The Harvest Festival is about to begin. Leslie surprises everyone by announcing she's booked Li'l Sebastian, a miniature horse and legendary Pawnee celebrity, to appear at the festival. Everyone is thrilled except Ben, who doesn't understand the fascination and no one really gives a concrete reason for why.
Leslie later meets with Ken Hotate, the chief of the Wamapoke Tribe, who has concerns about the festival. The festival is on the site of an old battle that was lost by the Wamapoke, and they want the festival moved. Leslie has tried to accommodate Ken's concerns, but says it's too late to move the festival. Ken states that he hopes his ancestors won't curse the festival, though he later reveals to the documentary crew that he's just trying to scare everyone.
The day before the festival opens, Joan Callamezzo arrives to report on the festival and is determined to find a negative story. Leslie and Ben walk through the festival with Joan, answering all of her concerns. Joan begins to be impressed, and when she sees Li'l Sebastian, she's ready to give Leslie the credit she's due.
Donna and Ann work the first aid tent. Ann confides to Donna that she's not taking her break-up with Chris well.
April and Andy play some of the carnival games. April tells Andy she loves him, but becomes angry when he replies, "Dude, shut up! That's awesomesauce!"
Tom and Jerry are taking care of Li'l Sebastian. While Jerry goes away to take a break, Tom unknowingly lets the horse get out of his pen. Unfortunately, when Joan hears of this, as well as of the supposed Wamapoke "curse", she immediately gets to reporting.
Ron takes charge of the search for Li'l Sebastian, sending Tom and Jerry off to check near the parking lot and April and Andy to check the corn maze. April is mad at Andy but since she's only passive-aggressively hinting at why she's mad at him, Andy is left confused. Tom blames Jerry for Li'l Sebastian escaping, not taking responsibility for the fact that it was really his own fault. When Ron decides his team needs a bird's eye view of the festival site to find Li'l Sebastian, they get up on the Ferris wheel.
Leslie and Ben see that Ken is on the news, on Perd Hapley's show, discussing the curse that his people put on the festival. Leslie thinks that they can satisfy the Wamapoke by moving the shooting gallery.
In the first aid tent, a man flirts with Ann. When Donna asks why she isn't taking him up on his offer to go out, Ann says she doesn't see the guy as "boyfriend material". Donna convinces her that she should "use him, abuse him, lose him".
The Pawnee media swarms the festival to cover the curse, endangering its opening the next day with the bad press, with one reporter linking Ben's past as a failed teen mayor with the curse. Now believing himself to be the cause of their misfortunes, Ben leaves the festival. As Leslie reassures the reporters there is no curse, the power generator blows out, leaving the festival dark and stranding most of the parks department on a Ferris wheel.
On the Ferris wheel, with April and Andy arguing below him and Tom and Jerry arguing above him, an annoyed Ron snaps, tells them all to stop, and sets them straight. He first explains to Andy that April's mad at him because he didn't say "I love you too" to her and tells April that it's obvious Andy loves her back and she's acting childish. He then tells Tom that he was supposed to watch Li'l Sebastian while Jerry was on break and to stop blaming him for his failure before calling out Jerry for going off eating funnel cakes instead of doing his job. With that, he demands that they all apologize to each other. Andy assures April that he loves her and they reconcile, and Tom apologizes to Jerry. They then spot Li'l Sebastian in the corn maze and recover him.
With the power out and no one around to see them, Ann decides to take Donna's advice and have some fun with the patient who's been flirting with her all day in the first aid tent.
Leslie learns the power outage was caused by the television crews plugging into the generator grid and overloading it. The only replacement powerful enough in Pawnee is at the Wamapoke casino, so Leslie humbly asks Ken to loan it to her in exchange for placing a Wamapoke cultural exhibit near the Harvest Festival entrance. Ken agrees, and during the festival's opening the next morning, he performs a ceremony to assure everyone the "curse" has been removed. People begin to swarm into the festival, and Leslie cheerfully greets them. Ben returns to apologize to Leslie for leaving, admitting he is not completely over his past. She reassures him the festival is as much his accomplishment as hers and even has Ken break Ben's "curse", although the gesture is also completely meaningless. At the end, Ben appears to have been won over by Li'l Sebastian, but later admits to the camera crew that he still fails to see the appeal and remains as baffled as ever.
Tropes
- Analogy Backfire: When Leslie asks for help from Ken, she says that she has come to beg much like the early settlers asked for help from the Wamapoke long ago. Ken points out (and Leslie admits) that was a trap and over fifty Wamapoke were slaughtered.
- Bait-and-Switch: When discussing Pawnee's history, Leslie shows the audience a map with all the atrocities committed there against the Wamapoke people. It shows the city as a block of blue with a dozen small white spots. Leslie then clarifies that the atrocities are marked in blue.
