"Christmas" is the eleventh episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's first season.
Captain Holt has been receiving death threats so he assigns Jake to be his bodyguard, to Amy's chagrin. Amy, meanwhile, busies herself trying to put together an office Christmas card to give to Holt but she can't find a picture where Rosa isn't frowning.
Also, Terry has to undergo a psych evaluation in order to be cleared for field duty but things don't go well.
This episode provides examples of:
- An Ass-Kicking Christmas: In the Cold Open, Peralta and Boyle have to break up a fight between two Santas who want to use the same street corner to collect for charity. The detectives get involved in the brawl.
- Badass Boast: Terry has one after rushing in to tackle the week's villain.Terry: Terry's back! Terry's back!
- Big Damn Heroes: The Nine-Nine's manhunt for a former convict out for Holt's blood results in Boyle and Terry pulling this; Boyle dives in the way of two bullets intended for Rosa and is shot in the rear end while Terry crash-tackles the gunman just as he was about to shoot Holt.
- Bland-Name Product: Brooklyn Video (where the police safe house's copy of Safe House clearly came from) is a parody of the defunct Blockbuster Video chain. The blue-and-yellow logo on the DVD box is an obvious knockoff of the Blockbuster logo.
- Bothering by the Book: Peralta doesn't initially take the death threats against Holt seriously—but he still insists on following standard procedure to the letter, just to annoy Holt.
- Bullying a Dragon: Hitchcock, for whatever reason, thought it would be a good idea to tickle Rosa to try and get her to smile. She violently expresses her displeasure.
- Butt-Monkey: Boyle really has it in this episode; he misses two flights to his singles cruise, handcuffs himself to Jake, and gets shot in the butt while protecting Rosa.
- Chained Heat: Jake handcuffs himself to Holt upon learning that Holt intends to go out and track down whomever is threatening him by himself. Later, Charles handcuffs himself to Holt. This culminates in a visual gag where the three of them try to figure out how to sit in a car and arrange their arms so that Jake can drive.
- Christmas Episode: The Christmas-y plot of the episode has Amy trying to put together an office Christmas card for Captain Holt. Charles plans a Christmas/New Year's getaway... but the squad celebrates Christmas together.
- Cop Killer: Narrowly averted; the Freestyle Killer would have shot Rosa dead at point-blank range were it not for Charles diving the path of the bullets. And he was about to shoot Holt before Terry crash-tackles him to the ground.
- Description Cut: Amy proudly tells Jake how she's bought Holt six Christmas presents, one for each life lesson he's taught her. As if on cue, Holt walks into the bullpen and declares to everyone that under no circumstances should any of them buy him a present.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Holt's tell in this episode is established as a slight twitch of the lips. Later episodes would establish that his tell is actually using contractions.
- Friendly Tickle Torture: Hitchcock attempts to do this to Rosa to get her to smile for Amy's Christmas card. But instead gets his arm twisted.
- Hypocrite: Most of Captain Holt's actions in this episode—keeping secrets from the rest of the squad, circumventing the rules, and trying to deal with the problem all by himself—are mistakes that he criticized Peralta for in previous episodes.
- Idiot Ball: Holt specifically assigns Jake Peralta to be his bodyguard, expecting that Jake wouldn't take the job seriously and would let Holt skirt the rules. In the process, Holt completely forgets Jake's capacity for malicious compliance—and never considers that after half-a-season of chafing under Holt's authority and strict application of the rules, Jake would revel in the role reversal and would enforce the rules just to annoy Holt. Even the assumption that Jake would take the death threats lightly turns out to be ill-founded, as Jake eventually winds up taking the situation more seriously than anyone else.
- Insult Backfire:Amy: You look happy. Let me guess: your egg sandwich fell on the floor and they gave it to you for free.
Jake: No. Can you do that? Why doesn't everyone just drop their sandwiches on the floor?
Amy: I was trying to insult you.
Jake: But instead you gave me an amazing life hack. - Hourglass Plot: This episode sees Holt and Peralta invert their previous dynamic: now Holt is the one downplaying the severity of the death threats, attempting to skirt the official procedures, and trying to solve the problem all by himself. All while Peralta's the one insisting on following procedure to the letter and enlisting the whole squad for help.
- Mood Whiplash: In the middle of a suspenseful chase by the railroad tracks, Terry tackles the perp out of nowhere and saves Holt. As Jake and Holt congratulate him, Rosa says they need an ambulance because Boyle was shot. Cue Boyle asking if he died and what happened and everyone waiting nervously in the hospital.
- Not So Above It All: These days Captain Holt is stoic and professional, but back in his younger days he dressed like a Blaxploitation protagonist and taunted perps while he arrested them.
- "Not So Different" Remark: After hearing the story about how a younger Holt taunted the Freestyle Killer during the arrest, Jake (who also makes a habit of taunting perps in his custody) says that he would've gotten along with young Holt.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Rosa is so relieved that Boyle is okay that she gives a huge smile. Then it vanishes after Amy takes a picture of her smiling.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot:Holt: Okay. The next time someone threatens to kill me I'll come straight to you.
Amy: Thank you, sir. I can't wait! (fumbling) I- didn't mean... let's catch this bastard. - Perpetual Frowner: All the photos of Rosa in the database have her frowning, and Amy has a hard time capturing her ever smiling for the Christmas card. She gets lucky in the end when Rosa cracks a smile while joining Jake in making jokes about Boyle's butt.
- Properly Paranoid: Holt is annoyed at the extreme measures Jake takes to protect Holt from death threats. They're later confirmed to be real.
- Refuge in Audacity: Terry stamps his own form when Gina says the captain needs help. Then he runs out before the therapist can stop him.
- Shot in the Ass: Charles gets shot twice in the ass while trying to save Rosa from a serial killer.Charles: OW! MY BUTT! OH! MY BUTT!
- Solo Mission Becomes Group Mission: Holt thinks the death threats are his problem, to deal with alone, on the logic that the rest of the 99 shouldn't have to clean up after a mistake he made decades ago. Peralta thinks that's stupid, and convinces Holt to get the whole squad's help to take down the Freestyle Killer.
- Taking the Bullet: Charles throws himself in front of Rosa to save her life.
- Take a Third Option: Holt and Peralta are handcuffed together at the safe house, and Holt gets Boyle to come over with the extra key. Holt orders Boyle to uncuff them; Peralta orders Boyle to do no such thing. Torn between an order from his superior and loyalty to his friend, Boyle instead chooses to handcuff himself to Peralta's free hand.
- The Tell: The corner of Holt's mouth involuntarily twitches whenever he lies.
- Underestimating Badassery:
- Holt thinks that Jake will blow off his body-guarding duties. He doesn't expect the detective to take the job so seriously.
- Jake plays Wii Tennis with Holt. He didn't expect he would master it so quickly.
- The Unsmile: When Amy can't find a photo of Rosa smiling, Gina suggests they make one by editing a photo. Specifically, they take a picture of Rosa frowning and rotate her mouth 180 degrees. The result is so unnerving, they immediately delete it and conclude their only option is to get Rosa to smile for real.
- Wham Line: Rosa delivers this over their walkie-talkies: "We need an ambulance. Boyle's down."
- Word Association Test: Terry has to take one when talking to the police psychologist. He takes them all in the same morbid direction no matter what word she gives him.Psychologist: Cat
Terry: Kitten. Cute. Calm...False sense of security. Gun. Die.
