Boyle's Hunch is the third episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's third season.
Charles is bummed after striking out while online dating. While waiting in a courthouse hallway to testify in a case, he meets Genevieve, a woman who's seemingly his perfect match. Jake tries to push the two together but an unfortunate twist makes their pursuit of a relationship all the more difficult.
Meanwhile, Holt is trying to improve the NYPD's public image and decides to launch a poster campaign featuring Amy as the face of the department, to Gina's chagrin.
Back at the Nine-Nine, Rosa suspects that Hitchcock and Scully stole her ice cream so she teams up with Terry to try and get evidence to use when confronting them.
This episode provides examples of:
- 555: Holt's email at the PR department is "Raymond.Holt@nypd pr.org". In Real Life, emails don't contain spaces, the .org TLD is reserved for non-governmental organisations and, of course, the NYPD uses the nyc.gov domain.
- Costume Inertia: Holt continues to wear his captain's bars while wearing the badge of a deputy inspector.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Jake tries to recreate takoyaki (Japanese octopus fritters) for Charles by putting lox on a chocolate eclair.
- Foreign Queasine: Charles's takoyaki, which Jake refers to as "fish doughnuts".
- Frame-Up: Genevieve was framed by her ex-boyfriend's assistant, who is in love with him and wants him to stop obsessing over Genevieve.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Charles is increasingly jealous of Genevieve's ex-boyfriend, especially when he learns that one of his paintings was created by them having sex on a canvas for twenty-four hours.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Hitchcock and Scully reveal themselves to be the ice cream thieves when they start eating pizza despite having spent the entire episode claiming to be lactose intolerant. However, they explain that certain foods are too delicious to avoid and run off to the bathroom suffering from stomach cramps (while carrying the pizza!).
- Had she not asked Jake and Charles to take Genevieve's box, Nick's assistant would have managed to get scot-free with her frame-up - as what she thought would be the smoking gun gets turned on her.
- Innocent Innuendo: Charles's tendency towards this is lampshaded with increasing incredulity from Jake.Charles: Nice! My dream's comin' true... you and me, gettin' my lady off together.
Jake: ... I mean, you know how that sounds, right?
[...]
Charles: This is fantastic! I mean, I'm not happy that she was having sex with another man but I'm okay with it if that's what gets her off!
Jake: Do you seriously not hear it? Because it almost seems intentional at this point. - Insurance Fraud: Genevieve is accused of robbing her own art gallery in order to collect the insurance money.
- I Warned You: Gina tells Holt from the very beginning that his campaign would fail. When it does, she won't tell him "I told you so". She has it printed on her shirt instead.
- Let Me at Him!: After Scully and Hitchcock smugly tell Rosa and Terry that they have no evidence that they aren't lactose-intolerant, Rosa lunges at them in anger with a fork in her hand. Terry stops her by physically carrying her out of the room.
- Love Doodles: Charles Boyle falls madly in love with a woman named Genevieve. At work, he doodles lovey-dovey stuff and shows the picture to his best friend Jake who assumes it's a doodle of their wedding invitation. It's actually a picture of their joint tombstone.
- Mood Whiplash: Amy segués telling Holt about her face getting, well, defaced...Amy: ...and worst of all, they didn't put the comma between "die" and "pig".Holt: This is easily dealt with. I'll just issue a statement saying "vandals will be prosecuted."
...to this:Amy: It's not just vandalism, sir. People have real complaints, too. "End stop and frisk." "Stop racial profiling." "Unlawful arrest is a crime."
- Underscored by Holt sitting up after "End stop and frisk".
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Terry and Rosa try to come up with a plan to catch Hitchcock and Scully stealing other people's food from the kitchen. Rosa's first suggestion - naturally - is to poison them and "tell their widows they were thieves."
- Mustache Vandalism: Posters with Amy in her uniform get vandalized. Every single one of them. They got Hitler's mustache, devil horns, target on Amy's face, scribbles like "die pig" — without the comma between "die" and "pig", as Amy emphasizes.
- Not So Above It All: When Boyle starts singing about his "lovely case-y hunch", Jake tries to resist but eventually caves in to singing it himself.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Rosa successfully gets Scully and Hitchcock to admit that they ate her Moose Tracks... after she buys them pizza. Scully and Hitchcock successfully get a free pizza, which gives them stomach pains because they are lactose intolerant.Rosa: There are no winners here.
- Screams Like a Little Girl: Muscle-bound Terry, who's been seen crushing a Magic 8 Ball in one hand, lets out a terrified high-pitched scream upon discovering that a tarantula has (somehow) climbed onto his head!
- Shipper on Deck: Charles clicks with Genevieve instantaneously, but is too nervous to go further. Jake remedies this by, as any good wingman would, throwing one of Charles' takoyaki at her. Too bad she gets sent to prison. Jake continues investigating Genevieve after Charles gives up when the two are confronted with seemingly damning evidence against her. It proves worthwhile, as he finds that she may have been set up.
- Too Much Information: Charles and Genevieve's conversation via the prison intercom disgusts Jake and nauseates the guard on duty so much that they have to stop.Charles: Tell her when this is all over, I'm gonna rub her body in pate and rub it off her with a cornichon.
Jake: I'm just gonna give you the phone back.
- Jake sarcastically lampshades this by pointing out how it seems like anything can be modern art, before skeptically suggesting that he could make a statue of Jesus out of cigarette butts (called "Holy Smokes") and sell it for millions to prove this point. He and Boyle then immediately realise this is actually kind of a good idea, prompting Jake to briefly and enthusiastically contemplate a career change.
- Truth in Television: The specific issues Amy lists off under the Mood Whiplash entry are ones the NYPD and other American police forces have been associated with.
