- Leslie: Greg Pikitis is a little punk. And I kind of want to TP his house.
Leslie visits the Pawnee high school to confront Greg Pikitis, a teenager who she describes as her "arch-nemesis". Leslie warns Greg she knows he vandalizes the town's statue of Mayor Percy every Halloween, warning him that she will be watching him closely and will catch him this year. Greg casually denies having any such plans. At the Pawnee town hall, Ann talks excitedly about her upcoming Halloween party. She asks the others not to mention it to Tom, but she is disappointed to learn Jerry has already told him. That night, Leslie watches Greg with the help of her boyfriend Dave, while Andy, who now has a part-time job with the parks department, guards the statue.
Ann's party is off to a boring start and she soon starts to fear it will be a failure altogether. When Tom and his wife Wendy arrive, however, Tom spices up the party by turning the living room into a dance floor. The party is soon a big hit, and Ann thanks Tom profusely. Wendy tells Ron she knows Ron learned her marriage to Tom was a "green card marriage" to keep her from being deported to Canada, and thanks him for his discretion. She tells him they will soon be able to divorce without raising any suspicions, unaware that Tom is visibly upset about it.
After watching Greg for hours, Leslie and Dave decide to go to Ann's party. They stop at the parks department to get Leslie's costume, only to find the office is covered in toilet papered and vandalized. Leslie immediately suspects Greg, even though they had been watching him all night. Dave reluctantly agrees to bring Greg in for questioning, but Greg insists he is innocent. Andy comes in and questions Greg, pretending to be an FBI agent named Burt Macklin, but Greg is so mean to him Andy soon starts crying. Greg's mother eventually arrives and takes him away after threatening to report the trio for holding her son without proof of his guilt.
Later, Andy helps Leslie clean the parks office and, after a few beers, they decide to toilet paper Greg's house. Dave arrives in his police car and tells them he had been called to stop them. When an unfamiliar woman comes out of the house, Leslie thinks she has toilet papered the wrong house. However, the woman reveals she is Greg's actual mother, and that Greg hired a "fake mother" off of Craigslist to get him out of trouble. When she realizes Greg is not home, Leslie believes he is vandalizing the mayor statue. They go to the statue and catch Greg in the process; although Leslie wishes to have him "locked up" Dave points out he is still a minor and may only have some time in juvenile hall. Later, Leslie wonders how Greg managed to trash the parks department. It turns out Greg snuck into the department disguised as a janitor, hiding in a dumpster until everybody left before vandalizing the office.
Tropes
- The Bad Guy Wins: While Greg Pikitis is caught at the end, it's only after he has defaced the mayor statue and, as Dave points out, is likely to only face probation because he's a minor.
- Blatant Lies: Andy after Leslie has given a speech about a statue in the park:Leslie: Were you listening to what I just said?Andy: Yes.
- The CSI Effect: Leslie keeps talking about how they can test evidence for Greg's DNA only for Dave to repeatedly shoot her down by meekly pointing out that they don't actually have a lab and so forth.
- Dresses the Same: One of April's gay boyfriends asserted that he was dressed up as a straight person. Immediately afterward, Mark walks in wearing the same outfit.
- Fidelity Test: Ann's friends pull a few lame ones on Mark at Ann's Halloween party.
- Gaslighting: Greg does this to Leslie by claiming the peach pit she found at the Parks Department doesn't prove he vandalized it because he was actually eating a plum when Leslie saw him at school. Even though it was a peach he ate, Leslie starts to doubt her memory.
- Halloween Episode: This episode takes place on Halloween and includes a Halloween party.
- Karma Houdini: Greg Pikitis always evades punishment. It's Played for Laughs of course.
- Insult Backfire:Leslie: Check this out. These are all the possible routes from Greg Pikitis' house to the statue.Ann: That looks like something you would find on the wall of a serial killer.Leslie: In a way, that's a compliment. It shows dedication.
- Rewatch Bonus:
- If you look in the background when Jerry walks into the fake spider web, you can quite clearly see Greg dressed up as a janitor. It's just subtle enough that you're not likely to catch it on the first viewing, but once you know to look for it, it's easy to spot.
- Similarly, Greg claims that Leslie's "peach pit" proof is bogus, since he was actually eating a plum when she went to see him at the school. Leslie — and, most likely, the audience — can't remember for sure and visibly wonders if he's right. But upon rewatching... nope. It was definitely a peach.
- Room Full of Crazy: Subverted in that it's an A3 card as opposed to a room or a wall, but Leslie's map of Greg's house and the statue is pretty nuts.
- Shout-Out:
- Ann dresses up as Raggedy Ann.
- In a Deleted Scene, Leslie references 24, in particular Jack Bauer's use of torture on his enemies.
- Sitcom Archnemesis: The eponymous character of the episode, Greg Pikitis, is this for Leslie.
- Toilet Paper Prank: Leslie explains that the titular character is a teen who always TPs a statue in one of the parks on Halloween and she is determined to catch him in the act. In the episode, however, he turns that obsession against her and TPs the Parks department! Leslie decides to retaliate by going the extra mile and TPs Greg's house.
- Yaoi Fangirl: April passed up on a gay Halloween party to attend Ann's. Last year, she watched some Jonas Brothers cosplayers making out with some Robert Pattinson impersonators.
