(S7Ep12) One Last Ride, Part 1!

We made it! Today, we see the futures of many of the Parks gang, learn about the 21 shoot salute, see Garry thrive, and honestly just reminisce about all of our Parks times. 

Thank you so much to Caroline Fogarty, who played Sasha Dunkirk in the "Pie-Mary" episode for your wonderful and hilarious voice memos! Such fun memories and so glad we could hear them! 

We'll see you for one final ride next week <3 

Caroline Fogarty IG: https://www.instagram.com/carolineandred/?hl=en

Caroline's Wardrobe IG: https://www.instagram.com/styledbyaginger/?hl=en

http://styledbyaginger.com/

Champion IG: https://www.instagram.com/frankenlucy/?hl=en

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/our-conversation-with-mara-marini-aka-brandi-maxxxx/id1551856074?i=1000592867105

Transcript

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Holly (01:30.764)
Okay, well let's go ahead and get started. I am going to try my best this time to really not have any edits because it's live and I don't want it to be that much different than, you know, what people would have seen on YouTube or whatever. so anyhow, my gosh, we're on the last episode, but in true fashion, I do have some other

Madi (01:39.113)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (01:50.316)
Follow-ups from our last episode. So we talked about how it was funny that we hadn't seen the mayor yet, especially with how involved we are in the government in Pawnee. But in Leslie's book, she talks about the mayor position really being the face of the town. And he doesn't actually do anything that the city manager office does. Like the city manager office does all the work and the mayor just goes out and takes pictures and shakes hands and is the face of the town, which totally makes sense, I feel. So I just had to do a follow-up on that because we were wondering.

Madi (01:56.885)
Mm.

Madi (02:17.47)
Yeah, that's that's that helps the the narrative.

Holly (02:20.779)
Yeah, totally. and then the last thing, this is not about parks at all, but we talked about the John Oliver sketch of with Taco Bell and we were wondering who did that voiceover and it was Adam Pali or Polly, I don't know how you pronounce it, but he's the one that was in the Mindy project and a bunch of other things, but but yeah, it was him.

Madi (02:28.563)
yeah.

Madi (02:34.353)
Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool, cool. That's awesome.

Holly (02:41.071)
and then I finally got an email back from Brian, Brian Stack of Ted Party Day fame jewelry store worker. I told him it was our last, you know, seasonslash episode that he was in, and he was so sweet. which also shout out because he was also known for not only writing on Conan, but for writing on Colbert, and Colbert just won an Emmy. So very exciting. So great. A way to go out to. And yeah, like to give his writers such you know.

Madi (03:00.516)
Yes. What an amazing acceptance speech too. What a dude.

Madi (03:09.532)
Mm.

Holly (03:10.719)
acclaim and say like hire them, they're the best. It's a what a great boss. I love that. but anyhow, so I got an email from Brian and I'm just gonna read his email to you because it's really cute. But he said, Poor Ted, as Leslie said though, he knew the risks. It was fun to be back in that jewelry store on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City again, where we also filmed the new beginnings episode.

Madi (03:13.712)
Yeah. Seriously.

Madi (03:30.1)
Mm.

Holly (03:32.128)
One thing I remember that I may have mentioned to you before was that they had a sign behind the counter on the wall that said the Fellowship of the Ring. And I don't think that sign ever appeared on camera, or sorry, Fellowshop of the Ring. which is again, their whole puns are amazing. but it cracks me up that they tossed a nerdy Lord of the Rings reference in there that I was there in the New Beginnings episode too.

Madi (03:49.98)
Yes.

Holly (03:55.328)
Most of my memories from that last episode I shot were all the positive vibes that always seemed to be present on their set. As corny as it sounds, it truly was like a big family, and I wish I could have been around for more episodes. Such a delight to work with all those people. Thanks again so much for talking to me about the show. So very sweet, and we love you, Brian, so much. It's so nice. Yeah.

Madi (04:11.901)
Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Very cool.

Holly (04:17.333)
Okay, so the other thing that I got were some voice memos from Caroline Fogerty, who I think I'm saying that last name right, but she played Sasha Dunkirk, the Women Against Feminism, way back in Pi Mary, and I just finally got voice memos from her. And I did not in true like my this is fashion of me this is what I always do, is what I'm trying to say. I didn't edit these before. I usually edit them after, so meaning I didn't listen to them. So we will see how that goes being live. Okay. Here's the first question where I asked her how she got her job and everything.

Madi (04:27.317)
Yeah.

Madi (04:39.101)
Mm.

Holly (06:40.076)
Ha ha.

Holly (06:45.123)
my gosh, that's really funny. And I think that might be the first time I've heard that you didn't get the sides before the audition. That's interesting. Yeah. but cool. Okay, love that. And clearly you did a good job on the audition because you booked it. So let's listen to the second one.

Madi (06:47.156)
Yeah.

Madi (06:51.711)
Mm-hmm, yeah.

Holly (11:14.829)
That's awesome. Yeah, and also Greg Daniels could have just been being nice. Who knows? I don't know.

Madi (11:21.555)
Yeah. I wonder if he watches like the audition tapes and so he's like, I know who this person is or whatever.

Holly (11:27.103)
Yeah, that's true. And I love that comment about Mo Collins because I feel like I'm like that too, where and a lot of people are where you see people that aren't necessarily like famous, famous, but like famous to you and famous in other like worlds, I guess. so I really love that she got a picture with them. And I don't remember her having a husband, but she could be talking about Chris Gethard, like the male against men or men against whatever the hell the male men.

Madi (11:31.326)
Mm.

Madi (11:38.269)
Mm.

Madi (11:50.675)
Yeah.

Holly (11:54.651)
But anyway, yeah. my gosh, that's so cool and good to know about Greg Daniels. Okay, cool. All right, here's the next one.

Madi (11:54.718)
Yeah. That whole episode. Yeah.

Holly (13:32.558)
Aw, yeah, that I mean, talk about guest stars. There were so many. So Darlene Hunt, who she's talking about, and Todd Sherry, are Marsha and Marshall Langman, respectively. Ugh.

Madi (13:36.605)
Mm.

Madi (13:42.463)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Holly (13:43.084)
And Mary Meth Monroe is the gal who runs the IOW. and yeah, I think and they're all improvisers. Every single one of them has improv background. so it and including her. so I feel like it's really cool that they all got to be together in this scene, like just all 'cause a lot of times the guest stars don't really like have a scene altogether. So this was really cool a a way to get everybody that d isn't usually in here. It's so fun.

Madi (14:04.639)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (14:08.733)
Yeah, absolutely. Really well done.

Holly (14:11.021)
All right, let's listen to the last one where I ask her if she has anything to promote or anything she wants to talk about.

Holly (15:08.279)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (16:06.605)
That's so funny. my god, that's funny that she said that because literally right back at her, she's hilarious too. And I feel like we got a lot of comedy in that like 10 minute thing of voice memos. So so funny. And yes, I will definitely post all of that in the show notes. You well, you know, we can follow her, both her stylist and her actor pages. And you know, if she has got a website, I'll you know I'll find it and I'll post it. but yeah, that's really funny. So yes, I have as my signature on my email doing my best, and so funny because I

Madi (16:12.949)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Definitely.

Holly (16:36.619)
Like a lot of people comment on that, and they're always just like, Yeah, that's that's all we're doing, right? Like we're just trying over here. And I was like, That's got you just gotta, yeah, yeah, that's all we can do. but thank you, Caroline, so much. That was so fun, and I'm so glad it all worked out to send it over the emails and the voice memos and stuff. It was really fun to hear from you. So yay. Mm-hmm.

Madi (16:42.257)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (16:46.227)
You're saying what we all need to like feel for ourselves. Yeah. Yeah.

Madi (17:01.267)
Yeah, thank you.

Holly (17:03.173)
Okay, here we go. We're on to part one of our last episode called One Last Ride, Season 7, Episode 12, original air date, February 24th, 2015. And remember, this episode was about an hour long or 53 minutes with ads. So the full episode did air on February 24th, 2015. It was back to back, as we've learned in previous episodes. This was our finale. And this was written by Mike Scher and Amy Polar, directed by Mike Scher, the Holy Trinity and by Holy Trinity.

Madi (17:32.543)
Yeah.

Holly (17:32.96)
Trinity, I mean, they're part of the Holy Trinity. I look at Mike Shur. Well, Nick Offerman said this i in one of his quotes that he looks at Mike Share as the dad of Parks and Rack and Amy as the mom. But I'm kind of looking at it also as like the king of Parks and Rack and the Queen of Parks and Rack. And then yeah, so we've just and if you don't know who those people are, I just I you know go back a couple episodes. But such a beautiful team for our last

Madi (17:44.997)
Aww.

Hm. Yeah.

Madi (17:56.937)
Yeah.

Holly (17:59.414)
Episode so very exciting and I'm ready for a summary whenever you are.

Madi (18:01.0)
Yeah.

Absolutely. I am so emotional, I have to say, watching this episode. It's it's a lot. And and I s like in my research I found some things that like made me go back to season one and I just sit there and I'm like

Holly (18:07.274)
I know.

Holly (18:13.397)
Mm.

Madi (18:16.563)
How different everyone is and which is just so cool because we've talked about the growth of everyone throughout this podcast. But then like I can't think kind of the backlash that you get or the whiplash you get of like going back and watching episode one, you're like, whoa, who are these people? So yeah. I just had to preface it with that because these are our people and it's sad to be going into our final two summaries. So yeah.

Holly (18:31.413)
Yes. So true.

Holly (18:38.385)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (18:42.47)
I know it's crazy.

Madi (18:45.277)
Yeah. and I don't know if you before I do the summary, if you want to tell people like kind of what the final ep final scene is for part one.

Holly (18:53.185)
sure. yeah, so well we end at twenty-eight minutes and forty-four seconds if anyone cares about that. And I think it was where that was at Gary's funeral. so yeah. And with a Secret Service agent which we'll talk about coming in and saying like it's time to go. So that's where we are ending for part one.

Madi (19:02.963)
The funeral.

Madi (19:12.917)
Okay, thank you. Which I needed from Holly because I was just watching the entire episode all the time. So, okay, here we go. So the parks gang gathers together to say goodbye to the office and job the jobs that brought them together. When a request to fix a swing comes in, they agree to come together one last time to leave their mark on Pawnee. And through this process we begin to say goodbye to some of our favorite T V characters of all time.

Holly (19:17.728)
Yeah.

Holly (19:35.979)
Yeah, of all time. So true. Love.

Madi (19:38.439)
Yeah. Yeah. This is this is beautiful the way that they do this episode. Like so well so well done that Leslie has her touch on everybody to see kind of what happens for them in the future.

Holly (19:52.204)
Yeah, totally. And I mean, I'm I mean, obviously I'm biased, but I feel like if you haven't listened to last week's episode where I talked to Jennifer Cation Armstrong, who wrote the book, on Parks and Wreck and interviewed all of the cast and crew and everything, it really it like and the reason I'm saying this is because of the growth that you just mentioned. Like the way that the show came to be and continued to be, I feel like was really important. And I thought it was kind of perfect. I didn't really do it on purpose. I knew that it was gonna be near the end of the show and the series, but

Madi (19:56.862)
Yeah.

Holly (20:22.367)
the fact that it was right before the season finale is really interesting to me because we really could go over everything and see from start to finish the trajectory of all these characters and Leslie's character and everything. so so yeah, it's really interesting. and it is interesting to see how Leslie is the one that's touching everyone. Like she's the one that's in part of of everybody's flashbacks and flash forwards, you know what mean? so yeah, this is really well done and so cute.

Madi (20:46.282)
Yeah.

Yeah. I think there's a piece of it that I you could you could argue everybody on a different level, but Leslie had a part in where they all end up. Like whether it was encouraging them or giving the them the opportunity to get where they're gonna go. I I kinda got that meaning from her touching everyone.

