Practice Date

Practice Date is the fourth episode of the second season of Parks and Recreation, and the tenth overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on October 8, 2009. In the episode, Ann takes Leslie to dinner to help prepare for her first date, while the rest of the parks department tries to learn secrets about each other as part of a game.

The episode was written by Harris Wittels and directed by Alex Hardcastle. It featured stand-up comedian Louis C.K. in his third guest appearance as Dave Sanderson, a Pawnee police officer who develops a romantic interest in Leslie. The episode also featured a fictional sex scandal mirroring the real-life 2009 scandal of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford.

"Practice Date" was the first episode to establish the personality of Jerry as the co-worker everyone else in the office picks on, and marked the first of several appearances by Jay Jackson by news reporter Perd Hapley. According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by 4.97 million household viewers, an improvement over the previous week's episode, "Beauty Pageant". "Practice Date" received generally positive reviews, with several commentators praising it for fleshing out the characters of Ron and Tom.

Plot

The episode opens with Leslie (Amy Poehler) and the rest of the Parks department watching media coverage of Pawnee Councilman Bill Dexhart (Kevin Symons) admitting to having four-way sex in a Brazilian cave while pretending to be "building houses for the underprivileged". Tom (Aziz Ansari) insists nobody could find any scandalous information about him, prompting the parks department employees to start a game to see who can get the most dirt on each other. Meanwhile, Leslie tells Ann (Rashida Jones) she is nervous about her first date with Pawnee police officer Dave Sanderson (Louis C.K.). Ann offers to take Leslie on a practice date to help Leslie prepare for the real date. During the practice date, Ann realizes that Leslie has a serious problem: Leslie brought note cards with "topics of conversation" and engages in fake-sounding "practice laughing."

Ann decides to use exposure therapy on Leslie to help her deal with the worst-case date scenario. She acts very mean to Leslie, who is initially horrified, but she eventually stands up to Ann. When Ann tells her she is now ready for anything, Leslie feels cheered up and very confident. They go to a bar later to celebrate, where Leslie gets very drunk. After leaving Ann, she visits Dave's house to tell him that she was nervous about their upcoming date, but now realizes he is lucky to have her because of how "awesome" she is. A seemingly annoyed Dave brings Leslie home. The next day, Leslie feels horrible for ruining her chances with Dave. He arrives at her office later and she starts to apologize, but he says she can make it up to them on their second date, thereby reassuring her the first date is already over. Leslie once again feels cheered up.

Meanwhile, during the office game, Mark (Paul Schneider) announces Jerry's (Jim O'Heir) adoptive mother was arrested for marijuana possession. A distraught Jerry said he did not know he was adopted, making Mark feel terribly guilty. Later, Ron (Nick Offerman) declares himself the winner when he tells Tom he knows Tom's marriage to Wendy (Jama Williamson) is a green card marriage to prevent her from being deported to Canada. A desperate Tom turns to Mark for help in finding dirt on Ron, and Mark suggests Tom visit an out-of-town bar and speak to Ron's old friend Duke Silver. Tom visits the bar and learns Duke Silver is actually the alter ego of Ron himself, who secretly plays saxophone in a jazz club.