Parks and Recreation

Leslie (Amy Poehler) and the parks department return to work after three months, only to be told by state auditors Chris (Rob Lowe) and Ben (Adam Scott) that the budget crisis still looms. After unsuccessfully trying to have their budget restored by using Ann (Rashida Jones) to charm Chris with a date, Leslie decides to make an all or nothing play by resurrecting the Pawnee harvest festival. Either the festival is a financial success, or the parks Department will be shut down. After their bad date, Ann apologizes to Chris and asks to go out again, and he accepts. Meanwhile, Ben restarts the youth basketball league and instates Ron (Nick Offerman) and Andy (Chris Pratt) to coach the only two teams. Tom (Aziz Ansari) referees, but gives preferental treatment to Andy out of jealousy that Ron is dating Tom’s ex-wife, Wendy (Jama Williamson). April, still angry with Andy for having kissed Ann, returns from a vacation with a new boyfriend. A disappointed Andy vows to win her back.

Flu season strikes Pawnee, and Ann must care for the flu victims at the hospital, which include April, Leslie, and Chris. While April tries to make life hard for Ann as revenge for kissing Andy, Ron needs an assistant to fill in for April and selects Andy, whom he bonds with over the Colts, lunch, and playing football in the parking lot. Ann finds out Leslie stole April and Chris’ flu medicine to go make her speech to convince business owners to donate items for the Harvest Festival with Ben, who tries to get her to return to the hospital. However to Ben and Tom’s surprise, Leslie makes a flawless speech. Tom tries to squirm out of working on the speech to go hot tubbing at a club, which they discover is essential, since the three old guys he hot tubs with own car dealerships and they’ve offered to donate cars for the festival. Ann must care for Chris, who is so healthy, his immune system and 2.8% body fat makes him very weak and prone to disease.

Leslie’s plans to bury a time capsule in Pawnee are derailed when local man Kelly (Will Forte) chains himself to a pipe in Leslie’s office because she refuses to include the Twilight novel in the capsule. Eventually Leslie holds a public forum to decide what will go in the capsule, but it grows quickly out of control when the Pawnee citizens cannot agree on what it should include. Leslie resolves the matter by including nothing but a video-recording of the meeting, which she feels captures Pawnee by showing the passion of its citizens. Meanwhile, Andy gets help from Chris in winning back April, which makes Ann worry that Andy will once again interfere in her relationship. Tom laments that his girlfriend Lucy (Natalie Morales) has broken up with him, and she reveals she left Tom because he cannot get over his jealousy of Ron and Wendy.

Just as Ron and Wendy break up when Wendy decides to move back to Canada, Ron’s ex-wife Tammy (Megan Mullally) returns to try and make Ron’s life miserable. Tom, still angry about Ron dating Wendy, brings Tammy to a date to make Ron jealous. Instead, Ron and Tammy reconnect and end up remarrying each other in the middle of a night of drinking and wild sex that leaves them both in prison. Leslie asks Pawnee police Chief Hugh Trumple (Eric Pierpoint) to release Ron as a favor, even though the favor she originally planned to ask was for the police to volunteer officers for security as the harvest festival. Later, Ben asks the chief for that favor as well, and he agrees out of respect for Leslie. Tom tries to stop Ron from proceeding with Tammy, which causes Tammy to beat him senseless. Realizing Tammy is still a horrible woman, Ron breaks up with her. Meanwhile, April fills in as Chris’ assistant and, impressed with her, he asks April to work with him in Indianapolis, much to the chagrin of Ann and Andy.

Leslie, Ben and Tom conduct a series of television, radio and newspaper interviews to promote the harvest festival. However, during one interview, Ben is confronted about his past as an 18-year-old mayor, during which he made his city go bankrupt. The socially awkward Ben struggles to respond to these questions, and the story becomes increasingly about him rather than the harvest festival. With Leslie’s encouragement, however, Ben finds his confidence and insists his mistakes are in the past, which steers the coverage back to the festival. Meanwhile, Andy struggles to do everything April hates with the hopes of stopping her from moving to Indianapolis. After Ron encourages April to stop stringing Andy along, she finally forgives Andy and kisses him. Meanwhile, Ann and Chris agree they must sort out the future of their relationship before moving back to Indianapolis.