Holly (20:56.652)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (21:04.883)
One hundred percent, yeah. I a thousand percent agree with that, totally. and I do wanna say before we start on the review that both parts of the finale are dedicated to Harris Whittles, who died on February nineteenth, twenty fifteen, and this aired on February twenty-fourth, so just a couple days before, which is so wild. I can't imagine how hard that probably was.

Madi (21:15.551)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (21:24.123)
I I don't know if I realized that while we've been talking about him passing throughout this series as we've watched him, I don't think I realized how soon it was to the finale. Like so sad.

Holly (21:29.577)
Mm.

Holly (21:36.588)
Yeah. It is crazy.

Well, so okay, we start this episode with Leslie staring into into an empty parks department and Ben is saying, I can't believe you got everyone to show up this early because today is the last day we'll all be together. So they're gonna gather before the parks department officially opens. she's got comfort foods, scrapbooks, tissues. side note, also another thing we should mention is that the one on Peacock is the producer's cut, and this was not in the original air, a lot of the stuff, so we will go over

Madi (21:50.505)
Yeah.

Madi (22:04.297)
Yes.

Holly (22:07.965)
some things that were not in the original air, which honestly a part of me feels redeemed because there's a lot of things that people think were originally aired and they were not. but this part in particular, first is the palette of tissues that was cut too. I do not remember that when the camera pans over to like literally hundreds of boxes of tissues because any perfect day involves crying uncontrollably. I don't know how I feel about that, if that's true, but I get it for this purpose.

Madi (22:15.475)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (22:23.08)
No.

Madi (22:29.309)
Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. It makes sense for for this one.

Holly (22:36.189)
Yeah. so we're now in the office with everyone and Leslie is giving a presentation on walk down memory lane is what she calls this. And it sounds like she's literally giving everyone's history from the beginning of time. Like in her presentation, she's saying Tom's history two years before he was even hired at parks and Ron like, Okay, can we just skip and get to the highlights, please?

Madi (22:52.181)
Mm.

Madi (22:55.653)
Skip along. That they parks will open before they even have time to to say goodbye to each other at this point.

Holly (23:02.603)
I know, and can you imagine how much time Leslie probably spent on all of that? That's so crazy. my gosh. Mm-hmm. Yeah, can't end without a scrapbook. so Jerry and Leslie wrote a song about the debate of getting a pod-based coffee pot, by the way, which is so funny. And April interrupts her, which is a funny way

Madi (23:09.255)
In true Leslie fashion.

Madi (23:13.522)
Mm-mm.

Holly (23:23.667)
for me, at least 'cause I kind of forgot that Jerry comes in later or Gary comes in later. but for me I was like, this is so that the writers didn't have to come up with that song. That's totally great. But then little did I know, of course they would come up with that song. Mm-hmm.

Madi (23:36.665)
Yeah, it's a great tune too. He he delivers it so well and the fact that he has costume

Holly (23:44.356)
my gosh. It's such a good costume. It's so funny. So Leslie says, This is our last day here. Like we need to celebrate everything we've done here. Like who knows when we'll all be here together again. And I really do get it for Leslie. Like this is huge and we need like a big celebration memorializing this event kind of thing. Because for her, I mean for everyone else, but like she's the only one that's like

Madi (24:05.492)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (24:09.291)
you know, not afraid to admit it, this was this was a life changing job, which I think is similar to the office, where like you think that it's not a life changing job and Jim says like everything I have is owed to this like crazy, meaningless, what I thought was meaningless job anyway. And for Leslie, of course, like it is meaningful. But for everyone else, I think they were just kind of along for the ride. You know what I mean? and so yeah, it's really, it's really interesting.

Madi (24:23.763)
Yeah.

Madi (24:30.266)
There. Mm-hmm.

Holly (24:34.727)
but then there's a guy that comes in and says there's a swing in a park near his house that's been broken for three months and Donna says, like, no one works here anymore, like we don't work here, we can't actually help you. But Leslie is, you know, of of course with Leslie. She has to take this on as her final project. And it is kind of perfect to bring the gang together again.

Madi (24:42.929)
Yeah.

Madi (24:51.473)
It is. Yeah. Yeah. This is small enough. It can be fixed in a day. It's not a yeah, it's a it's the perfect little thing.

Holly (24:59.649)
Yeah, totally. this is played by John Daly, who, by the way, played the drunk in the slide in the pilot episode. So wild. That was in two thousand nine. We're now on two thousand fifteen. And he yeah, he plays the one that wants to come in and gets the get this fixed. So that is truly insane, a guest star that could come like literally bookend the the parks department.

Madi (25:07.465)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (25:11.241)
Yeah.

Madi (25:20.527)
Yeah. Absolutely. When I read that, I was like, hold on. Like, somebody's research might be wrong, which is why I went back to episode one and I to watch and I was like, my gosh, that is the same guy. Like, this is insane. So it's also really cool to be like, we didn't see his life between all these season these ep these seasons, but look at how he turned his life around too. He's in a suit. He looks like he's going to a job. He's not trashed in a slide. So level up.

Holly (25:28.396)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Holly (25:46.408)
Mm-hmm. That's true. That's true. yes, he's an actor, writer, and producer, UCB guy. love this performance too at the end, which we'll get to, which was just so like perfect for the parks department, I feel. not getting the thanks that they necessarily need. but anyway, and it does remind me too that I didn't really start reaching out to guest stars until later in the podcast run. Like I don't really know when that started because I was reaching out for interviews at the beginning.

But not necessarily guest stars, because I would have reached out to him earlier. but and I know this was the pilot, so we were still finding ourselves. But still I was like, that's so interesting to see not only how the show has grown, but how I have grown as like or and how we've grown as a podcast too. I think that's really like existential, I guess. And kind of funny to me that none of them could actually fix it because none of them work there. That's w that was such a stark reminder to me that, like, everyone's moved on.

Madi (26:33.789)
Yeah, absolutely.

Madi (26:40.393)
Yeah.

Madi (26:44.531)
Yeah.

Holly (26:44.683)
And then they say one la or Leslie says one last ride for the Parks and Wrecking, which you know I love when they have the name of the episode in somebody's dialogue of the episode. So super fun.

Madi (26:53.393)
Mm-hmm. Yes, absolutely. I l I love this too that like Leslie didn't want to move on to her her new job, the one that she chose at the end of season six, because everybody was she didn't want to leave everybody behind and she, you know, she she didn't want to lose what they had in the parks department. So it's really it's really cool to see that they've kind of moved everybody's moving on now. Like nobody's being left behind.

Holly (27:05.889)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (27:21.291)
Right, right, right. and then Jerry comes in as a coffee pot, which by the way, that costume is so Jerry and so funny. And we did get the song, like you said. and that that is kinda sad and hurtful though when Tom says, You're the mayor now, have some dignity and Tom is so serious about it. my god.

Madi (27:36.189)
Yeah. I'm like, dude, you can be the mayor and still have fun. Jerry obviously is enjoying himself.

Holly (27:40.832)
Yeah. Right. my God. So then Leslie says she needs Ben to cancel the eleven AM flight to DC and Ben prepared for this and booked a backup flight at six, which by the way, I don't know. Maybe they didn't have this at the time, but I don't know why he couldn't have just paid extra to get the changeable flights. You know what I mean? Like was that not a thing yet? 'Cause you could have just re refunded or exchanged it, but that's okay. the point is that he understood that this was going to happen.

Madi (27:58.422)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (28:06.643)
Yeah, he knew what was happening today. Yeah.

Holly (28:08.309)
And I really think that this line is cut too, where he says, where she says, I cannot wait to fix that swing so we can get your little butt into it.

Madi (28:16.967)
Yeah, it's always about it's always about Ben's butt for her. So that tracks. Yeah. The thing is, is like I also work with my husband and I would never say those things out loud in my workplace. So it's just so funny that she feels the the authority to say that. Yeah. For real.

Holly (28:20.075)
And his tight compact body. my god. So funny.

Holly (28:32.019)
Right, right. my god.

Holly (28:37.621)
Yeah, I'm like comfortable enough, I guess. so a Parks and Rec equipment recreation or yeah, equipment form is the first start, but everything is paperless, so no one can aca access the computers because they don't work there, so they don't have a login. But C, Jerry is smart because this makes me think Parks and Rec does need him. C, because he remembered which form was needed. And Donna says she has one actually because of Leslie's scrapbooks. And so thanks for the memories. Thanks, form.

Madi (29:03.347)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (29:06.229)
The memories is what the scrapbook is called. And so I love that we actually get this equipment form because of her scrapbooks.

Madi (29:13.531)
Yes, I know. So great.

Holly (29:16.215)
Donna says she's going to move to Seattle as soon as she gets her local license. And Leslie says, you know, whatever happens, I know you're gonna live an exciting and full life. And this is where we start our flash forwards where Leslie hugs her, has a special moment, the first of many with each character. which side note, one idea for the finale, I just you probably saw this too, and I'm really glad that they didn't do it, but that the k the ideas that were pitched was that it would flash forward to how each character dies.

Madi (29:24.085)
Mm.

Madi (29:37.781)
Mm.

Holly (29:45.448)
and we do get that with Gary, but Pratt actually pitched potential deaths for Andy and April, with Andy dying from being locked inside a hot car like a dog, and April dying from a broken heart shortly after. And the entire death angle was eventually scrapped as it had deem as it was deemed too dark for the show. And I was like, yeah, yes, yes, that is.

Madi (29:46.141)
Ooh.

Madi (29:54.688)
my god.

Madi (30:04.425)
Yeah. Well, and I hate to bring this up, but the the timing of Harris's death as well, like that would that would have hit way different. Yeah. And I think Jerry's death being part of his flash forward makes sense. He's the only one retired and he's happy. It's a happy death, yeah. So yeah, I'm I did not see that in my research. And God love you, Chris Pratt, but I'm so glad that they did not move forward with that.

Holly (30:11.001)
true.

Yeah. Yeah.

Holly (30:18.913)
And he's happy. It's a happy death.

Holly (30:25.517)
Yeah.

Holly (30:31.029)
Me too. So we see Donna showing the house to people in Seattle, twenty twenty-three. This is where they flash forward to. That's the year. And apparently there's a space haystack in Seattle to cover the space needle. I thought that was so funny because at first I didn't get it, I'm not gonna lie. And then I was like, needle in the haystack. that's funny but weird, but okay, I get it.

Madi (30:46.817)
The haystack. Mm. But also why? It's such like a a monumental architecture in Seattle that it's like why? Yeah.

Holly (30:57.289)
Yeah, and the fact that she's like, that's the point. Yeah, it's so weird. my God. So the guy actor, who's looking at this house is Brendan Ford. He's been a lot of things. American Auto, which is also, I think, a mockumentary style that came from this kind of you know, technique. He's been in Henry Danger, weeds, a lot of stuff it looks like. and apparently this house sold in two hours. Also, I love that Donna has her hair streaked purple and their house looks so beautiful.

Madi (31:17.301)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (31:20.915)
Yeah. Yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Holly (31:25.227)
You get so much information, I feel, in this little moment.

Madi (31:28.743)
Yeah. I I love that they I they've kind of taken everybody out of the parks department. But this is such a really like, Donna's getting to sell, she's getting to use her personality, it's the finer things in life. She's showing nice houses, like she's getting all these all it's very Donna, I think and I don't think I would have picked real estate agent out of a hat for her as a job, but it's just so

Holly (31:46.316)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (31:52.746)
Like I think it suits her very well and I love that she's got the the s like you said, the streak. It's like she's totally like she always knew who she was, but it's like she's really in it now, you know?

