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Previously on Parks and Recreation: Lucky

What could be better than an all new Parks? Community and Parks FINALLY back together on the same night.

Leslie learns that the budget for the Parks Department is in danger of being cut. In typical Knope fashion, she leaps to find a solution that makes everyone happy. She successfully convinces Councilman Pillner (played by Bradley Whitford, who is no stranger to navigating the fictional political waters on NBC) to make the cuts elsewhere, which causes a ripple-effect  and results in the threat of puppies dying and people losing their jobs. April takes on more responsibility as the stand-in Leslie, including running a pet adoption fair. Elsewhere in Pawnee, Chris and Ron meditate and “bond”.

The best part of this episode was that it raised the stakes going into the election. Sure, there have been a few laughs throughout the campaign (Pistol Pete’s dunk for example), but it’s become imperative that Leslie beats out Bobby Newman. Not just for the sake of Pawnee, but Chris would lit-er-ally lose his job if Newman is elected. Here were my favorite parts of what may have been (relatively) the most serious episode of Parks this season:

• Tom’s apartment, which makes me wonder a few things: How much does he make? Is a shelf of coconut water really girl heaven? But most importantly, is 80 degrees the ideal temperature…isn’t that a little hot?
• Councilman Pillner’s obsession with ships in bottles and Andy misunderstanding the point of it all.
• April calling the gentleman in the meeting Mr. Hamster Penis.
• Tom tweeting to Russell Simmons his idea for a “cologne that can kill spiders”.
• My new favorite motivational quote: “C’mon little sparkle, don’t give up.”
• The Beer-yonce Knowles aka beer in a sexy mug and the Jay-Zima. If only the Snakehole Lounge was real!
• Jennifer Barkley (Kathryn Hahn) is back. Good for TV, bad for Knope 2012.
• I expected that Chris would meditate on a grassy knoll or in an abandoned secret garden behind a community college.
• Unfortunately, my love for Tom diminished slightly when he wouldn’t play with the cats because he didn’t want animal dander interacting with his cash-murr.
• “April, that would be the coolest thing since N’Sync, Aerosmith and Nelly performed together at the Super Bowl half-time show.” (Leslie, you forgot about Britney!)
• Are we really to believe Ron Swanson, lover of meat, wasn’t familiar with gyros (aka the hot spinning cones of meat)?!
• Tom’s two-toned tie is example enough of why he’s the only man in Pawnee worthy of being an image consultant and  a swagger coach.
• Tom’s tiny cup photo makes a return! (“What is he thinking?/”Why is my cup so tiny?” –Summer Catalog)
• Drinking the tap water in Pawnee is a bad idea. Duly noted.
• Cranium, whiskey and wheat grass sounds amazing!

If you want to see more ‘Live Ammo’ and you missed good ol’ Jerry this week, you don’t have to wait until season four comes out on DVD, check out these deleted scenes.

Nicole is a TV junkie and TVDM helps her feed a lifelong addiction. She can be found here, providing biased commentary (sprinkled with a few Pop Up Video-esque insights) on her favorite shows, every week.