- Ben: Every department's losing a Leslie Knope.
Ron: No they're not, Ben. No other department has one to begin with.
The Pawnee government has shut down due to the budget crisis. When Leslie explains at a town meeting that a family concert featuring children's entertainer Freddy Spaghetti must be canceled due to the shutdown, the citizens are disappointed. Leslie visits Chris and Ben, wanting to find a way to keep the concert, but Ben insists there is simply no money for it. When Leslie goes to Mark to vent about her situation and seek advice, she is stunned to learn that he has taken a buyout and plans to take a new job offer at a private construction company, partially in response to Ann having broken up with him. She lashes out at him, calling him a quitter.
Leslie vents about this to Ann, who comes up with the idea to hold the concert at Lot 48, as it is not a park and therefore not shut down. Leslie jumps on the idea and gets the rest of the department to help out. While April and Andy are doing their part in setting things up, they finally admit their feelings for each other, but April still rejects him, as she worries that Andy still has feelings for Ann.
Meanwhile, Ron has been assigned to a task force to help fix the city's budget problem. A small government advocate, Ron is delighted at the prospect of deep municipal cuts, gloating and chanting cheers at the cuts Chris and Ben propose, but when he learns the auditors plan to fire Leslie, Ron refuses and offers his job instead. In explaining her dedication, Ron accidentally alerts them about the Freddy Spaghetti concert.
Chris and Ben arrive at the concert to shut it down, but Leslie tells them everything has been donated and nothing is on the taxpayer's dime. However, Leslie learns Freddy Spaghetti has booked another gig in Eagleton. She asks Andy to play instead, but he is hit by a car while driving his new motorcycle home to retrieve his guitar, breaking his right arm. Just as the concert begins, Freddy Spaghetti surprisingly arrives, having been paid by Ben to perform at Leslie's concert. Ben explains he is not a bad person, but the budget still has to be slashed. Leslie tells him to just enjoy the fact that he did a good thing by making the public happy.
While tending to Andy in the hospital, Ann gets swept up in the moment and suddenly kisses him, but immediately stops herself and regretfully walks out. Later, April arrives, also relieved to see Andy is fine, and finally agrees to go out with him. After they kiss, Andy decides to be honest and tells her about the earlier kiss with Ann. April angrily storms out, taking back her decision to go out with him.
That night, Leslie sits on a bench in the empty Lot 48 and Mark joins her. Mark tells her that he wouldn't be leaving if more people like her worked in local government and gives her plans he drew up for a park at Lot 48 before giving her a goodbye kiss on the cheek and leaving for new horizons.
The next day, Ron withdraws from the budget task force and appoints Leslie in his place. As Tom and his new girlfriend Lucy are clearing out his office, he notices Ron is wearing a red shirt and black pants, the "Tiger Woods" outfit he always wears the day after having sex. Tom's ex-wife Wendy then appears and kisses Ron and the two leave together, shocking Tom.
Tropes
- Big Damn Kiss: April and Andy have their first kiss.
- Bird-Poop Gag: A pigeon did its business on Mark while he was indoors. This serves as the third sign for him to leave government work for something different.
- Book Ends: Early in the season,note Andy gets an excavator scoop full of dirt dropped on him while he's living in the pit and ends up in the hospital with Ann as his nurse. He mistakenly believes that Ann has fallen for him again and makes a pass at her, which Ann rebuffs. In this episode, Andy gets his arm broken, and Ann, who has recently broken up with Mark and is jealous of the fact that Andy has matured throughout the season but has developed feelings for April now, ends up as his nurse again. This time, Ann kisses Andy but then quickly realizes she's made a mistake, not helped by the fact that Andy doesn't reciprocate her feelings anymore, and leaves the room.
- Dr. Jerk: Dr. Harris, the physician overlooking Andy's broken arm, has no bedside manner and is very snarky with patients.
- Give Me a Sign: Mark had been feeling like he needed a change but just wasn't quite sure whether to follow through on that. Then Ann broke up with him the night he was planning to propose to her, the government shut down, and then a pigeon took a dump on him while he was indoors.
- Good Feels Good: Leslie sums up helping the people out and making them happy as this.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ron is willing to be cut from his job in order to let Leslie keep hers.
- Hidden Heart of Gold:
- The first hint we get that Ben is nowhere near as stone-cold as he presents himself is when it turns out he called Freddy Spaghetti over to perform in Pawnee.
- For all his posturing about not caring about other people and hating the public, Ron shows his more caring side when he tells Ben and Chris that he's willing to let them fire him so that Leslie can keep her job because he knows how much she truly cares for the people.
- Inherently Funny Word: When it seems like Freddy Spaghetti won't be coming, Leslie suggests Andy's band plays for the children and tells Andy to replace some of the lyrics with the word "pickle" to make them more child friendly. It doesn't quite work though.
- Irony: As a hardcore libertarian, Ron believes that government should be small as possible and is even willing to sacrifice his job over this instead of Leslie's. However, Ben tells him that his beliefs are why they need to keep him since they fit with their goal of mitigating the city's financial troubles.
- Loophole Abuse: Ann suggests that Leslie hold the Freddy Spaghetti concert at Lot 48, as it is not a park and therefore not shut down.
- Malaproper: Andy says "reverse psychiatry" instead of "reverse psychology".
- My God, What Have I Done?: Ann is hit with this after she kisses Andy while tending to his broken arm, realizing that she's only falling back into a toxic cycle again and that Andy really has moved on from her.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ann gets caught up in the moment while reminiscing over old times with Andy as she's tending to his injured arm and winds up kissing him. Naturally, April isn't happy to find this out.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Chris massages Ron's shoulders, much to Ron's bewilderment.
- Oh, Crap!: Ron has this when he realizes he's accidentally spilled the beans to Ben and Chris about Leslie throwing the Freddy Spaghetti concert in spite of it being canceled.
- Pet the Dog: Ben calls Freddy Spaghetti to perform at the concert.
- Put on a Bus: This episode also served as Mark's departure from City Hall to work for a private construction company.
- Running Gag:
- Andy attempts to vault a counter (in roller skates) and fails.
- The Parks department's hatred of libraries: Freddy Spaghetti takes a job at a library in Eagleton when Pawnee cancels on him.
- The Show Must Go Wrong: Andy uses these words exactly after he breaks his arm and can't perform:Andy: The show must go wrong. Everything always goes wrong, and you just have to deal with it.
- Spoiler Opening: An unusual variation, as the closing credits which run over the final scene, spoil the surprise appearance of Wendy, eleven seconds from the end.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: When Leslie (poorly) sings "If You're Happy and You Know It" for the kids, Chris is the only one in the audience that claps along.