Holly (32:03.253)
Yeah. Yeah. I love that she's doing so well. It's so nice. And they're having dinner outside with the fire going. I love how this looks, the lights and the wine and I just love this for her. And she also is gonna get a giant commission check from that house that she sold earlier. And it has her thinking about the next Jonna Donna Joe adventure quest, which she wants to go to the Amazon, which is amazing, but also so cool to hear that they have adventure quests that they like really make their travel important.

Madi (32:07.551)
Yeah. Mm, dreams.

Mm-hmm.

Madi (32:28.65)
Yep.

Holly (32:31.743)
And Joe is excited about it, but he's also really sad because he says he can't really take teaching anymore or he might not be able to take teaching anymore because they cut the math club. And I feel like that like they just or not even the math club, they just stopped teaching math. And I feel like this is so reminiscent of the current times of like stopping having textbooks, top stopping teaching like certain handwriting and reading skills. Like it's tough. And especially with now with COVID and it or it's just it's they did a good job of of

Madi (32:45.043)
Math, yeah.

Hmm.

Madi (32:55.412)
Yeah.

Holly (33:01.197)
saying that commentary. 'Cause it's always been that way, I feel, you know.

Madi (33:01.663)
Telling the future a little. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And teaching teaching is a hard job. Like mad respect for the fact that, you know, you do deal with like 30 plus kids in a classroom, a lot of times by yourself all day. But then there's also that when you're in the public school system at least, there's all the budget cuts and the you don't even get what you need to be a teacher. And so it's like it's cool to see a different side of like the government aspect from the teaching view.

Holly (33:28.717)
Mm. True.

Madi (33:30.239)
from Joe. but I love that I love that Donna like they get to kind of have the life they together have built and she's she's there to kinda support him and he supports her and 'cause it is hard like doing that.

Holly (33:43.51)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Totally. Absolutely. and then Donna says she might wear the little red thing, which I love that we bring that back and how excited Joe gets. It's always cute. And then Donna calls April, which by the way I love that she's called Satan's niece in her grizzle phone or grizzle watch or whatever. It's very cute to see also the relationship between Donna and April that that continued after the wedding and how they went to Venezuela and April barely remembered that.

Madi (33:56.703)
So cute.

Madi (34:01.352)
Yes.

Madi (34:07.637)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (34:14.641)
Is that not when they went to Venezuela in season two? Remember April's boyfriend she brought back from Venezuela? Yeah, remember they FaceTime her and Donna's there at the at the mansion. That's what I thought they were referencing, and it was like a nice little pullback for us too, because I was like, wait, that freaking happened in the show, I think.

Holly (34:20.649)
Yeah. But did Donna so Donna went too?

okay, I do remember that.

you're right.

Holly (34:36.6)
my gosh, you're so right. So I didn't remember it either, along with April. That's so funny.

Madi (34:39.709)
Yeah. That it took me like the third rewatch to be like, wait. I think that's real.

Holly (34:44.157)
Yeah. Okay, good call. Good call.

Love that. All right. So April's visiting Seattle, and we learn that Donna is contributing some of her commission check to start an educational program through April's company called Teach Yourself. my gosh, that's so beautiful. That part really makes me like so heartfelt, emotional because it's an after-school program to teach the things that are being cut, like science and math, which by the way is insane that science and math were being cut. and this whole idea too of Joe being so sweet and saying, like, no, like you don't have to do that. I love our trips and it's your money. Like, you should spend a

Madi (34:58.685)
Mm.

Madi (35:03.101)
Yeah.

Holly (35:17.593)
How you want and she wants to do this though. Like she's lived a full life already. And just like Leslie said, but the idea too that Donna 'cause we talked about this last week and a couple of weeks out honestly in the last episode with how she's stepping up for all of her friends. Now she's stepping up for her partner. And I just love how they've really made Donna like so thoughtful and considerate and just such a really good person.

Madi (35:20.99)
Yeah.

Madi (35:33.429)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (35:42.27)
Yeah, absolutely. I think it w it was always there, but it's just showing so heavily now and I think she she's always been portrayed of like liking the finer things in life with a which absolutely has not nothing wrong there's nothing wrong with that. But I think there's an added there's an added piece to it here where obviously you would do this for your partner, but like the money that's gonna get her things that she loves and get her the travel, like she's like, I want to part with this because I know it's gonna make you happy is like

Holly (35:45.357)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (35:55.565)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (36:10.397)
Yeah. And jumping ahead a tiny bit, but it's not to say that she still doesn't do the finer things or have buy things and treat yourself, you know what mean? So I also love when she says that she's had a full life. She says she served on the NASCAR pit crew, came in ninth on Italy's Got Talent. I just love all of those things. It's so funny.

Madi (36:12.137)
Very, very great.

Madi (36:17.351)
Right. For real. Mm-hmm.

Madi (36:24.327)
Yeah. Love. Love. Yeah. That's happened in what you said we said it's twenty twenty three, so twenty seventeen to twenty three. So she's done less than six years. All that stuff. Awesome.

Holly (36:33.655)
Uh-huh.

Amazing. So good. So then we cut back to the current day parks, and Craig is here. He's growing in his anger management. He takes a deep breath and asks, Ben asks him to sign the parks and rec equipment form so they can go ahead and get this swing fixed. And I love that Craig has an awareness when Leslie says when she first met him, she thought she should call the police. And I love Craig is like, Yeah, I mean that's usually how it goes. I get it.

Madi (37:02.093)
Yeah. I love her whole delivery of of listing ha how she experienced him. Like, you know, 'cause there's like three or f yeah, yeah. It's just yeah. The way she delivers it is is really great and not softened. It's very like very true to how she felt, which is nice.

Holly (37:06.325)
Right.

Yeah. no, he's crazy.

Holly (37:21.313)
Yes, so true.

But Leslie is so glad she's leaving the parks department in good hands. And to me, I mean, this is such a great reminder because, well, we first of all, we talked about how Craig, like how Donna says, well, he might care more than you when he first comes from Eagleton. And Donna says that about Craig to Leslie. And Leslie was cer it it was a reminder for me because Leslie was searching so hard for her replacement. Like she was looking at April to do this during the prom episode, and that's why she went a little nut so. But I'm glad it wasn't April, first of all, because Craig is definitely the better choice. but also like

we just see how April has gone into her own thing and how April never really wanted to be in the Parks department anyway. And Craig has this passion that can be carried on from Leslie and he learned a lot from Leslie. So I think that is really sweet to remember.

Madi (38:01.749)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (38:09.161)
Yeah, absolutely. And I love that that confidence that she has in leaving it with him because I think there was a period of time where she wasn't at gonna like she didn't feel like she was ever gonna be ready to give up the parks department to anybody else.

Holly (38:20.801)
Right, totally. So then we get Craig's flash forward. This is twenty nineteen. so only like what what is that, two years or three years after?

Madi (38:29.577)
Yes, two years.

Holly (38:31.039)
And he's singing at Tom's Bistro, which is so cute. And by the way, Billy Eichner, who plays Craig, really can sing. He's done lots of theater in New York before. It started with him singing at Donna's wedding, by the way. and he got gets cut off by Lavandrius. But I remember saying, like, he has a nice voice. And so it was nice that they kind of built that into his character, which I think is great. And I love that we bring up that he's the part-time Somalier still at Tom's Bistro, because we didn't really get that before.

Madi (38:47.145)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (38:51.559)
Yeah, absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely.

Holly (39:00.625)
then Tom says that a guy is sending over a glass of wine for Craig and his business card and it's Typhoon, aka Rodney Toe who plays this so fun. We started this little spark at Donna's wedding, but Craig was too busy planning to pay attention. But I do remember him saying, like, I am interested, but now is not the time.

Madi (39:15.731)
Image Yep. Yep. So I love that we came full circle from that because it could have just left off that cliff of like, Yeah, I am interested, but I love that it that it comes back.

Holly (39:20.138)
Me too.

Holly (39:26.145)
Totally. And I love that the business card s just says his name, Typhoon. Like there's no other information. But maybe Grizzle has created some sort of like touch thing that you can see the information if you do something special. I don't know. also I didn't really love that Craig seemed so lackluster about it. He was like, Okay, fine. I mean, I get it, but also I was like, No, but I thought you liked it. Maybe it's just his character. I don't know.

Madi (39:31.177)
Yeah.

Madi (39:40.285)
Yeah. Yeah, could be.

Madi (39:48.606)
Yeah.

He yeah, 'cause I got that vibe at their a little bit at their wedding and a little bit at their extra flash flash forward, where it's just like he's kind of just like, Meh, I guess I'll be here. Yeah.

Holly (39:58.589)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (40:03.295)
Yeah, totally. But anyhow, well, it clearly moves on from there because we cut to a s wedding in City Hall, which is so funny that that's the space they chose. And honestly, I didn't even think of this, but such a Leslie move to get married at a parks space slash event, 'cause that's what Leslie did too. Again, showing that parallel between Craig and Leslie and how they are

Madi (40:13.812)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (40:19.826)
Mm. Yeah.

Holly (40:24.661)
you know, perfect for their roles. And it's also like such a great way to tie everything up. Like Ron is the best man because they kept the haircut barber relationship. yeah, and it's in City Hall with only a couple people. I I think it's just really cute. I like it a lot.

Madi (40:27.348)
Yeah.

Madi (40:32.698)
Mm. Yeah.

Madi (40:40.701)
Yeah, that that's a good call out, the parallel.

Holly (40:42.793)
Mm-hmm. And then Horatio Sands, for some reason, is marrying them from SNL Fame. I think they just knew him and gave him a cool part. Like it's so funny to me that he just randomly shows up. and then this is where we cut to the airplane in the future, which I feel like I've seen like a couple years ago, like them thinking about this as a potential.

Madi (40:50.771)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Holly (41:04.787)
reality of like the clear airplane where you can see the skies around you. Like I wonder how far off we are from how having that ceiling exposed. Even though I don't know how much I'd like that. But

Madi (41:08.56)
Mm mm-hmm.

Madi (41:14.901)
I think a lot of people are gonna be against that if I'm gonna be real. I think there are gonna be a lot of people afraid.

Holly (41:18.08)
I know.

I know. I think the best thing to do would be to have if that's the route that people wanna do, would be to have like projectors or something. Like so it seems like you get a picture of the sky, but it's not actually the sky.

Madi (41:29.595)
Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Or like more like train windows than like the small little ovals we have, like bigger ones with like like I don't know, more rectangular, so you see more of the sky. But

Holly (41:38.429)
yeah.

Holly (41:42.335)
Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I just don't know how that would work with like engineering as far as it being able to withstand the pressures and all that stuff. So whatever. But it is a cute, like, way to imagine it's very Star Trek Star Wars vibes, you know?

Madi (41:49.084)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Anyway.

Yes, that's okay. I felt the same the same way. Yeah.

Holly (42:01.162)
Mm-hmm. so Craig asks if there are any regrets that he has and Typhoon has none, but Craig is like

in his true character, saying, like, of course I have regrets, like including whatever I just ordered. Like and I love that Typhoon laughs at that, which makes us see that they really are perfect for each other and it's super cute. and they're aged up, by the way, which I thought was really like what a fun thing to have done for this small, tiny little scene. and Billy Eichner is quoted as saying that it was crazy seeing himself aged up because he looked so much like his dad. So he was a little freaked out. So he's like, my God, I'm gonna look like this when I get older. How funny is that?

Madi (42:13.652)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Madi (42:24.294)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Madi (42:33.488)
wow.

That's cool. That's really cool. Did you find in your research the champagne bottle? That they okay. It says John Ralphio on the champagne bottle. So it's it's like the the theory behind it is that he actually ended up making something of himself by making a champagne brand later on in life. Yeah. So crazy.

Holly (42:42.795)
No.

Holly (42:46.381)
Great catch.

