Parks and Recreation Recap/Review: "Filibuster" and "Recall Vote"
Emma Doherty ‘16/ Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Parks and Recreation finally returned to TV last night, and with back to back episodes.
The show picks up where it left off and Leslie (Amy Poehler) is still dealing with the fact that she is being recalled from her city council seat. Councilman Jamm is continuously coming up with ways to try to kick her out of office and puts into action a bill that will prevent former Eagleton citizens from voting. Leslie filibusters this action to try to save their right to vote. Since Leslie saved Eagleton, she believes that they will vote for her and that she could win the recall.
The former Eagletonians come out to support Leslie’s filibuster which makes it seem like things could go Leslie’s way, but just like the continuing theme this season, things go horribly wrong for Leslie. She finds out that they are supporting her filibuster because they want to vote for a new city councilwoman; someone who was from Eagleton. Of course Leslie does what is best by helping preserve the rights of all citizens and wins the filibuster. Although she remains hopeful that the citizens will be grateful of her selfless act, this is not the case. The next episode, which continues this storyline, finally reveals where Leslie’s career is going.
In the next episode, Leslie finds out that she lost the recall vote by a landslide. Parks and Rec is known as an upbeat and positive show, but is a theme that has not been entirely true this season or even the end of the last. Leslie plummets into a massive depression and stops caring about anything she had been previously working so hard on. Even a papier mache Lil’ Sebastian doesn’t cheer Leslie up.
As Leslie continues to spiral, Ben (Adam Scott) and Ann (Rashida Jones) try to distract her and keep her spirits, up but to no avail. Ben ends up spiraling too when he talks to Leslie, and they both think they have hit their peak in life. This was the episode that was originally supposed to air on Halloween so Pawnee is throwing a haunted house for the children in the city. At their lowest point of the night, Leslie and Ben (dressed as Princess Buttercup and Westley from The Princess Bride) get drunk and decide that they should get tattoos of each other’s names, during which Ben calls this “the idea of the century.”
As usual, it’s Ann to the rescue, and she stops the couple from getting tattoos at a pawn shop. She helps Leslie realize that this is not the end for her and is certainly not the peak of her career. Leslie decides to make the most of her last 30 days in office by devoting her energy to the projects that are helping Pawnee.
Things can only get better for Leslie and the rest of the cast at this point in the season. Now that Leslie is out of a job where people continued to hate her, she can only get better and discover better jobs in the future. Meanwhile, this season has been written perfectly so far because there are so many new options and changes available for the show after Rashida and Rob depart later in the season. Andy (Chris Pratt) is growing and learning in the U.K. and the show is expecting his permanent return in a couple of episodes. Tom sold rent a swag and received a large profit for it. He is also still dating Nadia (Tatiana Maslany) and she is promised to return later in the season.
Overall, I’m happy with where the story left off, and look forward to seeing how Leslie’s career will grow and how the characters will adapt to the rapid changes in Pawnee. Make sure to watch another set of back to back episodes on NBC next Thursday at 8/7c!