Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation

Episode 15: Dave Returns

By: Carlos Uribe

Parks and Recreation is a show about the parks and recreation department of a fictional town called Pawnee, which is in Indiana.

Spoilers Ahoy!

Dave returns this episode. I believe that Dave was the first boyfriend that Leslie's had during the show's run. She had a thing with Mark, but that was before the show. He's back because the chief of police is retiring and he's interviewing for the job. Since Leslie is trying to get the retiring chief's endorsement, they run into each other. She wants Dave to approve Ben and to help influence the chief to endorse her. This causes her to invite him to join her and Ben at a nice french place. At first, the night seems to be going well. That is until Dave announces to Leslie that he is still in love with her. This instantly turns the dinner into an awkward situation.

Dave tries his very best to get time alone with Leslie to win her over. He keeps getting rejected. He gets so desperate that he actually handcuffs Ben to the urinal. He forgot to take Ben's phone, so even that plan fails. He eventually realizes that this wasn't the best course of action and that Leslie is in love with Ben. There's no chance that they'll get back together and if he keeps acting the way that he is acting then they won't even be friends. It's sad for Dave, but it also shows just how strong the relationship is between Ben and Leslie. I'm not saying that because she didn't even consider going back to Dave. The only way she would have considered going back to him is if she was single. The way she defend Ben to Dave at the end of the episode and the way that she made it clear to Dave her feelings for Ben is what I'm talking about.

Andy, meanwhile, tries to come up with the best song for Leslie's campaign and he enlists the help of every other character on the show. He's putting a lot of pressure upon himself to succeed. He feels like this is the only way he can contribute to the campaign, so he feels that it has to be the perfect job. No matter what, he isn't satisfied with the song. It isn't until Ron secretly adds some of his Duke Silver magic that the song is any good. It was a nice gesture by Ron but it would have been nicer if Andy had found out just how much about music Ron knows. It would have brought them closer. This sub-plot was very funny, although I thought Chris' singing went on for too long. His terrible rendition of the baseball song was funny but I felt like they could have cut halfway through the song.

During the recording, Tom and Ann also try to sort what their status of the relationship is. I was at the impression at the end of the last episode that it was going nowhere. Ann also seemed to be thinking the same thing. Tom didn't accept this. He kept trying to get Ann to try and go on a second date for her. It took him a long time, but he eventually breaks her down and she accepts. He may have gotten a second date but he's going to have to talk to her like a real person, to treat her right, if the relationship is to survive. I don't see this happening, so I don't see them ever being a romantic couple. I'm willing to go on the ride for now.

This was a pretty funny episode of the show. I felt that the episode could have been improved if the Andy/Ron sub-plot had a stronger emotional core that led to a closer bond between the two characters. It did have many bits that were simply great. Ben's deathly afraid of cops was very well played through the episode but especially during the end credits. Louis C.K. did a good job, and it's sad he's probably not going to appear again this season.