Holly (42:59.321)
my god. That's awesome. Yeah. And he just named it after himself. my gosh, classic. I love that. Okay, I'll have to go back and check. my gosh, so cool. Great catch. So now we go back to present day. They have the file, the form that Craig just signed. I love that this little form is what starts us all on this journey and how we are just going back to kind of the

Madi (43:06.471)
Yeah. Because why not? Because in true sapristine fashion.

Yeah. Yeah, very cool.

Holly (43:27.479)
bureaucratic red tape of how government works sometimes with just paperwork like April's line. and they go to the fourth floor to file this paperwork with Andy and April and Andy says shotgun because that means pressing the buttons in the elevator to him.

Madi (43:29.429)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (43:46.301)
Ugh yeah. That's true Andy fashion. There's a lot of true to character things here. Yeah.

Holly (43:50.946)
Character people. Mm-hmm. And then we have Ethel coming back, which is very exciting. She still works in the fourth floor. And sh even she says, like, we've gone digital, like, get with the times, people. Come on. And this is where April, I mean, I just keep thinking about April's line too, when and at the mortuary thing where she's like, Why is every job just paperwork? And anyway, but April says that she'll miss the fourth floor.

Madi (44:02.558)
Yeah.

Madi (44:11.113)
Yeah.

Holly (44:14.709)
the most. And then Kyle comes back and just a friendly reminder that Kyle is played by the actor Andy Forrest, who we actually interviewed ages ago, but is so nice and generous. And he's emailed over the years when he's come back on the show. He's one of those people that sometimes I'll message and be like, So how was this episode? How was that episode? And it's really cute because I I did message him. I haven't heard anything back yet, just to see. But I don't remember if this was actually in the

like original air. I feel like they might have cut him, but they might not have 'cause it was so short. I don't know.

Madi (44:46.525)
I don't think they cut him, but I don't remember him having very many lines. Like we saw him in there with Ethel, but there were a couple lines that seemed very new to me.

Holly (44:51.447)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (44:56.705)
Well, either way, it was great that he was there to wrap that up, you know. And I love this moment where Andy says he'll miss his favorite restaurants when they move and he'll miss Leslie. And she's like, Literally all of those things will be in Washington with you. And I like that he thinks Leslie's just being metaphorical, like spiritual, like we'll be together in spirit vibes, but it's actually literally true.

Madi (44:59.753)
Yeah, absolutely.

Madi (45:10.484)
Yeah.

Madi (45:14.131)
Yeah.

Madi (45:18.227)
Yeah. Well 'cause yeah, he just chooses chain restaurants like KFC and Taco Bell and it's like, yeah, everybody everybody has those, dude. Yeah. So funny. He cracks me up.

Holly (45:20.779)
Yeah. Exactly. That's everywhere. And then Leslie says Ben and her are always there for Annie and April, and she's so excited for their new venture as well in DC. And this is where we get the flash forward to April as Jane at Snake Hole. This is in twenty twenty two. That's the year that they show. she's with Bert Macklin. They're about to give in to their temptations, which by the way, I feel like it's the closest we've come to seeing them. Like

Madi (45:41.245)
Yeah.

Holly (45:50.047)
Do it. Almost like they were so close. And then the doorbell rings and it's Halloween and kids are there trick-or-treating, which is so sweet how Andy gets excited about it.

Madi (45:51.507)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Madi (45:59.772)
Yeah. Yeah, I love that he's super excited. Great acting between the two of them as well. They've always had great chemistry. So

Holly (46:05.323)
Mm-hmm.

And I love the champion comes back for her last appearance. And I'm saying her on purpose because remember, friendly reminder champion is also is actually a lady. Her name is Lucy in real life. And she was adopted from an LA rescue group in 2004. And she had such great work on her resume. She is in lots of shows and commercials and print work. Like we love her. And I also started following her on Instagram, so I'll tag her and you guys can all follow her too. It's so cute. Her her name is Franken Lucy, like Frankenstein, but Lucy because of her three leggedness, and it's so

freaking cute I can't stand it. my god.

Madi (46:38.729)
That's adorable. So great. Such a pillar of the Andy April timeline, too.

Holly (46:45.513)
One thousand percent, yes. Like you cannot have Andy and April without champion, for sure. Love. Mm-hmm. Exactly. So April says they have to go, because they're gonna go to dinner and they put all the candy or she asks him to put all the candy in a bowl, but Andy's upset, firstly, because he ate all the candy, but secondly, because seeing all those kids out there makes him want to have kids, but April still doesn't want to. And I love this line, I wanna put a babe in you, babe.

Madi (46:49.661)
Mm mm. That's their family.

Madi (47:04.446)
Yeah.

Madi (47:13.205)
Yeah, that's it is very them. Yeah. I it's it's interesting, but I'm it I it's cool that they kind of dive into this and we'll talk about it more when they get to Leslie and Ben's house. But it's interesting that they this is kind of the route they they went as like a conversation between the two of them, but yeah.

Holly (47:15.405)
Let's sew them.

Holly (47:33.612)
Mm-hmm.

Definitely. And so I think I don't know. I think this line is really fun for April too to say like she likes all the body stuff she'd go through. like all her body changing and stuff, 'cause it's like disgusting and weird and morph like morphing into something else. But at the end of the day they've brought a child into the world and she's just not sure about that and it's disgusting. And I like that Andy says, No, they wipe all the disgusting off stuff off immediately.

Madi (47:47.384)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Madi (48:03.197)
Yeah. When they come out. Yeah. Both great points. I mean that like I I have a lot of commentary in my head around like when they have conversations at Ben and Leslie's house. But I love that she's thinking about it. She's not being rash. Like I think when you look at how quickly they got married, you're like, they make really quick decisions. But she's like, No, like we'll we will have actually brought a child into the world and while it doesn't come out of her mouth as the way I think she's thinking it, it's like

That's a big deal. That's a lot of responsibility. You can't just you can't just take that back once it happens kind of thing. And so I I really appreciate the way April's thinking about it.

Holly (48:33.246)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (48:38.123)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (48:44.275)
Yeah. Me too. Me too.

And I think Pratt and Plaza do such a great job of making this little moment really heartfelt, like such a couple moment and such a like that's really an impasse as a couple of like do like if you your partner wants kids and you don't, like that is, you know, grounds for not being together at the end of the day. 'Cause it's such a big deal and it's such a huge desire for a lot of people. So I feel like they did a really good job of like b see both seeing each other's sides but still not really knowing what to do about it. So they

Madi (48:49.853)
Mm.

Madi (48:58.931)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Madi (49:05.877)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (49:10.28)
Yeah.

Holly (49:16.759)
They really had good heartfelt chemistry here too, where there's a little bit of a pause where he's like, Okay, all right, let's just table it for now kind of thing. So yeah, it's yeah, it's good. And this is when they go to dinner at Ben and Leslie's. by the way, I thought yeah. sorry.

Madi (49:23.593)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Madi (49:31.541)
Okay, wait, wait, wait. I'm going back to the kids because okay, the kids. There's one kid dressed as Star Lord. Yeah, yeah. But I thought it was interesting that there's one kid dressed as Star Lord. Everyone else is like a really generic, like princess and look like a vampire or a a a burglar. Like he was the only character there. So and it's really easy to miss because of how quickly they pan in and out. So it was a really good, cool call out too.

Holly (49:39.599)
yeah, I saw that, yeah.

Holly (49:53.941)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (50:01.416)
what Chris Pratt was working on on the side through the last couple of seasons of of this show. So

Holly (50:03.52)
Yeah.

Yeah, that is a fun little Easter egg for sure. no, no, you're good. That was a good mention. So I was gonna say that Ben and Leslie's house looks kinda wild slash like expensive for DC. Like where the hell did they base that? I don't know.

Madi (50:09.001)
Yeah. Anyway, sorry, continue.

Madi (50:21.351)
Uhhuh. Yeah. Great, great comment. I also was like, damn.

Holly (50:23.575)
I was like, what? Okay. So Leslie is Sandra D. O'Connor, by the way, which I love that. I think that's great. And Andy doesn't know who Sandra D. O'Connor is or doesn't get the joke at all.

Madi (50:31.881)
Great. They have Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One of them doesn't know who Sandra D is, the other one doesn't know how Sandra Day O'Connor is. I love they they have fun with this because remember Pam also does a mashup outfit. She does this Doctor Cinder Cinderella. So which I love. Taking women in powerful positions and merging them with a a famous character.

Holly (50:41.0)
Mm.

Holly (50:46.294)
Mm, yes, great call. Yes, yes, exactly. So true.

Holly (50:58.655)
Mm-hmm. Yes, love. and then Ben is the lamplighter from his new board game sequel, Cones of Dunshire, Winds Tremora, which I love this and I love his little accent slash character that he puts on for this. So, so cute.

Madi (51:13.225)
I love that he still has time. Like I don't we don't really know what his job is right now at this moment in time, but it's like, damn, okay.

Holly (51:14.868)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

True. my god. So funny. So Andy asks where Ben and Leslie's kids are because he wanted to wrestle all three at once, but they're trick-or-treating in Georgetown with some friends, which is very cute. And it's just us grown ups tonight, so there's no kids at all. And they're saying that as it's a good thing because, you know, they have young children and it might be nice to have adult time, but this makes Andy really sad. And it's it great physical acting.

Madi (51:31.477)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (51:37.097)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (51:42.879)
Great physical acting from Chris Pratt there too. You feel it.

Holly (51:46.504)
Mm. Yeah. And Andy doesn't understand the technique of asking someone for help in a different part of the house to get them to talk privately. He like thinks it's like Jedi Ninja moves. no, I just thought you might want to talk about something. And it is really cute to me. go ahead.

Madi (51:54.805)
Yes.

Madi (52:00.596)
Yeah. Yeah. Great No, I was just gonna say great pickup from Ben. Like y you know, like and it wasn't very subtle the way he sunk into the couch, but taking that as this opportunity that like, hey, maybe maybe I should chat with him on the side.

Holly (52:06.029)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (52:15.511)
Totally. Yeah. And I mean, yeah, I I think it's really cute. I mean, that's kinda what I was gonna say too, w that Ben and Leslie seem like they already know the story. Like Ben or like what they've been going through. Like Ben says she's still on the fence, which is sweet that that it seems like they've talked about it before. and Andy kind of continues that with saying like he wants kids so much and

Madi (52:23.657)
Mm, mm.

Holly (52:36.395)
I side note I th I don't know, I just don't remember this story. Maybe I'm just crazy, but seeing how Andy was with the group of eight year olds laughing at him, but they were laughing at Andy face planning on his rollerblades. Like and the part where Ben offers Andy one of his kids, but it was a joke. Like I don't remember the last part, but yeah, anyway.

Madi (52:49.172)
I th

Madi (52:55.165)
I rem I remember the maybe I don't I'm gonna be questioning myself now, but I n I don't I don't remember the roller rollerblade story from the first several times I saw it. So that's a good call out. Yeah.

Holly (53:00.107)
It's okay.

Holly (53:05.001)
Yeah. I don't know. But either way, it's funny. So and I just love that Andy thinks he's serious. Like, yeah, sure, I'll take one a kid. And Ben's like, No, you can't do that. and I love this line too, like

Madi (53:11.677)
Yeah. No. You can't

Holly (53:18.309)
I think it's really important to bring up too where he's like, you know, Ben is like, She'll come around, she'll come around which I don't think is smart of Ben to say, to be completely honest. Like, because you don't know that. And so I love that Andy says, like, what if she doesn't? Like that's the crux of the situation. That's where I would be too. Like, what if they don't? Like we have to plan for that contingency too, you know?

Madi (53:25.702)
No, I agree.

Mm-hmm.

