'Parks and Recreation' Season 7 Finale Spoilers, Recap: Sitcom Ends, Features Flash-Forwards for Characters
"Parks and Recreation," the quirky sitcom whose stars have bagged major film roles, ended on Tuesday after seven seasons with NBC.
Its finale centered on how members of the gang left Pawnee and what they would do in the years to come.
A rather mundane event kicked off the comedy show's final episode when a man residing in the locality came in to report that a swing had broken near his house over three months ago and was not fixed. This spurred Leslie (Amy Poehler) into action, and the rest of the episode was built around their efforts to fix the swing. Several flash-forwards followed, examining the lives of the characters.
Donna (Retta) and Joe (Kirk Fox) were shown camouflaging the Space Needle in Seattle in 2023. They spent the rest of their time traveling around the world. Typhoon (Rodney To) and Craig (Billy Eichner) also were shown in 2019 at Donna's wedding. They ended up getting married and were shown riding on a spaceship.
April (Aubrey Plaza) and Andy (Chris Pratt) were show celebrating Halloween in 2022. The coupled discussed whether they wanted children and how Andy was very much interested in having kids while April wasn't. However, Leslie convinced April to try having kids. A year later she gave birth to a boy.
In 2022, the funeral of Jean-Ralphio (Ben Schwartz) was shown. However, it turned out to be an insurance scam. The flash-forward then jumped to Tom (Aziz Ansari) in 2019 facing failure after he launched 20 Bistros and then had to shutter them. He then launched a book about his failure which turned into an international bestseller.
Garry (Jim O'Heir) was revealed to have become mayor of Pawnee in 2017, after which he served 10 terms and finally died in 2048. At his funeral secret service agents informed Leslie and Ben (Adam Scott) that they must leave. Ron (Nick Offerman), meanwhile, became the superintendent of a national park next to Pawnee in 2022 after Leslie offered him the job.
Attention then switched to Leslie and Ben and how eventually Leslie ended up being the Governor of Indiana, serving for two terms. After her stint as governor, it is hinted that Leslie ran for the post of President of the United States and ended up being the first female Commander in Chief.