25. “Leslie and Ron” (Season 7, Episode 4)
Leslie and Ron have arguably the best friendship of the entire show, but in the final season, they haven’t spoken in quite some time. The staff traps Leslie and Ron in the old Parks and Recreation office overnight so that they can make up. In this touching episode, we get a flashback of what things were like in the good ol’ days.
Image Source: YouTube
24. “The Camel” (Season 2, Episode 9)
Pawnee’s “Spirit of Pawnee” mural in the town hall is extremely racist and has been vandalized several times. Each Pawnee department is asked to propose a new mural idea and Leslie is determined for the Parks Department to win. Each staff member’s proposal is funnier than the next one.
Image Source: TV Media
23. “The Johnny Karate Super Awesome Music Explosion Show” (Season 7, Episode 10)
Andy is a local celebrity as he now has a cable-TV children’s show. Bert Macklin, of course, makes an appearance. Andy and April are moving to Washington, D.C. for April’s new job and Andy will have to leave his show behind. Also, John Cena makes an appearance.
Image Source: The World Goes Pop
22. “Flu Season 2” (Season 6, Episode 18)
While battling the flu yet again, Ann and Leslie attempt to find music for the Pawnee Unity Concert. Tom has a new restaurant and invites Donna and Tom to go wine tasting. Ben announces that he wants to start a family and Leslie is pregnant. Ron and Ben also bond in a hilarious way.
Image Source: Onion
21. “The Fight” (Season 3, Episode 13)
Leslie has the chance to get her best friend Ann to work with her after Chris fires the former health department public relations director. Tom and Jean-Ralphio are co-wonders of the Snakehole Lounge and invite everyone to try their new drink, Snake Juice. Ann and Leslie have a huge Snake Juice-induced fight over Ann’s casual dating. Andy’s alter-ego Burt Macklin makes an appearance. The next day the staff is incredibly hungover. Ann ends up applying, her and Leslie cut the interview short to both throw up in a trash can, but she ends up getting the job.
Image Source: CDN
20. “Galentine’s Day” (Season 2, Episode 16)
Every year, Leslie throws a “Galentine’s Day” party for her female friends which is celebrated the day before Valentine’s Day. Leslie throws a senior dance to unite her mother with an old flame. Tom attempts to get his ex-wife back by threatening her with an alimony lawsuit. Romantic, right?
Image Source: TypeSet
19. “One Last Ride” (Season 7, Episode 12)
This is the last episode of Parks and Recreation and it does not disappoint. It takes place in the present, which is 2017 and then in the future. We look into the future specifically at 2019, 2022, 2025, 2035, and 2048. The episode ends when Ben and Leslie attend Gary’s (Jerry’s) funeral. He was mayor of Pawnee and lived to the age of 100. They are surrounded by secret service implying that one of them (or both) has become President of the United States.
Image Source: Onion
18. “Greg Pikitis” (Season 2, Episode 7)
Greg Pikitis is Leslie’s declared arch-nemesis. She knows that he is the one who vandalizes the town’s statue of the mayor every Halloween and vows that this is the year that he will catch him in the act. Leslie pulls him in for questions and Andy pretends to be an FBI agent named Burt Macklin. Greg ends up vandalizing the office by dressing up like a janitor and waiting for everyone to leave.
Image Source: Wiki
17. “Leslie and Ben” (Season 5, Episode 14)
Leslie and Ben decide to spontaneously get married at the gala, throwing away months of planning and pulling a wedding together in two hours. Councilman Jamm, Leslie’s worst enemy, crashes the wedding. DJ Roomba makes an appearance and the staff comes together to make the wedding of Leslie’s dreams come to fruition.
Image Source: Ears To My Music
16. “Sister City” (Season 2, Episode 5)
In this episode, Fred Armisen guest stars as the leader of Pawnee’s Venezuelan sister City, Boraqua. The delegation believes that in this country, they can have sex with any woman of their choosing and they all seem to take a liking to Donna. April convinces an intern that she is a feared leader, and Leslie causes an international incident screaming, “Viva America” into the news camera and ripping up a donated check. By the end of this episode, Boraqua is no longer the sister city of Pawnee.
Image Source: CDN
15. “Flu Season” (Season 3, Episode 2)
It’s flu season in Pawnee and some of the members of the Parks Department have been hit hard. April is in the hospital with a severe fever and has made it her goal to torture Ann to get her back for kissing Andy. Leslie has the flu also but will not admit that she is ill. She pretends that she is fine so that she can give an important speech, but ends up hallucinating. The same situation is occurring with the bionic man, Chris.
Image Source: Recap Guide
14. “Ron and Tammy Part 2” (Season 3, Episode 4)
We meet Tammy, Ron’s ex-wife, again, and this time it’s even funnier. Ron is dating Tom’s ex-wife, Wendy, however they breakup when she announces that she is moving back to Canada. To get back at Ron for dating his ex-wife, Tom dates Tammy and they go to a party together specifically to make Ron jealous. After a crazy night, Ron and Tammy end up getting re-married and put in jail. Ron also ends up with a pretty hilarious new hairdo.
Image Source: CDN
13. “Win, Lose, or Draw” (Season 4, Episode 22)
In this episode, Leslie and Bobby Newport are in a head to head race for city council. He wins, but it is so close that the race automatically qualifies for a recount. Ron shows his soft side and tells Leslie why he and his coworkers worked so tirelessly to help her with her campaign. In this episode, April deletes all of the department’s files by accident and asks for Andy’s help.