Madi (53:33.023)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I yeah, I agree with you. I don't love I don't love that comment from Ben. That's the one that stuck out to me as like, dude, like she could stay on her same stance for the rest of her life. Like you can't promise Andy that she'll come around. And it is really important for Andy to know where does he stand if she doesn't like, you know, and is that okay?

Holly (53:57.323)
Right. Right.

Right. So now we get to April's side where April's talking to Leslie, saying, like, go ahead, just say it, like, say what you're gonna say. And April says, you know, they feel really lucky and she's going on a tangent saying, like, you got three kids, like they're all smart and healthy and great, but she doesn't know if she's gonna be that lucky, like as lucky as Ben and Leslie. And she thinks Leslie's gonna lecture her, that she should have kids. And April also thinks that their life is like perfect already, which I think is a fair point. and I do think that's a good way to

Madi (54:07.349)
Mm.

Madi (54:27.081)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (54:28.959)
look at it the way that Leslie says it, like you guys are a good team. Your life is perfect. but the way that, you know, you can think of it is that if you want to bring in new team members, it might be nice to have some more team like team teammates. But if you don't want new team members, then you don't have to. And I like that Leslie doesn't really say anything one way or the other. She just says, like, I n can't tell you if you should have kids or not, but I like your team. So

Madi (54:43.637)
Yeah.

Holly (54:56.191)
You know, whatever happens next is up to you kind of thing.

Madi (54:57.587)
Yeah. I love, love this advice. And I love that she proves April wrong a little bit where she doesn't come in hot and say she should have kids. That she this is such great advice because if somebody doesn't want kids, they shouldn't be forced into thinking that they should or, you know, like they have to come to that realization on their own. And but I do love also the look at it like you're a team.

Holly (55:25.281)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (55:25.689)
And I think there's some com comfort in, you know, April's concern of like, will my kids be great? It there's some comfort that Leslie does give on that end when she says, I really like your team. And there's there's a lot of power there and when you have a good team to start out with that you're bringing a kiddo into, it's like that helps way better than if your team isn't great, you know.

Holly (55:37.228)
Right.

Holly (55:44.48)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (55:48.224)
Right, right. Which a lot of people do the opposite, I think, or at least that I've seen. They're like, Well, maybe a kid would help our team be better. Better in the opposite way. Better like, our team sucks now. So

Madi (55:51.408)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Help. Yeah. Yeah, eggs. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, and I this is what I was gonna say earlier is like I think I think Chris Chris, Andy, is like so excited about playing with kids because that's the experience he's had, right? When he's with Leslie and Ben's kids, he's like the cool uncle that's getting to play with them.

There are really hard parts about being a parent too. And I think we're seeing April be the one that's thinking through that side.

Holly (56:22.189)
True. Yeah, because he also has the Johnny Karate stuff too that he gets to like have fun and play. And we did get to and and e even in that moment where you know, I'm flashing back to there was a kid lost at City Hall that time, it was April that was like, Hey, Johnny Karate's n and Bert Macklin are not gonna solve this. Yeah, so that's a really good point.

Madi (56:26.141)
Mm. Yeah.

Madi (56:39.106)
Mm. Yeah.

Holly (56:43.917)
Okay, so this is when we talked about Dr. Saprestine coming back. It's Halloween, a year after this last scene in DC. April's now giving birth in full Halloween makeup, of course, which is so, so perfect. I love that, first of all, Andy says you've never looked more beautiful, and they pan over to her, so we didn't know that she was in Halloween makeup at first, which was fantastic. But secondly, I love that she put makeup on like on the way to the hospital. Like it wasn't even on before. Like she wanted to be birthed in or birthing.

Madi (56:53.151)
Cool.

Madi (57:01.233)
Yeah. Yeah.

Holly (57:12.447)
Someone in that, if that makes sense. Which yes, which by the way, my gosh, this is so random. I didn't even write this in my notes because it literally happened like two nights ago. My mom and I watch sometimes watch Wheel of J Wheel of Fortune and then Jeopardy afterwards. And I don't even know what the category was, but there was a clue saying like this character was in full Halloween makeup when she gave birth. I think it was like about moms or something, and I like, April Ludgate. I know that one.

Madi (57:13.917)
Yeah. Yeah. Very, very on brand.

Madi (57:26.656)
cool.

Madi (57:38.099)
No, this one.

Holly (57:40.557)
So that's so funny that that was on Jeopardy. So cute.

Madi (57:42.121)
That's exciting. Yeah, that's cute. I kn almost know nothing with that ask on Jeopardy, so that would have been a fun moment. Yeah, it's hard.

Holly (57:48.534)
It's hard. Yeah. I think this was cut. I laughed so hard at this because it was so new to me 'cause Doctor Sapersine says, we can take it off before you give birth or whatever. And she's like, No, I want it on and he says, Whatever blows your skirt up

Madi (58:05.265)
Yeah my gosh.

Holly (58:08.177)
That made me laugh so hard. I have like literally all caps L O L O L Cause I was like, I just don't remember this part. What a Dr. Saperstein thing to say. That is so funny. that's so funny. and then she has a birth mix. she and the monster mashes on it, of course. And it's cute that they decorated the room with pictures. Did you have a birth mix slash like decorations like this?

Madi (58:16.767)
For real.

Crazy.

Madi (58:32.251)
No, I did not have a birth mix. I didn't really feel like I don't know. Yeah, and I mean they they have one for Pam in the office too. But like when I was like, I don't I don't think I'm ev this is the thing. What I didn't want was I didn't want to put music on that I loved or helped me calm down and have a really traumatic experience and then have that be ruined for me. and right. And because and not everybody's like this, but

Holly (58:34.893)
I feel like that's a lot of work.

Holly (58:52.875)
Yeah, 'cause that's now your memory.

Madi (58:58.355)
Because, you know, I you probably feel this too as a musician. I'm so tied to certain songs because of when I experienced them or something that happened while I was listening to them. And I was like, I can't let I I don't really want that to be part of my day. so yeah, I did not have one. But I I had TV shows that my mom and I watched while we were waiting for the moment to, you know, go into full active labor and things that helped calm me down, but nothing in the moment.

Holly (59:12.406)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Holly (59:26.017)
Yeah, like I would love to hear from someone that did because I feel like they show it on TV shows all the time, but I don't really know any women that really did that. So I'll have to ask around. Yeah, I don't know. Anyway. Right, yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, interesting. The MM, like Pam says Jim has when she forgets her birth mix. my god.

Madi (59:29.618)
Mm.

Madi (59:35.889)
Yeah, I'm sure people do.

Maybe a hype up mix? Some EDM. I don't know.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I it not only would we like to hear if somebody has had a birth mix, but we would love to know some of the like songs that you had on them. Yeah.

Holly (59:57.356)
Yes, yes, yes. I'll do some research. Okay. I'd love that they name him Jack for Jack o' Lantern. I don't remember that. I feel like that was cut. I know Jack was there, but not the full thing that Andy says. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Madi (01:00:04.127)
Yeah. No

Jack O'Lander, yeah. Yeah. And I so I also saw that that was a call out to to An Chris Pratt's son. His name is Jack in real life. And that was a call to him 'cause he was premature and I think there were some really significant health issues when he was first born. And so that I think this is like a tribute to him in the show. Yeah.

Holly (01:00:17.904)
Mm. Right.

Holly (01:00:22.551)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (01:00:30.125)
Well that's good, 'cause there's been scandal around Pratt and that son.

Madi (01:00:35.397)
I did not know that.

Holly (01:00:37.141)
Yeah, we've been talking we've talked about that a little bit before where like he now has a kid with someone else and he like had a caption was like, Now I have a full healthy child and we're like, You already had a full healthy child He didn't say it that way. I'm totally f yeah, I'm s I'm not I'm paraphrasing, but that's the vibe that came off and everybody was like, you already had a healthy child, sir. Like, what the fuck?

Madi (01:00:43.55)
Uh-huh.

Madi (01:00:48.017)
okay. But still

Madi (01:00:59.357)
Yeah, dude.

Holly (01:01:00.193)
But again, I don't know anything about anything. I just know that I'm not on Chris's side p politically, but I am on Andy's side, so that's all I'll say about that. But still, shouts to Jack, his son, because, you know, he deserves to have that homage as well. So I'm sorry to bring it down, but that is true that he that was a cool homage to him if if Pratt, you know, did that for him. That's really sweet. I like that a lot. Okay. so

Madi (01:01:08.131)
yeah. So true. Yeah, yeah. What a winner. Yeah.

Madi (01:01:24.777)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Holly (01:01:28.617)
This part was most certainly cut, I feel. He has to sign documents, Andy has to sign documents, because he wants the baby to officially have been born on Halloween because really the baby was born November 1st, like 'cause it was past midnight. And he wants the paperwork to say October 31st. And it is funny because I didn't realize that Dr. Saperstein would have, you know, held up his doctor oath or whatever for as long as he does. But then he recites Andy recites the take-in monologue and that

Madi (01:01:33.628)
yeah.

Madi (01:01:42.325)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:01:55.433)
Yeah.

Holly (01:01:58.464)
That gets sap Dr. Zapersteen to do He's Yeah, sure, that's fine. Like what?

Madi (01:02:02.132)
Yeah, yeah. That really threatened you enough? Okay. All right.

Holly (01:02:05.509)
I know. Or like he just likes the taken monologue, I guess. Yeah. Cause a part of me that was really expecting Saprersteine to be like, yeah, sure, whatever. Like, but yeah, that's really funny. And I love that when Leslie and Ben come in that they say he was born in Pawnee because I really needed that closure. Because I was like, wait a second, how is Sapristine in DC? How did they have the baby in DC with him there? But they were in Pawnee, so that's very helpful.

Madi (01:02:13.897)
Yeah.

Madi (01:02:28.114)
Yeah.

Yeah, and and fascinating too, like did they have him set up as a backup because like were they going back and forth a lot between the two cities? Because I think about that, like that's why one of the reasons they tell you not to travel when you get to a certain point, because you're just gonna show up to a hospital and hope that they're gonna have a doctor on call. Like, I mean I'm sure they do, but then you don't have that relationship with them and they don't know how your pregnancy is bent. Yeah. So I I wonder if they did that because they did so much back and forth between the two.

Holly (01:02:39.617)
Like the G U Y N. Yeah. Great call.

Holly (01:02:50.603)
Right. But that knows you and like right.

Holly (01:02:59.693)
Totally yeah. And what a way to bring Dr. Saberstein back. I mean, come on, you know. so Leslie and Ben come in. Leslie thinks she's the godparent immediately and she's like, no, we'll we'll talk about it later. side note, I at first I couldn't understand because she asks what the name is and she squints. She has this really weird face, and I was like, what the hell is like

Madi (01:03:00.692)
Cities.

Madi (01:03:04.871)
Yeah, yeah.

Madi (01:03:11.541)
Yeah.

Madi (01:03:21.407)
She's holding her breath.

Holly (01:03:22.591)
I was like, what is happening here? But I think it's because she was anticipating like a crazy name, you know? And I did not get that at first when she was like, Wow, that's good after she says Jack. I was like, she was okay. She was holding her breath because she was hesitant about what they were gonna name it. But the face she makes is so like weird, not weird, but like so out of character for me. I was like, What is happening here? Anyway.

Madi (01:03:27.902)
Yeah.

Madi (01:03:33.48)
Yeah.

Madi (01:03:37.108)
Yeah.

Madi (01:03:42.611)
Yeah, I think she's trying not to impact their decision or whatever, but she's like, thank God. That's a normal name.

Holly (01:03:48.214)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. So back to Pawnee, they're taking the form down to maintenance. Kyle thinks that he's the one that should go with Leslie. It's weird. But then Leslie asks Tom and says, They've done it so many times before, so let's do one final time, one last ride, as they say. And poor Leslie said all these like wonderful, nice things to Tom and Tom had headphones in. And I was like, God, that's classic.

