So, it turns out the non-stop Blogger outage yesterday might have been a stroke of luck for anyone reading this, because I think if I'd tried to blog about "Road Trip" last night, it would have looked something like this:
"Leslie and BEn OMG SO HAPPYSFLDKSFJDSLGJ G."
Seriously though, I'm such a shameless fan-girl when I've really gotten invested in an onscreen couple. But since I've now watched the episode through twice (and watched the last scene, as predicted, approximately 200 times-- not entirely my fault, Tumblr fans are notorious for posting repeat GIFs), I think I should be able to actually articulate some real thoughts about what happened (and yes, there were other things that happened in the episode, believe it or not).
Leslie and Ben were not the only couple that we got a romantic gesture from last night. Andy and April, who got into a tiff following Tom's "Know Ya Boo" game (complete with CGI dog co-host!), found themselves at odds over April's lack of pride in Andy's music. To be fair, I have to agree that Neutral Milk Hotel, which I doubt most of the people who watched last night have ever heard of, is amazing. But you should know by now April, that your shoe-shining, formerly pit-dwelling husband has a bit of a fragile ego at times. Anyway, they made up, with her playing one of Mouse Rat's songs in a public display of vulnerability (and unexpected musical talent). The plot itself was a bit predictable, but I think the point was to let us focus on the Leslie/Ben goodness without too much distraction.
And of course, Ron's "lesson" about government with the little girl at his office? Precious. For some reason, I love it when a misanthropic grown up befriends a kid or a cute animal; it's never not hilarious and kind of endearing. My favorite moment was probably him asking her to autograph her original essay (Prompt: Why does government matter? Her Ron-influenced answer: It doesn't.).
Well now that that's out of the way, let's get to the good stuff. Leslie and Ben's road trip was the perfect next step for them, especially following the opening scene ("that was the most sexual tension I've ever seen in a conversation about documents"), and I could not have been more pumped. Leslie's attempt to be the anti-seducer was hilarious (Whale sounds! Learning Mandarin! Johns Hopkins' dorms!), as was Ann's "sabotage" via the one and only Al Green. I loved that Ben didn't let Leslie's bizarre behavior deter him-- yet another sign of how great these two are together. And when they were doing the presentation and he talked about how "special" Pawnee is? If you watch Leslie's face during that, you can basically see her falling in love with him all over again. Such a great moment.
The heart to heart at dinner was such an amazing payoff for weeks upon weeks of these two dancing around each other, and I think there was a collective audience half-sigh of relief. We also got a classic Leslie line: "I'm going to go make out with him now. On his face." Then of course Chris had to show up and ruin things, again. I'm sorry Rob Lowe, but you are quickly becoming the face of the most annoying character on television. Sleeping under the same roof at Chris' condo (at his insistence) must have been torture for Leslie and Ben-- I don't think I've ever felt such strong sympathy for two attractive people who are inevitably going to live happily ever after.
And that kiss. Oh my goodness, that kiss. Both of them seemed to shed their awkwardness in that moment and were just two people ridiculously in like (maybe love) with each other, and it was fantastic. It was so reminiscent too of the first kiss Jim and Pam shared on "The Office" (makes sense, given the shows share producers and some writers), but it was also trickier because the tyranny of Chris and the threat of hurting their careers lingered in the room with them. "Uh-oh" just about sums it up.
Season finale next week offers up an hour-long two-part episode that I for one cannot wait to see. I've read some speculation on what's going to go down, but rather than spoil you I think I'm going to just advise that you watch it if you weren't planning to already. I fully anticipate a fantastic conclusion to a phenomenal season of television.
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