Warning: This article contains spoilers
Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) has spent the last half of the “Parks and Recreation” season debating whether to leave Pawnee, Indiana, to take a big new job with the National Park Service in Chicago. And in Thursday night’s season finale, she finally decided to accept the offer with some encouragement from a famous former Windy City resident – Michelle Obama.
The First Lady made a cameo appearance on the NBC sitcom as the keynote speaker at a National Parks Conference Leslie is attending in San Francisco. The two have a brief run-in in a hallway, where Mrs. Obama tells Leslie the National Parks are working on incorporating the Let’s Move program (in a plug for her initiative combating childhood obesity). Starry-eyed by the encounter and scope of the job (and after some more indecision), Leslie finally decides to say yes, then sets out (unsuccessfully) to recruit two of her Pawnee colleagues to join her in Chicago.
But in a twist, the gang managed to stay together after all – Leslie convinces her new boss to move the National Parks office to Pawnee, allowing her to move up in her career without leaving her beloved hometown.
The episode also featured a cameo by Ginuwine, who played the Pawnee/Eagleton Unity Concert at the behest of his cousin Donna (Retta). The R&B star sang his 1996 hit “Pony” as a dedication to the town’s deceased mascot, the pony Little Sebastian.
Other musical performances included the indie folk rock group The Decembrists and ‘90s rock band Letters to Cleo. But the most buzzworthy cameo came in the final moments of the episode, which picked up three years later. Successfully running the National Parks regional office out of Pawnee with husband Ben (Adam Scott) by her side and their triplets in tow, Leslie fires an inept employee – played by “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm, in a surprise appearance. Seems Don Draper can’t hold down a job these days.