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You're all amazing, wonderful people and I really want you to have fun today and not focus on the fact that if one thing goes wrong, we're all gonna lose our jobs.
Leslie Knope

"Harvest Festival" is the seventh episode in the third season of the NBC television series Parks and Recreation. It originally aired on March 17, 2011 to 4.08 million viewers.

Synopsis[]

Leslie deals with last-minute problems with a Wamapoke tribal leader, who threatens to put a curse on the Harvest Festival, April is upset with Andy, and Ann gets romantic advice from an unlikely source.

Storyline[]

The Harvest Festival is right around the bend and Leslie surprises everyone by booking a miniature horse and legendary Pawnee celebrity named Li'l Sebastian. All are excited except for Ben, who doesn't understand what the big deal is about the miniature horse. Later, the chief of the local Wamapoke Tribe, Ken Hotate, visits the Parks Department and requests the festival be moved, citing evidence it was built upon the site of a Wamapoke massacre. When Leslie explains it is too late, Ken warns them the festival may become cursed, although he privately admits to the documentary crew the curse is fake; he was just trying to scare everyone.

The day before the festival, Ann works the first aid tent, confiding to Donna that she's still reeling from the break-up with Chris. Meanwhile, April tells Andy she loves him and gets angry when he replies, "Dude, shut up! That's awesomesauce!" At the same time, 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.

Joan Callamezzo arrives to report on the festival and is determined to find a negative story, but Leslie and Ben show her everything is accounted for, as well as Li'l Sebastian. She initially fails to find a scandal, but then overhears Tom tell Leslie that Li'l Sebastian escaped his pen and the Wamapoke "curse". Tom blames Jerry for Li'l Sebastian going missing even though it was entirely Tom's fault.

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. Meanwhile, 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 yells at everyone to be quiet and sets them straight. He first tells Andy that April is mad with him for not telling her that he loves her back and then tells April that it's obvious Andy loves her back and to stop being childish. Ron then calls out Tom for not doing his job and blaming Jerry for losing Li'l Sebastian before calling out Jerry for going off eating funnel cakes instead of doing his job. Andy tells April that he does in fact love her and the two embrace, while Tom apologizes to Jerry. They then see Li'l Sebastian has wandered into the corn maze.

Leslie learns the power outage was caused by the television crews plugging into the grid. The only replacement generator powerful enough in Pawnee is at the Wamapoke Casino, and Leslie humbly asks Ken to loan it to her in exchanged for placing a Wamapoke cultural exhibit near the Harvest Festival entrance. Ken agrees, and during the festival opening the next morning, he performs a hack ceremony to remove the "curse". People begin to swarm into the festival, and Ben returns to apologize to Leslie, 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".

In the end, Ben warms up to Li'l Sebastian, but admits to the camera crew that he still doesn't get it.

Cast[]

Starring[]

Guest Stars[]

Quotes[]

Perd Hapley: The statement that this reporter has is a question.

Ken Hotate: There are two things I know about white people: they love Rachel Ray, and they are terrified of curses.

April: I love you.
Andy: Dude, shut up! That is awesome sauce!

Leslie: [making an announcement] Okay, everybody, the Harvest Festival is tomorrow! And I am so proud of all of you. You have worked so hard; you're amazing. So, I have surprise. [Ron is looking tired] And it is possibly the best thing to potentially ever happen to anyone, anywhere, in the history of the universe. Ladies and Gentlemen, the world famous Li'l Sebastian!
Tom: [surprised] What?? No way!
Leslie: Yes!
[Everyone, excluding Ben, excitingly cheers as Jerry proudly brings in Li'l Sebastian]
Tom: I never thought I'd get to meet him!
Andy: It's really him!
Ron: [rejuvenated] Well done, Leslie, well done!

Leslie: Li'l Sebastian made his debut at the last Harvest Festival in 1987 and he was an instant phenomenon. For the next few years, Sebastian was the #1 boys name in Pawnee... and the #3 girls name.

Ben: So, what am I missing? What's the deal of this pony?
Tom: He's not a pony, Ben - he's a mini horse. There's a big difference.
Ben: Well, then, why is he so famous? Does he do something? What does he do?
Ron: Son, this horse has an honorary degree from Notre Dame. [Ben is even more confused]

Leslie: [to the Parks Department about Li'l Sebastian] This little guy is 25, now. And he has cataracts in both eyes and has severe arthritis.

Jerry: [describing him and Li'l Sebastian] We are both on the same diabetes medication.

Ben: Yeah, I... I just got to be honest. I don't know what the big deal is.
Leslie: [beat] Get out.

Ben: Man... you are just knocking these off. You're like a ninja crossed with a Jedi or something.
Tom: You're like a nerd mixed with a dork or something.
Ben: Tom, Star Wars is not that nerdy.

Joan Callamezzo: [sees Li'l Sebastian] Are you f**king kidding me??! You got Li'l Sebastian?? [runs over for a better view]

Ken Hotate: During the battle, 93 year old Chief Oxcatay was shot 102 times by the calvary.
Tom: Did he die?

Leslie: You're all amazing, wonderful people and I really want you to have fun today and not focus on the fact that if one thing goes wrong, we're all gonna lose our jobs.
Ben: That's not inspiring.

Donna: Normally, people tell you to talk about your problems. I'm gonna recommend you bottle that noise up.
Ann: That's what my mailman said.

April: I'm not mad at Andy. Andy's great. I awesome sauce Andy.

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!

Ron: We spotted him from the top of the Ferris wheel at the center of the corn maze. After the power came back on, we went and got him. It took us 4 hours to solve that maze; it took the horse 15 minutes. [chuckles] Jerry's still out there. [chuckles again as the camera shows a tired Jerry eating corn] I suppose I ought to go look for him... right after I get a bratwurst.

Andy: I do love you.
April: You do?
Andy: Yeah... that's what, you know, makes the sauce so awesome.

Ben: [lying to Leslie about Li'l Sebastian] I totally get it now.

Ben: [confessing to the camera about Li'l Sebastian] I don't get it. At all. It's kind of a small horse, I mean what am I missing? Am I crazy?

Trivia[]

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