'Parks and Recreation' - 'Galentine's Day' Recap
(S02E16) Ron Swanson nailed it tonight. I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with Justin (Justin Theroux), and Swanson summed it up perfectly: he's a tourist. Justin is really only interested in stories. It's been bugging me the entire time he's been on the show, because he seems like a perfectly nice guy in some scenes and a total jerk in others -- but now it all comes together.Also nailing it? Andy's band. I not only loved his songs (I would totally make them my Valentine's soundtrack), but I enjoyed his befuddlement with the entire situation and his frustration with not being able to tell if the gig was a success or not, due to the lack of ladies flashing him.
I was worried last week that April was going to give up on Andy and just fall back into the more familiar, comfortable life with her gay boyfriends, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that this was not the case. In fact, she breaks up with both of them, officially making herself a free agent. However, it doesn't look like she's ever going to get up the courage to make a move, much like it doesn't look like Andy's ever going to get a clue. However, it looks as though Anne may have more than a passing interest in the whole situation, which is pretty fun.
Mark was pretty great in this episode, as well. He did a great job finding every possible cliched drug store Valentine's Day gift there is. I especially enjoyed the callback to 'Titanic' with the Heart of the Ocean necklace. That's the extra classy touch that is going to keep Anne around.
Back to Justin for a minute, though: I'm not surprised that they broke up, since I didn't expect Justin Theroux to stick around forever, but I would like to see Leslie with someone for a little bit longer. He and David each lasted a handful of episodes, but we only got to see them on a mainly superficial level -- I'd like for Leslie to go deeper.
While some may see the whole "lost love" story with Leslie's mom as kind of a letdown, I loved it for one simple reason: Valentine's Day is a fake holiday which isn't even worth the time or effort to hate. Instead, it should simply be ignored, or treated like any other day of the week. It doesn't hold magical properties that make lost loves return to you, so you can get the fairytale ending that you were denied. Sometimes it just brings back an unemployed dude with four heart attacks under his belt. Happy Valentine's Day!

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