Halloween IV is the fifth episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine's fourth season.
Jake and Holt continue their petty rivalry to see who is the "Ultimate Detective Slash Genius" of the Nine-Nine's detective squad. Joining them in the squabble is Amy, now openly competing after stealing the title from under everyone's noses the previous year. With each competitor allowed one teammate, the precinct becomes a battleground as each faction works to outsmart the others.
Except for Terry, who declares himself sick of the competition and locks himself in an interrogation room to get some work done.
As in years past, Hilarity Ensues.
This episode provides examples of:
- Batman Gambit:
- Holt picks Charles as his teammate, correctly guessing that all of Jake's preparations hinged on Charles' willingness to do whatever Jake asks him to.
- Gina ultimately wins the bet by anticipating every single participant's actions well in advance.
- Subverted when Jake's builds his plan on the certainty that neither Amy nor Holt would be willing to damage government property, only to immediately be proven wrong (see Cutting the Knot).
- Beneath Notice: Gina was able to spy on everyone else for her plan by wearing one of Amy's pantsuits.Amy: That suit is not drab! It has a fun salmon lining.
Gina: No, Amy, it made me invisible. - Big Entrance: Santiago at first announces the Heist is back on by striking a triangle. Then Peralta comes in blowing air horns announcing the same thing. But then, Holt usurps them both by bringing in a fucking brass band performing Ride of the Valkyries! Then Hitchcock turns on the feedback of a megaphone only to announce that his ex-wife had died.
- Black Comedy Burst: Hitchcock happily announcing the death of his ex-wife. "No more alimony, baby!"
- Call-Back: Bingpot.
- Catchphrase: Gina exploits Terry's tendency to say "[X] is dumb!" about everything he dislikes.[In conversation with Scully]
Terry: Everyone should wear suspenders! Belts are dumb!
[Delivering a briefing to the precinct]
Terry: Everyone should swim forward. Backstroke is dumb!
[Cleaning out the refrigerator]
Terry: Thirty grams of fat? Hummus is dumb! - Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Holt boasts to Jake and Amy that he will "slice you both from mouth to anus and wear you like jackets."
- Cutting the Knot: When Holt and Charles is locked in his office, he first tries picking the lock before angrily grabbing his computer monitor and using to smash through his window before climbing out.
- Dark Horse Victory: Gina outwits everyone to win the heist this year.
- Doppelgänger: Bill the Ringer, whom Jake hired for the heist, looks incredibly similar to Charles.
- Fakin' MacGuffin: Gina made three additional replicas of the plaque so she could swap them whenever the original was stolen.
- Fun T-Shirt: Gina wears a hoodie that says, "GINA KNOWS BEST". Suffice to say, a lot of people wanted that hoodie in real life. Lo and behold!
- Green-Eyed Monster: Jake "plays dirty" by manipulating Charles's intense jealousy of anyone else who threatens to become Jake's best friend.Jake: I guess I have a new best friend. And his name... is Bill.
Charles: You're not serious. He's just a prop for the heist.
Jake: Sure, it started out that way. [Takes Bill's hand] But you know how these things go. Spending time together. Sharing intimate secrets. [Pats Bill's shoulder] Laughing about nothing in particular. [Laughs]
Bill: Cabbage!
Charles: [Anguished] Holt has the plaque! It's hidden in the evidence room in a box marked "Cold Cases 1972"!
Jake: Thanks bud! We will always be best friends! [Runs out with Bill]
Charles: You hear that, Bill?! Nobody likes you! - Hidden in Plain Sight: Rather than going to the dentist, Gina stayed in the precinct, passing as an ordinary bystander by wearing drab clothing (Amy's).
- Know When to Fold Them: Gina once again displays this trope, when in gloating over her victory and her reasons for playing everyone (that she felt excluded by the use of "detective-slash-genius" on the plaque), she makes a rather ill-advised comparison:Gina: Can you imagine what that word sounds like to someone who's not a detective? Discriminatory! It's worse than segregation!
Holt / Terry: Uh-uh.
