In ‘The Bubble’ we see the return of the infamous Marlene Griggs-Knope, aka Leslie’s mom. In the past she has been portrayed as a sweet woman, who is maybe just a little too hard on her daughter. If I remember this right, in season one she said something along the lines of ‘I want Leslie to succeed, which is why I tell her that there is nothing wrong with being a wife and mother.’ Harsh yes, but still I wasn’t expecting the change to the evil-manipulating-monster that we see in this episode. My concerns faded away pretty quickly, because as usual this was another amazing episode of Parks and Recreation.
We have two main plots in this episode, the Leslie-Ben-Marlene triangle and Chris making changes to the Parks department. Both of these were spot-on; these were situations that were bound to happen in real life, and the stories were given a hilarious twist. Anytime a new boss comes in there’s a feeling that they have to make at least a few major changes, to leave their mark so to speak. In general they usually end up messing things up due to the fact that they haven’t been there as long and don’t know the people and what works for them. Chris decides to leave his mark by Feng Shui-ing the place, assigning people new jobs, and in the best piece of physical comedy yet on this show put Ron in a public circular jail of a desk where he cannot escape. I have to thank the fine folks at the Parks and Rec sub-reddit for posting this awesome gif that I have been watching for what feels like hours now.
Chris’ shenanigans have a more important role Tom’s future at City Hall, after assigning him to digitize mountains of documents he begins to reassess his career. This thread continues in the season finale, so the set up in this episode is fairly crucial. It also brings us back to the fourth floor, which was one of my favorite moments from season two. It did not disappoint again as we see some random guy smash a coffee pot, and apathetic old ladies who don’t care if Tom threatens to jump out a window. The only thing left on my wish list that season three didn’t revisit was Greg Pikitis, hopefully they are saving something really special for him in season four.
Returning to the foundation of this episode, it was bound to happen eventually that Ben would meet Leslie’s mom since after all they work in the same building. The writers put an unexpected twist on the scenario by having Marlene hit on Ben. I screamed so loudly when she put her hand on his knee, framed perfectly behind a talking Leslie. Also Marlene’s reaction to Ben’s confession was also perfect, there’s nothing else you can do in that situation except laugh your ass off. It’s a nice start to the Beslie relationship, which because of its complicated and secretive nature is never going to be problem free. Of course we’ll get into this more in the season finale, which is why this review is a little shorter than usual, and I’ll have the second review up either later tonight or tomorrow morning!
Favorite Quotes:
- “Get these fucking balloons out of here.”
- “Jerry. I believe that you are capable of much more.” “I’m not.”
- “Is this a nightmare? April wake up.”
- “No I hate the fourth floor! Last time I was up there I saw someone buy crystal meth out of a vending machine! It’s a bad place.”
- “There’s a whole room on the fourth floor where they store the knives that they confiscated on the fourth floor from people trying to stab someone!”
- “Try not to move things around, because technically speaking this is still a crime scene.”
- “And at one point for no reason I took off my shoes and held them in my hand.”
- “Well maybe you should talk to him mom, he seems pretty self-assured.”
- “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. I read that once on a can of lemons. I think that it applies to life.”
- “Starting now, when life gives me lemons I’m going to slice them up into wedges and throw them into vodka tonics, which I will then sip in a burlesque night club, that I co-own with actor Taye Diggs and two of the Pussycat Dolls.”
