In Thursday's episode, Leslie is on a mission to get endorsed by Chief Trumple of Pawnee’s police force before he officially retires. As her campaign manager, Ben is naturally with Leslie during this meeting, but is acting a lot more awkward than usual as a result of his deathly fear of cops. Although Leslie doesn’t get the endorsement right just then, there is hope that she will as Chief Trumple invites her and Ben to his retirement party that evening.
Meanwhile, Andy is in charge of writing and recording Leslie’s campaign anthem, which he’s titled “Catch Your Dream.” He announces to everyone that they will be recording the song at Double Time Studio, which is where Ron Swanson has recorded his saxophone CD under the name Duke Silver. April knows all about Ron’s saxophone-playing alter ego, commenting that his tunes make “mature women swoon.” Graciously she agrees to help Ron hide any and all Duke Silver paraphernalia hanging around Double Time Studio.
After Leslie and Ben finish up their meeting with Chief Trumple, who do they run into but none other than Dave Sanderson, Leslie’s former boyfriend who moved to San Diego. Things get extremely uncomfortable incredibly fast, as Dave and Leslie do the whole do-we-hug-or-not-no-one-seems-to-know-so-let’s-just-awkwardly-air-hug dance. Dave explains that he’s in Pawnee for Chief Trumple’s retirement party, and somewhere in the midst of the nostalgic awkwardness, Leslie invites him to dinner with her and Ben. Things don’t get any better at the restaurant, where Dave decides to tell Leslie that he’s still in love with her (cue in a loud, obnoxious gasp from me at this point).
At Double Time Studio, Andy yells at the group for being completely terrible at singing. As Andy storms off, Chris talks to Tom about him dating Ann, as Tom being Tom, was not able to keep his date with Ann a secret. Ann seems to be getting annoyed with Tom, though, as he seems keen on hammering into everyone’s head that he and Ann are sort-of-but-not-officially dating. When Andy comes back, he has a cup of honey in his hand, which is apparently supposed to make him better at making everyone else sing better. Unfortunately for Ron, the cup has a picture of Duke Silver on it. April takes care of the situation, though, by snatching the cup out of Andy’s hand and throwing it to the ground in a very Thor-like manner. While all the smashing is going on, Tom tries to appease Ann by bringing her some flowers and delivering some cheesy speech, which actually prompts her to just walk out of the studio.
Back at the men’s restroom of the restaurant, Dave talks to Ben and tells him he thinks Leslie is still in love with him. The whole conversation is painfully awkward as Ben attempts to assert himself as Leslie’s boyfriend while still being crippled by his fear of cops. Dave seems to back down, or so we’re made to think until he handcuffs Ben to a urinal under the guise of shaking his hand. Dave then tells Leslie that Ben left, which Leslie obviously doesn’t believe. Seems like Dave should have handcuffed both of Ben’s hands, though, as Ben manages to call Leslie and tell her about his whereabouts.
Andy seems incredibly stressed out over “Catch Your Dream,” and tells everyone that he’s come up with a new song for them to sing. Ron tells Andy that he’s just over thinking it, and makes him listen to the song again. This time around, it doesn’t sound so terrible – in fact, it’s pretty great—as there’s a cool saxophone number going on in the background of the song. It seems like Duke Silver got to do some recording that night at Double Time Studio.
Ben and Leslie arrive at Chief Trumple’s retirement party, where Ben confronts his fear of cops by trying to convince Trumple to endorse Leslie, which he does decide to do in the end. Meanwhile, Leslie gives Dave a talking to, and tells him that she wants to remain good friends, as she’s in love with Ben now. It’s a bit of a sad moment for Dave, but honestly, Leslie and Ben are just better together (although Leslie and Dave were pretty cute back in season two).
It seems like all the lovebirds – except Dave – were destined for happy endings tonight, as Tom apologizes to Ann by singing to her. In the end, she agrees to go out with him again, telling him, “You wore me down.” This relationship is definitely going to be interesting to watch unfold.