S06E21 - Moving Up - Part One

Live from Pawnee: A Parks and Recreation Fan Rewatch Podcast

This week Mark and Allen break down the Episode where we finally meet the Department of the Interior's resident "bad boy", Liam Bonneville! Leslie is in San Francisco, scheduled to speak at the National Parks Conference about the Pawnee/Eagleton merger. At the conference, Leslie bumps into Grant Larson, who invites her to lunch and introduces her to a number of her idols, including Michelle Obama. Grant tells a starstruck Leslie he needs a final decision from her by tomorrow, and after all this, Leslie is heavily leaning towards taking the job. Later, Leslie gives her speech at the conference, describing the Pawnee/Eagleton merger completing in 6-12 months, but her timeline is ridiculed by the audience, with two department heads suggesting the merger will need 10 years of constant hands-on management, or else risk her precious town losing its cityhood and becoming "unincorporated territory". Needless to say, this shakes Leslie to her core, and despite meeting her idols earlier, and how perfect this job seems ... she is now considering not taking it. Meanwhile, Tom's Bistro is set to open in 6 weeks, but when investor Mitch Savner mentions how great it would be for the restaurant to be ready in time for the Unity Concert, Tom jumps the gun and promises to have the place ready for a soft opening the next day, and be ready for officially opening at the end of the week. Tom desperately brings all hands on deck, recruiting April, Craig, Ron and Donna to help him get the restaurant serviceable. Things do not go well: Ron is unable to make 20 chairs in time, Craig is unable to do his job as sommelier due to sinus/allergy issues, and Jerry Gergich orders the menus with ... uh ... let's just say, the wrong background image. As the night goes on, Mitch becomes more and more concerned and upset with the way Tom is running things. Also meanwhile, Ben and Andy are also in San Francisco to meet with tech company "Gryzzl", who is giving away free Wi-Fi to a few cities across the US. Ben meets with them to pitch the idea of Pawnee being one of the cities. Unfortunately, they are only focusing on big cities, so they turn Ben down. After some time to think, Ben is determined to not take no for an answer, and goes back with Andy a 2nd time. This time, however, he sees a large group of Gryzzl employees - including the Gryzzl owners he spoke to in the first meeting - playing the board game HE invented. That's right ... they are playing "The Cones of Dunshire"! Finally, we witness the day we've all been waiting for ... the Unity Concert is here! April and Andy lead the final Unity Concert planning meeting, with a main goal of getting 2000 signatures in support of the Pawnee-Eagleton merger. Andy also tries one last time (unsuccessfully) to get Ron to play as Duke Silver during the concert. Later, we see the Unity Concert in full swing, with headline acts The Decemberists, Ginuwine, Letters to Cleo, Bobby Knight Ranger, and Land Ho bringing in huge crowds. Andy performs as Johnny Karate on the children's stage, and afterwards bumps into Burly. The two reminisce over Mouse Rat's break up and it brings back memories for Andy as he misses being a part of a band. On a similar note, Diane encourages Ron to get up on stage and have fun, but Ron has no intention of doing so. As always, we tackle the tough questions, such as ... Will Leslie take the job? Will Tom's investor, Mitch Savner, back out of the deal? How did Gryzzl get their hands on the Cones of Dunshire? Can Andy find a way to deal with the fact that he misses being in a band? Will Leslie move away from Pawnee? Could there be another opportunity for Tom's Bistro to be redeemed? Can Ben leverage the Cones of Dunshire to his advantage? Does Ron become convinced to play as Duke Silver at some point? Can Leslie find a way to have it all? Does Tom find a way to turn things around? Will Pawnee get free WiFi? Will the gang manage to collect 2000 signatures in support of the Pawnee-Eagleton merger? Loyal viewers, we MADE IT! We are at the END of Season 6! Can you even believe it?!? Will this 53 MINUTE extravaganza blow everything else out of the water? Tune in and find out! Many thanks to our incredible sponsor "Pawnee City Hall's 4th Floor".