Ron and Leslie head to Indianapolis to receive a commendation for reviving the harvest festival. Before they leave, Ann confides in Leslie that she thinks Chris might be cheating on her. Leslie searches Chris’ house for clues, which prompts Ann to come to Indianapolis herself to confront Chris. However, Ann is humiliated to learn Chris previously broke up with her, but did so in such a positive way that she did not realize it. Meanwhile, Tom and Ben bond at a club where Tom hopes to pitch his cologne, "Tommy Fresh", to fragrance mogul Dennis Feinstein (Jason Mantzoukas). Ben comforts Tom after Feinstein rejects and insults Tom’s fragrance. Meanwhile, at the same bar, April and Andy compete to see who can win the most free stuff.

The day of the harvest festival has arrived and everything seems to be going well. However, when a local Native American tribe leader (Jonathan Joss) gets angry the festival is over an Indian burial site, the local press becomes fixated on the story of a supposed Native American curse on the festival. To make matters worse, Li’l Sebastian, Pawnee’s beloved celebrity miniature horse goes missing on Tom’s watch. The bad press risks keeping visitors away from the festival, but things get straightened out when Li’l Sebastian is found and Leslie makes peace with the tribe leader. Meanwhile, April tells Andy she loves him, but is displeased when Andy replies, "Awesome-sauce!" instead of "I love you." She later learns, however, that this is Andy’s way of expressing love.

City manager Paul (Phil Reeves) suffers a massive heart attack, and Chris returns from Indianapolis to serve as acting city manager. Fresh off her harvest festival success, Leslie takes the parks department (along with Ann) on a camping trip to brainstorm ideas for their next big project. April is less than enthused about having to be out in the open and recruits Andy to keep her entertained, but he gets lost in the wilderness. Tom and Ben equip their tent with Tom’s luxury and electronic items from Sky Mall, the powering of which drains the battery on the van and leaves the crew stranded. They seek refuge at a nearby bed and breakfast, where Leslie laments that she has no ideas for their next project and is worrying that she is a one-hit wonder. Ron solves her problem by forcing her to have a good night’s sleep and she awakens fresh with numerous big-project ideas.

Andy and April invite all their friends and family to a dinner party, which turns out to be their secret wedding. Fearing they are moving too fast, Leslie tries to stop it, but Ron assures her that Andy and April need to make their own decisions. Tom is thrilled to be named best man, but is discouraged when he learns Andy has several "best men". Ben debates whether or not to return to his old job or take a job offered to him by Chris in Pawnee. Leslie encourages him to stay, which he does. Meanwhile, Ann attends a singles mixer but acts awkwardly until she receives dating advice from Donna (Retta).

Leslie is disappointed when she asks Ben out on a date and he turns her down. Ann convinces her to sign up with an online dating service, but the website surprisingly matches Leslie up with Tom. Determined to find out why they are supposedly a match, Leslie takes Tom out to lunch, which proves to be disastrous. Tom relentlessly teases Leslie and reveals he has multiple accounts at the site with the hopes of attracting all types of women. Leslie is later relieved to learn Ben only turned her down because Chris has a strict policy against office relationships. Meanwhile, Chris tries to impose a health initiative in Pawnee, which starts by banning red meat from the cafeteria. To prevent this, Ron challenges Chris to a cook-off between Chris’ lean turkey burgers and Ron’s traditional hamburger, the latter of which ends up the winner.

Feeling frustrated and powerless because of her situation with Ben, Leslie finds strength in a painting Jerry (Jim O’Heir) contributes to a community art show, which depicts her as a powerful and bare-chested Greek goddess. The painting immediately causes a stir and prompts calls for it to be destroyed, which Leslie emphatically protests. Tom supports destruction of the painting, which depicts him as a pot-bellied cherub. Ben gets tired of living in a hotel and moves in with April and Andy, only to discover the place is filthy and they do not know how to take care of themselves. He resolves to teach them how to be adults, which April initially resists because she does not want to lose her individuality. Leslie eventually swaps the painting with a duplicate Jerry makes, that depicts Tom as the Greek god, and allows Leslie to keep the empowering portrait.

