Three years have passed since Leslie established the Midwest Office for the National Park Service on the third floor of Pawnee City Hall. She and Ben are heading to an assembly in the Council Chambers. There, local high-powered lawyer Trevor Nelsson announces on behalf of Jessica Wicks that the Newport Family Trust intends to sell a 25-square-mile parcel of untouched land that the family has owned for 100 years. Due to Pawnee's recent economic boom, real estate prices are at an all-time high, and Jessica sees it as a perfect opportunity to sell it for a large sum. Leslie is keen to acquire the land for the government to build a new national park, a park that could become her crowning achievement. However, among the bidders is Gryzzl, a multi-billion tech company looking to build a new campus in Pawnee. At the forefront of Gryzzl's bidding party is Ron, now a private business owner running his own construction company after having left the Parks Department two years ago. Upon meeting each other at the gathering, it is clear that Leslie and Ron are not on good terms and haven't been for some time. The two bicker with each other over their past run-ins and Leslie declares her intentions to do everything in her power to out-bid Ron. It quickly becomes apparent to Leslie however that there is no way she can produce a competitive bid, as Trevor believes the land could sell for $90 million and Leslie has access to a mere $2 million via a discretionary fund.
Tom is a successful business owner himself, having done extremely well with Tom's Bistro. He is scheduled to introduce Ben at the Pawnee Bicentennial Gala, an event hosted to honor Ben for his work in organizing festivities for the celebration of Pawnee's 200th year.
Meanwhile, April and Andy are living a stable, normal life together. Upon coming to the realization that their lives are becoming too "boring" and organized, April laments how they used to be spontaneous and weird. Andy assures her that they are still fun and promises her to be both spontaneous and weird at the gala.
The gala is in full swing. In typical Tom Haverford fashion, he uses the limelight of being on stage in front of Pawnee's rich and famous to gloat and promote himself, leaving Ben no time to do a speech of his own. As the gala's proceedings continue, Leslie approaches Ron and berates him for "stealing" Tom and Donna away from her — the pair has teamed up with Ron and Gryzzl, with Tom looking to build a new restaurant at Gryzzl's new site and Donna's real estate having been hired by Ron to broker the deal. They mention one particular past event that led to their falling out, and as a result, Leslie and Ron end up tussling and they fall into Ben's cake, effectively ruining the evening.
The next day, both Gryzzl and the National Parks Service place their final bids for the Newport land. After deducing that there would be no point in entering her significantly lower bid compared to Gryzzl's (with the Parks Service amassing only $3.2 million), Leslie decides to approach her bid from a different angle. She tells Jessica that the land should be donated to the government in celebration of Pawnee's 200th year. With the Newport family having been a staple in Pawnee's history since day one, Leslie proposes that the Newport name permanently stand for something good, and by donating the land, Leslie wants Jessica to consider what a "Newport National Park" would mean for her family and the city. She leaves having bid zero dollars, hoping for Jessica to have a change of heart. Leslie is later pleased to find out that the Newport Family Trust has narrowed down its choices to two final candidates: Gryzzl and the National Parks Service.
Back at City Hall, Tom stops by Ben's office to apologize for his inappropriate introduction at the gala. Tom admits to Ben that he actually really wanted to introduce him, having in fact volunteered to do it. He makes it up to Ben by reading out his actual speech; both Tom and Ben embrace.
After failing to come up with anything clever or crazy to do at the gala, Andy and April return to reality the next day and go about their scheduled daily duties. On their way to dropping off renter's insurance forms, they stop by an old rickety house for sale in Pawnee's warehouse district. Both April and Andy are amused by the creepy house and decide to have a look around. They immediately take a liking to the place, despite the owner claiming the house is haunted. Both agree to commit to buying the house, fulfilling their goal to be spontaneous again.
Tropes
- Did Not Think This Through: Upon discovering her bid for the Newport land is short compared to Gryzzl's, Leslie initially tries to get Ken Hotate to donate money to help increase it. Ken immediately points out the
Unfortunate Implications and declines:Ken: So you would like the Wamapoke people to pay the federal government millions of dollars to buy land that was stolen from us by the federal government? And we don't even get to keep the land? - Growing Up Sucks: Played for Laughs - April freaks out at the fact that she and Andy have started becoming a pair of "boring adults" because they're pre-planning how their week goes.
- Immediate Sequel: The Season 6 finale ends with Leslie and Ben walking into an elevator on their way to an important meeting. This episode picks up less than a minute later with them coming out of the elevator, still carrying on the same conversation.
- Noodle Incident: Whatever Morningstar is, it was severe enough to cause Leslie and Ron's friendship to utterly deteriorate.
- Time Skip: The first episode to be fully set after the three-year time skip near the end of the Season 6 finale.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Made in 2015 but set in 2017. The transparent tablets are pretty cool and futuristic, but otherwise, the world seems largely unchanged.
- We Used to Be Friends: Ron and Leslie had some sort of falling out over something called Morningstar.
- Wham Episode: It's revealed that during the Time Skip, Ron left the Parks Department to run his own construction company and he and Leslie had a falling out and are no longer on speaking terms.
