Road Trip (Parks and Recreation)

In the episode, Leslie and Ben are sent on a road trip together and struggle to keep their romantic feelings for each other at bay due to a policy that forbids office romances.

Written by Harris Wittels and directed by Troy Miller, "Road Trip" originally aired back-to-back along with "The Fight".

The episode featured several appearances by recurring guest stars, including Jay Jackson as Perd Hapley, Kirk Fox as Joe and Mark Rivers, Andrew Burlinson and Alan Yang as the members of Andy's band, Mouse Rat.

"Road Trip" received generally positive reviews and, according to Nielsen Media Research, was seen by an estimated 3.5 million household viewers, a drop from both "The Fight" and the previous original episode, "Eagleton".

The next day, April brings the other members of Mouse Rat to city hall and surprises Andy by singing one of his songs.

In a separate subplot, a young girl named Lauren asks to interview Ron for her school's field trip assignment to city hall.

Alan Sepinwall of HitFix said the episode was a good payoff to the romance between Leslie and Ben all season, a story arc he initially had problems with.

[2] Scott Meslow of The Atlantic called "Road Trip" a very funny episode and strong pay-off to the romance between Leslie and Ben that had been building all season.

[5] Eric Sundermann of Hollywood.com said the plot felt "admittedly, a little more sitcom-y than I like" but was very funny and progressed the Leslie and Ben story arc without letting the show "jump the shark".

[4] Zap2it writer Rick Porter said he was glad to see Ben and Leslie come together the way they did, particularly because he feared the no-dating rule would become an "artificial barrier" that dragged out the romance subplot.

While he said the episode included good "outrageous comedy", he said the script strives on the more subtle scenes about Leslie and Ben coming together, along with Chris' constant interruptions.

[16] Nick McHatton of TV Fanatic was underwhelmed by the Know Ya Boo story, but strongly praised Leslie and Ben's scenes, which he said were both touching and very funny.

He said Chris' obliviousness to the sexual tension between Leslie and Ben seemed unusual, but wrote, "Maybe this is just another case of a show hitting so many perfect notes that the slightest deviation seems off-key.

"[8] Matt Fowler of IGN said "Road Trip" was less funny than "The Fight", and that the Know Ya Boo subplot "fizzled a bit".

[18] Entertainment Weekly writer Hillary Busis said "Road Trip" was "pretty great" but less funny than the previous episode, "The Fight".