Lindsay Carlisle Shay (Parker Posey), the parks director from the prosperous neighboring city of Eagleton, antagonizes her former best friend Leslie by building a large fence to divide a park within both city limits. Leslie appeals the decision to an Eagleton public forum, but the rich and snobbish residents agree with the fence due to their distaste for Pawnee. After getting into a garbage fight with Lindsay that lands them both in jail, Leslie turns the situation into a positive one by assembling a wiffle ball team that makes use of the fence. Meanwhile, Leslie has found out it is Ron’s birthday, a fact that he went to extreme lengths to conceal, and Leslie plans a party against his wishes. However, she surprises him by throwing not a huge birthday bash, but an appropriate one for Ron: time alone with steak, whiskey and his favorite movies.

A job opens up with the health department and Leslie immediately recommends Ann, who is unenthusiastic about having to leave her nursing job and the amount of prep work there is for the interview the next day. When the parks department comes out to the Snakehole Lounge bar for the debut of Tom’s new drink "Snake Juice", Leslie sees that Ann has blown off her preparation work to go out dancing. The two get in their first major fight, while everyone else gets extremely drunk from Tom’s drink. The next day, with Ben’s help, a regretful Ann and Leslie make amends, and Ann receives the part-time city hall job. Meanwhile, Chris forces Tom to sell his shares in the Snakehole Lounge because it conflicts with his government job, much to Tom’s disappointment.

Chris sends Leslie and Ben on an assignment to Indianapolis, and Leslie is unsure she can keep from acting on her feelings for Ben in such close quarters. The assignment proves a success and Leslie and Ben appear on the verge of getting together, but Chris surprises them by showing up to celebrate their success. Although Chris’ constant interruptions spoil the mood, Leslie and Ben secretly kiss each other after getting back to Pawnee. Meanwhile, Tom invents a new game show entitled Know Ya Boo, a rip-off of The Newlywed Game, and tests it out on April, Andy, Donna and Jerry. The game causes a big fight when April reveals she likes another band more than Andy’s, and April reluctantly seeks advice from Ann about how to make amends with him. April ends the fight and proves her appreciation for Andy by performing one of his songs in city hall.

Leslie and Ben are reveling in "the bubble", the beginning stage of a relationship when everything is simple and fun. That is threatened, however, when Leslie’s notoriously tough mother Marlene (Pamela Reed), a Pawnee politician, meets with Ben to discuss a business request. Leslie initially makes Ben nervous for the meeting and Marlene believes him to be weak. When Leslie tries to prepare him for a follow-up meeting, Ben is so confident that Marlene ends up becoming attracted to him herself. Fed up, Ben admits he is secretly dating Leslie, much to Marlene’s amusement. Meanwhile, Chris instigates changes to the parks department, that include making Tom work on city hall’s dreaded "fourth floor", which frustrates him. The changes prove counter-productive, and Ron approaches Chris with a compromise that puts almost everything back to normal.

Pawnee’s favorite miniature horse, Li’l Sebastian, dies and the parks department organizes a memorial service. The extremely health-conscious Chris learns he has tendonitis and takes it very badly, but is comforted by Ann. Leslie and Ben have trouble keeping their relationship secret, and their efforts to do so causes problems with Li’l Sebastian’s eternal flame that nearly kill Ron with a fireball. Tom and his friend Jean-Ralphio successfully organize Li’l Sebastian’s service, and Andy comes up with an amazing memorial song. Tom finally hands in his letter of resignation to Ron, who sadly accepts it and bids farewell to him. After the service, Ron is taunted by his ex-wife Tammy, but both are horrified to learn his first ex-wife, also named Tammy, has arrived in town. Leslie is approached to possibly consider running for elected office, but when asked about any potential scandals, she neglects to admit to her secret affair with Ben.