Andy Dwyer Is Joy In Human Form (Most Of The Time)

Obviously, the focus of last night's episode of Parks & Recreation was on Ben (Adam Scott) and Leslie (Amy Poehler), what with their surprise wedding, and they were lovely to watch. ("I was looking for you"/"I love you and I like you"? Come on, those are both pretty great endings to wedding vows.) But we've already talked about Leslie, and like all grooms, Ben was kind of an afterthought in all the wedding hoopla. Instead, let's give some love and appreciation to Andy (Chris Pratt), because he needs it.

Andy got a couple of Classic Andy moments during the accelerated planning of Ben and Leslie's nuptials -- getting awestruck by the realization that Ethel Beavers (Helen Slayton-Hughes) is actually kind of a bad-ass; catching himself in horror when he accidentally sees Leslie in her dress before the wedding -- but then Andy finds out that he failed the police academy exam, and Pratt gets to imbue Andy with an emotion he doesn't often have occasion to play: crushing disappointment.

Most of the time, Andy is pure happiness. And why not? He's achieved all his life's goals: he's crazy in love with his wife April (Aubrey Plaza); he has the best three-legged dog in the world; and every day, he gets to work with his friends. But since he is so consistently great at pretending to be law-enforcement officers of various stripes, he figured being a cop in real life would make him even happier than he already is. But it was not to be, which might be just as well: it would be hard for any law-breaking Pawnee citizens to take Andy seriously when he tried to arrest them. Being authoritative and stern don't come as naturally to him as being friendly does.

But even the revelation that Andy will not be taking the career path he was certain he would can't keep Andy down for long. A loving, paternal pep talk from Chris (Rob Lowe) -- who knew about the test but who couldn't bring himself to tell Andy -- elicits the beaming grin you see above. And though the existential depression returned for the next episode ("Correspondents' Lunch"), which found Andy lying on the floor of Ben's new office, awash in self-pity, it couldn't last; by the end, he's been offered a new job that may be an even better fit than police work would have been: working for Ben at the Sweetums Foundation. It's remarkable that it's taken this long for someone to figure out that Andy's heart is big enough for him to be generous and good on a professional basis.

Andy started the series as a fuckup ex-boyfriend literally living in a pit. It would have been easy for the show's producers to ditch him (no pun intended) once Ann (Rashida Jones) moved on from him, but instead they recognized how Pratt made more of Andy than they had any reason to expect, shading him with vulnerability, sweetness, and a child's enthusiasm for life's many wonders. In fact, while Ann was the initial reason Andy was even a character, at this point she could lift right out of Parks & Recreation and the show would be fine. Whereas if anyone gets rid of Andy, I will riot.