Gina: Too far? Sorry. - Nausea Fuel: Played for laughs; the characters have this reaction when, thanks to the rigged blacklights, they get a glimpse of just how truly disgusting the squadroom is due to the hidden stains all over the place.Boyle: Dear God! Hitchcock and Scully's desk!
[Cut to reveal that every single inch of the desk — and chairs — in question is covered in gross stains] - Not So Above It All:
- Holt shows that he can outdo Jake and Amy in the pettiness department by hiring an actual brass band to play the overture from "Ride of the Valkyries" as he strides into the squad room to announce the launch of this year's Halloween bet. He also takes things intensely seriously, to the point of smashing his own office window with his own computer monitor at one point. Even Jake is taken aback by how absurdly competitive he gets.
- Rosa is so intent on winning, she eagerly goes along with Amy's plan, to the point of reading all the prepared material in Amy's encrypted virtual binder and going along with The Baby-Sitters Club codenames (along with completing Amy's recommended reading) without once declaring the endeavour "lame" as she might do in normal circumstances.
- Subverted; when the fake plaques are revealed to have "Heists are Dumb" scrawled on them in invisible ink after being put under a blacklight, everyone assumes that Terry is this with regards to the heist and has been "refusing" to participate as a misdirection. Except he actually is above the heist, he actually has been refusing to participate, and Gina has been misdirecting everyone all along.
- Only Sane Man: Terry declares that the contest "is dumb" and decides to lock himself in an interrogation room so he can get some work done for once. This, of course, just means that everyone suspects him of planning his own gambit.
- Platonic Prostitution: Although Jake doesn't appear to fully realise this, Bill the Ringer is quite clearly a male escort. So naturally, Jake's a little creeped out whenever Bill manages to layer everything that happens with some kind of sexual implication.Holt: This was all your doing, you and your male prostitute.
Jake: Bill is not a male prostitute, I don't think! - Precious Puppies: Holt, knowing where Amy's secret hiding spot is, trained Cheddar, his Corgi, to specifically travel through vents and pick up plaques with his teeth.
- Red Herring: Terry is set up as the real thief because he wanted to stay out of the heist, which convinced Jake, Amy and Holt that he was secretly planning his own heist, as Amy did the previous year. Turns out Terry really didn't participate in the heist, and Gina tricked the others into thinking he did. Even when she revealed herself as the real winner, Jake still thinks Terry was involved a little bit.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: After Holt reveals that he only chose Charles to throw off Jake's plan, this exchange occurs.Charles: I feel so used! Am I just a piece of meat to you?
Holt: Yes. Now put on a smile, Pork Chop. - Safe Word: When Jake tells Bill that they're about to play dirty (meaning with the heist), Bill tells him his safety word is "cabbage". He later says it when Jake is pretending to be his best friend to make Charles jealous.
- Serious Business: The heist, naturally. Although Captain Holt's increasingly deadly serious approach begins to verge on mania at times.
- Shout-Out: When revealing that he just chose Boyle to sabotage Jake's plan, Holt barks out "You get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!"
- Skewed Priorities: After Gina's two front teeth (apparently) get knocked out, Holt, Jake, and Amy all insist on continuing the heist.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Both Jake and Captain Holt have agreed that Amy's victory the previous year doesn't count.
- Tempting Fate: After having the other teams locked inside their offices, Jake brags to Holt that he could just break the window to escape, but wouldn't because that would mean breaking police property. He's immediately proven wrong.Jake: Whelp, misread that one.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Holt's competitiveness brings out his mean side once again; he's downright horrible and dismissive of Charles at times, freely admitting that he considers him useless to his plan and only chose him as a teammate to sabotage Jake.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Gina avoids attracting any notice simply by wearing a beige pantsuit and putting her hair in a ponytail.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Gina runs into a wall on skates and knocks out her front teeth. It turns out they're an appliance because she lost them during middle school, and it gives her a reason to "leave" the precinct so that no one will notice her later.
- Yes-Man: Jake uses Charles' devotion to him to manipulate his friend into giving him the location of the plaque.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Downplayed. After naming Charles as his partner, Holt flat out tells him that he doesn't need him, as he only chose him to ruin Jake's plan, since he guessed that it would hinge on Charles being his partner.
