“This is a map of all the atrocities the settlers inflicted upon the Wamapoke Indians. The atrocities are in blue.”
We’ve seen images of Pawnee’s colored history in the past, and spoiler, it’s mostly colored a bloody red. Native Americans suffered greatly under the boots of Pawnee Settlers, the forefathers of today’s diabetic and overweight residents. In the episode ‘Harvest Festival’ we finally get to see the remainder of the long-suffering Wamapoke tribe, suffering no longer with their casino. Naturally the presence of the Harvest Festival on sacred burial grounds upsets them, and a curse was bestowed upon the festival. Leslie Knope to the rescue!
It’s worth noting before we get too far into things here, that this is the first episode that was filmed after the break for Amy Poehler’s pregnancy, and isn’t it nice to see her wearing something that’s not black and ruffled, while carrying a stack of binders to hide her stomach? And on another note, there are two versions of this episode, the one that aired and a longer Producers Cut which can be found on NBC’s website and Hulu. Be sure to watch this longer version, as it has some new scenes as well as different versions of the dialogue, such as white people love ‘Rachel Ray’ instead of the ‘Match Box 20’ that aired.
So it’s finally time for the Harvest Festival, and for those of you who don’t recall, Leslie made a deal with Ben and Chris that if she could use the extra money that they had to put on the Harvest Festival and it wasn’t a success, then they could shut down the Parks department. Now if the festival was a success it would bring in enough money to return the department back to its original budget. So everything needs to go perfectly, or else. And then the curse struck! Of course there’s not really a curse, but as you know the media will sensationalize anything and scared white people will believe anything. After a decent start, havoc descends on the festival, setting up the majority of the storylines for this episode.
While Leslie runs around and attempts to put out all the metaphorical fires that arise, we as the audience start to see a few more hints at the budding relationship between her and Ben. Dorky to an almost cringe-worthy degree, these two are oddly perfect for each other. Their strange nerd flirtation will be put to an interesting test in upcoming episodes, because now that the Harvest Festival is over there is no reason for Ben to stick around in Pawnee. On a side note, is anyone else getting sick and tired of hearing about Ice Town? We get it already.
In a surprise move for the normally timid April, the L-bomb gets dropped on Andy who responds with…’Awesome Sauce’? Poor April. Of course Andy has no idea that he did anything wrong, and April gets exponentially pissed off, even threatening to move to Venezuela permanently. But of course all is right in the end, as Andy explains that he does love her, “that’s what makes the sauce so awesome.” Cue the chorus of AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWs.
This week Tom is paired with Jerry, and the curse strikes again when Tom accidently lets Lil’ Sebastian out of his enclosure. The cutest running joke in the episode runs away, and Tom naturally blames everything on Jerry. The highlight though is the custom jacket that Tom had made for Sebastian, advertising the Snake Hole. Never misses an opportunity, that one.
And Ann, poor poor sweet troubled Ann. She’s not taking the break up with Chris very well, and has been spiraling downwards, including adding a red streak in her hair. In the oddest pairing yet, use-them abuse-them loose-them Donna advises Ann to just get some no strings attached loving. Somehow the Jersey Shore party bus got lost in Indiana and stopped off at Pawnee, because popping into the first aid tent is a tanned orange douchebag of a six pack. Ann takes Donna’s advice, what’s left to be seen however is whether or not Ann will be back to normal next episode. My bet is no, and besides, crazy Ann is way more fun.
For me there were two highlights of the episode, the first was the ‘animated re-creation’ the scene in Leslie’s office with the Wamapoke leader. Parks doesn’t always do topical humor, but this was spot on. A good part of this episode dealt with the media and sensationalism, and those silly videos that get replayed in the US are a good example of news that isn’t really news. The other highlight was the curse removal scene at the end. Of course a simple statement wouldn’t be enough to dissuade people’s curse fears; the media wants a show, so Leslie gave them a show. Of course nothing was really being said, and there was no curse, but it looked cool and that was the point.
So where does this season go from here? According to interviews that have been posted here on our very own SpoilerTV, the remainder of the season will focus on Leslie’s success, as well as continuing the story lines of the other characters. Any more DJ Roomba? Please?
On a side note, sorry this was posted so late, I try to not half-ass these and I did not have the time to do a proper job until today.
Favorite Quotes:
- “Son, this horse has an honorary degree from Notre Dame.”
- “Well there’s a lot of people who don’t consider salad food.”
- “The carnival is on the site of the Battle of Indian Hill, which was an epic seven day battle that the Wamapoke lost, due to the fact that they didn’t have any weapons.”
- “There are two things I know about white people. They love Matchbox 20, and they are terrified of curses.”
- “Eagle-Eyed Tiger, new band name I call it!”
- “I really want you to have fun today, and not to focus on the fact that if one thing goes wrong we all lose our jobs.”
- “Two days ago I was sobbing at a pizza buffet and they asked me to leave, I’ve been looking at some dog adoption websites, bought seven hundred dollars’ worth of candles from Anthropologie, did this to my hair, you know, your basic bottoming out kinda stuff.”
- “That’s what my mailman said.”
- “You fucking kidding me? You got Little Sebastian!”
- “Listen Joan, this Harvest Festival is going to know your socks off. And when it does I’ll be there to give you a foot massage. To completion.”
- “Dude! Shut Up! That is awesome sauce.”
- “Let’s get some shots of chipped paint and crying babies, how bout some of those spooky traffic lights, ok? You know the drill.”
- “Leslie, how big od a disaster will this be, on a scale of nine to ten.”
- “Jerry’s fault. Jerry’s fault. Jerry’s fault. Jerry’s fault. Jerry’s fault. Jerry’s fault. Jerry’s fault.”
- “Tom, you’re clearly at fault here. Blaming Jerry won’t save you.”
- “A Native American tribe making a deal with the Government. What could go wrong?”
- “Doobee. Doobee. Doo.”
