First let’s talk Leslie. We’re four seasons in and at this point most people should have a good handle on her and what makes her tick. We have also seen different sides to Leslie throughout the season, which I’ve distilled down into three categories; Overachiever, Goofy but Sane, and Batshit Insane. The Overachiever Leslie is the default; she works hard, singlehandedly does the job of like four people, only gets three hours of sleep a night, etc. Goofy but Sane is for when Leslie starts to act a little silly but she’s still fairly grounded; like putting together PCP, stealing a painting of herself as a centaur, and putting together a committee to hunt down and kill a possum. Batshit Insane Leslie appears from time to time, most often when she’s drunk off her ass on Snake Juice, and is the most dangerous of the bunch. She made an appearance tonight after a man in a focus group said that he didn’t like Leslie, no real reason. This sent out the Batshit Insane Leslie Bat Signal, and off she went stalking the guy and putting together a dossier binder on him, setting up a bowling meet and greet event, and then specially sending him an invitation so that she could spend some time with him. Because who can resist Leslie’s charm and free beer? Well Derek can apparently. We’ll discuss the bowling alley events a little more later, but Leslie cools down in Goofy but Sane mode, refusing to apologize in a press conference and tells Derek in front of the press that he’s a jerk. Which brings us back to the focus group that began the episode. Originally they were shown a video of Leslie in Overachiever Mode; confident on the issues, intelligent, but maybe a little bit boring. Oh and short. At the end of the episode they see a video of Leslie at the press conference in Goofy but Sane mode and they love her. She went rogue, and as we’ve seen in real life elections that can be very appealing. Goofy but Sane mode is a happy balance between the Overachiever and Batshit Insane Leslie, and if she’s going to win this race she needs to stick to her perfect bowl of porridge.
The other issue that I wanted to talk about is Leslie and Ben’s relationship and how the campaign has changed it for better or worse. In one aspect Ben has turned into a sort of Leslie wrangler, making sure that the Batshit Insane Leslie is kept at bay. His attempts in this episode were pretty unsuccessful, but it was definitely a defining moment in their relationship. Initially when Ben became her campaign manager I thought that working together in a high stress campaign might adversely affect their relationship, but instead Ben seems to be adapting to their expanding relationship quite nicely. They make quite a team that are fun to watch, he keeps her in check, and as we saw in the campaign ad episode she needs him to be mean when she can’t. Or to throw a punch.
We had two smaller sub-plots this episode, although one was really meant to facilitate the other. It’s fundraising time, and the remainder of the gang are spending the night making phone calls and collecting money. Unbeknownst to the fundraising Maniac that is Chris, Millicent is on her way to break up with him. Why? Who knows. Not important. Nothing to see here, now move along. What is important though is that April, GASP, felt real emotion towards Chris and took pity on him. April and Andy’s characters have remained fairly static since they were married, so this was a step in the right direction for April. Also her impersonations were fantastic, it’s so refreshing to see her step out of the April character. The actress, Aubrey Plaza, has stand up impersonations posted online from before she was on Parks. Check out the Sarah Silverman one, it’s dead on.
Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed my rantings and ravings for this episode, not to mention crackpot theories. Feel free to add any thoughts or ideas in the comments, or if you think I’m totally wrong just let me know! I’ll try to not go Leslie Batshit Insane on you. I will see you all next week when, according to Wikipedia, Leslie tries to find Ann a Valentines date while Ron helps Ben with a scavenger hunt.
Random Thoughts:
- I’m fairly sure that the people they get to do focus groups are just about the worst sampling of the population that they could find.
- I lost count of the number of times in this episode Leslie tells someone to ask Ron about how good she is at bowling.
- The Pawnee Monoplex? So one theatre? Oh boy. That’s making Muncie look like a real bustling city.
- Oh god, I nearly died of laughter as Leslie tried to look ‘laid back’. Amy Poehler is amazing with physical comedy, and definitely nails it throughout the episode.
- Those are some cheap hamburgers and hot dogs, but if Ron Swanson endorses them the food poisoning can’t be that bad, right?
- I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Louis Vuitton bowler purse actually used to store a bowling bag, but of course Tom needs something ritzy to house his E720 ball.
- Tom is a professional Granny Style Bowler! And kicking ass too.
- I didn’t think Tom could get more annoying, in a good way, and then I heard him cry over a hurt finger. The high pitched voice and crumpled face was perfect!
- Did anyone else think that Ben’s punch looked a little weird? My guess is he hasn’t beaten up too many people in his life, Batman needs to get some more practice.
- Oh Leslie, you and your ridiculous newspaper headlines have been cracking me up since season one.
- I genuinely felt sooo bad for Chris when he tried to tell April why it was good that Millicent broke up with him, and then couldn’t come up with a reason. It’s hard to believe sometimes that these aren’t real characters.
- On the other hand, does this leave room for Chris and Ann to get back together? Hmmmm.
- Why isn’t Shauna Malway-Tweep in with the other reporters? Missed opportunity.
- Lately Parks has been pulling their political satire from the real world, but I think this episode might be completely original. Or is there a campaign manager punching story that I missed on CNN?
Favorite Quotes:
- “Some things are very helpful, other things are not helpful. All of the things make me feel a lot of feelings about myself.”
- “I once knew a Leslie and she was awful. And now I hate all Leslie’s. Would she consider changing her name?”
- “Would they deign to say such things to Woodrow Wilson or Benjamin Disraeli? Ok I see what you’re talking about.”
- “When I eat it is the food that is scared.”
- “No I don’t think we can accept donations over fifty dollars.”
- “I don’t know why you would need my social security number, but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to give it to you.”
- “I want his happiness to go away.”
- “Son, PEOPLE CAN SEE YOU!” “I’m asking you as a man to stop this immediately!”
- “I don’t work here!”
- “This is on purpose! You’re jealous of my gift!”
- “Leslie, I’d like to introduce you to my good friend, anyone else.”
- “Not now Ben, I’d like to introduce Derek’s ass to my foot.”
- “What’s that Champion? You need to go outside now? Sorry, he hates awkward situations.”
- “Chris, you might want to take a jacket. It’s about to get COLD out there.”
- “I wished for his happiness to go away. I might be a wizard.”
- “King Kong’s got nothing on me! Ahhh, my fingie still hurts!”
- “I don’t often condone violence, but I have to admit it was awesome. And my campaign manager and I made out a lot afterward. I probably shouldn’t have said that.”
- “I liked that that one guy punched that other guy, and that she stood by him.”