Madi (01:03:58.453)
Yeah.

Madi (01:04:14.311)
Yeah. It is. Yeah. It's a good flashback to who he was before.

Holly (01:04:18.197)
Right. And then we see John Ralphio in a wheelchair. And by the way, I mean, I don't think any audience member, at least I'll speak for myself, I didn't question that at all. I was like, something's going on and who knows, it's totally John Ralphio. And he gets out of the wheelchair immediately. He is clearly not injured, but he smells her hair, ew, but also so John Ralphio. And I love their little handshake. Is it was Tom and him, right? That have a little handshake. Yeah. I thought that was really cute.

Madi (01:04:28.777)
Nope.

Madi (01:04:35.521)
Yeah.

Madi (01:04:39.709)
Madi (01:04:45.172)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, agree. I wanna know who came up with the idea to have John Ralphio have this huge crush on on Leslie. Because I think for the first couple episodes that John Ralphio like around, there wasn't a lot of interaction between him and Leslie. Like I remember he hits on Donna. but yeah, that it came Yeah. I know it came later, like when he kind of had that thing for Leslie. So I wonder where where it came from. It's so it's so cool.

Holly (01:05:02.188)
Mm-hmm.

Right. And Donna's like so over it.

Holly (01:05:13.025)
Yeah.

I know, I love it. I think it's it's beautiful. Yeah. And this great little moment too where Leslie starts to say something and he pushes his finger against his mouth her mouth like hush child. And such a f fantastic moment for John Ralphio's last episode. Like all the little things, the wheelchair, the hush child, the his hair, his outfit, one last favor to pretend to be his wife for insurance. He's asking Leslie, like for an insurance scam, you know, partnership, essentially. But then they fall in love for real.

Madi (01:05:17.385)
The way he plays it and everything.

Madi (01:05:30.215)
Yeah.

Madi (01:05:40.67)
Yeah.

You fall in love for real? That's my favorite.

Holly (01:05:45.197)
And then a pair of her gym socks. Like not for anything weird, just a fetish, which I love that.

Madi (01:05:50.522)
Yeah. Also weird, yeah. Yeah. So good. So much of what he came up with musically, like, you know, even that like fall in love for real, it's not a song, but like the delivery is so musical in a way. Yeah. And it's so I just all of those things live in my head and come out at the most random moments. So he's made such a such an impact.

Holly (01:05:57.588)
Yes, I know.

Holly (01:06:04.373)
It's so Ben Schwartz, yes.

Holly (01:06:14.441)
It's so good. Ugh, yeah. What a and what a way because you know, he's I think he's similar to Pratt where he was not supposed to be in the full series 'cause why would that character need more than what they originally gave him? But he was just so funny and added so much character to the show that it was like, Why not bring him back for this random ass stuff? Me too.

Madi (01:06:24.98)
Yeah.

Madi (01:06:30.527)
Yeah.

Madi (01:06:34.429)
I love him so much. And yeah, he's just and I love seeing that he's continued is like seeing things now. It's just so cool to see like how successful he's been. So

Holly (01:06:45.171)
Mm-hmm, definitely. But Leslie does wish him a long and happy life, even though she wishes she never sees him again. And this is where we get a flash forward for John Ralphio. We cut to twenty twenty two where he is dead, allegedly. They are at

Madi (01:06:51.539)
Yeah.

Holly (01:06:59.313)
a cemetery for this memorial. Dave King is the one who's giving the speech at the grave, by the way, one of the writers of Parkson Wreck, which is super fun. they play his favorite song, John Ralphio's favorite song in the service, Little John featuring Taiga, bend over.

Madi (01:07:16.753)
Yeah. It's so good. What a great choice. And I actually kind of love this. Like this idea of you're saying goodbye to somebody and they've picked their favorite song for you to listen to to just like lift your spirit. Like I kind of love that.

Holly (01:07:21.362)
my god. Yeah.

Holly (01:07:31.509)
Yes. It's so funny. Yeah, I agree. I agree. and it's something that is so him as opposed to playing like, you know, Amazing Grace or something, which is so not him, you know what mean? by the way, friendly reminder that Dave King's character is Kurt Lerpis of the Lerpis family. I believe this might be the last time we see a Lerpis of the Lerpis family. So well done, Lerpis Kingdom. You are not not forgotten.

Madi (01:07:44.775)
Yeah, yeah.

Madi (01:08:01.096)
No. No. And we didn't really even know they existed until this podcast. Yeah.

Holly (01:08:02.274)
And then of course Yeah. Mm hmm. Crazy. Then of course we see that this is all a plan for insurance money. Going back to his ask to Leslie about the insurance scam. Jenny Slate comes back, aka Mona Lisa, fantastic episode for them. to be together at at the end of this series. They have their plan of starting a casino in Tajikistan, which by the way, love their little song for Tajikistan. Tajikistan. It's

Madi (01:08:28.063)
Tajika stan Ghost Stan.

Holly (01:08:32.709)
And I looked up, okay, this is the part that I knew I was not insane, but I had to make sure 'cause I would have eaten crow. This suspicious was not in the original air. I knew it. I asked this. I asked this I remember before and I was like, Are you sure? And we were like, I don't know, we'll have to look it up. But I just think it was like it's such a part of

Madi (01:08:44.595)
Isn't that insane?

Holly (01:08:53.207)
social media culture right now that everybody was like, Yeah, sure, whatever, it's just like a part. But this suspicious scene was not in the aired version and it says that it was part of the producer's cut and that's why it had a whole new life I feel on social media because it was recently released. So I feel very vindicated to learn that I knew what was happening. But yeah, that is really crazy that that became so popular.

Madi (01:08:55.221)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:09:04.681)
Yeah.

Madi (01:09:10.098)
Yeah.

Madi (01:09:15.047)
Yeah, so big. And I knew too because l I mean I didn't know but I had the same like thought because when it got big on social media, I was like, Why can't I remember where that came from? Like, why can't I remember that? So yeah. It's so good though. Just I would love to see all the takes.

Holly (01:09:31.477)
Yeah. Yeah. It's so good. And and I'm so glad that it's me too. I'm so glad that they have done these producers' cuts or like the supercuts of the office and stuff, because people really need to see these cutscenes. Cause as we've talked about, these deleted scenes are amazing and so fun for the audience to see. Even if they don't really go with the canon of the show. This one would have, but I'm just saying like deleted scenes in general, like are so

Madi (01:09:41.599)
Mm.

Holly (01:09:54.594)
funny because it really gives these actors and writers such extra credit, I feel, to see how they interact in these situations and things that we didn't get to see before. So I'm so glad it had a second life and that the producer's cut showed it. but yeah, I thought that was really funny.

Madi (01:09:55.877)
Yeah, they're so fun.

Yeah.

Madi (01:10:11.431)
Yeah. I've loved that too because it feels like the episode is new to you because you're like, I'm gonna see things I didn't see before and like you and I have talked about, I feel this way in the office as well. I'll watch something and I'm like, Why'd they take that out? And then I'll be like, Ooh, yeah, good call.

Holly (01:10:15.041)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (01:10:25.363)
Yeah, a hundred percent. And yeah, that's that's a good point too. There are some deleted scenes that, yeah, were not needed. So, you know, but I would say like eighty five percent of the deleted scenes, I'd be fine with them having aired, but of course we couldn't because of timing. But anyhow. Okay. I also wanted to mention that the great last costumes for Jenny Slate and John Ralphio in here, like fantastic costuming for them. Always has been, but f the last way to see them is so good.

Madi (01:10:32.17)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:10:37.341)
Yeah. Yeah.

Madi (01:10:44.915)
Yes.

Madi (01:10:53.011)
Yeah, absolutely.

Holly (01:10:54.209)
And then we cut back to current or present day, and I love that Leslie's walking away. This part was so cute where John Ralphie was like, Leslie, I've always loved you. And it's like a romantical moment for John Ralphie, but she's like, I know. Definitely. Yeah. Love. Then we see Jam here. my gosh.

Madi (01:11:07.197)
It's like it's like a call out to Star Wars. So, so cute. Yeah.

Holly (01:11:16.299)
That is literally insane. Another person who also is obsessed with Leslie, more so in a friendship way, but I think he's into her romantically if she were to say that. But his party Yeah. His parting gift, yes. His parting gift is a drawing of himself cuddling Leslie and he's naked, which by the way, this was modeled after Yoko Ono and the John Lennon picture. If you're not familiar with it, you can look it up. It is interesting, to say the least.

Madi (01:11:20.123)
Mm, yep. Yeah.

Well, yeah. He's just a sexual being.

Madi (01:11:42.719)
Rough? Yeah.

Holly (01:11:44.526)
This was cut as well, where we cut to 2020, flash forward for jam, where he's a hibachi chef in Taytona Daytona Beach, which by the way, I just love this. What a great way to wrap up his like time on parks because he's going back to all of his like interests in Asian culture, which is just so funny. but yes, this was cut and yeah, I just I love that. How how funny. Mm-hmm. Definitely. 100%.

Madi (01:11:47.743)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:11:55.977)
Yeah.

Madi (01:12:00.566)
Mm.

Madi (01:12:08.327)
He looks so much happier. Yeah. Although he definitely wouldn't have been working in a restaurant in twenty twenty. How life went. But here we are. S yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah.

Holly (01:12:14.705)
Yeah. Well yeah. I mean none of this would have happened, I feel probably, but well, a lot of it, a lot of it, maybe some of it would. But that is funny that that was cut from the original air, because that was in 2020, so that was kinda kizmit, I guess. And I love how short it was too. There was nothing like insane that happened to his life. He's just like happy living his dream in Florida. Ew, and then Jam trying to kiss her too. Stop. That was so good, but so gross, but so good.

Madi (01:12:29.076)
Yeah.

Madi (01:12:34.525)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love it. Ugh.

Yeah. Yeah. So true. I I have to say, like, as we go through this, and I thought about this while I was watching it, I like that there's no like order. We're not like saving certain characters for last. I love that they've sprinkled in major characters to minimal characters to reoccurring but not super major. Like, you know, I've loved that it's been kind of a a myriad of order of of who we're learning the future of, if that makes sense.

Holly (01:13:06.54)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. I do feel like they saved Ron and Leslie for last. which is important, I think. But y I think you're right too, 'cause when they started with Donna, I was like, damn, we're diving right in. Yeah, I agree. Mhm.

Madi (01:13:13.321)
They did, yes. Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:13:21.245)
Yeah. I forgot I forgot that. That we get we get Donna, we get April and Andy, and we get Tom in this half of the episode.

Holly (01:13:28.449)
Yeah. Totally.

So maintenance is closed on Friday, so they can't give that form to them. But Tommy says he will solve this problem, no sweat. And Leslie says she's really proud of Tom. And then this is when they go to a 2019 clip. that same one that Craig is singing in. This is Tom's Flash Forward at Tom's Bistro. He's meeting with Ron and Ben about a huge expansion opportunity, and they are his senior advisory board, which is a great reminder to know that they all kind of stuck together. Ben is a congressman and he won his campaign, which by the way, I I thought this in the last episode too, but I was like, we never really wrapped that up.

up. I feel like we never really saw him win. We just kind of assumed that it would happen, I think. But but I mean, which that's good. I I'm fine with that.

Madi (01:14:02.102)
Mm mm.

Madi (01:14:05.981)
Yeah, absolutely.

I yeah, and I like that we kind of blow over it. 'Cause I think it kind of helps us realize it's not his end game. It's like it's not his it's not the biggest thing he's gonna accomplish kind of thing.

Holly (01:14:15.752)
Yeah, maybe.

