Pawnee was full of colorful characters that made Parks & Recreation one of the funniest and most entertaining sitcoms in recent years, but what if Pawnee had a secret, second cult (and Chris Traeger was part of it)? Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, Parks & Recreation debuted on NBC in 2009 and lived on for seven seasons, coming to an end in 2015. Although it had a rough start, Parks & Recreation won the audience over thanks to its humor, political satire, and characters, which made Pawnee the greatest town in America.
Parks & Recreation followed the daily lives of perky bureaucrat Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and her friends and coworkers from Pawnee’s Parks Department. Over the course of the series, some characters left City Hall (such as Mark Brendanawicz) and others arrived to stay, as was the case of Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) and Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe). Ben and Chris arrived together to review the town’s funds and ended up finding more than just a job, with Ben marrying Leslie and Chris forming a family with Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones). Chris was extremely cheerful and energetic, but he eventually realized that he had a lot of problems he was hiding under all that optimism, and started going to therapy with Dr. Richard Nygard.
Though Chris mentioned him many, many times, Dr. Nygard never appeared, which has made some fans believe he wasn’t real – but later, Shauna Malwae-Tweep (Alison Becker) and Craig (Billy Eichner) were revealed to go to therapy with Dr. Nygard, so he was definitely a real person, though he might have had other intentions. A Reddit user shared their thoughts on Dr. Nygard and suggests he was actually a cult leader, based on the actions and reactions of his patients. The author explains that they were all obsessed with him, pointing out when Chris mentioned that he was seeing Dr. Nygard multiple times a week (a lot more than what would be considered “normal”). Chris also said that his patients identified themselves as “Nygardians”, which doesn’t really sound like a patient-and-doctor relationship. Last but not least, his patients, particularly Chris, became very dependant on Dr. Nygard.
Pawnee already has a non-secret cult: the Reasonabilists, who are convinced the world will end and Zorp will save them. The Reasonabilists have been around for years, so the arrival of another cult would have been a bit chaotic for good old Pawnee, and so Dr. Nygard would have then chosen to keep his a secret. However, and as many Reddit users pointed out, Dr. Nygard might have just been a therapist, and the problem was instead Chris, who had a lot of demons to work through, so his journey wasn’t easy. Chris went from being very depressed to being dependant on his sessions with Dr. Nygard, to finally being in control but without losing his essence – in short, it was all part of his process, not signs of a cult.
Still, the idea of Pawnee having not one but two cults is an interesting and fun one, as they are very different, though it’s unclear what the intentions and beliefs of Dr. Nygard’s cult might have been. What’s true, however, is that Chris was strong enough to admit he needed help and actually get it, and while it wasn’t a smooth process, he has a lot to thank the mysterious Dr. Nygard for.