You Can't Make Everyone Happy...Unless You're Leslie

Parks and Recreation, S04E19

Leslie got a councilman to preserve the parks and recreation budget, but in doing so made an animal shelter close down.  April tried to have the remaining animals adopted, but had little success with that.  Leslie found some money to keep the shelter by removing some people who did no work from the payroll, but that prompted the budget council to eliminate all similar jobs, which included Ann's.   When it looked like Leslie would have to stop trying to make everyone happy, she found a way to fund the shelter, but also damage her campaign. However, Leslie welcomed the blow because she was confident that she would kill Newport in the debate soon enough.  Ron also went meditating with Chris.  Chris then decided to hire Ron as his assistant city manager, but Chris may be out of a job if Newport wins the election for city council.

I liked the beginning where Ann and Leslie were raving about Tom's apartment.  He keeps it like a fancy hotel that caters to a woman's every need.  He had fancy cheeses, soft blankets everywhere, and coconut water stocked in his fridge.  Tom is presumably in debt with all of the high-end things that he keeps at home.  That isn't so shocking for a man that had a conversation with Ann about what was the lowest thread-count sheets she could deal with.  I like that Tom isn't just hype but lives the same way that he presents himself outside.

I thought that for once Leslie was going to have to accept the fact that she can't work miracles all the time.  However, Leslie's solution was to have everyone else happy and take a hit for herself.  It's just amazing how she can manage to do things her way no matter what.  I'm just worried that the day she has to start crushing people's dreams or let her old department take a bit of a fall that Leslie will have a breakdown.  Not looking forward to that.  She has the best intentions, but I don't know if she can realistically do all the things that she wants to do now that she's into politics.

It was funny to see April doing Leslie's job and finding herself drowning pretty quickly with no lifesaver (Tom was more interested in tweeting to Russell Simmons--good lord).  She must really love Leslie that she didn't abandon it right away when it started to get tough.  Even though she couldn't answer people's questions well when she was in that meeting, I liked that she at least didn't sound too intimidated by them and threw out insults.  Tom wasn't that helpful for the most part, but he did give her the idea to start a project that she cared about to survive.  The adoption plan didn't go all that well, but at least she did help out a little girl.  And she also got to chase after some lady who thought it was all right to drop off unwanted cats at her event.  I wish I could have seen what had happened to that lady when April caught up to her.

Of course, I loved the Ron story, but it was an extra treat to have him paired up with Chris, his near polar opposite.  They went meditating together, which was a wonderful setting to have Ron be miserable somewhere outside of work.  I loved when he asked Ann about how meditating with Chris would be:

It's crazy boring, it lasts forever, and you're going to wish you were dead.

Ron spent 6 hours with Chris and he was just standing on a cushion behind him!  Hilarious!  His mind was blank the entire time.  Ron has amazing endurance.  He didn't even really complain to Chris about how it was so dull, but was just upfront with him that he didn't achieve any inner peace or whatever Chris' goal was.  Thankfully, Chris was just testing Ron for his flexibility.  I really hope that Leslie wins the city council position because I don't want Chris to be fired and with Ron as his assistant, they would be a power comedy team.  It's now looking like Leslie's victory is just more than something for herself, but also something that can make or break her friends.

Oh, and you gotta love Ron pretending to meditate when Chris came to visit him later about playing Cranium.  Ron is the best role model for me that I could possibly find in TV Land.

Really have missed this show!  As one of my top shows, I always eagerly wait to see for its return each week.  I'm sad that there aren't many episodes left in the season!  It feels like so much has happened, though, and yet the season has flown by!  I wonder if we will see Leslie's victory soon or if that will be something that will be left hanging for the next season (there better be one).