Parks and Recreation: Galentine's Day (6x17)

Ann! We saw Ann! But not Chris. Still, it was exciting! Besides that rather exciting little detail, this episode was somewhere in the middle for me. It had some pretty high moments and some pretty low ones, but mostly it sat comfortably in the so-so region, at least in my opinion. Let's get started.

Leslie is excited to talk with Ann on the phone, but something comes up and Ann can't make their phone date. Leslie realizes that she needs a new best friend who lives in Pawnee, although of course she'll keep Ann as her best friend as well. She throws a "Galentine's Day" brunch and asks survey questions, trying to rank her friends and figure out who's the best. Donna and April find out what she's doing and get upset with her. Leslie goes up to see Ann upon the birth of her baby boy, Oliver, and after talking with her best friend, Leslie realizes that it was wrong to try and replace her. She goes back to Pawnee and apologizes to Donna and April. She says that they're good friends just the way they are.

Ben, Tom, and Larry/Gary/Jerry are hunting for tents for the big Unity Concert, but they run into trouble when they find out that one man owns a monopoly on all the tents in the area. Because of this, he's being completely unreasonable and charging crazy fees. Larry finds some code violations and they are able to get their tents from this crazy man anyway. Ben makes an impassioned speech about how he likes Larry, since he's tired of seeing the rest of the office be so mean to him.

Ron agrees to a government task, to Leslie's shock, just so he can get outside and be away from his loud and demanding child. Unfortunately, Andy comes along, and is just as loud and demanding as any baby. He hurts himself and Ron takes him to the emergency room, realizing that he'll always be on duty as a father.

I gotta say, I could have done with a bit less of the Larry jokes. I was liking the hints at friendship between him and Ben, but I think I would have preferred if it had stayed as hints, and not gone beyond that. However, I loved the guy with the tent monopoly!

This was another very sweet week for Ron Swanson. He seems to be getting some lovely, more humanizing plot lines lately, and I appreciate that. Ron and Andy have had two episodes in a row now, where their relationship got attention. It's a lovely dynamic to explore. In particular, I liked it when Ron called Diane and said he was going to get ice cream for "the thirty year old who works for me." It was funny while still holding on to that sweetness that existed throughout this plot thread.

And then there's Leslie's thread. I'm glad that we got an episode that addressed Leslie's feelings about Ann leaving. We hadn't really seen her deal with it before, and here we get to see some of Leslie's patented crazy scheming. My favorite moment was when April and Donna found out that they were being ranked by Leslie, and they were hurt by it. Donna has wormed her way into the position of my favorite character on this show, sort of surprisingly. I'm glad that Leslie apologized for her behavior.

Then there's baby Oliver! Aww! I'm really glad we got to see Ann, even if it was just for a moment. Obviously, Ann can't be a big part of the show anymore, but it's nice to see that she'll still be a part of Leslie, in a way. Leslie's part of the episode was surprisingly... real, even mixed in with the overblown scenarios. I really felt for her as she struggled with her best friend moving away.

7.5/10