Luckily, he has Leslie, April, and Andy to rescue him from being incarcerated for sticking to his anti-bureaucratic beliefs. For someone full of Libertarian ideals like Ron Swanson, this is his worst nightmare. The reason Tammy is back in Ron’s orbit is that she’s with the IRS and he’s being audited. Tammy 1 has been an authority figure to Ron Swanson throughout his entire life.
She was the candy striper who helped deliver him, but she also served as his Sunday school teacher, his middle school math teacher, and his driver’s ed teacher. In her second appearance as Ron’s ex-wife, Tammy 1, Patricia Clarkson fills her role well in an episode that offers up the biggest look at this character we’ve gotten yet (as well as the most extensive account of Ron Swanson’s past so far). Going off past episodes with Megan Mullally’s Tammy 2 turning Ron into an id-indulging deviant, I was prepared to see Ron hit some new lows in last night’s show, but nothing prepared me for the polite, moustache-less nerd Tammy 1 causes him to morph into. Two years later, we finally got to meet the last of the important Tammys in Ron’s life.
Early in Parks and Rec’s run, when it was revealed that Tammy was the name of both of Ron Swanson’s ex-wives and also his mother, it created more questions than answers.
