Parks and Recreation 4/23/09 Episode "The Reporter" Recap  4/25/09

Leslie (Amy Poehler) announces she has invited a reporter from the local Pawnee Journal newspaper to write a story about the construction pit she plans to turn into a park. Leslie meticulously prepares for the interview, instructing the members of her subcommittee to "stay on message". Over lunch with with Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider), Leslie seeks advice on how to deal with the press; Leslie tells the documentary crew that she has previous had sex with Mark and seems to still harbor feelings for him. The reporter, Shauna Malwae-Tweep (Alison Becker) arrives the next day to interview Leslie, along with Ann (Rashida Jones) and Ann's boyfriend Andy (Chris Pratt), who accidentally fell into the pit and broke his legs. During the interview, Andy reveals he was drunk when he fell in the pit, much to the horror of Leslie and Ann, who were not previously aware of it.

Leslie calls Mark for assistance in dealing with the reporter and Mark, seemingly attracted to Shauna, ends up leaving the parks department office with her. The next morning, Leslie waits at the pit for an interview with Shauna. Leslie is surprised when Mark drops Shauna off at the site and, when she sees Shauna is wearing the same dress as the previous day, she realizes Mark and Shauna have had sex. Leslie is standoffish and irritable during the interview, and she later confronts Mark, who says it is a private matter and tells Leslie she is acting like a "huge dork". When Leslie says she cannot have this type of behavior from members of her subcommittee, Mark resigns from the committee. Leslie asks for another interview with Shauna, attributing her behavior during their last interview to food poisoning from a burrito. During the interview, Shauna reads a number of quotes claiming the park will never be built, and that the existence of unicorns, leprechauns and talking monkeys are more likely. Leslie is disappointed to learn Mark provided the quotes.

Later, Ann tells Mark about the upcoming story and the negative quotes, which Mark thought was off the record. The two confront Shauna and ask her not to use the quotes. Shauna says she will not use the quotes since the two are "romantically involved", but when Mark disputes the idea that they are romantically involved, Shauna appears visibly annoyed. Later, Mark apologizes to Leslie and asks to be reinstated to the committee, to which Leslie happily agrees. Later, Leslie reads the story, which is not entirely positive, but her enthusiasm remains strong. In a B story, Tom (Aziz Ansari) deliberately loses at online Scrabble against his boss Ron (Nick Offerman), and is horrified when intern April (Aubrey Plaza) plays on his account and beats Ron. Tom insists to Ron that he is the "Scrabble king". Ron later reveals he knows Tom loses on purpose, but doesn't mind because Tom is his idea of a model employee: unproductive, lacking initiative and a poor team player.

"The Reporter" is the third episode of the first season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on April 23, 2009. The episode was written by Daniel J. Goor and directed by Jeffrey Blitz. In the episode, Leslie enlists a local reporter to write an article about the park, but the interviews go poorly, and the problem escalates after Mark gets romantically involved with the journalist.

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