Line #3 Recap/ParksAndRecreationS04E02


1	-->'''Ron:''' Why do I only date brunettes? You know sometimes you eat chicken and you get food poisoning and then even the sight of chicken makes you sick? Tammy One is my blonde chicken.
2
3	Leslie is excited for the "Battle Royale", the yearly budget meeting where each city department argues for its budget. Leslie's secret weapon is Ron, who stares down members of other departments during their arguments until they back down. However, when she goes to see him, he tells her that his first ex-wife, Tammy 1, is auditing him. He says it's just another way for her to control him. Nevertheless, Leslie recruits April and Andy to help her help Ron.
4
5	Tom asks for Ben's accounting help with his business. At Entertainment 720, Ben is appalled at the way Tom and Jean-Ralphio are burning through their money on frivolous office decorations, giving employees high salaries with full benefits, and paying basketball players to just hang around and party with them.
6
7	As Leslie and the others go over Ron's purchasing history, Ron expands on his history with Tammy 1. She had been present throughout most of his young life - she delivered him as a baby, was his teacher, and she even took his virginity. However, she was also cold and controlling, which forever turned Ron off to blonde women after their divorce. Tammy 1 shows up and gives an intimidated Andy and Leslie orders and tells Ron that she will need control of his accounts in order to help him.
8
9	Ann wants to shoot a public service announcement about diabetes and enlists Chris' help. She wants him to appear on camera, as he is healthy and telegenic. He is very excited about the idea.
10
11	A week later, Ron shows up to work with his mustache shaved. He explains to Leslie that Tammy 1 has moved in with him and converted his bank account to a joint account. Even scarier is Ron's new enthusiasm for his job and much more personable and sunny demeanor, as well as how he refuses to do anything without Tammy 1's approval.
12
13	Ann has begun working with Chris on the diabetes PSA, but his enthusiasm is getting to her. She just wants to finish shooting it, but he won't accept anything less than total perfection. He spends the whole day doing countless takes trying to get the PSA to be absolutely flawless, making Ann wonder why she even dated him in the first place.
14
15	Ben meets again with Tom and Jean-Ralphio. He can't get it through to them that they need to stop spending so much money. After he looks at the books, he tells them they need to downsize and keep better records, and most importantly, they need revenue; otherwise, they'll be bankrupt in a month. Tom and Jean-Ralphio still don't take him seriously and he leaves.
16
17	Leslie takes Ron out to lunch to talk with him, but Tammy 1 accompanies them. When Ron leaves to go to the restroom, Tammy admits that the audit is not real and that she just wants Ron back under her thumb. She used the audit as an excuse to get to his stashes of gold. Out of desperation, Leslie decides to try to enlist Tammy 2's help in getting Ron back. Tammy 2, however, is just as afraid of Tammy 1 as Ron is (Tammy 1 was also her teacher and attacked Tammy 2 with acid when she first got together with Ron) and can't help. Andy then has an idea.
18
19	Leslie, April, and Andy visit Ron's mother, Tamara, and she agrees to help them get rid of Tammy 1. She accompanies them back to the Parks Department, where she proposes a drinking contest, using the Swanson family's highly alcoholic homemade mash liquor. Whoever wins gets to keep Ron. This is not what Leslie had in mind, so she joins in to keep Ron at the Parks Department, but the liquor quickly makes her too drunk to continue. April tries to sub in for Leslie, but she can't even handle one sip. Ron finally steps in to end this, grabbing the entire jug and chugging the remaining liquor in one go. He sends his mother back to the farm and kicks Tammy 1 out.
20
21	Chris finally gets a take he's happy with after seven hours of reshoots. He apologizes to Ann for taking so long.
22
23	Tom approaches Ben to apologize, having brought in several other accountants who confirmed his findings.
24
25	!!Tropes
26	* AgeGapRomance: Tammy 1, Ron's first ex-wife, was a {{candy striper}} at the hospital Ron was born at... and helped deliver him.
27	* AlwaysABiggerFish: Tammy 1 is far worse than Tammy 2, both in regards to her competence in getting what she wants and getting Ron to be subservient to her. The end leaves it clear that Tammy 1 sees Tamara, Ron's mom, as a threat to her, so Tamara is an even bigger fish.
28	* BodyHorror: Not shown, but Tammy 2 states that Tammy 1 [[AgonyOfTheFeet threw acid on her foot]] when she and Ron first got together.
29	* CrazySurvivalist: Ron's mother Tamara has some shades of this, living alone on a farm in an isolated rural area and one room in her home is full of nothing but guns.
30	* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Tom and Jean-Ralphio refuse to accept any of Ben's (or the NBA players' for that matter) advice because they opened a business and he didn't, even though they really don't know the first thing on how to actually ''run'' a business.
31	* DrinkingContest: Tamara and Tammy 1 get into one to decide who keeps Ron, downing glasses of the Swanson family mash liquor. Leslie, and then April try to join in to keep Ron in the department but are quickly taken out of commission. Finally, Ron takes his fate into his own hands, grabs the jug, and downs it all in one go himself.
