photo: nbc
Soulmates
Original Air Date: Apr 21, 2011
Valentina D. – TwoCents Reviewer
valentina@thetwocentscorp.com
I know this has become a common sentiment when it comes to Parks and Rec but really, Soulmates might be one of their best episodes yet. Its incredible pacing makes sure not a minute is wasted and that is an especially impressive feat to pull off, considering this episode mixes everything Parks and Rec does best: friendly competition, polar opposites, and relationships.
Chris is holding a City Hall meeting, where he announces plans to implement a new government health initiative. Joe from the sewage department, who you might remember from last season as the creepy guy who tried to pick up April at the telethon, hits on Leslie and she wonders why she only seems to attract gross guys.
Now, we know Ben is nowhere near gross. It’s been obvious that they’ve been setting up Ben and Leslie ever since he was introduced last season. Despite this and despite the fact they both like each other, the writers are making it clear that they’re not simply going to throw these two together but instead, take them on a journey.
In what was my favorite storyline of the episode, Chris and Ron find themselves in the midst of some friendly competition over Chris’s new health program. We’ve seen Chris and Ron disagree over food before, whether it is Portobello mushrooms over steak or vegetable loaf over real cake and this episode continues their little power struggle. Chris wants Ron to try turkey burgers and leave red meat behind but Ron does him one better: he challenges Chris to a cookoff, where select City Hall employees will decide who makes a better hamburger. With newlyweds Andy and April in tow, they head out to “Grain ‘N Simple,” where Chris obviously on a first name basis with the employees. The fact that the group has to travel out of town because as April explains, “Pawnee doesn’t have a health food store,” is both hilarious and charming. It’s tiny details such as these that make Pawnee feel like a real town.
Ron’s scenes inside the health store are nothing short of brilliant, as he compares the place to being at the zoo and makes his point with a granola, hippy-looking, dreadlocked customer. “Nature is amazing,” he says. His shining moment happens when he is offered two free samples of vegan bacon and takes them, only to toss the bacon into the trash bin.“I’m making sure no one else has to eat it,” he explains.
At the cookout showdown, Chris presents the City Hall employees with his turkey burger which seems to have a million different ingredients. Ron introduces his burger: “This is a hamburger. It is made out of meat.” Short and simple wins the contest because everyone prefers Ron’s beef burger, which forces Chris to reinstate hamburgers. Poor Chris, a health nut can find themselves pretty out of place in Pawnee.
In the A-plot, Ann convinces Leslie to sign up for a dating site after Ben strangely turns down a date with her. Of course, Leslie wants to pepper her profile with interests such as waffles and a wildflower mural in City Hall. The site returns a 98 per cent “soulmate” match and I had the exact same reaction as Leslie when her match was revealed to be none other than smooth talking Tom Haverford. Leslie, ever the trooper, gives it a shot and treats Tom to lunch where she admits they’ve been matched up by the dating site.
Tom wouldn’t be Tom if he didn’t run with this new information and during the Parks meeting the next day, he claims he’s sleeping with Leslie (except that they aren’t). Leslie kisses Tom in an attempt to shut him up which Chris walks in on and immediately stops. Turns out, Chris has a strict “no office romances” policy, which he enforces even when Ben asked if he could pursue someone in the government. This felt like a bit of a cheap curve ball at this point, but we still ended up with a nice scene of Leslie and Ben eating “real food” in front of her favorite wildflower mural.
What did you all think of the episode? I don’t want to spoil it but was Tom’s strategy for creating online dating profiles impressive, or what? Anyone else want to adopt Tom’s food slang into their daily vocabulary? Whose burger would you go with: Ron’s or Chris’s? Share your TwoCents below! You can also follow me on Twitter!
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