Parks and Recreation Boss on Tom and Ann Shocker: "It's Real—They Will Have a Relationship"

Are Leslie and Ron next? We get the scoop from executive producer Mike Schur

Hey, Parks and Recreation fans, raise your hands if you totally called the twist in the latest episode that Ann (Rashida Jones) and Tom (Aziz Ansari) would get together!

Oh, you big liars.

It was the shocker that (we believe) no one saw coming, and now: We have questions. Are Tom and Ann actually going to become a real, long-term couple? Are there any other surprising pairs in the works? Executive producer  Mike Schur tells me:

"It's real. Tom and Ann are dating and will have a relationship for some amount of time."

Boo-yah! But wait. Hmmm. Some amount of time? We won't buy those monogrammed wedding gifts just yet.

Schur goes on to say that his writing staff has been talking about hooking up Tom and Ann since season three because they wanted to do something more casual, and comical.

"We have a lot of soul-matey relationships, with Leslie (Amy Poehler) and Ben (Adam Scott) and Andy (Chris Pratt) and April (Aubrey Plaza)," Schur explains, "and we just wanted to do a comedy relationship. It's real, but it's not soulfully gazing into each other eyes and running off to get married after three weeks. We're going for a different relationship, which is a pair of mismatched people who are very gingerly having a couple drinks here and there to see if they're compatible."

Casual. Got it.

Schur believes that this twist, though surprising, is grounded in reality. "You have this small, loser town filled with loser people and Tom's at least kind of cool. The reality is, if you were a young attractive woman in Pawnee, and you worked with a guy who's kinda cool even if he's a dope, at some point you'd say, let's just try it."

So what happens next? "There are certainly people affected by [Tom and Ann's relationship]," Schur reveals. "Most specifically is April. Because she's the person who got them together, they're constantly complaining about each other to her, and she decides the only way she can get through it is to get drunk. So she gets really really drunk at 4 in the afternoon. It's sort of an April, Tom and Ann triangle as far as who's affected."

As for you fans who are hoping for another surprising pairing, Leslie and Ron, sorry, but don't hold your breath! "The one thing we've never contemplated at any level is Leslie and Ron," Schur admits. "I know there are people who are Leslie and Ron shippers, as they say, but their relationship is so great as platonic friends without any hint of any interest in each other. It's like Lou Grant and Mary Tyler Moore. They will never date. We will never do that."

In case you are (painfully!) unaware, Parks and Recreation is pretty much the funniest show on television right now. Full of great surprises and laugh-out-loud moments. If you aren't watching, well, you probably didn't make it all the way down to the end of this article. Duh. So, all you fans: Keep telling your friends. P-Rex is not to be missed!