Disclaimer: I watched the Producer's Cut for this episode, which is available at the NBC website. So, I might comment on things that you didn't see. I honestly don't know which parts were not in the TV-release version... sorry. Let's get started!
It looks like Councilman Jamm is the deciding vote about whether the land owned by Newport can be a commercial area or not. Ron obviously wants this, because of his contract with Gryzzl, while Leslie wants to stop it. It turns out, Jamm is going to vote the way his new girlfriend tells him to. Who is this woman? It's Tammy II! Oh no! Leslie and Ron band together to save Jamm from her evil clutches. Jamm eventually manages to break up with her, and he then decides to abstain from voting altogether so as not to choose between Leslie and Ron. The vote remains at a tie, so nothing can move forward.
While this is happening, April is delighted to see her favorite crazy person: Joan Callamezzo. She went completely off the rails, and April finds it hilarious. However, when Joan says that the only way to live is to be extra passionate about your work, April starts to question her own life. Does she even like her job? Ben helps her to follow her passions, but after discovering that working as a mortician isn't as cool as it sounds, she is left without any real answers. However, she does hug Ben and thank him for his help, and she knows she'll have to keep looking to find her next dream.
Tom is bored with the single life, and after Lucy, Tom's old almost-girlfriend sends him a message on Gryzzl (the Facebook of 2017 apparently), Tom and Andy decide to make the trip down to Chicago to see her. When they get there, Tom chickens out on asking Lucy out, but he does ask her if she wants to work for him as a manager. She says maybe - but she'll have to talk to her boyfriend! Tom therefore strikes out, but he does get a new business partner!
Okay. There's only one thing about this episode that I didn't love. Andy. I'm sorry, but everything about Andy in this episode was just stupid. I don't know why, but I didn't laugh at a single thing he said or did. He was overly enthusiastic about ice cream, which isn't really creative or funny, and also doesn't work as well now that Chris Pratt is in shape (they're putting him in baggy clothes to try and disguise it, but it doesn't work so well). His whole bit in Chicago was that to cover up for the craziness of Tom taking a taxi all the way to Chicago to see Lucy, Andy lied and said he got a job in the area. Andy spends the rest of the episode talking about how much he's gonna miss Pawnee. Not funny! I don't get it! Andy was always so hilarious. What's even going on right now?
The only other flaw? Where are Leslie and Ben's kids? I want to see them, post haste! You can't drop triplets into the mix and then do nothing with them!
While this episode did have its flaws, the good parts of it had me laughing out loud. Leslie and Ron! Tammy! Jamm! All of this plot thread was flawlessly hilarious. My favorite bits were Ron and Leslie's boot camp, in particular Leslie's Tammy II impression, and her repeated slapping of Jamm. I also loved the fact that Jamm was being forced to act and eat like Ron, because Tammy wants Ron back. Ron's immunity to Tammy is really refreshing and amusing as well. It was the perfect note for Tammy II to go out on - naked and screaming in a library.
Also, seeing Ron and Leslie work together on something made me miss their friendship. I can't wait to find out what the hell "Morning Star" is. Part of me hopes the punchline is that it's nothing important. That would be hilarious. Whatever they've got planned, though, I'm sure it's lovely.
Despite not liking Andy in this episode, I did like Tom. I'm happy to see a slightly more serious side of him, and I hope he does settle down and find some measure of happiness.
Joan Callamezzo was hilarious! I always love April's boundless joy for the weird and insane. Joan calls her ex-boyfriends while sitting on a dryer, she interviews people in rehab, makes her guests fight over a single car, etc. Also, April had a really funny line in this episode when she realized she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life: "I have to quit and go to Nepal, and lick a toad, and go on a vision quest." The delivery of this line is what made it so perfect and funny.
On the sweeter side of things, April and Ben got some bonding moments, which was nice. There was even a hug! That's pretty rare, coming from April!
One last note - in the first episode I didn't see it as much, but in this second episode I really started to notice the slightly-in-the-future motif they have going. Gryzzl is the made up social networking site that apparently replaces Facebook in the future. The tablet that Andy was holding has a fancy high-tech hologram screen. There's nothing over the top about it, but they're really playing this whole season as if its the year 2017, up to and including speculation about how things might change between now and then. I think it's fantastic, and a really creative way to go out for a really creative show.
I'm excited to see where we go from here!
8/10
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