'Parks and Recreation' Season 4, Episode 9 Recap - 'The Trial of Leslie Knope'

A practically perfect episode of "Parks and Recreation." Show of hands: who's pleased as punch to see Leslie and Ben back together? Any opposed? Okay. You, sir, can leave the room. The rest of you can stay.

"The Trial of Leslie Knope" starts off with Ben and Leslie, hand in hand, admitting their relationship to a stunned Chris. Of course he didn't see this coming. He's Chris Traeger.

Unfortunately, that puts Chris in the position of having to launch a full investigation into the couple's relationship and put Leslie through a trial in front of an ethics committee.

Of course, Leslie believes she has nothing to hide. Like a Pawnee predecessor who exposed her elbow in public (a class A felony) and was set adrift on Lake Michigan, Leslie is going to fight this thing.

And fight she does, using all of her knowledge gained from "Law & Order" to create fun moments of wordplay and dramatic reveals. That's what lawyering is all about, right?

But despite all of the positive testimony and Leslie's shutdowns of Chris at every turn, Chris has one ace in the hole: maintenance worker George Williams, whom you might remember from the Lil' Sebastian memorial service. See, George caught Leslie and Ben making out, and Leslie offered him a spa gift certificate to keep him quiet, which amounts to a bribe.

It looks bad for Leslie, but she only ends up with a two week suspension with pay. But, that's only because Ben sat down with the committee and took full responsibility for the bribe, getting himself fired.

In what might be the cutest sequence ever, though, Leslie learns through the stenographer's record that when Chris asked Ben "was it worth it?" Ben answered "Yes," and professed his love for Leslie, on the record. In return, Leslie has Ethel the steno re-open the record so that she can profess her love for Ben on the record as well.

It's a perfect way for the two of them to express their feelings in this relationship. The two are such nerds for governmental procedure that, somehow, having their love on the record and having it read back in monotone by Ethel makes perfect sense. Just. Too. Cute.

Other notes:

-Thought we'd get more out of Marcus Everett Langley, but we got something much cuter instead

-"Ann, I want you to text me every 30 seconds and tell me that everything's going to be okay."

-"That's Y A and 18 Y's with 14 exclamation marks."

-God I love Aubrey Plaza.

-I almost love Aubrey Plaza as much as I love Nick Offerman: "She's here."

-"Should a Presbyterian speak out of turn, he may be caned across the shinbone."

-"Crying noise, crying noise, nose blow."

-Jerry's name is actually Gary!