- Brutal Honesty: While looking for Li'l Sebastian from the Ferris wheel, Ron gets fed up with the arguing between April and Andy and Tom and Jerry and decides to shut them all up.Ron: All of you be quiet! Andy, she's mad because you said "awesome sauce" instead of "I love you too". April, he loves you. Stop being a child. Tom, you're clearly at fault here. Blaming Jerry won't save you. Jerry, we both know you were shotgunning funnel cakes instead of watching Li'l Sebastian. So everyone apologize to everyone else!
- Burn the Witch!: Happened to a traveling magician who pulled a rabbit from his hat during a stage show in Pawnee. In 1973.
- Comically Missing the Point:
- Tom asking for some specifications on the events of a battle between Pawneean settlers and the Wamapoke:Ken Hotate: During the battle, 93-year old Chief Wakote was shot 102 times by the cavalry.
Tom: Did he die? - Andy, as usual.Ron: Ground mission failed. We need a bird's eye view. (motions toward the Ferris wheel)
Andy: You want me to climb on top of the Ferris wheel?
- Tom asking for some specifications on the events of a battle between Pawneean settlers and the Wamapoke:
- Cool Horse: Li'l Sebastian, at least to residents of Pawnee. Even the most cynical and snobbish residents are overcome with joy when they're in his presence. Outsiders don't understand the appeal.
- Cool Old Lady: Donna's grandmother taught her everything she knew. She passed away in her eighties after having a threesome with two much younger men.
- Gag Penis: There are some shots where Lil' Sebastian's... horsehood is blurred out.
- Get Out!: Leslie says this with complete seriousness when Ben says he doesn't get the appeal of Lil Sebastian.
- A Good Name for a Rock Band: Leslie compares Joan to an eagle-eyed tiger, prompting Andy to say "Eagle-Eyed Tiger, new band name, I called it!"
- If It Bleeds, It Leads: The news media, especially Joan Calamezzo's show, are hungry for any bad news that can come from the festival.
- The "I Love You" Stigma: April, in a rare show of emotional vulnerability, finally tells Andy she loves him and gets angry when he responds by saying, "Dude, shut up, that's awesomesauce!" Subverted in that he does love her too, he just didn't realize the significance of this.
- Indian Burial Ground: The festival is built on the site of a battle that the Wamapoke Indians lost (badly). Local tribe chief Ken Hotate exploits this by pretending to place a curse on the festival to gain more leverage with the government to make an exhibition centered on the Wamapoke people.
- Innocently Insensitive: When April tells Andy she loves him, Andy's response is "that's awesome-sauce!", inadvertently hurting April's feelings. He apologizes for it, saying that he meant to say "I love you too" to her.
- Magical Native American: Parodied with Ken Hotate's fake ceremony to remove the supposed curse on the festival and on Ben.Ken Hotate: [in the Wamapoke language] I'm not saying anything. Just making up words. Nobody can understand me anyway. Doobie. Doobie. Doo.
- Never My Fault: Tom blames Jerry for losing Li'l Sebastian, even though it was Tom's turn to watch over him. Ron calls him out on it.
- Noodle Incident: Subverted. Ben initially thinks Li'l Sebastian did something to endear the citizens of Pawnee to him, and wonders what the history is to explain everybody's fascination. He eventually realizes that nothing happened, everybody just really loves Li'l Sebastian.
- Not So Above It All:
- As snobby as she is, even Joan Calamezzo expresses glee over seeing Li'l Sebastian at the festival.
- Ditto with stoic, no-nonsense Ron Swanson. He may even love Lil' Sebastian most of all.
- Only Sane Man:
- Ron is the only one who doesn't fall into blaming and sniping at everyone else once Li'l Sebastian goes missing, and he angrily tells the others to snap out of it (see the Brutal Honesty quote above).
- Ben is also the only one to not go crazy over Li'l Sebastian.
- Out with a Bang: Donna's grandmother went out this way.
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Li'l Sebastian is a miniature horse that everyone, even Ron just adores. Except Ben.
- Running Gag: Ben's inability to understand everyone else's love for Li'l Sebastian.
- Shout-Out: The muscular bro who hits on Ann wouldn't be out of place on Jersey Shore (though what a guy like that is doing in southern Indiana is never explained). He also calls Ann "Hot-Lips".
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Chief Wakote of the Wamapoke tribe was shot 102 times by the cavalry during a battle between the white Pawnee colonizers and the natives.
- They Just Dont Get It: Ben, being an outsider, honestly doesn't understand why everyone is going all gaga over Li'l Sebastian.
- White Guilt: Invoked and parodied with Ken Hotate, who knows white people can get awkward around Native Americans and loves to milk this trope for all it's worth.
- Womanchild: While April being upset with Andy is understandable, her deciding to just passive-aggressively snark at him instead of being upfront about how him saying "that's awesomesauce" when she told him she loved him hurt her cements her as this. Ron eventually gets fed up with her behavior and bluntly tells her to stop being so immature.