Image Source: CDN
12. “Andy and April’s Fancy Party” (Season 3, Episode 9)
Andy and April throw a big party at their house. Everyone is invited from work and it turns out that they are planning to get married at the party! At first, Leslie wants to object, but realizes that April and Andy really are perfect for each other. We learn in this episode as well that Ben has decided to stay in Pawnee, which makes Leslie very happy. The best part of this episode might be April’s sister’s speech that she gives to congratulate the couple.
Image Source: Wiki
11. “Halloween Surprise” (Season 5, Episode 5)
In this episode, it’s Halloween and Leslie and Ann are planning to scare Tom. Since Jerry messes up everything, he ends up getting scared. He is so scared that he farts more than once and goes into cardiac arrest. Because Jerry will be spending the next week on bed-rest, Leslie organizes a garage sale to raise money for the wages that he will be losing when out of work.
Image Source: Her Campus
10. “The Debate” (Season 4, Episode 20)
Bobby Newport, played by guest star Paul Rudd, is heir to the Sweetums fortune and is running for the city council election against Leslie. He is a complete idiot and not even interested in running. He just wants to gain the love of his father with his extremely well-funded campaign. In this hilarious episode, Newport leads the race until the very end.
Image Source: Cinema Blend
9. “Sex Education” (Season 5, Episode 4)
Leslie is holding a sexual education class at the Pawnee senior center after there was an outbreak of STDs amongst the senior citizens. With the help of Donna, Ann and Andy, Leslie attempts to educate the seniors on safe sex. She is interrupted when Marcia Langman, a member of the Family Stability Foundation, explains Pawnee’s abstinence-only sex education law. In the meantime, Tom is sentenced to a week without screens after hitting a fire hydrant while tweeting while driving. The way he handles this punishment is priceless.
Image Source: Amazon
8. “The Comeback Kid” (Season 4, Episode 11)
Leslie is to give a speech in the middle of a skating rink. Unfortunately, Tom could only get enough red carpet for about three feet. The walk to the podium is solid ice and Leslie falls down and makes a fool of herself while her entrance song is blaring with the lyrics, “Get on your feet. Get up and make it happen!” When she finally makes it to the podium, her flash cards are out of order.
Image Source: Onion
7. “Camping” (Season 3, Episode 8)
After an extremely successful Harvest Festival, Leslie is asked to come up with more ideas to generate revenue for the town of Pawnee. To come up with ideas, she organizes a mandatory team-building/brainstorming camping retreat for the Parks and Recreation department. During this trip, Tom shows off his fully decked-out camping tent in which it seems he has purchased nearly all of SkyMall. Andy attempts to make April love camping, but ends up in the wrong campsite. At the end of the night, they all end up in a bed and breakfast run by an old woman with 100 cats.
Image Source: TV Fanatic
6. “Leslie vs. April” (Season 5, Episode 7)
Ben somehow manages to get Leslie an appointment with Vice President Joe Biden. In Pawnee, April proposes that a dog park be built on Lot 48, the same lot that Leslie has been attempting to have a park built on for quite some time now. Leslie makes it her mission to distract April. Meanwhile, Tom and Ben conduct a profile on Rent-A-Swag.
Image Source: Wiki
5. “Pawnee Rangers” (Season 4, Episode 4)
This is the episode where we learn of Tom and Donna’s infamous “Treat Yo Self” days, where once a year they take the day off to go shopping and buy outrageously expensive things that they don’t need. We are also taken into the world of the Pawnee Rangers, Pawnee’s boys-only wilderness club. The exclusiveness of the club causes Leslie to start her own, Pawnee Goddesses. She and Ron fight to have the best wilderness club.
Image Source: Recap Guide
4. “Telethon” (Season 2, Episode 22)
Leslie works a 24-hour shift at the “Pawnee Cares” telethon for the fight against diabetes. She has her own block of time running from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., which is not exactly primetime. After her original guest is held up because of Tom, she is forced to let Andy’s band, Mouse Rat, play the time slot.
Image Source: Graphiq
3. “Ron and Tammy” (Season 2, Episode 8)
Leslie has been trying to build a park on Lot 48 in Pawnee for an entire year. She finds out that the Pawnee library has put in a claim for the lot as well. Even worse, we learn that Ron’s ex-wife, “Tammy Number 2” is the new library director. Ron and Tammy’s crazy relationship is reignited and we see first-hand the spell that she has over him when they are together.
Image Source: Wiki
2. “Hunting Trip” (Season 2, Episode 10)
Leslie is determined to prove to Ron that she can be one of the guys and tags along during his annual hunting trip. Leslie says her famous line, “When you’re out with the boys you’ve gotta be ready for a good pantsing. That’s why I have suspenders that connect my bra to my jeans.” Ron is accidentally shot by Tom, who does not have a hunting license, and ends up washing down pain pills with scotch.
Image Source: Swanson Notes
1. “Li’l Sebastian” (Season 3, Episode 16)
Li’l Sebastian was Pawnee’s most loved mini-horse – so much so that he received an honorary degree from Notre Dame. In this episode, Li’l Sebastian has passed away and Pawnee’s parks department throws an insanely ornate memorial service for him. In Leslie’s obituary speech, she says, “And who can forget when he received his honorary degree from Notre Dame University? That’s Dr. Li’l Sebastian to you!” We also hear Andy’s song where he wishes Li’l Sebastian one final goodbye.
Image Source: CDN