"The Night Shift" is the fourth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fourth season and the first half of a crossovernote with New Girl.
The denizens of the Nine-Nine are stuck working nights in the wake of their abandoning their duties to help Jake and Holt in Florida. Everyone is tired and depressed at this disruption to their lives. The only exception is Jake, who is ecstatic about finally getting to do police work again and came back to work a week early against his doctor's recommendation. Investigating a jewelry store burglary with Charles, Jake struggles with the slower pace the NYPD works at when the sun goes down as well as Charles' new family commitments. Attempting to take on a dangerous perp by himself, Jakes ends up enlisting the unwilling help of one Jessica Day (of New Girl).
Also, Amy and Rosa have to go through stacks of paperwork but their progress is stymied by Rosa constantly leaving to take long breaks. Although she tries to scare Amy off by claiming stomach problems, it's soon discovered that Rosa is going out to a nearby park for a mysterious purpose.
This episode provides examples of:
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:Holt: Sorry you're all miserable, but guess what? So am I! I'm exhausted all the time. I never see my husband. The late night NPR programming... pure garbage!
- Big "NO!": Jake and Charles share one in the cold open as Gina forcibly shaves off Jakes frosted tips. Though it's played with, as seeing Charles with his frosted tips is enough to break the spell they have over Jake:Jake: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO You know what, I do see it, it's bad, it looks bad.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Rosa's night shift successes: drunk and disorderly, then drunk and disorderly, and cyber crime, which was a drunk guy humping a laptop.
- Brief Accent Imitation:
- Gina spends the night shift tweeting to Australians, and adopts an Aussie accent.
- While Jake and Charles reenact the jewel store robbery, they adopt the identity of two French cat burglars on vacation. Charles uses an accent, but Jake decides that his character doesn't have one due to having studied abroad. When he finds a crucial clue, however, Jake adopts a French accent, adding that his character uses one when excited.
- Celebrity Paradox: In the first episode of the season Jake was told his new favorite movie was Failure to Launch if he had actually watched it, he would have found Jessica Day (played by Zooey Deschanel) looked familiar.
- Crossover: With New Girl. Jake commandeers the car Jess is driving (it belongs to Schmidt's mother) and ends up crashing it. The corresponding New Girl episode ("Homecoming") has Jess going to the Nine-Nine to get the car back. Lampshaded when Jess exclaims "It's a Crossover", meaning the car's brand.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Both Jake and Amy fall into this trap in this episode:
- Jake can't seem to stop himself from implying to Charles about how his son is getting in the way of their jobs and friendship.
- Amy tries to reassure Rosa about Pimento's ongoing absence when she learns that Rosa is more upset about it than she lets on, but accidentally keeps suggesting that he's dead, seriously injured or just too crazy to have returned.
- Flashed-Badge Hijack: Jake commandeers an SUV being driven by Jess. She is nervous about it because it belongs to Schmidt's mother, and she warned her not to get a scratch on it.
- Incredibly Lame Fun: One of Holt's suggestions for a conversation topic to boost morale is to mention one's favorite sailing knot.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Rosa is genuinely upset and starts crying. Amy is so shocked that she has no idea how to react.
- Rule of Three: The cases that Rosa has had so far in the night shift doubly subverts this trope:Rosa: Listen to the cases I've had: drunk and disorderly, drunk and disorderly, cyber crime—
Jake: Ooh, cyber crime! Pretty cool.
Rosa: Caught a drunk guy humping a laptop. - That Liar Lies: When Amy finds out that Rosa is lying, she gives her a piece of her mind.Amy: Cool, maybe we can mill around and small talk about how some of us are big lying liars who lie all the time like a bunch of liars, Rosa.
- Pungeon Master: Holt considers cheering up the detective squad by telling some jokes. One that he runs by Terry goes:Holt: I don't care for cheese. I'm a curdmudgeon.
- Too Much Information: Rosa pulls this on Amy twice. The first time, she goes into lengthy (and fake) detail about her stomach problems to get Amy off her back about why she keeps leaving. The second time, she goes into lengthy (and probably real) detail about the extremely sordid things she and Pimento intend to get up to when they reunite on the park bench outside the precinct.
- The Un-Smile: Holt comes across an article that says that physically smiling can cause moods to improve. He orders the squad to try it, but it just results in a roomful of uncomfortable grimaces.
- Whoopi Epiphany Speech: Lohank gives Jake advice. Lampshaded by Jake.Jake: Man, am I seriously about to take emotional advice from Lohank?
