is forced to deal with Ron’s artistic temperament as he meticulously constructs chair after chair. Meanwhile, Ben, Andy and Leslie (not Chris, thank you promotional material) meet up at the National Parks conference in San Francisco; Ben tries to pitch Pawnee as a likely candidate for wifi service to a couple of hipster providers who are more interested in serving larger cities and fascinated by a bootlegged copy of his Cones of Dunshire; and Leslie finds herself courted by Grant for the Chicago offer, competing against high-paced parks department heads from other regions and finds herself hobnobbing with her idols. In the second half of the episode, Tom’s Bistros’ initial failure forces Tom to call Mona Lisa and Jean Ralphio Saperstein into service. But the man they bring to save the day just might be Tom’s biggest foe. Elsewhere, The Unity Concert (Featuring Johnny Karate, Duke Silver, Mousetrap, The Decemberists (as Land Ho), Letters to Cleo, Night Ranger and Ginuine) finally takes place; Ben gains control of his stake in the Cones of Dunshire game; Leslie tells her co-workers her decision – and she tries to convince several of them to accompany her on a new venture; April and Andy come to a momentous decision; and recently-minted family man Ron is tempted by the appearance of Tammy Two.
Ben and Leslie head to Doctor Sapperstein’s office for Leslie’s first ultrasound, and the results send them both scrambling to obey his orders to keep calm – a nearly impossible task, as the same week they end up hosting a charity auction to fund the Unity concert that’s attended by every skinflint and eccentric in Pawnee. It all ends with a panicking Ben and an eerily calm Leslie, who must hash out a plan for their growing future. Meanwhile, Ron and Donna swap favors: she’ll help craft costumes for his stepdaughter’s class play if he’ll keep her ex-boyfriend Joe away from her while she’s on school property. But the man turns out to be so nice that Ron confronts Donna over her true motivation for avoiding the man. Elsewhere, Andy struggles under the burden of knowing Leslie and Ben’s pregnancy news, which frazzles him and short circuits his ability to schedule his life properly. In the process of helping him, April gets a tantalizing hint as to what he’s hiding (a note on his arm instructing him not to tell the secret in bold letters). April’s desperate to find out what the secret is, forcing Andy to lie about Larry’s health and a solicitous April to cater to Larry’s needs out of guilt.
The flu hits Pawnee again, just in time for a sick Andy and Leslie to nail down acts for the unity concert. They end up in panic mode when their big get cancels and head out on a road trip to convince popular but diva-like country singer Chip McCapp to change his mind and perform for the assemblage, but Leslie soon realizes her flu symptoms might signify a completely different – and more permanent – change of lifestyle. Meanwhile, Tom holds a competition at a vineyard to find a sommelier for his restaurant, taking Ben, Ron, Craig, Donna, and April to the wine tasting competition with him. He tries to score a contract with master sommelier Xander Truffaut, who might become Indiana’s master – and thus most highly sought—sommelier through pure finesse, but the solution to his problem lies right before his eyes. April poses as a professional wine taster and snarks on the competition with Donna, and the ever-imperious Craig Middlesbrook also enters into the competition, though with more intensity and seriousness than either of his friends. And, finally, Ben seeks Ron’s advice when his parents acrimoniously sell family property without telling him. Ron’s so uncomfortable with this request for emotional intimacy that he gets Ben drunk, which becomes a problem when they get lost in the woods and bump into a past nemesis of Ron’s, who ends up helping Ron provide Ben with spiritually healing advice.