"It's me," said an ungrammatical voice.

Ben was absent for a large chunk of “The Trial of Leslie Knope”, but his presence was felt throughout. Not only did he pop up in a couple of the flashbacks, and not only was the trial all about Leslie’s relationship with Ben, but Ben, Leslie and the script made sure that Leslie could feel he was with her just by looking to the portrait of Old Stoneface on the wall. So everyone was either talking about him or thinking about him during the long stretch when he was off-camera, then brought him back on for the two big declarations of love. And what made both those scenes so poignant was the way the sentiment was undercut just enough by having Ethel Beavers reading both declarations, rather than hearing it come from the mouths of either Leslie or Ben. I’m sure Amy Poehler and Adam Scott would have played those lines marvelously, as we’ve seen from them in previous episodes (most recently their reconciliation in “Smallest Park”), but doing it that way actually made it more powerful by holding something back - and by putting the declarations in the nerdy language of an official government transcript that only true policy wonks like Leslie and Ben can appreciate. Really, I don’t think they should have expressed their love any other way. A classic sitcom romance moment.