Holly (01:14:20.395)
Yeah. And I th I think that would have taken up a lot of time.

that we didn't really have with these 12 episodes. but but yeah, so I like that. He wants to add cal zones to the menus, but but apart from that, he says that all the numbers do add up. Regal Meagle agrees via video chat. She is also on the board it looks like she says that prices are right for real estate. So if you're gonna do it, now's the time. So it is decided that he's going to expand over the next five years. There's gonna be 20 Tom's bistros. So look out world. Tommy's about to blow up

Madi (01:14:24.213)
Mm.

Yeah.

Madi (01:14:33.559)
Madi (01:14:45.246)
Yeah.

Holly (01:14:53.495)
up. my gosh. And I love this cut that we cut to a video that he's doing with his British voiceover again and he lost everything. I I really I don't like this. I hate that he lost everything and I don't know. But I get it at the same time and they recovered with his books, but I was like, no

Madi (01:15:05.586)
Yeah.

Madi (01:15:11.645)
Yeah, I feel really sad, but I also I also love what comes out of it for him. I love I think it's very real because you don't always win when you go in business and I think I think he he brings up such a great point. He says, All those other t fa times I failed, I failed because I did something stupid. And this time I did everything right. And it's like sometimes that still doesn't mean you're gonna end up on the right side, unfortunately.

Holly (01:15:15.447)
That's true. That's true.

Madi (01:15:39.486)
And I love that we see this perseverance from him that, you know, he he's ready to just keep going. Like he wants to get back up there. yeah, it is hard to see because you're like, no, you've turned your life around and you've you've done the best you could. You listened to your advisory committee, like when he used to like take the advice and then be like, Meh, you know, like I think, yeah, that's the part that hurts, but I love the real the realism of it that we see him fall and c it is very Tom and then come back.

Holly (01:15:46.221)
Mm.

Holly (01:15:58.528)
Yeah.

Holly (01:16:05.611)
And it is very Tom.

Madi (01:16:09.781)
come back up out of it. And I love seeing Lucy support him here. and it makes me a little sad when he says I've lost everything and it's like, bro, she's standing right in front of you. Like your person. but she doesn't take it that way. She's you know, she talks him through it and I yeah, I it's it's really hard to see, but it's also it's also kind of nice to see like this realistic piece. Yeah.

Holly (01:16:12.139)
Mm-hmm. Me too.

Holly (01:16:20.341)
I know. Totally.

Holly (01:16:34.293)
Mm. What comes out of it, yeah, that's true. And I like Gaz with glasses. I thought that was fun.

Madi (01:16:39.955)
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Holly (01:16:42.039)
But Lucy is here and the thing that he is narrating is the documentary that he keeps watching. And Lucy, you know, reminds him, and it's nice for the audience to see too that it wasn't all him. The stock market tanked, the country ran out of beef, which, my God, this is so us right now. This is so America right now. Everything is toxic and we're dying. But yeah, like we couldn't have we could have predicted that, I feel, because of scientists. But I do like that this part kind of gives me closure and a little bit of like salve on my soul because Lucy says.

Madi (01:16:59.891)
Yeah.

Madi (01:17:04.894)
Yeah.

Holly (01:17:12.043)
that it wasn't like all him and it wasn't like out of nowhere or it was out of nowhere rather, you know what mean? and she's very sweet and says you'll come up with a new idea idea, you always do and then we cut to Ron and Tom in a cabin and Tom is using this cabin as a retreat of sorts to get to work on his next big project. And I feel like this was cut. I don't remember this part. Maybe it wasn't, but

Madi (01:17:17.022)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:17:33.289)
Yeah, I don't I don't remember this either.

Holly (01:17:36.354)
But I do love that Ron says Diane made him add luxury items like a driveway and faucets. I was like, my gosh, that's so wrong to not have those things and consider them luxury. And side note, Mike Sher said that he did want we talked about this at Donna and Joe's wedding, but it didn't

Madi (01:17:45.971)
Yeah. Yeah.

Madi (01:17:53.813)
Mm.

Holly (01:17:54.614)
I didn't see this in my research for that particular episode, but there is a note that says Mike Sher wanted Lucy Lawless, Diane, to return for the final season, but they couldn't get their schedules lined up. so I am glad that they mentioned her in the research here.

Madi (01:18:08.585)
Yeah.

Holly (01:18:09.697)
But Tom says he wants to write a blockbuster action film because Fast and the Furious makes a lot of money and all these other things and I'm like Tom, you have no experience doing that. That's not gonna work, but okay. He just has a name for the action movie. He has no ideas on what exactly is gonna happen in the movie.

Madi (01:18:24.199)
Yeah. Well, and I think that there's you're already setting yourself up up for failure, that it's like your passion isn't in writing a movie. Like it's you want the next big thing and you've put all these parameters around it, that it's gonna be an action movie. I think something that if you're gonna create something, like it needs to be a little bit more organic than that. so yeah, it's like y he's going in with those Tom expectations that he's gonna create something that's entertainment seven twenty level energy.

Holly (01:18:52.875)
Right, right.

Madi (01:18:54.249)
But I love what comes out of it.

Holly (01:18:55.709)
Yeah, Ron in his true character fashion gives some really good advice and he doesn't even really consider it advice, I think. I think he's just talking to Tom and saying, like, whatever you write is gonna have your name on it. So you might as well make it something that you're proud of. And Tom isn't necessarily proud of this. He just thinks that it will be the next big thing. And then we cut to seeing him give like a TED talk type of situation after he was typing. And we learn that what he wrote actually was a book called Failure, an American success story, which by the way, fantastic name.

Madi (01:19:03.913)
Yeah.

Madi (01:19:23.675)
Absolutely. my gosh.

Holly (01:19:24.233)
About his trials and tribulations and kind of everything in between. And he has a test for what kind of successful person you can be, with little animations of each person. but you def don't want to be a Gary, definitely not. And Gary is literally in the audience, but the whole audience is saying his name. And I just love that Gary loves it because his name is being shouted by this audience, even though it's a negative connotation.

Madi (01:19:43.751)
Yeah.

He's such a little like innocent, naive little guy. He doesn't ever change. Yeah.

Holly (01:19:50.55)
I know. So funny. So Leslie and Ben are talking to Tom now, and Tom says that they always believed in him and so he wants to give them an inscribed book, but he accidentally gives them one that says, I love you, you're an inspiration and that was actually meant for Kendrick Lamar and theirs just says best wishes. That's so funny. I feel like that was cut too. I don't really remember that, but it doesn't matter.

Madi (01:20:09.243)
Yeah. That's that checks out, to be real.

Mm. Yeah.

Holly (01:20:16.441)
and side note, I did rewind, but his flashboard doesn't actually say what year that was in, but he did originally say it was over the next five years. So maybe that's why, like somewhere in that area.

Madi (01:20:22.644)
Yeah.

Madi (01:20:27.475)
Yeah. And and remind me, this this is basically the flash forward we get for Lucy. Yeah. We don't get her throughout the rest of it either.

Holly (01:20:34.293)
Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yes, there was a what in that series raps that we played a couple episodes ago, this was where she was. That that scene where she's talking to Tom and she's in her dress and stuff in the living room. That was a series rap on Natalie Morales. Mm-hmm. Well done. Love her so much. So back in present day, Leslie like, How are we getting this done? Like, how are we gonna get this

Madi (01:20:42.685)
Mm.

Madi (01:20:46.289)
Yeah.

Madi (01:20:50.173)
Yeah. Great. Well done. Love. Yeah. Yeah.

Holly (01:21:00.695)
form, you know, filed or whatever. Like are we gonna hold a public forum? Are we breaking in the door? Tom says he has a better idea though. I know, we don't have time for this.

Madi (01:21:07.539)
Girl, you don't have time for a forum.

Holly (01:21:10.881)
But Tom says that they need help from the most powerful man in Pawnee, and it's Mayor Gurgich. Gary says it all. By the way, I don't know why Leslie didn't think about this first. Like, like typically she would have probably gone to Ben, I feel, because he's the city manager and Gary is now the next best thing. So I don't really know why she didn't think of this, but doesn't matter. Tom did. Gary says on the phone that he's there with his two best friends, Tom and Leslie, which I was like, okay, that's cute.

Madi (01:21:22.109)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:21:30.132)
Yeah.

Holly (01:21:36.673)
But then maintenance floor needs to be open and he fixes it. He totally is competent and uses his you know, friendship slash like friendly demeanor to get to on people's good side and he makes it work. It's great.

Madi (01:21:50.365)
Yeah. Yeah. So proud to see him thriving. Like he's so excited to be there.

Holly (01:21:54.466)
Yeah. And he's so good at it. He's that was absolutely the choice. I love it. Because to be the mayor, you have to have like, you know, make a lot of connections and be and like it, I feel, and and he also isn't like a bureaucratic drone. You know what I mean? It's it was really good.

Madi (01:22:00.136)
Yeah. Yeah, 'cause you think about it.

Madi (01:22:05.383)
Uh-huh.

Madi (01:22:10.899)
Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what I was gonna say. It a lot of times in that kind of positions about your relationships, y who you know and who you can call on and he's got that with all the years he spent in that building.

Holly (01:22:20.063)
Yeah. Totally.

so Leslie asks if he's enjoying himself as mayor, and he says, I know it's temporary, but I don't know how my life could get any better than this. And I love that that's the setup for our flash forward to Gary, which also doesn't have a date, by the way, but I'm guessing it's only a few weeks because that's like the interim timeframe for him to be the mayor, and now he's going to be permanently mayor. And Perd is there. He's reporting that Gary's gonna be the official mayor due to a massive write-in, which by the way, I don't know who else ran for mayor, but clearly they didn't win because they all loved Gary.

Madi (01:22:41.013)
Uh-huh.

Madi (01:22:50.014)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (01:22:53.655)
And how wonderful. I mean, like I said, I have a note that he really is the best guy for the job and the plans for his term are no idea. He has no idea what he's gonna do. He's just like, this is too crazy. I don't care.

Madi (01:22:54.197)
Yeah.

Madi (01:23:05.553)
Yeah. Yep.

Holly (01:23:07.435)
But clearly it works because then we see kind of a flash forward that Mara Marini, aka Brandy Max, is back as president of City Council, building on her government duties. And I love that she's swearing him in as the mayor for the fourth time, which by the way, we did interview Brandy Max ages ago as well. And I'll post that in the show notes too. She is so cool and fantastic. So sweet. So hard working too. She's very much like Brandy Max with that like

Madi (01:23:18.249)
Yeah.

Madi (01:23:24.977)
Yes. Such a sweetheart. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Holly (01:23:32.777)
gusto of like drivenness. which by the way, speaking of that, Brandy Mac said she did eleven thousand adult films in the last two years. Yikes. Someone did the math, and that means for that to be possible, she would have had to shoot more than fifteen films each day.

Madi (01:23:35.603)
Yeah.

Madi (01:23:43.09)
Yikes.

Madi (01:23:49.813)
my gosh.

Holly (01:23:51.562)
Yikes. But I will say I love the idea that she did not give up her s her her job that she likes 'cause clearly she's passionate about being a porn star. Okay. And I love that she kept that and she does what she loves to do, but she also is in the government. So well done, Brandy.

Madi (01:24:02.868)
Yeah, she is.

Madi (01:24:07.829)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. She did not change based on the views of others.

Holly (01:24:12.342)
Mm. And it looks like she did a good job at City Council too, because she's the president now, so

Madi (01:24:16.933)
Yeah. Yeah. She's the new houser.

Holly (01:24:19.35)
Right.

So then we've got Joe Mandy, who is a writer on the show who we've talked about swearing him in, talked about swearing Gary in for the tenth time now. this was kind of the only negative, I feel, character in the whole episode, really. because he's like, Okay, I don't know why this is a thing and he's like all against the government or whatever. But which by the way, we did wonder if Bill Murray was mayor for thirty nine years, because that's what Ben had said. Like he served the town. He didn't say had been mayor, but he just said served the town. And we were like, is that possible? I think it is.

