During Parks and Recreation‘s run, Andy Dwyer had several alter egos, each one of them serving a different purpose. But none of them were as pervasive or as nonsensical as FBI agent Burt Tyrannosaurus Macklin. But what many fans have forgotten is why Macklin came into being. He was born for one specific purpose, to take on Leslie Knope’s greatest nemesis, a teenager named Greg Pikitis.
For someone so generally nice, Leslie made more than a few enemies over the years. Her main opponent, particularly during her time on City Council, was Councilman Jeremy Jamm. He was easily the worst person in Pawnee, which says a lot since Dennis Feinstein also lived there. While Jeremy vexed Leslie at every turn, she at least managed to defeat him in the long run during their confrontations.
However, the same cannot be said about her enmity with Greg Pikitis. This student only appeared twice in the entire series, but he proved to be more than a match for Leslie, constantly outwitting her. But his Halloween shenanigans in Season 2, Episode 7, also gave birth to one of Pawnee’s greatest heroes, FBI agent Burt Macklin. And as was often the case with Macklin, he accomplished nothing in his first outing.
Greg made a point of defacing the Mayor Percy statue each Halloween. With the help of Andy and Officer Dave Sanderson, Leslie put a huge effort into stopping him. Instead, Greg vandalized the Parks Department offices. Adding another level to the whole plot, it turned out that the attack was to distract Leslie and her team long enough for Pikitis to get at the statue, which he successfully did. Though he was caught, Greg still picked up the victory that night.
Leslie and Dave were interrogating Greg to get him to admit to vandalizing the Parks Department but getting nowhere. That’s when Andy stepped into the proverbial lion’s den, introducing himself as Burt Macklin of the FBI, which was, of course, a lie. This sparring of wits with Pikitis set the stage for all future Macklin appearances as he utterly failed to get any useful information out of Greg. In fact, Macklin ended up crying and yelling at the kid.
At the same time, Burt Macklin became one of the most popular characters in Parks and Recreation. Andy broke him out at what were quite often random occasions, though Burt was kind of useful from time to time. When Leslie was running for City Council, Andy became Burt to act as her private security. And he was even accompanied by April Ludgate’s own various alter egos, such as indomitable and dangerous Janet Snakehole.
But it’s important to remember that Burt Macklin was born from one of Andy’s best qualities, his devotion to his friends. He would quite literally do anything for them, which included and was not limited to pretending to be an FBI agent to illegally detain and interrogate an underaged child. It wasn’t the best decision that Andy ever made, but it was par for the course.
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