After Leslie tries to take down the wall separating Pawnee and Eagleton, her life takes several unexpected turns; Tom and Ben meet with potential corporate sponsors for the concert; and Ron brings a surprise to the office and finds a new office hobby.
As Parks and Recreation has aged, it has become harder and harder for the show to justify Leslie Knope staying in Pawnee. Yes, she's the lead of the show and is stationed in this town for the longevity of the show. But when it produces an episode like "The Wall," it is hard to understand why Leslie doesn't take the new job offer in Chicago."The Wall" spends a lot of time on Pawnee & Eagleton residents who hate Leslie Knope. That was the point of the episode, to make the job offer seem much easier to accept. She even gets punched in the face because of it. Outside of this town, Leslie does have some respect and admiration. The government uses her planning binders to intimidate new staffers. Leslie Knope could have a lot of fun and be doing more rewarding work if she left Pawnee.
So then why does she stick around this town? That's a question that Leslie herself asks. She gets little to none respect here. The only time Pawnee praises her is when they think the bee attack was a prank on the Eagletownians. Ron gives her the explanation that she still believes she can make a difference in this town. It's a moment that needed to happen - if not, Leslie would have had to take that job offer and spend the rest of the season building up to her departure for Chicago. That job may still be there for her - while Leslie has had 100 projects go ahead of schedule, the rest of the government may not be used to working that fast. However, the longer the show goes on, the harder it is to justify Leslie staying put in Pawnee.
Some more thoughts:
- "The Wall" was written by Jen Statsky and directed by Ken Whittingham.
- Seth Morris joins the show as an Eagleton reporter who is quite enjoyable.
- Also way too much of Craig yelling.
- The Ron bonding with his son subplot was pretty great through. It was really in line with his belief of keeping personal information to yourself. No one even knew Diane gave birth and that was great for a laugh. But him showing his son power tools and how they work was equally hilarious.
- And Tom commits to yet another business. On top of being the departments business attache and working on the Unity Concert, he's now going to be opening a restaurant!
