The newest member of the Nine-Nine. Pleasant dreams, everyone!
"Adrian Pimento" is the seventeenth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's third season.
Jake is excited at the chance to work with Adrian Pimento (Jason Mantzoukas), a veteran undercover detective who is trying to transition back to traditional police work. Jake, however, soon finds himself genuinely disturbed at the toll long-term undercover work can have on a person's mind. Rosa, on the other hand, finds Pimento extremely attractive.
Meanwhile, Charles makes a huge mess in the break room thanks to a pressure cooker full of goat stew exploding. He, Terry, and Amy have to trek deep into the precinct to try and procure the assistance of Mean Marge (Kate Flannery).
Also, Holt asks Rosa and Gina to help him make a video to use as an application for a grant to upgrade the Nine-Nine's office equipment. Gina, predictably, hijacks the project to try and make her own magnum opus.
This episode provides examples of:
- Alliterative Name: The head janitor is known by her nickname Mean Marge. Everyone is terrified of her. When she points out that they don't even know her surname, Scully's "educated guess" is Marge Mopbucket.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Rosa spends most of the episode lusting after the brooding, disturbed Pimento.
- Almighty Janitor: The cleaning staff, led by Mean Marge, wield an incredible amount of power. Even Captain Holt is openly afraid of Marge.
- Becoming the Mask: Pimento feels that "Paul Sneed", his cover, is subsuming his real identity.
- Black Comedy: Adrian Pimento's various issues are played decisively for laughs.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Pimento is doing Tai Chi in Jake's apartment, Jake asks why he's doing so in his underwear. Pimento responds that he can't do it nude.
- Crazy-Prepared: Pimento hides a lot of weapons on his person at all times. He even goes so far as to hire a lookalike to do Tai Chi in his window to throw off any enemies.
- Darker and Edgier: This episode swerves towards extremely dark elements while still playing everything for laughs. Notably, this is the first episode where blood is shown being spilled.
- Defective Detective:
- Adrian Pimento. And how. He's got extreme anger, trust and identity issues from his time undercover.
- Parodied with the actor Gina hires, who decides that a secret pill addiction is part of Holt's backstory.
- Disappeared Dad: Jake's daddy issues briefly flare up again in his attempt to sympathise with Pimento:Peralta: Look, I get it. You're still tense. When I came back from undercover they made me see a shrink. [Increasingly annoyed] But then he told me I had dad issues, and I was like "You know what, you can't tell me what to do, you're not my dad!" So he was a moron.
- Fish out of Water: Were this a dark drama about a cop's struggles to adjust to the thin line between cops and criminals, then Adrian Pimento would probably fit in quite well. As it is, in the cheerful world of the Nine-Nine he sticks out like a sore thumb.
- Funny Background Event: When Holt chews out Gina for hiring actors, the actor playing him imitates his body language behind his back.
- Has a Type: Rosa mentions that she is automatically attracted to men with an edge.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When everyone is disturbed by Pimento's unexpectedly dark Cutaway Gag, Terry tells him that "We try to tell funnier little stories".
- McGuffin: Lampshaded with the M.C. Guffin Foundation, to whom the captain has applied for a grant.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Subverted. Jake keeps insisting he can empathize with Pimento since they were both undercover. In the end, Jake admits that his undercover work was pretty boring, and he can't understand Pimento's situation at all—which is what finally allows him to empathize with him.
- Running Gag: This episode shows that champagne corks and the Nine-Nine should not be in the vicinity of one another.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In-Universe. Due to Holt and Rosa being uncooperative, Gina brings in two doppelgangers to perform in her video.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: When Pimento is explaining how he broke into Peralta's apartment:Pimento: Oh, it was easy. I just seduced the old lady upstairs, came down the fire escape, jimmied the window open, bing-bang-boom I'm inside your living quarters.
Jake: Totally. Of course, next time you could just gimme a call, you know. Two ways to pop in on a friend.
Pimento: I didn't kill the old lady upstairs if that's what you're worried about.
Jake: Well, I am now.
