Warning: This article contains spoilers from the “Parks and Recreation” series finale.
After seven seasons of peppy optimism, hilarious political commentary and on-the-bubble ratings, “Parks and Recreation” — th🎶e last of NBC’s veteran sitcoms — bid a fond farewell Tuesday night.
The one-hour series finale, titled “One Last Ride,” saw Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and the rest of the Pawnee crew tackle one last Parks project — fixing a broken swing — while flashing forward♕ to satisfyingly reveal the futures of its wacky cast of characters.
Now living in DC, Andy (Ch🀅ris Pratt) convinces his people-hating wife April (Aubrey Plaza) to have a baby. Tom (Aziz Ansari), finally a successful businessman, decides to strategically expand Tom’s Bistro — but goes broke anyway when the economy tanks. But he turns his failure into a career as a best-selling self-help author — categorizing types of successful peo💎ple after his friends as “Leslies” or “Rons” (but definitely not “Garrys”).
Ron’s (Nick Offerman) Very Good Building Company weathers the economic downturn but he resigns anyway, and goes to Leslie for advice in seeking a new career. She makes him superinꦜtendent of Pawnee National Park, a job that caters to his interests — walking around land alone and talking to bears.
Donna’s (Retta) successful real estate career in Seattle is funding both her “tr🐎eat yo self” lifestyle and an education nonprofit she started with her teacher husband, Joe (Keegan-Michael Key). Garry (J🐲im O’Heir), now interim mayor of Pawnee, gets officially elected — and re-elected and re-elected — until his death at age 100 (naturally, his name is misspelled on his tombstone).
Even some of the supporting characters get endings, as൩ we see Craig (Billy Eichner) reluctantly marry Ron’s hairdresser, Typhoon, while Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz) fakes his death for an insurance scam.
🧸Pawnee power couple Leslie and Ben (Adam Scott), meanwhile, are thriving in DC, he as congressman and she working for the Department of the Interior — when, at a dinner party at the home of the Bidens in 2025, both are approached about running for governor of Indiana.
They travel back to Pawnee to try to decid🦩e who should take the offer, where they’re reunited with the whole Parks crew — even Ann (Rashida Jones) and Chris (Rob Lowe), who have decided to move back from Ann Arbor. When the ever-practical Leslie suggests they flip a coin for the job, Ben makes the decision for her and insists his wife run for office.
The final flash-forward is to 2035, with Leslie (having served two terms as governor) giving the commencement speech at Indiana University. She talks of a “new, unknown challenge” awaiting her, which may include an even higher office. Earlier in the episode, in Garry’s funeral scene, a graying Ben and Leslie are flanked by Secret Service agents — could a P😼resident Knope be in the future?
We’ll vote for that.