'Parks and Recreation' Season 4, Episode 16 Recap - 'Sweet Sixteen'

After weeks of focusing on Leslie and Ben, it's about time we got to the real heart of this show and gave an episode to the character that really deserves it: Jerry.

It's Jerry's birthday, but everyone forgot. That's little surprise, but Leslie and her gift-giving prowess would normally be on top of it anyway... except that between the 50 hours a week she puts in at the parks department and the 50 hours a week she puts in working on her campaign, she's spread pretty thin.

So to recover, the plan is to throw Jerry a "sweet sixteen" party, since he's 64 and 64 divided by 4 is 16. It makes sense to Leslie, anyway.

The gang sets about putting a surprise party together at Donna's lake house... yes, Donna has a lake house. She's also cousins with Ginuwine. However, with Leslie having to stop off every few minutes to take care of campaign stuff, Jerry shows up to the party very late.

Andy and Chris have their own little thing this week involved Champion. It would seem that Chris took care of the three-legged dog for a few days and taught him all kinds of commands in German. Andy quickly realizes that Chris is terribly lonely, and lets him take care of Champion anytime he wants. Open and shut case.

The relationship drama of the week goes to Ann and Tom, because yes, that whole thing is still going on. Somehow. You have to wonder how much longer this gag can be drawn out: Tom likes Ann, Tom is an idiot, Ann is disgusted by Tom, yet somehow they stay together.

However, we do get a delicious new Tom bit from this episode: Tom's "oh no no's." These are dealbreaker qualities in women that Tom unfortunately keep finding in Ann, and include not knowing who Ginuwine is, sleeping in sheets with low thread count, and not caring about Blu-Ray.

We're going to need to see some real reason for Ann to want to stay with Tom if this is going to continue, but for now it's providing some entertainment. I'll allow it.

Notes & Quotes:

- "He's a mutt. Half amazing, half terrific."

- Jerry's birthday is Leap Day. Of course it is.

- "Ginuwine... is Ginuwine. He's Ginuwine."

- "Andy." "The f*ck dude where'd you come from?"

- The details on Leslie's messed-up sign are amazing.

- Ben's waking up face. Priceless.

- "Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing."