Captain Peralta is the eighteenth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's second season.
Roger Peralta, Jake's father, is back in town. While Jake is excited to be able to spend time with his father, Charles urges caution, advice which Jake pointedly ignores. Then Roger reveals that he's under investigation for smuggling prescription drugs from Canada, and Jake takes Charles and Scully on a trip across the border to prove Roger's innocence.
Back at the precinct, Holt takes a page out of his mentor's book and suggests that the team get together and solve some brain-teasers.
This episode provides examples of:
- Artistic License – Linguistics: This episode gets a lot wrong regarding Canadian French;
- The episode treats European French and Quebecois French as being perfectly interchangable when in fact, pronounciations and even entire words are completely different.
- The policemen in Canada speak with French accents rather than Quebecois accents.
- The police arresting Roger Peralta speak exclusively French while detaining him, even though actual French-Canadian police would speak English while arresting an American, since random people touching and grabbing another person while speaking a language they don't understand is likely to result in a physical altercation.
- When Roger Peralta's vindictive girlfriend tells the security guards, in French, that Jake and Charles are not real pilots and to escort them out, she is using literal translations of English-to-French words and as a result, she is speaking a broken French sentence that makes no sense in either version of the language.
- Big "NO!": Charles when his goatee is removed by Jake.
- Brick Joke: Scully mentions that his parents forgot about him in Paris and flew back to America in his childhood. At the end of the episode, Jake and Charles forget to bring him back from Quebec with them.
- Broken Pedestal: Jake is finally over his father worship after he proves Roger's innocence and Roger still bails on drinks with his son (and the 99).
- Calling the Old Man Out: Jake, finally fed up with Roger, goes to his hotel room and announces that Roger should stay out of Jake's life until he's ready to actually be a good father.
- Comically Missing the Point: Paradoxically, played for drama—it's framed as a joke, but the point Roger is missing is just further evidence of exactly how little he values his son.Jake: You know, you were always my hero. But I think I'm finally starting to see you for who you really are: a regional airline pilot whose landings are as bumpy as hell and a pretty selfish guy who genuinely doesn't care about being a dad.
Roger: Jake, you don't understand... there was a down-draft on the Drummondville runway. It's not my fault. - Confess to a Lesser Crime: A variant. Jake manages to prove that his dad wasn't smuggling drugs, by proving that he was having multiple affairs.Jake: Turns out, his side piece planted the drugs because she found out about his actual girlfriend. And his other side piece... Point is, my dad's a good guy!
- Crosses the Line Twice: Invoked. Amy uses donut holes to represent the islanders of Holt's riddle. So, when Terry starts munching on them...Terry: (muffled) Mmmm. These islanders are delicious.
- Disappeared Dad: We meet Roger Peralta, the father who walked out on Jake when he was a kid. He is, sadly for Jake, a selfish jerk.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Well, donut holes, but apparently they're Terry's guilty pleasure. (Yogurt's obviously not a guilty pleasure.)
- Faux Fluency: Downplayed with the Québécois cop in the airport. His French is correct and his accent is top-notch—but it's a French French accent, not a Québec French accent (two very different accents).
- Funny Background Event:
- While Holt is explaining his brain-teaser, the squad's lunches can be seen next to them—including a personal cheese board for Gina and a family-size pizza, ruled down the centre and labelled "H" and "S", for Hitchcock and Scully.
- When Roger is telling the Oregon story, Jake can be seen in the background mouthing part of the story.
- Godzilla Threshold: The fact that Jake actually asks for Scully's help shows just how desperate Jake is to prove his father's innocence. Holt considers this Jake doing him a favor.
- Hidden Depths: Gina shows her intelligence not by solving the brain-teaser, but by figuring out that Holt hadn't solved it either, then by giving Holt sound advice on focusing on his successes, rather than a puzzle he couldn't solve. Also, Scully knows French. Well, some French.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Scully's parents apparently tried to take him to Paris and abandon him at the Louvre. He had to learn French to get back home, and he believes they just forgot. Of course, if Scully's parents were/are anything like him, it's entirely possible that they actually did forget—not to mention, the 99 accidentally leave him in Quebec, too.
- Irony: A rather harsh example. Seconds after Jake's received a text that reveals that his dad is ditching him once again, the 99 drinks a toast to what an awesome guy Roger Peralta is. This, needless to say, doesn't make Jake feel any better.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: Jake calls his dad out for being a lousy father and a mediocre pilot. Guess which one he objects to. Played for both laughs and drama, as it shows where his priorities lie. (And possibly that he realizes there's no point in making excuses for his parenting).
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Rosa's suggestion for solving the brain-teaser (how to figure out who of twelve men weigh differently by using a seesaw only three times) is to torture one of the men with the seesaw until he confesses.
- Mood Whiplash: Jake's confrontation with his dad at the end:Jake: Look, I've been making excuses for you my whole life. But you're a pretty crappy father. And until you're ready to be a good one, don't call me. Also, I'm taking your captain hat because it's cool and I want it.
[Jake grabs Roger's hat, puts it on, and struts off with "Spirit in the Sky" playing over the soundtrack.] - Mundane Made Awesome: Slow-motion shots of Jake and Charles strutting in Roger's spare uniforms, set to "Spirit in the Sky." Parodied by the subsequent shot of Scully trudging into the bathroom. Reprised after Calling the Old Man Out.
- No Love for the Wicked: Gina uses the term asexual as an insult to imply something wrong with Terry and Amy.
- Parental Substitute: Beyond the establishing twin shot of Roger and Holt standing next to one another, Holt also treats the 99 to drinks, which is what Roger had promised to do. Holt also tells Peralta that he's proud of him.
- Planning with Props: Amy tries to figure out the brain-teaser using donut holes. Unfortunately, Terry keeps eating them.
- Selective Obliviousness: Much as Jake tries to pretend otherwise, it's clear that Roger Peralta is a selfish jerk who is only using his son. It's implied that Jake knows this deep down but doesn't want to to accept it—until the end, when he finally ends up Calling the Old Man Out.
- Skewed Priorities: Scully is sent to talk to the Quebecois cops, and comes back with information about where Jake's dad is being taken, and which airport restaurant has the best poutine. He's obviously much more enthusiastic about the latter.
- Something We Forgot: After solving the case, Jake realises that they left Scully in Quebec.
- Team Dad: Once again, it's reinforced that Jake is coming to view Holt as a father-figure. Lampshaded at one point when Captain Peralta and Captain Holt are standing side-by-side in front of Jake, in very similar uniforms. This prompts Jake to note that he's having a weird moment.
- 12 Coins Puzzle: The brain-teaser is a version of this puzzle with men on an island rather then coins.
- Woman Scorned: Roger Peralta is a proud womanizer and he's in his current predicament because one of the women he's involved with discovered she wasn't the only one and framed him for drug smuggling in return.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Jake and Charles using standard sitcom logic, try to pass as pilots by wearing Roger's uniforms and faking pilot lingo. The bartender at the Commodore Club, who works with actual pilots all day, immediately realizes that their uniforms don't fit and their slang is gibberish, and calls airport security.
