Chris Traeger
Christopher "Chris" Traeger is a fictional character played by Rob Lowe on the NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation. He began on the show as an Indiana State Auditor who visits the fictional city of Pawnee to help solve their crippling budget problems, and eventually becomes Pawnee's acting City Manager. Chris is an extremely positive person who is constantly upbeat and energetic. Scrupulously health-conscious, he exercises constantly and eats only healthy foods, hoping to be the first human to reach the age of 150.
Chris first appeared in the second season episode "The Master Plan." Originally expected to appear in eight episodes as a guest star, Lowe eventually signed on to remain on the show as a permanent cast member. Chris was a romantic interest for Ann Perkins throughout the show's run. Chris imposes a strict policy against workplace dating at city hall, but series protagonist Leslie Knope and Ben Wyatt begin secretly dating anyway, which Chris eventually accepts.
The idea of Chris as a State Auditor was inspired by real-life reports of government shutdowns during the 2008 financial crisis. The character has received highly positive reviews from critics, and has been described as "one of the great comedic creations of the past couple years" and "one of the funniest performances of Rob Lowe's career."
Character biography
Background and personality
Chris Traeger begins the show as an auditor working for the Indiana state government in Indianapolis, but eventually becomes the acting city manager of Pawnee, the fictional Indiana city where Parks and Recreation is set. Originally from Wisconsin, he is an excessively positive and optimistic person, who is constantly upbeat and extremely energetic, it is also hinted in several episodes that he is a Buddhist. As a baby, Chris was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder and was not expected to live longer than three weeks, but miraculously survived. As a result, he sees every day he is alive as a gift, which results in his intensely cheerful and enthusiastic personality. He has a stepbrother who lives in London.Chris is extremely health-conscious and exercises constantly; he runs 10 miles during his lunch break alone, and considers a 15 km run to be "light" exercise. He avoids eating red meat and fatty foods in favor of dishes like lean turkey burgers and vegetable loaf sweetened with fruit reduction, and takes a huge assortment of unusual vitamins. Chris always stays extremely well-hydrated, and as a result of his extreme exercise regimen has only 2.8% body fat, which makes him very susceptible to illness due to a weakened immune system. His ambition is to become the first human being to live 150 years. Chris always greets people with a firm handshake and direct eye contact, and to remember their names often points directly at people and repeats their names upon first meeting them. His constant desire to make everyone around him happy means Chris hates having to deliver bad news, a task he often assigns to his subordinates, usually Ben Wyatt. He often declares things to be "literally" the best thing he's ever seen or done, strongly emphasizing the word and pronouncing it "littrally". He is very specific about his needs, giving long, drawn out requests, often making only one point per sentence; in the episode "Ron & Tammy: Part Two", he orders a beer by saying, "I would like a local beer... I'd like it in a bottle... and I'd like that bottle to be cold."
Season two
Starting in the penultimate second season episode "The Master Plan", Chris Traeger and fellow state auditor Ben Wyatt are sent to Pawnee to help solve the city's crippling budget deficit. Despite the seriousness of the problems, Chris presents the situation in an extremely positive light and tries to make all the city hall employees around him happy, leaving the hard decisions and delivery of bad news up to Ben. Due to the poorly managed Pawnee government, Chris and Ben need to slash every city budget by up to 50 percent, much to the disappointment of deputy parks and recreation director Leslie Knope.During an outing at a bar, Chris meets Leslie's best friend Ann Perkins, who is drunk and experiencing conflicting emotions following her recent breakup with Mark Brendanawicz. Ann makes out with Chris and, although she was too drunk to even remember the incident the next day, he develops romantic feelings for her. Ann rebuffs his requests for dates, and finds him too intense, but the ever-optimistic Chris does not become discouraged and insists he will continue courting her. Meanwhile, in "Freddy Spaghetti", Chris and Ben reveal Pawnee's budget problems are worse than anticipated, which would require the government to be temporarily shut down, much to the horror of Leslie, but the delight of parks and recreation director Ron Swanson, an anti-government libertarian. Chris and Ben even consider firing Leslie to save money, but Ron persuades them otherwise.
Season three
In "Go Big or Go Home", after three months of closure, the Pawnee government reopens in a limited capacity, but Chris and Ben insist the parks and recreation department's budget can only sustain existing park maintenance. Leslie, however, wants to offer better programs and services for the Pawnee citizens. She asks Ann to go on a date with Chris, then try to convince him to increase the budget. Ann reluctantly agrees to the plan, but as the date progresses, she finds she actually enjoys herself and develops feelings for Chris. When Leslie accidentally gives away her secret plan, Chris is hurt and disparaged by Ann's ulterior motive. The next day, however, Ann apologizes and asks to continue dating Chris, who happily accepts.File:Rashida Jones at 2017 MIFF.jpg|thumb|175px|left|Chris was a romantic interest to Ann Perkins for much of the third season.
Ann finds she likes Chris very much, but is intimidated because she cannot find a single flaw with him, which causes her to act socially awkwardly around him. However, when a flu outbreak strikes Pawnee in "Flu Season", Chris becomes severely ill, as due to his extreme workout regimen, he has a poor immune system and low body fat. He suffers a complete physical breakdown and becomes delirious from fever, which causes Ann to feel less intimidated by him. Later, when he recovers, Chris and Ben are called back to Indianapolis for another assignment, but Chris requests an extension to stay in Pawnee, seemingly due to his feelings for Ann.
In "Ron & Tammy: Part Two", Ann begins to question why Chris has not asked her to move with him to Indianapolis when he eventually returns there, especially after he offers for Ron's assistant April Ludgate to come there to work for him. After Ann insists they need to decide what their future holds, Chris breaks up with Ann. However, he does so in such a positive and upbeat way that she does not actually realize they have broken up. When Chris returns to Indianapolis, Ann becomes confused about why they have had such little contact and suspects he is cheating on her. In the episode "Indianapolis", Ann confronts Chris about her suspicions, only to become humiliated to learn he had actually intended to break up with her.
In the episode "Camping" a few months later, Chris returns to Pawnee to work as acting city manager after former manager Paul Iaresco suffers a major heart attack. A still devastated Ann meets with him to try and clear the air. However, Chris is once again so optimistic while discussing their break-up that she falsely believes they have gotten back together and tries to kiss him, thus embarrassing herself further. Meanwhile, Chris offers Ben a full-time job working at the Pawnee government, which Ben accepts.
Chris proves to be an energetic city manager, encouraging Leslie to pursue ambitious, grand-scale projects like the harvest festival she organized before he returned to Pawnee. In "Soulmates", he also attempts to combat Pawnee's notorious obesity problem by enacting a government-wide health initiative. In that same episode, when he sees Leslie kiss fellow employee Tom Haverford and falsely believes they are dating, Chris warns her he maintains a strict policy against workforce dating and insists she could be fired if she engages such a relationship. He is unaware, however, that Leslie and Ben actually have romantic feelings for each other, and eventually start dating without his knowledge.
During the season finale "Li'l Sebastian", Chris learns he has tendinitis. Although it is not particularly serious, it terrifies the health-conscious Chris and makes him begin to ponder his own mortality. He is eventually comforted by Ann, who now works part-time at city hall as the health department's public relations director. Chris feels better and appears to begin developing feelings again for her.