- Leslie: Well, The Douche, [the Harvest Festival is] a Pawnee tradition, and it's where fun meets awesome. Meets agriculture. And it is going to be next month, right here in Pawnee. And spoiler alert, it's going to have the best corn maze ever.
With two weeks to go until the Harvest Festival begins, Ben tells Leslie and Tom that citizen awareness of the event is low. They decide to go on a media blitz to promote the event. Their first stop is at the radio station for an interview with Crazy Ira and The Douche.
April asks Chris for more details about the job he offered her. There's nothing keeping her in Pawnee, so she accepts the job. Ann still doesn't know where her relationship with Chris is going. Andy, trying to convince April to stay in Pawnee, offers to do all the jobs she hates for a month. She agrees, though after he leaves she says he can't un-kiss Ann so she still doesn't forgive him.
At the radio station, things initially go well as Leslie gives information about the Harvest Festival. But it all goes south when Crazy Ira and The Douche begin asking Ben questions about his time as a teen mayor, having researched how he bankrupted his old hometown of Partridge, Minnesota. Taken aback, Ben responds awkwardly, stammering incomprehensibly and unable to defend himself against the two DJs' taunts.
Andy works the permits desk for April. When Ron finds out what Andy's doing, he volunteers to help, claiming that he does not want to lose April as an assistant while denying he cares about April and Andy's relationship.
Leslie and Tom discuss Ben. Tom proposes dumping Ben from future media interviews, but Leslie insists they cannot because he is the only one who can handle complicated questions about its budget. She decides to do the newspaper interview, while Ben and Tom will do Perd Hapley's show.
Ann is increasingly frustrated that Chris has not asked her about coming to Indianapolis with him, and is concerned about where their relationship is headed. They have lunch at her house and she hopes to get an idea of where their relationship is and even gives some hints that she'd be willing to move, but Chris doesn't get it.
Leslie meets with Shauna Mulwae-Tweep, who's more interested in Ben's past than the festival, asking why Pawnee should accept financial guidance from someone with a poor budget managing record like Ben. Meanwhile, Tom and Ben appear on Perd Hapley's show in the hopes of recovering from the earlier debacle, but this interview goes even worse, with Ben launching into a furious, incoherent rant when his past is brought up. When they meet up with Leslie, they show her a videotape of the disaster that Ben made of the interview.
After having done several of April's chores, Andy goes to pick up her sister Natalie from school. Natalie, upon learning that Andy is doing this because he likes April, calls security on Andy. Andy tries to explain what he's doing, but he just digs himself deeper with everything he says. Natalie takes a picture of him getting cuffed and sends it to April.
As a result of the negative press, several businesses start considering pulling out of sponsoring the Harvest Festival. Leslie decides to use her upcoming interview on Pawnee Today with Joan Callamezzo to perform damage control. During the interview, Joan asks very biased questions about the festival and Ben's past. Annoyed, Leslie brings Ben on stage to give him a final opportunity to explain himself. Ben almost begins to freeze up again at the questions from people calling in, but he finally gets over it and vigorously defends himself. By the end, the questions switch back from Ben to the festival itself, making the media blitz a successful one after all.
Ron gives April a lecture about how she's been treating Andy, telling her that she should either forgive Andy or cut him loose, believing that she is only stringing Andy along and using the threat of moving to Indianapolis to punish him. April then receives the picture her sister sent her.
Ann and Chris are having dinner. She tells him that they need to talk about their relationship. He agrees, and they discuss their future.
April approaches Andy at the shoeshine stand. He says he had fun doing her chores and wants to know what he can do tomorrow. April kisses him instead.
Tropes
- Actually Pretty Funny: The episode ends with Ben watching the tape of his awful interview with Perd along with Tom and Leslie, and finding it just as funny as they do.
- Berserk Button: Ben switches between stuttering in confusion to screaming in rage when everyone in the media and the townspeople use his past as an impeached teen mayor to drag his name through the mud.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Andy convinces April to consider staying in Pawnee:
Andy: You won't live to regret this.- After April makes several corrections to the thank-you note Andy typed for her:
Andy: Do you want me to make those changes, or is it good? - Dumbass DJ: Crazy Ira and The Douche are two shock jocks of a morning zoo-style Pawnee radio program who primarily serve as a parody of those types of radio shows. Their show prominently features fart jokes and "your mom" insults, as well as constant sound effects from their sound man "China Joe", who very clearly hates his job.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: She's not underage, but Natalie frames it to make Andy look like he's trying to kidnap her.
- Old Shame: Ben's time as a mayor and his failure at making an ice rink.
- Relationship Upgrade: April finally forgives Andy and they get together officially.
- Technology Marches On: Ben is wondering why Pawnee is using Altavista as their search engine.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Ron calls April out for the fact that she is using moving to Indianapolis to manipulate Andy and force him to do stuff for her just for the satisfaction of revenge. He states to either cut him loose or forgive him, but not drag him around.
