"I'm gonna split you like a sundae with Grandpa... bitch."
"Maximum Security" is the twenty-first episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's third season.
With Adrian Pimento forced to go into hiding after Jimmy "The Butcher" Figgis put a price on his head, the Nine-Nine set to work building a case against the mob boss.
Jake and Charles work on getting close to Maura Figgis, Jimmy's sister, to try and get information about Jimmy's whereabouts. Making things more complicated is the fact that Maura is currently imprisoned in Texas for several murders. The initial plan is to have Rosa go undercover as a pregnant inmate with Jake and Charles posing as her OB/GYNs. Unfortunately, Rosa is immediately outed by a prisoner she'd previously arrested, forcing Jake to ask Amy to don a fake pregnancy belly and go undercover to get close to a violent felon.
Back in New York, the rest of the Nine-Nine decide to try and draw out the crooked FBI agent Jake met in the previous episode by staging a fake funeral for Pimento. As they put that together, Terry tries to get Rosa to confront her emotions over her fiance having to go into hiding.
This episode provides examples of:
- Always Save the Girl: Jake massively pisses Amy off by using his cover as her OB-GYN to constantly extract her from any situation in the prison where he thinks she might be in danger, over the course of a montage:Amy: [entering clinic] Seriously? She was at lunch. She didn't have a weapon.Jake: She had a fork. That's like four tiny shivs on a stick. [cut to:]Amy: [entering clinic] What the hell?Jake: Socks are just a noose waiting to be braided. [cut to:]Amy: [entering clinic] We were playing Hearts!Jake: In the wrong hands, every playing card is like a throwing star. [cut to:]Amy: [entering clinic, Death Glare] We were alone, her hands were empty, and I think she was napping.
- Eventually he realises that he just can't handle seeing her in danger and takes himself off the surveillance so that she can be left alone to do her job.
- Comedic Sociopathy: In order to quell any suspicions that Amy and Jake might be collaborating, to boost Amy's reputation as a violent prisoner, and to find an excuse to take Jake out of the prison after his recognition that he can't stop himself from interfering with Amy's job, they resort to this.note Jake: [takes Amy's arm in a corridor] All right, Cortez, you're late for your appointment.Amy: Quit touching me! [knocks Jake over and starts kicking the crap out of him] I don't need checkups every two seconds, you dimple-chinned freak!Jake: [in genuine pain] Ow! Ahh! Ow! You're so tough and I'm just a beautiful intellectual!Convict: [looking at Amy with respect] Hey, I love beating up doctors. Can I get in there?Amy: No! He's mine! All of you, back off! I'm kicking for two.
- Conspicuous Gloves: The squad are looking for a man with a scar on his hand who is a dirty FBI agent who hired Adrian Pimento's would-be murderer. Captain Holt has a lead because one guy at the funeral is wearing gloves. It turns out he's a pickpocket.
- Credits Gag: In the Dr. Goor Productions Vanity Plate, the "shh" after the "Notadoctor" is replaced by a prison door slamming.
- Description Cut:Terry: Look, the funeral's almost over. We basically pulled it off. All you gotta do is give a convincing eulogy.Rosa: Roger that.[Cuts to Rosa standing in front of a casket.]Rosa: Pimento's dead. Thanks for coming.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Holt and Gina have to examine mourners' hands at Pimento's fake funeral in order to see if any of them have the tell-tale palm scar that Jake saw in "Paranoia". Handshakes don't provide a clear enough view so they are forced to ask for high-fives instead.
- Girls Behind Bars: The setting of Amy's plotline as she goes undercover as an inmate to get information on a mafia boss. Jake lampshades that it won't be like it is in the movies... or soft porn.
- Hates Small Talk: Played for laughs in that Holt really does hate small talk, but he thinks he's good at pretending that he doesn't. Holt shows the squad how good at small talk he is, and then immediately tries it on a police officer who walks in on their secret meeting. He claims that they all came in there separately and then started chatting, you know, breezy stuff.Holt: [to his squad] No, I can turn it on when it's called for. "The Bachelor is a television show, hmm? Andre Agassi's at it again. I, too, avoid gluten."Holt: [to an officer in uniform] The Bachelor is a television show. Andre Agassi's at it again. I, too, am avoiding gluten.
- The Infiltration: Played straight with Amy, but only after it's been parodied with Rosa, who is disguised as a pregnant convict and given a name (Isabel Cortez) and a backstory (she stabbed a guy on the subway 46 times) so that she can go undercover in a Texas prison. Within seconds of Rosa/Isabel entering the prison, this happens:Convict: [walks up to her] Hey. You're that cop who arrested me three years in Brooklyn.Rosa: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Gina claims she did this as a child when Terry notes how good she is at forging signatures:"I grew up forging report cards. If people knew how smart I was, it would've been harder to control them."
- Pregnant Badass: Amy, though not actually pregnant, plays one. She goes undercover as a pregnant inmate and threatens tough murderers. And beats up Jake to save her cover.Maura Figgis: [who has just been thrown against the wall by Amy] What the hell do you think you're doing?!Amy: Showing my unborn baby how an ass gets kicked!
