Leslie comes to the office to announce who her new campaign manager will be. Everyone avoids eye contact and tries to hide. She then announces that Ann will be campaign manager. Everyone else is relieved, but Ann says she knows nothing about running a campaign. She suggests Ben, but Leslie turns it down since his presence may remind voters of their scandal.
Andy and April reveal they've adopted a new dog, a three-legged pitbull they've named Champion. Ben is annoyed but lets them keep the dog as long as they don't dump the responsibility off on him.
Leslie's new campaign staff holds their first official meeting. Their first order of business is to organize a campaign rally for Leslie's comeback. The team is given assignments to help prepare for the upcoming campaign rally at the Pawnee Sports Center.
Chris visits Ben, who is involved in a variety of hobbies such as claymation and calzone making now that he has lots of free time on his hands. Chris suspects that Ben is actually very depressed and is using the hobbies as a distraction, but Ben denies he's depressed and tries to impress Chris with his claymation project.
Ann has gotten into contact with high school basketball legend Peter "Pistol Pete" Disellio, who is famous for winning against the Eagleton team for a last-second dunk he performed in a high school basketball game several years ago. Leslie and Ann meet with him in the hopes that he will endorse her at the rally and getting this will be a huge boost for Leslie's image. Pete says he'll endorse Leslie, but he refuses to allow the campaign to associate him with basketball or even use his nickname because he's tired of the town always bringing up his one famous game.
Meanwhile, Ron, Andy, April, Tom, and Champion pile into a truck with the supplies and red carpet for the stage that Ron will build. On the way to the sports center, they are pulled over by a cop for multiple violations. They call Leslie to help, so she leaves Ann to convince Pete to do the dunk. Throughout the day, Pete continues to open up more about his life problems to an increasingly uncomfortable Ann.
Leslie is able to convince the officer not to arrest her team, but he says they can't drive the truck. They are forced to leave behind most of the lumber for the stage, as they can only fit a small amount in the car.
Ben shows Chris the claymation video he was working on for the last three weeks. He's crushed and disappointed when he sees his work was only five seconds long. Ben finally admits he's unhappy without some sort of direction in his life. Chris cheers Ben up and Ben is touched by his friend's efforts to help.
At the sports center, April informs Leslie that the court has been converted into an ice rink. And the disasters keep piling up - Ron was only able to create a miniature podium with no stairs because he didn't have enough wood, and the banner didn't turn out how Leslie wanted it. She hopes that Jerry, who was in charge of gathering a crowd, failed in his task, but for once he did well – there are 100 people in attendance. Ann arrives to announce that she brought Pete, but she doesn't know if he'll dunk or not, as he's now an emotional mess and crying in her car. Leslie and the rest want to give up, but Ann rallies the team.
As Leslie and her team head out to the stage, the red carpet Tom ordered doesn't reach the stage so they have to stagger their way across the ice. When Leslie finally gets on the stage, some of her speech cards are missing. She apologizes to the crowd, but then they all start laughing. Pete then comes out to endorse Leslie, and he attempts to make the dunk but slips on the ice and breaks his arm.
After the event, Leslie and Ann inform Ben that he should be the new campaign manager. He agrees, to Ann's relief.
Tropes
- Big Friendly Dog: Champion is a sweet dog that loves to leave sloppy wet kisses on people.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Andy pulls the horn on the truck. Ron tries to get him to stop.Andy: Aw, look, the police even love it! They're sirening back to us!
- Part of Leslie's campaign banner has been cut off, leaving only her eyes showing. Andy rather likes it and mangles an old saying:Andy: Because windows are the eyes to the house.
- Andy pulls the horn on the truck. Ron tries to get him to stop.
- Cringe Comedy:
- Leslie's entire comeback rally is easily one of the funniest and cringeworthy moments in the history of broadcast television: the venue, a multipurpose sports arena, is set up as a hockey rink instead of a basketball court. Tom couldn't afford enough red carpet to get all the way from the rink entrance to the stage, forcing everyone to gingerly shuffle across the ice. Ron didn't have enough wood to build stairs to the stage platform, meaning he has to attempt to boost Leslie up onto the stage. Leslie's speech note cards shuffle out of order, causing her to say, "We can defeat obese children". And when local basketball legend Pistol Pete actually shows up and is willing to do his slam dunk, he obviously slips when he tries to jump and breaks his arm. And the whole time, a ten-second clip of "Get on Your Feet" by Gloria Estefan keeps repeating on a loop.
- Similarly, Ben's claymation video lasts for only a few seconds. He plays it a couple of times and realizes that those few seconds were the culmination of nearly three weeks' worth of work.
- Epic Fail: The entire comeback rally, with it being one long Humiliation Conga for poor Leslie.
- Hope Spot: Everyone bands together to try and salvage the comeback rally after they've all learned how badly things have gone concerning the preparation... and then they learn that Tom couldn't afford enough red carpet to actually reach the podium, and everything just starts to spiral downwards from there.
- Iwo Jima Pose: According to Word of God from Michael Schur, Leslie getting pushed onto her tiny podium on the ice rink was intended as an Homage to the raising of the American flag at Iwo Jima.
- Jaded Washout: "Pistol" Pete Disellio is a bizarre inversion. He's a former high school basketball star who won the Big Game against the Eagleton team with a last-second dunk, and the entire town adores him for it decades later. However, he is the only person who doesn't care anymore, and is sick of being considered a hero for something he did when he was seventeen and just wants to move on with his life.
- Overly Long Gag: The team's attempt to go over the ice hockey rink is very long and tedious, but it doesn't make it any less gut-busting hilarious.
- Running Gag: Ben's obsession with calzones and everyone else's dismissal of it.
- Tastes Like Feet: Ben states that the smoothie made from Chris' herbal belt tastes like a belt.
- That Came Out Wrong:Leslie: It's true. I no longer have highly trained, professional campaign managers. So what? Are most murders committed by highly trained, professional assassins? No, they're committed by friends and coworkers! That analogy was way better in my head.
- That's Gotta Hurt: When Pistol Pete slips on the ice and breaks his arm, the entire room gasps and cringes.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Ben really loves calzones. In this episode, a depressed Ben becomes obsessed with learning how to make calzones and opening up a fast food calzone restaurant.
