Parks & Recreation made its debut on NBC in 2009, and while the writers initially struggled to find the right tone for the series and its characters, the show lived on for six more seasons, coming to an end in 2015.
Parks & Recreation followed the daily lives of eternal optimist Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt), and Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) became big fan-favorites, and the writers decided to treat Parks & Recreation fans with glimpses of their futures in the series finale. The final episode included various flashforwards, through which viewers learned what the main characters’ lives will be like, and while this was very well-received by fans, there are some who believe those flashforwards were too good to be true.
Like most TV shows, Parks & Recreation hasn’t been safe from fan theories – some fun, others a bit ridiculous, and others can be quite depressing, such as one about what the series finale’s flashforwards truly are. In January 2020, Michael Schur talked about the Parks & Recreation finale in April and Andy didn’t have kids, Tom never became a best-selling author, and Ron didn’t get his dream job, just to name a few examples.
Schur didn’t help much to clear this up, saying they “didn’t really explicitly say one, one or the other”, and itted they left some stuff deliberately ambiguous, such as whether Tom becoming a best-selling author after so many failed businesses, and Ron getting his ideal job where he has to spend hours alone in the woods. April’s future might be the biggest clue that holds this theory, as throughout the series April made comments that pointed at her not interested in becoming a mother, not even after she married Andy. In fact, Andy’s decision to become parents seemed to happen too suddenly (though in his case, it’s not out of character), and April agreeing to have not one but two kids seemed too out of character to many viewers. This is all because Leslie envisioned April as a successful career woman and a mother, as she knew she’s capable of many, many things.
Ultimately, the Parks & Recreation series finale was intended to be slightly open to interpretation, so viewers will choose the ending that suits their perception of the characters best: either the flashforwards were part of Leslie’s coping mechanism and thus a product of her always loving imagination, a real look into the future, or even a combination of both.