32	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Ron mentions burying gold in Pawnee as a way to not leave his money in the bank, he then turns to the camera and says "Or have I?". The ending shows he has a false gold deposit that he led Tammy 1 to.
33	* FreudianExcuse: Ron's dislike of blondes and exclusively dating brunettes come from his disastrous relationship with Tammy 1.
34	* GargleBlaster: The Swanson family's homemade mash liquor. According to Ron, it can burn warts off of mules, melt a snail's shell off, and its only legal use is to strip paint off boats. Tamara, Tammy 1, and Ron are able to drink it fine, but Leslie (who describes it as tasting like poison after the first drink) gets plastered after a few shots, and April [[SpitTake spits it right out after just one sip]].
35	* GodzillaThreshold: When Tammy 1 shows up and turns Ron into a neutered wimp, Leslie explicitly says that they're "fighting Godzilla, and we need Mothra" and tries to recruit her arch-nemesis Tammy 2 to fight Tammy 1.
36	* GoldDigger: Tammy 1 is literally one since she intends to dig out Ron's gold and get it.
37	* HenpeckedHusband: Ron turns into a neutered and dorky wimp (with his mustache shaved off) under Tammy 1's influence.
38	* HiddenDepths: Basketball player Detlef Schrempf is a savvy businessman, despite what Tom and Jean-Ralphio think.
39	* HillbillyMoonshiner: The Swanson family makes its own homemade corn whiskey that is so strong that its only legal use is to strip the varnish off of speedboats.
40	* IntimidatingRevenueService: Tammy 1 works for the IRS and shows up to assist Ron with his audit. {{Subverted}} when it turns out Ron was never being audited and Tammy 1 lied about it to get access to Ron's finances and put him back under her thumb.
41	* IntoxicationEnsues: Leslie gets stupidly plastered after a few shots of the Swanson family's homemade moonshine. She probably hasn't been this drunk since drinking [[Recap/ParksAndRecreationS03E13 Tom's Snake Juice concoction]].
42	* LesserOfTwoEvils: Leslie seems to think Tammy 2 is preferable to Tammy 1 and attempts to get her on their side, but, as it turns out, Tammy 2 also fears Tammy 1 and avoids dealing with her at all costs.
43	* ManipulativeBitch: Tammy 1, to truly terrifying degrees. Her mere word is enough to make Leslie scramble to do anything she says, and a week of living with Ron turns him into a brightly dressed, personable, ''clean-shaven'', '''''pro-government''''' dork.
44	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When Ron returns to the office a week after Tammy 1 moved in with him, he becomes a personable, brightly dressed, vegetable-eating, pro-government wimp. Everyone finds it incredibly jarring, driving Leslie to try to find a way to get Tammy 1 out.
45	* OperationBlank: Leslie goes through a variety of codenames for her plans to save Ron from Tammy 1, including "Operation: Rescue Ron", "Operation: Golden Dove", and "Operation: Soaring Falcon".
46	* PapaWolf: She might not be his daughter by blood, but as soon as April gets hurt by trying and failing to take over for Leslie in Tammy 1 and Tamara's drinking contest, Ron stands up to his domineering ex-wife and mother by grabbing the jug of remaining liquor (which is still a pretty substantial amount) and chugging it all in one go.
47	* ShoutOut: Leslie compares Tammy 1 to Franchise/{{Godzilla}}, and attempts to get Tammy 2 on as Film/{{Mothra}} to go against her.
48	* SpicyLatina: {{Invoked}} by April as an excuse to join the drinking contest.
49	-->'''April:''' I'm Puerto Rican, I can handle it!
50	** (She could not handle it.)
51	* SpitTake: April, upon taking a single sip of the mash liquor when she tries to take over for Leslie in the drinking contest, spits it out in a big spray, unable to handle how strong it is.
52	* TheStoic: Tammy 1 is intimidating and stone-cold. April comes to admire her for this.
53	* StudentTeacherRomance: Tammy 1 was Ron's (and Tammy 2's) Sunday School teacher, as well as his driving instructor and sex educator.
54	* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: Once it becomes clear Leslie can't drink another drop more of the mash liquor, April tries to sub in but takes one sip of this [[GargleBlaster highly potent moonshine]], spits it out, and starts choking and coughing in pain. As aloof and stoic as April is, she's still the youngest member of the cast and hasn't developed the same alcohol tolerance as Leslie nor does she possess Ron's borderline superhuman constitution.
55	* VagueAge: Tammy 1 is basically joked about as being Really700YearsOld, being already a volunteer at the hospital by the time Ron was born, being his and Tammy 2's teacher, babysitter, and driving instructor, but she doesn't look a day over 50 at most and her actress Creator/PatriciaClarkson is eleven years older than Creator/NickOfferman.

Context Recap / ParksAndRecreationS04E02