'Parks and Recreation' recap: Steamroller Blues

NBC just gave me the best early Christmas present of all. I'm still bitter about them shelving Community for the time being. But the last few minutes of "Smallest Park" slowly melted away my anger. You see, I haven't been taking the Leslie/Ben breakup very well. I had a visceral reaction two weeks ago when it looked like Shauna Malwae-Tweep was moving in on my Leslie's man. And my heart litt-ruh-ly aches for them to be together. (Draw your own conclusions about how sad it is that I feel this strongly about fictional characters.) So when Leslie decided to lay it all on the line, stop being a steamroller, and tell Ben she wanted to be with him, I was practically cheering at my TV screen. And I know I couldn't wipe the goofy smile off my face as Pawnee's very own dream team made out in the smallest park in Indiana.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's recap exactly how Ben and Leslie got to their makeout sesh in the aforementioned tiny park. The former couple was working together on their latest project: The Smallest Park in Indiana! The town's newest tourist attraction, which lived up to its name at only 0.000003 square miles, was a slam dunk for the Parks and Rec department. In fact, there was such little resistance to the project, the tiny park was planned to open without a hitch. Things were going quite smoothly until Leslie realized that Ben wanted to make the Smallest Park project his last project with her. In an effort to drastically decrease the time he was spending with Ms. Knope, he asked Chris to take over all of his Parks and Rec duties. To say that Leslie took this news poorly would be an understatement.

Leslie did everything in her power to delay the opening of the smallest park until Nov. 12, 2070. She tried to get the normal group of Pawnee naysayers to oppose the project during a town forum. But the locals failed her in her time of seven-hour-forum need. Ben came to the rescue and, at least temporarily, subdued Leslie's crazy. In doing so, he essentially ended the dream team. And you're right, Chris. That was very hard to hear. "So many negative words!"

NEXT: Leslie accepts that she's a total steamroller

Page 1 2 3 NEXT