Last night’s episode had the series at its best with Leslie and Ben’s bachelor
parties.
Leslie is as always obsessed with work though, and can’t focus on her
Abraham Lincoln stripper, specially gotten for her. Paunch Burger intends to
steal the plot of land Leslie and April had hoped to build a new park on.
Leslie buries Native American artifacts there, but then retracts on the idea,
and becomes desperate to dig them back up to make up for the mistake. Her
bachelorette party finds her, Anne, and April failing to dig them back out (with
Donna sitting watching). However, once the artifacts are discovered, Ken
Hotate, leader of the local Wamapoke tribe, sides with Leslie, seeing how good
of a person she is.
Ben’s bachelor party starts out as a board game night, but
soon turns into all the guys making up for all their lack of bachelor parties
for their own marriages (Andy’s marriage was spontaneous, Tom’s was a greencard
marriage, Garry was getting an appendectomy, and Tammy 2 called in a bomb
threat). Each one of them is given an event to celebrate: they go get ice cream
for Gary, Tom takes them to a strange, fancy bar, Andy is taken to the Colts’
football stadium to see players, and Ron takes them to a steakhouse. All the
guys afterwards assure Chris, the only one never to be married, that someday he’ll
find someone, and in the end Ben sets him up with news reporter Shauna
Malwae-Tweep, who appears to be looking for happiness and friendship as much as
he is (if her enthusiasm about writing about the bachelor party is any sign).
These characters really do feel like they care about one
another, and despite how very different they are and how unlikely it seems that
this oddball group would ever come together, they continue to come together
time and again for one another. If they didn’t, the show wouldn’t work. The
series is about the underdog winning and people getting what they want; it’s
built into the DNA of the show. The series is as enthusiastic, heartfelt, and
happy-go-lucky as Leslie is, and it would feel wrong to have it any other way. It
knows its characters like the back of its hands, and this episode gives every
single one of them a moment to shine. It’s funny and sincere and nicely
observed.
I’m smiling just thinking about it. The series is so utterly
charming and pleasing, and it doesn’t even have to try hard to achieve that.
Stray Observations:
-The episode gets a lot out of the Native American jokes: “Water…
like firewater … not but seriously can I get some whiskey?”; Leslie points to a
censored image of atrocities: “Our relationship with the Wamapoke in the past
has been … murdery”
-“Our slots are downright filthy”
-“That’s why I’m stress eating gummy penises”
-Ben’s idea of a perfect night: beer and boardgames. Game of
choice: Settlers of Catan.
-Paunch Burger’s slogan on its billboard: “Start drooling,
fatties”
-“Things magazine says it’s gonna be the next big thing”
-“Son, there’s no wrong way to consume alcohol” Next scene: “This
is the wrong way to consume alcohol”
-The girls use cowboy hats with penises on top to dig up the
artifacts.
-“Babe Lincoln”: “Come emancipate this lap!”, “The Gettysburg
Undress”
-“I didn’t have time to shower before or after … for like a
week and a half” – Adam Scott’s expression after is priceless
-The ice cream place has a backup cone prepared for Gary
because he tends to drop his ice cream about half the time.
-The image of the ice cream on Ron’s moustache is perhaps
the greatest thing I’ve ever seen.
-Newt Gingrich cameo! - Man they've had some awesome cameos this season.
-“I’m going to be candid with all of you: I like her” – Woe!
That’s the most open I think we’ve ever seen Swanson.
-“No Muslim stuff. No Jewish stuff. None of that stuff from
those weird countries”
-“Don’t try to bond with me”
-“I believe we left Gary back at the gas station in
Martinsville”
-“Was that a threat” “Why yes, I thought that was obvious”
Grade: A
What did everyone else think?
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