Parks and Recreation: The Wall Recap

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azPONzx-zYw]

Parks and Recreation: The Wall (6×15)

Summary: Leslie’s latest attempt to unite Pawnee and Eagleton blows up in her face when several Eagletonians are stung by bees at the Unity Conference announcement. Ron bonds with his newborn son while renovating the third floor. Tom enlists Ben to help him come up with a new business venture to present to an investor.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Welp, I saw this episode coming from the moment Jen Barkley told Leslie she had a future bigger than Pawnee.

First off, the baby Swanson is here! His name is John [middle name redacted] Swanson and he’s actually been alive for a few weeks and no one knew because Ron doesn’t tell anyone shit. This, of course, puts Leslie into a conniption because she is supposed to know stuff like this. Don’t worry, Leslie. I’m sure you’re going to be the first person Ann calls when her baby is born.

For most of the episode though, Ron is on the third floor renovating it with John around. Y’know, I don’t think that’s safe for newborns, but this is Ron Swanson we’re talking about here.

Downstairs, Leslie is checking in on the Unity Concert, which is coming along nicely and is even ahead of schedule. She’s even going to be meeting with Grant Larson of the Midwest National Parks Service to have Eagleton Hills become a national park. When it comes time to announce it at the park bordering Pawnee and Eagleton, they realize the wall in the park is probably not the best place to do it because it’s covered in inflammatory graffiti from both sides of the town. Leslie decides that in ordinance with the unity concert to knock the wall down. Which leads to Andy running to the wall shoulder first to try and knock it over. FUTURE MARVEL SUPERHERO, EVERYONE.

The announcement for the Unity Concert seems to be going well, but when some of the Eagletonians begin to knock down the wall, a host of bees comes out and stings several Eagletonians and Councilman Jamm. Pawnee seems to see it as a prank on Eagleton, but Eagleton sees it as an attack. Leslie tries to make it better by visiting the Eagleton victims in the hospital and apologizing, but ends up getting ambushed by an Eagleton news crew while she’s being harassed by Jamm. Jamm ends up proposing secession right on camera and ends up getting in a fight with the camera crew. God, he’s just the worst. What makes matters worse is that Leslie ends up getting punched in the eye because of it.

The next day, April tells Leslie the bad news that everyone is pissed and that Jamm is going to be proposing a secession bill at the next city council meeting. Gee, I hope with a former Eagletonian on the council, it won’t go through. Still, things suck for Leslie and it isn’t made better by the fact she’s going to be meeting Grant Larson with a black eye and a not very distracting tie-dye t-shirt.

While meeting with Larson, he informs her that he can’t make Eagleton Hills into a national park. However, he’s mostly there to meet Leslie. It turns out that her river cleanup proposal from two years ago is notorious in the National Parks Service and was very impressive to Larson. Leslie informs him that the cleanup is well underway, but he has a different proposal for her: becoming the head of a National Parks Service office in Chicago.

Leslie goes up to the third floor to think on the offer since she’s conflicted and ends up running into Ron. When she asks for vague advice from him about why she has a hard time leaving Pawnee even when she’s presented with a better offer. Through a story about the radiator he fixed, Ron tells her it’s because she likes fixing Pawnee and that she’s already made it a better place to live for people like John.

Leslie ends up telling Larson that she’s interested, but she’s not going to leave Pawnee until she finishes what she starts. Larson tells her that she has some time to respond to the offer, but they can’t wait forever. Oi. That makes me nervous. I really want Leslie to take the better offer after seeing how Pawnee constantly beats her down, but it makes me nervous with a seventh season that she’s going to be stuck in a town that would punch her in the eye for at least another year. Or that she’ll say yes and that we’ll be Leslie-less for season 7.

While this is happening, Tom is working with Ben to get sponsors for the Unity Concert. One of the sponsors is the owner of a chemical company and is interested in any investment opportunities Tom might have. However, Tom doesn’t really have anything developed besides a restaurant idea and he asks Ben for help. Ben’s great idea? Dry cleaning chemicals. God, how is someone so nerdy so boring in his investment ideas? Well, someone has to be, I guess. Tom seems to go with the idea since it’s foolproof, but when he’s called passionate at the investor meeting, he decides to go with the restaurant idea anyway. It may be risky, but it convinces him enough to put money into it and Tom’s Bistro is underway! Yeah Tom! Get that money!

So we have our conflicts for the rest of the season introduced. Leslie will be working on the Unity Concert while considering Chicago and Tom will be working on his bistro. I’m curious to see how it will go for the both of them, but Michael Schur, please convince me that whatever path you choose for Leslie is the right one. Convince me.