Parks and Recreation: New Slogan Recap

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Parks and Recreation: New Slogan (6×16)

Summary: When Leslie hears that the potential Chicago job will be less hands on, she freaks out and goes overboard with the new slogan poll running on the Pawnee website. April and Donna join Tom on his hunt for the location of Tom’s Bistro. Andy finds out about Ron’s greatest secret.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

So it looks like Leslie is seriously considering the Chicago job. Which is awesome except for the fact season 7 has officially been confirmed since the last time I did a recap. Which is a little worrisome, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Leslie’s plot in the episode revolves around the poll for a new town slogan and how it’s rooted in her love to get down and dirty when it comes to her work. Basically, after she has a talk with Grant Larson about the Chicago job, she has a bit of an overcompensating freak out when she finds out that the job would be more delegation versus digging in deep. This leads to a rabbit hole of Pawnee insanity when Crazy Ira and the Douche get involved by having their listeners fill in the write-in option much to Leslie’s annoyance and Leslie incurs the wrath of both the shock jocks and hackers when she tries to make a personal appeal to them. She manages to pass the test of delegation though when she allows Larry to run a town forum riddled with spelling errors without getting involved and everyone picks an awesome town slogan on their own. I know it’s cheesy, but I do like “When you’re here, then you’re home.”

Leslie admits that her main fear with the job isn’t delegating but that she could actually be really bad at it in the end. Ben tells her what we’re all thinking: that’s the stupidest thing she’s ever said. God, even in the not so spectacular episodes, they’re so fantastic.

Meanwhile, Tom has come to Donna in the search for the perfect location for Tom’s Bistro and has asked April for her opinion as well. Which she gives, but mostly in a bad way to keep Tom from leaving his job because she would miss him. Donna admits that she’s doing the same, except through showing him bad properties like the donut/tire shop and Jurassic Fork. I feel like this whole plot line could be a metaphor for this season with a lot of refusal to change what is seen as a “good thing.”  I’m probably reading too much into it though because after Donna and April see how much Tom wants this restaurant, they work together to find him a gorgeous location in his budget. Maybe change is on the horizon.

In his search for bands for the Unity Concert, Andy ends up at Cozy’s on their jazz night. Yep, you know what’s coming… It’s the return of Duke Silver!

Andy being his usual Andy self takes a while to put together that it’s actually Ron and not a mysterious jazz playing twin, but after he does, he enthusiastically books Ron for the concert even though he protests. With the risk of his secret coming out, Ron decides to “kill” Duke Silver by throwing away his saxophone, fedora, and sunglasses. Even though Andy tries to convince him not to, Ron tells Duke goodbye and tells him, “May you rest… in jazz.”

How this plot line ended though is really a testament to why I love Andy and why I’m sad he hasn’t really been a part of the main episode plots since he came back from London. He retrieves Ron’s saxophone from the dumpster and promises that he’ll keep the secret of Duke Silver safe because he doesn’t want Ron to quit music. In return, he shares some of his secrets, including that he doesn’t know who Al Gore is and that his head was so big as a baby that scientists performed experiments on him (maybe that’s how Guardians of the Galaxy starts). Even though he may be a complete idiot, Andy cares a lot about the people in his life and has become a good man compared to who he was in season 1. The future of Duke Silver hangs in the balance, but we can only hope Andy got through to him.

I… I’m not sure what I really thought of this episode. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. Which, except for a few standout episodes, can be my summary of season 6 as a whole up to this point. Maybe that’s why I’m so worried for season 7, not the current plot line. This show is one of my favorite TV shows ever and it’s been really hard to see it be so… mediocre.

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