By David Yang
Via Hollywood.com
It has almost been three seasons since Ben Wyatt arrived in Pawnee to help rectify the finances of the town. The first bonding moment he ever had with Leslie was describing his failure as a kid mayor back in his hometown of Partridge, Minnesota. The two of them head back there in “Partridge” to accept a key to the city from the current mayor. After all, we know the least about Chris and Ben’s backstories, as they entered the fray two seasons behind the rest of the main cast. We were only introduced to Ben’s parents this season, when they came in town for the engagement party. That turned out to be a disaster and you could see why Ben approaches his past with such trepidation. Besides finally getting further into Ben’s psyche, we also see Ben out of his comfort zone. Besides maybe Andy, Ben always produces great physical comedy whenever he gets flustered.
Luckily for us, not only is Ben flustered in this episode, he is also on morphine. While back in his old house preparing his speech, he is overcome by kidney stones and while writing on the floor in pain proclaims that he is giving birth to twins. From there however, the story shifts to Leslie. Ben provides some great one-liners while under the influence in the hospital (“The universe is love”) but it seemed like the wrong decision to let Leslie confront Ben’s past for him. He does not even get to speak in front of the vitriolic townspeople and deal with his past head on. The resolution comes when Ben tells Leslie that Pawnee is his hometown now. This feels a bit hollow though because the focus was on Leslie almost the entire time. “Parks and Recreation” has done such a good job in the past of using Leslie in supporting roles when the other characters needed to grow, so I don’t know why they did not allow that to happen here, especially in an episode seemingly structured around Ben exorcising his own demons. This was an episode where the towering figure of Leslie Knope would have done better in the background.
Back in Pawnee, April and Chris continue to progress on the road to parenthood by taking compatibility tests. They score a 58% while Jerry and Ann gets an 84%, a result with which Anne is displeased. They spend the rest of the episode struggling over whether the whole baby situation is meant to be. Truth be told, this plotline has been hanging in the back all season and I feel that is for the best until it gets further along. Meanwhile, Andy, April, and Tom help Ron get out of a $46 million lawsuit that Councilman Jamm has leveled against him. Remember that Ron punched Jamm at Leslie and Ben’s wedding. This is another case where having a true opposition for the department allows for a fun diversion in what otherwise would have been just a boring filler plotline. Besides, I never get tired of hearing “You just got Jammed.”
While the stories of this episode may have been a little off, there were still plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. From Tom and April’s hilarious perjury-laced depositions (“Ron is a vegetarian”) to Ben’s morphine induced hysteria, “Parks” manages to correct against its own unevenness.
David Yang is a contributing writer. Email him at entertainment@nyunews.com.
