Hello Pawnee People!

First things first, where are Leslie’s bangs? Us occupants of the real world wish bangs grew out that fast!

We kick off the second part of the episode titled “Leslie and Ron”, which as the name suggests is basically all about Ron and Leslie finally talking and its awesome. We got to know what Morningstar was and why Ron left the parks department, and essentially what happened between the two of them, all followed by a sweet sweet reconciliation!

So, Ron and Leslie are locked in the old parks department with no way out until the morning. Ron wants nothing to do with Leslie or trying to make up with her. Ron likes to build things and eat meat; he does not like to talk about his feelings.

Leslie, however, does want to talk to Ron and is trying everything in the book to get him to speak to her. A hilarious montage ensues of her pouring water on him, fanning him, insulting everything about wood, slapping him, and covering him completely in post its. The final straw is when she puts on an old mix CD filled with the departments favorite songs. She creates her own version to Terry’s choice of  “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” I’m not sure if any of it was improvised by Amy Phoelher but if t was it was fantastic none the less. Ron, unable to stand listening to that song or Leslie’s version, agrees to a three minute conversation.

Through this discussion we learn a couple of things, mainly what Morningstar was. Morningstar was the name of the apartment complex that Ron built right next to the famous pit of season 1. It makes sense. That pit was sentimental to the show itself, but also to Leslie. But there’s more…in order to build these apartments, Ron had to tear down Ann’s house. Being the beautiful friendship butterfly that she is, Leslie was devastated to find out about the apartments and that Ann’s house demolition was at the hands on Ron.  We also learned that Leslie hired April to come and work for her, which many know was a relationship very close to Ron. So it seems they both were a little to blame for some parts of this falling out. It was not one person’s fault.

When Ron had enough talking he decided to try another way out of the building…his land mine. This however, backfires when it only explodes with music, confetti, and balloons that say “Congrats Ron” on them. Leslie had given it to him for a 5 year anniversary gift and was cutely surprised when she realized that Ron actually thought he had an active land mine on his desk for all of these years.

This was bound to happen, right? Ron and Leslie. While they were able to maintain a close friendship a lot of their ideals and personalities were completely opposite. With enough push, a divide like this was always forthcoming it seems. So why did Ron even hire someone like Leslie in the first place?

Leslie finds her original application and they discuss how she yelled at him in her initial interview, but then baked him brownies and sent him a thank you note. Ron confesses that while even though they wouldn’t see eye to eye, she had passion. drive, and would always stick up for herself and her beliefs. That’s the type of person he wanted working for him, not some “yes man.” Her brownies were also a factor.

After Ron sets off the fire sprinklers in another final failed attempt to escape, they are now  both in sweats (Ron in Craig’s yoga outfit) and ready to finally get to the whole truth, which is actually quite heartbreaking and goes more in Ron’s favor then I ever would have thought.

When Leslie moved upstairs, one by one the original parks crew moved on to do their own things. Then one day Ron looked up and did not recognize a single soul in the office. He missed everyone. He sucked up his pride and went upstairs to see if Leslie wanted to get lunch so that he could ask for a job with the federal government (this is Ron Swanson, people), but Leslie stood him up. This angered Ron and made him feel like an outcast and left behind in a way. He only saw that everyone was moving on without him. He quit his job, started his company, and built Morningstar apartments on Ann’s house.

It was a very sweet and touching moment to watch these two finally understand what happened and why they were in such a bad place for three years. A lot has changed in Pawnee and also the way the show has been so far in its final season, but these are the moments that I love about Parks and Recreation. The tender and heartfelt scenes that make you smile just as much as the comedy.

Ron and Leslie are friends again and all is right in Pawnee!

They crack open a bottle of whiskey and enjoy the rest of their night catching up as reunited friends. They also decided to put the parks department back how it used to be. It was music to my ears (eyes?)! They moved furniture and hung up old posters, it was a refreshing montage.

The gang comes back to find them the next morning drunk and dancing around to “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” They’re obviously confused and shocked but pleased none the less to see their two head honchos back together!

We conclude the episode with Ron and Leslie finally going to get breakfast at JJs- the perfect cap to a perfect episode.

I am very excited to see what the season brings now that it seems to be back on its feet. I was also stoked to see Craig! He had a brief appearance at the end and still made me laugh. More Craig!