Parks and Recreation · Season 7 · Episode 13 · 24 February 2015
S7E13 One Last Ride
THE MOMENT Leslie's final scene with Ben - the show's emotional argument delivered in a single image after seven seasons of earning it.
The two-part series finale uses a flash-forward structure to resolve every major character arc, then resolves them again in the present day for good measure. The storytelling reads as specific, warm, and wholly unironic about the value of caring about local government.
Full episode analysis below. Spoiler-light verdict above.
Updated
Parks and Recreation Season 7 Episode 13 'One Last Ride' aired February 24, 2015 on NBC as the two-part series finale of a 7-season run that earned 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes in its final season. IMDb audiences scored the show 8.6. The finale uses a flash-forward structure to resolve every major character arc with a specificity that other sitcom finales rarely match - each character's future is written to reflect what the seven-year ensemble has established about them, not what the format demands. Critics treated the episode as a master class in how to end a comedy: warm, wholly unironic about the value of public service and local government, and generous to a cast that had earned generosity. A show that NBC nearly cancelled after six episodes ended on its highest critical standing in four seasons and a critical consensus that the finale had honoured everything that preceded it.