Madi (01:24:27.893)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:24:44.564)
Yeah.

Madi (01:24:48.369)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, looks like it. Yeah, in Ponnie. I forgot to look up how how long like mares can last in real life, but

Holly (01:24:50.029)
In Pony. I like the

Holly (01:24:57.535)
Yeah, that's okay. I mean, I think there are a lot of smaller towns like this where as long as they are voted in, they can kind of run for as whatever. But yeah, it does depend on the town town charter. yeah, we can look that up for next time too.

Madi (01:25:04.948)
Yeah.

Madi (01:25:08.607)
Got it.

Holly (01:25:12.437)
Let's see. the screen in the back of the tenth swearing in is so weird to me. There was something about like aliens that were going at that was going across the screen, like like the news reel or whatever that goes across a a a news show. I thought that was funny. and the screen just looks kind of I don't know, just weird to me. I didn't like it. But I understand what they're trying to do. And I love that they made Joe Mandy bald, by the way.

Madi (01:25:21.641)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:25:30.644)
Yeah.

Madi (01:25:36.818)
Yes.

Holly (01:25:38.653)
and then we've got Christy Brinkley coming back for Gary's a hundredth birthday with all his kids, grandkids, family. None of the original kids, by the way. I did not see any of the original cast there. but that's okay.

Madi (01:25:46.974)
No, yeah.

Nope. I love that they did not do any old like old makeup on on Gail, yeah. Like she just gets to look the same.

Holly (01:25:54.656)
Age makeup for Christy Brinkley. She stays exactly the same. That choice is perfect to make Gary look so old. But even Gary doesn't even look that old. But still he you can tell he's aged. And Christy Brinkley has not changed at all. not only there, but at the funeral too. They give her no age makeup. And I just I love that so much. It's so she's exactly the same. It's perfect.

Madi (01:26:02.843)
Yes, no. Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:26:15.859)
So well done.

Holly (01:26:18.417)
And I love these shirts that they have too. Kiss me, I'm pop pop, his shirt says. And then they're wearing shirts too that I can't remember what exactly theirs said, but it was like something for Gary. So I thought that was so cute and precious.

And then he dies on that actual day, I guess, in 2048, because he was a hundred years old. The funeral drones were funny. I don't know. I I missed the sleep part. I don't know. I think I think it was though. It said like he died peacefully or something like that. yeah, the funeral drones were funny because that's so something that would probably happen now. and it's officiated by the actor Eugene Cordero, who has the character name of Minister Zorpax, X-O-R-P-A-X-X 7.

Madi (01:26:36.489)
Yeah. In his sleep, right?

Madi (01:26:43.451)
Okay.

Holly (01:27:03.08)
my god, that's so funny. It's like makes me think of I don't know, just all the Star Trek names, I guess.

Madi (01:27:08.957)
Well, and I think it is it like a little bit of a call back to Zorp?

Holly (01:27:10.527)
Zoltan. Zorp? Yeah. Yeah, maybe. By the way, I thought it was worth mentioning that he's the guy in the office when Michael gets left at the gas station. He works behind the counter. So he he has known right. Right, exactly. yeah, so I thought that was funny that he's worked on both the office and parks, which a lot of guest stars have, so that's funny. I also love that they aged Ben and Leslie up. That was cool. to see their age makeup, but Christy

Madi (01:27:20.351)
Yeah. No, your friend left you. Yeah, I don't know what to tell you.

Madi (01:27:31.849)
Very cool. Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:27:36.103)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Holly (01:27:38.827)
B brinkley, aka Gale is again still not really fantastic.

Madi (01:27:41.429)
Yeah. And I I think I think that contrast with them being aged up as well, but Christy Brinkley not, like, also helps it. They're like, she looks amazing.

Holly (01:27:50.474)
Absolutely. Literally everyone else is older except for her. Or looks older. She just stays in this perfect face. And Gary will now be given the Indiana Notary Society's highest honor, the twenty one stamp salute, which of course is modeled after the twenty one shot salute for the military. I did look this up actually because we had a nine eleven ceremony here, at the Rootin Club that is local to our community that my mom works for and they did

Madi (01:27:54.685)
Yeah. Mm hmm. Yeah.

Madi (01:28:13.129)
Mm.

Holly (01:28:18.955)
that and I gotta be honest, every time I hear the Star Spangled Banner, I see military like on TV at a ceremony like this, I cry like immediately. I just it's so important to me, I guess. And like it's also just you think about like all the people that have died before and like really worked hard for their country. And so I cried during this 21 shot salute and the ROTC was doing it. which by the way, this is so random but I just randomly

Madi (01:28:29.866)
Mm.

Yeah.

Holly (01:28:45.645)
kind of want to say it that there was the choir singing and my mom was like, look at the choir. Like Holly was in the choir when she was young. and mom was like, When did you graduate? And I was like, Twenty ten, I think, was high school. And she was like and the girl in the choir was like, that's when I was born and I was like

Madi (01:28:58.068)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:29:02.905)
no, shut up. Shut up. I hate that.

Holly (01:29:06.125)
I was like, don't say that. She was like, I'm sorry. And I was like, no, don't even be sorry. I totally understand. This is just how the years go on. But the idea that someone was born in 2010 is like insane to me. But anyhow, so I did look up the reasons for the 21 stamp salutes or shot salute. because I was like, why is it 21? and so the practice began with British ships entering foreign ports. So it was a naval tradition first.

Madi (01:29:12.795)
Yeah, this is how life goes. Yeah.

Madi (01:29:18.023)
Nuts. Yeah. gosh. Yeah.

Madi (01:29:25.584)
Mm, mm-hmm.

Holly (01:29:34.088)
they fired seven shots to show their cannons were empty and harmless. Coastal forts had more gunpowder and fired three shots for every one from a ship, making a total of twenty one shots. So there is a some math involved, but basically it was like we just wanna want you to know that we're not an enemy, like everything we're not armed. and so a lot of people will do this differently. Like for the stamp salute, they had seven people it looked like and they stamped three times. So that's seven times three, twenty one, and then

Madi (01:29:34.302)
Madi (01:29:52.222)
Yeah.

Madi (01:29:59.528)
Yeah.

Holly (01:30:03.116)
At the nine eleven thing, they had three people firing seven shots. so that equals twenty one. So I thought that was interesting. I had never known what that was for. I've seen it many times, but yeah.

Madi (01:30:11.06)
Yeah.

Yeah, I definitely heard of it. I just didn't I didn't know the history behind it, which is is really cool. And I tried to zoom in also and see if I could see what was on the notary stamp. but it looks like it's it like when I did some research to it, it said that it just said notary, like the regular stamp. It wasn't anything like special, it was just like an actual notary stamp. So which fair. Yeah.

Holly (01:30:17.025)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (01:30:22.42)
yeah.

Holly (01:30:33.717)
Right, right, right, right, right, right. Yeah, that might be interesting. I know. And what a what a great like remembrance for him because that was one of the biggest things of his life up until being mayor, and that was so cute that they honored him that way. So seriously. He took a vow, you know. Yeah. And to be honest, I'm gonna be real. I didn't know they spelled his name wrong on the tombstone. I felt like such a Parkson Wreck person because I was like, What how did they spell his name wrong?

Madi (01:30:43.773)
Yeah. Yeah. He took it so seriously. Yeah. Mm, yeah.

Holly (01:31:01.013)
And I was like, is is it the two R's? We've always had two R's, but it's G they did G I R, right? No, his it was his last name.

Madi (01:31:01.405)
Yeah.

Madi (01:31:05.269)
'cause it's Jerry. I think it I thought it was G his last name is also misspelled. But I think his first name is they spell it G A R R Y. Which I guess could be. But I always thought Gary was one R, but I guess it could be.

Holly (01:31:11.967)
Right, it's his last name.

Holly (01:31:17.237)
Yeah. That's his name, Gary.

Yeah, but they've had they've had two R's like throughout the whole thing, because Terry Jerry always has two R's. So they've had two Rs as Gary, like in the subtitles and stuff, but it's the last name. They spelled it, I think, G-I-R-G-I-C-H, but it's supposed to be G-E-R-G-I-C-H. And so when Leslie was like close enough, I was like, literally, because I don't know what's wrong with that. But it's his last name for anyone wondering. So it is close enough. At least I got his first name right, but

Madi (01:31:26.459)
Okay. You're right. Mm.

Madi (01:31:34.357)
Mm. Okay. Mm-hmm. Eee, mm-hmm. You're right.

Madi (01:31:45.779)
Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Great, great point.

Holly (01:31:52.418)
They can fix it. They can take it back. Gail will fix it. It's fine. Okay. so let's see, then someone comes to them and says it's time to go, someone in all black. so you can kind of surmise that they are from Secret Service. This actor is played by DeMarco Davis and he's been in quite a few things as well. I reached out so hopefully we can hear from him. I haven't heard from him yet, but that was I mean, he has the look of a Secret Service agent for sure.

Madi (01:32:06.122)
Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:32:15.775)
Yeah. Yeah, pulled that off.

Holly (01:32:17.037)
and they did this on purpose. We'll talk about this a little bit in the next episode, but they did it on purpose where they were not sure slash they wanted to make it what's the word? Like they wanted you to not know who ambiguous, yes. They wanted you to not know who hi he was speaking to, whether it was Leslie or Ben that, you know, was protected by the Secret Service, whether they ran for president or not. we do get a little bit of a hint into that next episode, which I'm very excited to talk about. but yeah, so

Madi (01:32:21.301)
Mm.

Madi (01:32:27.911)
Ambiguous. Mm-hmm.

Madi (01:32:39.796)
Yeah.

Madi (01:32:44.149)
Mm-hmm.

Holly (01:32:46.104)
We end with Jerry's Gary's funeral.

Madi (01:32:46.611)
Yeah. He did a Yeah. And he did a great job looking back and forth between them 'cause that doesn't give you any hint of of who they're protecting. Mm hmm. Yeah.

Holly (01:32:54.421)
Yeah. Or just like being right in the middle of them. Like he doesn't go to one side. Like I'm sure they told him, like, go in the middle of them so that we don't know who you're talking to really. It's just like you're talking to both. And it really could be both. I mean, one could be the vice president, one could be the president. I'm just kidding, not really. But you know what I mean? Like they could ha both be holding office at some point, you know?

Madi (01:33:02.665)
Yeah.

Madi (01:33:06.089)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm, yeah. Yeah. So cool.

Holly (01:33:15.851)
Yay. Well, so I mean that was it. And that's the end of our episode for this time. We will be back. my gosh, hi Southern Call. Hi. We're ending so but this was fun. This definitely worked. I think the internet was much better for this library situation. I'm in the library for those of you who are just joining us. so I don't know if we're gonna do it for next time. Maybe I'll try it. We'll see.

Madi (01:33:26.404)
Holly (01:33:42.551)
But yeah, I think and I'll just end by saying I do think these last couple of episodes will really truly just be us like reminiscing 'cause it hasn't been there's a couple that I sprinkled in with like notes and research and we'll definitely do that. But for the most part it's mostly reminiscing just like they're doing in the show. So it's super fun and cute.

Madi (01:33:49.917)
Mm.

Madi (01:33:59.731)
Yeah. I think I think it helps also tie up, you know, what we've been doing throughout the the series ourselves is like all the all the character development and all of that. That's the stuff that's that's sticking out to us right now. So

Holly (01:34:06.029)
Yeah.

Holly (01:34:12.319)
Yeah, totally. Well, we love you guys too, Sierra and Sean, who whoever is on the Southern Call. And we will see you on the next one. Thank you guys so much for joining. And yeah, we're we're on to the last episode next week. We'll see you soon.

Madi (01:34:17.383)
Yes, hi.

Madi (01:34:27.815)
Yeah. Bye.