Parks and Recreation: Doppelgangers (6x04)

Cute episode! The basic premise was simple. As Pawnee and Eagleton merge, Leslie pairs up the Eagletonians with their counterparts from Pawnee in the government so that they can figure out each other's jobs and try to make things more efficient. Ultimately, this means half of the employees are superfluous.

Tom isn't paired with a person, but rather with a computer program that basically makes his job obsolete. He decides to pretend that it is a person - a racist, messy, incompetent person, at that. This basically ensures that he will keep his job, even though the program is much better at it than he is.

Donna's counterpart Craig is this crazy manic guy who loves his job and frightens Donna with his intensity. This character was a lot of fun. In the end, Leslie talks to Donna, who says Craig might actually be better for the job than she is. Donna says she actually wouldn't mind moving on to the next stage in her life. As the episode ends, Leslie hasn't decided which one to keep.

Ron's counterpart is also named Ron. At first, they seem to get along great. Pawnee-Ron likes his taciturn attitude. Then, however, it is revealed that Eagleton Ron is a vegan and does yoga and is basically the antithesis of Ron Swanson. Ron gets increasingly annoyed, and finally Leslie has to ask the Eagleton Ron to leave.

April's counterpart was a hilariously shallow girl who Amber decided to pretend to be friends with. She quickly gains the girl's trust and then tricks her into leaving the job.

There were a few other things going on in the episode as well. Ben and Chris continue working together as they work through Eagleton's ridiculous budget and help to make cuts. They then go out to dinner and talk about the old days when they were a team. However, they both agree that life is better now that they have Leslie and Ann in their lives. Chris tells Ben that he and Ann are thinking about leaving Pawnee.

Ann breaks the same news to Leslie, who does not take it well. Hearing on top of that the news that Donna might be leaving, and that even Jerry, who has been pulled out of retirement to help with the merger, is willing to leave, Leslie goes a little crazy. She decides that the Eagletonians will be her new friends, and that she can reject all of the old ones. However, she eventually calms down and decides to have a real conversation with Ann about what this means.

I enjoyed nearly every bit of this episode. The counterparts were really funny, especially April's. I loved seeing Chris and Ben work together, since their friendship is often overlooked on this show. There were also the more serious moments, such as Leslie trying to come to grips with potentially losing Ann. I'm excited to see how this will continue to develop.

8.5/10