- Jennifer: Now you might win. You're smart, Ben is smart, you might win. But why would you want to?
Leslie: Because it's my dream job.
Jennifer: Then dream bigger!
It is Leslie's last day in office. She gives her replacement, Ingrid de Forest, a tour of City Hall and of the City Council chambers before packing up her things and leaving. Ben reassures her that getting away from the city council is the best thing for her. However, moments after saying that, a live press conference of Councilman Dexhart responding to another sex scandal comes on TV. This inspires Leslie to challenge Dexhart for his seat and she begins preparations for another election campaign. Setting aside her emotional state and rash decision making, Ben points out that there are a number of flaws with her plan: first off, she doesn't live in Dexhart's district, and second, Dexhart fights dirty – he has never lost an election because he runs brutal, scorched-earth campaigns. This does not faze Leslie, as she goes to Pawnee Journal reporter Shauna Mulwae-Tweep to try and get her to write a piece on Dexhart using degrading emails he's sent. Shauna rescinds Leslie's request and explains voters clearly don't care about Dexhart's sleazy ways: he's won eight times and his poll numbers have actually gone up since the latest scandal broke.
Meanwhile, Tom officially hands over Rent-A-Swag to Dr. Saperstein and receives his $60,000 check. Having been told successful people get others to work for them, he decides he will no longer come up with his own ideas, but rather have others do that for him. He sets up an ideas-pitch meeting with several potential entrepreneurs from Pawnee to find his next business venture, but none are to his liking.
Andy is back from London, but he is so jet-lagged that he sleeps during the day and mows the lawn at night.
Leslie is still determined to try running for City Council again and sets up a press conference and creates her own hand-crafted banner. Ben, in an effort to dissuade her, has everyone gather in the Parks Department to offer their thoughts. They are all flatly against Leslie running again, but Leslie refuses to heed their advice and goes ahead without her friends' support.
Ann and Chris debate over the idea of finding out the sex of their child early. Both are unsure about which sex they prefer, but eventually come to terms with the fact that either will be perfect. Nevertheless, they decide to ask Dr. Saperstein. They find out they are having a boy and are overjoyed.
Back at the Parks Department, Tom once again resigns himself to the fact that he will always be just a simple Parks Department employee, but after April talks about how she rose up the ranks by creating a new job position, Tom creates the position of Business Liaison. He proposes the idea to Ron that the town could use more private sector money after the merger with Eagleton, so as Business Liaison, he can find companies looking to move or expand and convince them to do it in Pawnee. Ron approves of this and agrees to let Tom do his thing.
Having realized nothing he's tried so far is going to change Leslie's mind, Ben decides to bring in Jennifer Barkley to help. Jennifer also agrees that Leslie running for City Council again is a terrible idea, and suggests instead that she aim higher instead of limiting herself. Taking in Jennifer's advice, Leslie realizes she's outgrown Pawnee and can do better. Deciding they should take a break from everything, Ben and Leslie take a romantic getaway to Paris.
Tropes
- Brutal Honesty: Jennifer's advice to Leslie on running for City Council again. Despite what Leslie thinks, beating Dexhart is far from a guarantee because terrible politicians like him beat people like Leslie all the time. Furthermore, even if Leslie does manage to win, she'd just be dealing with the same monsters and morons who made her previous term such a nightmare and recalled her out of office in the first place.
- Corrupt Politician: Dexhart has stayed in office despite his many scandals due to living in the worst district in Pawnee and running scorched-earth campaigns that make his opponents look even worse than himself.
- Damned By a Fool's Praise: The only person who thinks Leslie running for City Council again is a good idea aside from Leslie herself is Jerry/Larry.
- Dare to Be Badass: Jennifer tells Leslie not to limit herself to just being a city councilor.Jennifer: Look, you love this town. It's being run by monsters and morons? Get a better job! Rise above their heads! Affect change at a higher level. Don't be the kid that graduates high school and hangs out in the school parking lot. Be the woman who moves away, climbs the ladder, and then confidently comes back and has sex with her hot old English teacher just for kicks. [...] Look, Pawnee has done you a favor. You've outgrown them. You've got talent, and you've got name recognition. Which means that you have a bright, wide-open future with a thousand options. State Senate, federal jobs, even congress! All of these are doable for you.
- Every Man Has His Price: Tom asks Dr. Saperstein's lawyer, Trevor, how much he would need to be paid in order to put dog poop in his client's car. It's $10,000.
- Gay Paree: Ben and Leslie take a trip there at the end of the episode.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Jennifer Barkley takes time out of her busy schedule to give Leslie some sensible advice, adding that she doesn't care enough about Leslie to lie to her and sugarcoat things.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: Leslie's reelection campaign banner is badly misspelled.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Jennifer tells Leslie that she's better than the corrupt idiots running Pawnee and can/should bring change at a higher level with her talents.
